It's not literally everyone, it's people with power and influence who use their energy to prop up the Democratic machine.
So clearly I'm not irritated at literally all people with power of any form.
Keep in mind, in this thread I am charitably replying to the dishonest suggestion that the average taxpayer has just as much culpability in the genocide in Gaza as someone who goes deep into the halls of power and participates in their process as a delegate.
The power and influence to which my previous comment alluded is that which these delegates fought hard to get, and are now using to prop up the war machine. Again, there is a huge difference in culpability between DNC delegates and the average liberal that's just trying to get back.
Clearly that kind of nuance cannot be indicated by the meme that started this whole thread, as memes intentionally trade substance for brevity, but my other comments throughout the thread have sufficiently explained that my position is a lot more nuanced than "haha all Democrats all bad".
The power and influence I have is basically entirely privilege that I didn't choose to get and can't fully reject even though I try my damnedest. I literally don't even have a job, can't find one if I tried, no influence on social media other than what you're reading now, and look what good that's doing.
Basically the only real power I took for myself in my entire adult life is my education, on which I defer to Bakunin:
Does it follow that I drive back every authority? The thought would never occur to me. When it is a question of boots, I refer the matter to the authority of the cobbler; when it is a question of houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For each special area of knowledge I speak to the appropriate expert. But I allow neither the cobbler nor the architect nor the scientist to impose upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and verification.
I.e. I don't think that all the power afforded to me by my education is unjust. I am most certainly not using the little power I have to prop up the war machine. (Much to my personal detriment! My line of work is extremely useful to the war machine.) That power which is unjust I take very seriously to reject as best as I can.
Again, it is a ludicrous suggestion that a poor grad student posting memes dunking on the misfortunes of people in power has a comparable power and influence to a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.
Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.
Hence why I'm expressing my schadenfreude that it happened at all, rather than saying "yeah this is a perfect protest by perfect people who are definitely 100% confirmed doing this for perfect reasons that I perfectly agree with".
In fact, I said as much in the comment you replied to:
Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.
I'm not operating under the pretense that it is necessarily revolutionary action. I'm simply expressing my frustration at Democrat ghouls and laughing at their misery because they give us nothing else in return for our submission.
Sadly we do not have a choice. We either get soggy shit bread, or we get rat poison. There is no third option.
Exactly, you don't get a choice. Which one you're gonna get will be decided by the people with the money. Your input as a voter is orthogonal to what the upcoming administration will actually do, regardless of whom is the figurehead. You can vote for whomever you want as "hard" as you want, but as hard you force that input, you won't change the trajectory of the system.
We are voting as a way of putting our foot on the breaks while we organize outside of it. The train is going fast. Trump accelerates it and Harris makes it go slower.
I got no beef with people voting for Democrats in the general election, even though I disagree with their choice, because it doesn't affect the outcome of anything. My beef is with these delegates, these people in a position of influence and power.
Nobody is saying Harris will stop or reverse the train. But we are not going accelerate the train and hurt even more people than it already is.
Of course we shouldn't accelerate the "train", I cannot stress enough that I agree with that statement and that accelerationism is bad, but it is my view that
Voting in the general election does nothing to brake the train. Not near zero, zero. Voting is orthogonal to what needs to be done. If it'll make you more comfortable, then go vote I guess.
Voting as a DNC delegate requires you to tow their party line and do other things that compromise any intended "braking" of the "train". This specific vote, as well as any other equivalent collaboration with the Democratic establishment, is what I am irritated about.
This exact action? It might make things worse for leftists on the ground at the DNC since now the FBI is involved 😳.
So honestly good point, but IMO reflecting an infinitesimally small fraction of the violence that they inflict upon Palestine (and all life on Earth) forces the ruling class to deal with actual consequences for their actions.
Will do because the Democrats are the ones in power right now.
To be crystal clear: fuck the Republicans. No disagreement there.
But they're not pretending to be the good guys, sapping energy from radical movements and (as liberals) basically existing to spoil popular revolutions. They're not pulling possible comrades out the game with their variety of liberalism. That's why I'm so incessant on pushing back against the Democrats.
Last month, maggots and other insects were reportedly released at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Chicago has seen nightly protests during the convention by organizations seeking an end to the Gaza war and an end to U.S. military support for Israel.
And because Palestine is the main focus of DNC protests right now, i.e. the big thing that the DNC is choosing to ignore.
Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.
But also, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with Palestine, that is far from the only reason to be irritated with the Democrats. For example:
Their continued funding and support of police
Their continued material support of capitalism and neoliberalism
Their support for putting down radical movements,
Their tendency to soften radical movements (for example, abolish the police -> defund the police)
Their quiet support for racism at home and abroad
Their use of jails and prisons
Their imperialist foreign policy (other than on Palestine)
Their enforcement of borders (which has been strengthened under the Biden administration)
Their rejection of refugees that their foreign and climate policies created
Their tolerance of LGBTQI oppression
Their attempts to destroy what little privacy we have left and destroy our precious free internet
Their antagonism towards homeless people in a country with more empty homes than homeless people, a system of property ownership that they fundamentally support
Their refusal to fix the Supreme Court, which they absolutely have the power to do
And so much more! All while pretending to be the party of progress, they are in fact the party whose sole goal is to prevent more radical change being imposed on the ruling class from below!
Yeah I'm not really stoked about the food safety implications and food waste for the rest of us if "bugs in food" protests become normal, but I still think that inconveniencing and antagonizing powerful people complicit in genocide is in general an acceptable form of protest. It accomplishes perpetual and fractal ("at all levels") discomfort for their actions as long as they continue them.
Willing to let lgbt, people of color, students, poor people and the working class be oppressed and possibly murdered.
Sounds like what's happening right fucking now under a Democrat presidency!
How many times do you have to try to kick Lucy's football before you realize that she's punking you?!?
Voting for President merely ratifies decisions already made by capital. I'm not voting for your candidate, and I refuse to be guilted for decisions already made by capital.
Because trump WILL make sure of that.
Trump winning would be an indicator of the trajectory you have no control over as far as the ballot box is concerned.
But you are willing to let everyone around you burn for this.
No I am not. I want people to organize themselves against the system, not within it. The system itself is the problem. Having """good people""" is insufficient to get even mediocre change. See self-described socialist AOC speedrunning ghoulification.
![PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]](https://lemmy.sdf.org/pictrs/image/8802b84c-2dec-4419-886d-b9701e346d76.png?format=webp&thumbnail=128)
So clearly I'm not irritated at literally all people with power of any form.
Keep in mind, in this thread I am charitably replying to the dishonest suggestion that the average taxpayer has just as much culpability in the genocide in Gaza as someone who goes deep into the halls of power and participates in their process as a delegate.
The power and influence to which my previous comment alluded is that which these delegates fought hard to get, and are now using to prop up the war machine. Again, there is a huge difference in culpability between DNC delegates and the average liberal that's just trying to get back.
Clearly that kind of nuance cannot be indicated by the meme that started this whole thread, as memes intentionally trade substance for brevity, but my other comments throughout the thread have sufficiently explained that my position is a lot more nuanced than "haha all Democrats all bad".
Basically the only real power I took for myself in my entire adult life is my education, on which I defer to Bakunin:
I.e. I don't think that all the power afforded to me by my education is unjust. I am most certainly not using the little power I have to prop up the war machine. (Much to my personal detriment! My line of work is extremely useful to the war machine.) That power which is unjust I take very seriously to reject as best as I can.
Again, it is a ludicrous suggestion that a poor grad student posting memes dunking on the misfortunes of people in power has a comparable power and influence to a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.