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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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No offense, but that’s an unbelievable misunderstanding of authoritarianism.
Authoritarians thrive on enemies. It’s always Jews or Mexicans or intellectuals or something. It’s sort of a central feature. Your imaginary authoritarian regime might not be persecuting minorities, but it would sure as hell be persecuting someone. So really, you haven’t solved the problem at all, just pushed the solution back another 30 years.
I can’t help but notice, though, the central conceit behind all of this. That it would be great for one person to just cut through all the red tape and solve everything with a unilateral stroke of their pen. That’s the myth authoritarians sell you, and it misses the fact that red tape is a feature of democracy, not a bug, and that the dream of an enlightened despot never ever works out in the end.
Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:04:07 AM
They should have sent a poet.
In my case, the ones being persecuted would be those who have persecuted people for ages. Perhaps if we ran out of those, I'd resign, having got the job done.
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Could really apply to any political thread, but there were a few things specific to the USA in terms of suggested fixes.
But we'll move onto more appropriate things.
Edited by RainingMetal on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:05:18 AM
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Yeah, that’s not how authoritarian regimes work at all. You’ve bought into the fascist fantasy hook line and sinker. It never ends well.
An authoritarian regime doesn’t just wrap up all its enemies and then it’s done. It finds new enemies. The power structures don’t go away once the despot backs out. All you’ve done is enable the persecution of innocent people for decades to come out of some misguided attempt at revenge.
Also, you’re from Canada, right? Maybe do a little research before saying the alt-right has no room to grow there. [1]
Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:09:04 AM
They should have sent a poet.![]()
Fair point. I suppose nobody has a sense of self control once they become the head honcho. Or at least hire cabinet members to keep people in check (I think Augustus Caesar did this or something?)
And yeah, used the wrong words about Canada being a liberal haven. We do have some bad conservative fuckwads too. Not as dangerous though, probably due to Canada not needing a well-regulated militia when it become autonomous from the British Empire.
Remember what I said about Stop Being Stereotypical? Wondered if a dictator could pull that off. Guess not.
Edited by RainingMetal on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:13:37 AM
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.Yeah, fighting authoritarianism with authoritarianism never ends well.
Hey how you doing well I'm doing just fine I lied I'm dying inside![]()
So, set up a whole bureaucracy to keep the executive in check? Maybe seperate powers out to different parts of the government?
Maybe let people vote?
You’re just circling back around to a democracy here.
The allure of authoritarianism is that it works. The reality is that it doesn’t. We know exactly how it ends, and letting the primal “those guys stepped on me, now I’m gonna step on them” instinct win out just ends up dooming you.
Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:19:00 AM
They should have sent a poet.As an anarchist, I had a lot of soul searching on the ways to destroy authority in society. Ironically, I came to the conclusion the only way to create a properly functioning Anarchist state is to make sure that a weak central government existed that was there for providing social functions and safety nets as leaving anything to chance left other groups to fill up the Evil Power Vacuum. The best anarchist society would be a socialist state because no one could hold wealth and necessities over people. It would also have a huge amount of laws about what you couldn't do.
Sadly, that meant the end of my anarchism.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I'm also gonna be honest, more people should have noted and called out your "stop being stereotypical" thing. Saying that Black people need to stop "acting downtrodden" or whatever is some racist bullshit, which blames Black people for how others treat them. By "stop being stereotypical", you're actually telling Black people to act like white people.
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In my defense, I was asleep when that post was made, so I couldn't respond to it. Because going back and reading it...yeesh.
Besides, a lot of black people do in fact already modify their behavior to seem less threatening to white people.
Edited by M84 on Aug 8th 2019 at 10:38:27 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedYeah, you got me. It's a statement full of Unfortunate Implications, but I'm more concerned that the people in power are making more likely to happen. And, going with another very uncomfortable comparison (I apologize thoroughly in advance).
You know how the Nazis always said that Jews were rats? How they always lived in the floorboards, fed off of scraps, and were unclean? Given how the Nazis drove them to those conditions with their bandit raids and western progroms before the Final Solution, that's kind of the Nazis' fault. Their logic is wrong.
Minority communities are being denied the choice of striving for something better because districts are segregated by The Man accordingly. That's something I want to send to the grave.
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.I recommend DEAR WHITE PEOPLE for some interesting discussions on the black-white experience.
- Modifying behavior in general to avoid threatening situations when dealing with white authority.
- Respectability politics
- Switch-Hitting (putting on a face different for white people than among black)
One of the things I liked is they define prejudice and racism differently. White people assuming racism=prejudice while racism is prejudice+power=racism.
Which is to say its institutional.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 8th 2019 at 7:48:24 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.You one think, while "stop act steriotypical" can be a way to said "act less black,asian,etc and more "normal" it can also a simple way to said "stop being some damn cringy!" because, let face, some people does act like caricatures at times.
Trump being one of them, in fact.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"On the SF Debris forums, which have a serious Alt-Right problem, I had to explain that saying there's "good people" among Mexicans is still racist because it implies they have a far larger number of bad ones among them.
I compared it to "A credit to your race" and "You're one of the good ones."
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Maybe "dont act like racist caricature" can work in context, I mean people want trump to not be a nineties saturday villian or david cameron to not act like your typical english uppercast prick or kayne west to not be so much of "uber rich black male" jock and so on and on.
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The problem is a loaded term, specially coming from a non mexican since is usually mean "the good ones are the ones who a) give me stuff b) shut up and dont said shit about their problem" we have a serious problem here in latino america because homophobic use a version of it.
So...uh...in less demographic designating stuff, how about that Joe Rogan interview with Bernie Sanders?
Now I know Bernie has this whole Americans Hate Tingle schtick going on here, but from David Pakman's recommendation, he notes that Joe Rogan, despite having a lot of bad conservatives talk on his show, he gives equal leverage to Bernie, and this gives Bernie a comfortable environment to explain things calmly and thoroughly. It may be a good idea to have more Democrats chew the fat with Rogan, to even the odds on his channel, and at least get some more coverage. It's been trending for days for a reason.
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But, fever dreams are just fever dreams. This coming from a lazy office worker with too many ideas coming from a privileged country where alt-right ideas can't grow.
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