volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@TCatInReality

It's really important to realize that different forms of government, the US representative system versus parliamentary systems in particular, have fundamentally different mechanisms when it comes to voting, when it comes to what they present to voters, so if you lump them all together you're missing vital differences between how those different systems work.

In many parliamentary systems the parties are put first as fundamental elements, but in stark contrast, in the US system parties form to market to voters, as voters, voting in their districts for their particular representatives, form the fundamental movers.

The two systems are fundamentally opposite. And the difference is so important to keep in mind as you talk about the realities of the US system. The contrast with parliamentary systems is not only academic but it is fundamental and it is practically strategically vital to recognize.

It does nobody any good to ignore the way the US system actually works, especially in contrast with parliamentary systems. And anyone who's not interested in that distinction just isn't really interested in facing realities of where we are in the world today.

@georgetakei

@TCatInReality to me that comes across as saying you don't have the time or interest to discuss how the world actually works, how the US system actually functions in reality. And I think that's a big problem.

And yeah I see that a whole lot on the Republican side. I see Republicans constantly chirping about being part of the team when really, that promotes a false understanding of how all of this works, it buys into this very antisocial norm about how the US system of government is set up.

If you don't have the time or interest in speaking back against these norms that do such a grave disservice to the democratic principles underlying the US system of government, well, what's the point then?

I would encourage you not to play their game. I would encourage you to prioritize the interest in speaking out against this misframing about how the world works.

@georgetakei

@TCatInReality it wasn't up to Schumer, though. He's not the king of the Senate. He's just one of 100 senators.

We seriously need to stop letting senators use majority and minority leaders as scapegoats for their own positions.

It wasn't up to Schumer to hold out or not. It was up to every single Senator to decide whether to shut down government and accept that blame, and it's not crazy that they didn't want to do that.

And yes, technically this was a vote for cloture. I wasn't going to bring that up, but now that you mention it, that just proves that it wasn't what you said.

@georgetakei

@TCatInReality No, there aren't plenty of ways to keep the government funded.

There is a single legal way. Congress votes to appropriate money. Other than that one specific way, there is no other way.

This was not a vote to slash funding. That is literally false, that is factually not what this was a vote for.

You're off talking about things that just aren't true. You're spreading misinformation here. And anyone with a basic knowledge of how the US government functions would know better than to believe this kind of nonsense.

No, what you're saying is not true, it's not how the federal government works and it never has been, even if certain politicians are promoting that story for political gain and certain media outfits are getting clicks from putting that kind of story out.

But it's not factual.

@georgetakei

@cdarwin Right, because that's not how the judicial branch works in the United States.

A whole lot of judges seem to have been put on benches when they don't actually know what their job is or how to do it.

@kdwarn I just wish we could all get on the same page about it, because if we emphasized what an impotent loser Trump has been according to his track record, he never would have been elected again.

Unfortunately Democrats kept building him up as this great leader succeeding in leading his people, when he never was, and so his people voted for him again.

The dumbass is a dumbass. We should have spent the last years pointing that out instead of acting like he knew what he was doing.

@jerrygoff No, numbers like that were debunked the last time they came around, but they keep circulating on social media unfortunately.

No, that's not how this legislation works out. A whole lot of sensationalized media outfits get clicks promoting this kind of stuff, but it's not true.

@foolishowl No, that was an intentional feature to promote privacy sorts of interests.

The primary purpose of an IP address is not to be static and allow anyone on the internet to address you or anything like that. It's just to establish communication channels.

IPv6 provides more flexibility for an in point to have static or dynamic addressing depending on how it wants to be reached.

This is absolutely a feature, an intentional one.

@kdwarn Yes.

And I think it's really worth emphasizing that a lot of what Trump is doing is actually relinquishing power. This is a great example of it.

He's undermining himself, undermining his own ability to influence the country and the world, with moves like this.

I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, it is what it is, and it's worth noticing.

@Tharpa about oh civilized people should want them to be able to express their positions so we can be really clear about what we're rejecting.

@lianna@mastodon.gamedev.place Yeah I've heard that claim go around, and it always seemed like a leap. Occam's razor has simpler explanations:

Traditional patterns of reproduction really explain it all pretty simply, both the cost of a family taking on the child that the daughter births and the disappointment in a son that isn't out there engaging in reproductive behaviors.

No need to go into any deeper psychology than that. It's just people hung up on the old ways when reproduction was so critical to survival.

@lunarood

@joeinwynnewood keep in mind that a large reason Trump was elected and then reelected is because people were already experiencing that sort of thing in their real lives.

Regular folk had become less and less satisfied with how the government was going, and with that so many just gave up and elected the guy promising to flip the table.

So there's a confusion of cause and effect here. It's not so much because of what the Republicans are doing that people expect less from the government, it's because people experienced less from the government that they elected Republicans.

It's an important lesson to learn.

@mstarace this headline kind of gets the story backwards.

He didn't cave to Republicans. He caved to the Democrats in the Senate who wanted to move the legislation forward and avoid being bashed for shutting down the federal government.

That's really the central role of the Senate minority leader. The two Senate leaders don't answer to the American public, they answer to their own caucuses, and the guy did what the caucus wanted him to do.

@georgebaily It's not a new idea, and the tremendous real world problems with it aren't new either.

The biggest problem I have with it is the way it doubles down on the negative concept of tying people to their jobs. We really should push for life outside of employment, but this sort of thing only serves to emphasize the centrality of what a person does for a living to their whole life.

There are other practical problems, but for me that's the biggest one.

@tehuti88 Data sampling is a real thing, you know. It's part of the scientific method. You shouldn't be so quick to just dismiss it.

Now if you have solid data that refutes the claim, bring it forward!

But at this point your post is pretty much anti-scientific, and I think it's important to realize that. Careful what you're attacking.

@Climatehistories his DOGE-funded emergency response team will be in charge?

That's not how the federal government works. You're repeating nonsense here.

@HamonWry He's fighting against Democrats who are making a strategic blunder, wanting to shoot themselves in the foot so that they wouldn't be as able to fight back against Trump going forward.

That's where his fight is. He's trying to save the Democrats from themselves, having to fight both the suicidal call to shut down government and the administration at the same time.

@Thelonious08 do you see how silly it sounds to talk about voting with the fascist?

If a person really is such a fascist then votes wouldn't matter either way.

Statements like that just sound crazy.

@salixsericea If Trump isn't less popular and doesn't have the backing of as many in our democratic system the next time this discussion comes up, then nothing really matters anyway.

And that's why folks need to fight to convince their fellow countrymen over to their side.

The fight is in the population, not in DC. If people want Trump to govern, well, then the fight is lost.

@TCatInReality I don't think voting against continuing the operations of the US government is the salvation from self-destruction that you think it is...

@georgetakei