At this point it's depressing. Of course the victim could still come out and denounce him, but from what we know there's little reason to criticise him so harshly. Leftists really see SA as a metaphysical sin you can't atone for, it's very religious thinking and shows they don't believe in rehabilitation where it matters most. I hate it here.
And seem to be friends, even after the controversy
Or vaush fighting with his Wife and ignoring his edge lord pass
Kyle seem pretty chill and don't take thing personally. Kyle like his one big public ally on the left
I think that the stream segment Vaush uploaded today about the stupid MAGA woman lacked systemic analysis and overly focused on individual punishment/cultural antagonism. The civic literacy test argument kind of reminded me of something he would’ve argued against in the past, much like the authoritarian crackdown that Trudeau did against that trucker strike during COVID.
I think he’s had this sort of anti-democracy bent for awhile (even prior to 2024 if I recall), but his wholehearted argument for civic literacy tests just struck me as really missing the point. He touched on a lot of the key counterarguments, but I don’t think he really deeply engaged with them beyond a few one-sentence chat messages and ended up with the wrong conclusion. He basically argued that democracy is urgently dying so civics tests are kind of a “necessary evil” to prevent rural MAGA people from keeping the country in a chokehold, even if they could be mismanaged by an ill-intentioned administration in the future, much like prisons or police.
This really is not the solution we need. For one, literacy tests like these are not a political tennis ball. Even on the off chance that some superpowered DSA administration sweeps the country and designs some committed, anti-rural test, there is simply no way that that test would not affect millions of impoverished and education-deprived minorities living in urban areas. The reality of America, here and now, is that the education system is set up in such a way to deprive minorities of education. A lot of rural whites are also caught up in that, and it does produce MAGA people. However, unless this test came with some seismic shift in racial politics that completely upended poverty and discrimination, it would just disenfranchise minorities even further. This isn’t some racist thing about “hurr durr ‘inner city kids’ wouldn’t understand how the senate works,” it’s just the reality of literacy tests. Minorities in 1920 weren’t too innately stupid or so opposed to education that they couldn’t answer literacy tests, they were disproportionately deprived of education then, and they still are today.
Secondly, I don’t really buy that plain stupidity is the reason that rural dumbfucks are overrepresented. Every political stop and trick available to red states is used to weigh their votes much heavier than blue states. LA county has like 16x the population of the entire state of Wyoming, but an LA county (likely Democrat) vote weighs 3-4x less than a Wyoming (likely Republican) vote. Why not argue against the Electoral College, or the Senate, or actually try and explain how states like Texas or Florida go out of their way to elevate the votes of the uneducated white rural voters and disenfranchise the votes of uneducated urban minorities? He has done all of this in the past, so I don’t really understand how a literacy test comes into play here.
Also, let’s not pretend it’s entirely a literacy thing here. College-educated voters generally swing more towards Democrats, but the split is much less pronounced among white, college-educated voters. 44% of them still voted Republican. Sure, that’s a more handed advantage towards the Democrats, especially when you consider how non-college educated whites voted, but it isn’t like Trump’s base entirely rests on dumb white hicks in Iowa. A lot of white people, especially men, like his racial anxiety rhetoric regardless of their education. Racism encourages stupidity, and it can and often does override the education of white people.
It just seemed to miss the point for me. I generally agree with Vaush when it comes to his anti-rural arguments, but I don’t want to see it become decoupled from actual systemic analysis. They’re easy and often justifiable targets to shit on, but a national project of just saying “fuck you” to them isn’t gonna fix the country, and it’s inevitably going to get swept up in the tidal force of systemic oppression against minorities.
Okay before you guys kill this post, hear me out. Vaush is very anti-AI which I am too, I do secretely wish to be in a world where I didnt need to see it, but I am scared of it, and really sad about its capabilities, which vaush just seems to brush off. I am studying maths and was following OAI on their big maths paper release, and alot of it is actually groundbreaking stuff, like I am starting to question my whole education path at this point. So vaush just saying "simple autocorrect machine" feels like its copium, atleast to me.
Maybe the ramble doesnt make too much sense but I just feel hes sweeping it all under the rug, which I would like to do but these advancements feel real and it's making me sad for it doing the things I dream to do*.*
I have a relative born in China that immigrated to America. I've had repeated arguments with them over their Republican views and worship of Trump.
In one argument, I got this relative to admit that they don't really care if climate changes raises the sea levels, displaces Floridan Republicans, destroys their homes with floods, and ruins their lives. To them, Floridan Republicans are this abstract group that live in a far-off place that doesn't matter to their immediate self-interest.
I was left gobsmacked, that I, a leftist that absolutely hates what Republicans are doing the world, ended up caring more about the self-interest of Floridan Republicans, than another Republican, who should be their political ally.
Over the course of several arguments, I've managed to whittle down what I think is their core beliefs:
Trump is God and is the only competent leader able to fix everything wrong with their quality of life.
Anyone that I can't see and doesn't directly affect my life in the short-term does not matter. They can just die for my comfort.
Still, calling these a set of principles is debatable. When arguing with them, they never engage with my ideas, my arguments at all. They just immediately get mad and start repeating an irrelevant talking point like how bicycling lanes are ruining everything.
It's not ignorance. That doesn't fully capture what's going on. It's as Vaush says, it's anti-empiricism. Their brain fundamentally doesn't engage with principles, logic, or morality.
This relative was raised in China, during the famine of Mao's rule. If I had to take a guess, living in that hardship where people had to literally eat grass may have broken this relative's brain, leading them to act in this utterly selfish and self-serving way. Although they claim they like democracy, their view of what the purpose of democracy is, is for all selfish people to fight each other to grab what they can for their self-interest. My relative does not vote to better society, but to see what benefits they can get this election. This is an anti-civil mindset that corrodes democracy.
White ruralness isn't an essential part of MAGA diehard beliefs, although that environment is one way to breed this mindset. Here is an immigrant from Maoist China, who basically acts exactly as if they were a white rural American in a ruby red state saturated with Fox News.
What underlies the MAGA mindset appears to be a belief that the world is unfair and we can't do anything to fix it, so the only thing you can do is to loot what you can and be the predator that eats the losers. It's anti-civil, anti-empiricist, anti-humanity.
In a recent stream, Vaush talked about the failings of liberal democracy. This was one of many streams where Vaush has ranted about these issues, often including a declaration that he doesn't "believe in democracy" or support it.
As I understand it, his criticism is that under liberal democracy, the capitalist class is able to exert a great deal of control over the population and that control leads to outcomes that benefit the bourgeoisie at the expense of everyone else. The capitalist class does this via their control of numerous important institutions from the media to education, shaping the electorate to their own ends. These observations are true.
While Vaush is right in identifying the issue, his prescriptions to solve it are preposterous. The solution he most often proposes is to implement some sort of idealized version of poll testing and create a second-class citizenry by revoking voting rights from people who fail to pass it. I have deep ideological issues with this, but even from a practical point of view, I believe that this solution fails to achieve the desired outcomes.
What is the issue? As Vaush notes, under liberal democracy the capitalist class shapes outcomes in its interest, and so would it shape such a radical reordering of democratic rights. It wouldn't happen isolated from their influence, it would be structured in a way that's acceptable to them as a class. Just like the vast majority of efforts to limit voting rights in the United States now and in the past, it would be done to entrench the capitalist class further, not the disempower it. Any future where there are serious efforts to implement poll tests in the United States is a grim one. This is a road that leads from bourgeois democracy to bourgeois autocracy.
What's the solution? The capitalist class needs to be disempowered, 4Head. This is obviously easier said than done. When talking about the failure of liberal democracy, Vaush sometimes also mentions this, but he mostly likes talking about poll tests. The disempowerment of the capitalist class is necessary for democracy to have a real chance. Efforts to improve outcomes by limiting democracy before this step will have the opposite effect and therefore should be resisted. What about after? The conditions of a hypothetical world where the capitalist class has been disempowered will be very different than the one we're living in, so suggesting they should limit voting rights seems unjustified. At that point, the socioeconomic paradigm and balance of power have shifted so radically that there could be a dozen other measures to preserve a healthy democracy.
Some might argue that this solution is out of our reach. True! It's not going to happen in our lifetime, but neither is the Vaush approved idealized version of poll testing. That's not happening, and right now, I don't think people should have any notion in their heads that an effort to limit democracy could lead to something better, because it won't. In the meantime, the best course of action is to raise awareness of how the capitalist class shapes liberal democracy to be undemocratic, and to fight their efforts to further erode what's left of its democratic elements.
Finally, if we're dealing with far-fetched solutions under the current system, why is a frictionless spherical poll test the one Vaush jumps to? There are a dozen or more other unlikely measures that, if they were to be implemented, would improve outcomes under liberal democracy. Abolishing the senate, abolishing the electoral college, expanding the House of Representatives, banning corporate campaign contributions, publicly funded elections, and so on. All of these measures would expand democracy and likely improve outcomes, and none of them require going back to the 19th century for ideas.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Was it a livestream or not on Youtube?
I don`t watch Secular Talk,so i don`t know how their stuff works or if they have other channels.
Progressive Victory Announcement on the Deportation of Martin Soto
Last week at New Jersey’s DemCon, we were introduced to Gabriela Soto, who was in attendance seeking the aid of anyone who could help end her husband's unjust imprisonment and stop his impending deportation. Progressive Victory members, including our Political Director Katie Bansil and members of our New Jersey Team, contacted Senator Cory Booker and solicited his help reaching out to New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill. Martin had been held in brutal conditions at the private Delaney Hall ICE detention center and is a key witness to ICE’s abuses there, and we are proud to share that our efforts convinced Governor Sherill to instruct her attorney general to sign Soto’s u-visa.
I am honored and proud that our growing community organization has reached the point where we can accomplish things like this. Our mission is to build a better Democratic Party by empowering young online voices to bring new perspectives to the party. During the primaries we do so by pushing aggressively and loudly for new leadership. At all other times, we seek to work collaboratively, recognizing that even those our side of the left traditionally casts as political adversaries are doing what they view to be their best to improve our country. It is that mission that drove Katie Bansil’s actions.
Martin’s wife, Gabriela Soto, made contact with a PV member at DemCon through a mutual acquaintance, and he and Katie used every tool at their disposal to get them the aid they needed. Our thanks goes to Senator Cory Booker for immediately taking this seriously, and to Governor Sherill who we hope will continue to be a friend to immigrants and take action against the remaining injustices at Delaney Hall. While Progressive Victory and the many other organizations involved in advancing cases like Martin’s can help individuals, only our leaders can truly put a stop to these heinous conditions.
Our greatest thanks goes to Martin and Gabriela Soto. Martin endured viciously inhumane conditions at Delaney Hall, including months of solitary confinement, and did not waver. Gabriela worked tirelessly to reestablish contact with her husband and to secure his release. Their story is the story of immigrants everywhere who come into contact with ICE’s Republican barbarism, and our victory is their victory. We stand with the protestors and the families and call with them for Delaney Hall’s closure, *now.*
Benjamin Gilbert-Lif, Executive Director-designate
The Vaush Pride flag is finally finished! This was at least a week of work, but I think it's come out pretty good. There are definitely quite a few mistakes on it, the outline sewing around the Joker's hair is especially bad, but I think overall I did a good job with it.
It's fully double sided, and made of 100% cotton, meaning it's actually ironable.
The hardest part was definitely lining up the chevron half with the joker half, and sewing those 2 together without any cupping or bowing in the center where that point is. I think there is still a tiny bit, if you try and completely lay it out flat, but it's not too bad.
Small bit of self promo - I do also accept commissions for other custom flags! Or if you just wanna donate to me, I also have a KoFi
I'm just gonna write out the quote because I don't know how to clip videos, nor do I care to learn:
"Most people in the west think that we're more or less at the end of times. Not necessarily in a biblical sense but in the sense that we have arrived at the conclusion of the forces that have acted on us, that we're entering into a new, frightening, scary era of history that is going to be chaotic and bad and dangerous and harmful and destructive and possibly apocalyptic, and that nobody can really change those things at this point.
And I think it is... unfortunately a correct belief, and I also think that it is a very dangerous belief because the way you change it, the way you make the world receptive to positive change is by increasing the number of people who both believe in changing it and feel they have the power to do so. The reason the world feels like it's on a collision course right now is because there's not enough momentum or political will or energy to change that fact. And if there was that energy, if there was that will, then maybe it would be changeable. But as long as there isn't, there won't be..."
Okay... so then where is the disconnect here? We're supposed to believe the futility of our situation and yet act as though we have any influence on achieving greater outcomes? Half the time (but let's be real, most of the time), all evidence points to collapse and recovery so slow that it's practically negligible for the day-to-day of ourselves and our descendants, so why then are we advocating for almost a delusional hopefulness when the outcome is almost certainly the same? Mostly just sounds like a way to kill time at this point.
Timestamp for reference
He says something to the effect of “is it bad if someone makes an identity out of being depressed….yes”. I agree with the general sentiment but I’d like to add a bit more nuance to the wording.
I think it can be ok to build your identity around disability or mental illness if the core of that identity is the struggle against that ailment and dealing with the repercussions of an unsympathetic society.
From personal experience dealing with depression and anxiety, I found a lot of solace in thinking of myself as someone who was in a valiant struggle against those things. That was the central plot of my personal narrative. It left space for grace and forgiveness when I “failed” to overcome it, without weighing me down and preventing me from continuing to try anyway. The key is to identify with the experience of striving against your hardships, not simply experiencing them.
Obviously you never want to build your isn’t around a single thing, which is probably an additional problem some of the people in question.
I’m not a disabled person so I’m only speaking about the thought process from a mental health/illness perspective but I thought was it worth bringing up, pedantic as it is.
https://newrepublic.com/post/216045/pete-hegseth-elon-musk-newt-gingrich-help-lead-military
We need to talk about hope and apathy and why it's so important. I see the destruction coming.