I think being on the internet has given a lot of leftists a drastically skewed view of how popular our beliefs are.
Most politicians support Israel because most Americans support Israel - only 8% of the population thinks the US should publicly criticize Israel.
Bernie didn't lose the primaries because the Democrats were just too scared of having a real progressive in office so they rigged the election, he lost because socialists are the least-electable people in America and because fewer people voted for him. That's how elections work. ( In b4 'but everyone else dropped out in a coordinated effort to concentrate votes behind biden!' - yeah, if your candidate can only win when the vote is split eight ways that's not a viable candidate. And I voted for Bernie!)
As of 2021 only about 15% of Americans support defunding the police, 47% would like to see increased police funding, and the number of people who think violent crime is a "very big" problem jumped 20 percentage points up to 61% in one year.
And it's just really frustrating to see internet leftists being super condescending as though everybody should already know everything and be on board with this stuff or else they're a Bad Person, driving people away from leftist ideology or making people too afraid to ask questions lest they be branded as a Centrist or worse, a Liberal, or refusing to engage in politics until they're being specifically catered to even though that would be political suicide (and would therefore not accomplish anything anyway.)
And like. It's fine to think that people who support Israel or more police funding are bad people, frankly I think a lot of them are. But I think even more are just misinformed or not really informed about alternatives at all. And not everyone is in the headspace to do education or outreach, but when you're only 10% of the population I think you need to make a choice about whether you want to feel good about being right on the internet or whether you want to be effective. It's frustrating to have to walk someone step-by-step through why genocide is bad, but it's a lot more likely to change minds than shouting at someone that they're obviously just a genocide-loving racist is.
147 notes
·
View notes
Holy crap, I didn't think Biden would be able to get the Climate Corps established without Congress. This is SUCH fantastic news.
--
"After being thwarted by Congress, President Joe Biden will use his executive authority to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps that will serve as a major green jobs training program.
In an announcement Wednesday, the White House said the program will employ more than 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires.
The climate corps had been proposed in early versions of the sweeping climate law approved last year but was jettisoned amid strong opposition from Republicans and concerns about cost.
Democrats and environmental advocacy groups never gave up on the plan and pushed Biden in recent weeks to issue an executive order authorizing what the White House now calls the American Climate Corps.
“After years of demonstrating and fighting for a Climate Corps, we turned a generational rallying cry into a real jobs program that will put a new generation to work stopping the climate crisis,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, an environmental group that has led the push for a climate corps.
With the new corps “and the historic climate investments won by our broader movement, the path towards a Green New Deal is beginning to become visible,” Prakash said...
...Environmental activists hailed the new jobs program, which is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, created in the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, as part of the New Deal...
Lawmakers Weigh In
More than 50 Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had also encouraged Biden to create a climate corps, saying in a letter on Monday that “the climate crisis demands a whole-of-government response at an unprecedented scale.”
The lawmakers cited deadly heat waves in the Southwest and across the nation, as well as dangerous floods in New England and devastating wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, among recent examples of climate-related disasters.
Democrats called creation of the climate corps “historic” and the first step toward fulfilling the vision of the Green New Deal.
“Today President Biden listened to the (environmental) movement, and he delivered with an American Climate Corps,” a beaming Markey said at a celebratory news conference outside the Capitol.
“We are starting to turn the green dream into a green reality,” added Ocasio-Cortez, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal legislation with Markey four years ago.
“You all are changing the world,” she told young activists.
Program Details and Grant Deadlines
The initiative will provide job training and service opportunities to work on a wide range of projects, including restoring coastal wetlands to protect communities from storm surges and flooding; clean energy projects such as wind and solar power; managing forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires; and energy efficient solutions to cut energy bills for consumers, the White House said.
Creation of the climate corps comes as the Environmental Protection Agency launches a $4.6 billion grant competition for states, municipalities and tribes to cut climate pollution and advance environmental justice. The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants are funded by the 2022 climate law and are intended to drive community-driven solutions to slow climate change.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the grants will help “communities so they can chart their own paths toward the clean energy future.”
The deadline for states and municipalities to apply is April 1, with grants expected in late 2024. Tribes and territories must apply by May 1, with grants expected by early 2025."
-via Boston.com, September 21, 2023
6K notes
·
View notes
Okay, so here's the sequence of events:
Bought a decorative barometer for my office in a fit of ADHD-must-buy-something boredom.
Thanks to decorative barometer, I start to realize that my migraines seem to be triggered more by high pressure than low, which is opposite how it works for a lot of people.
Winter rolls around.
My office is cold.
Put space heater in office and curtain over office door to heat office but not the whole apartment, but also allow the cats easy access to their litterbox.
Discover that this configuration SIGNIFICANTLY drops the pressure in my office compared to the rest of the apartment, no matter what the weather is doing.
Realize I have turned my office into something of an anti-migraine or at least migraine-reduction box.
Celebrate?
Today is the first day I've really been able to test this system out, despite suspecting it for a couple weeks. I woke up with a migraine that has gotten progressively worse throughout the day, but I have been working in the livingroom rather than the office because I needed more room.
Finally the migraine got to the point I couldn't really work anymore, and the Ibuprofen wasn't doing shit, so I wandered back into my office and turned on the space heater to drop the pressure so I could see what would happen.
It got better within MINUTES.
It is far from gone, but I no longer feel like I'm getting stabbed in the head either, so. I'm calling it a win. And I'm just gonna...nap on the floor now or something.
16K notes
·
View notes