• Fondots@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The Roman Historian Sallust once said “Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master”

    I remember posting that quote on Facebook once probably about 12 years ago. An older guy I worked with at the time chimed in that he was one of the few and how important liberty was to him.

    Few years later he was spewing Trump bullshit.

    • effingjoe@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s to be expected for Christians (et al); a vast majority have been taught at a young age that the perfect society is one where a benevolent god makes all the decisions and you just shut up and do as you’re told. It was never The People’s Republic of Heaven; it’s the Kingdom of Heaven.

      • sociablefish@lemm.ee
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        It was never The People’s Republic of Heaven; it’s the Kingdom of Heaven.

        a people’s republic might be worse (ex: prc), make it a republic of heaven

    • Dark_Blade@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      True freedom and liberty are outright terrifying to most people, because we’d do a shit job at being in-charge of our own destinies.

  • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s because they all think they are the special individual that will be given special treatment and that all the bad things will happen to groups they don’t like.

    Because they are stupid.

    That’s why we got the famous direct quote: “He’s not hurting the right ones”.

    • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m sorry but can’t we just put them in trains, and send them to their allocated "work camp "so they can see what it’s like?

      Not even for ever, just for a month or 2

      • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The people who express this belief, but hey if you assume I’m talking about wite people the problem seems to be in your head.

        That’s not where my mind went, my mind went to the equivalent of starving for 2 days people who don’t think food should be a basic commodity.

  • boem@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    Rather than exist in a society where members of all ethnic groups have an opportunity for success, millions of American whites would approve of a dictatorship.

    Ten million would restore Donald Trump to the presidency by force.

    Recent polls show that Biden and Trump are tied in the presidential race even though Trump said he would suspend parts of the Constitution and construct an all-powerful executive branch with him as the head.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    America was founded as a dictatorship of Whiteness, but when Obama got elected they realized their power was under threat and became fascists.

    • jeffw@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I grow strong with each triggered conservative that downvotes this comment. Also, dope username

      I will add that I don’t think that was a conscious reaction. We’ve decades of data showing that “overt” racism has been consistently declining, while “covert” racism has taken its place. That’s why you don’t see people saying “Obama was a bad president because he was black,” but they’ll complain about a tan suit.

  • My grandpa used to warn me: most people just want to be told what to do, it’s easier for them.

    It’s easy to vote for one person who says “I alone can fix this.” Comforting.

    Stupid, but ignorance is bliss.

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I wasn’t paying close attention (because of utter revulsion), but I hear leftist podcasts talking about how the economy was in good shape pre-pan. For context, they talk about ways the orange asshole will leverage dem policies to smear Biden. I assume this is correct because I hear it as a talking point from multiple different podcasts. Please, someone correct me if I’m wrong on this.

  • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Millions of Americans are stupid and don’t know how to use their brain. These are the same idiots who drive around town in a truck flailing a trump flag. These are the same morons that drive a Tesla because they think Elon is awesome.

    Ya I don’t listen to those people.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can we just give it to them then? We make them live under a brutally oppressive dictatorship with reduced rights, while the rest of us continue to participate in a democracy? We separate them out from society, put them into camps. They could have their own gestapo-esque police force that only had jurisdiction over them. We could even make Trump the head of that police force, but give him no real power outside of the camps, they’d just all live in isolation from the outside world, like Jim Jones or the Branch Dravidians.

    • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The thing is they don’t want that for themselves, they want that for everyone else. The republican mentality has become freedom for me and not for you because they hate being told what to do but love telling others what they can and cannot do.

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They already have that, but they’re not happy unless you suffer like they do

      Why does the riglious right want to change the laws? They already abide by them all. They’re not happy that others don’t

      It’s the control. They wouldn’t be happy with their own dictator led nation. They want them all that way

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Why does the riglious right want to change the laws? They already abide by them all.

        Well, except for the one about not molesting children. Somehow they keep getting caught doing that.

    • Tentaclius@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They should just move to a ready to use dictatorship like Russia and lieve happily (got conscripted and killed)

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What we need to do is get them to go into the camps themselves so that we can’t be accused of oppressing them. Just tell them that living in the camps would own the liberals and make them cry salty tears. Make a movie about an empowered girl who leaves the camp and becomes a success and encourage Ben Shapiro to see it so he’ll make a 1-hour video about how people not living in camps proves American men are not masculine anymore. Those sorts of things.

  • Ret2libsanity@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    What the actual fuck is the article even?

    It actually refers to “the white controlled media”

    Get this stupid opinion/ racist shit out of here and make a community that aligns with your agenda

    • Yendor@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I think I agree with their central point, but the writing is terrible. Legitimately reads like the author forgot to take their ADHD medication before writing it.

    • yiliu@informis.land
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      1 year ago

      Seriously, I had to scroll down this far to find this? Their evidence is that millions of people support Trump, and Trump wants to be a dictator, ergo millions of people want a dictatorship. Sorry, not people: “whites”.

      So first, fuck Donald Trump. But while he’s certainly said some wild shit, and I do believe that in his heart he would love to be a dictator, I’m pretty sure he’s never said anything out loud like “I want to be a dictator”. I’m sure a certain number of his fans would be happy to have him as Dear Leader, but most of them want him as President. And, just as many while people voted against Trump as for him, and a significant percentage of the country can’t stand the fucker.

      Meanwhile, Trump has been growing more popular with non-whites.

      This article reads like a hit piece on “white people” by a 14-year-old.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So that fact offends you to acknowledge? Or are you actually claiming that it isn’t a fact even though it is?

      • crystal@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        The wording implies that the heads of big media groups being white has (significant) impact on “the media […] choosing ratings over democracy”.

        Corporations choosing profits above moral considerations is a significant component of capitalism. If a CEO chooses moral over profits they’re a terrible CEO and will be replaced immediately.

        So the author is taking a core component of capitalism (choosing profits over morals) and claims that it only exists because of the colour of skin of people in higher-up positions.

        That’s racist.

        They take something negative (choosing profits) and blame it on people with a certain attribute (white skin), while that attribute has nothing to do with the negative.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No. That’s what you’re making it about. What major media/news organization in the is not “white” owned/controlled. You’re accusing them of being racist for pointing out that the lions share is controlled by groups that would classically be considered “white”.

          And no, morals are not incompatible with capitalism. If it were there wouldn’t be all these religious exceptions etc. Morals are incompatible with authoritarianism like fascism.

          • crystal@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            What’s the point of pointing out that a lot of media is controlled by white people?

            “Haha random fun fact did you know that the CEO’s skin is pretty bright?” Why not talk about the CEO’s hair colour? Because the point is not a random fun fact, the point is racism.

            morals are not incompatible with capitalism

            I never claimed they were. You can limit capitalism by enforcing morals through laws. But that’s not a part of capitalism. It is a limit imposed on the natural imorality that comes with capitalism.

            (By the way: I’m not anti capitalism, even if my tone may make it seem that way. I’m just focusing on this perhaps negative component of capitalism because it’s relevant to the topic.)

            • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Pointing out racial disparities is not racism. No matter how much you perform your outrage. Saying that only white people are fit to really be CEOs would be racist. Pointing out that oddly most CEOs are white is not racist. Oh and by the way just to scare you with a boogeyman, CRT!

              Oh and you literally said that if a CEO put morals over profits that they would be a bad CEO and replaced. Basically implying that morals are incompatible with capitalism.

              By the way I am anti-capitalism in large scope. And I’m also against whiny little concern trolls.

              • crystal@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                Pointing out racial disparities is not racism.

                Depends on the context. Just like the “jewish-controlled media” (when talking about e.g. the new yorker) would have an implication, the “white-controlled media” has an implication, too.

                This information can be presented independently, but you have to wonder why this disconnceted information is brought in multiple times in just the opening of the article.

                a boogeyman, CRT!

                I’m not American. Private slave ownership never existed in my country. (The term “race” when referring to a group of humans, however, is very ill-regarded.)

                • Dark_Blade@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  So-called ‘reverse racism’ (ie just normal racism) has become shockingly acceptable in online discourse. To me, it’s just absurd how the same people who’d be outraged at black stereotypes will turn around and say ‘lol white girls fuck dogs’.

                • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I see. So you’re trying to misrepresent, and worse gaslight someone else about something you have no personal experience with and no very little about. Good to know.

  • BillDaCatt@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Millions of Americans don’t understand the difference between a computer virus and a biological virus. Dumb people want dumb things.

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They also think that if you eat fat it, without any transformation whatsoever, gets deposited in your body as the same fat

      And they think fiber actually scrapes their blood vessels

      People are just so dumb

  • BuckFigotstheThird@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The USA votes it’s president in with the Electoral College. Every poll talking about “voters … tie … blah …blah …blah” doesn’t mean shit, cause the voters don’t get to pick the president. Their representatives do. And guess what, their representatives don’t have to represent them. They can vote however they want. They can even get elected and then switch parties to the bad guys team. Also, fuck the GOP.

    • GiddyGap@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Fun fact: As of 2023, the 2004 general election between Bush and Kerry is the only Presidential election since 1988 where Republicans have won the popular vote.

      Yay for American democracy.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In 200 odd years there’s been something like 1 case of a faithless elector. For all intents and purposes it’s a filtered general vote. The electors just carry out their district/state’s will.

      • visak@lemmy.world
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        That’s not the issue so much as the “rounding” in the way electoral college votes are distributed. Plus states that do “winner take all”. It has the effect of skewing the results away from being proportional to the popular vote.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          Okay? That’s not what they said though. They said elected representatives choose the president. That’s just completely wrong in every sense but the most technical.

          • visak@lemmy.world
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            I was more replying to you, that it’s the filtering I have issue with. I’m other words I agree that “faithless electors” is not really an issue rather my problem with the electoral system is that it’s not a passthrough and does change the outcome.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              Yeah. I’d love to see a system that represented people and not land. But we didn’t keep up with the whole Constitutional Convention every 20 years thing. And the founders were dealing with 13 governments that had their own national egos. So they had to play to those governments instead of the actual people and now we’re stuck with the system. The proportional representation pact is the current best shot. Followed by an amendment and then rolling the dice with a modern Constitutional Convention.

      • MrTulip@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        That would be true if electoral votes were proportional to states’ populations. As it is now, your vote counts (I think) six times more if you live in Wyoming vs if you live in California.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          I didn’t say it was a good filter. Just pointed out that the people sent to the electoral college do not have any agency to select the president.