And he’s not going to drink any goddamned Raktajino!

Not when a white male conservative does it. It’s “just kidding” when they do it.

I understand your “what if” scenarios, but this is an existential crisis that needs to be resisted against with all instances working in concert. This is not a “what if” scenario. This is the actual iceberg and it is big enough to ruin the fediverse for all instances, no matter their affiliation with the garden.

So, we either unite to defend the independence of the fediverse, or we let a corporate giant take it by ovewhelming us with their “important updates for your security” until we are all assimilated.

Well, I think Threads meets your litmus test requirements.

It is a certainty that Threads will heavily influence the future development of Activity Pub. This will inevitibly lead to the corporatization and enshittification of any service Threads can affect.

The only resistance we can offer against this is defederation and noncompliance with the will of the behemoth.

…murder everyone that refuses or is unable to flee.

They will also murder those who are fleeing. Those conservative, genocidal dickbags will murder absolutely everyone they can.

Think of how U.S. conservatives are disgusted by any idea of a progressive experiment. That is how the conservative Chinese gov’t would respond as well.

Goddamn. Thanks for the perspective. This is much more horrible than I thought. It sounds like vulnerable working class people are going to be hurt the worst.

In Japan, heart surgeon. Number one. Steady hand. The best!

-Hidetoshi Hasagawa

• Michael Scott

When people try to tell you conservatives (including neoliberals) aren’t that bad, just point to this genocide.

As Ukraine celebrates their returning heroes, Russia will treat their returning Russians as criminals for allowing themselves to be captured. There is a stark, comic-book style contrast between the good guys and the bad guys.

We did a lil whoopsie doodle. Oh well. Back to genociding.

Putin’s keystrokes per minute is abysmal.

If the Russians are cool with poison gas, then they won’t mind seeing it on the streets of their own cities, right? I mean, since Russians have decided poison gas is not a war crime…

Well… I’ve moved all the way into “Fuck Israel” territory.

Is the reason we are showering Israel with weapons so that we can maintain a justified military influence in the middle east? And is the need for such influence because of fucking oil? Are we helping commit genocide because of oil? Again?!

You have been permanently banned from c/Iran.

Bout damn time! May the world follow Germany’s lead in pushing back against deadly conservatism.

Good comment.

I’d like to add an important point about your use of the word “liberal” for those who may not know… The word “liberal” in this context refers to economic liberalism.

The word “liberal” in this use is absolutely not interchangeable with the word “progressive”. These two words mean very different things. Conservatives have worked hard to cause these words to be confused with one another.

In 1980, Reagan’s conservatives re-defined the word “liberal” in conservative media to be a pejorative for “progressive”. This was an attempt to confuse public discussion. Before this, the word “liberal” was used to describe economic policy. Now, conservatives (and many progressives who don’t know any better) use the word “liberal” interchangeably with “progressive”.

Re-defining words is a common tactic used by conservatives (and fascists) to influence and confuse public perceptions.

I won’t downvote you at all. You make good points.

However, I am not conflating conservatism with capitalism. The reason capitalism remains unchecked is because of conservatism (including neoliberalism). Conservatism is the tool of capitalism to remain unchecked.

If we were to eliminate or marginalize conservatism (including neoliberalism), capitalism could be well-regulated by the representatives of the normal people rather than the representatives of the corporations.

When I shit on conservatives, I’m shitting on so much more than their corporate knob-gobbling. I am also shitting on their racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, antisemitism and other conservative traits. Conservatism is just fascism that has not yet matured to its final form.

As for Biden, I much prefer this old neoliberal to any GOP conservative, and I despise neoliberalism. He gets a pass this time around. I admit he did way better than I expected his first term. And obviously the alternative next election is pure fascism, sooo… BIDEN 2024!

Damn fine choice too!

Fascism is also the natural result of unchecked progressivism.

Can you give an example? You cited 1940’s Russia, but Soviet Marxist-Leninism was not progressivism. It was also not leftism, despite decades of conservative deception on this topic.

Marxist–Leninists in the Soviet Union were famously opposed to “left communism” and social democracy. They openly opposed liberal democracy. They also supported an authoritarian style of government, which is definitionally opposite of progressivism.

Here’s a link to a wikipedia page on the ideological foundation of the Soviet Union (Marxist-Leninism) to support my position that their government was neither “left” nor “progressive”. The points in my paragraph above are stated almost verbatim in this wikipedia entry.

To use the Soviet Union as an example of a left or progressive government, you would first need to change the definitions of “left” or “progressive”.