He got me to read the Manifesto and would have hours' long debates with our social-democratic roommate and now this. It's really shaking me up a bit.
He is on the whole defeatist 'nothing will fundamentally shake the imperial machine so might as well pick the wardog with better domestic policies' tip. I want to get through to him but I am getting stuck.
For example:
i also refuse to not vote my conscience but i figured this time its not like doing this abstract process to pick if id prefer -100 points vs -200 points is gonna matter that much if i genuinely believe itll even be slightly better under kamala i might as well
the whole "everyone who is doing lesser evilism is basically a hitler follower" thing is starting to genuinely piss me off. no these people specifically, like in OP, are not saying "might as well" because they're trying to justify their preference for domestic vs foreign lives. they're saying it because they are still used to a US with absolutely no organized left or worker's power. they don't see themselves as sacrificing anything because they think the left is completely incapable of doing anything in the US and that there is no leftist cause to sacrifice. this isn't the position of a hitlerite, it's the position of a leftist who genuinely thinks no positive systemic change is or is currently possible. i understand getting annoyed at online proselytizing blue MAGA types but implicitly lumping actual comrades who still have misplaced faith in lesser evilism in with them is not a salient analysis of material reality, the leftists voting for KKKopmala because they think collective bargaining is entirely out of reach and every person they know keeps yelling at them to do so are not at all comparable to Blueman Bloodmouth salivating over palestinian death counts
edit: of course it's still extremely bad to be defeatist to the point of being complicit with a genocidal regime, but i do genuinely think the animating force in this case is defeatism rather than pure seflishness, so they're far more redeemable than most types. Of course it's up to OP whether it's worth the time for them to do that
Try talking to liberals using this logic and you will find they don't really care about the genocide. They are detached from the reality and are trying to normalize their electoral logic. Lesser evilism is their usual way of justifying why they dismiss their empathy and vote for a Dem.
Having a left would be valuable but they've been because it would necessarily mean these libs were on the left instead. Those who remained could be radicalized as well but many would retain this logic and this character.
I agree in this point, but I wanna point out that it isn't "everyone who is doing lesser evilism is basically a hitler follower"
It's "everyone who is doing lesser evilism, while being aware a genocide is going on and being fine with it continuing, is basically a hitler follower"
ofc if someone has been animated into believing such change is possible before this point despite the odds they're perceiving, they are either extremely malleable due to social currents or otherwise just fascists hiding behind a mask