It also has nothing to do with discouraging political participation, but rather encouraging more active political participation in processes outside of simply voting intermittently. When both choices offered are dogshit, or no choice is presented in the first place, the point isn’t to say “all hope is lost give up” but rather “this is broken in a way that voting will not fix.”
When the DNC is actively doing things such as obfuscating the very clear decline of the sitting president in order to bypass the primary process and install Harris, or ratfucking someone like Bernie via super delegates, media control, and so on in '16, this was not done by some “nefarious-but-nebulous they”. It’s very explicitly the DNC. Harris was one of the least popular candidates in '20, one of the first to drop from the race, and her term as vice president did very little to ingratiate her to those she ostensibly represents.
Whatever it is that needs to happen in order for people to get the sort of representation and principled opposition to fascism that most of them actually want, the DNC itself is obviously highly resistant or outright incapable of providing it. Voting alone will not fix this.
(edited '16 to '20 for the Harris primary drop out, realized I’d gotten dates mixed up and double checked afterwards to confirm)
Syrians deserve peace and stability, but that is not at all what is being offered here. Sanctions are cruel, and it’s worth celebrating that they’ve been lifted, but the cost looks like it’s going to be an international effort to pillage and exploit Syria.
These puppets did nothing while israel systematically bombed most of Assad’s leftover military infrastructure, stockpiles, and vehicles. Literally hundreds of airstrikes without any meaningful response. They’re barely disputing occupied territories, even as they expand. Instead they’ve gotten into border skirmishes with Lebanon, attacked the Syrian Druze, and killed thousands of Alawites.
The testimonies of coastal massacre escapees are harrowing. There are more widely publicized stories of door to door executions, but there’s another pattern I heard described several times by people that lived in smaller villages.
Security forces would show up in uniform during the day, ask around about locals and their backgrounds, and disarm the population while assuring them that they would be protected. Then at night, there would be a brutal attack, and what I heard again and again is that the groups doing this are one and the same.
CW: descriptions of horrific NSFL videos:
I’ve seen them laughing as they took turns beating an old man to death. I watched one execute a teenage boy mid-conversation. I’ve seen mass graves full of children, women, elders. I’ve seen dozens of civilians of all ages and identities in lines along roadsides, against walls, some with bound wrists, some clearly mutilated. I’ve seen military vehicles spray entire apartment buildings with machine gun fire.
It’s ludicrous to describe this demon as protecting ethnic minorities while his forces have systematically killed thousands in an ethnic cleansing campaign. There were a few scattered clashes with Assad loyalist forces, but Alawite civilians were then described as such in order to justify liquidating entire villages.
Just because this monster puts on a suit, gets some official uniforms for his dogs to wear for the public, it does not change who he is and what he does. Don’t be fooled by the hollow condemnation of what he dismisses as the actions of extremist elements. This entire regime change operation has been undertaken not by Syrians seeking liberation, but by foreign powers conspiring to strip the country and its people for parts.
Thousands of Syrians trusted this new regime, believed it could be a step in the right direction, and were instead brutalized and exterminated. al-Jolani is an implant and a foreign instrument, and he’s given himself 4-5 years in power. Syrians did not choose him, other states did.