Okay, that’s fair. No one should be forced to vote for a genocide ever. And any system that tries to force people to vote for genocide to defeat fascism is not worth saving… But even on the issue of genocide, Democrats were the lesser evil. Democrats protested genocide while Republicans proudly cheer for it.

Tbf, our two party system is truly awful. We need to fight for a modern multiparty democracy with proportional representation

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If we were more civically engaged as a population it would not have gotten this bad.

Yes and no. Yes, if everyone fought tirelessly for years to force our politicians to actually represent us then our system could be much better. But, our system is so deeply and unfathomably undemocratic / corrupt that it is cruel and unfair to put all the blame on the people. Humans are finite creatures so pouring more of our life into politics takes it from other aspects of our life. If everyone is over worked and exhausted then they often don’t have time for politics.

Without disinformation, people will naturally work to improve democracy which will eventually expand it to the economy (socialism), so disinformation is arguably a necessary evil to protect the capital class from democracy

Socialism is democracy expanded to the economy. And I hope we can all agree that democracy is better than feudalism / oligarchy. The unchecked power disparities that capitalism creates betray every ideal that democracy stands for

Only to a degree. A terrible system like chattel slavery or fascism is always going to be terrible. Likewise, the wealth inequalities that capitalism creates will likely regress a country into an Oligarchy if given enough time.

It sounds ridiculous, yes, but there are US software engineers who basically work for minimum wage full time doing freelance work because that is all they can find

Ethics are very important to me so I say always support worker owned companies/ small indie teams, always support books, but never support evil mega corps like Amazon, Disney, EA, Activision, etc.

Also, any company that has donated to the Republican neo-fascist party? Fuck them. If you wouldn’t give money to Putin then you should never ever give money to anyone who will give that money to Putin’s puppets (conservatives)

I never understood why the US would educate people and then try to kick them out in a short time frame. You are basically making other countries better and gaining little from it.

I agree, but at the same time… this is the same country that gave their own citizens (3 entire generations!) lead poisoning and used to lobotomize women. So, I am afraid that expecting intelligence, humanity, and logic from the US can only lead to heartbreak and disappointment.

Public ownership of companies for the benefit of the public is a form of socialism, but Trump’s fascist oligarchy serves only the wealthy elites. Oligarchs hijacking democracy for their own benefit isn’t socialism.

It’s like most things in America - if you’re doing ok then it’s great, and if you’re not then the rest of the country just pretends you don’t exist.

That truly is the US in a nutshell. The US is fantastic if you are in the top 20% (and you have zero empathy for people you don’t know), otherwise this country sucks.

Define better. They eat healthier (lower rates of diabetes and obesity), but they also spend less money on cosmetics.

Jokes aside, as an American, I wish the US had lost the revolutionary war. Commonwealth territories ended up with socialized healthcare, a far better democracy, and far better labor rights, while the US ended up with fascist oligarchy. No thanks. I’d gladly trade my coffee for tea if it means I get a real democracy instead of a fascist oligarchy

Yeah, so anyway, what can’t I get in the Play Store or the App Store that I actually want?

When I upgraded my Samsung to a OnePlus13, Samsung’s app that manages the tag device flat out had an error message telling me that it could only work on Samsung phones. 5 minutes later I found an open source app allowed me to use the Galaxy tag that I paid for on my new phone. Samsung has some of the best engineers in the world so they were 100% lying or intentionally trying to brick my tag device to either force me to buy their overpriced phones…

And that is just one example. I use tons of open source apps. For almost any useful app you can think of, there is a free open source version. Premium-YouTube? Newpipe is ad-free with all the premium features for free.

I am very happy with my One Plus 13 phone. It has better hardware and was at a better price than Samsung’s S25.

A little, yeah. I grew up hating Stalin and favored Trotsky, but the more I learned about the eastern front the more I have to wonder if the USSR would have survived the Nazi invasion if Stalin hadn’t forced them to industrialize so aggressively. Without Stalin, it is possible that the Nazis took Moscow in 1942 and without most of the Wehrmacht stuck on the eastern front, I doubt that the US would have sacrificed a million men to force open a western front. It is possible without Stalin that the Nazis would have ruled Europe for decades.

Some European countries have a 40 hour work week maximum (volunteered overtime is allowed).

The US is still living in the 1800s when it comes to labor rights so we don’t have the freedom of a living wage for 40 hours of work.

Driving is inherently stressful. Hell, merely being around cars is proven to negatively impact your health: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/editorial/are-you-noticing-the-harmful-noise