• segabased@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    Who needs the CIA when we have useful idiots that sink any working class movement with shit like this

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      Parroting nationalistic myths is an occupation of Fascists, not of those in working class movements.

      Nationalistic delusions of grandeurs are part of the foundation for guys like Trump ending up winning elections.

      Sanders should know better.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      7 hours ago

      If a working class movement needs to lie and gaslight people into American exceptionalism it is not a working class movement.

      • exploitedamerican@lemm.ee
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        Unfortunately sanders is one of our better actors within the institution. Many leftists would have been happy and welcoming of a sanders administration for 2 terms. FDR was also partially aligned with fascists but as far as presidential administrations go he did the most for the working class that anyone ever did(thankfully he was elected for 4 terms) sanders however flawed he may be would have been as close to a new age fdr as we were ever going tk get and this is why the dnc shot themselves in the foot and disgraced their electorate. The democratic party is a center right party so yes bernie sanders is a little too close to center to be a real leftist and he compromises too much with centrists and conservatives but this is the only way to get things done within a partisan class dictatorship we have.

        But since the dnc made it clear they would rather move to the right and attempt to court conservative voters rather than move even a centimeter to the left they made it crystal clear the only way to remedy the rot and corruption of corporatist control in our political system is a full on revolution/ class war which has been waged against the working class for the last 5-6 decades at least.

      • segabased@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        Anyone that meets the working class where they are to build class consciousness in terms they understand are building the working class movement.

        But I guess we can nitpick and siphon the air out of any sort of potential for progress by doing the work of fascist apologists. Jailing and killing socialists will really bring about the perfect revolution we need

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          6 hours ago

          Accepting reality is fine. Gaslighting and covering for an oppressive system is not. Especially since this supposed movement has failed to make any gains with its endless compromises.

          If the movement is only beneficial for the empire and not its victims I care little for it.

          • witnessbolt@lemm.ee
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            5 minutes ago

            This is an example of where you can slightly tweak it to say “America is supposed to have…” and the entire problem is sidestepped

            You know what Bernie is saying. I agree he can be more direct in this day and age. Anyone who has paid attention to Bernie understands he knows the system is broken

  • splonglo@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Another nit-pick by the circular firing squad of so-called progressives.

    True American Patriots like Bernie understand that the USA was mearly subverted away from the Light of Democracy by malign actors.

    • habitualcynic@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Gaslighting from fascist twitter users more than circling firing squad. Definitely took an opportunity to try to dig at the GOAT.

      • splonglo@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Solid theory. The right does love to trawl through history looking for failed authoritarian regimes to soy over.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    Bernie: 250 years the US has supported democracies

    Net-a-yahoo: #whatAbout when they supported bad people?

    World: uh, them too? You didn’t actually refute Bernie’s statement.

  • thefrozenorth@sh.itjust.works
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    10 hours ago

    This is not fact checking. This is gaslighting. The fact that the USA has been supporting dictators for decades does not change or alter what Bernie is saying.

    • yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      …Bernie said the US supported democracy. This is, in every conceivable way, a complete and total lie.

      It’s such a ridiculous lie that you wouldn’t be able to say just those words after the year 1805.

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      8 hours ago

      Supporting manufacturing war against Russia without regards to their security concerns, or talking to them, may have been a necessity in loyalty to Biden. Keeping up the charade is definitely not progressive.

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        3 minutes ago

        Stop drinking the Russian kool aid. This has literally been the Russian gameplan since they knew they couldn’t beat us in a hot war. Psy-ops to turn us anti-globalist is almost literally verbatim the whole plan.

        You can accept that the US has done some shady shit that needs to be criticized and not forgotten about, without totally dumping liberal democracy and spewing straight Russian propaganda

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    Of course they provide for the dictatorships, who do you think put them there in the first place? It’s called responsible parenting sweaty 💅

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    14 hours ago

    You can do both. Saying they’ve supported dictatorships doesn’t mean they haven’t also supported democracy. It’s bordering on being a non sequitur.

      • turtle [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        Where we read “democracy”, they read “economic benefit” or “geopolitical benefit”. As far as I’m aware, any “democratic movement” that the US has ever supported has been either to get rid of a not sufficiently capitalist regime (whether or not they were democratic), or for some other geopolitical strategic reason.

        I haven’t heard of a single example of the US supporting a democracy purely for democracy’s sake. Sometimes it just so happens that the goals of supporting democracy and getting rid of pesky regimes that pose an economic or strategic obstacle align.

        Not to mention that the US has been involved in regime change of many democracies over the last 80 years because they weren’t sufficiently friendly to American companies or didn’t support American strategic goals strongly enough. This is open, well-documented history. The CIA admits to many of the ones which were done at least 50 years ago.

        Here is a list to get started: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      12 hours ago

      No you can’t. You cannot say you support racial equality while holding a BLM sign one day and attending a KKK rally the next.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        If I give you a dollar and I give Steve a dollar, I’ve supported you both.

        Your example is also wrong. BLM and KKK are organizations. You absolutely can support both organizations by giving them money. It makes you a hypocrite and means you don’t believe in equality. But when has anyone claimed the United States isn’t hypocritical?

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          Steve and me are entities. Democracy is an ideology.

          You cannot support an ideology while also supporting its polar opposite.

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            7 hours ago

            Yes, I can, if I choose to be a hypocrite. I can push for both.

            Picture a seesaw. Polar opposite sides. Raising one lowers the other. We can support both sides with bricks to make it a table. Both sides are supported. But neither shows progress.

            I think we’re disagreeing on the word supported.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    “Technically, the United States didn’t get bad, it’s always been bad! It only got worse!” isn’t the flex a lot of leftists think it is.

    • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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      10 hours ago

      What has this to do with “lefties”?
      A dictatorship and dismantling everything inside the country and destroying relationships with allies can’t be good either way

      Or do I miss something?

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      16 hours ago

      What’s wrong with the message “We should be doing better, not worse”?

      Seems preferable to the “hurt people who also want the things I have” that seems the core of conservatism.

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        What’s wrong with it is it’s normalizing Donald Trump. Like, actually pointing at Trump and saying “this is normal.” US democracy is on life support, and calling this business-as-usual is like telling people there’s nothing to see here while he yanks and tugs on the plug.

        • Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
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          I’m not sure I understand.

          Saying “We can do better than Trump/Fascism/Corruption/Kleptocracy” seems far from normalising the current state?

          • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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            12 hours ago

            Saying we can do better than trump/fascism is not what the OP is implying. The op is implying what were are doing now is the same as what we have done before. We can acknowledge that we’ve done bad before, but now it’s for sure way worse. I agree with Bernie that now is way worse than before

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      The point is it isn’t really worse. Yet, anyway. He’s only been president for a few weeks so obviously it can get worse.

      But right now, Trump is about as bad as every other president. Bad in different ways, of course, but they all belong in prison.

      • ceenote@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        I disagree. No president has ever abandoned a democratic ally to invasion by an imperialist dictator for such petty, malicious reasons.

        They might all belong in prison, but that’s like saying a shoplifter is just as bad as a serial killer.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          13 hours ago

          The only reason Trump has this opportunity to screw over Ukraine is because Biden kept the war going. The previous administration pressured Ukraine to keep the war going instead of entering negotiations over territory back when Russia was in a much worse position than it is now.

          The reason? At the time it appeared that the war was an opportunity to weaken Russia and let them to waste blood and treasure on an unwinnable quagmire.

          Years later all they accomplished was killing more Ukrainians and Russia is stronger than ever. Biden got Ukraine here, even if Trump is the one to finish them off.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            The only reason Trump has this opportunity to screw over Ukraine is because Biden kept the war going.

            Some DARVO shit right here.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              DARVO shit would be blaming Ukraine, which is what Trump does.

              I’m blaming the imperial power that provoked the war in the first place and then stopped negotiations from taking place and never gave Ukraine enough aid to actually win outright. The plan was always to hurt Russia, not help Ukraine. They’re the victims in all this.

              The US has a lot of responsibility for the war going on this long. All presidents are criminals.

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                  9 hours ago

                  Russia was not justified in its invasion, but let’s not pretend the goal is just to steal land. They need a buffer state from NATO or it’s only a matter of time until they get the Libya treatment. This is to protect Russians, unfortunately Ukrainians got used as pawns to threaten them when their government was overthrown by a Western coup i.e. imperialism.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          No president has ever abandoned a democratic ally to invasion by an imperialist dictator for such petty, malicious reasons.

          Well now hold on, we did that to the Kurds in… Wait, nevermind, that was also Trump.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          15 hours ago

          Bidens genocide in Gaza is far worse than this. These selective standards are all over the place.

          Democrats really think they can put the mask back on after taking it off.

          • ceenote@lemmy.world
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            Let’s compare Trump’s Ukraine policy to Biden’s Ukraine policy: It’s worse.

            Let’s compare Trump’s Gaza policy to Biden’s Gaza policy: At best, it’s the same. More likely, it’s worse.

            Who’s being selective?

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          We have not only abandoned democracies (many of which were more democratic than Ukraine), we have actually been the ones to destroy them. Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran, Operation Condor targeting every democracy in South America, genocide in Indonesia, etc, etc. Trump’s stance on Ukraine is, at worst, not doing enough to protect a democracy from external threats, but America has frequently been the external threat democracies need protection from. Don’t you see how that’s worse?

    • it_depends_man@lemmy.world
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      Hm. I think we can agree that “flexing” and “ooooh, we told you so” and “look at our superior moral high ground, isn’t it moral and amazing” isn’t exactly material to make friends in a political debate.

      The problem is to formulate a political common ground position that so many people can agree on, that it’s trivial to support it. And it should be very clear that “they nazi, don’t pay attention to our goals btw” isn’t good enough. Even if it’s bernie saying it.

      The problem with formulating that position is also, that it’s hard to even bring the attention and time investment that is required for listening to people or to read an argument, if you don’t trust the person making the argument. So a “hold on, we’re going to get to the good point in 20 minutes” isn’t good enough either.

      Starting with something is obviously wrong like “we have always been the good guys” will destroy what little benefit of the doubt people may bring to the table. And it’s not material to build that common ground.

      So, try to read the “we told you so” not as a petty attempt to rub something in, but as a “this situation being wrong has been our position from the start, let’s get to the real argument, please”.

      And that actual real argument can’t be an appeal to the long, honorable, just and democratic history and patriotism, because that kind of rhetoric is what got us into this mess in the first place.


      There is this mental pattern, that people look for the weakest argument and “destroy” their opponent and “win”. We’re not interested in the destruction, but we’re also not going to support bad arguments. It takes effort to overcome, because doing that is fun.

      tl;dr Bernie made a bad point here. Let’s acknowledge that it was bad and move on.

  • Freedom House doesn’t label places as “dictatorships.” So this is suspect right off the bat. They use a “freedom index.”

    No doubt the figure from 2015 includes significant support and training to Afghanistan, labeled with a score of 6 out of 100. Does that count as supporting a dictatorship? No.

    If we sell weapons to the Saudis to fight Iranian creep, is that supporting dictatorship? Maybe a little. No question of Iran and Saudi, Iran is a much less free and much worse dictatorship. Sometimes that’s just how progress looks.

    This “fact check” is at best highly misleading, bordering on false.

    • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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      There are tons of other sources where you can know the US is a big sponsor of dictatorships.
      Anyone that has been on this planet for a few decades would know that from his own experience and lifetime.
      Afghanistan is a great example of the US bringing ‘democracy’.
      Create and massively fund parties, have ‘free’ elections and see the Taliban win.
      OC they had to do it over until theur puppet won.
      When he finally grew a consciense and became too vocal about the US and their mass murdering he was replaced by another even more obvious puppet, Ghani. Who has been a US citizen for most of his life, was made to wear traditional clothes and grow a beard. (even then he was hated and it took a lot of shennanigans to get him ‘elected’.
      He also fled in the middle of the night (like the US cowards) and stole more than $160 million from the empoverished country.
      Wich is nothing compared to the US regime that stole billions from them out of spite.

      No headchopping Saudi has ever fought Iran.
      They used their US weapons to invade Yemen and terrorise their great and brave people, with Iran the only ones to help the Palestinians.
      Iran is in no way comparable to that awful SA.
      BTW didn’t the US say they where going to make them a pariah state?
      That went out of the window when they could do the biggest arms deal in history of 350 billion right?
      And still lost the war against the Houthis😂

      To summarise, you’re full of shit.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      Iran is fighting Israel. They are the best country in the Middle East.

      Fun to see Democrats simping for Saudi to placate Israel now.

      • EightBitBlood@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        If you can’t make an argument without a political scape goat being attached to it, then it’s a bad argument.

        Trumps son took 2 billion from the Saudis against the financial advice and suggestions of every expert they hired. It was, by all accounts, the largest in plain sight bribe ever witnessed.

        Your argument is only a Dem problem if you cherry pick their name to attach to it.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          9 hours ago

          Yes Fox News went on a hardline propaganda tour to whitewash the Saudi government a few years ago. Democrats coming around to it is what is surprising.

          Does every negative comment about Democrats need a caviat also condemning Republicans to be valid?

          • EightBitBlood@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            Your comment was about how bad it is to cater to the Saudis.

            Shitting on Dems isn’t needed to make that point. At all.

            Unless your point was actually about shitting on Dems in the first place, and using the Saudis as an excuse.

            Which is the point I was making, and now you are too:

            Does every negative comment about Democrats need a caviat also condemning Republicans to be valid?

            You can shit on the Saudis without shitting on a political party.

            Instead, you’re just using “Saudis bad” as an excuse to attack Dems.

            How does that do anything to further your point about the Saudis being awful? Your point is lost, and you just sound like every other brainwashed American.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      If we are playing silly semantics then Russia is a “democracy” as well and Trump is supporting “democracy”.

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        When you say Russia is more of a democracy than the US, I think that’s more of having no standards than playing semantics. They are both oligarchies, and you are basically living up to the lack of standards that is your namesake, the mockery of geneva conventions. ml users be ml users.

      • Lysergid@lemmy.ml
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        Nothing silly here. “Fact checker” twisting Bernie’s words. Sad to be corrected yourself?

  • djmikeale@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    Whether technically correct or not (as I don’t know anything about this topic), what’s going on right now is insane, and if weapons were being sold to baddies under Obama, that also sounds shitty. So seems like any time is a good time to reflect upon how much power USA’s militarily-industrial complex possesses.

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    11 hours ago

    Congress had to lift a ban on arming neo-Nazis in order to send weapons to Ukraine. And Bernie, a supposed progressive, is arguing the US should continue a brutal proxy war by continuing to arm extremists.

    This country has lost its fucking mind.

    • yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      It’s the natural result of a century of anti Russia and anti Chinese propaganda. The entire western world lost its damn mind and is likely to go full nuclear warfare before realizing they’ve been manipulated by a few wealthy people.

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        We definitely had some kind of anti-war movement during the GWB administration. But under Obama, they completely obliterated it.

        The DNC primaried every anti-war representative they had, and are running literal, self-identified CIA agents for seats (including Elissa Slotkin who just delivered the Dem response to the state of the union, praising Reagan). They also helped the police and intelligence agencies coordinate a crackdown of protest across the entire country to protect Israel. And they’re working with the GOP to build cop cities across the country.

        At this point, I consider the Democratic Party to be a branch of the CIA.