alvvayson
@alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on So is Israel just going to finish Palestine off? 1 week ago:
I know a lot of people don’t like the American First Past the Post system, but to be honest, even in a proportional system like here in the Netherlands, you end up with very similar dynamics.
Truth is, progressives are always a small minority, in every country. Because they are always ahead of the curve on change.
In the US, this means that you only get a handful of progressives in the most progressive districts and never a really progressive national government.
In the Netherlands, this means progressives are always represented, but need to compromise to form a government. And often, they even get skipped and the centrist and conservative parties form a coalition.
Truth be told, Biden is as progressive as you could hope to get in the USA.
And, while I do think it is important to criticize him - and even threaten to not vote for him - to enable him to move more towards the left, it is also important to vote for him.
Progressives always win, not through getting majorities, but because they have the right ideas and eventually the other parties catch up to them.
For recent examples, gay marriage in the USA or marihuana legalization are now law in the USA.
I am 100% confident that American policy on Israel will also shift thanks to progressive voices. And it will not require a progressive majority.
- Comment on So is Israel just going to finish Palestine off? 1 week ago:
Americans still care about the price of oil, which is set in a global market and where Saudi-Arabia and Russia have more influence than the USA.
Obviously, the extremist Arabs that overthrew their own leaders are also to blame. Where did I deny that?
- Comment on So is Israel just going to finish Palestine off? 1 week ago:
I don’t think you really have a lot of choices to be honest.
You’d first need to get new candidates to win a primary and then a general and the required majorities are lacking almost everywhere.
A more fruitful approach is to actually change public opinion.
It’s a long uphill battle, but it’s happening.
- Comment on So is Israel just going to finish Palestine off? 1 week ago:
For decades, Israel and the US (and European countries) have pursued a policy to destabilize middle eastern regimes.
People don’t realize this, but there was a wave of Arab nationalism that was killed by sponsoring Islamic extremists. Had that not happened, the middle east would be much more secular today than it is.
Israel attacking and destabilizing Lebanon and Syria and the US maintaining a dictator in Egypt are part of this strategy.
In turn, this leads to hate towards the West and Israel by the Muslims affected.
It won’t stop as long as American voters care much more about gas prices than about human rights. American politicians are willing to sponsor genocide to have some control on oil prices in order to win elections.
- Comment on Renters' hopes of being able to buy a home have fallen to a record low, New York Fed survey shows 1 month ago:
Would such a strategy legally work in the USA?
Here in the Netherlands, a plan to regulate maximum rents seems to be much more promising.
We will know if it worked in about 2-3 years.
- Comment on How rental ‘libraries of things’ have become the new way to save money 1 month ago:
Indeed, also it’s much nicer to use a shared high quality tool than to buy an el-cheapo disposable tool.
Even something simpel like a crowbar. I once borrowed a (shorter) professional crowbar after struggling with a (larger) cheap one. The thing I was trying to pry came out like butter.
Even though physics dictates that a shorter lever should be inferior, it just had a much better design and grip.
Better for our wallet, sanity and environment.
- Comment on Gaza war surgeon feels ‘criminalised’ after being denied entry to France 1 month ago:
I feel obliged to point out that, Brexit didn’t happen, then his rights as an EU citizen would have been violated. As far as I know, you can’t use the Schengen system against EU citizens.
But because he was British and Brexit happened, Germany could do this.
But I do wonder… if the French government would formally invite him, they should be able to overrule the German decision. It seems that they decided not to do that?
- Comment on But how would they be able to live on that? 2 months ago:
Indeed, property taxes should just be extended to also cover stocks and bonds.
That should be the basic premise.
- Comment on But how would they be able to live on that? 2 months ago:
That also seemed odd to me.
I think they are confusing a wealth tax with fair taxation.
The shown numbers seem to roughly correspond with what would be owed if they had paid fair capital gains tax over the past years. In other words, if all the tax loopholes were closed.
Bill Gates just didn’t have nearly the same amount of capital gains over the past few years compared to Elon and Jeff.
A wealth tax would tax then proportionally similar, so Jeff wouldn’t be paying 10x the tax that Bill G would pay.
- Comment on Life was better in the nineties and noughties, say most Britons 2 months ago:
I presume you’re an American then.
It wasn’t that bad in Europe.
- Comment on Life was better in the nineties and noughties, say most Britons 2 months ago:
We are talking about the 90s though, not the 60s.
- Comment on Life was better in the nineties and noughties, say most Britons 2 months ago:
The difference is that even young people say life was better when boomers were young.
Higher wages, cheaper housing, lower cost of living.