Did you know: If you criticize Biden you're not American, and if your Mastodon ends in .eu you're not allowed to have an opinion?
What made them mad:
"Man I'm not happy with Biden winning the nomination. I wish I was Bernie."
"Well we can get Trump out of office and then you can push him to the left."
"Fair enough, a moldy ham sandwich is better than Trump. Biden can string words together so that's possible."
[One presidential election and mid-term later.]
"So Biden hasn't pushed Congress on most of his campaign promises, and he's enabled racist policies Trump wanted to try and win moderates. No abortion, no DREAMers, no minimum wage increases, no queer protection, but they can find time to ban hoodies in Congress. Not to mention ignoring voters who care about Ukraine and Palestine. It feels like Biden isn't great for Americans, he's just slightly better than Trump."
"Why are you so anti-Biden? Are you some kind of fake leftist or a Russian agent pretending to be American?"
"No? I'm trying to push him left. I'm saying he's not doing things for most of the people who voted for him to be better. His biggest actions are done by appointments, by him to the FTC and FCC. Not a lot of bills passed."
"I think you just hate what Democracy is, he's not a king."
"Right. But Republicans can pass without issue, and Democrats want to work with them instead of getting progressive voters."
Ironically, all their ranting about anyone who criticizes Biden coupled with their sheer unwillingness to do anything at all to push Biden left is going to lose them votes. Their heads are deeply planted in the sand.
They've been acting like this since the inauguration in 2021. They have no intention of pushing him left. It's not about empathy or principles for them -- it's all a game to win elections. They're deranged.
The foreign lens of effectively having more than two parties to choose from and being worried about Americans who have to decide who gets to play world police: a dementia-ridden pinkwashing genocide supporter or an fascistoid ex-actor and cult leader who already tried to overthrow democracy.
Honestly if there are Russian agents at play it's probably these people trying to further drive a wedge between leftists and moderates. I've seen plenty of threads where even the most moderate criticism of Biden is dismissed as vocal support for Trump and trying to spread voter apathy.
The thing that actually spreads apathy is this behavior. Yes, you should vote for Biden because harm reduction is always better than nothing. But you shouldn't have to be happy about it.
I can't say I've seen that sort of person. Am I just lucky?
I see all this "stop telling us to love Biden", but the only other side I see is "yeah he's terrible, but he's slightly less terrible so this'll be slightly less bad overall".
At this point, I don't think threatening to not vote for him will move him left because I don't think he thinks he could really do anything in time to sway the polls. And idk how to pressure him in office.
For anyone very invested in this, it's probably much more impactful to focus your energy on local politics, which can change the party pressures Biden feels. You might even have a choice in your local elections that isn't complete garbage! Though I would say it's probably a good idea to still vote for Biden, because there's a chance to mildly sway him.
The solace most liberals provide to anarchist is to vote locally. Voting will not change the nature of the state. The state will continue providing violence to defend the owners.
Vote in the elections you are allowed. Better still, build horizontal power through direct action and mutual aid. Be ready for the conflict horizontal power creates with hierarchical power.
Also, maybe run in local elections. Apparently many trash people continually get reelected because they have literally no opposition. Could do some good for some people at least :-\
The survey showed that 41 percent of partisans agreed that simply winning elections is more important to them than policy or ideological goals, while just 35 percent agreed that policy is a more important motivator for them to participate in politics. Only 24 percent valued both equally or expressed no opinion.
That source is from 2015. I'd suspect it's become even worse since then.
"Man I don't like how if I criticize Biden liberals start thinking I'm a Russian agent or a fascist in disguise. I'm gonna make a post joking about this."
"ONLY A RUSSIAN AGENT WOULD MAKE A POST LIKE THIS, I'LL PROVE YOU RIGHT AND I WON'T SEE THE IRONY IN ANY OF THIS"
God liberals are hated by every end of the spectrum for a fucking reason, they are too blinded by their own smug ideology to consider that when someone is being racist, its not proof I'm going to vote for a bigger racist.
It just means that I hate racists in office getting support for white moderates who also don't give a shit about a minority until election season.