• gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    It is not bots.

    It is because return2ozma@lemmy.world has a behavior pattern of blaming lots of shit on Biden, and it’s begun (rightly or wrongly) to have the vibe of astroturfing for a while now.

    Most people here will agree that the police deployments at UCLA (my Alma mater, in fact) and elsewhere were extremely heavy-handed and handled incredibly poorly by local officials and police. People aren’t pushing back on these posts to deny the gist of the article. People are pushing back on these posts because return2ozma always seems to put an anti-Biden spin on things.

    I’ve said this before, but I guess it bears repeating here: most rational people - here, and more broadly in the American electorate - aren’t, like, super stoked that Biden is the DNC presidential nominee. That’s fine. Feel whatever frustration, anger, disappointment, or whatever else you want to feel (and frankly, I’m right there with you). But simultaneously, you must accept that the American electoral system has fundamental, intentional design flaws built into it by wealthy landowners (and in many cases, also slaveowners at the time) that date all the way back to the country’s founding, and unfortunately won’t be changing without a constitutional amendment. At the end of the day, if you’re not ok with America not being a democracy anymore, the way the American electoral system works means that you effectively must vote for Biden in the general. A third party vote, or declining to vote outright, increases Trumps chance of winning in a statistically-provable manner.

    Which is a very long way of saying that while return2ozma may ideologically align with a lot of us in terms of ethical and political sensibilities, they’re either relentlessly tonedeaf and consistently ignoring that whole electoral angle in the best case, or in the worst case, making bad-faith arguments because they work for fancybear or something similar.

    As someone who’s struggled significantly with quite existential and fatalistic thoughts about the state of the world in the last few years, I admit I do kinda get it. It’s easy to fall into the negative spiral, and get quite deep before you even really notice. But if this is a mental health related thing, I believe it would very much behoove the user in question to find a professional to talk to about things. It helped me; it might help them.

    But if it’s the worst case and they’re a nation-state actor, none of that benefit of the doubt applies.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      100% very well put.

      I’m not a democrat. I’m well left of the entire American electorate. There is no one in governance that truly represents me. And as such it’s really easy to not be engaged or excited for anyone for any reason. It’s a bitter prospect to have to deal with this flawed system and try to improve it in any small way you can.

      If Ozma/linkerbaan or any of the others are genuinely left leaning. They are alienating a lot of other lefties. And aren’t offering any solutions. Either they are right wing agitprop, accelerationist ML, or edgy teenagers. (The last two largely being the same thing) Basically as you said. And not someone anyone should take seriously or be influenced by.