In commemoration of the upcoming Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), President Joe Biden issued a statement praising trans people’s contributions to society and describing actions his administration has taken to counter transphobic bullying and extremism. Additionally, many members of Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also issued their own statements affirming that community health depends on supporting trans people too.

“Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation,” Biden wrote in his statement. “Whether serving their communities or in the military, raising families or running businesses, they help America thrive. They deserve, and are entitled to, the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves.”

    • TheKMAP@lemmynsfw.com
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      8 months ago

      When can we start voting for someone good instead of merely less bad? How do we get to that point?

      • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I would think it would take 4 back to back presidential election wins by the Democratic party. Maybe 3 if it included wipeouts of Republicans in Congress and at the state level. No party can survive being out of power for that long without changing and shifting towards were voters are and that leaves the Democrats room to shift left to solidify that flank.

        We’ve already had 1. We’re on the cusp of a possible second. That means we could be 4 years from a complete collapse of the Republican party, if people were actually serious about creating a real leftist movement in this country. That’s because winning is how you affect change. A loss just tells politicians that they need to be more like the winner.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The California model. Render Republicans impotent, then you can start enacting real positive changes.

        • TheKMAP@lemmynsfw.com
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          8 months ago

          That’s a good start, I think. The tricky bit is I think you need thirty years straight of good decisions so that the next generation is fully done “correctly”. Will be harder to abuse the system after that.

          “Be more like the winner” is interesting. Trump is a populist and he was more worried about Bernie than Clinton.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Gotta get rid of First Past the Post voting. And increase the size of the House. Even then, there can be only one President, so he necessarily won’t be someone you perfectly agree with, he will represent the broader coalition that your party is part of in government. But I think that’s as close as we could get in a Democracy.

      • I’m only voting for him because the other option and inaction are death sentences. I don’t like the guy at all and would vote for someone else given the option.

        That said, for all his centrist tendencies he does seem to occasionally cave in to pressure. It just takes time.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          That moment when doing what your constituents want you to do is “caving to pressure” ugh

          This is a Democracy. Biden was elected to enact the will of the people. If all of a sudden America became fascinated with the color yellow, I would expect him to start wearing yellow pins. If the American people change their minds, our elected leaders should also change their minds, because they work for us.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            we will only continue to get the “lesser evil” guaranteeing that we will eventually get the greater evil anyways

            How does that follow?

            If you keep voting hard enough for the lesser evil every time, you make things less evil. That’s how democracy works.

            Or are you one of those silly people who never votes in the primaries?

            • eldavi@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              here’s your strawman-esque argument with another one: lesser evil and evil work towards the same goal; it’s only difference at the speed at which its executed so voting for the lesser evil means that we’ll get there no matter what.

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Ah, so you’re one of the tinfoil hat Joe Rogan types.

                Voting for the lesser evil brought us expanded healthcare that saved thousands of lives. It brought us legal recognition of gay marriage. It brought us all the social progress that you’re completely ignoring.

                "Both sides"ism brought us the end of abortion protections.

                There is no grand conspiracy to make your life horrible. It’s just one evil party, one good party, and you in the middle refusing to pick because you’re scared of having any agency in your life.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Unfortunately, you’re going to be voting for “not the other option” for the rest of your life since democrats will see that this is the perfect strategy they can use to never have to actually change the status quo.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      condemn anyone who won’t vote to stop a fascist dictator

      Finally standing up to Benjamin Netanyahu and all those Americans who keep voting for him

    • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah you’re cool with voting in the fascist killing Palestinians, and shitting on people for caring about genocide. Very cool.

        • webadict@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s a 10 day old account, they are 100% a bad faith actor, and you know this because they don’t acknowledge any of the ways to push for better treatment of Palestinian civilians. They are using them as a prop to tell people to not vote for Joe Biden (which is its own brand of fucked up privileged), even though Joe Biden is pretty famous for being bullied into better positions. Voting against fascists is, indeed, the right move, and Joe Biden might be a centrist liberal, but he isn’t a fucking fascist.

            • Sylver@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              And you are acting in bad faith. You set up a straw man argument so you can bash people for whatever their choice is. If you really meant to have actual discussion, you would. Instead you spout right-wing bullshit about “Biden bad boohoo”

              You say he is the genocidal one, while he is actively being pushed to change his ways and taking responsibility while correcting the behavior. Slowly but surely. As opposed to the other side, which literally just wants to drop a nuke on the situation.

              When people call you a bad-faith actor, it’s because you’re acting in bad faith.

              • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                He literally sent more weapons to Israel yesterday. You’re dumb as hell if you think he’s going to push back against the mainstream Democratic opinion that is in support of Israel. Only way to convince Democrats to change is to stop voting for them.

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          8 months ago

          I’m sure you’ve heard all the arguments, if you are curious about my thoughts you can dig through my comment history or do some googling and guess at what they could be.

          • Feddyteddy@lemmy.sdf.org
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            8 months ago

            I think your sphincter is squeezing your neck too tight, and it’s cutting off the circulation to your brain.

              • Feddyteddy@lemmy.sdf.org
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                8 months ago

                That’s so nice of you to say! I’m quite proud of it. It just came to me out of nowhere for this comment. By all means, use it as if it were your own.

                  • Feddyteddy@lemmy.sdf.org
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                    8 months ago

                    Look who it is! It’s my adorable little angry puppy that follows me around to various threads. Half the credit for this line goes to you and your tight little brown starfish.

                    pats them on their little red head

      • webadict@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Please list the descriptors that show Joe Biden is a fascist, because I’m looking at Umberto Eco’s and I see… maybe 1, if you reach a bit: “appeal to the middle class”

        You probably fall under at least 4 though.

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          8 months ago

          he’s funding a genocide, is the leader of a country that has one of the proportionally largest prison populations in the world that are used as slaves, the U.S. is a police state who spies on its own citizens and regularly just bombs/assassinates activist movements. Any president not acting to dismantle that is fascist.

          shocking that you’re just learning this now, but the United States are the bad guys

          • webadict@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            That’s not really a good answer though. Those are policies put in place long before Biden became president, but not only that, you haven’t proposed an alternative. Your current solution is “Don’t vote for Biden” but the outcome is that you either get Biden, a continuation of the status quo at worst, or you get Trump, a continuation of the status quo AT BEST. You can pretend you live in a world where you get a third party candidate, but you don’t.

            Which leaves you in an unfortinate bind, since that makes you a fascist by your own definition. You are trying to push a solution that would make the situation at best the same, and at worst, much, much worse. As you said:

            Any president not acting to dismantle that is fascist

            I assume you would never take an action that would support a fascist. So, how can you argue that in a First-Past-The-Post voting system (and one that defaults to state legislatures if no majority is made), voting for a third party is a viable solution?

            I think you can’t if you are against fascism. You can post links to antifascist movements, organizations, or steps to take, but the American election system is too fucked to argue against the two big parties unless you are ever the optimist, but I don’t think you are if you argue both parties are fascist.

            • hark@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              You’re forgetting that biden spent almost his entire career in the senate. He’s part of the political machine that put those policies into place. Things are only getting worse, which is how assholes like trump rise to start with. If things were going great, then a candidate like trump wouldn’t have found a foothold.

            • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              If the Dems lose elections or nearly lose elections because 10% of voters choose a leftist third party, the party will move left to capture those voters. If we keep voting them in as-is, they will have no incentive to change. I am an optimist, actually, because I believe in the capacity for change. The results from the primary elections prove to me that this strategy is viable.

              • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                You’re forgetting that Democrats losing means Republicans winning. And when Republicans win elections, it pushes the entire country to the right. It happened with Reagan, the Tea Party, and Trump.

                This approach only spirals us further into far right extremism.

            • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Idk why your definition of fascism doesn’t include labor camps, war-mongering, and a militarized policing of our own people.

              • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Because that’s not fascism. Fascism is hypernationalism and tacit acceptance of political violence to support your goals. Everything you’ve mentioned is usually there with fascist regimes, but it isn’t what makes the regime fascist.

                • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  There are many definitions of fascism, but, the United States absolutely fits the definition you just gave.

                  Not every country has their flags flying constantly. Not every country has a pledge of allegiance to a flag in their schools. And the United States has bombed, imprisoned, and assassinated domestic political threats.

                  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    Hmm. I do agree, the pledge of allegiance is really weird and fascistic. And you do have a point on the violence.

                    I suppose I typically see the violence as needing to be more pervasive, like how Trump supporters send death threats to judges and political opponents and the whole Jan 6 thing. But throughout our history, we have had violent intimidation of oppositional political figures.

                    I think I wouldn’t call the US fascist because it isn’t significantly pervasive, but I completely see your point, and I don’t begrudge you identifying it as fascist. I certainly see why you think that and I can’t disagree beyond semantics.