this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 22 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

200 NGOs Oppose Biden’s Historic Expansion of ICE Detention System: "Detention should not be about politics."

ICE records show Biden admin plans could give Trump a head start on deportations

President Biden Signs Anti-Immigrant Spending Bill Reaching Trump-Era Highs

Biden’s Emergency Funding Proposal Seeks $14 Billion for Immigration System From Congress

Tom Homan - Border Czar was originally appointed by Obama

Keep in mind, these democrat moves to bolster ICE were happening while the right was blatantly telegraphing their moves to immediately weaponize ICE once they took power. Project 2025 came out and promised to use ICE to plunder and abuse Americans. Biden and team then spent the next 4 years not only failing to prepare for Trump, but preemptively strengthening the mechanisms Trump would eventually use to carry out project 2025. The democrats are controlled opposition.

Sure, maybe we wouldnt be seeing this intense of immigration enforcement if Kamala were in charge, but if she were, she'd be working behind the scenes to ensure the right had all the tools they needed when the time was right.

The democrats are controlled opposition and the American electoral system is kabuki theater. The fascist descent is the only logical conclusion to the American political experiment- which was predicated on the wholesale genocide of Native American Indians and quickly pivoted to enslaving an entire continent.

The only logical conclusion to this "pragmatic liberal utilitarianism" is a situation where liberals are chiding leftists for not voting for dem candidate Ted Cruz as he campaigns against republican candidate Mecha Hitler. Liberals will still see nothing wrong with that. They will sell out the victims of American Imperialism to buy themselves 4 more years of political waffling - just as they did with Palestinians.

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 24 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

I get the sentiment but what bugs me about posts like this (and I’m guilty of making them), is that they assume a single vote is all it will take.

I typically vote democrat, not because I support them, but because I try to maximize the effectiveness of my vote. A third party or protest vote accomplishes nothing but self satisfaction. A painful vote for someone you know sucks, but is a step in the right direction is the right strategy. The dems, who without a doubt are terrible, at least showed that they will eventually listen to their voters when they swapped out biden’s carcass. I was not in love with Kamala, but at least we had a viable candidate who wasn’t an obvious fascist.

The vote is where the work STARTS. Electing dems is not the destination, they are just a tool to help us get where we need to go. Use them, then discard them.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

A painful vote for someone you know sucks, but is a step in the right direction is the right strategy.

Again, the only logical conclusion to this "pragmatic" utilitarianism is reaching a point where you're talking yourself into voting for dem candidate Ted Cruz as he runs against mecha Hitler. This philosophy is incompatible with being against genocide.

If Trump were a democrat, blueMAGA would be chiding leftists for not voting for him. If, in 20 years, the choice for president is between a democrat who wants to kill 6 million jews, and a republican who wants to kill 10 million jews, will you still be militantly democrat?

The dems, who without a doubt are terrible, at least showed that they will eventually listen to their voters when they swapped out biden’s carcass.

Is this really a point in your favor? How was that debacle anything other than a perfect illustration of how democrats will feign powerlessness, and then adjust course too late? If anything, the democrats can be characterized as too little, too late. They are dooming us to a fascist descent, and we have to make our own party.

[–] mghackerlady@leminal.space 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I would vote dem while condemning their actions if it meant an extra 2 million jews weren't killed. The reality is your argument is literally just the trolley problem and instead of focusing on an issue where either decision is bad and instead focus on everything else

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 0 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

So you dont have alarm bells going off in your head that you would willingly vote for a literal Holocaust?

[–] Statfish@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Yes because voting is literally the bare minimum you do. We have first past the post, make sure the least shitty candidate is past the post AND then keep working to fix things, keep working to get better candidates in the next primary.

If Kamala Harris had been elected, we could be protesting for meaningful action in Gaza, meaningful climate action. Instead, those issues have become buried by all the tremendous waves of shit flying out of the republicans.

[–] mghackerlady@leminal.space -1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, I would, but short of overthrowing the government which is highly dependent on both the material realities of the time and the amount willing to do so, it is objectively the better option

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml -2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Then I dont think we have much more to discuss. You would vote for a literal Holocaust.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

^ this is a dumb's person notion of winning an argument

[–] m532@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 hours ago

^ this is a holocaust supporter's notion of winning an argument

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Here's the thing. You take enough steps in the right direction, and eventually you are on the right path. It sure had hell beats standing still and letting some jackass drag you in the wrong direction. If you let that happen once, then you have to get back on your feet and starting waking in the right direction just to get back to where you were before.

People say that Democrats are just controlled opposition, and that's not true. Non-voters are the controlled opposition. Not advocating for themselves, not advocating for basic decency and accountability allows us all to be governed in an indecent and unaccountable way. They've been tricked into this by troll accounts saying "both sides are the same".

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It sure had hell beats standing still and letting some jackass drag you in the wrong direction. If you let that happen once, then you have to get back on your feet and starting waking in the right direction just to get back to where you were before.

Agreed! 100%! So then why do you put your all your poltical stock in the party that does this exact blunder every 4 years?

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Luckily, the ratchet effect is a mechanical analogy, and not actually relevant to politics.

Democrats managed to get a lot of rights recognized for LGBTQ people, despite heavy republican opposition. I'm old enough to remember hearing about the first federally recognized gay marriage, and the end of don't ask, don't tell.

Democrats managed to pass a healthcare plan (abeit a shitty one) despite heavy republicans opposition, and internal politicking by other "just barely" Democrats.

Democrats managed to balance the budget, despite heavy republican opposition.

The ratchet effect is a cute analogy, but it's not a real thing that is actually taking place. If you want the party to move further left, then you need to vote in primaries, and support further left candidates by talking about them, calling for them, and advocating for them. If your candidate wins, great, but if they don't, recognize that you need to prevent whatever christofascist shitbag Republicans are running from touching that office.

[–] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 1 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Democrats did a genocide. They don't give a fuck about human rights. Lgbt rights were fought for by lgbt people and their allies. Not democrats.

[–] mghackerlady@leminal.space 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

They aided a genocide while the current admin is still aiding said genocide and starting another, both are bad but one is certainly worse

[–] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 3 points 12 hours ago

I KNOW.

What happened to moving things in the right direction? One said is the greater evil, it moves things to the right. The other is the lesser evil. It resists movement to the left. Both are evil. Why does the existence of a greater evil blind you to the evils of the lesser? Why is it everytime with you people the immediate response is "Oh so you think both sides are equal?" No. But both sides ARE evil. Stop supporting evil for fucks sake.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world -2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Any chance you wanna source those genocide claims?

[–] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world -2 points 10 hours ago

Gotcha, so no. Disregarded.

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I get it, and I agree to a large part, I’m not sure what part of my post was “militantly democratic” though. It’s entirely situational, and without a doubt, the moment it’s viable to dump them, I will. I just don’t think our system nor electorate is capable of the large shift that necessary. Instead think it needs to die a death of a thousand cuts.

The problem is, everyone only seems to want the sea change, the one weird trick. It’s exactly that mentality, that we can fix it all at once, that is why we’re here. If people understand that real change takes time and effort, they might see the forest for the trees and we could all fight against this bullshit together.

But the mentality you have keeps us divided, and insists on a drastic, divisive and impossible strategy. Sorry to be a dick about it, but that’s how I see it.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

If, in 20 years, the choice for president is between a democrat who is in openly interested in murdering 6 million jews, and a republican who is openly interested in murdering 7 million jews, will you still be an unwavering democrat?

Will you still be hemming and hawing about how doing things incrementally is the only path forward? Will you tell Jewish people that they have a duty to you, to vote for your preferred genocider? Will you continue to sacrifice marginalized people for this naive hope that a blue wave will come and quell fascism?

Or will you realize that your genocidal political system has lost legitimacy and must be dismantled?

Put another way, did Germans at the height of Hitler's power have a duty to vote for doomed social democrats, or did they have a duty to tear their government down?

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Again, I still don’t disagree. What is your methods for accomplishing these goals though? Not joking, I’m all ears.

Short of marching and throwing them out violently, what is the path forward here? I’m not against that, I just know it’s not going to happen in this country. Maybe if things get worse, but I’m not, and never have been an accelerationist.

We’re saying the same thing in the end, just have disagreement on how to get there.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

marching and throwing them out violently

This is literally the plan. And every day we delay is spitting in the face of Palestinians.

You keep characterizing revolutions as these historical impossiblities, but I'm not sure why. The idea that America cant have a revolution is American Exceptionalism.

The blueprints for this kind of work were eloquently described by Lenin.

[–] mghackerlady@leminal.space 1 points 12 hours ago

I can be for revolution while also acknowledging that short of a miracle, america isn't ready for one. Until then, I'll at least try and mitigate the worst of it. The ideas of Lenin work great if there is a figure to rally behind but there isn't one right now, and I'm not going to be that person

[–] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Get organized with your fellow people and create parallel structures that actually look after your community so an alternative to the government actually exists. Vote third party not because voting in a corrupt system will actually change things but because it shows solidarity with the movement and highlights how the system itself is broken.

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 1 points 10 hours ago

You are 100% describing the plan that I am. My only difference is in the voting. Voting has never shown solidarity or at least that solidarity has never delivered any results and I don’t see the point in wasting any power we have.

Use the tools of the system we are trapped in to break it.