Objection
@Objection@lemmy.ml
- Comment on [deleted] 10 hours ago:
In addition to valuing nerds as a way to win against the Soviets, there was also a latent fear of a revolution in America that would be supported by and follow the example of the USSR, which created an understanding that the masses had to be kept placated. And if there was anything too awful about society, it would be criticized by the USSR for the sake of gaining soft power, which provided an additional incentive to fix it. Regardless of all the problems that the USSR had, a world order with competing powers (multipolarity) seems to me to be the only way of keeping the worst abuses of any power in check.
- Comment on [deleted] 10 hours ago:
This is very true. A lot of it comes down to chauvinism and, “we’re #1.” If an American sees a problem with the US government, then they’ll conclude that it is a problem inherent to all existing, or even all possible governments. When it does something bad, the worst thing people will say is, “This is like something you’d see in [rival country].” In this way, even while criticizing it, they still reaffirm their belief in their own superiority. And if you deviate from that and point out various ways in which the country is uniquely bad, it means you just knee-jerk hate everything about the country and want it to be bad. We are thoroughly cooked.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
How did we go from something like 1940s era collectivism or 1960s era leftism to the current bizarro political machine that seems to have hypnotized a large portion (if not majority) of the country?
The prevailing economic wisdom after WWII was Keynesianism, which says that the government should increase government spending when unemployment is high and decrease it when inflation is high. What happened in the 70’s and 80’s was that the economy started experiencing both high unemployment and high inflation at the same time, “shrinkflation,” which wasn’t supposed to happen according to Keynesianism, and which it had no real response to. The reason it was happening (at least from a Marxist perspective) was that the US had already developed in the ways that saw the highest returns, and there simply wasn’t as much new ground to cover - this is what’s meant by “the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.” Regardless, the government was faced with a decision of which problem to focus on between unemployment and inflation - and it chose inflation.
The phenomenon of shrinkflation started under Nixon, who attempted to fight it with price controls, which was perhaps the most anyone ever did. Ford had no idea what he was doing and just asked people to spend less.
And then we got Carter, and Carter does not get nearly enough hate for his role in this. Carter chose to confront inflation rather than unemployment, the real beginning of “supply side economics” that Reagan would take further. Carter’s whole deal was “restoring the dignity of the office” after Watergate and his focus was on individual morality. His message was essentially, you’re going to have less purchasing power, but it’s ok because we can seek fulfillment in other ways, outside of the economic sphere. He marked the transformation of the Democratic party away from representing the interests of labor and towards the beast that it’s become today, with it’s obsession over norms and procedure and technocracy.
The result of Carter’s messaging and policy was one of the greatest blowout losses in history against Ronald Reagan. Reagan would do all the same things as Carter, but he at least had the decency to lie about it. He focused on how much more you’d be able to afford with cheaper goods, conveniently ignoring the fact that with lower wages, purchasing power would actually decrease. However, thanks to the Democratic party completely abandoning labor and the common people, there was no real pushback against this, there was no alternative explanation or solution or criticism of the broad direction of policy. In fact, economic policy was moved out of the sphere of democratic accountability altogether by leaving it to the Federal Reserve to set interest rates. Instead, the culture war kicked off and that’s what elections would be about from then on.
Why did the Democratic party abandon unions? Because the unions like the AFL/CIO stripped themselves of power and radicalism by purging communists during the Red Scare. The Carter administration didn’t view labor vs capital in terms of the fundamental struggle of society but as just another set of competing interest groups and lobbyists, which is honestly pretty much how the unions saw themselves and wanted to be seen anyway.
So what happens when more and more important questions are taken out of the hands of the voters, who then watch conditions gradually decline? Well, the voters get mad about declining conditions - and at the same time, get dumber from not being engaged in any important questions. There’s a sense that we can just fuck around and do whatever because our actions don’t have consequences, because most of the time what we say and believe seems to have no real effect on policy anyway. Nobody gets to vote on whether or not to keep arming Israel and bombing Yemen or on whether to raise or lower interest rates or anything like that - the only thing we get to vote on is stuff like whether trans women can play sports.
Trump’s popularity is very easy to understand in that context - he is a rebellion against that declining status quo and a desperate attempt to reassert the power of elected officials over technocratic institutions. Of course, since the left has been purged and is devoid of power, this rebellion can only come from the right. A similar thing happened in Iran (which Carter also fucked up btw but that’s not important right now), where after being installed by the CIA, the shah hunted down and exterminated everyone on the left, and then conditions declined and people wanted change, only that change had to come from the right because the left was powerless. And if the American left can’t materialize and offer an alternative vision, both to Trump and, more importantly, to the failed bipartisan status quo that existed before him, then we’re headed towards the same future as Iran.
- Comment on Remember the good old days? 5 days ago:
- Comment on Divided and conquered 5 days ago:
They also purged all the communists as a show of good faith to the government (which, uh, didn’t work). Those communists were likely more prone to class solidarity as an ideological commitment and also more willing to fight with radical actions like strikes, but instead we were left with opportunistic leadership that just wanted to secure the bag for themselves, and at best the other members of the union, but had no interest in any building any kind of broad coalition or promoting equality on a societal level - that would make them sound like a Red.
- Comment on I'm gonna need more red colored crayons 5 days ago:
You know what I’m noticing? Too many vertical borders in the Middle East. I’m just gonna do horizontal borders, top to bottom, devided up so that each country gets an equal area of land. As for which country gets which sliver, let’s just make it simple and do alphabetical order (in English, obviously).
…annnnd done. Looking back over it, I forgot that N comes before Q so Iran and Iraq are switched, but I already drew it up, so, whatever, I’ll just leave it that way and leave it up to them if they wanna switch or not.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 5 days ago:
So their contract states that they’ll be paid $0.50/hr more than the wages they negotiated in their contract. Got it, thanks for clearing that up.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 6 days ago:
I can’t tell if that’s a yes or a no to the question of whether the “we” that gets paid more than union members includes union members.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 6 days ago:
The union members are included in the “we” that contractually makes $0.50/hr more than… union members?
- Comment on How likely is the US government going to identify and arrest every online user who have disagreed with the current administration? 6 days ago:
Extremely unlikely. Not for another 20 years or so, worst case scenario, and by then they probably won’t care about now.
First off, there’s way too many people who criticize the government to arrest everyone, secondly it’s completely unnecessary. Complaining about the government doesn’t really do anything other than allowing people to vent their frustrations and feel more content. It’s the same way Trump obviously isn’t going to “end elections forever” like people say, virtually every country in the world has elections, regardless of how actually democratic they are, because they’re a nice little ritual that lets you feel free and in control. It would be like saying that Trump is going to knock down the Statue of Liberty - he doesn’t have to.
Now, there are reasons to establish more secure lines of communication, like if you’re involved in actual organizing or if you’re either helping people do illegal things or planning to help people do things that could potentially become illegal - for example, shipping Plan B or trans hormones to people in red states. Laws in some red states about “pushing transgenderism on minors” could theoretically be interpreted so broadly that if you post information or supportive messages on a public forum and a minor in a red state happens to see it, they could try to come after you for it - but that would probably be found unconstitutional.
Using secure lines of communication for routine, everyday stuff helps keep those lines secure by generating more chaff they’d have to sort through, as well as familiarizing yourself with it and getting more people on board. However, you shouldn’t scatter to the wind preemptively and self-censor, beyond just not fed-posting.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 6 days ago:
The people the contract is with, maybe all employees of the company have the agreement.
That’s literally what I’m saying.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 6 days ago:
It only works in USA and very few sectors in Europe where sector agreements are not mandatory by law.
I’d argue that it also doesn’t work in USA, since the companies end up spending more money on avoiding an agreement than what they’d save on salaries. They also waste a lot of time and resources on the individual bargaining, which provides no value for neither the company or the employee.
This is very silly and idealistic. Just because it’s underhanded doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Take a company like Amazon, it has a massive number of employees all across the country, who are not unionized. If employees at one location do attempt to form a union, the company isn’t just looking at the immediate, short term cost-benefit of letting it happen vs busting it (even to the point of potentially closing down the location entirely), they’re also looking at the potential precedent that it would set, the proof of concept. If they allow one location to unionize, they all might unionize - as A Bug’s Life explains, "It’s about keeping those ants in line.
It absolutely works in the US which is why they do it. Europe has historically had more organized and more class conscious workers, compared to the US with all our “temporarily embarrassed billionaires.” I get that it may sound nice to say that employers reap what they sow, that if they bust unions they will naturally face the consequences of their actions - but unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Historically, many people got rich off of slavery, colonialism, and blatant, horrific exploitation, far worse than the conditions we have today, they lived and died for generations in wealth and prosperity. Why then, is it so hard to imagine that people who bust unions and underpay their employees could profit from it today?
If the employers pay people more to not join a union, the union might even say: “Mission achieved without a fight. See ya’ll next time inflation catches up.”
This is so dangerously naive and idealistic. You’re talking about giving up worker power because you trust market forces to come back around to our benefit. You’re completely ignoring the life-or-death nature of the power struggle between the classes. Any union that has any power to stop such an arrangement should come out in full force to stop it from happening, and if they’re powerless to stop it, then they should be desperately looking at how to change things to strengthen their position. It’s absolutely insane to try to say that it would be a “win” for the union, to the point that frankly I have to question your motives for saying it. Letting the company but off union members out of the union would destroy or significantly weaken the union, and the union is the only thing checking the power of the company, and if that balance of power shifts far enough, it may be impossible or extremely difficult for the union to recover.
- Comment on frenly warnin 6 days ago:
Poor guy was probably just born on 1/4/1988 and his real name is just Ayra N Soldier. People these days just call everybody a Nazi smh /s
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 6 days ago:
Who’s “we” then?
- Comment on frenly warnin 6 days ago:
I looked into it more and the specific phrase was developed by a Neo-Nazi domestic terrorist. It bears a heavy resemblance to the following quote from Hitler:
What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe.
Idk what you’ll think of that one, but I actually thought the 14 words were a slogan used in Nazi Germany. The fact that it was just some whackjob makes me see it as less professionally crafted.
Also, if you think the 14 words are cringy and poorly written, wait until you hear the often omitted follow up to them:
because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the Earth.
Right wingers be normal about women challenge level: impossible.
- Comment on frenly warnin 1 week ago:
It’s the same tactic as the “It’s OK to be white” or “White lives matter” slogans, but more clever because it leaves enough ambiguity such that just about anything can be justified under it. It mentions children to come across as more innocent and to implicitly accuse the opposition of endangering children (also playing into LGBT scaremongering, with the Nazis using the same tropes they use today). “Think of the children!” is a common and effective propaganda line.
Saying “future” instead of “glorious future” suggests that the children wouldn’t have a future at all otherwise. That the white race is under attack and is otherwise on track to be eliminated by Jews and communists and so forth. It’s harder to justify atrocities in the name of “a glorious future” vs “a regular future” as opposed to “a regular future” vs “we are completely exterminated ourselves.”
It is, of course, bullshit, because it’s literally Nazi propaganda trying to frame them as on the “defensive,” but it is carefully and intelligently crafted propaganda. It’s important to understand the enemy and their approaches in order to better counter their movements and defeat them, they should not be underestimated.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
when people told you replied assuming that everyone knew that all the workers left the union.
Because that’s literally the entire point! They want to pay people more if they leave the union so they can later cut wages without resistance, it’s an extremely simple and basic concept. I have no idea why you’re treating this as some bizarre, added assumption, like literally what are we even talking about if not that?
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Yes, if everyone leaves the union it doesn’t have power. Fucking duh. It doesn’t work that way because it’s illegal to pay people to not be in the union, since it infringes on people’s rights to collective bargaining.
That… is literally the thing being discussed here.
Which I politely said in my first reply to you when I just thought you were ignorant, rather than obstinate and rude as well.
No, you didn’t. I’m quite sure this is the first time I’ve seen anyone make the claim that what Cathy is saying in OP is untrue and would be illegal.
Cry more. You’re the one who kicked off being angry when you found out I thought you were just genuinely ignorant, as opposed to properly stupid.
You’re Madison420’s alt, right? If not, I don’t see why you’re both so randomly hostile or why you both go off about me “crying.” All I’m doing is discussing facts and pointing out when people say things that are wrong. Occasionally, when someone comes at me with random, unprovoked, hostility, I point out that that’s what they’re doing and may give it back to them. If you can’t take shit don’t start shit.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
They contain literally all of it you just can’t be bothered to do the math.
Literally none of them have even a single relevant number for me to use. The only number you’ve provided is the one you pulled straight out of your ass, the 8% one. I can’t do math without numbers, no, and unlike you I don’t just make numbers up.
Nice try but you didn’t even bother reading that did you? www.iww.org/pamphlets/
Does not contain the relevant information. This is the fifth source you’ve blatantly lied about, if we’re keeping score.
You could try responding in good faith once and go from there
I’ve replied in good faith many times, both to you and to others. You are an obvious, bad faith troll.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
What part of it doesn’t make sense?
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
They are random because they don’t contain any of the relevant information you’ve claimed they do. They are tangentially related to what we’re discussing.
Here’s the IWW website: www.iww.org
See how linking that had fuck all to do with anything we were discussion and was just randomly dropped - even though it’s the website of a large union?
I don’t know why I keep responding in good faith when you’ve demonstrated you’re a shameless liar and troll countless times. Also, I believe you’re the only person I’ve called a troll here, and that’s with extremely good reason.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Yes it does
No, it doesn’t. I can’t invent numbers out of thin air like you do.
That’s a picture and you already said it isn’t dead you’re just lazy or uninventive
I was able to access it further down the thread, yes.
You are no doubt making this comment in hopes of getting me to make a bunch of comments about the PDF, so that your lie about me having made “like 7 comments” about the link, when I had made two (one saying I couldn’t access it, and one addressing the contents once I was able to) would appear to be true to anyone not following the timestamps.
You really are quite shameless.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
What unions are able to negotiate is a function of how large, powerful, and organized they are. Rejecting what the company offers can mean going on strike, and if they aren’t powerful enough for that to be a credible threat (because people left the union for higher pay rates), then that means they have very little power to negotiate or say no to what’s offered.
Literally not you or a single other person in all the comments responded to me has said a single word that actually explains why it wouldn’t work this way. You just started randomly attacking me for no reason. Maybe it’s because you can’t provide an actual answer?
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
They will never be able to agree to pay off an entire sector to do what you suggest, because these companies are competitors.
That “never” is a pretty big claim. You could just as easily argue that since workers are competing against each other for the same jobs, they would “never” form together into unions, or choose to go on strike in solidarity with others instead of scabbing for an individual pay raise. Class consciousness works both ways, just as workers can benefit more from working together with each other, so too can companies. This is especially true in cases of monopolization (or near-monopolozation), when there are only a handful of companies that would have to coordinate.
Unlike the businesses that are competing in a race to the bottom by lowering wages, the companies that have union agreements are competing in a race to attract the best employees.
Wages are not just determined by the value a worker contributes to the company but also by the power that the company and the workers hold relative to each other. If this were not the case, then there’s be no reason to have unions at all.
Even if the most skilled/desired candidates are able to shop around, there will also always be less skilled/desired candidates who don’t have the same individual bargaining power.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
You take the negative you bear the burden of evidence.
Correct! I asked a question, you said no, therefore you bear the burden of evidence.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
I did literally none of that but ok.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
You’ve made about 7 dude, why lie about what is clearly evident.
I have no idea why you would lie when it’s clearly evident that you’re wrong, both about that claim and in general. Other than that you’re a troll who lies as easily as they breathe.
Look it up, is like 8% of college graduates in unions.
Oh really? Where did you find that number? How deep in there was it, and did you wash your hands afterwards?
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
I’ve provided it several times at this point
No you haven’t. What you’ve done is provide random links that don’t provide the relevant information and lied claiming that they do, repeatedly.
which you’ve actually admitted multiple times at this point
No, I definitely haven’t. I’ve been abundantly clear, extremely consistently, that you’re lying and that the links don’t contain the relevant evidence.
stop with the crybaby affectation.
At no point have I exhibited a “crybaby affectation.” What I’ve done is correctly called you out for being a liar and a troll, while you lob a bunch of random, baseless accusations out of completely unnecessary hostility provoked entirely by the fact that you have a grudge against my instance.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
Maybe not, rest assured if it were anyone else I would just provide the pdf but you, no no trolls gotta do their own work.
Mhm.
Jesus Christ stop crying about that single pdf.
I made literally one single comment addressing the contents of the pdf, after reading it as you asked, and finding that you were, like with every other “source” you’d provided, lying about what it said.
You’ve been offered more than a dozen
I have been offered 4 links, none of which contained the relevant information, despite you lying and claiming that they did each time.
but you can’t stop crying about that one single page that says something in a way you in particular don’t understand.
Again, one comment saying I couldn’t access it, and one comment after accessing it and reading it addressing the contents. You are clearly trolling and being randomly hostile for no reason.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 1 week ago:
I’ll take your inability to provide the information (which you claim is trivially easy to find) as further confirmation of my position.
It’s hilarious for you to accuse me of “obstinate” or “ignorance.” You’ve provided zero evidence of anything you’ve claimed and randomly choose to start fighting and insulting me for literally no reason except that I have an .ml in my username.
