lets_get_off_lemmy

Join the club.

Using this.

Tough shit Zuck

I responded to your other comment, but I like this question too. I haven't been addicted to a substance, but I can firmly say for other things that the answer is "No". I'm not blacked out, I'm completely present when I'm making this choice, but sometimes there's a constant justification of "ok I'll do it this last time and tomorrow is when I'll resist it." And you keep doing that. And that voice gets weaker over time to where you just start accepting that this is what you do now. And that often comes with self-loathing and frustration.

Well, that's the difference. At different points in my life I've had varying levels of self-control. You have a higher bar than I do right now for what requires a self-control check.

My username is what it is for a reason. I don't think being on a site like this improves my health or mentality in any way, yet here I am. I still go on Reddit on a desktop when I'm working almost out of habit, even though I'm kicking myself mentally the whole time I'm scrolling. I wake up, say "30 more minutes" to myself knowing full well that will make me start work later, less prepared, hungry, and unshowered and I'll have to work later into the night (when I work from home). I watch YouTube until 1 am or later most nights because I don't want to sleep even though I'm tired and I know it will make my day miserable tomorrow. Dishes are piling up because I say I'll get to it later.

People have different thresholds for this and at other times in my life I could just shut off many of these urges. Right now, because of my mental health, that ability for self control is near zero. Just think of that push-back you get when you say to yourself you're going to go for a run and imagine that push-back to be stronger and applied to literally anything that requires effort or mental presence.

I agree and think Democrats are tepid, pathetic excuses for a left wing that engage in continued imperialism and corporate control. I completely agree that they are letting us slip further into fascism and their responses are shit. I'm just saying that to make it happen quicker by (1) voting for Trump or (2) not voting for Biden seems misguided, generally. As much as I wish someone else would be on the ticket.

My intent is not to straw-man. I assumed folks here were advocating voting for Trump, because to me that seems like the only other option on a ticket that only gives you a binary choice. I'm sorry if that's not the case and I'm missing something.

And in that case, my question is then: what are people here advocating for? Not voting? Voting for a lefty as a write-in? Starting armed insurrection? Somewhere in between?

The people of Wyoming don't have the same representation as the people of California. They have way more relative representation. That's saying that rural votes mean more than urban. A Wyoming resident has 3.6 times more voting power than one in California.

Okay, I will later when I have time. Probably days from now if not more than a week. One short thing I would argue is many things are generally worse with every passing year because (1) there has been a rightward trend in the Overton window, (2) the conservatives have been on a long, calculated campaign to gain political supremacy by diminishing voting rights, hacking away at federal power, and increasing the role of capital in political decision-making, primarily through the capture of the Judiciary (and its ideology).

Biden sucks and is pathetic in his response to RvW being overturned, for example. But it doesn't matter if you had Chomsky himself as president, nothing could have been done to change that decision.

I just don't think the solution is to then shift the Overton window even more right than where it is by voting for Trump, potentially making a lot of these issues (particularly in regards to voting rights), harder to shift left.

I'll respond to the other person's comment with more examples when I find time since you said you won't listen to me anyway.

But I do have one question: do you think those two things would be better or worse under Trump? That answer is why it's harm reduction. Do you not remember the Muslim ban or bringing in federal agents to crack down on George Floyd protests?

Just to be clear: you're saying your solution is to vote for Trump though?

Yeah and I think we're both falling on the other side of these material conditions. I believe the material conditions of putting Trump in power is worse than having Biden.

This is a similar argument for accelerationism in Marxism. That we should make the world as capitalist as possible because the system will fail quicker and get replaced by something more just.

It's hard for me to believe that this would actually work in either case. The destruction in the meantime would be too great and it may reach a point where we can't climb back. In the case of Trump, he wants to be a dictator, and he may push voting rights so far in one direction that the people won't have a say at all.