• yesman@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    This is a perfect story, that’s why I don’t believe it happened.

  • db2@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    There’s no minimum level of intelligence to vote. The president elect literally isn’t smart enough to wipe his own ass. That’s not hyperbole, he doesn’t know how. If you gave him written instructions it wouldn’t help because he can’t read either, he relies on other people to tell him what the squiggly things mean. The stupids elected one of their own.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldOPM
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      8 days ago

      The deeply, deeply unfortunate parts of intelligence tests to vote are two-fold:

      • The first is that corrupt politicians use them as a cudgel to keep “the wrong people” from voting. This was seen during the US’ Jim Crow era, where southern states had intelligence tests to vote. These were intentionally confusing, and – as intended – black voters would be turned away for ridiculous, ad hoc nonsense. Moreover, any degree of intelligence test we can come up with today will have some degree of bias to it. Even clinical intelligence tests which are written and administered by expert neuropsychologists to be as unbiased as possible show some level of cultural bias.
      • The second is that it’s ultimately not fair to refuse someone a say in how their life is run. Literally every aspect of our lives is political, and to not give the poorly educated or the intellectually disabled a say in that is simply not conducive to a fair society. It can even further entrench uneducation by removing these people from a process which can give them the right to an education or to special needs protections within that education.

      The problem I feel the DNC needs to own up to is that ultimately, it doesn’t give the uneducated voters whose lives are worse off than they used to be a target to go after. They’re (thankfully) not explicitly bigoted like the Republican Party blaming it on “the other”, but they’re also not speaking truth to power like they should be; platforming on radical, populist change; and aggressively blaming the real sources of the average American’s problems. It’s also hugely Republican stonewalling that prevents them from taking the fight to these powerful institutions, but we saw Harris for instance start courting voters by taking a pro-fracking stance, backing off of criticisms of corporate America (who most people fucking hate for some reason or another at this point), cozying up to extremely unpopular politicians like Liz Cheney, and backing off of the sort of populist rhetoric that wins votes in this climate.

      Republicans are even more favorable to the institutions that ruin American lives than the Democrats are and are orders of magnitude worse than Democrats, but they give the average person something to divert their frustration toward. Whereas Democrats say “we have some policies to help somewhat improve your lives” while never giving them something to be angry at. And to be clear, the average American has a good goddamn reason to be angry. They’re nauseatingly wrong to direct it to the places Trump wants them to and are creating their own and others’ oppression, but their poor circumstances broadly are caused by systems which the typical “moderate”, neoliberal Democrat kowtows to.

      What we need to do is get out there as grassroots advocates and educate them not just about the issues, but about how they’ve been lied to by Republicans and (centrist) Democrats alike to work against their own interests. Some of them are truly beyond saving, but for the rest of them, we need to meet them where they’re at, affirm their right to be angry and show them we are too, and unify. It’ll be damn hard, but fascists win because they divide and conquer. Americans need a target, and instead of the ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities, there’s an even better minority for them: the rich elite.

      • Kaity@leminal.space
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        7 days ago

        The second is that it’s ultimately not fair to refuse someone a say in how their life is run.

        Funny thing about that one…

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      there’s no minimum intelligence to run for or hold elected public offices, either.

    • ditty@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      I mean, the ballot said Trump on it, so he would read that much at least. I also know they manufacture toilet paper with his name and face on it as well, that might catch his interest enough to get him wiping himself instead of relying on some young staffer to change his diapers

  • NegativeNull@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Hording of soon-to-be-expensive/soon-to-be-unavailable products is going to be be a huge thing over the next couple months.

  • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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    8 days ago

    Wait until they have to explain what supply and demand do to prices, that won’t be the last bonus that they’re missing.

  • vividspecter@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    This community is going to have ample content for the next four years (and hopefully only four years). Even if this story itself is likely bullshit.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    The joke going around during the Bush years was that Americans learn basic, 3rd grade geography via which country we’ve invaded most recently.

    Looks like a whole bunch of baby brained Americans are going to be learning basic high school level economics through forced, remedial, live demonstration, in the form of probably a world wide depression.

      • WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Definitely an interesting thought experiment. It will be interesting to see if the tariffs actually happen how they will impact the economy. I work in telecommunications and most of the equipment we use is manufactured in China, regardless of the supplier. Any tariffs will impact about 70% or the material we use for projects.

  • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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    8 days ago

    Zero sympathies left now. In fact, from now on, I’m going to revel in all of your misery. Because that’s the only positive thing that will come for us as a species moving towards our doom, thanks to all of you dumb fucks.

    • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Unfortunately, raised prices will not discriminate between those of us who voted for fascism and those who did not.

  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    A great parable to explain the broad consequences of this election, despite the story not itself being very believable.

    • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      dont know why youre being downvoted. this has no credibility. “an american woman in pennsylvania’s husband works for a company”