this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 130 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (36 children)

"I feel terrible for the American people because it's not the American people, and it's not even elected officials, it's one person,"

Americans elected Trump, and Americans are failing to do anything to reign Trump in.
These are the official policies for the COUNTRY! So unfortunately, this is not just one person, it is de facto USA as a whole.

If it was only Trump, it would just be Trump refusing to buy Canadian for himself. As it is, the whole apparatus is enforcing these decisions, and they impact all of USA.

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 83 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (17 children)

The US electoral system is broken and has always been broken. Republicans have spent the past 2 decades gerrymandering and introducing as much legislation as possible to manipulate the outcome of elections in as many districts as possible. They've introduced legislation: to prevent people with debt from voting, to prevent people with criminal records from voting, to prevent people who cannot physically make it to polling stations from voting. The Republicans and the ruling class own all the largest media organizations in the United States, and they have weaponized social media and traditional media to indoctrinate and manipulate as many people as possible.

Trump won this election with fewer votes than he lost in 2020. He won mostly because Republicans and Democrats are material allies in neoliberal and imperialist endeavors. Democrats refused to campaign on progressive politics, instead choosing to run on a more conservative campaign than they ever have before.

The working class is not responsible for their own manipulation at the hands of the ruling class. It is not their fault that the system is broken. It is not the fault of American families who literally can not afford to resist, as without the income from their jobs, they will lose their homes and be unable to feed themselves and their children.

Capitalism is the problem. Conservatism, and by extension neoliberalism and fascism, is the problem. Donald Trump is an accelerationist fascist. He will not wait and seeks to plunge the nation headlong into fascism as soon as possible. But do not mistake that as being in opposition to the social and political system of America. Donald Trump is entirely a representative of the failure of American democracy, not a representative of the American people. He manipulated people into voting for him, as evidenced by widespread outrage at his actions even among those who ostensibly voted for him.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (11 children)

The US electoral system is broken

Which is why it's considered a flawed democracy, which I stated.

Republicans have spent the past 2 decades gerrymandering

Except Trump actually won the popular vote this time. Making this argument void regarding the presidential election 2024.

Republicans and Democrats are material allies

That far I agree, they have arranged it so they share power, except this time, Republicans may choose not to share it anymore.

The working class is not responsible for their own manipulation at the hands of the ruling class. It is not their fault that the system is broken.

Isn't it? Haven't they mostly agreed on this arrangement because for decades many thought they benefited from it too?

Capitalism is the problem

I partially agree, but there is no real alternative to capitalism, and definitely not anything proven, the problem is not capitalism but how it is managed. In a social democracy it can work pretty well.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Regarding the capitalism part

I'd say that what we see today is the logical conclusion of capitalism. In a way it's a broken system, it just takes time to collapse. But growing wealth inequality and consolidation of power are inherent problems in capitalism, and we were always going to see times like this. I mean, for further example, look at climate change and how it's damn near impossible to actually solve the problem

It's more that there is little political will for an alternative system, but don't get me wrong, if humanity wants to survive in the long run, there is no easy way out. I seriously do think that, either humanity makes a global economy that serves people, and not capital, or we will self-destruct due to systemic incentives of the profit incentive

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world -2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I’d say that what we see today is the logical conclusion of capitalism

Capitalism is not a political system, what is happening now is what happens when governments fail to adhere to things that were figured out more than a hundred years ago, that Capitalism needs to be reigned in, exactly to avoid it from developing into monopolies and an oligarchy. USA has allowed that to happen, because of the (bitter) "sweet" profits, and with an already dysfunctional democracy, USA is very vulnerable to abuse of the power of extremely strong companies and even individuals now.

if humanity wants to survive in the long run, there is no easy way out.

I think there absolutely is, that is called social democracy, which has a pretty strong track record for protecting both citizens and the environment from powerful capitalists.
But it requires a well functioning democracy, and it probably can't exist in a vacuum either. But in EU things have been trending in that direction, and EU is an excellent environment for it. USA however has a long way to go. The mentality simply isn't there currently.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No, I live in the EU, the same capitalistic problems exist here, they're just slowed down a bit due to social democracy. But don't get me wrong, the fundamental issues are here just as much as anywhere else on the globe

Capitalism is not directly an ideology by itself, no, but it is a massive fundamental part of a given ideology. There's a reason most ideologies revolve around the economic system, because it's so pervasive in everything we do. From the things we do every day, to the way we interact with others, to the way we get access to resources and services we need and want, to where we live, to how we think

What you need to keep in mind, is that under capitalism there will always be a profit incentive to undermine the system for even further profit. This is what collapses civilizations, this is what makes society fall apart in the long run

Making a capitalistic economy work for the benefit of everyone, for the people, is like trying to swim upstream all the time, forever. It would be much much more internally consistent to just have a river you swim downstream with. In other words, an economy based on cooperation, not competition. A civilization based on competition is almost an oxymoron, civilization itself is fundamentally a cooperative environment. Why do we tack competition on top of that?

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world -2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

the fundamental issues are here just as much as anywhere else on the globe

That is simply not true, yes there are problems with right wing factions. But it is in no way comparable to the dysfunctional democracy of USA, or the authoritarian regimes like Russia and Belarus.

What you are doing is making a false equivalence. It's like saying democracy isn't really different from a totalitarian state, because both have rules you can go to prison for.

Obviously the 2 are not the same.

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 6 points 5 months ago

Capitalism is not a political system,

Capitalism is an economic system, political system, and social system, all at once.

You cannot have capitalism, without the force of the state to back it. If the state doesn't exist, then people would be free to associate in other ways that they are forbidden from doing. Capitalism starts breaking people in school, when we start indoctrinating them with the religion of capitalist thinking.

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