• JasonDJ
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    5 hours ago

    force fed the bible.

    Dude…I was talking to my 5yo today. They’ve learned the pledge of allegiance in kindergarten.

    He recited it, perfectly, verbatim.

    I cringed slightly at the “under God” part, as I’m a devout atheist (though we’ve barely mentioned religion at all to the kids).

    Once he was done I asked him if he knows what any of it means.

    “No. But I can say the whole thing!”

    Smh.

    • wieson@feddit.org
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      2 hours ago

      I cringed at the part “pledge of allegiance” and then again at “kindergarten”.

      Americans don’t realise how north Korea style that is.

    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      Reminds me of when I had to have a meeting with the school about some additional speech therapy for my daughter. It was in the morning and cut to the Canadian Anthem playing. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up for the anthem. Fucking weirded the shit out of me. I’m 47 and born and raised Canadian. Standing or reciting anything blindly as a group is fucking weird.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I was, um, gently informed by a teacher once that you can say the pledge without “under God” and it sounds natural as it was originally intended. This blew my mind as a young atheist and made me realize how pervasive religion is.

  • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Which is why Reps are the ones constantly vying for various “voter security” measures (voter suppression).

    Vote like your life depends on it. Because it does.

  • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Don’t believe the naysayers. No matter which state you are in, your vote is important. Extreme Conservatives have been taking over school boards and imposing their agenda on kids.

    Offices like Sheriff, Coroner, Secretary of State, Lt Governor, State Representatives, City and County Councils etc. are all important.

    Every Vote Counts!!!

    • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Offices like Sheriff, Coroner, Secretary of State, Lt Governor, State Representatives, City and County Councils etc. are all important.

      Not only are they important, it’s exactly how the freaks running the GOP took control of the party. They’ve been grinding 2 things consistently for decades: down ballot races and the judiciary. It’s been wildly successful for them. We are going to have to match if not duplicate that effort.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Decisions are made by those who show up, it’s as simple as that.

    You may hate it, but the Republicans are definitely better at getting people in line, both literally and figuratively. They turn up and vote even if they don’t like the candidate because… that’s their party. And it’s the only one that they feel represents them.

    Meanwhile a lot of Democrats stay home because the candidate isn’t the one they wanted, doesn’t support everything they want, is too old/young, etc. There’s this attitude of ‘if I can’t have my perfect candidate, I’m staying home out of protest.’

    I get it. Every voter wants a perfect candidate. But perfect is the enemy of good, as the saying goes.

    I always look at it like this: if I vote, I might not always get the outcome that I want, but at the very least I’m nullifying the vote of a person on the other side.

    If the other guy shows up and you don’t? That’s how you lose rights.

    Be someone who shows the fuck up.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      I show up every time and it feels like people still make decisions for me.

      What keeps me voting is realizing that real life is disappointing and I’ll never be happy.

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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      3 hours ago

      Every voter wants a perfect candidate.

      I’m so tired of this line, as if progressives don’t like the Democratic Party because of a 5% difference in policy opinions.

      Our options for President for the past 30-40 years have been fascist capitalist or capitalist willing to compromise with fascists. To those who actually care about worker’s rights or the environment of the planet we live on, it’s a difference between a candidate who agrees with you on 0%, or one who agrees with you on 2%, but only the policies that don’t hurt capitalism.

      It’s not a case of letting perfect be the enemy of the good, it’s a case of the lesser evil IS STILL FUCKING EVIL. Fascism now and fascism in 4-8 years still results in fascism; how are we supposed to be excited to vote when those are the only options we are ever allowed to pick between?

    • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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      5 hours ago

      Yes, let’s reward the Cheney DNC so we can see how far right they’ll go and how many war crimes they can do! Remember, they can’t take away your rights if there’s a (D) next to the name!

  • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    “They have to do that stuff first to earn my vote! I don’t care if they never had the power to do so!”

    -Morons

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      8 hours ago

      “They’ve had 4 years to do something!”

      Ughh… Learn how it works people. We had 2 conservative “Democrat” (golly gee look how Manchild is not a Democrat anymore literally…) senators deny everything from 2020-2022, then we lost the house to Republicans who’s idea of bipartisanship is to give Democrats the finger all the time from 2022-2024… Sooo what exactly could we do?

      Then there’s the extra special people who want to “balance” by voting D president and R representatives… Ffs… That shit died when Gingrich started his “my way or go fuck yourself” brand of politics…

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          5 hours ago

          Lol I can understand the confusion, but I really am an American in America. I came over from the reddit exodus last year and lemmy.world couldn’t handle all the new people for a time so I swapped over to a smaller instance that happens to be from the Netherlands.

          I hope you don’t mind me squatting here feddit.nl :P

          • Markus29@feddit.nl
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            2 hours ago

            We welcome all. You can get your standard issue clogs and bitterballen at check in ;)

            • Asafum@feddit.nl
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              4 hours ago

              If you didn’t believe me before what would it matter if I told you I’m from NY and specifically long island? I could tell you I hate the L.I.E with every fiber of my being, that housing prices for glorified shacks that look like they burned down twice are going for 300k, and that the ocean parkway is a decent way to get around shit traffic on sunrise highway. I don’t know how a random person on the Internet is supposed to prove that is true though.

              You could also just check my comment history, I’ve mentioned where I’m from a number of times. It’s one of the reasons I don’t delete my history, so if anyone questions “who I am” they can just check it. Just be warned, there’s a bunch of stupid comments, exasperation, and self loathing there lol

              Not that it matters, but at least I didn’t downvote you. I understand the skepticism

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          You are literally the outside foreign influences.

          And who the fuck are you?

          Discussing American politics online isn’t being a foreign influence. I’m not American, but sure as fuck their politics affects me.

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Unfortunately whatever shit goes down in your country affects the rest of the world.

          Nobody would’ve given a fuck about USA if it was as relevant as Romania or Denmark.

    • solsangraal
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      9 hours ago

      i’m just here for the yOuUuUuU sUpPoRt GeNoCiDe!!! chuds to get triggered and provide entertainment

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                No, it just means there’s more people pulling things to the right. Next you gotta convince people to pull with you.

                The absolute top tier play for Leftists now is to show up in DROVES this election, hand Kamala a landslide. And then put up a ton of candidates in the next primary. Show the DNC that you are a force which can win elections, and then put the fear of being primaried in them. That’s dragging things to the left.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Every time the Dems lose, they go to the center to find voters. Want them to stop going to the center? Then give them overwhelming and consistent victories.

    If you think you can change their platform by not voting or voting 3rd party, you’re dead wrong. They will just go to the center voter even more. This is not a Mexican standoff that you can win, because they have an out which is worth double (a center voter is both a vote for them and vote taken away from the other party).

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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      3 hours ago

      How are we supposed to change their platform? Because rewarding them with victories when all they do is go to the center hasn’t been working.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      The reality is the majority of the USA is in the center. It’s why we usually don’t have run away elections.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I would argue that most Americans are apathetic and easily swayed by rhetoric calling reasonable progressive policies “extreme”. That’s not exactly the same as being in the center, although it does lead to pretty much the same outcomes.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        This is the answer. Us weirdos on a weird social network made by literal communists are not the majority and should stop acting like we are.

        Every time I see a campaign ad for Harris I feel like I’m worthless to her because it’s all “yay America” and I know too much history to feel that way.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          It’s bad that I want her to win… because she’s not trump and she’s not going to hand Ukraine over to putin…

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    God, I hate fighting people just to get them to vote in a way that makes mathematic and strategic sense.

    • ochi_chernye@startrek.website
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      7 hours ago

      I have a really hard time staying cool and collected when I discuss politics with people who hold right-wing positions. As a result, I never do volunteer work for political campaigns, because it seems like the only positions available are phone-banking and door-knocking. It’s frustrating; I want to help, but I feel strongly that I’d do more harm than good, doing either of those things.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        To be fair, you’re looking at either getting shot at, going to jail for assault of a nazi, or at best, suffer a heart attack from the sheer blood pressure one gets dealing with those insufferable people. I think not volunteering is probably for the best, haha.

  • JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    Early voted today in AZ. Straight blue! I was the first person in line in my county in one of the 3 precincts opening early today. 💪

  • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    Then with a supermajority the dems will talk about bipartisanship and you’ll watch the slowest change ever.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Reminder: you can find instructions to check your voter registration here, as well as voting resources for your state.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    Americans: … what’s that? … (Fox news blaring in the background) … are you sure?

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Fox is one of the greatest atrocities to ever hit the airwaves. I do wonder how much of our recent national damage is directly attributable to it. Not a majority, most likely. But a non-negligible chunk.

  • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    What I don’t understand is what harm is being reduced by doing “harm reduction”? I get maybe one or two election cycles the candidate isn’t ideal but after decades of horrible candidates that increasingly become more right wing over time it seems that no real harm is being reduced. Working class people are are still starving under Biden and likely will under Kamala, simultaneously the Capitalist class continues to aquire obscene amounts of wealth. Meanwhile we’re all supposed to go along with the idea that Neoliberalism is the only option while so called “radical leftists” (social democrats and social liberals) are too extreme for government. This election cycle we’re offered a candidate that has promised to encourage fracking, likley will not offer any federal protections for women and other minorities, openly supports Israel, and is overall a spineless corrupt career politican that for some reason we’re all supposed to nod our heads to and say “yup shes the face of the American left”. If we keep doing “harm reduction” soon we will all be reduced to nothing.

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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      3 hours ago

      It’s not about harm reduction, it’s a slow boil towards fascism. We’re all just frogs in a pot of slowly heating water, except frogs actually will jump out before they boil to death; humans aren’t that smart.

      Every four years the centrists say “vote for us, because the Other Guy is worse!” And they’re not wrong, especially since 2016. But they’re also not even pretending to be on our side anymore. Everyone says the Republicans have taken the mask off and aren’t hiding their evil, but it is the Democrats running a candidate who is openly working with members of the party of greater fascism, it’s the Democratic candidate who is pro fucking fracking the earth, and it’s the Democrats (as well as the Repubs) who aren’t even bothering to lie to us about wanting to stop the genocide that our tax dollars are directly funding.

      However, I have to say that I’ll be voting for the party of lesser (or at least slower) fascism come November. Not because I agree with a single thing they’re doing (since their platform is still “We’re not as bad as the Other Guy”), but because they threw us exactly two bones in dropping Biden and giving the VP to one of the few Ds who actually looks progressive (where he can do the least damage, of course).