Europe lurches to the Right

[diptych]

What do you mean? Activism, including collective actions, has always been central to social democratic movements.

There's a difference between taking action and talking s__t. All I see is a bunch of idiots fighting amongst each other. And screaming about white privilege or some crap like that. You wanna beat Trump? Do better.

[botley]

There's a difference between taking action and talking s__t. All I see is a bunch of idiots fighting amongst each other. And screaming about white privilege or some crap like that. You wanna beat Trump? Do better.

This retort is meaningless. You are tarring an entire group of subgroups with the same brush, and buying into the "alt-right" narrative that somehow the best way to defeat radicalism is to become more radical yourself in the opposite direction. There is a global movement of socially left-leaning resistance to the increasingly restrictive, authoritarian, anti-democratic governments being propped up worldwide by the dying throes of free-market oligarchs — those fat on crime, supporting police states on ill-gotten gains stolen from us all, at a massive scale. To say that you only see "idiots fighting" against that, is to adopt the willful (useful) blindness put forward by their propaganda outlets.

[diptych]

This retort is meaningless. You are tarring an entire group of subgroups with the same brush, and buying into the "alt-right" narrative that somehow the best way to defeat radicalism is to become more radical yourself in the opposite direction.

Not so much meant as a retort, but more of an observation. I don't have any affiliation with, or interest in the "alt-right" (I'm actually fairly left-leaning myself) and I'm certainly not advocating radicalization on either side.

There is a global movement of socially left-leaning resistance to the increasingly restrictive, authoritarian, anti-democratic governments being propped up worldwide by the dying throes of free-market oligarchs — those fat on crime, supporting police states on ill-gotten gains stolen from us all, at a massive scale. To say that you only see "idiots fighting" against that, is to adopt the willful (useful) blindness put forward by their propaganda outlets.

It's the infighting on the left and the resulting division within the democratic party that I think is idiotic. And I wouldn't call waving flags and namecalling mounting a "resistance". It's just self-defeating. If the democrats really want to get a leg up on the republicans, they need to stop with all the rhetoric and baseless accusations, and get back to real politics, instead of political "activism" that really doesn't accomplish anything but further political polarization.

[Jinsai]

instead of political "activism" that really doesn't accomplish anything but further political polarization.

Polarization is a forgone conclusion at this point, at least here in the US (and I see the mirrored conflation worldwide), but I can only speak to what I'm seeing around me. This is only going to get worse, but I'm not going to sit down and shut up while the world shifts towards bashing democracy in favor of defending the electoral college bullshit, and watch extremist racist groups gain traction due to leaders whistling to them.

The only reasonable reaction is to get pissed... and yeah, that's polarizing.