4d ago

They're scared

57 comments

It’s more expensive to incarcerate someone for sleeping in public than it is to house them. It’s more expensive to incarcerate someone for shoplifting than it is to feed them.
The suffering is the point.
- My dad used to say that it was more of an incentive to get the masses to actually work instead of just subsisting and bringing the general level of the economy down to the point that it can’t support UBI anymore.
  I don’t see how anyone can worry about that when we look at how people behaved during the pandemic. Lots of people around the world were paid their normal wages and not allowed to work, and yes, Netflix was used a lot more, but labor intensive hobbies absolutely exploded. People aren’t happy just doing nothing all the time.
  
  Yeah, seriously... Humans love to work. We just don't like being told what to do and pressured to do it on someone else's time frame
  
  There have been numerous studies about this, and they have all shown that this doesn't happen. Canada did a multi-year trial with one town in the 2000s (before the program was shut down and the records sealed/destroyed by the conservative administration once they gained power) that showed a drop in workers in only two groups: high-school kids and pregnant women. It also coincided with a general increase in economic activity as well as a sharp increase in both grades in school and the number of kids graduating and going on to college afterward- especially among poor households. The general theory was that the extra money created financial security in poorer households and high-school kids didn't have to work/drop out and get a job to help put food on the table and could therefore focus more on school and have a better chance at going to college and better job prospects in the future, breaking the cycle of poverty.
- But if you can get them into the private prison system the shareholders can make money at least! /s
  
  This is the main problem when it comes to politicians not caring that incarceration costs more than helping people.
  An entire industry is built on profiting from legally-permissible slavery, and the only way to achieve growth is to either extract more value from the prisoners or the number of prisoners. The former isn't an option since prison work isn't mandatory, so that means growth is only achievable by imprisoning more people.
  To make that happen, the prison-industrial complex uses lobbyists to encourage more "tough on crime" laws and harsher sentencing.
  It really isn't a surprise that the whole idea of rehabilitation scares the politicians getting kickbacks from a private prison industry that thrives on recividivism and driving people to do things that get themselves incarcerated. They don't give a rat's ass that it costs the taxpayer more money when the alternative means that their own livelihood will be negatively affected.
  And that's precisely why we need more elected progressive politicians. The career politicians we have right now don't care about their constituents, they only care about themselves and by extension their corporate masters.
- It's to scare people into staying in work no matter how shitty it is because of the suffering.
  It's why bankruptcy is so devastating for normal people but rarely for the rich (just look at Trump).
  Being rich isn't a total amount lf money, its a differential between you and the majority, its the lack of laws that actually apply to you (drugs are the perfect example), its the lifestyle you can have compared to other people.
  It's empathy being replaced by selfishness
- Agreed.
  Also, they're not scared. They can still kill his candidacy, and if they can't, there are plenty of ways to blunt his power. Further, as we saw after Ross Perot got 19% of the vote in 1992, they can throw up institutional hurdles making it impossible for progressive candidates to have a shot at these offices in the future.
  Most of all, though, it's hard for me to get excited about this after watching Obama rule as a conservative when he sold us 'hope and change'.
  
  One thing I will say about Obama is that he did try. Years ago, somebody put together a list of all his campaign promises and the only one he didn't do anything about was closing Guantanamo Bay. Every other campaign promise said "blocked by Republicans" next to it. People forget that the rest of the government was controlled by a Republican party who said that even in the short time they didn't have majority control that they'd rather burn the government to the ground than let a black man pass any laws. The Democrats capitulating at every like they always do didn't help, of course, but it wasn't like he didn't try to do what he said he was going to.
  All the other stuff he did, though? Yeah, that's on him. There was plenty of "business as usual" during his terms when it came to things like drone strikes on civilians and deportation camps.
- In fairness, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people favoring the incarceration are not aware of it being more expensive. They only see the dichotomy of punishing the crime vs. allowing the crime.
  
  Traitor lunatics don’t care. They say stuff like “deport every last one of them illegals even if it costs a trillion dollars”. But I think you’re right that most people have been manipulated into thinking there isn’t even an alternative to harsh enforcement.
- It’s more ~~expensive~~ profitable to incarcerate someone for sleeping in public than it is to house them. It’s more ~~expensive~~ profitable to incarcerate someone for shoplifting than it is to feed them.
  The ~~suffering~~ shareholder value is the point.
  
  Turns out that imprisoning people in USA is a GREAT way to move public funds into select private pockets....
- World Incarceration Rates If Every U.S. State Were A Country
  
  I live in one of the better states, and it still has a higher incarceration rate than many of those "shithole" places that our president likes to talk about.
- The purpose of a system is what it does.
- Yes. And making sure people are so afraid of being destitute that they will work for low wages.

Poverty is a failure of the state.
- Poverty is a function of the state. Not a failure of it.
  Poverty is the implied threat that keeps people falling in line with the authority of the state to protect the economic interests of the owning class which control it.
  People need to learn to govern themselves and their own communities to begin the process of taking authority away from this exploitative system and those who control it.
  
  Poverty is a feature of this state. The same state that needs to go.

asdf
- They're scared that Mumdani beat their candidate in a huge upset.
  Literally a day later there was a billionaire offering 100M (and promising to arrange 300M) for a candidate that can beat our boy. They got Cuomo to come back for the main race after he just conceded to split the vote. The media can't seem to stop reminding us he's Muslim, maga lunatics are talking about denaturalizing him, and sometimes they keep trying the socialist or naive angles that just bounce off his charisma. They even sprung his old rap videos on CNN on him during an interview
  All this in days after a primary. They're panicking
  They're terrified, because progressives are beating money in elections
- The rich and powerful dont give a shit about any of our issues. They live on a whole other level. Now if you stop buying things that may get some fear in them.
  
  asdf

The Democratic Party is touching cloth about his victory in the primaries because of his views on Israel. Chuck "my job is to keep the left pro-Israel" Schumer and other puppets don't know how to handle it.
Edit: and the party's reaction to it is really fucking weird. He is running for mayor of NYC, a role that isn't involved with foreign policy.

This dude sounds like he should be president and not just mayor of NYC.
- Which is not going to happen, and not only because he’s not born a US citizen.
  
  Part of me wants to say that if Trump can skirt the law so much and even run a third time so can Mamdani, but another part of me is realistic.

"but I just got into politics for the networking so I could build my own wealth! Why should I have to care about the poors?! How am I supposed to deal with my ~~owners~~ donors now!?"

I’m Canadian and if you watch the parliament channel you will hear politicians debating everything from paper straws to logging contracts to fishing laws. Everything except housing, food costs and wages. It’s like they go out of their way to avoid the issues we actually are in dire need of

IT'S AFRAID

Edit: shit someone beat me to it
- Bit ironic since Doogie Howser is the fascist in this movie.

Immediately after his primary win, Ogle and Mace were both sending emails to the DOJ and publishing them suggesting "denaturalization and deportation." They want to remove naturalized citizens. It's clear intimidation and disgusting.
- They are certainly going to mess with the Zohran. A lot.

For a group of people that claim they hate socialism as much as they do, the GOP seems awfully fond of receiving very big cheques from the government.
- Because they're commies

The only people politicians "service" are their donors.

no, there aren't scared.

I don't really see it that way, I see Mamdani being welcomed with open arms. He was part of the party before and he still is, now.
- Mamdani is being welcomed by more junior politicians. A lot of senior politicians are freaked out by him for various reasons.
- Boy have you not been paying attention.
- No AIPAC funded Democrat has endorsed him. Including many prominent voices in the party.
  
  I think this last year or so has been a turning point though. AIPAC-funding is starting to become a toxic asset, particularly from the perspective of younger voters.
  Not my words, but quoting a comment I saw elsewhere:
  Your saying this is a perfect demonstration of the centrist dems not learning anything from losing the last election. No more genocide = no more zionists. Either the dems kick AIPAC dominance out of the party or the democratic party ceases to exist. Thats the choice for centrists. The dems arent winning another election otherwise. They cant win without the left and the left wont accept genocide.
  We’ll ride this right into extinction if we have to. Try us.
  And I'm starting to see more of this laid out in plain language. Younger voters might have lower turnout, but they are the future voters. And if I was a betting man, they'll come out to vote for Zohran Mamdani.

Who is scared all of the sudden? What makes you think so?
- I mean the whitehouse is calling him "Far left and unhinged” for starters.
  
  But who cares what they call someone? THEY are unhinged, crazy and idiots. They have called everyone anything they wanted for how long now? Why is this now suddenly all different and they are afraid?
  
  Nobody asked
  Edit: I mean literally nobody asked her opinion and she went on a rant saying that republicans are always right. Watch the video people, c'mon.
- There are a plethora of news articles over the last few days talking about "Democrats in distress" and "division among Democrats" over this recent victory.
  They paid the neoliberal political consultants to tell them neoliberalism is popular and so now they refuse to believe people actually want socialist policies. Even though Obama literally won on a message of change, the DNC is convinced people want more old ass "nothing will fundamentally change" Bidens. Good ol' feed the rich status quo, lord knows that's what the people really want...
- *Gestures broadly
- I would be genuinely envious of your bubble of blissful ignorance if the fact that you were on Lemmy didn’t strongly imply bad faith.
  
  Can you point out where politicians are afraid? They managed a coup, lie all the time, pardon themselves, inside trade, ..... Why would they NOW be scared all of the sudden?

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