@Scrimshaw9 @CStamp @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

i understand "defund the police" means divert funds to mental healthcare and people without housing. anyone with a brain understands this

but your average walnut brained american thinks it means no police and rampant crime. they conclude the left wants rampant crime. if they don't think that, right wing media certainly will manufacture lying outrage and make them think that

so yeah, messaging is a problem on the left

@benroyce @CStamp @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox The facts of reality and practice show that "anyone with a brain" does in fact, not understand that whole thing you put after defund the police. If yr not in a left feedback loop (as most voters are not) when would you be exposed to that? You won't be. Therefore it's a dumb slogan, a failed meme.

@benroyce @Scrimshaw9 Most US police departments are better equipped than armies of some countries, aren’t they? @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

@mike805 @sennoma @Scrimshaw9 @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

i disagree

of course there is some disunity on the right as well

but what the right has that the left does not is this absolutely devoted, absolutely fucking stupid and mindless, MAGA cult of zombies who fervently show up to vote and fervently obey their plutocrat masters

that's a huge problem

@CStamp Sort of yeah, they are "policing equipment" not wage war equipment. I wouldn't say most either, but certainly a lot are more equipt than small nations. The way it works is a lot of municipalities gutted their tax base in the 80s and 90s letting factories etc go to Asia/global south so to make up for that they rely on fines and bc of that the police have an increased roll in the govt and therefore can make demands fr equipment/ larger piece of the budget.

@Scrimshaw9 @CStamp @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

it's not hard to make better either

"why don't we relieve the police of having to respond to mental health scenarios by taking some of that funding and providing more mental health services"

for example

it's the same message that can appeal to an average person while making it difficult for lying right wing media by blocking any easy inroads to smear the message

@benroyce @CStamp Because the poilce became a defacto fund raising arm for municipalities when private businesses of industry and manufacturing left to Asia/Global South, therefore the police have more power in govt bc they provide funds for it through fines.

Further the SOCTUS declared the police do not have obligation to protect citizens so a lot have backed off of that bc legal concerns bc they don't want to cost the municipality money, they want to maintain power through funding it.

@jonesmurphy @benroyce @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

A couple days ago the big news was by a small margin more Whites disapproved of Trump. Imagine that. About 50% of Whites, after all that has transpired, still support this guy. That pretty much says it all.

@pablomuyo @Mastodon @mellifluousbox what do you mean? Libretranslate works well on my instance for translating posts

@jonesmurphy @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

agreed

and tokens need to understand that tokens get spent

@chewie @Mastodon @mellifluousbox Thank you, I didn’t know how to use it. ChatGPT already explained it to me. It doesn’t appear as directly as in X, where the translated text shows right below the original and helps you learn the language.

@benroyce @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox they understand. They are facing brutal racial profiling, racist xenophobia, attacks for speaking Spanish. They don't care. Like almost all white women, they are big beneficiaries of the Civil Rights movement who spend their lives undermining that legacy to the benefit of despicable white men.

@jonesmurphy @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

i would say the bigotry has always been there, yes

but i would say that plutocrat funded methods for aligning the bigots to plutocrat agendas is a well-oiled machine

a plutocrat-bigot political axis

not that plutocrats are creating bigots, no that's not what i mean

i mean plutocrats working over these shitbags for devotion with simple cons only morons fall for by appealing to their ignorant hate

@benroyce @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox you are absolutely correct. BUT remember that plutocrat numbers and aggregate wealth were MUCH smaller immediately after Civil Rights. Racist voters have massively concentrated wealth and opportunity ever since Civil Rights, to keep them away from black people. Poor racists created today's toxic, threatening billionaire class.

@jonesmurphy @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

Yeah there's plutocrats using bigots. But as you say plenty of those plutocrats *are* bigots.

@benroyce @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox you're absolutely correct. AND modern plutocracy is overwhelmingly caused by bigotry.

@jonesmurphy @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

A feedback loop

Bigots turn out to vote for plutocrat agendas

And plutocracy rewards bigots

@benroyce @swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox it doesn't reward them economically. Bigots lose money and life expectancy. BUT they get more bigotry, and that's all they care about.

@mike805 @sennoma @Scrimshaw9 @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

@swacknificent @maya_b @gerowen @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

well there is division on the right too

the problem is that gets all papered over because they have a huge brainwashed mindless MAGA cult

division is inescapable. division is normal

it's just in our current time the natural (and unnatural) division on the left vs the manufactured unity on the right based on appeals to the bigotry that has always been with us, all funded by plutocrat controlled media, is a huge problem