I want to expand the House to proper proportionality and staff it by sortition.

That’s on me for assuming I didn’t have to specify an alternative which isn’t entirely counterproductive. Just like you generally don’t hear people talking about coal-burning steam engines as an alternate energy source for cars. If your alternative causes more problems than it solves, it’s not an alternative worth mentioning.

An alternative that relies on a majority of voters completely changing their voting strategies is not a workable alternative. Third party is a spoiler, always. A bit for Jill Stein only makes Trump more probable.

Uh huh, and historically violent authoritarian transitional regimes are always so willing to step aside after the transition.

This is shamelessly false though? What are you smoking?

How many people are actually advocating for non voting?

Uh, lots. There’s been a tireless effort here in leftist spaces discouraging voting for “genocide Joe” without actually providing alternatives.

Well, they never give a reason why it has to be Biden.

It’s because politics moves slowly and it’s way too late for someone else to start campaigning, plus he’s the incumbent. If you had someone in mind a year ago, it would be worth discussing. It’ll never happen in the next 4 months.

There’s a difference between someone-needs-to-coordinate-and-manage-complex-undertakings “authoritarian” and line-the-dissidents-up-against-the-wall “authoritarian”. Tankies are the latter.

Lots of people say lots of silly things, nonetheless Trump is worse for the proletariat than Biden, and turning your nose up at the lesser evil endangers real people when the greater evil wins. You don’t have to vote for the greater evil to help tip the scales in their favor. Accelerationism is authoritarianism with extra steps and no one in the driver’s seat.

A tankie is, broadly, someone who wants to effect left-wing ideology using authoritarian methods. It originally referred to those who defended the USSR using tanks to suppress the Hungarian Revolution, but it could be aptly used to describe those who defend China’s actions in Tiananmen Square. It’s rightfully used as a perjorative, since authoritarian enforcement is antithetical to leftism, particularly communism.

Tankies are hypocrites who didn’t understand their self-proclaimed ideologies. If someone’s idea of communist praxis is lining up dissenters for the firing squad, you’re dealing with a tankie.

me, a disenfranchised Independent former Democrat who plans on voting for Jill Stein unless the DNC can produce a viable candidate, a MAGA.

Voting third party doesn’t necessary make you MAGA, but you’re certainly helping them.

We’re only stuck with Biden because Biden and the people he put in charge of the DNC would rather risk trump than Biden step aside.

We’re stuck with Biden precisely because the DNC doesn’t want to risk Trump, and the incumbent advantage is significant.

Then, this begs the question - What other structures might be similarly equipped?

I also think this theory is plausible, and if it is true I assume it’s stayed under wraps precisely because they didn’t want future terrorists to be able to just trigger the conveniently pre-installed explosives.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what your goal is: establishing your ethical superiority, or reducing the number of animals lost to the meat industry? The middle-ground approach saves more animal lives than calling omnivores “murderers”.

I play GURPS and my son is also named math

Without Biden’s unconditional support Israel would have to stop.

How did you come to that conclusion? Israel has their own arms production, and many current and potential allies who would step in.

Once again, I said none of that. Scroll up to verify I didn’t call you out at any point.

This is a public forum, when you make a statement people are free to comment. You made a statement I disagreed with, and all I said was that the statement was questionable. All the rest of this “calling beliefs out” happened purely in your head. Feel how you wish about your choices, but don’t implicate me in your projection.

Uh, you do know it’s possible to focus on fruits, which are freely given, right? You volunteered your perspective in the first place, and you’re the one throwing your hands up instead of finding an ethical diet. You’re the one trying to justify your choices based on subjective distinction. You’re the one calling yourself a hypocrite. All I said was that your absolute claim was questionable.

I eat, primarily, botanical fruits (which includes cucumbers, squash, and a surprising quantity of other vegetables freely given by plants for our consumption) as well as meat which would otherwise be thrown away. Once the animal is dead, it is far more respectful to consume it than let it be wasted. I typically buy meat on clearance, at the end of the night, on the expiration date.

I have no desire to “gotcha” people who sincerely want to make a better world, but hypocrites who call out others while justifying their own ethical blind spots are typically more interested in self-righteousness than actually improving the world.

Consciousness is an open question. A potato does not perceive the same way as a pig, but a pig does not perceive the same way as a human. Plants communicate and make rudimentary decisions. Once you start getting into questions of degree, you subjectively decide where to draw the line. If you can argue that the line is between animals and plants, then someone else can argue the line is between animals and humans.

It’s intellectually dishonest to pretend our understanding of sentience and sapience is simple and unambiguous.

Plants have no concept of pain without a brain, nervous system or even nerve endings.

Ehhh, questionable.

Was vegan, not anymore. Meat takes a little while to readjust to but eventually it’s fine, dairy is the real problem.