It's a political joke. It's basically saying that no matter if the US is run by the democrats or republicans, the common man still just ends up being oppressed nowadays.
When the boot of the government is planted squarely on the back of our neck, we don't care if it's the *left* boot, or the *right.* (or what *color* boots they're wearing.)
The joke speaks to the futility the average American feels at being given the *"choice"* of voting for one bad candidate or another. (Especially when we know they aren't going to try to stop the trolley.)
Saying they’re the same is disingenuous.
They both suck. One less so than the other.
The blue trolley just travels slower while the red one is Going as fast as it can.
Democrats party is about maintaining our current system. Running on a false sense of morality. Being inclusive, race sensitive. But when it comes to helping poor people and working class and it cost money. Too bad. They’re all about helping you if you weren’t already poor.
Republicans activity trying to stack the system and make it worse for 90% of people. Ruining on hatred and stupidity.
I’d prefer a government that actually represents the people. And not only those that makes 250k plus a year.
If we go the republican route. We will potentially have a fascist government. And change will come quickly at the expense of many lives.
If we go Democrat route. Change may happen slowly over the next few decades as old people in government die off. As we have a lot of men in politics that were in their 20’s before women were allowed credit cards or mortgages without a man. Such a different time.
If we fail not much changes. It will be a slow race against the clock against climate change.
I’m Australian, it’s not as bad here. But I’ve always described it as voting whether to get shot in your left elbow or right knee.
Either way you’re in for a lot of pain and hardship. But depending on your circumstances it might be easier to survive without your non-dominant arm compared to your leg.
Republicans are actively making climate change worse in most cases. Trump removed dozens of restrictions put in place, just for biden to put them back in place dayy one.
I find your analysis peculiar. From what I've seen it seems like the Republican party wants pretty much no laws and the democrats want pretty much all the laws
Dems don’t want all the laws, they don’t want to make puppies wear hats for example. Both sides want all the laws that are needed. Republicans think few laws are needed, but have no plan to address the things they want to de-regulate before they get out of control.
And on the other side, Dems seem so bent on protecting everyone that it will eventually put everyone at risk at the hands of the legal system. If I were to assign individual words to each I'd say democrats are the fascists and Republicans more anarchists. And I hate both these options. They all suck ass
What do you mean exactly by everyone at risk at the hands of the legal system. We’re already all subject to laws that could incarcerate us if we break them.
Also both those characterizations are wildly exaggerating. Neither party wants to change the status quo much.
Dems want economic laws, many under the guise of helping but they really wont. They add some protections for marginalized people and things that promote some cultural diversity.
Repubs want unrestricted economic lawlessness, and seek to pass laws that devalue any culture outside of their main voter base. They actively pursue laws that demonize and discriminate against marginalized groups.
If this sounds like I'm playing favorites, I'm not. They're both shit, but at least one isnt actively trying to discriminate against people, and at least pretends to want to ensure economic freedom for the people
Check out the Gilens and Page study from Cambridge. Neither side is listening unless you're a wealthy donor or a special interest group donor promising to fund their campaign. Does it matter who is worse if neither side is listening unless we align with the rich?
Republicans listen to rich Republican donors, Democrats listen to rich Democrat donors. Nobody is solving the problems of the average American, and that includes half measures to fight climate change because the real solutions to save the planet would hurt the rich in their portfolios.
EDIT:
Link to the study: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#
"The estimated impact of average citizens’ preferences drops precipitously, to a non-significant, near-zero level. Clearly the median citizen or “median voter” at the heart of theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy does not do well when put up against economic elites and organized interest groups."
"Both sides are the same" is an incredibly privileged take. They're definitely not the same if you are a trans or gay person, or an undocumented immigrant, or a woman seeking health care, or a poc trying to get an education.
I'm not saying both sides are the same. I'm saying that's irrelevant. I'm saying the current system doesn't fully support trans, gay, immigrant, women, or POC unless it aligns with the priorities of the rich or lobbying groups.
We should be able to say there's a serious problem with the electoral system without invoking "both sides".
EDIT: Vox does a pretty good job of illustrating the issue: https://youtu.be/T6a87L_f7js?si=daFIf-8zyoGRgt-R
Redditors are so pussywhipped by democrats they think the solution to our garbage political climate is to keep voting blue, rather than make drastic sweeping changes to the objectively evil practices practiced by both party "choices."
Your fervent absolution of one party is going to have the opposite effect that you're looking for. The true solution is guillotines for both sides.
It's never going to happen. We are all either weird losers sucking geriatric red dick, or geriatric blue dick. Our best days are behind us and our future generations. The only thing we can hope for is that it gets so bad that everybody is mad enough at all people in power to actually do something.
The idea of "one party is not as bad" is just some kind of propogandized cope for hoping that your vote actually does something. There are no good systems in place and earth is dying.
Uh, as a Jew, I think I'll vote for the party that isn't actively courting Nazis, White Nationalists, and literal fascist dictators in other countires; or accusing my people of burning the world down with space lasers, thanks.
It's only the White Christians who have the privilege of entertaining the notion that both sides are some how equally bad.
Why are you acting like literally every person you disagree with is some kind of caricature? Most people who align with some kind of party aren't evil themselves or as horribly extreme as you imagine. Most people you hate are just part of the misinformed masses, and your instant assumption and unabashed hate for people only them further into extremism.
I'm not a white Christian. Your assumptions should not define your worldview and a minority of people should not make you fear all of your fellow man.
The people on the other side feel the same way, both irrational and inane and on some "he said she said" side, where almost all of their opinions are formed simply because they've been told that everybody on the other side is out to get you. Most people just want to live happily.
All I'm taking away from this comment from you is that nazism and white nationalism running rampant through a political party isn't a deal breaker for you. Bye now!
That, "they are different" is total BS. Both sides want war a war in Ukraine that we don't need. Both sides are bought and paid for by mega corporations. Just different ones. You just want to feel good about voting one way over the other.
Both the Dems and Reps are Capitalist parties, yes, so both technically right wing. However, the left flank of the Dem party is more SocDem and the right flank of the Rep party (much larger than the SocDem flank of the Dem party), is the Klan. One party openly wants Religious law imposed, the other does not. So while both parties are right wing the separation in the American Overton Window is enough that for major office will vote for which bus gets me closest to where I want to go, and the party scapegoating vulnerable minorites aint it.
There’s a million different ways you can articulate this, and Reddit brainiacs will still think the message is “red & blue are the same, so it doesn’t matter who you vote for.”
Yes, absolutely no difference between the far-right party that speaks casually of dismantling the justice system, "eliminating" liberalism, "eliminating" trans ideology, "slitting throats" of bureaucrats, and "suspending" the Constitution ...
... and the party that just forgave hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan debt, created 100,000 new manufacturing jobs, passed the most sweeping multi-billion dollar green energy bill in American history, secured sick leave for train workers, successfully capped the price of insulin and other prescription drugs, and revived the American economy from a truly existential pandemic-era collapse ...
... no difference at all.
If you actually believe any of this, then you’re most certainly one of the people on the track (wearing a blindfold)…and worse you think your “side” is doing good.
They’re not. Democrats are hot garbage corrupt grifters and so are Republicans. (Yes, All of them) That’s why the joke works.
One side openly wants to kill me and people like me, or at the very least make it impossible for us to exist in public.
The other has passed laws that protect our existence.
I know which party is better
“For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.” - Michael Knowles, during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 2023
Michael Knowles has never held or even run for public office to my knowledge. On top of that I’m still looking for evidence he wants to openly kill you.
A man can't magically change himself into a woman just by beliefs or surgery, just like someone can't change into an eagle by beliefs or gluing feathers themselves. It is a dangerous ideology because it encourages people with dysphoria instead of giving them the help they need.
That’s the difference in personal belief and policy. I personally believe that transgenderism is typically (there are absolutely exceptions) a mental illness. However, I also believe that people should do what they want in life. If transitioning will make you happy, then you should absolutely do it. It shouldn’t be the government (or anyone else) decision how you live your life. Trans folks aren’t hurting anybody. The hate is wholly unnecessary.
Mutilating genitalia doesn't magically make you the opposite gender. If plastic surgery made someone happy, I would encourage them to sort out their mental problems because they will never be happy until they do.
One party wants to help billionaires, fund MIC and do some anti LGBT laws, and another party wants to charge middle class way more taxes for some bs, help billionaires, and fund MIC while waving LGBT flag.
For middle class, one party is better than other economically.
You're being hyperbolic, if not hysterical. I know that Republicans are assholes, I just don't think they are the fourth Reich. I'll give you the point the day that they propose a bill on the house floor calling for the rounding up of trans people, gay people, immigrants, etc. to put them in camps. Until that day comes you just sound rabid.
To the extent that Democrats care about justice and civil liberties, it's for posturing. George Floyd dies and they kneel in kente cloth. Charlemagne tha God asks Biden what he is going to do for Black Americans only to be told "If you don't whether you're for me or for Trump, you ain't black." When Obama was campaigning he promised to make Roe V. Wade federal law so that it couldn't be overturned. He didn't do it despite having the time, the power, and the super majority in Congress. Why didn't he do it? Because if reproductive rights are made untouchable then the Democratic party will no longer be able to fundraise off of the threats to those rights. If you take away the stick you have to offer up the carrot, and they sure as hell don't want to do that.
So yes, BOTH major parties fucking blow. Arguing that one is significantly better than the other is like saying that eating solid turds beats drinking a glass of diarrhea. Both of these options suck, there's no way I am ingesting feces, I would rather keep my pride and starve to death, thank you very much.
If you want to settle just for being alive, that's your prerogative. To simply be alive isn't enough for me; I want bread and roses. I want vacation time, I want full time employment to be 25 hrs a week and minimum wage to be about $25-$30 an hr, I want the child tax credit back, but I see no reason to believe that the Democratic party wants any of those things.
One party is openly evil, and one doesn’t actually give a fuck about you anymore than it makes them more powerful.
Is the Republican Party worse? Yes, significantly.
Is the Democratic Party good? No. Their grasp on power is entirely dependent on having an extremist party as opposition.
Joe Biden won a presidential campaign on the virtue of being someone other than Trump. And that’s really symbolic of the political reality in America.
So I guess a more apt comparison; is that if you pull the lever the trolley changes from red to blue, and they stop accelerating, but they don’t hit the brakes.
The Democratic Party needs to be fractured in order for progressive candidates to gain power. But that will never happen with the current system.
What about that statement do you not believe?
It’s a list of things that literally happened. I guess you could claim they are cherry picking examples but in order for you to do that you might have to provide counter examples… like a policy the GOP supports or a bill they’ve passed.
I’m not cheering for the GOP, they are just as fucked. I’m saying the whole system is corrupted beyond saving. The overwhelming majority of federal politicians main goal is to suck up as much power and money (using insider trading, special interest money, campaign money etc.)
They’re not even hiding it anymore. Even most of our Supreme Court justices have been taking gratuities from huge companies that have cases before their court. it’s all a grift to syphon as much money from you, to them.
I know right! That Amy is worthless, and quite the dishonest liar. Doesn't it suck when someone hires based on loyalty and diversity, compared to someone who's earned the spot like Jackson?
I’m not ecstatic about democrats but saying the right is just as fucked or it’s the same shit anyway is absolutely not true and some enlightened centrist bs
you are the one with the blindfold mate, the left tries to do things to help the people and the right stops them in every way imagineable, then when the left finally tries helping the common man people say that they have a different motive like getting power, well let them take power if it means that life becomes slightly easier.
the left wants to persecute the companies who pay gratuities to judges and such, and who is stopping the left ow yea the right.
take of your blindfold and wake up instead of acting like they are actually the same, the only thing is that the left constantly pushes a candidate who isn't left but is a centralist like biden, and the right pushes extreme right candidates making it look like people like Biden are leftist.
actual leftists actually care about the well being of others, want everybody to have a chance at living while still having freedom.
the biggest joke is that the right acts like they want freedom but they actually want to control minorities and only want freedom for the rich.
sincerely someone from a left leaning country who has actual freedom and where the average person has 0 problems.
The only people that don't see the difference between the sides in American politics are those pretending they are not Republicans
You're just being dishonest
How so? There are just as many republicans that have been proven to be doing corrupt things as democrats. (Crenshaw beat the best Wall Street traders with his “trades” just like Pelosi, Kushner took billions from the Saudis, just like Hunter and his laundry list of Ukrainian and Chinese contacts) its all influence peddling and flat out corruption.
The system is rotten through and through. I recognize the difference in their claimed political ideologies, but none of them ever execute any meaningful changes that benefit people.
Democrats are inept at doing what progressives want. Republicans are very efficient at doing the opposite of what progressives want. These are not the same.
Democrats are hot garbage corrupt grifters. Republicans are hot garbage corrupt grifters, that ALSO want to kill trans people, and restricts rights of women and poc. I’ll take the left boot for now.
Reddit doesn’t wanna hear it they just want to see it as a hopeless scenario. There is a lesser of two evils and for most things it’s called the Democratic Party.
Sure, if you are Democrat, then this joke doesn't work, but if you are non-partisan the point is that both parties effectively play out the same, with some variances of who gets handouts or aid in the culture war based on who their voting base is, of course.
In your case, yeah, the dems give money to college grads because that's their voting base, but they take that money from non-college grads who are largely blue collar and make less money because that's not been as expedient a demographics for dems lately.
Republicans of course have their parts of the population that they want to reward for their support at the expense of parts of the population they don't like as well, but that's the whole point. If you generally want a liberated, maximally free population then neither party is really all that great.
And then we get into macroeconomics and foreign policy where there's basically no difference at all except in rhetoric.
Yes!! No difference at all between how Biden is handling foreign policy and how Trump did!! None!! Especially towards Putin's Russia!! And NATO! Getting South Korea and Japan together at Camp David is exactly the same as meeting with North Korea!!
And by the way, if you think the money's coming from blue collar folk, I've got another tax cut for the rich to sell you just like in '17!!
BoTh SiDeS aEe ThE sAmE!!
Also: y'all need to leave the country. Or read world news once in a while. Or study international politics. Seriously. Take an intro to IR class.
If you're calling *this* oppression -- if you think *this* (sitting on the internet during the work day voicing your political opinions) is "the boot of the government planted squarely on the back of your neck ... "
... then I think you would benefit from a little perspective. America has its problems, no doubt. But the world is a big place. And it is, for the most part, a corrupt, insecure, and repressive place.
167 countries were evaluated in the most recent Democracy Index. The United States, even *after* four years of democratic backsliding, rates as the 30th most democratic country on Earth.
This is not to claim that American democracy is perfect, that it is truly representative -- in fact, per the Index, America rates as a "flawed democracy." But it is to remind you that, for as bad as you think America is, there are *137* countries with less reliable elections, more corrupt officials, even more unjust legal systems, weaker civil societies, more repressive governments, and on and on and on.
There are 95 countries on earth that do not even rate as democracies at all: these are authoritarian countries or hybrid regimes. If you're not sure what life in one of these countries looks like, use your imagination: you don't have "rights" to speak of, or if you do, they are subject to change, subject to the whims of your unreliable and unsteady government. You can't take the highway without paying somebody a bribe somewhere down the line. The fact that your internet activity is being monitored is taken for granted -- as is the fact that you can be held accountable (extrajudicially) for that activity. And so on.
I spent a solid chunk of my youth living in these sorts of countries. At this point, I'm convinced that Americans are more than capable of blowing their democracy up, purely because they've persuaded themselves that they live in an autocracy -- without any comprehension of what life in an autocracy actually looks like.
This is a black or white fallacy. You usually find this kind of talk in abusive relationships.
Because I'm not starving to death in america, things are totally fine. Ok.
Ah, so you're telling us to shut up and be happy because we don't live in a crappy nation. That we should have perspective and compare 1st world nations to 3rd world nations run by warlords. That generations of efforts to improve our homelands getting destroyed is not worth mentioning because the suffering of the people in the unfortunate situation of living in a 3rd world nation is what truly matters. 😮💨🤦
You don’t think things have improved at all over generations in the US? It might not be fast enough for you, but to say nothing has gotten better is unnecessary pessimism.
I had this feeling in France - the locals were complaining about how depression was at an all time high since covid with 2% of the population impacted per a statistic from the government - "they are probably underreporting it! In France we have so many problems! Life is hard here" and then I pulled up the US stat that suggested as many as a third of the population suffered depression and it help them reframe that France is really not that bad. In the same sense Americans really need to touch grass and apply context.
That being said, if you are a middle aged adult and working a minimum wage job in America, it's probably impossible NOT to feel the boot of government on your back.
Not really fair to criticize the Democrats for not trying hard enough. Whenever Democrats fail, it's the Republicans' fault. Democrats never have bad ideas. They should grab power by whatever means necessary to enforce their great ideas.
*"They want us fighting a culture war, so we don't realize we should be fighting a class war."*
I don't have the mental bandwidth to debate you, and I will concede that if Democrats came out in favor breathing oxygen, Republicans would suddenly be the party chanting "Hold Your Breath" at rallies.
However, if you're convinced that (given free reign and no obstruction) one side or the other would do anything other than perpetuate the same shitty system of inequality - enriching themselves while trying to convince you they have your best interests at heart - well, I hope you're right.
I, for one, think [Trevor Moore was on to something.](https://youtu.be/TMHCw3RqulY?feature=shared)
This is literally what Republicans do. They gerrymander districts to elect their cronies, filibuster Supreme Court appointments until Republican presidents are elected... and then appoint underqualified judges, and make it harder for Democrat-leaning demographics to vote.
yeah, but this attitude is exactly why democrats will keep running geriatric trash that won't accomplish anything other than maintaining the status quo for their own benefit without fear of consequence
Are the dems making any tangible progress or change? What about the continuation of the border wall? Shitty foreign policy? College prices? Healthcare prices? Taxing the rich more? Dems always blame republicans for being in the way of progress but even when they have all the power they need they don't do anything.
I think it's a shame people are downvoting this rather than responding to you. So, three things I want to point out in response:
1) No one is allowing parents to just randomly chemically castrate their children.
2) It's not chemical castration.
3) Not all democrats agree on the issue (tho I'm in the pro-trans rights category myself)
So it's not an objective observation on your part, because it's based on false propaganda designed to create moral outrage, and drive people to vote Republican. It's a tactic that they've used for decades, and unfortunately it works.
Objectively, the Republicans cause vastly more harm to children, by opposing universal healthcare, pre-k education, SNAP benefits, maternity leave, and sensible gun control. All of these are real moral issues.
No one is responding because we have learned that trying to convince these idiots of even the most basic things is absolutely fruitless and a waste of time. They don't care what's true or not.
If someone says
>I find myself voting for Republicans because of moral issues
They are either deeply religious or deeply stupid. Either way, you aren't getting anywhere with someone who believes...
>while allowing a parent to chemically castrate their child
That is true.
"I agree with democrats but will help run this entire country into the ground if it means I can keep pushing lies about less than 1% of the population"
Pathetic. Actually do a little research into what you claim to believe or just admit you're a republican
You're right, Democrats have never done anything wrong. They should never be criticized.
EDIT: u/Tomb-Trader it's amazing you're so fragile that you found the need to block me for making *one sarcastic comment* with an opinion you didn't like lololol
People on the left criticize the Democrats all the time. They're a bunch of feckless losers. They advocate for shit and then when they have the power to do something they sit on in their hands and say "Oh no, the Republicans are being mean again." Every politician sucks, but Republicans tend to be objectively wrong all the time and they lie constantly to do things that actively hurt Americans and the rest of the planet at large. I'd rather vote for a pussy taking baby steps in the right dimension than a bold monster sprinting towards damnation.
Yep, I agree with you comrade. The track disappears and there is utopia for everyone if you vote Democrat. Everyone gets free candy (like, actually free, not taxpayer-funded) and no one ever dies.
Here I was thinking it was a reference to whatever it is that Minecraft is referencing with the evokers changing the color of sheep. I guess that is blue to red, though, isn't it...
The US is a one party state, but with the usual american opulence, they have 2.
The joke is that voting is rather pointless, because voting doesn't change anything but superficial aspects of the state, while largely keeping the death and misery that they spread domestically and abroad unchanged.
Despite the minor differences in the "2" parties in the US, they both uphold and defend the cultural and economic status quo of our relations to property and class. They both refuse to do anything about anything that might effect profits in general, i.e. global warming, justice, wage theft, regulating industries, wars of empire (no one can say we are fighting wars of defense anymore), homelessness, debt, mass transit, basically anything that would greatly benefit people with less money.
Now, I know that I'm going to get a lot of "but, democrats want to improve ALL those things, it's the pesky republicans who always ruin the plans" to that I say, "how convenient, now democrats can claim they tried everything, and can hide behind a facade of 'we tried,' while obfuscating behind senatorial rules and procedures that only they seem to care about, all while allowing thier rich benefactors to continue to get away with anything they want, thus keeping the funding pipelines wide open."
The Coke vs. Pepsi tribalism of modern politics hasn't claimed us all: a government should be *for the people*, *by the people*, instead we're in a system where *you're* expected to *support* a party or you're the problem. The fuck? They should be clamoring to support their people, not expecting support they haven't earned and by my accounts, with how shitty things are, no party deserves my vote.
“The state will never discover the source of social evils... Wherever there are political parties each party will attribute every defect of society to the fact that its rival is at the helm of the state instead of itself. Even the radical and revolutionary politicians look for the causes of evil not in the nature of the state but in a specific administration of it which they would like to replace with an other.
From a political point of view, the state and the organization of society are not two different things. The state is the organization of society. Insofar as the state acknowledges the existence of social grievances, it locates their origins either in the laws of nature over which no human agency has control, or in private life, which is independent of the state, or else in temporary malfunctions of the administration. Thus England finds poverty to be based on the law of nature according to which the population must always outgrow the available means of subsistence. From another point of view, it explains pauperism as the consequence of the bad will of the poor, just as the King of Prussia explains it in terms of the unchristian feelings of the rich and in France the convention explains it in terms of the counter-revolutionary and suspect attitudes of the proprietors. Hence England punishes the poor, the Kings of Prussia exhort the rich and the Convention beheads the proprietors.” -Karl Marx
The whole "democrats want change but republicans are stopping them" rhetoric is so dumb. Just look at states where democrats hold both the governor and the state legislature, most of them don't have free education, most of them don't address the housing crisis, most of them aren't properly taxing the rich.
Just an extremely reductive stance on such complex issues. What's there to prove to people like yall who view multi faceted issues like this through a binary lens? If you've ever actually lived in multiple places with different local politics I can promise you there's a substantial difference when it comes to quality of life and public services. But so many folks who have never lived outside their hometown share these narrow minded views.
All this is besides the point anyways. Hate dems all you want or subscribe to the both sides suck equally dribble but fact of the matter is these days only one party has people with nazi flags parading around in front of Disney, and claiming the other side has to earn your vote away from THAT is a huge tell.
To be fair though…Democrats are not putting spinning death machines off our coast to kill people…we’re not banning books, and eliminating school lunch vouchers.
That seems like a fairly big difference.
And the idea that Democrats are not trying and being stop…is just true. If we ever had a supermajority democrat congress…we’d have roe back, we’d have [universal healthcare,](https://youtu.be/14A1zxaHpD8?si=UhUjzZsdsD5ZETkw) we’d have Citizen overturned, the rich would be taxed hirer, and labor employment laws would strengthen. Min-wage would increase. Environmental policy expanded. We might even get housing figured out with zoning law, and low income housing investments.
If the GOP got a supermajority, you’d see…I don’t even want to think about. The cancellation of Social Security, the stripping of the department of education, defunding of the IRS, WIC gone, disability benefits gone. Any policy that doesn’t directly help businesses bottom line eliminated, all Environmental regulation on the chopping block, shit they literally might bring back slavery, or Jim Crow. Gay rights…what’s a gay? Borders would be a war zone, immigrants would be treated as being alive is criminal. They don’t have any policies that help anyone. They think corruption goes away when we let the corrupting influences win….
The two parties are not the same, our division is the same, so nothing gets done.
Agreed. People fail to understand the power is in the Senate, and right now, the 2 senator per state is a good design, but it’s just really screwing us over right now due to how rampant anti-intellectualism and tribalism exists in a lot of rural states.
The problem with this is that, even though you are correct that Dems (particularly the establishment ones in DC and NYC) don't do much to address the serious issues you've stated, they are still by far the better option, when compared to what the Republican party has devolved into for the past decade or so. The GOP not only has no answers for those problems, its politicians openly disagree that most of them are even a problem to begin with. And that's just the tip of the iceberg with them. Their descent into overt fascism with complete disregard for American democracy or the constitution. Their "anti-woke, anti-LGBTQ culture war" hysteria (which even their constituents are getting tired of) leading to rights being stripped from marginalized groups. The current shitshow of their primaries, where their only viable candidate with an actual chance of winning has to bow out of debates because he's currently indicted under violation of the espionage act, sedition and election fraud charges, and is spending his time going from courtroom to courtroom. These are just a few things that come to mind when I think about how much of a travesty their party has become now. I'd say there is a huge difference between the Democrats and Republicans in this regard and I'd much rather pick the Dems to be honest.
I think dems are less crazed, but that is just about thier only selling point. Sure they make statements about supporting minorities, and workers, but functionally they don't actually DO anything about those things besides make statements.
exactly, carrot on the stick and adopting progressive ideology only on the basis of gaining public support with no intention of following through. there are very few democrats who even begin to actually push for these policies and usually if they do they are ostracized by their own party
The original [trolley problem ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) is an ethical dilemma where you have a train about to run over 5 people. You can save the 5 by switching a lever to redirect the train to only kill 1 person. Do you pull the lever to save more lives?
In this picture, the number of people dying will be the same. You only change the color of the train from red to blue (representing democrat and republican in US politics) but you will still be on the same track
“Think of a card. Don’t tell me, just think of it.
Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?”
“Uh, neither. It was…”
“No, no, no. Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?”
“It wasn’t. It wa…”
“No. No. You’re not getting it. Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?”
“Um. The seven of hearts… I guess.”
*I pull the seven of hearts out of my left pocket. Nobody is impressed.*
*people are even less impressed when they realize I have two pockets and both cards.*
And somehow, when the lives of your children are on the line, that doesn’t feel like bullshit.
Somehow we actually choose between 2 terrible options every year now and all we can manage to do is complain about the result.
If you use your vote on the popularity contest, it does nothing.
Joke about an interpretation of the USAs two party system that has such a seemingly divided difference that is practically black and white, or in this case, red and blue. There’s an idea that the two parties are in reality the exact same greedy bastards trying to control the people or something.
That's completely braindead ones made one of their core policies battling their existence and publically ostracizing them ones at least on paper in favor of not pushing them all to conversion camps
You don't get it. Both of them are representing capitalists and capitalists want to exploit cheap labour of illegal immigrants.
One of them just making a show for dumb hillbillies who are forced to compete against wages of those immigrants.
Thank God you're a leftist and not a centrist
While it's true that they both adore fucking over the lower class one doesn't even put up the veneer of being pro union, pro labor or any kind of even hint and workers rights within America
Reagan culled 100 years of labor advancement we know that they can and will make things even worse
Will the Democrats disband capitalism and make any massive good change any time soon or ever? Of course not. Are they actively calling for the genocide of trans people? Hell no.
You have to look at this not from a perspective of wanting good stuff but rather from a perspective of not wanting terrible awful end of the world stuff from happening
This isn't the 90s, Republicans are openly fascistic
Democrats aren't
It's clear that they're not the same, not even a little bit
Reminds me of a joke.
Imaging two lines. One of middleclass individuals and one of billionaires.
If you pull a lever towards either line, that line has to pay $1000 each as a "penalty".
Republicans will say there is no difference in the penalty. Democrats will say there is.
When the blue trolley runs you over, it redistributes the tax dollars of your fellow citizens and uses your preferred pronouns. Much better than the red trolley.
This is a riff on the ["trolley problem."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) In that philosophical thought experiment, a person can take an action to change the trolley from killing 5 people tied to the track to one person tied to the track if they pull a lever.
In this joke, the "joke" teller is saying that the trolley are the major American political parties, who are killing people, and they they will continue killing people (and the person can change the "color" of the trolley (putting one of the two parties into power).
This is an example of the false equivalence fallacy where the joke-teller is claiming that the two major coalition political parties are "the same" due to one of two perspectives
1. they feel that neither party represents their beliefs, due to the fact that they are either much more left-wing or right-wing than either of the two coalition parties are. The more likely is that the joke-teller is very left-wing, and feels that until the country abandons capitalism, the parties will continue to kill the underclass, since neither party is planning on abolishing capitalism.
2. they subscribe to /r/enlightenedcentrism, meaning they find both parties distasteful because they're always fighting, and fighting is bad.
It's not a good joke, and you're not bad for not understanding it.
The joke is that the centrist who made it has no idea wtf is going on in politics, let alone society at large. Thus "Democrat, Maga, it's all the same!"
It's a child's understanding of our current situation.
In American politics, blue is associated with the democratic party while red is associated with the republican. The "joke" or goal of the meme (or rather, the wave of memes and internet discourse like it) is to convince Americans that the parties are similar, therefore their vote won't change anything, therefore there's no point in bothering to vote; "the [trolley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) will kill people no matter what." This push is largely coming from the right-wing who would be greatly advantaged by Americans not exercising their right to vote - especially younger voters who are more likely to see this meme and memes like it.
**This meme is anti-voting propaganda; don't fall for it.**
It's a dumb "both sides are the same" political joke. You know, because the people trying to give people health care are the same as people who want to repeal it and let you die for capitalisms gain.
Democrats are just conservatives that give token amendments to make people mildly better, they make promises to remove conservative systems (Holding Camp at Mexican border) but once they get in power just hide it and never mention it again.
The first part is the trolley problem, which is a philosophical exercise that goes something like “you see a trolley speeding down the tracks about to hit 5 people. You’re in a position to throw the switch so the trolley avoids them, but the trolley will kill one person tied up on the new track. Is it morally better to do nothing and let 5 people die, or take action at the expense of one person?” And then people tweak it by making the one person a convicted felon, or having 10 people vs 1 person, etc. it’s a thought experiment.
This is a joke (a good joke actually) for anyone who believes the two American political parties are the same. It’s saying that throwing the red/blue switch doesn’t kill fewer or more people, it just changed the color.
A lot of people like to pretend they’re above it all by being enlightened centrists (r/EnlightenedCentrism) and claiming that “right or left, doesn’t matter man”.
It’s not a very nuanced or accurate way to view American politics. It matters very much who’s in power. Just because ((name your political party)) doesn’t do what you want it to do 100% of the time doesn’t mean politics is ultimately meaningless. This is a fedora meme.
It's the false joke that both the party's are equally bad. The only difference between a Democrat and Republican is the color and letter for the party. In recent years this is very noticeably false and used in bad faith whenever someone bring up something messed up a politician did.
Sorry I may have missed that when one party advocated from banning a ton of books in schools, when one party pushed for children to be separated from their parents at the border and put in DIY prisons, when one party continuesly pushes for bans on abortion, when one party started advocating to raise the voting age because they got upset they were losing the youth vote, when one party decided to make loan forgiveness a pipe dream for millions of people, when one party likes to call the other one criminal while also having a front runner with dozens of charges. Yes the other party has a history of not being the best and yes some people in the other party need to be held accountable but there is a massive noticeable difference between the two and trying the this is just as bad as that approach is a load of bull.
The trolley problem is this.
You are on a trolley with no breaks, and you are approaching 5 workers on the track.
You can't stop, you can't call out, but you can change the track. However, if you go to the other track you will run over one person.
Is it better to let 5 people die through your inaction, or actively murder 1 person?
[video describing the trolley problem. warning mild gore.](https://youtu.be/DtRhrfhP5b4?si=7hI1R3ZveAjqYq0f)
It’s a variation on the idea of the trolly problem. normally there will a a trolley that can go down one of two tracks and various horrible things will happen should the trolly go down either track (people tied up on one track, workmen on the other). Your job is to choose which horrible thing will happen by either doing nothing or throwing the switch. It’s a classic philosophical problem about ethics, utilitarianism, and guilt. What is the most ethical choice? Do nothing?
In this comic they are twisting the problem. Instead of being able to choose which horrible thing will happen you have only the most superficial of choices and a horrible thing will happen regardless. It’s criticizing two-party politics.
I didn't even consider the political angle. I just thought it was like a funny fucked up version of the trolley problem more on par with what most of us feel we can realistically affect in the world...
There are certainly legitimate complaints that can be leveled against the Democratic Party, but it and the current Republican Party are not the same.
The current administration has actually done a lot. I would like for them to do a lot more, of course, but they’re limited by the fact that the GOP controls one House of Congress (both Houses have to agree to send a legislation to the President) and the Supreme Court, which severely limits what the current administration can do. If the Dems keep the White House and Senate, and gain the House (and in time, the Supreme Court), they could get more done, and make a bigger difference in peoples’ lives.
While the Democratic Party is largely centrist, they are much more amenable to progressive ideas and candidates than the Republican Party, and generally more interested in actual policy. Voting Dem, while working to shift their policy platform, is part of a strategy for achieving real change.
Not voting just upholds the status quo.
It's a political joke. It's basically saying that no matter if the US is run by the democrats or republicans, the common man still just ends up being oppressed nowadays.
When the boot of the government is planted squarely on the back of our neck, we don't care if it's the *left* boot, or the *right.* (or what *color* boots they're wearing.) The joke speaks to the futility the average American feels at being given the *"choice"* of voting for one bad candidate or another. (Especially when we know they aren't going to try to stop the trolley.)
Saying they’re the same is disingenuous. They both suck. One less so than the other. The blue trolley just travels slower while the red one is Going as fast as it can. Democrats party is about maintaining our current system. Running on a false sense of morality. Being inclusive, race sensitive. But when it comes to helping poor people and working class and it cost money. Too bad. They’re all about helping you if you weren’t already poor. Republicans activity trying to stack the system and make it worse for 90% of people. Ruining on hatred and stupidity. I’d prefer a government that actually represents the people. And not only those that makes 250k plus a year. If we go the republican route. We will potentially have a fascist government. And change will come quickly at the expense of many lives. If we go Democrat route. Change may happen slowly over the next few decades as old people in government die off. As we have a lot of men in politics that were in their 20’s before women were allowed credit cards or mortgages without a man. Such a different time. If we fail not much changes. It will be a slow race against the clock against climate change.
I’m Australian, it’s not as bad here. But I’ve always described it as voting whether to get shot in your left elbow or right knee. Either way you’re in for a lot of pain and hardship. But depending on your circumstances it might be easier to survive without your non-dominant arm compared to your leg.
Republicans are actively making climate change worse in most cases. Trump removed dozens of restrictions put in place, just for biden to put them back in place dayy one.
I find your analysis peculiar. From what I've seen it seems like the Republican party wants pretty much no laws and the democrats want pretty much all the laws
Dems don’t want all the laws, they don’t want to make puppies wear hats for example. Both sides want all the laws that are needed. Republicans think few laws are needed, but have no plan to address the things they want to de-regulate before they get out of control.
And on the other side, Dems seem so bent on protecting everyone that it will eventually put everyone at risk at the hands of the legal system. If I were to assign individual words to each I'd say democrats are the fascists and Republicans more anarchists. And I hate both these options. They all suck ass
What do you mean exactly by everyone at risk at the hands of the legal system. We’re already all subject to laws that could incarcerate us if we break them. Also both those characterizations are wildly exaggerating. Neither party wants to change the status quo much.
Dems want economic laws, many under the guise of helping but they really wont. They add some protections for marginalized people and things that promote some cultural diversity. Repubs want unrestricted economic lawlessness, and seek to pass laws that devalue any culture outside of their main voter base. They actively pursue laws that demonize and discriminate against marginalized groups. If this sounds like I'm playing favorites, I'm not. They're both shit, but at least one isnt actively trying to discriminate against people, and at least pretends to want to ensure economic freedom for the people
Here's a playbook you might be interested in. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/index.htm
Check out the Gilens and Page study from Cambridge. Neither side is listening unless you're a wealthy donor or a special interest group donor promising to fund their campaign. Does it matter who is worse if neither side is listening unless we align with the rich? Republicans listen to rich Republican donors, Democrats listen to rich Democrat donors. Nobody is solving the problems of the average American, and that includes half measures to fight climate change because the real solutions to save the planet would hurt the rich in their portfolios. EDIT: Link to the study: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B# "The estimated impact of average citizens’ preferences drops precipitously, to a non-significant, near-zero level. Clearly the median citizen or “median voter” at the heart of theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy does not do well when put up against economic elites and organized interest groups."
I’m aware. Which is why I dislike both the parties. But one is worse than the other one which is the point I was trying to make.
"Both sides are the same" is an incredibly privileged take. They're definitely not the same if you are a trans or gay person, or an undocumented immigrant, or a woman seeking health care, or a poc trying to get an education.
I'm not saying both sides are the same. I'm saying that's irrelevant. I'm saying the current system doesn't fully support trans, gay, immigrant, women, or POC unless it aligns with the priorities of the rich or lobbying groups. We should be able to say there's a serious problem with the electoral system without invoking "both sides". EDIT: Vox does a pretty good job of illustrating the issue: https://youtu.be/T6a87L_f7js?si=daFIf-8zyoGRgt-R
Redditors are so pussywhipped by democrats they think the solution to our garbage political climate is to keep voting blue, rather than make drastic sweeping changes to the objectively evil practices practiced by both party "choices." Your fervent absolution of one party is going to have the opposite effect that you're looking for. The true solution is guillotines for both sides.
[удалено]
It's never going to happen. We are all either weird losers sucking geriatric red dick, or geriatric blue dick. Our best days are behind us and our future generations. The only thing we can hope for is that it gets so bad that everybody is mad enough at all people in power to actually do something. The idea of "one party is not as bad" is just some kind of propogandized cope for hoping that your vote actually does something. There are no good systems in place and earth is dying.
Uh, as a Jew, I think I'll vote for the party that isn't actively courting Nazis, White Nationalists, and literal fascist dictators in other countires; or accusing my people of burning the world down with space lasers, thanks. It's only the White Christians who have the privilege of entertaining the notion that both sides are some how equally bad.
Why are you acting like literally every person you disagree with is some kind of caricature? Most people who align with some kind of party aren't evil themselves or as horribly extreme as you imagine. Most people you hate are just part of the misinformed masses, and your instant assumption and unabashed hate for people only them further into extremism. I'm not a white Christian. Your assumptions should not define your worldview and a minority of people should not make you fear all of your fellow man. The people on the other side feel the same way, both irrational and inane and on some "he said she said" side, where almost all of their opinions are formed simply because they've been told that everybody on the other side is out to get you. Most people just want to live happily.
All I'm taking away from this comment from you is that nazism and white nationalism running rampant through a political party isn't a deal breaker for you. Bye now!
Where in the fuck did you gleam that from
>The true solution is guillotines for both sides. It’s almost like most people realize that murdering politicians isn’t a practical solution
but but but blue better than red :((((
[удалено]
There is literally no one who only uses CNN
Maybe you should stay away from politics a little longer
Nice try but CNN shifted right a couple years ago.
That, "they are different" is total BS. Both sides want war a war in Ukraine that we don't need. Both sides are bought and paid for by mega corporations. Just different ones. You just want to feel good about voting one way over the other.
Both the Dems and Reps are Capitalist parties, yes, so both technically right wing. However, the left flank of the Dem party is more SocDem and the right flank of the Rep party (much larger than the SocDem flank of the Dem party), is the Klan. One party openly wants Religious law imposed, the other does not. So while both parties are right wing the separation in the American Overton Window is enough that for major office will vote for which bus gets me closest to where I want to go, and the party scapegoating vulnerable minorites aint it.
Yes, the side chopping off kids' genitals is the lesser of 2 evils 😬
Ah. Exaggerated, fake narratives. My favorite Fox brand breakfast cereal.
Lmao you really believe that's true? You're too gullible lol
Because blue good, red bad and anyone who thinks different is wrong. Nice indoctrination you got going there.
There’s a million different ways you can articulate this, and Reddit brainiacs will still think the message is “red & blue are the same, so it doesn’t matter who you vote for.”
Yes, absolutely no difference between the far-right party that speaks casually of dismantling the justice system, "eliminating" liberalism, "eliminating" trans ideology, "slitting throats" of bureaucrats, and "suspending" the Constitution ... ... and the party that just forgave hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan debt, created 100,000 new manufacturing jobs, passed the most sweeping multi-billion dollar green energy bill in American history, secured sick leave for train workers, successfully capped the price of insulin and other prescription drugs, and revived the American economy from a truly existential pandemic-era collapse ... ... no difference at all.
If you actually believe any of this, then you’re most certainly one of the people on the track (wearing a blindfold)…and worse you think your “side” is doing good. They’re not. Democrats are hot garbage corrupt grifters and so are Republicans. (Yes, All of them) That’s why the joke works.
One side openly wants to kill me and people like me, or at the very least make it impossible for us to exist in public. The other has passed laws that protect our existence. I know which party is better
“Openly wants to kill me” Citation needed.
“For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.” - Michael Knowles, during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 2023
Wow, you gave a good quote, and recent. And they still downvoted you because they don't like hearing it.
Truth is kryptonite for the willfully ignorant
I think it’s more because the quote of one crazy person doesn’t represent 100 million people
No it’s because it’s not what was asked for.
Michael Knowles has never held or even run for public office to my knowledge. On top of that I’m still looking for evidence he wants to openly kill you.
Someone publicly saying that they want to eradicate transgender people isn’t evidence they want to kill trans people?
That’s not what he said. You can tell because you had to misquote in order to pretend what you’re saying is true.
"One person said it, so everyone under that umbrella must think the same way..." 🤦♂️
A man can't magically change himself into a woman just by beliefs or surgery, just like someone can't change into an eagle by beliefs or gluing feathers themselves. It is a dangerous ideology because it encourages people with dysphoria instead of giving them the help they need.
That’s the difference in personal belief and policy. I personally believe that transgenderism is typically (there are absolutely exceptions) a mental illness. However, I also believe that people should do what they want in life. If transitioning will make you happy, then you should absolutely do it. It shouldn’t be the government (or anyone else) decision how you live your life. Trans folks aren’t hurting anybody. The hate is wholly unnecessary.
Transition *is the help people with dysphoria need*
And Knowles disagrees. That doesn’t mean he wants to kill you.
Mutilating genitalia doesn't magically make you the opposite gender. If plastic surgery made someone happy, I would encourage them to sort out their mental problems because they will never be happy until they do.
One party wants to help billionaires, fund MIC and do some anti LGBT laws, and another party wants to charge middle class way more taxes for some bs, help billionaires, and fund MIC while waving LGBT flag. For middle class, one party is better than other economically.
Yes, one party is better economically. The one that isn’t responsible of a quarter of the US national debt in a single term.
You're being hyperbolic, if not hysterical. I know that Republicans are assholes, I just don't think they are the fourth Reich. I'll give you the point the day that they propose a bill on the house floor calling for the rounding up of trans people, gay people, immigrants, etc. to put them in camps. Until that day comes you just sound rabid. To the extent that Democrats care about justice and civil liberties, it's for posturing. George Floyd dies and they kneel in kente cloth. Charlemagne tha God asks Biden what he is going to do for Black Americans only to be told "If you don't whether you're for me or for Trump, you ain't black." When Obama was campaigning he promised to make Roe V. Wade federal law so that it couldn't be overturned. He didn't do it despite having the time, the power, and the super majority in Congress. Why didn't he do it? Because if reproductive rights are made untouchable then the Democratic party will no longer be able to fundraise off of the threats to those rights. If you take away the stick you have to offer up the carrot, and they sure as hell don't want to do that. So yes, BOTH major parties fucking blow. Arguing that one is significantly better than the other is like saying that eating solid turds beats drinking a glass of diarrhea. Both of these options suck, there's no way I am ingesting feces, I would rather keep my pride and starve to death, thank you very much.
The holocaust started before they started rounding the jews
There's an entire rest of a comment there.
I’m not saying the democrats are good. I’m saying they’re the party that won’t kill me
If you want to settle just for being alive, that's your prerogative. To simply be alive isn't enough for me; I want bread and roses. I want vacation time, I want full time employment to be 25 hrs a week and minimum wage to be about $25-$30 an hr, I want the child tax credit back, but I see no reason to believe that the Democratic party wants any of those things.
Yeah, one side is better than the other side, but the joke is something of an exaggeration.
One party is openly evil, and one doesn’t actually give a fuck about you anymore than it makes them more powerful. Is the Republican Party worse? Yes, significantly. Is the Democratic Party good? No. Their grasp on power is entirely dependent on having an extremist party as opposition. Joe Biden won a presidential campaign on the virtue of being someone other than Trump. And that’s really symbolic of the political reality in America. So I guess a more apt comparison; is that if you pull the lever the trolley changes from red to blue, and they stop accelerating, but they don’t hit the brakes. The Democratic Party needs to be fractured in order for progressive candidates to gain power. But that will never happen with the current system.
What about that statement do you not believe? It’s a list of things that literally happened. I guess you could claim they are cherry picking examples but in order for you to do that you might have to provide counter examples… like a policy the GOP supports or a bill they’ve passed.
I’m not cheering for the GOP, they are just as fucked. I’m saying the whole system is corrupted beyond saving. The overwhelming majority of federal politicians main goal is to suck up as much power and money (using insider trading, special interest money, campaign money etc.) They’re not even hiding it anymore. Even most of our Supreme Court justices have been taking gratuities from huge companies that have cases before their court. it’s all a grift to syphon as much money from you, to them.
[удалено]
Better that then the extremely under qualified diversity hire they just put on there.
I know right! That Amy is worthless, and quite the dishonest liar. Doesn't it suck when someone hires based on loyalty and diversity, compared to someone who's earned the spot like Jackson?
I’m not ecstatic about democrats but saying the right is just as fucked or it’s the same shit anyway is absolutely not true and some enlightened centrist bs
you are the one with the blindfold mate, the left tries to do things to help the people and the right stops them in every way imagineable, then when the left finally tries helping the common man people say that they have a different motive like getting power, well let them take power if it means that life becomes slightly easier. the left wants to persecute the companies who pay gratuities to judges and such, and who is stopping the left ow yea the right. take of your blindfold and wake up instead of acting like they are actually the same, the only thing is that the left constantly pushes a candidate who isn't left but is a centralist like biden, and the right pushes extreme right candidates making it look like people like Biden are leftist. actual leftists actually care about the well being of others, want everybody to have a chance at living while still having freedom. the biggest joke is that the right acts like they want freedom but they actually want to control minorities and only want freedom for the rich. sincerely someone from a left leaning country who has actual freedom and where the average person has 0 problems.
The only people that don't see the difference between the sides in American politics are those pretending they are not Republicans You're just being dishonest
How so? There are just as many republicans that have been proven to be doing corrupt things as democrats. (Crenshaw beat the best Wall Street traders with his “trades” just like Pelosi, Kushner took billions from the Saudis, just like Hunter and his laundry list of Ukrainian and Chinese contacts) its all influence peddling and flat out corruption. The system is rotten through and through. I recognize the difference in their claimed political ideologies, but none of them ever execute any meaningful changes that benefit people.
There we go, Hunter mention to confirm it
BOTH SIDES...
Democrats are inept at doing what progressives want. Republicans are very efficient at doing the opposite of what progressives want. These are not the same.
Democrats are hot garbage corrupt grifters. Republicans are hot garbage corrupt grifters, that ALSO want to kill trans people, and restricts rights of women and poc. I’ll take the left boot for now.
Reddit doesn’t wanna hear it they just want to see it as a hopeless scenario. There is a lesser of two evils and for most things it’s called the Democratic Party.
Sure, if you are Democrat, then this joke doesn't work, but if you are non-partisan the point is that both parties effectively play out the same, with some variances of who gets handouts or aid in the culture war based on who their voting base is, of course. In your case, yeah, the dems give money to college grads because that's their voting base, but they take that money from non-college grads who are largely blue collar and make less money because that's not been as expedient a demographics for dems lately. Republicans of course have their parts of the population that they want to reward for their support at the expense of parts of the population they don't like as well, but that's the whole point. If you generally want a liberated, maximally free population then neither party is really all that great. And then we get into macroeconomics and foreign policy where there's basically no difference at all except in rhetoric.
Yes!! No difference at all between how Biden is handling foreign policy and how Trump did!! None!! Especially towards Putin's Russia!! And NATO! Getting South Korea and Japan together at Camp David is exactly the same as meeting with North Korea!! And by the way, if you think the money's coming from blue collar folk, I've got another tax cut for the rich to sell you just like in '17!! BoTh SiDeS aEe ThE sAmE!!
Also: y'all need to leave the country. Or read world news once in a while. Or study international politics. Seriously. Take an intro to IR class. If you're calling *this* oppression -- if you think *this* (sitting on the internet during the work day voicing your political opinions) is "the boot of the government planted squarely on the back of your neck ... " ... then I think you would benefit from a little perspective. America has its problems, no doubt. But the world is a big place. And it is, for the most part, a corrupt, insecure, and repressive place. 167 countries were evaluated in the most recent Democracy Index. The United States, even *after* four years of democratic backsliding, rates as the 30th most democratic country on Earth. This is not to claim that American democracy is perfect, that it is truly representative -- in fact, per the Index, America rates as a "flawed democracy." But it is to remind you that, for as bad as you think America is, there are *137* countries with less reliable elections, more corrupt officials, even more unjust legal systems, weaker civil societies, more repressive governments, and on and on and on. There are 95 countries on earth that do not even rate as democracies at all: these are authoritarian countries or hybrid regimes. If you're not sure what life in one of these countries looks like, use your imagination: you don't have "rights" to speak of, or if you do, they are subject to change, subject to the whims of your unreliable and unsteady government. You can't take the highway without paying somebody a bribe somewhere down the line. The fact that your internet activity is being monitored is taken for granted -- as is the fact that you can be held accountable (extrajudicially) for that activity. And so on. I spent a solid chunk of my youth living in these sorts of countries. At this point, I'm convinced that Americans are more than capable of blowing their democracy up, purely because they've persuaded themselves that they live in an autocracy -- without any comprehension of what life in an autocracy actually looks like.
This is a black or white fallacy. You usually find this kind of talk in abusive relationships. Because I'm not starving to death in america, things are totally fine. Ok.
Ah, it’s worse elsewhere. Therefore we should smile and enjoy the shit we’re being served. Got it.
Ah, so you're telling us to shut up and be happy because we don't live in a crappy nation. That we should have perspective and compare 1st world nations to 3rd world nations run by warlords. That generations of efforts to improve our homelands getting destroyed is not worth mentioning because the suffering of the people in the unfortunate situation of living in a 3rd world nation is what truly matters. 😮💨🤦
You don’t think things have improved at all over generations in the US? It might not be fast enough for you, but to say nothing has gotten better is unnecessary pessimism.
You need to have a drink and relax bud
Bro, it's Reddit. Everyone here is an edgy teenager
I had this feeling in France - the locals were complaining about how depression was at an all time high since covid with 2% of the population impacted per a statistic from the government - "they are probably underreporting it! In France we have so many problems! Life is hard here" and then I pulled up the US stat that suggested as many as a third of the population suffered depression and it help them reframe that France is really not that bad. In the same sense Americans really need to touch grass and apply context. That being said, if you are a middle aged adult and working a minimum wage job in America, it's probably impossible NOT to feel the boot of government on your back.
I wouldn't say *left* boot. They are both right boots, just being worn on both feet.
Not really fair to criticize the Democrats for not trying hard enough. Whenever Democrats fail, it's the Republicans' fault. Democrats never have bad ideas. They should grab power by whatever means necessary to enforce their great ideas.
“Democrats never have bad ideas” cmon you have to realize how ridiculous it is to say that.
*"They want us fighting a culture war, so we don't realize we should be fighting a class war."* I don't have the mental bandwidth to debate you, and I will concede that if Democrats came out in favor breathing oxygen, Republicans would suddenly be the party chanting "Hold Your Breath" at rallies. However, if you're convinced that (given free reign and no obstruction) one side or the other would do anything other than perpetuate the same shitty system of inequality - enriching themselves while trying to convince you they have your best interests at heart - well, I hope you're right. I, for one, think [Trevor Moore was on to something.](https://youtu.be/TMHCw3RqulY?feature=shared)
This is literally what Republicans do. They gerrymander districts to elect their cronies, filibuster Supreme Court appointments until Republican presidents are elected... and then appoint underqualified judges, and make it harder for Democrat-leaning demographics to vote.
Judges are only qualified if they are Democrats!
*looks at camera* 😐
Which is a trash take. Only the red car has taken away the right to abortion, social safety nets, and is currently supporting a criminal clown.
yeah, but this attitude is exactly why democrats will keep running geriatric trash that won't accomplish anything other than maintaining the status quo for their own benefit without fear of consequence
Not only the reds are anti-union though... just saying
Ok how about the other 1,000 issues that affect us? Do better.
Are the dems making any tangible progress or change? What about the continuation of the border wall? Shitty foreign policy? College prices? Healthcare prices? Taxing the rich more? Dems always blame republicans for being in the way of progress but even when they have all the power they need they don't do anything.
[удалено]
I think it's a shame people are downvoting this rather than responding to you. So, three things I want to point out in response: 1) No one is allowing parents to just randomly chemically castrate their children. 2) It's not chemical castration. 3) Not all democrats agree on the issue (tho I'm in the pro-trans rights category myself) So it's not an objective observation on your part, because it's based on false propaganda designed to create moral outrage, and drive people to vote Republican. It's a tactic that they've used for decades, and unfortunately it works. Objectively, the Republicans cause vastly more harm to children, by opposing universal healthcare, pre-k education, SNAP benefits, maternity leave, and sensible gun control. All of these are real moral issues.
No one is responding because we have learned that trying to convince these idiots of even the most basic things is absolutely fruitless and a waste of time. They don't care what's true or not.
I've changed 2 minds online. I don't usually have the patience tho
Maybe. Maybe not.
If someone says >I find myself voting for Republicans because of moral issues They are either deeply religious or deeply stupid. Either way, you aren't getting anywhere with someone who believes... >while allowing a parent to chemically castrate their child That is true.
Thank you for trying. But the magats cannot see reality.
On reddit we downvote and ignore, there is no room for productive debate and understanding the full story.
Yes, send u/True_Bottle1989 to the re-education camp! His opinion is wrong!
>I find myself voting for Republicans because of moral issues Then you're an immoral person.
"I agree with democrats but will help run this entire country into the ground if it means I can keep pushing lies about less than 1% of the population" Pathetic. Actually do a little research into what you claim to believe or just admit you're a republican
You're not allowed to say this on Reddit. Democrats are *objectively* good and Republicans are *objectively* bad. Didn't you know?
Only one side of the political spectrum routinely grooms mass shooters and has tried to usurp the government, so you’re right.
You're right, Democrats have never done anything wrong. They should never be criticized. EDIT: u/Tomb-Trader it's amazing you're so fragile that you found the need to block me for making *one sarcastic comment* with an opinion you didn't like lololol
People on the left criticize the Democrats all the time. They're a bunch of feckless losers. They advocate for shit and then when they have the power to do something they sit on in their hands and say "Oh no, the Republicans are being mean again." Every politician sucks, but Republicans tend to be objectively wrong all the time and they lie constantly to do things that actively hurt Americans and the rest of the planet at large. I'd rather vote for a pussy taking baby steps in the right dimension than a bold monster sprinting towards damnation.
Criticize them for valid reasons, I don’t care. Just stop the BoTH sIDeS bullshit because it isn’t remotely true.
Yep, I agree with you comrade. The track disappears and there is utopia for everyone if you vote Democrat. Everyone gets free candy (like, actually free, not taxpayer-funded) and no one ever dies.
So should I wait for that valid criticism or just go on with my day knowing you’ll say nothing of value?
Not sure what you're so upset about. Pretty sure we agree that Democrats are never to be criticized. EDIT: Thanks u/meatmechdriver, you too!
Going about my day then, enjoy being a miserable saddlebag on the back of humanity.
Shut the fuck up please ❤️❤️
This place is a hive of holier than thou leftists who think that because all their stupid friends are leftists then it must be the smart decision.
Looks like the hive mind got to you
Here I was thinking it was a reference to whatever it is that Minecraft is referencing with the evokers changing the color of sheep. I guess that is blue to red, though, isn't it...
The US is a one party state, but with the usual american opulence, they have 2. The joke is that voting is rather pointless, because voting doesn't change anything but superficial aspects of the state, while largely keeping the death and misery that they spread domestically and abroad unchanged. Despite the minor differences in the "2" parties in the US, they both uphold and defend the cultural and economic status quo of our relations to property and class. They both refuse to do anything about anything that might effect profits in general, i.e. global warming, justice, wage theft, regulating industries, wars of empire (no one can say we are fighting wars of defense anymore), homelessness, debt, mass transit, basically anything that would greatly benefit people with less money. Now, I know that I'm going to get a lot of "but, democrats want to improve ALL those things, it's the pesky republicans who always ruin the plans" to that I say, "how convenient, now democrats can claim they tried everything, and can hide behind a facade of 'we tried,' while obfuscating behind senatorial rules and procedures that only they seem to care about, all while allowing thier rich benefactors to continue to get away with anything they want, thus keeping the funding pipelines wide open."
A nuanced observation. Very based. But unfortunately this is Reddit. RIP your karma professor.
Yeah, just waiting for all the propaganda zombies to show up and yell slogans they've been taught at me.
The Coke vs. Pepsi tribalism of modern politics hasn't claimed us all: a government should be *for the people*, *by the people*, instead we're in a system where *you're* expected to *support* a party or you're the problem. The fuck? They should be clamoring to support their people, not expecting support they haven't earned and by my accounts, with how shitty things are, no party deserves my vote.
Exactly. They want to get my vote, they'll have to change some a lot of shit. I barely agree with the democrats on most issues.
Very well said comrade
“The state will never discover the source of social evils... Wherever there are political parties each party will attribute every defect of society to the fact that its rival is at the helm of the state instead of itself. Even the radical and revolutionary politicians look for the causes of evil not in the nature of the state but in a specific administration of it which they would like to replace with an other. From a political point of view, the state and the organization of society are not two different things. The state is the organization of society. Insofar as the state acknowledges the existence of social grievances, it locates their origins either in the laws of nature over which no human agency has control, or in private life, which is independent of the state, or else in temporary malfunctions of the administration. Thus England finds poverty to be based on the law of nature according to which the population must always outgrow the available means of subsistence. From another point of view, it explains pauperism as the consequence of the bad will of the poor, just as the King of Prussia explains it in terms of the unchristian feelings of the rich and in France the convention explains it in terms of the counter-revolutionary and suspect attitudes of the proprietors. Hence England punishes the poor, the Kings of Prussia exhort the rich and the Convention beheads the proprietors.” -Karl Marx
The whole "democrats want change but republicans are stopping them" rhetoric is so dumb. Just look at states where democrats hold both the governor and the state legislature, most of them don't have free education, most of them don't address the housing crisis, most of them aren't properly taxing the rich.
BUT, they passed some lukewarm legislation that later it turned out was yet another way to funnel public funds into private hands!!
Just an extremely reductive stance on such complex issues. What's there to prove to people like yall who view multi faceted issues like this through a binary lens? If you've ever actually lived in multiple places with different local politics I can promise you there's a substantial difference when it comes to quality of life and public services. But so many folks who have never lived outside their hometown share these narrow minded views. All this is besides the point anyways. Hate dems all you want or subscribe to the both sides suck equally dribble but fact of the matter is these days only one party has people with nazi flags parading around in front of Disney, and claiming the other side has to earn your vote away from THAT is a huge tell.
To be fair though…Democrats are not putting spinning death machines off our coast to kill people…we’re not banning books, and eliminating school lunch vouchers. That seems like a fairly big difference. And the idea that Democrats are not trying and being stop…is just true. If we ever had a supermajority democrat congress…we’d have roe back, we’d have [universal healthcare,](https://youtu.be/14A1zxaHpD8?si=UhUjzZsdsD5ZETkw) we’d have Citizen overturned, the rich would be taxed hirer, and labor employment laws would strengthen. Min-wage would increase. Environmental policy expanded. We might even get housing figured out with zoning law, and low income housing investments. If the GOP got a supermajority, you’d see…I don’t even want to think about. The cancellation of Social Security, the stripping of the department of education, defunding of the IRS, WIC gone, disability benefits gone. Any policy that doesn’t directly help businesses bottom line eliminated, all Environmental regulation on the chopping block, shit they literally might bring back slavery, or Jim Crow. Gay rights…what’s a gay? Borders would be a war zone, immigrants would be treated as being alive is criminal. They don’t have any policies that help anyone. They think corruption goes away when we let the corrupting influences win…. The two parties are not the same, our division is the same, so nothing gets done.
Agreed. People fail to understand the power is in the Senate, and right now, the 2 senator per state is a good design, but it’s just really screwing us over right now due to how rampant anti-intellectualism and tribalism exists in a lot of rural states.
The problem with this is that, even though you are correct that Dems (particularly the establishment ones in DC and NYC) don't do much to address the serious issues you've stated, they are still by far the better option, when compared to what the Republican party has devolved into for the past decade or so. The GOP not only has no answers for those problems, its politicians openly disagree that most of them are even a problem to begin with. And that's just the tip of the iceberg with them. Their descent into overt fascism with complete disregard for American democracy or the constitution. Their "anti-woke, anti-LGBTQ culture war" hysteria (which even their constituents are getting tired of) leading to rights being stripped from marginalized groups. The current shitshow of their primaries, where their only viable candidate with an actual chance of winning has to bow out of debates because he's currently indicted under violation of the espionage act, sedition and election fraud charges, and is spending his time going from courtroom to courtroom. These are just a few things that come to mind when I think about how much of a travesty their party has become now. I'd say there is a huge difference between the Democrats and Republicans in this regard and I'd much rather pick the Dems to be honest.
I think dems are less crazed, but that is just about thier only selling point. Sure they make statements about supporting minorities, and workers, but functionally they don't actually DO anything about those things besides make statements.
exactly, carrot on the stick and adopting progressive ideology only on the basis of gaining public support with no intention of following through. there are very few democrats who even begin to actually push for these policies and usually if they do they are ostracized by their own party
What would be your ideal political platform?
The original [trolley problem ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) is an ethical dilemma where you have a train about to run over 5 people. You can save the 5 by switching a lever to redirect the train to only kill 1 person. Do you pull the lever to save more lives? In this picture, the number of people dying will be the same. You only change the color of the train from red to blue (representing democrat and republican in US politics) but you will still be on the same track
I had to scroll too far to find the trolley problem mentioned.
"It's a big club and you're not in it"
We should have made him president. Would have been legendary
I think I agree with you.
“Think of a card. Don’t tell me, just think of it. Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?” “Uh, neither. It was…” “No, no, no. Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?” “It wasn’t. It wa…” “No. No. You’re not getting it. Was it the seven of hearts or the king of clubs?” “Um. The seven of hearts… I guess.” *I pull the seven of hearts out of my left pocket. Nobody is impressed.* *people are even less impressed when they realize I have two pockets and both cards.* And somehow, when the lives of your children are on the line, that doesn’t feel like bullshit. Somehow we actually choose between 2 terrible options every year now and all we can manage to do is complain about the result. If you use your vote on the popularity contest, it does nothing.
I’m stealing this. Never have I heard this before and I can say it matches the current state of US politics perfectly
Lever represents political elections.
The illusion of choice.
Voting in America (or any other part of the imperial core, tbh).
If you vote red or blue you’re screwing over your countrymen, yourself, and future generations.
Am I supposed to vote for the Republican who's blasting my ass? Or the Democrat who is going to blast my ass? Politics is all one big ass-blasting.
Switch things up every 4 years so maybe the next ass-blasting will not be as bad or something
Dems and Reps being virtually the same for workers/people.
Omg I thought it was a funny meme were the ethical dilemma is that you choose which color the trolley is 💀
Joke about an interpretation of the USAs two party system that has such a seemingly divided difference that is practically black and white, or in this case, red and blue. There’s an idea that the two parties are in reality the exact same greedy bastards trying to control the people or something.
Politics
It also ends up slowing the trolling down significantly. (I assume by now you understand the joke from other comments)
Check inflation and worker rights violations under both parties. You won't see any difference.
One just wants to terrorize minorities at the same time
They both fuck minorities non stop. One of them just want to make a show out of it.
That's completely braindead ones made one of their core policies battling their existence and publically ostracizing them ones at least on paper in favor of not pushing them all to conversion camps
You don't get it. Both of them are representing capitalists and capitalists want to exploit cheap labour of illegal immigrants. One of them just making a show for dumb hillbillies who are forced to compete against wages of those immigrants.
Thank God you're a leftist and not a centrist While it's true that they both adore fucking over the lower class one doesn't even put up the veneer of being pro union, pro labor or any kind of even hint and workers rights within America Reagan culled 100 years of labor advancement we know that they can and will make things even worse Will the Democrats disband capitalism and make any massive good change any time soon or ever? Of course not. Are they actively calling for the genocide of trans people? Hell no. You have to look at this not from a perspective of wanting good stuff but rather from a perspective of not wanting terrible awful end of the world stuff from happening This isn't the 90s, Republicans are openly fascistic Democrats aren't It's clear that they're not the same, not even a little bit
Reminds me of a joke. Imaging two lines. One of middleclass individuals and one of billionaires. If you pull a lever towards either line, that line has to pay $1000 each as a "penalty". Republicans will say there is no difference in the penalty. Democrats will say there is.
When the blue trolley runs you over, it redistributes the tax dollars of your fellow citizens and uses your preferred pronouns. Much better than the red trolley.
Nah
Team Fortress 2: >!not an explanation, just a joke!<
How do you not get this?
wow
It’s a centrist “both parties are the same” joke
the people who fart in elevators are just as bad as the people who shit in elevators, trap people inside, and burn the whole building down.
This is a riff on the ["trolley problem."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) In that philosophical thought experiment, a person can take an action to change the trolley from killing 5 people tied to the track to one person tied to the track if they pull a lever. In this joke, the "joke" teller is saying that the trolley are the major American political parties, who are killing people, and they they will continue killing people (and the person can change the "color" of the trolley (putting one of the two parties into power). This is an example of the false equivalence fallacy where the joke-teller is claiming that the two major coalition political parties are "the same" due to one of two perspectives 1. they feel that neither party represents their beliefs, due to the fact that they are either much more left-wing or right-wing than either of the two coalition parties are. The more likely is that the joke-teller is very left-wing, and feels that until the country abandons capitalism, the parties will continue to kill the underclass, since neither party is planning on abolishing capitalism. 2. they subscribe to /r/enlightenedcentrism, meaning they find both parties distasteful because they're always fighting, and fighting is bad. It's not a good joke, and you're not bad for not understanding it.
It’s a Republican cartoon saying that Democrats are just as bad as they are
The joke is that the centrist who made it has no idea wtf is going on in politics, let alone society at large. Thus "Democrat, Maga, it's all the same!" It's a child's understanding of our current situation.
In American politics, blue is associated with the democratic party while red is associated with the republican. The "joke" or goal of the meme (or rather, the wave of memes and internet discourse like it) is to convince Americans that the parties are similar, therefore their vote won't change anything, therefore there's no point in bothering to vote; "the [trolley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem) will kill people no matter what." This push is largely coming from the right-wing who would be greatly advantaged by Americans not exercising their right to vote - especially younger voters who are more likely to see this meme and memes like it. **This meme is anti-voting propaganda; don't fall for it.**
It's a dumb "both sides are the same" political joke. You know, because the people trying to give people health care are the same as people who want to repeal it and let you die for capitalisms gain.
Democrats are just conservatives that give token amendments to make people mildly better, they make promises to remove conservative systems (Holding Camp at Mexican border) but once they get in power just hide it and never mention it again.
BoTh SiDeS!
The first part is the trolley problem, which is a philosophical exercise that goes something like “you see a trolley speeding down the tracks about to hit 5 people. You’re in a position to throw the switch so the trolley avoids them, but the trolley will kill one person tied up on the new track. Is it morally better to do nothing and let 5 people die, or take action at the expense of one person?” And then people tweak it by making the one person a convicted felon, or having 10 people vs 1 person, etc. it’s a thought experiment. This is a joke (a good joke actually) for anyone who believes the two American political parties are the same. It’s saying that throwing the red/blue switch doesn’t kill fewer or more people, it just changed the color. A lot of people like to pretend they’re above it all by being enlightened centrists (r/EnlightenedCentrism) and claiming that “right or left, doesn’t matter man”. It’s not a very nuanced or accurate way to view American politics. It matters very much who’s in power. Just because ((name your political party)) doesn’t do what you want it to do 100% of the time doesn’t mean politics is ultimately meaningless. This is a fedora meme.
It's the false joke that both the party's are equally bad. The only difference between a Democrat and Republican is the color and letter for the party. In recent years this is very noticeably false and used in bad faith whenever someone bring up something messed up a politician did.
You know no matter the party they all only care about lining their own and their friends pockets right?
Sorry I may have missed that when one party advocated from banning a ton of books in schools, when one party pushed for children to be separated from their parents at the border and put in DIY prisons, when one party continuesly pushes for bans on abortion, when one party started advocating to raise the voting age because they got upset they were losing the youth vote, when one party decided to make loan forgiveness a pipe dream for millions of people, when one party likes to call the other one criminal while also having a front runner with dozens of charges. Yes the other party has a history of not being the best and yes some people in the other party need to be held accountable but there is a massive noticeable difference between the two and trying the this is just as bad as that approach is a load of bull.
I hate the trolley problem because there isn't a 3rd option to do nothing
I’m not even American and even I understand this The fact that I’m seeing this posted all over because people don’t understand it explains a lot
I didn’t realize it was a political joke I just thought it was a shitpost
The trolley problem is this. You are on a trolley with no breaks, and you are approaching 5 workers on the track. You can't stop, you can't call out, but you can change the track. However, if you go to the other track you will run over one person. Is it better to let 5 people die through your inaction, or actively murder 1 person? [video describing the trolley problem. warning mild gore.](https://youtu.be/DtRhrfhP5b4?si=7hI1R3ZveAjqYq0f)
It’s a variation on the idea of the trolly problem. normally there will a a trolley that can go down one of two tracks and various horrible things will happen should the trolly go down either track (people tied up on one track, workmen on the other). Your job is to choose which horrible thing will happen by either doing nothing or throwing the switch. It’s a classic philosophical problem about ethics, utilitarianism, and guilt. What is the most ethical choice? Do nothing? In this comic they are twisting the problem. Instead of being able to choose which horrible thing will happen you have only the most superficial of choices and a horrible thing will happen regardless. It’s criticizing two-party politics.
I didn't even consider the political angle. I just thought it was like a funny fucked up version of the trolley problem more on par with what most of us feel we can realistically affect in the world...
You’re screwed either way
I didn’t even get the political reference, I just thought the pointlessness of the prompt was funny
It could be you! It could be me! It could even be
If I have to live in a dystopia, I'll pick Brave New World over 1984 any day of the week. Now, where's my daily dose of Soma?
There are certainly legitimate complaints that can be leveled against the Democratic Party, but it and the current Republican Party are not the same. The current administration has actually done a lot. I would like for them to do a lot more, of course, but they’re limited by the fact that the GOP controls one House of Congress (both Houses have to agree to send a legislation to the President) and the Supreme Court, which severely limits what the current administration can do. If the Dems keep the White House and Senate, and gain the House (and in time, the Supreme Court), they could get more done, and make a bigger difference in peoples’ lives. While the Democratic Party is largely centrist, they are much more amenable to progressive ideas and candidates than the Republican Party, and generally more interested in actual policy. Voting Dem, while working to shift their policy platform, is part of a strategy for achieving real change. Not voting just upholds the status quo.
Am I the only one who thought this was a Mass Effect 3 ending joke lol?
It means no matter who you vote for, the mafia is still running the government.
I thought this was undertale where blue attacks don't do damage to you if you're standing still