• CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    Honestly, Tucker would’ve been a far better choice.

    and i’m not talking about moral comeuppance for his actions (CIA safari adventure in Central America and all) but rather due to the fact that Mr Tucker is what we in the business might call a smart Fascist. ever since he got fired this man has just been out there moving and showing that he has the political smarts to maneuver and come out maybe not ‘‘winning’’ but definitely well enough from, well, practically any event he chooses to insert himself in; see the ukraine war interview, the zodiac killer’s ‘‘what’s the population of Iran’’, and this kirk thing that, frankly, anyone who’s not a government outlet can see as an insane overreaction from the elites.

    And he’s clearly doing all this effort to appear as a rational actor in an otherwise irrational environment because he’s trying to build up a serious portfolio, he wants to be next. he doesn’t want to be the ‘‘what’s going on???’’ guy he wants to be a serious political candidate. he’s setting himself up as the most rational option for Republicans after Trump.

    anyhow, side story; i was off my rockers when the Utahnasia happened and i got both these assholes confused so for a good 20 minutes i was really happy that a far more serious threat had solved itself, but nooo, turns out it was just the fuckass debate-me asshole

    • Salem [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      There was an episode about Tucker on a meager/small podcast called Coexist Inc.

      Coexist Inc’s thesis on why Tucker is rallying against Israel - he is still a Zionist - and Trump is because Tucker, like Marjorie Taylor Green, can see where the wind is blowing. Grifters like those two aim to use rhetoric critical of capitalist decline or Israel and funnel it back into the right and away from the left.

      The hope is that the restraining of Israel and US empire would rally politically malleable/ambivalent people back into the right and away from the left, away from solutions antagonistic towards capital and white supremacy, and ultimately fulfill the right’s goal to use the power of the state to punish domestic enemies instead of stretching itself thin abroad.

      On that point, the right would always use a martyr , authentic or fabricated, to destroy the remnants of the rule of law, liberal hegemony, and the power of activists, organizers, and labor. The ruling caste of US society is admitting openly that they will not redistribute wealth, allow labor to have leverage, and will enable and encourage a deteriorating social, economic, and environmental conditions.

      It is difficult to determine whether we are in Lenin’s Revolutionary Moment or just another phase & era of American distress.

      • WrongOnTheInternet [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        3 days ago

        On that point, the right would always use a martyr , authentic or fabricated, to destroy the remnants of the rule of law, liberal hegemony,

        Why would they bother? There’s nothing out of reach for them already

        and the power of activists, organizers, and labor

        Not sure I’ve seen this in the US in recent decades

        • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          3 days ago

          Why would they bother? There’s nothing out of reach for them already

          Because it makes it easier still when you have a pretense. Even the Nazis did that. The US still considers themselves “free” so you need to scare them with the occasional 9/11 or something like that to take their rights so they have some way to justify it at Thanksgiving dinner with their leftie niece.

          Not sure I’ve seen this in the US in recent decades

          They exist. It’s the constant work of activists, organizers, and labor that have gotten the US to steadily dislike Israel. They’ve been slowly unionizing Amazon or Starbucks shops. They’ve been supporting student encampments in the universities. They’ve gotten the biggest city in the US to elect an anti-Zionist as the mayoral candidate in the primary for the party that always wins that seat. They’ve been in LA or Chicago fighting against ICE, saving immigrants in court appointments, warning against ICE raids before they happen by tracking their vehicles, or in the streets surrounding them with giant protests that force them to end the raids early with only 1 or 2 kidnapped instead of the dozens they captured in the beginning. They got a socialist Presidential candidate to win the largest share of votes for a socialist candidate in the history of the US since that guy in prison. They’ve allowed LGBT people to be out in the media and other places more proudly than before, a cultural victory the right wing can’t abide apparently lol. They helped end the Vietnam war through increasing the unpopularity of it at home.

          It’s hard work in the belly of the beast, but there are people out there doing it, and they have losses, but they also have victories and get concessions. Which means they are worth crushing by the right in order to retain power.

          • Biddles [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            3 days ago

            gotten the US to steadily dislike Israel

            I think that’s due to Israel livestreaming a genocide, not the work of any activists

            They’ve been slowly unionizing Amazon or Starbucks shops

            What’s that, 0.001% of US workers?

            • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              2 days ago

              It’s both. The left has hammered on it constantly since October 7th, the protests are bigger, they’ve kept it in the consciousness despite the nature of these things usually being fleeting. It could easily be like the Sudan and disappear into the news, especially with mainstream media not showing these things. It’s alternative news pushed on alternative platforms, spread by things like leftist Tik Tokkers.

              And ya, it’s not much, but it’s honest work. The capitalist is fighting tooth and nail. It didn’t happen instantly in the 19th and 20th century either, and we’re basically starting from that point (but post Red Scare).

      • the rizzler@lemmygrad.ml
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        3 days ago

        tucker understands realpolitik in a time when everything is run by pissbaby failsons. he knows the empire can’t waste all its resources on a 41 kilometer strip in the middle east if it wants to attack china. he would rather fight china

    • PosadistInevitablity [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      Is this an insane overreaction from the elite?

      Maybe I’m just dooming but their rank and file seem to support this 100%.

      If it doesn’t lead to backlash against their agenda, it would seem purely rational to take these steps to oppress their political opposition.

      • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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        3 days ago

        Maybe I’m just dooming but their rank and file seem to support this 100%.

        Yeah sorry but Evangelicals are 100% behind this and 100% furious and crying and craving blood. Also I’d bet the debate-lord, rationalist type online-right of younger types is at least somewhat behind this kind of dishonest lionization because it owns the libs and lets them play victim and demand favorable conditions for their own “debates” and for their opponents to be censored and deplatformed, lets them collect scalps. They are salivating at getting Hasan finally for example as a result of this.

        About the only people not for this are the respectable buttoned up business Republicans who regard it not so much going too far as a naked person covered in condiments acting like a chicken, it’s curious, they don’t understand it but they’re going to keep walking or go with the flow.

        There’s of course your average person who isn’t terminally online and not a terminal Fox News watcher or Evangelical who shrugs at this and thinks its odd but they’re not likely to get in the way of the censorship push either as they don’t know who Hasan is or care about all this debate of online fairness that much as to them online is funny grill memes and crime news.

  • Sphere [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    If you went back in time 20 years and described the current state of politics in this country to someone, they would think you were having them on. Donald Trump is president, people are being snatched off the streets by masked thugs (and sent to fucking El Salvador and Uganda), and a former Fox News host and a congresswoman known for talking about “Jewish space lasers” are two of the only people standing up for free speech?

    How the fuck is this where we are right now? Fucking dystopian nightmare.

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    Tucker Carlson is lying and supporting the first amendment isn’t “left wing”.

    During this same episode Tucker says that the First Amendment was inspired by Christianity and therefore since Charlie Kirk was a good Christian, he was the biggest supporter of the first amendment. Then Tucker plays a clip of Charlie Kirk telling a college student that she should be forced to carry a 2 week embryo to term, as evidence that Charlie was in support of the first amendment.

    Does this line of reasoning make any sense to you? First Amendment = Christianity = Anti-abortion? If you’re not a right winger, it probably doesn’t. This is because words mean entirely different things to right wingers. To understand what they are saying, you have to interpret their words through their own framework.

    Tucker Carlson engages in the same level of word salad as Kamala Harris or Mayor Pete. As a propagandist, the things that Tucker Carlson says are not meant to make sense, it is meant to engage the emotions of the audience, typically a right winger.

    In the clip of the tweet, Tucker is only saying that he supports Free Speech to express that his own speech is being silenced. He is creating an expression of fear to add legitimacy to the second half of the episode. During the second half of the episode, Tucker says that pro-Israel people were trying to keep Tucker away from Charlie by taking away his funding. This devolves into a larger conspiracy theory.

    During the last 2 minutes of the episode, he blames the left. He says that Charlie Kirk was anti-war, supported raising wages, supported affordable housing. Then he says that the left is pro-war, pro-death, pro-inequality. Tucker says “the left, the trans community are the shock troops of power”. Tucker ends the episode by saying that he loved Charlie Kirk because he opposed the left and transgender people.

    Tucker Carlson believes that Free Speech means supporting Kirk and being against transgender people. He believes that criticizing Kirk or supporting transgender people is against Free Speech.

    • EllenKelly [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      great comment, thank you comrade. And now, for some Mao:

      I. NO INVESTIGATION, NO RIGHT TO SPEAK

      Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn’t that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense?

      It won’t do!

      It won’t do!

      You must investigate!

      You must not talk nonsense!

      https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_11.htm

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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      3 days ago

      Yesterday I saw a Bluesky post proclaiming that the American public would not tolerate GOP SCOTUS limiting the First Amendment. The reality - of course - is that Americans don’t know anything about anything. A significant percentage of Americans don’t even know that Trump and the GOP justices killed Roe. I seriously wonder what percentage of Americans understand “legislating from the bench”.

      Despite knowing better - I argued a bit with the Bluesky poster. I couldn’t help myself. Something about their strident tone got my goat. Some libs simply can’t accept the ugly reality that the GOP has all the levels of power so they retreat into fantasy. I wonder if the poster was a fan of The West Wing.

      • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        3 days ago

        American public would not tolerate GOP SCOTUS limiting the First Amendment.

        I remember people saying Americans wouldn’t tolerate multiple decades long wars

        or ‘Americans won’t tolerate government surveillance’

        They won’t tolerate ‘limiting the First Amendment?’ Most people probably already think it IS limited in some capacity

  • grandepequeno [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    I think he’s a pretty good example of why left-right in america are pretty limited ways of refering to shit at this point, you basically have to accept the kaybafe that it doesn’t really make sense