• Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    For real, stuff like this would have been unbelievable less than ten years ago. If someone told me there was a house judiciary subcommittee on “Atheist Muslims Occupying the White House” I would have laughed and said “good one.”

    • OpenStars@startrek.website
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      8 months ago

      McCarthyism was a real thing that happened in the past. It went away for awhile, but it is back. It was only held at bay by people who were prepared to expend effort to push it back. Whereas now…

      • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        Now, the House of Representatives of the United States of America is 100% bought and paid for by private equity.

        • OpenStars@startrek.website
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          8 months ago

          The Democrats are just as bought and paid for too, but still those two groups are NOT EQUAL, i.e. difference in degree even if not in kind. At least, as it pertains to being “bought out”, though in other matters such as obstructionism, Republicans are of a whole other kind.

          • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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            8 months ago

            Right, Dems must at least pretend to not be owned by private interests, because their base remains diverse and critical. The GOP has no such operational restriction, because their base is only interested in alternative facts or dominance at any moral price.

            • OpenStars@startrek.website
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              8 months ago

              Sadly true. Liberals are hampered by needing to remain correct, whereas conservatives can be moar free to do whatever is most effective (that is from a quote by my hero Jon Stewart btw - this is an homage not me claiming it as my own here:-D).

              Though on both sides there are people who try to work within the system - e.g. AOC & Bernie Sanders - vs. those who attempt to go outside of it, like MTG & Matt Gaetz.

              • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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                8 months ago

                But AOC and Bernie Sanders (and others including Tlaib, Markey, Bush, and Casar) are a select few, and while they’re some of the only true patriots left in Congress, I think we need more true revolutionaries that subvert, or at least exploit, the existing system in order to unite former democrats and republicans under a new banner that puts people first.

                • OpenStars@startrek.website
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                  8 months ago

                  Jon Stewart ironically fits that bill:-). Which brings up one reason why that tends not to happen: most people upon any brush with politics immediately want to get as far away from it as is humanly possible. Just running into Ted Cruz in the hallway may all be itself trigger that kind of flight response:-P.

                  So what “needs” to happen is not the same as what “will” happen. Always remember the implied second half of that type of sentence: “in order to survive, <this> needs to happen”. But not everyone gets what they need to survive, and the same holds true for nations.

                  Though the above two paragraphs may seem unlikely to be able to reconcile with what you said, there are ways - like a local project could be done by an NGO or even a non-/not-for-profit corporation, bypassing government entirely. Unfortunately, that power can be used to evil ends as well too:-(. But when it works - like Jon Stewart, and John Oliver - it can be extremely powerful!:-D