A little context would be nice. He wasn’t against integration, he thought the concept of busing would increase tensions, which actually happened btw. White flight and all. He preferred to work on housing. This is his quote: “pushing busing in a way in which it goes beyond the constitutional mandates is like throwing a rock through the civil rights window. I think it has repercussions that are extensive in terms of the ultimate objective of seeing that we get integrated neighborhoods, of seeing that we eventually eliminate job discrimination, of seeing that we change housing patterns, of seeing alteration of tax structure.” https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/29/viral-image/biden-said-without-orderly-integration-his-childre/
Wait, who’s this guy then? Howie Hawkins presidential campaign, 2020 - Ballotpedia
That’s too bad. Guess he’s out.
Kinda. It’s more like there’s an old, decrepit building in the middle of downtown that’s about to fall and crush a bunch of people, and it’s full of rats and snakes and Nazis and and millionaires and millionaire Nazi snakes. They’re holding hostages and running a criminal empire and have done so for decades, with no indication of regret. People have been asking why we haven’t burnt down the building yet, and the answer has always been “it’s not yet time.” I’m just asking “then when?”
Bullshit. The house is full of people, they have no way to exit, and you don’t care about them at all.
Tell me something-If the walls come tumbling down and the country collapses, how will you be effected personally? What do you stand to lose if this happens?
In actual practice, they’ve offered quite a bit of resistance, some of it effective, from the minority position; and made some active headway when they briefly had the majority. So I am going to call your unbased statement nonsense.
Structural collapse isn’t going to get us to rebuilding faster. It’s going to get us to throwing rocks at each other out of the ruins.
Why you think you’re one of the ones who will survive the results, let alone why you think you’re one of the ones who will get to write the next version, is beyond me.
If we don’t get Biden, Trump’s who we’re getting. Plain matter of fact.
So if Trump’s not your guy, why are you trying to help him?
The answer isn’t “it’s not yet time”. The answer is, “because we’re all living in it.”
They want to burn it down, but they don’t want to be in the fire, and they don’t want to work to rebuild.
Others can suffer and others can work, and if it’s not good enough, they will burn it down again.
There is quite a bit to be said for the dysfunction of our government and politics, but the solution is not to just abdicate your civic responsibility.
As I think you, or somebody else in this thread said, if you want to change things, start with the local level. Run or support local office holders who align with your views. Show that your views are viable on a small scale before insisting that they be adopted by the rest of the country.
The OP wants everything handed to them. They want the results, but won’t put in the work. They want someone else to swoop in and fix everything, solve their problems, and personally give them a foot rub.
Wishful thinking won’t save our country, only pragmatic and practical action can do that. And the most pragmatic and practical thing that someone can do this November is to vote for Biden (or whoever is blue, if something were to happen to Biden in the meantime.)
What who wants? Trump? Much as I hate him, much of his platform is determined by the GOP, who is the longer-term existential threat. Trump was a Democrat not that long ago. It’s kinda the point, that focusing on particular candidates who have no desire to address structural issues would only prolong the inevitable, while the problems keep getting worse.
Yes, we are. And it’s crashing down all around us and has been for decades, all we just keep pretending someone will come fix it tomorrow. Nobody is coming. Either we move out now and demolish it and rebuild – yes, some people will be affected now, but many might be helped – or we all sit and wait and do nothing until it kills all of us.
This sort of incrementalist nonsense has been tried for decades, and where it has gotten us? Climate change is worse, income inequality is worse, race relations are worse, healthcare is barely any better, taxation is worse, corruption is worse, education is worse, science is worse, the humanities are hanging by a thread, and 100k Americans are dead – entirely preventably. Is this system really working? How many more must die before we take alternative actions?
Uh, everything? I don’t have much to begin with. If anything, I might be closer to the “not much left to lose” end of the spectrum. It’s the people with entrenched investments – houses, funds, land, power, wealth, what have you – who most benefit from the status quo. I’m concerned less about what’s going to happen to me and mine than what’s going to happen to this country and the rest of the world in 10-20 years. A resurgent China, climate change, more pandemics, vast inequalities and instabilities against a dying USA doesn’t exactly give much cause for hope. Biden is just putting on the blinders and saying, “It’ll be all right, folks. We got this.” Yeah, right.
This sort of tired, antiquated call for civility in a time of converging apocalypses is exactly why I don’t trust Biden and his ilk. Rocks have already been thrown, and more. A hundred thousand are dead and we’ve glossed over it, and there will be far worse to come.
I don’t think I’m going to survive the results regardless, but I think there’s a long-shot chance at reshaping America to leave behind a better outcome for the generations after me. Not my kids, who I’ll never have, but the future is worth fighting for – not just for Americans but for the 8 billion in the world who have to deal with future us – and unfortunately, yes, sometimes that requires great sacrifice. The same sorts of sacrifices previous generations have chosen to make at great personal cost, the kind which we’re perhaps too wrapped up in the trappings of modern life to take.
What he’s saying is that he didn’t want his white kids to experience racial tension at school, even if that meant desegregation would take longer and black kids would keep suffering. The right answer to “but it would inflame tensions” is to send in the National Guard to protect oppressed minorities, not to kowtow to racists.
When the NAACP calls him out for a failure to act – per Politifact – while he had power to address structural racism , he doesn’t get to then turn around and play the “but then I listened to Obama” card.
If I’m the “they” you’re referring to, it’s already on fire and we’re all in it and most of the framing is irreparably damaged, but some are saying “where are the fire extinguishers?” while I’m saying “get the fuck out, it’s going to kill us all, we gotta get out then demolish and rebuild it afterward. It’s no longer hospitable.”
Do you really think “checking a box for Biden” is “putting in the work”? Accelerationism, as a philosophy, is ripe with pitfalls and nightmarish flaws, but “it would take less work” is not one of them. I believe in it not because it’s easier but because it’s necessary when the status quo isn’t working, and hasn’t worked, for decades. How many more times must we try that? How many more must die?
So, we have to burn the village down to save it?
That sounds familiar.
Not really. Even civil wars and world wars don’t kill a majority of the electorate/population. I would rather prefer to avoid a civil war. But I do think a decapitation of leadership is necessary (figuratively or literally), and that probably entails some degree of violence – to be minimized as much as possible, but probably not going to be entirely avoidable. Violence is already at hand, whether we like it or not, and is only going to increase commensurate with instability and inequality.
Nazis run the ruling party and they’ve killed a hundred thousand Americans, breaking every possible system of checks and balances, and Biden is saying “Now, now, children. We’re a nation of law and order. I understand you’re angry. Now is the time to sit down for a nice chat with them. I’m sure it was all just a big ol’ misunderstanding”.
(Missed edit window)
To be explicit, it is my belief that accelerating the collapse of American leadership and rebuilding from the ashes would cause fewer overall casualties – considering global impacts of American policy – than letting the status quo drag on. It’s likely most of you would disagree with that premise, but I want to make it clear that THAT is the reasoning. Accelerationism, not because it’s easier, but because it ends up saving more lives and livelihoods over the next few decades, globally, even if it causes more instability in the USA in the near future.
You are wrong on so many levels any further discussion with you would be pointless. You do you-the rest of us will do reality.
Thank you for the discussion thus far.
(other post was misattributed)
So you want a revolution. That’s fine. But you’re not going to get it in a presidential election. Ever. A presidential election is the very definition of status quo.
So vote, don’t vote. Launch an uprising or just kvetch about one. But arguing over presidential candidates? There is no skin in that for you, because none of them that can actually win will accomplish what you want them to. Ever. You might as well ignore the whole thing and get straight to something more practically meaningful to you.
Meteor / Super Volcano 2020!
The problem with wiki is that it is often wrong.
True, those exact words arent used, but seemingly Sir Austen Chamberlain paraphrased the actual Chinese maxim, which can be translated as Truly, better be a dog in days of peace
Than a human in times of war!
Agreed. But an election is still symbolically important. If Biden lost to Trump by a landslide (which he still might) because of unenthusiastic turnout, it would hopefully signal to the Democratic Party that their centrist/incrementalist/big tent strategy is more broken than they’re willing to admit now. An electoral system of “vote for the lame duck or the monster wins” isn’t meaningfully a democracy.
He has my full support! Where can I donate?
Even if they’re going to eat you anyway? At least the human has a fighting chance…
This is exactly what the GOP and the Kremlin have been pushing for- that both sides are so bad, there is no difference, so vote 3rd party. Thus, ensuring victory by their small hard core cadre of voters.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing .” ― Edmund Burke.
True that. It’s kinda like the Alien vs Predator movies. “Whoever wins, we lose.”
- Where is your evidence that Wiki is wrong.
- If true, that has got to be the worst paraphrase ever created.