I discussed Vaush in a few articles but he just won't shut up about this stuff. Now he debated the guys he blasted in the last video. I admit I didn't watch the whole thing as im getting tired of listening to this guy rant and rave on this topic for HOURS on end, but I did watch at least the first 40 minutes or so at this point.
And this guy irritates the fudge out of me. I'm sorry, he does. His takes are so one dimensional its ridiculous to take him seriously. His entire view is "we need to keep voting democrats so the fascists cant win, and this is what we gotta do until we die." No, really, he said something to that effect. And i really cant stomach doing this for the rest of my life. Our society could be a lot worse, and yes, a lot of people wanna make it worse, BUT....i really cant stomach a world where the status quo is as it is forever. And that;s not why I'm here. Like spiritually speaking, if that makes sense. I'm here to advocate for a better world, I'm not here to just do nothing but roll rocks up hills for all eternity, whether that be voting for dems to stave off the right, or the whole work for infinite growth thing. It just really goes against the very fiber of my being.
Even without the spiritual side of things, the idea of wasting our very finite life on this bullcrap seems to be a total waste to me.
Anyway, I do have to admit that in recent years, the right has gotten more illiberal, and the orange guy is a literal existential threat to democracy. You could argue some other republican candidates like ron desantis and vivek ramaswamy are too.
But, let's be honest. My only interest in having to protect liberal democracy in this sense extends to literal authoritarians that present a clear and present threat to it. And let's face it, that threat is new. I'd say that threat didnt even exist in such a form in 2016 when trump ran. At the time, what trump seemed to be about was "making america great again". Basically populism involving anti immigration and protectionist rhetoric when the other side was pushing for neoliberalism. Because when the left doesnt offer an alternative and people are suffering, that's what people are attracted to. Trump also seemed to represent an anti political correctness approach where he was intentionally offensive to piss off the "snowflake libs" concerned with trying to morally police crap. I could almost sympathize with that if the dude wasn't so terrible on actual positions. Like, as you can tell, not a fan of SJWs either.
Honestly, 2016 was the worst time line because due to trump and clinton being the nominees, it seemed to unlock this weird SJW-alt right continuum in our debates that seem to encompass all of everything and suck air out of the room from more worthy goals. And quite frankly, I resent having to take my eye off the prize even a little bit to have to protect democracy because of all of these frickers.
Because let's be honest, I hate both factions of THIS debate. I wish they'd both just shut up and go away, and we could focus on more important crap. but because the dems were so intent on distracting people from that important crap and because the republican voterbase has the collective intelligence of a baby when you're jingling the car keys in front of their face, we ended up with THIS dumpster fire of politics instead.
And honestly? I blame BOTH sides for it coming to exist. Because if we just elected bernie, none of this would have happened. We unleashed something evil in 2016 and I really just want that genie back in the bottle. Maybe it's too late and I'm asking too much, but that's where I'm at.
The fact is, the right has been radicalizing for decades and trump just unlocked a new, more terrifying form. I often compare the GOP to majin buu, where every form is more terrifying and trumpism is basically the knew psychotically evil kid buu stage.
And the left....well, you can say they're incompetent. You could also say they're complicit. They are so satisfied with just being the tasteless lesser evil that they dont do anything to offer a better alternative and they're just happy telling people they have to vote for them or else.
Which is why i HATE the idea of lesser evil voting. Because this tactic is so blunt, and so bad faith, that I really can't help but to stand up and condemn it and call it like it is. The democrats are perfectly satisfied with not advocating for issues, and for not moving us in a better direction, because their voter base votes for them anyway and their intimidation tactic wortks, and that's why we REALLY cant have good things. We could argue, in the past alignment, that the GOP just had too good of a coalition and the dems couldnt reliably win without moving to the center. But without making a come back like the right did during the new deal era, they just seem satisfied to be that moderate coalition that does nothing. And they sneer at people for wanting change.
And people like vaush? Well, he's peak brainrot in parroting their talking points. He's a "leftist" who is such a defeatist he's like "yeah, we're never getting what we want, so we might as well not try, best we can do is stop fascists", where he lives in a perpetual version of the 1930s where you must just keep voting for the lesser evil, or society gets worse.
The dude is a defeatist, the democrats are defeatists. And no one is interesting in fighting for the right thing. And I would argue that's why we're here in the first place. Trumpism started because clinton was just such an insufferable alternative, that people couldnt stomach her and voted trump. But trump did admittedly unlock something darker, and during the trump era it seemed clear that parts of his coalition were right wing militant types. I dont think all trumpers are btw, I actually do think a lot of trumpers are good people, even if I do question their moral compass. But I understand they're people and their big problem is ignorance, rather maliciousness. But, that more malignant voter bloc is growing, and it is gaining power, and some people on the right are just...batcrap insane. And if they get to the point they want to implode democracy itself, well, we gotta do something to stop it. But that should only be a short term thing, not an eternal goal we need to keep doing over and over again. Because that's a losing strategy. I think a lot of people vote for the right because they think they'll make their lives better and the dems will make it worse, and for some people maybe they're right. The dems dont offer anything to a lot of americans, and there's little to no reason for many to vote for them.
And you know what? The left has its own ugliness too. It has its own extremism. And I'm sorry, I know this is gonna be unpopular with the left, but you guys got a wokeness problem. Keep in mind how I define it, it's basically not just believing critical theory, but making it one's entire ideology, being extremely evangelical and pushy with it, and being intolerant of anyone who disagrees.
Yes, you, those of you on the left, you have a problem too. WE have a problem if we count me as a leftie too. We have a problem with these woke guys. These guys also went batcrap insane. THeir reaction to trump getting elected was an illiberal turn. THEY were the ones who burned cars and crashed storefronts in trump's inauguration day, who talked about physically assaulting anyone they considered a nazi. They're the ones who are doing the crazy BS in germany with trying to cancel and maybe even physically harm till lindemann. And you know what? That crap ALSO has a role in this blue no matter who mentality. Because BECAUSE of their intolerance of others and extreme evangelism, they cant fathom the idea of someone thinking differently from them. And they feel the need to shame and bully people who arent on the same page as them and consider voting third party. THEY are part of the problem too, and are often the reason people like vaush have such brainrot on this. Because everything is "ermahgerd fascism" and blah blah blah privilege, and yeah, all of that crap goes right into that weird self righteous voter shaming mindset the left has. Which is why i once again, hate it.
Quite frankly, if they didnt have a point about trump being a literal threat to democracy, i would just still be on the page of screw these guys, I do what I want. Because lets be honest. The democrats use that stuff cynically to create a culture of fear to bully people, and it works, and people are stuck in this state of brainrot of ERMAHGERD THE RIGHT ARE FASCIST AND WE NEED TO STOP THEM. Like, even if there wasnt a real threat to literal democracy, they'd STILL be out there pushing the same talking points in the same way dogmatically. Which is why im normally inclined to ignore them and push for what I normally push for instead. Because i quite frankly dont believe in that nonsense. That entire point of view is brainrot.
And where did that originate? 2016. HRC. Before the 2016 election cycle, SJWs were, much like the alt right on 4chan and the like, a mostly terminally online vocal minority of radicals that no one took seriously. They had break through moments before 2016, with gamergate, and spats in the atheist community, but largely they were just a weirdo minority contingent of weirdos.
What really awakened them as a forced to be reckoned with in american politics is 2016, where HRC preferred to build her coalition around racial minorities, feminism, and all that identity politics crap, over actual policy position that made peoples' lives better. Which further incited an equal and opposite reaction in the republican camp leading to the fascism problem.
But on the democratic side, it served to snuff the bernie coalition in the crib, and acted as a disciplinary force to bully people into "voting blue no matter who". And like it or not, vaush is the epitime of that environment, being this SJW blue no matter whoer, and one of the most obnoxious voter shamers on the internet. You're a product of your environment, bro. You're not special. And honestly? If the GOP didnt radicalize to the point of being a threat to society, no one should take these threats seriously, and we should all just vote third party anyway in protest. I only cede that this election cycle is one where we can't do that. Maybe 2028.
Oh, and to address the other side, since these guys are a lot more mainstream leftist than I am, but the arguments they seem to make for biden come down to the climate emergency and we can't afford to sit around and Biden is as bad as trump because oil drilling and blah blah blah.
Now, I dont agree with these guys' logic. my own logic for third party voting is different, i've discussed it before, but it comes down to realignments and coalitions and the need for the left to assert itself to get material gains. But one of the reasons Im satisfied to vote for biden is that one issue i actually really like the guy on IS climate change. Bernie DID push him left, and if you look at his original green new deal and bernie's plan, you can see that. And Biden's plan IS aligned with the IPCC's carbon emissions goals. The thing is, leftists themselves, on climate issues, are in their own state of emergency, where they think "mainstream dems arent doing enough, more action = gooder", so they like the green new deal and that sorta stuff. But for me, the green new deal is more a trojan horse for more traditional left wing economic goals that I'm not particularly aligned with, like jobs programs, and socialism, and radically changing the american way of life to fit their weirdo ideas of what it shuld be. It's not a climate thing primarily. There's whole sections of the green new deal that have nothing to do with a green new deal. Like housing, which I agree with, but yeah, again, the whole purpose of the green new deal ISNT climate, its JOBS. And you guys should know by now how I feel about that.
So on climate, I just want to make the sausage in the most simple, basic way possible. And biden's plan did take bernie's plan, and make it more workable. It is leaner, but in this context, lean is good. It should also be noted that i like lean because my own economic goals diverse from leftists' and I'd rather see a UBI than a job's program. And we can't afford a proper UBI if we fund a green new deal style jobs program.
So yeah, Im not really on board with these leftists. Sure, I do think climate is important in the immediate future too, but that's also why i feel fine voting for biden if i need to. Because he wants to deliver, it's CONGRESS that shot down that crap. Like seriously, if we can get that one priority taken care of and off the table in the more moderate way, maybe we can focus more on my more important goals next time. So yeah, that's a thing about biden too. He actually isnt that bad. He is only 30% of what I want, but leftists are only like 55-60% of what I want, which is an improvement, but there's still diveregence too. The fact is, Biden does do enough to earn a vote in the general this time. And I think the proper time to relitigate our course of action is 2028, not 2024. This is a defensive election cycle, we can start talking more about grand agendas again in 2028. And hopefully trump will be too old to run again, or in jail, and people will move on from whatever this horrid new wave of authoritarianism the GOP is where we can actually discuss issues more rationally, and focus on real issues.
As you can tell, one thing i hate doing is ignoring my core economic vision to deal with all of this more mundane bullcrap. I feel like both sides use fear to get what they want, and that's not really healthy long term. We shouldnt be perpetually on the defense against the right. We should go on the offense against them, and also against our own side of the aisle if need be if they want to ignore us. The goal is to be too big of a voter block to properly ignore. And then we will start making gains.
That said, yeah, im mostly a principled voter, im only conceding to pragmatism because it seems appropriate this election cycle. I DO NOT WANT to have to be doing this every election cycle. I cant stand the thought of things not changing for the rest of my life. I'm sorry, but I fricking can't. And it goes against the very fiber of my being to do what vaush wants people to do. So I'll probably vote dem this time, but 2028, it's on.
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