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The best people... (lemmy.world)
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[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 99 points 2 weeks ago

To be fair, we have a former actor and comedian as the president. The difference is he isn't a fascist piece of human garbage, not so much in the career paths.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 60 points 2 weeks ago

I ponder that sometimes. I wonder if a comedian has made such a solid leader because a comedian's role to society is to speak truths that go unheard, and to make unbearable times bearable. I find myself questioning if every leader shouldn't be a comedian

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 27 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Entirely Unironically:

AOC for Pres, Jon Stewart for Vice Pres, 2028.

This campaign would stand a chance at actually winning.

AOC and Stewart are both well known, basically celebrities.

AOC is actually capable of recreating the mix of genuine charisma combined with well articulated, meaningful actual policy points that Obama did in 07.

Jon Stewart is obviously no stranger to politics, and is possibly the literally ideal 'attack dog' that the VP usually plays in a campaign, for an anti corporate / billionaire campaign.

Let AOC be as principled and erudite as JFK and Stewart be as cutting and 'no bullshit' as Lyndon Jonhson.

...

Are either of them perfect?

No.

Are they basically the best possible options?

Well, Bernie is awesome, but he's too old.

Absolutely utilize him as much as possible during the campaign, be at every rally, fucking have him be the head of a leftist version of what Elon is, god knows by the time 2028 rolls around, the executive will have formally and informally assumed way too much power.

Put Bernie in charge of purging the Trump/Elon pukes, directing the revokation or countermanding of everyone of Trump's executive orders, undoing Citizens United, and reassembling the checks and balances.

...

Other than that... are any other democrats or leftists anywhere near as well known and widely, generally liked by non fascists? Who aren't bought and paid for by corpos?

[-] wulrus@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Some surveys seem to support that this direction could have worked. As a German, I supported the course of the Democrats to go with a presidential candidate and policies that democratic conservatives could get behind. About half of the voters in the US want less democracy, more totalitarianism. For a chance to stop Trump, it seemed reasonable just get all supporters of freedom and democracy behind a single candidate. But maybe I was wrong.

I have my doubts that there will be an election in 2028.

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

About half of the voters in the US want less democracy, more totalitarianism.

Apparently a recent poll said 71% of Trump voters are against cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (food benefits for very poor Americans).

So... that would mean more than 2/3 of Trump voters are astonishingly stupid, ignorant, easily swayed into a cult, as these cuts were very obviously the intent of Trump, and outright stated goals of Project 2025, which was created almost entirely by former Trump administration staff.

... But, that makes sense, as the average adult American literacy level is that of a 5th grader (10yo to 11yo), and 21% of adult Americans are functionally illiterate, with literacy skills at or below a 2nd grade level (7yo to 8yo).

I have my doubts that there will be an election in 2028.

As do I.

[-] Benjaben@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Ya know, this sounds downright plausible. More so than any other ticket I can imagine anyway, middle-of-the-road corporate democrats sure are played out, but hey, from what I understand the Dems literally argued after the election about whether they didn't go left enough or didn't go "center" enough, so.

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 25 points 2 weeks ago

I think it might be part that and part the fact that the war happened in the first place. Like, before the full scale invasion, he really wasn't that remarkable. But I guess sometimes hard times do actually make strong men.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah but plenty of leaders have been absolute shit under pressure is kind of my point

[-] wulrus@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Reminds me of this character in Watchmen. Calls himself the Comedian, but never makes "jokes" in a classical sense. He is cruel, overly patriotic, violent against protesters, seems to enjoy massacres in Vietnam. Only one other person understands that he is actually against these things and tries to show them this hyperbolic mirror of their own totalitarian views. But everybody else doesn't understand it, they take it face value and admire his "patriotism". He never breaks role until the last moment (or even then just in the movie?).

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

as i recall the characters who get "the joke" are the comedian, rorschach, ozymandias, and dr manhatten, each of whom respond to the trauma of getting the joke entirely differently. the comedian embraces it, laughs at it, lets it consume him. basically decides "the world is fucked up, i might as well personally have fun." i don't recall him ever showing any sympathy towards the world. his terrible actions are ultimately justified by that he is the stand-in for captain america: his violence is government backed. the crucial difference between captain america and the comedian is that captain america represents what america could and should be, a future for us to work towards, whereas the comedian represents what america is, a present for us to move away from. i think that aspect is a very clever piece of writing by alan moore as the time when he was creating the watchmen was very politically different from when jack kirby was creating captain america. i've been thinking a lot lately about how incredible jack kirby's explorations of fascism, militarism, and jewish identity are all through his career. i think alan moore did jack kirby justice in taking a lot of captain america's tropes and superimposing them onto a fascist. i think jack kirby did an incredible job of showing us the lunacy of nazis in his super villains (something i didn't give him enough credit for until this year when i saw how these freaks operate when the mask of respectability is removed), but by alan moore's time, the value of an aspirational symbol for what america could be was diminished as america turned more and more fascist, making super imposing captain america's tropes onto a fascist felt uncomfortable and upsetting. but also, having now seen trump voters up close and personal, it's incredibly accurate to the mindset. both jack kirdy and alan moore did an incredible job depicting fascism in the hopes we the people would see their work and grow and change.

unfortunately not enough of us did

[-] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

From what I've read, Zelensky as comedian made intelligent political and anti corruption criticism. Making jokes about the bad things in life, highlighting them, setting the stage for something being done about those problems. Broader than his on screen personality, he had middle class beginnings and on the back of his comedy work, he build a successful career as TV producer/executive. You probably know more about this than I do.

Trump as TV personality looked more like the most clueless person in the room, while all the actual work was done by others behind the scenes. No intelligence, no social commentary. Before his role in the apprentice, Trump had started his business career as a Nepo baby, and as a businessman he had failed every venture that he had tried, each time leaving a bloodbath of unpaid bills behind, a reverse Midas. And once his face was known from TV, he started with large scale scams like Trump University.

Those are 2 very different career paths.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah it's the difference between John Stewart and Steve Harvey

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee -2 points 2 weeks ago

The last supposedly Ukrainian person I talked to here was very anti Zelenskyy and wanted him to just lay down arms. What's your opinion on the matter? Do you want your country to keep fighting? Do you qualify for the draft yourself?

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

Those seem to be quite loaded questions.

I myself would be neither for nor against Zelenskyy, if it was peace time. Normally, there would have been elections last year, so there would be a non zero chance we would have had a different president already, if not for the war. But, since that's legally not possible right now, here we are, and I'm not about to go protest in the streets demanding to have elections as soon as possible.

That said, I am very much against being occupied and invaded. While also not willing to be drafted myself, since I know I would be quite useless on the battlefield. So the best I can do right now (to help in the war, that is) is to keep donating money for the equipment for our army.

I recognize I'm being hypocritical, since I wish to be protected without having the resolve to enlist myself. But I also recognize that, were I to enlist, my value in actually protecting Ukrainian lives would be very low.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

Oh, they weren't meant as loaded. Thing is there are people claiming that Ukrainians, particularly ones eligible for draft or with family members eligible for draft, would much prefer for Zelenskyy to just give up, and people see him as a dictator.

As someone who isn't eligible for the draft and doesn't live in the country it's easy for me to say I want you guys to keep on fighting for your freedom. I think a lot of us in the Baltics don't acknowledge it to ourselves that our support for Ukraine is probably also motivated by the fact that we want to see Russia's military capabilities weakened, not just because we want to see Ukrainians thrive. That's why it's also important to ask what you yourselves want.

this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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