[–] 3 points 8 hours ago

Opposing public education has definitely been a long-term conservative plan, at least since the Civil Rights Act. I don't think there was much going on between Charlie's ears (probably why they aimed for the neck), but I also don't think it's a coincidence that his brand of talking points got amplified.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 days ago

    The easiest answer here is that socialism is not communism. Socialism is often described as a transitory state to communism -- a state controlled by the workers, operating in their interests, and working towards a classless, stateless, moneyless society. You can be a billionaire in China, but billionaires can't grab control of the government.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    How is Russia anti-capitalist? They are anti-imperialist at the moment, which is not the same thing.

    when should our support ever be uncritical?

    leave the Iranians and Russians to deal with their internal problems.

    You can't say all support is critical, then in the next breath say any criticism (of Russia for being capitalist, or Iran for being a theocracy) is impermissible interference in a country's internal affairs.

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  • [–] -4 points 3 days ago

    our goal is the fastest possible destruction of the USA

    OK, what's your plan for this? Until there's a credible answer to that, there is no reason to attack one of the handful of U.S. politicians who is willing to call a genocide a genocide.

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    The new owner of more than 5,000 mostly rent-stabilized apartments says it has agreed to waive millions of dollars in unpaid rent that tenants owed in the years before a high-profile bankruptcy sale targeted by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

    The company Summit Properties purchased the 93-building portfolio in March after its previous owner Pinnacle Group went bankrupt in a transaction that drew intervention from Mamdani and top city officials. Summit agreed to forgive tenants’ back rent during a recent meeting with leaders from the Union of Pinnacle Tenants, which represents residents across four boroughs where Summit bought Pinnacle buildings.

    Many tenants began withholding rent because they had been dealing for years with unsafe conditions, while others fell behind because they could not afford their monthly payments, according to the tenant union. They may now get a blank slate.

     

    For the uninitiated:

    The Prime Directive, also known as Starfleet General Order 1, the Non-Interference Directive, or the principle of non-interference, was the embodiment of one of Starfleet's most important ethical principles: noninterference with other cultures and civilizations. At its core was the philosophical concept that covered personnel should refrain from interfering in the natural, unassisted, development of societies, even if such interference was well-intentioned. The Prime Directive was viewed as so fundamental to Starfleet that officers swore to uphold the Prime Directive, even at the cost of their own life or the lives of their crew.

    The fundamental idea is that you can have the best of intentions but still fuck things up, so you shouldn't intervene even if you think you have good reason. This strikes me as the best counterargument to what constantly sucks liberals into imperialist adventures -- the tempting idea that "someone has to do something," or "if we stand by and watch bad things happen, doesn't that make us complicit?"

    The Prime Directive has a simple answer to that: it's likely you're going to make things worse, and what right do you have to intervene, anyway? The Star Trek libs in your life will have to recognize this principle, and the closer you look at U.S. foreign policy, the more sense it makes. It's also a natural lead-in to talking about how often the government lies to manufacture consent for wars.

    And what are they going to do, say "that's a fictional story and the real world is different"? These are the folks who are comparing Lev Parnas to Neville Longbottom or some shit.

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