this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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The current freak-out by Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, and other right-wingers about democratic socialism is quite rational. In socialism, they see a formidable foe.

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[–] thallamabond@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well that, and it's yet another distraction from Epstein.

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

They aren't trying to "distract" from Epstein. This implies there is some form of justice that would come if they didn't successfully keep "distracting".

That justice does not exist in the systems of power we have. Obama didn't put Bush in chains. On the contrary, he continued commiting the same war crimes and didn't even shut down the very torture camp he ran on closing. Because every politician is just a subject to the ruling Epstein capitalist class.

Epstein was the ruling capitalist class, and the politicians that they own, telling you "we get to do the worst crimes imaginable and there is nothing you will do about it". They don't have to pretend anymore. They use to have to pretend "weapons of mass destruction", "we tortured some folks", "Rafah is my red line".

They told you this same thing first when they spent years bombing and mutilating children in Gaza even without the orange man in control.

And they were right. We didn't do anything.

There is no "distraction". We give them permission to genocide children every day we keep going to work. We give them permission to keep trafficking children every day we pay our rent. We give them permission to starve children every day we don't put a fucking [redacted] in their [redacted]'s.

Everytime you hear this same "distraction" comment. I want you to remember that.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

didn't even shut down the very torture camp he ran on closing.

To be fair Obama did try to do it but Congress screwed him.

Not that I'm saying dude was a good guy or anything like that, just that he did everything he could as president to shut down guantanamo. He did successfully drastically reduce the number of prisoners held there but Congress held up funds and approvals for certain prisoner transfers preventing the actual closure.

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

A Republican president wouldn’t have had a problem shutting it down if they decided they wanted to

[–] Objection@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

To be fair Obama did try to do it but Congress screwed him.

To be fair to Congress, the 90 senators who voted against it in 2009 included Bernie Sanders and other progressives. Obama attempted to fulfill only the letter of the promise of closing Guantanamo, by simply relocating the detainees to American soil. This risked creating a firmer legal precedent that could enable the practices to be expanded across the country.

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I'd say it's because he didn't have a spine with his own party. He signed an executive order to close it within a year. Which was blocked by his own party members. The Democratic party is a failure for sure. But if the leader of the party can't get a fundamental thing he ran on passed that's still something you can blame a politician for. He failed to pass it. Why it didn't pass is not an excuse for a politician failing. Especially when they hold the highest office in the land.

Obama's entire presidency is him not acting on popular legislation, attempting to work with Republicans to prevent them from calling him a dictator or terrorist lover, and the Republicans STILL calling him a dictator and terrorist lover anyway.

Edit: downvotes. But everything I said was true. His literally party voted against him closing it. A fundamental part of his campaign. That's a weak president that can't even whip his own party. Or he never cared to close it in the first place.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of people seem to forget, but prior to Trump, the president wasn't a dictator

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Super majority in the house and Senate. His party voted to block a fundamental promise of his campaign. Presidents aren't dictators. But they are absolutely dictators of their parties in situations like this.

Ironically, the downvotes I'm getting are a testament to how incredibly liked and popular Obama is with the population.

Obama could have literally built the momentum of the left by pointing to the failures of his own party. Threats to primary Democrats that did not enact the will of the people.

Trump is a dictator because he controlled his party with the popularity he had in elections. Look at Thomas Massey recently. Even with his unpopular national approval he still has so much power in his party.

Obama was significantly stronger than Trump; he could have influenced the primary of any Democrat that betrayed the popular mandate of the people. It's why even now his party begs him to not endorse candidates unless he needs to come in and save an establishment candidate from a DSA candidate. And even then it is rare because of the influence he has that would just improve turnout and interest (bad for establishment candidates).

He is not powerless. He is/was the most liked and popular president in you and I's lifetime. And that was only STRONGER when he was first elected. Maybe I'm old. But I think people forget how much people thought Obama was FDR 2.0. He ended up being Clinton 2.0 with some Bush 3.0 on the side.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I mean I think he did the best he could with what was in his power to do.

Him getting his hands tied by Congress and the Judiciary is part of living in a functioning democracy. Even if I did want Obama as a dictator that doesn't really matter nor would it be cool.

I do wish we could have had more impactful legislation passed while he was president but that's not really part of his job duties.

I'm not trying to whitewash Obama here, plenty of bad shit happened while he was president and some because of him. Nonetheless, I don't think it's fair to paint him as a totally useless and bad president that "(didn't) act on popular legislation" given the action a president has in regards to that are a signature or veto.

[–] lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We can also remember the Epstein Files though.

Happy for you. Or sorry that happened to you.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, it's somehow a rarely acknowledged truth than more than one fact can exist.

[–] Bakkoda@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Vance just had a kid. For free. Free healthcare. Salary from your tax dollars.

Yeah socialism is working just fine for the people who have the benefits.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ask Vance on camera how much his bill was for the birth and if he’s paid it already.

[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Just find the model of the couch and where he bought it from and you can probably call them for a quick estimate.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My 27 year old son was 17, and just becoming aware of politics when Trump first took office. His entire political awareness of "Democracy" and "Freedom" has been under the perverse MAGA era. Is it any wonder that young Americans have such a negative view of our current governmental system?

I explained to my son that things weren't always like this, that our government was relatively sane before Trump, and he countered with the absolutely true statement that we didn't have Medicare 4 All, free college, free day care, etc., all the things that EVERY other civilized nation provides to their citizens, so it doesn't seem like American Democracy has EVER been a decent system.

And you know what? He's absolutely correct. Things weren't better before Trump, we were just a lot more polite about getting fucked over. The Democrats entire existence has been to convince us to accept everything the Republicans were steadily taking from us.

So from the perspective of young people, whose entire view of American Democracy has been Donald Trump's perverse vision of it, something like Socialism, or even Communism doesn't sound so bad. After all, countries like Scandinavia, China, and others are among the most successful governments on the planet by EVERY metric, but we're supposed to be happier with being the biggest terrorist nation on Earth?

After all, we can kill thousands of people with the press of a button! Isn't that wicked cool enough? You want food, too?

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[–] lemmelemmy@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

These numbers are just for provocation.

They might have asked 10 people snd 6 of them said socialism and 3 communism. But this doesn’t mean the whole generations idea. Also what’s the fucking point of giving these numbers? Get people mad?

If the next idea going to be socialism, we need to be careful to step the fuck away when millenials are old so as genz etc etc. we’re all knee deep shit because of greedy fucking boomers and pathetic bootlicker Gen X don’t wanna leave their power seats.

[–] GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I mean it's a Fox News screen grab posted to social media, of course it's just to rage bait people. You can do the same thing with a Shit Sandwich and a Douchebag, and you'd still get people picking one or the other, because there isn't another choice.

[–] minorkeys@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He attacks socialism because it decentralizes money and power and control, the exact opposite goal of every corporation and capitalist.

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What exactly do you mean by decentralizes in this sentence? Socialism still has a centralized State structure to enforce the rule of the working class. A centralized State is fundamental to protecting the revolution. No, revolution has succeeded that attempted to completely abolish the state. That would be anarchism not socialism.

But maybe you are just referring to a stateless, moneyless, classless society as a goal of the socialist state? Which would be Communism not socialism.

[–] minorkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

It means dispersion, rather than concentration.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

Well the Trump administration should keep whining about it. Really they're just helping to increase its popularity, since they consider their incompetent selves as the alternative to it.

[–] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

Want? I'd say American desparately NEED it.

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We know for sure that we don't want the 19th century robber baron capitalism that we currently have.

Yeah, same here honestly. I agree with you on that

We need a new deal 2.0

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Holy crap what a ghoulish photo of the moron in chief

[–] FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Basically a unwarranted Donald Trump jump scare

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Lol no shit

[–] cmbabul@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago

At this point they are all ghoulish, they might be worse when he looks happy

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

They hate Americans and anything that benefits them.

[–] Colonel_Panic_@eviltoast.org 4 points 1 week ago

Call it whatever label you want.

I would prefer OUR TAX DOLLARS to be spent on:

  • Universal Healthcare for ALL, Seriously ALL. Single payer, no insurance industry, just go to Dr. Taxes pay bill, go home.
  • Infrastructure. Internet, rail, mass transit, roads, solar, wind, whatever. Make life better.
  • Education. Pay all teachers a fair salary. They shouldn't have to buy their own supplies either, that's just insulting.
  • Housing. We have plenty of room to share. Homelessness is a choice, sure, but it's by society, not the person without the house. We can easily subsidize basic housing for anyone at any time.
  • UBI. We could all have basic needs paid for, easily. And work is what you do to grow beyond that basic food/house system. Want a hobby? Get a job. Wanna travel? Job. Wanna have fancy stuff? Job. If you just want to exist, fine, basic UBI. No prob. I'd rather have that than a dozen assholes having all our wealth pooled into their pockets while we all fight over crumbs.
  • Bomb orphanages. This one's easy, bomb kids. Ok I'm not serious, I wanted to see if you were still reading this far. Fuck anyone who bombs kids. Why does that have to be explicitly stated now?
  • Other Social Services. We have roads, fire departments, libraries, parks, why stop there? Add more things that make ALL OUR LIVES BETTER!!!!

If you want to label all these things "WooooOOOOO wooo Evil Scary Socialism", then sure, fine, I'm a Socialist. All I'm saying is we should spend our tax money (THAT WE ALREADY PAID) on things to benefit us all, not to give to the lazy billionaires that "run" 7 different companies as CEO all at the same time. I can't work 7 jobs at the same time? How do you think they are?

[–] Dryad@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Maybe just maybe the lie of capitalism has worn thin enough for people eager for change to vote differently…

[–] gankouskhan@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago
[–] shweddy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Rapist does rapey things more at 11

[–] chillpanzee@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Caption: Trump, sitting in the gilded room where supplicants like Tim Apple and Snoop Dog pay tribute, explaining why "you having political power" is bad.