Bold move, Huffman. Let’s see how it plays out.

Pretty simple - same folks who bought Xitter and Trump are pulling their $ out until Reddit starts censoring shit they don’t like. It’s not a coincidence that “Luigi” became a banned word last week.

The people who run the Democratic Party got there by being good at catering to the rich. Now, the party must fight the rich, or be crushed. Therefore, the party itself needs to radically remake its leadership. If it does not, it will not be able to become an effective opposition party, and all of us will suffer for it.

The DNC will not allow this to happen. They will fight as viciously as the GOP to hold on to their power, and will take the party down in order to maintain it. We’ve seen it before when they iced out Bernie (Hillary and Wasserman-Schultz, I’m looking at you).

This is a really well-written article, but I think the author is missing a key point here - the Democratic Party cannot change quickly enough to help us. It won’t, and even if it wanted it too, economically in a world of Citizens United, it just can’t. The grassroots infrastructure of the Obama years is gone, and they’ll never compete against foreign billionaires using meme coins to dodge campaign finance laws.

They know they’re beat, and without the grassroots, their only hope is to lay low until the economic collapse that Trump brings starts hurting their former donors enough to scare them back into the ranks of the Dem donors. Just like the GOP of the Biden years, they need us to suffer to maintain their power.

This is they’re asking us to wait two years so that “maybe we can do something to stop Trump” while they vote in his nominees and censure those who speak out against him. They’re willing to let Americans suffer to try to score political points with their oppressors.

Here’s what really has to happen for the Dems to become relevant again:

Stop telling people what to do and who to vote for. Encourage resistance to Trump, don’t shut it down - this is a street fight and nobody gives a shit about decorum.

Start listening to and organizing your constituents in resistance. Stop paying for ads and start paying for permanent local staff who actively work in the community throughout the election cycle, not just once every four years. Engage and assist unionization efforts and community improvement initiatives.

Stop playing coy about churches and how they’re supposed to be non-political. They’re not - work them the way the GOP does - Jesus has a lot more in common with Dems than Nazis.

And stop ceding territory - there are a number of areas where the GOP runs unopposed. What the hell kind of a national party are you if you can’t field a candidate in every race?

People have to believe that you’re working for them before they allow you to lead them. All they’ve seen thus far from the majority of Dems is that they’re willing to surrender.

We’ve seen the American Greens completely co-opted by Russian interests over here. Jill Stein is an absolute disgrace. I’m certain the Russians are working overtime on the German Greens as well. This is actually a real concern of mine when thinking about a potential political party - how to keep it from getting co-opted by adverse actors (foreign or otherwise).

Thanks for your detailed response - this is excellent advice. My purpose in providing the top down summary came when I realized how low the threshold could be to create action on the state level - my intention with the wall of text was to provide local thresholds for exactly this purpose. One of the problems we’ve seen with the Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, and Green Party is that they have only a brief local presence if at all, and they’re extremely disorganized on a national level.

Regarding automation, I agree with you that this will become a political issue in the near future. I think the platform should definitely include worker protections, and possible even a UBI financed through a tax on AI productivity could be a winner if properly articulated.

One thing about your comment really caught my eye:

The alternative route is fine a huge personality and buuld a national party around them. However from European politics weve seen that basically means populist domineering politicians, and the parties are unstable - they build fragment and rebuild. Look at UKIP, Brexit Party and now Reform Partyin the UK, or the numerous parties Berlesconi led in Italy. It can work and be disruptive but I think such parties are very risky. Its a bit like taking a punt on another Trump like personality rather than fixing the actual problem with politics of unrepresentative parties.

This struck me as its the route both parties in the US have been taking, and because I think creating an internal democratic governance structure is the only way to keep a potential Progressive Party from going the way of the Dems as the organization grows. I’ve got some ideas on how to do this (party members can vote on policy between elections to inform elected reps, something not really done in the US), but they go beyond the scope of this initial discussion. However, ensuring that personality doesn’t trump policy would need to be a cornerstone in any internal governance to prevent demagogues from hijacking the party.

Nothing constructive about this criticism, but I’ll respond to your points.

First, the breakdown by state is to provide attainable targets for action at the state and local level. As you can see, the thresholds for getting on the ballot are low with a bit of community organizing. The reason people don’t get involved at the local and state level is because they don’t see a path for real national change through their action there.

This is my attempt to start charting that path. I agree with your overall point here, but tactical state and local targets need a national strategy to work together to create real change.

Secondly, I have worked with the Democratic party (since the 90s) and seen how progressive ideas get sidelined and lip-service at best, even in supposedly left wing states like California. The primary effect of the Democratic party as it exists in 2025 is to dilute revolutionary energy into the service of the corporate agenda where it can (Obamacare instead of universal health care, for instance), and render it impotent where it can’t.

Real action that threatens corporate interests simply isn’t possible within the democratic party apparatus, because there are plenty of special interests willing to sink progressive candidates in the primary (AIPAC, I’m looking at you). Citizens United hollowed out the Dems just as much as it did the GOP, and they’re completely captured by their donor class. The fact we haven’t had a real primary since Obama in 2008 has made it clear that there is no voice for the people when it comes to platform or policy.

In regards to:

There has to be a foundation in place, or it’s just a waste of time and effort. It takes decades to do this, not one election cycle.

The best time to grow a tree was 30 years ago. The second best time to grow a tree is now. I have no illusions that the process would be quick nor easy. But it is attainable. And since the other alternatives are either been proven ineffective or would involve potential violence, this seems to be the only legal path forward for Americans to regain control of our political system.

I mean, I’m open to alternatives, but just giving a list of reasons why it won’t work isn’t helpful, and does nothing but discourage people from getting involved.

Agreed. This is why I believe that Alaska is ripe territory for a Progressive Party - they already have ranked choice voting. This should be a key part of the party platform.

I’d also like to ask you, as a non-American, which parties in your country would you point to as being Progressive success stories? I’d like to look at their platforms, strategy and tactics.

Start subscribing to communities across instances - it will drastically improve your feed quality and the overall Fediverse at the same time.

In the Fediverse, note that when you hit “All or New” you’re only seeing the instances that people on your server have already subscribed to at a previous point in time. By subscribing to new communities on separate instances, you’re opening a gateway for other users on the server to start discovering it as well.

Yea, my blessed Fediverse brethren, hear ye!

Mark thy holy lemmings, gird thy loins with smelling salts and prepare for the unwashed tides. The memes will be terrible and swift, and no one will be safe from the waves of idiocy.

Tremble, for the 2nd Dawn of the Age of Incelius has arrived, and the Reddexodus Reddux is upon us!

That was you?

Well then, in answer to your last question scrawled in the Kansas City Walmart bathroom, yes, you should definitely get that checked out by a medical professional.

This reminds me of a story told to me by the Ukrainian Master Accordionist Leonid Nosov twenty five years ago when he was my landlord.

Leonid had grown up under the communist regime:

“They would come every month, the party bosses. And they would tell us to do this and not to do that and we would listen very closely but never ask questions. Just nod. Just smile. Thank the boss. Then go back to doing what needed doing. If you don’t understand this, then everyone in town would yell at you when the bosses were gone. Because if you don’t stay quiet, then they take you away, and then maybe you tell the bosses what everyone is really doing.”

I’ve found that this to be good advice in most corporate settings as well.

Welcome! If you’re finding the interface a bit clunky, try this: https://a.lemmy.world/

Nice catch - erm71@who.eop.gov… no website attached to the subdomain, but I’m hearing a familiar tune in my head…

1971 is Elon’s birth year. Kinda stupid to put it in his email address against government protocol, imho.

Luigi represents the biggest possible threat to the established order. You can win a war, crush a revolution, and even enslave a people, but it doesn’t change the basic math:

A lone gunman can be just as powerful as any CEO, politician, or king in the right moment.

That’s the real message that they’re trying to suppress, because they know he’s going to have copycats as they tighten the noose on the working class.

I found out that referring to a top 10 breakdown of healthcare CEOs as “Luigi’s List” is inciting violence under the new rules. That comment had 500+ upvotes before it was removed.

So, to all the poor bastards who upvoted me and are now on Reddit’s hit list… I’m sorry, folks. No one told me they were rigging my shitposts with landmines.

…you just gave this guy an upvote, and when @Kyrgizion and I head off to the gulag, you’ll be next on the list.

EDIT: wait, forgot we were on lemmy. We’ve got some breathing room until Trump invades the EU.

Well, Digg back then was better than Reddit is now, so I guess that’s something.

#1 rule on LinkedIn when responding to recruiters - ask them what the pay, benefits and hours are before providing anything other than what’s on your public facing resume.

If the job offer is legit, they’ll respond quickly with real numbers. If they throw up some BS like “competitive pay dependent on experience”, then they’re either a scammer or someone who doesn’t have any real authority to actually hire you. They’ll try to string you along so you’re invested, and won’t balk when you find out their offer is below market rate. If they’re not up front in any way, or leave you hanging for basic information, let it go. They’ll just waste your time and energy, or put you in an untenable situation where you won’t be able to trust them if you do end up working for them.