What history? Be specific.

Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in what battle? I am not in your far right vs center right fight.

I obviously can distinguish between the GOP and DNC (my comment said if things changed it would appear to be an improvement).

The reality of arguing that the left needs to compromise and embrace the “lesser evils” of the DNC in the face of the evils of the GOP is that it hands the GOP a cudgel. Don’t propose ideas that are too left or the right will lash out. Meanwhile, the right has been orchestrating a conservative backslide for decades.

I do enjoy a good personal attack when one side can’t formulate anything of substance to say. If it makes you feel better to call me morally bankrupt, you can have it.

The thing is, what passes for the left in America has been compromising its values for decades. That is the constant drum beat. And here we are. Explain, why more of the same will change course.

How’d that primary strategy work out in 2024?

You are voting 3rd party in the primary but somehow fail to realize GOP and DNC are owned by the same interest. The illusion in the cave is that you think the DNC is left. (You call the DNC left of center above).

Voting to center right (DNC) when you want to be left of center will never shift American politics left. Trump is the boogeyman that gets you to abandon what you claim to stand for (progressivism).

MAGA co-opted the GOP by refusing to compromise. This shifted the GOP even further right. When progressives compromise the entire American political spectrum bell curve just shifts further right.

I understand that you think your approach will produce an immediate harm reduction. I am sure it will look that way, but the steady march to the right won’t stop if the left side of the spectrum caves while the right does not

Have you ever considered the reason we are here is because you haven’t learned yet?

Chuck Schumer Eats Shit

Abdul El-Sayed’s victory is earthquake for Democratic Party old guard

KEN KLIPPENSTEIN

AUG 05, 2026

Consider whether it was left out for a reason.

Not sure but but there seems to be multiple images google image search

That you, brother?

For context… do you have kids?

Isn’t it? I heard this quote as a child (middle school) when listening to this book on tape during school commutes.

I suppose it is seared into my mind because hearing it was akin to watching a movie with your parents and there is an unexpected sex scene.

Quote feels out of context with the rest of the book, which tried to paint a picture of America during the time the author worked on the show “On The Road”

I agree no one should be obligated to entertain fascists. I disagree that one ever stops having the responsibility of being a parent and I prioritize that above all else in this context.

(There is no universal truth, your right for you and my right for me can diverge)

“When you get to be my age, sonny, all you ever think about are the women you could have gone to bed with and didn’t.” - A Life On The Road. Charles Kuralt. p.250

Edit: not assuming any genders…Just preserving the quote.

I think this depends on the relationship.

My father is the one that slid fascist. My approach with him is similar to what you describe.

If it were my child I would feel a responsibility to try to help them find the right path.

Sure… but how many drinks can your kids really put away?

Exactly. None of this is incompatible with having children. Children are incompatible with you.

Good decision not having kids.

Ah. It’s a you thing. Not a kids thing. Got it.

That is awesome. But how is this incompatible with kids?

A police officer testified Tuesday that Tony Moreno said he needed to kill his infant son, Aaden, so the child would not be raised by his ex-girlfriend’s family. . . “I asked him directly if he had dropped Aaden from the bridge,” Semper said during his testimony. “He nodded yes.” Semper said he asked Moreno if he threw Aaden like a half-court shot, three-point distance, free throw or layup. “He said free-throw distance. He said ‘free throw,'” Semper said.

Moreno Said He ‘Needed’ To Kill Infant Son – Hartford Courant

Sounds awesome. What do you do?

Is this even a real question? Because it seems genuine, I will treat it as such.

Instead of hand wringing and making abstract statements, you can answer your own question by explaining what this process looks like on the individual level:

Start with you. You say we have the right to guns AND aren’t you all armed up the wazoo. Assuming this means that you aren’t armed or trained. So you have to become armed and get trained to be effective in the manner you are describing. Then you have to get organized to be effective. That involves time, opportunity cost, and risk.

Move to others. This same process has to happen across a critical mass of individuals. We can barely get unions organized in the USA. That’s trying to get people to rally behind their own economic interests. It’s an order of magnitude more difficult to get people to organize for something less tangible.

Realize it’s by design. The system (capitalism) is designed to keep us all running on the hamster wheel so we cannot take the steps necessary to become individually valuable to an organized movement. In contrast, it creates paid professional positions (the police/military) to enforce the rules of that system. Currently, those that run the system are (hopefully) reaching the threshold of what the cogs will tolerate.

Call it hypnotism if you want. The truth is that the majority of the working class is still subjected to the same top down rule that that we always have been under whatever form of hierarchical rule has been the flavor of the day. I attribute the general shock that many are expressing for the current moment to recently realizing that we are all still stuck in Plato’s Cave.

What to do. Understand where you are in the arch of history. Keep pushing in the direction you want things to go. Keep passing knowledge and training on. Keep maintaining social connections with like minded individuals. Do all this so that those who are in the right place, at the right time, can do the right thing.

This mentality is why there are more armed fascists than leftists, comrade