man, the leftist situation in america sounds rough. down here things are way better, our main socialist party (that outright says it's socialist) is half trots and half everyone else, but they have little to no conservatives as part of it, and are decently progressive concerning social issues. they've been growing in size and could finally afford to spread out nationwide this year (yay!). our socialist-adjacent and the biggest "left" wing party (more like solid center, they're socdems) is doing pretty well too. although this election, due to our country being so afraid of trump's influence that they let the centre-right party win in a landslide, they gained no seats in parliament.

Somehow the few left parties get bogged down in differences while the right falls in line.

there isn't much on the right to fight over aside from social issues. plus, conformity is a core tenant; either fall in line or get flamed. the western civilization is directly at odds with any level of leftist organization, and because sectarianism is so widespread among leftists, we fight amongst ourselves and take each other down before we even get the chance to actually make a difference.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

A coalition of populists could do it, I think this left right terminology poisons the political atmosphere.

Do not look left or right, look up.

Is a luigi themed bilboard in portland oregon.

But may I ask what country you are referring to? I would guess some kind of Scandinavian one but I can't think of one that let the sensor rights win not that I would know. Sweden is a right government, I think Finland just went right, not sure about norway, or Denmark. Or any of the low countries for that matter.

But as you say the political environment is nowhere near as poisoned in northern and western Europe as it is here. We have so many different groups that malicious actors are able to play them off of each other to create more of a divide while the Europeans they cannot get as much traction.

Neither the left nor the right parties there are generally trying to cancel their single-payer healthcare systems, not trying to make their countries pay more for drugs than everybody else, generally support a safety net. While here both parties want to get rid of everything even if they want to admit it.

From the post office to social security, food assistance, medicare, etc our Democrats have been complicit in trying to take away and or refusing to restore those after Republicans sabotage them. Post office being the case in point.

Biden did not do dick to restore the post office, did not go after dejoy, just made a performative effort and then got them billions of dollars that would not start flowing for years that would instantly be canceled on a new president from the other party.

For Generations anywhere domestically two to three days the post office would deliver. Now it is 7 days. It was five during Biden's term and now it is 7. Up from 3 or less from before our grandparents to the last decade.

[–] zipper@hexbear.net 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

i generally do agree to avoid the left-right terminology, because it's too simplistic and doesn't accurately place schools of thought together, but it's easier to say "left wing" this or "right wing" that because it's the most common type of ideology classification, albeit incredibly flawed.

i am actually australian! the socialist party i've been talking about is the victorian socialists. at some point they had a person in parliament but from what i know right now they don't hold any positions in government. they've been getting a lot of new members, though, and have finally expanded beyond victoria. the social democratic party is the australian greens. they're pretty solid socdems and actively pushed dental + mental health into our medicare coverage. they've also been staunch supporters of the LGBTQ community and were the first party to speak out against israel. sadly the leader of the greens lost his seat in parliament this year, but as a party they've been growing more than anyone else, especially amongst the youth.

we are also lucky in that our conservative party is incredibly stupid and incompetent. over a third of aussies are first gen immigrants, so the rhetoric of "the immigrants are taking your jobs" doesn't really work here. they've also made blunder upon a blunder in every single recent election and fucked up so badly this year that they lost half their seats, the leader included. even after such a historical loss, they can't help but shoot themselves in the foot by saying quite literally all the wrong things to this day, and it's very satisfying to watch.

our current issues is the housing and childcare crisis. we have one of the worst housing markets in the world, to the point of where it's impossible of getting a rental on your own as a young person. the current party in power is trying to do something, but whatever policies they've attempted to implement to curb the housing costs, they're not working that well. we've got a decent healthcare system where you pay next to nothing out of pocket for most things, and our social services have never been better. i'd put australia somewhere between the scandinavian states and the rest of europe in terms of livability.

as an individual, i've been doing a lot to help out in the community. for privacy reasons i won't disclose what org i'm a part of but it's been very fulfilling for me to volunteer and help people out. as miserable as the state of the world makes me sometimes, at least i know that i'm doing as much as an individual like me can, and that helps me stay sane.

i think one of america's core issues when it comes to politics and academia is just how anti-intellectual the society itself is. the education system is underfunded, outdated and exhausted. america's teachers have to beg for scraps from a government that would rather give ICE agents signing bonuses than put any of those funds towards building an educated youth. it's ridiculous how little the average voter knows about their own country and how it works, let alone anything outside of their western bubble. it's likely a big contributor as to how populist and nationalist rhetoric of trump and his associates took root in the country. the mccarthyism and the red scare leftovers that stayed past the cold war is also probably why any anticapitalist movement in america cannot fundamentally get any footing. when your old teach the young that even the concept of communism or the like is dangerous to the very fabric of their country's society, however flawed and dysfunctional it may be, they're bound to grow up not thinking twice about it, and oppose anything remotely socialist out of habit. but maybe, just maybe, the capitalist bubble of america will eventually pop. one can only hope.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago

As to why America is as it is, our current state did not just happen, in 1972 the business Round Table made a long game to in effect establish an autocracy operating for a plutocracy and undoing the New Deal and all of the workers rights. They have been cooperating on a long game and it has since been refined time and again.

As to our future here, this dumpster fire will have to burn itself out unless we can get some real reform minded muscular opposition in 2028 before the elections get fixed Beyond recovery, which they might already be, definitely fixed beyond anything these establishment Democrats will run in opposition already.

I suspect in 2027 indictments will come down on leading Democrats for false election rigging accusations and other influencers will be targeted both with their paramilitary groups they have been nurturing and law enforcement. As well as any business that backs them.