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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 03:02:31 JST Paul Cantrell

   I agree with Erin’s take here, and it’s disgusting.

   Throwing trans people under the bus is inhumane and immoral.

   It’s also bad strategy: the way to stop fascism is the protect the most-marginalized group. (Remember that “first they came for…” poem??)

   Here’s the thing: Politicians are tools. Not leaders. Not saviors. They’re tools. We need to grab them and •use• them. The Tea Party movement understood this; we on the left need to catch up.

   What does that mean?

   1/ https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:m65ifh7vn5zdgs7izcmht4gy/post/3ljfy72chak2v

   • tinydoctor repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 03:07:46 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     It means giving up arguing about which politicians are the good guys. It means knocking it off with all the “Everything is really the Democrats’ fault!!” reply-guying. What a useless line of thought.

     It means relentless pressure on every politician, the best and the worst. It means showing up and being loud, over and over and over. It means not letting any elected politician get a good night’s sleep.

     Think about the Tea Party’s strategy for taking over the Republican Party. Remember that the party elite first •fought• the Tea Party movement tooth and nail — and then completely rolled over for it. That’s what we need to do for the Democratic party.

     #uspol 2/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 03:08:47 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Politicians are tools. If this is a bar fight with the fash, the politicians have the moral valence of bar stools.

     Grab them and use them. Don’t just complain about them; •grab• them and •use• them. If you don’t, someone else well. Someone else already is.

     /end

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 03:16:07 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jackie 🍉 :gay_communism: :trantifa:

     @burnoutqueen
     Yes, see downthread.

   • Embed this notice
     Jackie 🍉 :gay_communism: :trantifa: (burnoutqueen@todon.nl)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 03:16:08 JST Jackie 🍉 :gay_communism: :trantifa:

     in reply to

     @inthehands

     Sometimes, politicians are just tools for your enemy, and it's important to notice when that's the case.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 07:07:57 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo
     I agree to some extent, but I really don’t like to make broad assumptions about motives. I'm sure that many of “these people” do in fact care deeply about saving the world, but are too wrapped around the axle to work toward that effectively. And yeah, some are self-satisfying asses or outright saboteurs, but…I do think good intentions abound in many places where effective action is lacking.

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Monday, 03-Mar-2025 07:07:58 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @inthehands The whole point of "Everything is really the Democrats' fault!!" reply-guying is to help the fascists and hurt the Democrats. That's the whole point. To help Trump and Musk and Putin and to hurt the Democratic Party.

     These people have no real interest in "saving" the world, they just want to blame the Democrats, end of story.

     When you've been conditioned to make this your core identity (by Putin/Republicans/etc), it is really difficult to free yourself from the conditioning.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 03:27:20 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo
     Yeah, there are a lot of mea culpas that are overdue and will never arrive, in many, many circles.

     But I don’t have time to nurse resentment about that. We’re fighting fascists. We have a coup to stop.

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     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 03:27:22 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @inthehands I wish I could see some evidence of what you say. I see evidence that numbers of Trump voters openly regret that they helped elect him.

     I haven't yet seen any of the "left" regret attacking Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I only see them doubling down and continuing to attack the Democratic Party.

     Do they have good intentions? Maybe, in their own twisted way of thinking. But the point is that their way of thinking was purposefully twisted in a way to hurt Democrats.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 03:56:30 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo
     I mean, yes, but again, I don’t have time. If those folks are sea lioning me about it, they get muted or blocked. If they’re ready to help, I welcome the help.

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 03:56:31 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @inthehands Sadly, regretful MAGA are more likely to be helpful in fighting this coup than those on the "left" who continue to concentrate their efforts on blaming the Democrats and who are calling for them all to be primaried.

     Obviously we have to prioritize who we pick fights with, but they are the ones who won't let go of attacking the Democrats.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 05:21:11 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo
     We have not yet fully reckoned with how widespread and how successful the propaganda effort was in electing Trump both times.

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 05:21:13 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @inthehands Obviously I was too tired to engage with them in ways that would manipulate their opinions and core world view.

     But you know who wasn't? Tankies. Putin trolls. Fake leftie accounts. Billionaire owned mass media. Twitter, Facebook, etc.

     There's a lot of money to be made manipulating people into hating the Democratic Party. And not a lot of money to be made the other way.

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Mar-2025 05:21:14 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @inthehands I don't engage with them either. I don't have time for that. But I recognize that this does nothing to solve the problem.

     I've always been like that. I'll just keep my mouth shut and concentrate on the "real" enemy. And it never did any good. They just got more and more anti-Democratic.

     They would still "hold their nose" and vote Democratic in the general, so I kept spreading the word to them. Otherwise, I'd have zero followers and followees by now. But it sure feels lonely.