Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

Background Pony #A789
You know, I wish I could. I also wish I could turn all this off and not worry about it for a few more months.
But you know something? I can’t afford to assume anything other than the worst case scenario. Outside this thread I avoid doomposting and doomscrolling for the sake of my friends’ mental health. But sometimes? Sometimes, I get in a really bleak mood, and so I reply to a rhetorical question in a very pessimistic manner.
If Biden and Friends screw this all up - if a Republican takes the governor’s mansion in my state in November - I could have a chance of being spared since I’m a white man. But I’m also autistic, openly bi, unapologetically queer in general, and very upfront about who and what I am. That’s never gonna change, and I will be a target for a lot of people who grow more emboldened by the day.
My intimate partner is transgender. They’re more terrified and cynical about America’s direction than I am, to the point they’re seriously considering emigration to Canada using their Mom’s citizenship, which will make it all the more difficult for me to be with them. And if my state’s GOP gets a trifecta and starts passing everything on their slate of “culture war” issues like they’re doing in all the other states they control? I’ll be forced to uproot myself from a community I love deeply to flee either to a solid blue state, or to another country.
There are silver linings happening in the grassroots around the country, and I’m not talking just about electoralism. Just earlier today I was marveling that we seem to be witnessing the birth of a Second Labor Movement.
But it’s still very much an open question as to whether the infrastructure we need to push back against fascism will be in place before time’s run out. And if it does? Well, peaceful transfer of power becomes impossible, and the future of many, many people including myself, my partner, my genderfluid sibling, and my close circle of friends - the majority of whom are themselves genderqueer - becomes all the more uncertain.
So, I’d love to lighten up. I’d love to not be a sourpuss and express severe doubt that the senior Democrats in this country are actually going to do anything, and win what could be the last free election the US has - at least at the federal level. But politics is literally a matter of life and death for myself and for people I care about with all my heart.
So I have to stay engaged, and I have to remain informed. And sometimes that endless parade of bad news and the malicious incompetence of the Establishment Democrats gets to me.
Tell me you don’t know what the word “fascism” actually means without telling me you don’t know what the word “fascism” actually means.
Beth
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
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Philomena - For helping others attend the 2021 community collab
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A Tale For The Ages - Celebrated MLP's 35th Anniversary and FiM's 8th Anniversary

In digital purgatory
@AaronMk
A company doesn’t have to carry someone for free while they have children. Women should plan their reproduction around their occupation, if they want to be treated as equals to men in the workforce anyway.
Abortion is a human right, maternity leave isn’t.
The Smiling Pony
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( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡° )
@Beth
Sounds like the talking points cue card of some US corpo’s HR department; “We’ll give you $500 to travel out of state and get an abortion so you can get back to work ASAP. Also those days are coming out of your holiday allowance.”
Here in the desolate hellscape that is Europe, maternity (and paternity!) leave is mostly covered by the government, and it’s a good investment by the company as they retain an employee that’ll come back to work happy that the company supported them… and with a very good reason to perform even better.
Latecomer

Yeah - I saw somewhere that America is one of the only countries - and I’m not just talking about the first world! - which don’t enshrine parental leave in law.
Beth
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Philomena - For helping others attend the 2021 community collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
A Tale For The Ages - Celebrated MLP's 35th Anniversary and FiM's 8th Anniversary

In digital purgatory
Maternity leave is a good thing, go for a company that offers it, just don’t be disappointed that all companies don’t offer it.
igotnopicks
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Thread Starter - Splatoon thread

Monado User
So Florida is gonna have a surprise when they watch Fox News.
Let’s just say that California Governor was on thier TV
(WTF MAN)
Background Pony #1D40
@Violet Rose in The Rain
Not really. The definition from that image would make various past rulers and other powerful people fascist. But they weren’t. Fascism was an invention of the 20th century.
I believe that Umberto Eco’s 14 points are much better. Wikipedia also quotes some good descriptions.
AaronMk
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Crystal Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Philomena - For helping others attend the 2021 community collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.

Sky funeral
@Violet Rose in The Rain
Not really. The definition from that image would make various past rulers and other powerful people fascist. But they weren’t. Fascism was an invention of the 20th century.
I believe that Umberto Eco’s 14 points are much better. Wikipedia also quotes some good descriptions.
No, Eco’s points still fall into much the same problem since even in Ur-Fascism itself he writes that a fascist does not need all the qualifiers and may even lack most of them to be helpful. Which is even less helpful. As good a novelist as Umberto Eco is he makes a terrible political scholar and philosopher because he is wholly Anglicized in that regard.
The better study on fascism and definition of fascism is from the world of the PCI/ICP where fascism emerges as any result to stifle the mobilization of worker movements to secure the state. It’s a radical mobilization of the middle class to crush the working class for conservative or reactionary means. The rise of Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party - the ur-fascist party - arose from the conflict of the Beinnio Rosso to quash the union and communist activity in Italy. The German NSDAP emerged to in the end the civil war and fought alongside the German Social Democrats to massacre workers before securing the bag.
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