Notices by Truth Sandwich 🥪🇺🇸😷 (truthsandwich@qoto.org), page 4

@sarfeo @futurebird

Because that’s what “anti-capitalism” means.

@sarfeo @futurebird

Ok, I’ll call your bluff: what does anti-capitalism mean if not socialism? And what is socialism if not the path towards communism?

@sarfeo @futurebird

Uh-huh, so you’re against one thing, which means you’re for an alternative. But you don’t want to say what it is.

Thing is, we know. The alternative to capitalism is communism. If that’s not the alternative you intend, then it’s on you to provide an alternate alternative.

@futurebird

Sorry, I didn’t see your toot in my notifications because I blocked sarfeo (for refusing to answer). I’ll respond now:

Yes, in fact there were various economic systems that predated capitalism, and none of them were communism, but they featured all the same flaws that are currently ascribed to capitalism.

That’s why I’m always saying that if you’re blaming capitalism for, say, greed or bigotry or environmental harm, you’re blaming the wrong thing.

The blame belongs with the root economic causes, which are universal issues, not an aspect of any single system. It’s the fault of resource scarcity combined with human nature.

So, for example, the colonialism that we’re still fighting the vestiges of happened under feudalism and mercantilism, not modern capitalism.

However, we’re not going back to any of these historical systems, and there are no viable modern alternatives to capitalism.

The USSR and China, for example, ran under a command economy and that was a huge failure.

What actually works, and what you actually find in the real world, are mixed economies, which is to say regulated capitalism.

Capitalism is terrible, but it’s better than everything else, so maybe it’s not so terrible. It’s the very best thing we’ve got for creating wealth. Of course, it needs some help with the distribution side, which is where taxation and regulation comes in.

But we’re way past the point where we can take the idea of communism seriously. It’s been tried and it’s always failed, with no sign that it will ever do anything but fail again. It never even came close to working, not even a little, not even for a little while.

If you’re curious, I wrote this blog post about the topic: https://truth-sandwich.com/2023/07/05/real-red-magic/

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

Voting for the best candidate who can win is voting for the best candidate.

The “lesser evil” framing is rooted in a misunderstanding of what voting is for. Hint: it’s not a place for you to express your individuality and personal opinions, it’s a fight for power.

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

Your choices were constrained in the first place. It is a good thing that fringe factions that don’t represent society as a whole are disempowered.

Anyhow, I’m done here. It’s late.

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

I’m arguing against extremists taking over the country. Any functioning government has to rest somewhere above the political center of gravity. Otherwise, there’s no enough overlap for compromise and you actually do get unrepresentative government.

Representation means they have influence proportional to their number. This is provided by any democracy. The failure point is when a group too extreme to represent the nation as a whole somehow gets power despite this.

America found out what happens when the extremists take over a major party. In fact, we almost lost the DNC to its extremist wing, too.

Luckily, they were too racist to succeed.

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

Oh, please. I have no patience for the old “in EU, Bernie is a centrist” nonsense.

He is, in his own words, a socialist. I’d call him a communist and he wouldn’t dispute that. With photos like the one below, he couldn’t.

Sanders also loves to equivocate between social democracy (Sweden) and democratic socialism (Cuba), allowing him to be Heisenberg’s socialist.

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

It is profoundly pro-democratic to favor a system that creates a working government. It is profoundly anti-democratic to want extremists in charge.

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

American liberals are not neoliberals. Reagan was a neoliberal. Thatcher, too. We are modern liberals, which has nothing to do with neoliberalism, despite having that l-word in common.

The DNC platform includes universal health care, but in a realistic form. Sanders is a populist, so he panders with empty promises, such as M4A and GND.

@vidar @Alon @futurebird

Bullshit. American fascists want to be in charge. So do the socialists.

If your premise starts with a lie, there’s no point continuing.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

I have a shortish blog post about Sweden and why they were able to get away with the sort of social programs that are lacking in America. Maybe it will address your points.

https://truth-sandwich.com/2021/01/09/why-arent-we-sweden/

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

Everyone’s a critic. Don’t worry; my self-worth is not dependent upon the statements of Internet randos with a solid history of being wrong.

Sweden’s commitment to strong social programs is under attack by right-wing populists, fueled by a hostile reaction to immigration.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

The Sanders people here are embracing (a broken version of) MMT precisely because it promises the ability to print endless amounts of money without risk of inflation.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

They do both.

Intercept and Jacobin are probably the worst offenders, if you’re looking at far-left propaganda mills.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

You can be forgiven for thinking the far left’s anti-liberalism is right-wing, because it uses so many of the same talking points, but it’s not. It’s just that the far left is barely distinguishable from the far right due to their shared populism. This is the horseshoe that you’ve probably heard about.

The far-left Justice Democrats are anti-Ukraine as is the far-right Republican Party. It’s the liberals who are pro-Ukraine.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

In a sense, we have that here, except that the center right is so beaten down that it’s hard to even tell.

The far left and far right loves Putin because he pays their bills. The center is apathetic about foreign policy and generally opposed to spending money outside of our borders.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

And Putin, in turn, loves the AfD and any other right-populist org.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

I don’t envy your parliamentary system.

@Alon @vidar @futurebird

Short answer: because it gives the fringe groups parties.

Longer answer: https://truth-sandwich.com/2023/06/12/in-defense-of-the-inevitability-of-the-two-party-system/