Zorque

I assume lone botanists formed up to say they want changes, while a presiding body decided not to.

Two different groups with two different positions.

Burglars stealing whole apartments over here.

We need more than just a President, we need a congress and we need state and local governments that are on our side.

A President can’t do everything, and expecting them to is how you get a King.

Do you… go?

Fair, I took your example of “we defeated fascism militarily” and not expounded about anything else as a solution except not voting at all… I took that as your solution.

Please do explain how you will solve all our problems in such a way that you aren’t able to vote as well.

Really? Because, as you say, we haven’t seen any progress thus far. Doesnt seem to be working for you either.

Of course, its clearly everyone else’s fault that your ideas don’t work.

You’re literally advocating violence to enforce your point of view.

I dont know what you think that is, but it sure as fuck isn’t leftist. You don’t change minds by caving them in.

Mostly because people like you refuse to participate because you’d rather be “above that sort of thing”.

You won’t change shit by being an outlier. You won’t make a difference by refusing to participate. Telling everyone that the system stinks and you’re going to go make your own is how you get hundreds of systems that have no effect on anything.

You want to make change? Stop being an island unto yourself and work with other people. You don’t have to work with fascists, but you will have to work with people you don’t see as “good enough”. Because otherwise all you are is a drop in a very big ocean.

We didn’t defeat fascism, we defeated fascists. Fascism didn’t stop existing because we defeated Germany in a war. It just went into hiding. A lot of that hiding in the US.

The idea that we “defeated fascism” is part of the problem with why it still exists. That we were able to shoot it in the face and it just went away.

The only way to defeat fascism is to change to a system that doesn’t breed fascism.

Yes, that is literally the point of my previous comment. The problem is you are advocating a system that fosters it, not one that removes it.

Only in the sense that they still exist, and thus have never truly been defeated. Fascists and authoritarians have lost elections, and thus lost or never gained power… but fascism and authoritarianism still exist as concepts. The only real way to change that is to:

A. Completely remove the concept from public consciousness, which is nigh impossible and can always be thought of again

B. Kill anyone you suspect of harboring fascist or authoritarian thoughts. Which is the kind of thing people think when they say “that just makes you a fascist/authoritarian yourself”.

You can not police thought unless you become that which you hate. You can help to foster an environment where those ideas seem silly and not worthwhile… bit not with swords or guns.

If you don’t believe that you can have what you want with democracy, with freedom of choice, with elections and voting. That your only choice is to force others to see things your way with violence… then I have some bad news for you. You are the authoritarian.

You can not force people to be free at the tip of a bayonet. They have to choose it for themselves.