ID: Xtremely Transbian, Online @ThisACoolPerson posted:
“i imagine being a liberal is much like having a cat on your lap, in that you have a comforting distraction from misery and can’t stand up for anything”
E: before people derail the conversation to offer me the fallen arm from the title - I’ve tried many different combinations, and they all result in a wrong looking shruggy face. Deal with it lol
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What comforting distraction are they referring to?
I mean, you’d have to ask them, but from an anarchist perspective I would say the comfort in the familiarity of the (hierarchal, capitalist, statist, patriarchal, white supremacist, cis heteronormative, ableist) status quo which they are dedicated to upholding.
Anything material it provides is there to placate the population in to not rising up against those in power who exploit and destroy both planet and population for personal gain, and a really bad deal for at least 95% of the global population.
In most developed nations, “Rising up against those in power” conjures images of revolution that would make things drastically worse for everyone in that nation, for at least a generation. It’s not hard to see why that’s a tough sell.
@FrowingFostek - this. This is the comfort, and the wilful ignorance of what a revolution entails or aims for, and fear of losing privilege and perceived superiority, that go with it.
Fascism openly in power? People being genocided? Rounded up in to camps? Stripped of their human rights for how their were born? Deprived of their bodily autonomy? Losing entire communities to climate change? Having to exist as slave labour in a “developing” (read: colonised and pillaged) country to maintain the capitalist overconsumption machine? The widest wealth inequality ever to exist? Or even “just” - your neighbours can’t afford rent even with working 3 jobs? Have to choose to heat or eat because they can’t afford both? Die because an insurance company refused their claim? Die because the government refused their benefits claim? Get sick and die due to pollution? And on and on and on and on and on and on…
And then, the idea that everyone will have to work together for the benefit of everyone else? Building communities from the bottom up, and under the guidance and leadership of its most vulnerable, rather than its most privileged? Equity? Equality? Justice???
Fuck all that.
The liberal wants their individual privilege and comfort maintained! At whose and what cost is completely irrelevant.
I could agree with that.
Anything other than the cat is an externality. The fire in the room won’t be a problem until the cat jumps off.
Yup, only the cat can’t jump off - liberals whole shtick is that they’re grasping on to it in deep desperation to avoid even acknowledging the fire, and the harm it is causing. As long as they remain (relatively, and in their own skewed view) untouched, they will never act, and sometimes even then not.
Those ideals are lovely. Very few people would argue against any of that as an end goal. The problem is the transition. Most people (myself included) just don’t have enough faith in people to believe that it will happen peacefully. It will require violence. And even people who hardly know anything about history know that civil war is not something they want to have happen to themselves or their children. And so the bread and circuses still work, just as they always have.
Lmfao, all you’re doing here is continuing to prove the point op is making
The liberal wants their individual privilege and comfort maintained! At whose and what cost is completely irrelevant.
No. The problem I have is the label “the liberal”. Not wanting to die in a civil war isn’t exactly a unique political position. There are people of every single political persuasion who aren’t going to be willing to die, or have their children die. That’s just part of being a living being.
I’m guessing they mean the material comforts common in liberal countries which the majority of citizens enjoy
Moral superiority
Why do USians misuse / have a different definition of the word “liberal” in political discourse? John Locke would be… not happy, I guess.
Well, that’s one way to deflect, lmao…
E: to clarify: I am not American, nor is anyone other than liberals trying to distance themselves from criticism use its outdated meaning, in the same way “liberaltarians” no longer means “socialists” to anyone.
Ok. So my next question is why are you using a bastardised definition then? There’s plenty of dictionaries, encyclopaedias, forums etc online that will confirm that - for the rest of the world - the US definition is wrong.
BTW: you mention deflection. Are you assuming that I’m a “liberal”?
You’re one hell of an ally.
Lmfao, an ally to who, liberals? 😂
Why the fuck would I ally with those who ally with and enable fascists and are literally putting my life and the lives of everyone like me and otherwise marginalised on the line for the sake of their own comfort?
GTFOH clown
Weirdly, I see the shruggy with both arms intact. Using Jerboa on Android, if that makes a difference.
Sorry for the derailment.
I can see 2 different versions of it from the same interface, depending on where I look, there’s obviously an issue with it, so yeah, it gets a little old when people keep making the same tired joke lol (which tbf, you didn’t)
This is conflating “liberals” and Democrat office holders. The cat represents the status quo and corporate donations that control them.
Individual liberals are often actually doing things, like campaigning for ballot measures and such. But the Democrats who hold office do effectively nothing to implement the changes the liberals want and campaign for.
I have nothing against individual liberals, because they are simply optimistic about a system that is rigged against them. It’s kinda hard to blame them for that.
The problem is that it takes a long time for those individual liberals to get up the Democratic ladder. It’s a shame that campaigning under a new party is suicide.
Individual liberals are often actually doing things, like campaigning for ballot measures and such
So supporting the status quo.
they are simply optimistic about a system that is rigged against them. It’s kinda hard to blame them for that.
No they actively support an oppressive system, and whenever the people being oppressed by said system tell them so they refuse to change anything about their behaviour, making them actively complicit.
No one is saying they are responsible for the system existing, but they categorically can and should be held accountable for their actions in participating in and upholding it, and I absolutely blame them for their part, and those making excuses for them, for theirs.
Their, and your, complacency is complicity.
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