The US is doing especially bad (although several European countries actually have higher death rates per capital) but frankly the entire West has done a pretty poor job (bar Australia and New Zealand as pretty much the sole exceptions).
While Europe deals with a second wave and the US never left the first one, the pandemic is basically non-existent in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, and even the country where it began. Western democracies have done a piss-poor job at addressing the pandemic and I think this is something that needs to be seriously looked at.
A lot of things have contributed, blind adherence to neoliberal capitalism, a greater focus on individual rights over the community, lack of political will to invest in truly effective contact tracing and take drastic measures, not taking it seriously until it was too late, but far more people should be furious that their governments did not do better. Multiple Asian countries have proven it’s possible and that it didn’t need to be this way and I think people should be angry about that.
also so damn many of you are absolutely fucking convinced that while musk is evil and malicious, hes a also actually a genius like look…. these do not have to go together
sometimes, often times, people in positions of vast wealth and power are complete, absolute fucking idiots
musk has decided that he likes the image of the genius scientist
but he is not responsible for the labors of his engineers
this is a man who tried to sell us all on the idea of the hyperloop, despite it being pointed out over and over and over by expert after expert after expert that it was completely and totally 100% unfeasible as a transit system because its carrying capacity is vastly too low for the size of the infrastructure commitment and its ridiculous cost
this is a man who greenlit sending a car into space without even sanitizing it first, which is standard practice for space programs around the world to avoid the potential of destroying undiscovered microorganism ecosystems on other celestial bodies
this is a man who got himself investigated by the fucking SEC because he tried to manipulate his own damn stock prices for the sake of a fucking weed joke
this is a man in his weird super long mid life crisis calling himself a fucking “meme necromancer” to try to be a cool kid
the man is a fucking idiot. buying himself the title of “chief engineer” does not magically grant him engineering ability or knowledge
buying a company with daddys blood money does not make him a competent or savvy CEO
tesla is a nightmare company for potential investors
the man is an absolute fucking idiot and its wild to see so many of you fall for his cheap aggrandizement
A lot of people are genuinely terrified about what will happen if Donald Trump wins reelection and it’s really weird how some of y'all are acting like everyone begging you to vote for Biden is some privileged, rich, out of touch, neo-liberal when a lot of them are just vulnerable people who don’t want to like…die in a brutal civil war or watch all their remaining rights get stripped away by an increasingly authoritarian Republican Party.
I do not know how to express to you how much worse it can get.
i dont know how to explain to people that because they didn’t vote for Democrats to control the Senate, Democrats dont control the Senate. And therefore they dont get to do the things the Senate does, like pass stimulus bills and remove postmasters general. And a lot of those people are saying “how dare Democrats try to compromise with Republicans instead of just forcing their agenda” and the answer is…you put the Republicans in charge. And then those people say, “well surely there has to be a way to stop the gutting of the USPS and the eviction of millions of people, why cant democrats just tell us what to do?” And the answer is, you needed to vote in 2016, the election we all said at the time was the most important election in history. And barring that, since it’s in the past and all, vote in 2020 and hope your vote counts now.
You aren’t going to get the world you want by refusing to participate in the world you have.
Some of the positions of Biden going into this election:
Abolish the death penalty.
End cash bail as it disproportional punishes the poor.
End cocaine sentencing disparity as racist
Eliminate mandatory minimums
Scrap past marijuana convictions
Eliminate private prisons
Raise minimum wage to 15$/hour
Supports a government mandated 12 weeks of paid family leave for all workers
Two years of college free
Expand student debt forgiveness, including 10K of forgiveness for all student loans and complete forgiveness for all undergraduate loans from 2 and 4 year public colleges and universities, and other loan forgiveness and payment reduction plans.
Eliminate funding gap for k-12 schools based on location (essentially between white and non white/poor and non poor division) with specific first steps outlined to do so.
Increase teacher pay, especially in underfunded schools (poor and POC schools)
Plan outlined to get us back in on the Paris agreement and goal of switching to clean energy by 2035 with first steps specified.
Supports voluntary gun buyback (similar programs have had huge success in reducing gun violence in other countries)
Supports firearm registry
Supports universal background checks for fire arm purchase
Supports huge expansions of medicare and the creation of a public run health insurance option that everyone is automatically enrolled in if they lose other coverage. You would also be able to use this free option if you did not want to use employer coverage. He has moved left in a huge way since the pandemic came into full swing but most people just ignore it. There is a good chance that by the time we get to the point of implementation he could just go medicare for all.
Citizenship for dreamers (DACA)
Outlined steps for increasing the quality of life, access to resources, and autonomy of disabled people, including expansion and strict enforcement of non discrimination policies
Universal hazard pay for “front line” workers during the pandemic
Specific first steps outlined for reducing systematic LGBTQ discrimination
Large increase of taxes on the wealthy, including a direct wealth tax and increasing taxes on corporations, with short term proposals in place that include undoing much of the damage done by trump.
You will notice that a lot of these positions can be described as halfway progressive. As in they move in the right direction but stop short of the ultimate goal. Sure, we didn’t win the primary and get a truly progressive candidate in, but the strong showing of progressive ideals during the primary means that we strong armed the democrat party into compromising with us. We forcibly moved the Overton window significantly left, imagine if we did this election after election! We could force real change regardless of the presidential candidate that is ultimately chosen.
We are slowly winning, but in order for it to stick we have to demonstrate that progressives will reward the shift in our direction. We absolutely need to vote Biden in, as well as support democrats in the senate, congress, and local levels. We need to prove that progressives are a powerful political group that can make promises and deliver to those who compromise with us. This is critical for the long term viability of progressive politics.
Biden isn’t just damage control. We wont be sprinting towards an ideal world but we will be taking significant steps in that direction. Don’t throw away all the progress we made because you don’t like the names on the ticket.
Please read, this is so important.
There’s a difference between compass statements and navigational statements.
“Compass” means “this is the general direction I want to go. This is my ultimate goal.” Such as “ending the school-to-prison pipeline.”
“Navigational” means “the steps I take to get there.” One might be “defund the police.” A different one might be “abolish private and for-profit prisons.” Another might be “universal basic income.” Or any combination of those.
You may not care for Biden’s navigational statements, but the point is the compass statements. Is he going in the right direction? Does he want basically what you want? Then you vote for him. Because you know the Orange Cockwomble IS NOT going in that direction.
Worry about navigation once we’re pointed the right way. There are many roads to take to get to our goals. Backwards isn’t one of them.
A part of being an adult is living with regret and not allowing it to consume you. The older you get, the more mistakes you’ve made, opportunities you’ve missed, people you’ve disappointed. And every day you have to remind yourself to be kind and forgiving of yourself. You accept and love the you from the past and understand that it’s all a part of the process. Then you move on and live your best life, knowing now as old as you feel today, you’ll never be this young again.
