ttitt, if AOC duplicated your politics she would not be a member of Congress and she'd be exactly as powerful a force in society as you are. which I'm sure you'll agree is a very minimal force.
my position is that if these positions of power must exist and be filled by someone, I'd prefer people like AOC, who at least attempt to move government policy in directions more helpful than those being boosted by the preponderance of members of Congress.
Go ahead and despise her for whatever she does you find despicable, but government exists and wields real power and anyone who on average modifies the uses of that power in a direction I find good doesn't have to achieve the final goals of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, socialism or self-regulating anarchy to earn some measure of my approval. yup, if that means I'm a melt, I'm a melt.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 02:18 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfsTk5i7mPw
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 03:03 (one year ago) link
I’m sorry man, but every time I see you post in a politics thread I remember every time Alan Keyes ran for office and lol
― mh, Monday, 20 March 2023 04:06 (one year ago) link
Not sure that AOC isn't 'exactly as power a force in society' as table at this point. Democratic Party entryism has been a wet fart.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 20 March 2023 04:34 (one year ago) link
I love how merely calling attention to brazen hypocrisy gets me a lecture from Mr Practical.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 20 March 2023 11:42 (one year ago) link
I don't think this would qualify as brazen hypocrisy unless AOC has publicly identified as a pacifist.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 16:41 (one year ago) link
And I don't mind being labelled as a pragmatist. This doesn't preclude my having ideals or working for them, but just recognizes what's possible within a given situation or circumstances and accepts interim goals rather than absolutism.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 16:45 (one year ago) link
Pretty sure this is just constituent services. People who want to go to those service academies need their congressperson's approval.
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 16:47 (one year ago) link
huh, never knew that! details here, if anyone else was also curious.
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Monday, 20 March 2023 16:57 (one year ago) link
^ exactly, thank you
― budo jeru, Monday, 20 March 2023 17:50 (one year ago) link
Just coming here to say that:
If you want to apply to a service academy, you need a letter from your district rep. I don’t like that 16 year olds want to be 1st Lieutenants in the Navy either, but if what you want is AOC’s office to say “no kids from NY’s 14th can apply to West Point” you should say that. https://t.co/qaQwTYuidq— isi baehr-breen (its pronounced ‘izzy’) (@isaiah_bb) March 20, 2023
― steely flan (suzy), Monday, 20 March 2023 18:00 (one year ago) link
This seems to be conflated with those assemblies where military dudes give a half hour presentation and try to get you to enlist as a grunt
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, 20 March 2023 18:24 (one year ago) link
I'd be surprised if there weren't military recruiters in attendance to answer kids' questions with misleading half-truths and outright lies.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 18:28 (one year ago) link
but if what you want is AOC’s office to say “no kids from NY’s 14th can apply to West Point” you should say that.
Wild guess but I think table is fine with that line.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 20 March 2023 18:29 (one year ago) link
i mean these aren't kids who have never thought of the military and are suddenly like 'sounds good', these are people already wanting to attend these places and needing the appropriate recommendations.
i'm a pacifist myself but good luck getting re-elected if you tell your constituency what they can and can't do.
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, 20 March 2023 18:31 (one year ago) link
I think the lesson is that politicians are bad and shouldn't be trusted
how do the pragmatic realist types reconcile their hope for reform with the reality that support for the military is apparently non-negotiable for everyone in this position?
― Left, Monday, 20 March 2023 19:24 (one year ago) link
Just wondering what percentage of the left wants the military to disappear entirely
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 19:27 (one year ago) link
I mean right now, not under perfect conditions
US liberals like to brush off foreign policy and military stuff like it's not their department and has nothing to do with them it's very weird
― Left, Monday, 20 March 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link
I don't know why the US left would want to keep the military around unless it's to a) keep doing imperialism or b) turn them into the new red army and I know which one of those is more likely
― Left, Monday, 20 March 2023 19:31 (one year ago) link
maybe some think they can avoid all this by just focusing on domestic policy but someone has to do the coup when a socialist president is elected
― Left, Monday, 20 March 2023 19:33 (one year ago) link
reconcile their hope for reform with the reality that support for the military is apparently non-negotiable for everyone in this position?
"Support for the military" is not incompatible with supporting reform of the military or reduction of the military's influence on foreign policy or redirection of money currently flowing to the military to other social needs. If you look around the progressive caucus I'm pretty sure you can locate some reps who believe in all those things and work for them. I'm not a student of AOC's position papers or voting record, but I'd say there's a good chance she would agree with reforming the budget away from our current levels of expenditure. But I won't swear to it.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 19:52 (one year ago) link
I just wish there were more than two alternatives to every situation. It would open up a whole world of possibility that is denied to us.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 19:59 (one year ago) link
what else would you have an army for
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:01 (one year ago) link
ask some ukrainians
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:02 (one year ago) link
i think an effective critique of empire starts with a willingness to confront the reality of the situation, not reflexively assuming that HS students of color in the bronx can only interact with the military as bamboozled victims. can we start there?
― budo jeru, Monday, 20 March 2023 20:23 (one year ago) link
― your original display name is still visible (Left),
To protect you from toxic masculine Lennon bros.
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:28 (one year ago) link
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/22/22/50839717-10231701-image-m-31_1637619251919.jpg
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:32 (one year ago) link
Storming the beaches
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:36 (one year ago) link
only one is alt right choad iirc
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:37 (one year ago) link
https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/Z7FVZmFrd7Wvtt6nDcl079KUotA/fit-in/2048xorig/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2019/09/22/067/n/44498184/tmp_eM9m3Q_f5bd6e1f955499fe_TCDRENI_EC011.jpg?
― dicbo=v2-ubswizzb&hrt (stevie), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:42 (one year ago) link
I quite literally want all branches of the US military abolished.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:57 (one year ago) link
west point should be burnt to the fucking ground, that shouldn’t be a controversial statement
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:58 (one year ago) link
so there's one
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 20:59 (one year ago) link
It's true, the US lives under constant fear of its larger, more powerful neighbour (Canada).
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 20 March 2023 21:28 (one year ago) link
We've now moved from "this is a military recruitment fair" to "she didn't take a stand saying we ought to abolish the military aka she a sellout"
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:17 (one year ago) link
These are your only two choices - sellout or Marxist champion
um, the US military is providing some very much needed assistance to the ukrainians atm, which would not have been possible in the complete absence of a US military, so there's that to consider besides the Canadian Peril
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:18 (one year ago) link
I'd settle for a pony.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:20 (one year ago) link
We can do what we always do and primary AOC to get someone more progressive in and when vote-splitting allows a 73 year old center-right guy who was an officer in Nam wins the district, express shock and dismay.
(I'm not having a go at anyone here but SocTwitter is full of this nonsense)
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:23 (one year ago) link
I can’t believe someone who has never had a kind word to say about AOC’s politics is continuing to not have a kind word to say about AOC’s politics.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:33 (one year ago) link
um, the US military is providing some very much needed assistance to the ukrainians atm, which would not have been possible in the complete absence of a US military
lol, c'mon man
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 20 March 2023 22:45 (one year ago) link
We've now moved from "this is a military recruitment fair" to "she didn't take a stand saying we ought to abolish the military aka she a sellout"― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, March 20, 2023 3:17 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, March 20, 2023 3:17 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
I didn't say this, tho.
*I* said that *I* want the military to be abolished. I was partly raised by two of the founding members of a state Veterans for Peace chapter, one of whom was arrested more than 30 times over the course of her life due to peacefully protesting the US imperial war machine. I went to a Quaker high school. Because of these and other factors, I come at this issue from a place that is strident but shouldn't be radical, yet somehow remains so because even the liberals in this country worship borders and have hard-ons for "spreading democracy" (aka engaging in imperial wars or proxy wars via military contractors).
It's a military recruitment fair whether reps need to sign off or not— she could do the right thing and refuse, but she won't because of the way politics works in this country. That isn't something that's just practical sense, that's fucking abysmal.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:46 (one year ago) link
So, do I understand *why* she's doing this? Sure.
Do I think it's right? Fuck no, and I believe it compromises her stances against such recruitment elsewhere. Pardon me for being consistent in my beliefs.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 20 March 2023 22:47 (one year ago) link
You said you were calling attn to AOC’s “brazen hypocrisy” but you were actually accusing her of not living up to your personal ideals
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 20 March 2023 23:23 (one year ago) link
From what I have read of your thoughts on ilx I would never accuse you of inconsistency in your beliefs, table. you are the soul of consistency and you never waver from demanding what is right and just. I expect you will continue to do so throughout the remainder of your life. I wish you luck in achieving your demands.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 23:33 (one year ago) link
ok, don't take my word. just ask some ukrainians
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 20 March 2023 23:55 (one year ago) link
Sure I'll go find "some ukranians".
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 00:07 (one year ago) link
US private weapons of death industry - are making a killing no doubt. Yes, Ukraine are also benefitting from the situation in terms of holding off a very fucking horrible invasive war of annihilation. But what has this any of this got to do with the US army?
― calzino, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 00:12 (one year ago) link
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Tuesday, 21 March 2023 00:12 (one year ago) link