mozz

joined 2 years ago
[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev -1 points 1 year ago

Welcome to Lemmy 🥲

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder if that is in any way related to defunding the police so they have not enough resources

I am sure there are jurisdictions where the cops have calls for service waiting and are just chilling with coffee until the calls calm down, and then go there and more or less do nothing, yes. That's not been my experience -- when I witnessed domestic violence they rolled up pretty much instantly and grabbed the guy, a couple times when my friend had a mental health crisis they came and took her to the hospital. I can understand how having had different experiences could color someone's impression of the police differently.

That wasn't really my question though. What should happen? Reform of the police, higher standards and getting rid of the bums? Defunding the police and hoping that will make things better? No cops whatsoever? You're describing a problem (in regards to what happened with your friend); what is the solution to it?

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

I think the astronauts should decide.

What is gained by taking the responsibility away from them, and handing it to some other person? I could maybe see it if I trusted that other person to be more qualified, but if they are NASA administration, then I don’t.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 3 points 1 year ago

Hey, what happened when the wrong people started winning elections in Iraq when we set up democracy there?

“That’s TOTALLY DIFFERENT”

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I remember, it was just too much powder in the cartridge. I could be wrong though.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Do you see any scenario where the IDF can allow itself to truly stop Innocent people? A soldier is being fired at from a school, should the soldier allow himself to get killed in such situation?

The whole concept is bankrupt. An IDF soldier is being fired at from a school because he is on Palestinian land, occupying it by force to maintain the land that was stolen from the Palestinians and facilitate the taking of more.

There are degrees. If he’s sniping schoolchildren, then that will inflame the conflict more and promote more October 7ths. If he’s “only” firing back at the school, so “defending” himself… well, it’s “better” I guess, but if you break in my house in the middle of the night and I attack you, you’re not “defending” yourself even if you limit yourself to fighting with me and not hurting my wife.

And vice versa, considering what you know about setlers in Israel, do you really think that they will not get even more violent in the west bank if they know that their actions has no cost?

Their actions don’t seem to have a cost though. Or rather the mechanism of retribution is so indirect and random that I don’t think that Hamas’s counterattacks make all that much difference to their calculus of what they can get away with doing to the Palestinians. I could be wrong, but that’s my impression.

And don't get me wrong, I wish for Hamas to vanish, and I wish for the IDF to kill only militants (even that definition is not clear), just like you. But I don't see any realistic scenario (considering the human spirit) that this can happen. Not in the current political situation.

Like I said, even “killing only militants” leaves Israel in the position of the war criminal. They are invading and stealing homes, farms, anything they can find and pushing the Palestinians into a vanishingly small series of refuges which they then invade in turn. Why would “militants” not fight back in that scenario? What should they do instead?

I do agree with your take on how unrealistic peace is in the present climate. It needs to be imposed from outside by force in order to happen, which won’t happen, because the US would need to be actively involved in making that happen and the US likes things more or less as they are (or at least as they were before the counterattack after October 7th got so genocidal that it started causing political issues for leaders in the US).

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 2 points 1 year ago

I don’t know a single person who was in the military who has good things to say about it.

After training, sure, they’re all for it. After doing the job for real (combat or not) and getting out, not a single time that I can remember.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 5 points 1 year ago

Not true. I already gave you some valuable feedback on your hustle. I can’t promise that you’ll make any more money if you implement my recommendations, but it will improve your job performance, if you take it on.

It’s okay though. I am happy to provide it for free.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What in your mind is a normal salary in an American business? Out of businesses in America, how typical do you imagine one would be that pays every single employee $400k per year? You seem to think these things you are claiming are pretty plausible, so I imagine you picture it as being pretty typical (or at least not comically outlandish), yes? Or no?

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fuckin serious up

Imagine to yourself what the Venezuelans should do about this, to safeguard their future. Let Maduro win and hope for the best? Peaceful protest? War? What should they do? Really think it through, with the comfortable objectivity of distance and safety.

And then, get fuckin ready. We got 3 more months. My best quick recommendation is, allies. Allies in the real world who are marching, working, voting, putting time in. Solidarity will help you resist, and if the resistance fails, they’ll help you survive.

Also: Vote. Are you registered? vote.org

 

The reality of the way that the institutions of organized labor, meaning the AFL-CIO, and the big unions, generally speaking, have mostly, in modern times, pursued a relationship with electoral politics [is] along the lines of, “We are an adjunct to the Democratic Party.” In some ways, it’s a natural sort of trap for unions to fall into, because we have a two-party political system and the Republicans want to destroy unions altogether. So it’s very easy for the Democrats to take labor for granted because they have the attitude of “Where else are you gonna go?” And you’ve seen, just in my lifetime, I think of the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, both administrations that got huge economic and other support from organized labor and didn’t really give that much back.
“By organizing workers, you naturally grow your own political power in a way that writing checks to politicians never does.”

What it means is that you change your focus from electoral politics to building labor power through worker organizing. And by organizing workers, you naturally grow your own political power in a way that writing checks to politicians never does.

If we can get working people and also unions and the institutions in the labor movement to turn their primary focus to building labor power and organizing new workers, what we will find is that political power naturally comes along with that. We can make the politicians come to us by making the labor movement strong. We don’t have to beg and cater to politicians in order to do nice things for the labor movement, you know. It’s really a shift in perspective and a shift in emphasis that I think if people would just focus more on building labor power, they’re going to get better political results in the long run.

view more: ‹ prev next ›