Yeah, right. That totally makes Lemmy better. It’s so pleasant to always bicker and threaten to defederate from each other. It’s also so unlike Reddit where Subreddits brigade each other and have sub wars. Lemmy is so unique in that… /s

I think most people don’t realize how many nations who think about waging war against another nation value experiences taught in Ukraine. The usage of FPV drones has been shown as highly effective. Hell, even in Gaza there seems to be heavy drone usage on the side of Israel.

People should be worried about NK soldiers in Ukraine. That signals that they are interested to train their soldiers for modern warfare. In general the war in Ukraine has opened Pandora’s Box, now there is a willingness to use AI controlled drones in Radio jammed combat zones. Only a few years ago people shuddered about the thought of it. Now it isn’t even a big discussion.

All this to say Putin sucks. This invasion could be the start of a dark chapter in history and it’s just because he thinks Russian influence can only be maintained by military force.

Because it’s valuable to send troops to a modern conflict zone, so in the end you have veterans who can train the next batch of soldiers in drone warfare. I think South Korea is worried about this

I’d wish this was ploy, but frankly they just lack any back bone…

My guess is that they are saying this because in September 2023 they made a deal with Israel to buy their missile defense system. Instead of buying a European version with the French mind you, but that’s a whole other stupid fucking can of worms.

Well, October 2023 passed by and then it got a bit trickier over time to support Israel. But besides demands to maintain humanitarian care for Gazans, my government has done nothing of substance to stop supporting Israel. It is beyond shameful, this decision will haunt us in the future when Israel inevitably loses its position and we have to answer why we are so stupid to buy from Israeli right wing extremists (and the US) to begin with instead of starting EU projects if we have to. Not to mention the biggest thing, supporting open genocide.

We always talk big about EU stronk, but I can’t help to sympathize with the French (and other EU govs) when they are pissed at my country. We have taken the call every time the US wants something instead of considering European interests plus have run austerity for 20 years now in every government in the time period. We have a real knack for getting ourselves into a dependency of big powers, even Russia with their gas. We lack any vision how to fix our problems and build a strong European union while being the biggest member. Meanwhile the right builds it’s own vision, fortress europe. Thanks Merkel, thanks Scholz, you’re really good at managing.

All this to say my government sucks because they won’t arrest Bibi. Fuck that guy and frankly fuck Israel for committing a genocide. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk.

Harris had the slight problem of 4 years of being VP to Biden where people aren’t better off and then saying she is basically doing the same as Biden.

And people are misogynist and racist.

I think your boogeyman leftist who scolds people who wanna vote Harris had a marginal to no effect on the results.

In my opinion people who vote Trump are of course racist and misogynist but also desperate for change. And I think they are stuck in Republican media that tells them Trump doesn’t really wanna infringe women’s rights that much and immigrants are roving the country, wrecking communities. They are stuck with sky high cost of living with no change in their wages for decades and to them Trump will bring change to the system, I don’t know why but apparently they do. And his solution is outlaw being different. You and I know that’s not a solution to anything, but they buy it.

I believe their plight is real, although their world view about other people and what the real problem is has nothing to do with reality. But Democrat messaging amounts to “everything is fine, we’ll keep everything the same” and nobody believes that. Harris has some good policies that she brought up once or twice, but for the most part she goes with the 50k home loan if you’ve been a good kid thing. That won’t change shit for people who aren’t even close to buying a house. Lead your campaign with anti price gouging policies for example if you want to campaign with something people want and understand. I could go on a rant about catering to right wing voters as well and how it’s a stupid strategy.

The problem people like you seem to have is your belief that people are only obligated to vote Kamala and that you expect them to have the same level of trust in the Democratic party as you. They aren’t and they don’t. The party establishment insist that the number say the economy is growing therefore everyone is fine. Is that really the vibe that people are feeling?

Do you think leftists were the reason Donald Trump got voted?

Yes and no. Of course he has power and connections, but to his followers he is an outsider (although I don’t understand how they ignore everything that shows the opposite) and the media and many politicians treat him (rightfully) as a pariah. That gives him legitimacy in the eyes of his or undecided voters.

Now, nothing he proposes will change anything for the vast majority of his voters for the better, in fact it will make things worse. And that’s ignoring everybody else, especially migrants. But when he says “I see your problems, voters, here’s the solution: fascism”, they more readily believe him because he is perceived as an outsider, not like politicians who frankly haven’t done shit for them.

If insiders have done fuck all except blow money up billionaires asses, who can blame voters for liking outsiders?

First of all, at this point people in the US should vote against Trump for their safety, and that means in the current political system they have to vote for Harris. That’s the reality they have to face. The Trump party has made fascist announcements that are real and people should expect them to be made into real actions.

The problem is that the Democrats frankly have abysmal messaging and are drifting to the right further and further while using Trump as a threat to their voters. They adopt anti-immigrant policies and are distancing themselves from pro-LGBT stances, saying it’s the states decision. Both these issues as well as demands for a ceasefire poll exceptionally well, but the Harris campaign seemingly don’t want the edge. With all this they are signaling that right wing worries about immigrants and trans people are valid, although that’s absolutely not the case, and leave people to decide for example “do I want anti-immigrant light or extra harsh anti-immigrant?” when everybody says immigrants are an issue. This is unacceptably stupid and risking the vote. And that’s ignoring the elephant in the room that progressive policy like health care is exceptionally popular and using that as counter messaging would win her voters.

We’ve seen how popular the Democrats got after Harris took over and Walz got nominated. It signaled change. Now all the Democrats say that it’s gonna be the same old as usual treading on and the same bad argument vote us or you’ll get a dictatorship. I’m not denying Biden dropping out had nothing to do with the surge of popularity, but back then we also had comments like here, basically declaring any dissent from supporting a decrepit old man as the candidate as heresy. Now there are again, only Yes men here saying if you criticize Harris you’re a bot or a Trump ass eater. What is wrong with you?

Finally, I have the creeping suspicion that Democratic establishment people don’t fear a fascist Trump administration themselves personally as much as the population has to. Trump announces he will go after his enemies, Latinos and trans people (probably all queer people actually). He has anti women’s health and rights messaging all over his campaign. But that doesn’t seem to be a risk for people higher up in the party. I suspect that when you’re rich you don’t have to worry about abortion bans or HRT access. And if Trump threatens them with violence they always have money they can throw at him. It’s much more comfortable to run a risky neo liberal and right wing platform against a fascist if you can jump ship later on.

I’m not arguing for the BRD and how not fucked LGBTQ and women’s rights were. I’m arguing against a picture that the GDR had better rights in general when in fact most people who didn’t strictly follow the party line were heavily suppressed and observed.

Edit: forgot women’s rights

I’m not arguing for the BRD and how not fucked LGBTQ rights were. I’m arguing against a picture that the GDR had better rights in general when in fact most people who didn’t strictly follow the party line were heavily suppressed and observed.

Dissidents for “hey we need to fix the problems of socialism” or dissidents for “we have to dissolve socialist democracy and let the capitalists pillage us” were treated very differently

Do you seriously tell yourself the GDR was a democratic socialist country? The GDR not being democratic was exactly it’s problem and why it couldn’t reform its problems. And yeah, the people only wanted to get oppressed by capitalists when they protested in Leipzig and Berlin. If you really believe that I don’t know what to tell you. Are you some Wessi who doesn’t know shit about life in the GDR?

And the ones arguing for dissolving socialism got what they wanted, and the result is justification enough for their oppression tbh.

Man, they wanted something better than the shit show that their life had become. They had many ideas about how they could reform their country. A new socialist constitution, a emancipated reunion with the West etc. All they knew was that it couldn’t go on with the current SED clique.

How did the SED respond? Fucking off with the last money. They left their population with no help when they negotiated with Kohl. But hey, to you that’s just capitalist propaganda probably. Now it’s the people’s fault that they got screwed by the capitalists pfffff

Better to suppress right wing dissidents than let them oppress vast swathes of the population.

Holy shit bro. Do you think Hohenschönhausen was filled with right wingers and capitalists and that your beloved party didn’t oppress the population? First of right wing networks were left alone all over the country. What we see now in Thüringen and Sachsen didn’t just hop over from the BRD after the wall fell. It merely got reinforced. Second, do you really think only right wing dissidents got suppressed? My father got in trouble because he stepped into the voting booth, NOT casting his vote openly for the SED. Democratic my ass bro, righteous suppression of right wingers lol. 100k Stasi agents 200k informants just for right wing dissidents, yeah right

Yes these rights rights were lost, but this paints the GDR in a positive light regarding regarding civil rights when in reality people who showed a smidge of dissent were persecuted.

A war in Lebanon is actually bad for Netanyahu. His interest is a slow-burning war so he can prolong the current situation as much as possible

The current situation is that he’s in a war in Gaza and that is keeping him in office. He can still spin this as “we are fighting against an existential threat”. Rocket defence and retaliation strikes aka the slow burning war in Lebanon is not enough for the Israeli society to unite behind Bibi. Only if they seriously attack. And I think Netanyahu wants to provoke such an attack.

Sending thousands of bombs God knows where they land is not a proper defense. It’s a huge escalation where Hezbollah will answer. I think the best argument against this strike has been thrown around everywhere: What if Hezbollah made such an attack where 3000 bombs where sent to IDF people. We would talk about a terrorist attack. Why is that different now?

Why is it okay for them to bomb Lebanon as well?

Bibi really wants a war with Hezbollah, doesn’t he? I mean you can’t call it defending Israels safety anymore when you provoke any and all responses every other month with a missile here, a bomb there and now thousands of bombs everywhere. This is just another measure to keep Netanyahu in a conflict so that he doesn’t have to bear the consequences of multiple corruption cases against him and the dissolving of his coalition outside unity cases in a war. Why is Europe and the US still covering for him? What is the rest of Israel doing?

I actually liked TLJ as well. Like others said, I liked these Force Connection scenes with Rey and Kylo, I liked how it dispatched Snoke, dismissing the idea of yet another Star Wars conflict being controlled by an evil old wizard and instead gives sets the way for a new story by giving Kylo Ren the reigns of the new empire (which was thrown in the trash by JJ in ep 9, which is the gravest sin for me of that film), and gives a plausible take on the seduction to the dark side and to the light side. I know these ideas were poorly implemented e.g. the proposition Kylo makes to Rey “Hey, look, I’ve killed the evil emperor! Join me and we can take this whole thing over. Let’s start by killing all your friends!”. What a great offer, Kylo. But still I liked that this was something new and more than just a rehash.

What I also really loved is that not every character has to be related to the Skywalkers or another character of the other trilogies, again something JJ threw in the trash by ep 9. Why does Rey have to of some ancient magical lineage? I liked the idea that the force was running through people everywhere, even through slave kids on the casino planet. Everybody can be a hero, even if your parents or ancestors weren’t. Wait, what’s that, JJ? Everything was Palpatine all along? Never mind then.

Beside Project 2025 and everything fascist he says and clings to to get elected so he doesn’t have to face judgement, you’ve got got to admit that sometimes he is hilarious. Unintentionally mind you, but still so funny.

Like this could have been an Onion headline or a sketch about how his whole campaign was ‘Biden old’ and now he’s caught with his pants down when Biden is no longer on the ticket. Next up he’s gonna claim Biden faked being demented so he could ruin Donalds campaign by dropping out. It’s all a conspiracy, folks…

I’d be dumbstruck if Kamala loses this at this point. It’s astounding to see how a campaign could swing so hard after such a fumbled debate and a literal assassination attempt.