According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    21 hours ago

    So how do you decide who gets to govern, if not through elections? And yes, I am very much a “hurr ml” person. I’ve rarely seen such an accumulation of blockheads outside r/thedonald, back in the day.

    • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      Elections don’t work when education has been systematically degraded. Elections don’t work when there are no restrictions on the amount of contributions that oligarchs can contribute to a political candidate. Elections don’t work when there is no safeguard against election tampering. Elections don’t work when oligarchs own the media.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      18 hours ago

      its not about deciding who to govern here. burgeois elections in a burgeois state will only elect people aligned with their agenda, which means you will keep walking towards fascism regardless of who wins an election, and none of the alternatives will actually enact your will, even when they have a majority. democrats and their warmongering are especially bad to us in the periphery of the planet

      as for solutions, join a leftist political organization or union. it will involve talking to people around you, striking, helping and building community and participating in direct action with systemic change in mind. the more people get involved, deeper gets the change we can enact. it doesn’t have to involve capitalist institutions at all. in most socialist/anarchist systems they chose their leaders, yes, by debating and voting in a council but that assumes the system is not rigged against us, which pretty obviously is in capitalism for the reasons mentioned above and more.

      you think us as blockheads because you probably read no political theory beyond liberalism, if that. be more open minded towards leftists, and do a bit of studying and you will notice our ideals are close to the left-leaning liberals. we think you as blockheads because you keep trying to change things in a misguided or misinformed way that is pretty obviously not solving any problems.

      you can shake your fists all you want at the hefty percentage of people that recognize this (not only us leftists btw, which are a tiny minority in the US) and doesnt bother to vote, but you won’t change anything because a compelling candidate for leadership is not viable in the current system. my country has mandatory voting and nothing changes either, electoralism is not the solution.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        18 hours ago

        So what is the solution? Violently overthrowing one bunch of bastards will only end up with another bunch of bastards. Completely smashing the system will lead straight to warlordism. Lasting positive change was only ever achieved at the ballot box. And if you despise democracy, I despise you as much as the fascists and I fail to see the difference.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          16 hours ago

          i mentioned the solution in my previous post:

          join a leftist political organization or union. it will involve talking to people around you, striking, helping and building community and participating in direct action with systemic change in mind. the more people get involved, deeper gets the change we can enact.

          i will be more succint: communism is the history proven way.

          also from your response it looks like you didnt even read what i’m bothering to type so ill be succint again before i leave: the capitalist electoral system is designed to look democratic but it is not at all.

          • Waphles@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            10 hours ago

            So personally, as a Scandinavian social-democrat and union member I would like to ask this question in response to “communism is the history proven way”: show me. What examples from history do you have?

            • Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 hours ago

              If we evict the socialist dictatures/guerillas led by marxist-leninist parties and other authoritarian flavors of communism, remains some attempts at libertarian communism, some surviving longer than other : Paris in 1871, Ukraine in 1917, Spain in 1936-1937 are short lived examples of past communist situations that brought social changes a century or half a century before they could be obtained again, for those we obtained back. Nowadays examples are Rojava and Zapatistad territoried in Chiapas, Mexico.