Hardkill

Hey Leo, I've noticed that you have become way more cynical and disgusted with American society lately. Like, more than ever before. I get it, though. After Trump won the 2024 election, I've been enraged too. The whole system really has let us down. Our country's become so rotten. It's truly disheartening to see the US, which once seemed like a beacon of hope and progress, now plagued by such systemic issues and moral decay. America has really become the most corrupt first-world country on the planet, and it's headed in the wrong direction. As you know, the erosion of trust in institutions, the widening wealth gap, and the blatant disregard for human rights and democracy are just a few examples of the country's downward spiral. It's a pretty bleak picture. Even you, Leo, seem to have lost so much hope. Your usual enthusiasm and optimism appear to have given way to despair and frustration. It's as if you've thrown up your hands, acknowledging that the whole society is so broken that the only way it can make any real progress ever again is if it completely tears itself down and starts over. If I understand you correctly, it doesn't look like any more real progress will be coming for the foreseeable future. You seem to think that we'll be stuck in this rut for decades. So, what's keeping you here? Why not just leave the country and move somewhere that's more evolved, more just, and more in line with what you believe in?

I see.... Of course no one knows exactly what will happen, but in the grand scheme of things, will Democrats ever have a real shot of enacting any more new liberal policies 4 to 8 years from now?

No, I know that we can't win every political battle, and if we had a more normal Reagan/Bush type of Republican president and if there weren't too many extreme MAGA type of Republicans in both chambers of Congress, then I could completely live with all of that. I also get that devilry eventually loses in the end and that Republicans could lose power if they are held responsible again for another severe crisis that occurs under their watch someday in the future (unless the right-wing propaganda protects them from ever losing power). But what about the horrors of Trump's 2nd presidency? Perhaps, I am misunderstanding you. Were you to some degree being hyperbolic about the consequences of a Trump and MAGA win in 2024? I'm wondering if you truly believe that democracy and many of our freedoms will more than likely be gone after Trump is done with his 2nd term. Do you think there's any real chance that Democrats could enact any more meaningful liberal or progressive policies within the next 10 to 30 years? Or will Democrats from now on be limited to maintaining the liberal and progressive policies they've enacted since the 1900s, even if they regain power at the national level, for at least a generation or two? Despite how corrupt America has gotten, do you still want to stay in the country because you still want to fight back?

You know, I had a lot of respect for Carville, but I think he may need to hang up his boots. He hasn't had a good record of predicting elections and many of his strategies no longer for the Democratic party anymore.

The Democratic Party had a robust primary process in 2016, but Hillary Clinton still lost to Trump. In fact, the contentious primary battle between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton throughout 2016 ultimately divided and weakened the Democratic Party, which was the incumbent party at the time. That damaged her chances of winning the election, which consequently led to her and her party losing to Trump and his party in 2016. Specifically, the intraparty infighting that occurred under the watch of the incumbent party holding the White House, Obama and the Democrats, led to many people in the country questioning the Democratic party's governance. This widespread questioning, in turn, caused too many voters in the general election to feel discontent with the Democratic party. That, of course, gave Trump and his party enough ammunition to capitalize on the Democratic Party's weaknesses, ultimately leading to voters choosing change by voting out the Democratic party and voting the Republican party into power.

You really are so naive, aren’t you? You actually believe that Trump is going to put an end to the war himself? Only, Russia and Ukraine will decide when the war will end.

As much as I think that Hasan Piker often comes off as an obnoxious blowhard like Cenk, I have to say that in this interview he did with Jon Lovett he gave really good commentary, in a reasonable manner, on how Democrats need to communicate to the voters better and how they need to fight corporate greed even harder for the working-class, middle class, and working poor:

For decades, Democrats have been so much worse at messaging than the Republicans have been! This cannot be overstated! The Democratic Party must revamp its messaging strategy to counter the Republicans' effective use of emotional appeals and simplistic messaging. They also MUST adapt and evolve their messaging strategy to effectively utilize the latest digital platforms, social media, and communication technologies like the Republicans/conservatives have. Democrats can no longer rely on the mainstream media as their main source of messaging to the voters: https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/do-dems-need-to-break-up-with-the Otherwise, Democracy will truly die in darkness in America.

According to this Newsweek article: "Between when Harris officially became the Democratic nominee on August 1 and November 2, Trump held a total of 46 rallies and other large-scale events in 15 states across the country. Harris held 39 rallies and other large-scale events in 11 states." https://abcnews.go.com/538/trump-holding-campaign-events-harris/story?id=114567436 So, he didn't do that much more than rallies and events than she did by the end. However, he came off as increasingly fatigued and showed more signs of dementia because of his age and poor health. Harris came off much more lively and young than he did. I don't know where you got information on JD Vance being more popular than Tim Walz. Every pundit and strategist thought that Vance was such an unlikeable and uncharismatic candidate. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/jd-vance-unpopularity-vice-presidential-debate-b2622275.html Tim Walz, on the other hand, was arguably the most popular and charismatic VP candidate since Teddy Roosevelt in 1900. In fact, he turned out to be more popular than either Vance, Trump, or Harris. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/10/01/tim-walz-is-the-most-popular-candidate-on-either-ticket I am getting sick and tired of people who say that Democrats trying to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline was a scandal. That wasn't a crime like how Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, how he tried to overturn the 2020 election, how he incited the capitol riot insurrection, how he willingly stole classified documents and not fully cooperating with law enforcement to give them back after left office, how he committed business fraud countless times, or the election interference case involving Trump paying off that pornstar to keep quiet about it. Biden and the Democrats committed no crimes that broke any laws and didn't do anything that was an impeachable offense. Biden didn't even involve himself in any kind of wrongdoing such as having an extramarital affair during his time as president. I again acknowledge that he did a much better job of using the media environment to his strategy than Harris did, but that was the only thing he did that was really good for his campaign.

Donald Trump's presidential campaign was the most racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic in history. Kamala Harris decisively defeated him in their debate, showcasing her superior leadership skills and policy knowledge. As a matter of fact, Trump's debate performance was so atrocious that historians, political strategists, campaign experts, and pundits universally regarded it as the worst in US history. Trump's campaign was also notable for his limited public appearances, a significant decrease from his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. His speeches often featured slurred words, and he frequently confused prominent figures like Nancy Pelosi with Nikki Haley. Trump's choice of running mate was widely panned as one of the least appealing in history. Throughout his campaign, Trump was embroiled in an unprecedented number of scandals, which severely damaged his credibility. He failed to propose any serious or popular policies, leaving voters without a practical and rational plan for his vision for the country's future. Furthermore, Trump was heavily implicated in Project 2025, which raised even more concerns about his fitness for office. Trump's campaign was marred by numerous other missteps, including his divisive rhetoric, lack of transparency, and questionable judgment. These factors combined to make his campaign one of the most disastrous in recent memory. The only thing that worked for his campaign was that he had a much better media strategy than Harris. That's actually a major part of how he won.

Yeah, I am very upset with the fact that massive fundraising advantage Harris and the Democrats still lost. Trump actually ran the worst presidential campaign ever in the history of the country. The unprecedented explosion of misinformation and the dominance of the right-wing propaganda deceived the majority of voters into believing that Biden, Harris, and the Democrats ruined the whole country, which is a damn lie. A majority of Americans mistakenly believed that inflation was still getting worse and that we were in a severe recession or depression. A majority of voters believed in the lie that the Biden-Harris administration was 100% at fault for the immigration surge issue over the past few years. A majority of voters were told by all of the propagandists and conspiracy theorists on the right that Ukraine was responsible for being invaded by Russia. The mainstream media also let our country down with their woefully inadequate coverage of the dangers of Trump and MAGA. Contrary to the decades-long whining and bitching from the right-wing and Republicans about how the legacy media has always been on the side of the Democrats and the left-wing, the mainstream media has never been on the side of Democrats. Except for MSNBC, all of the mainstream media have been neutral and still, to this day, cannot seem to stop their relentless bothsidesism. Democrats and liberals do not have a media ecosystem that is anywhere close to rivaling that of the right-wing media ecosystem. All in all:

Yes, I firmly believe that. Now, 90% of the whole world is completely fucked for God knows how long! If Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and every other great president in US history were alive to see what's happening today, they would be appalled by the threat of real tyranny facing our nation.

I don't know who are you. What matters is how we fight against the whole scum of the earth and make sure that they pay for their crimes.

All of these low-life assholes have no idea what kind of hell they are going to pay.... In the end, they are going to lose everything!!!

We did have a better type of system during the mid 1900s. We had social democracy going on for over decades back then. The western European nations have a better economic system than we do. Oh well..... I guess everybody that's not in the top 10% is now fucked until we've all passed away.

I hope that all of these monsters suffer in the end. From now on, we need to celebrate every time each of these bastards fail at something or every time we see themselves tear themselves apart. I am glad that Elon is not happy about his son being a transgender. If that brings him suffering then we should take that as a win. Trump also needs to be trolled non-stop during his presidency until he gets so angry that he suffers a massive heart attack that ends him.

How do you know that neoliberalism will continue to dominate for the next 100 years? No order lasts forever. Before neoliberalism, we had a New Deal type of economy during the mid-1900s. I don't think anybody could've predicted back that neoliberalism would take over by around the 1980s. Even though the bad things that we predict to happen will probably happen in the foreseeable future, nobody can really predict what will actually happen 50 to 100 years from now. How can we even know what kind of economic order we'll be in 20 to 30 years from now?

At the same time, the working class, middle class, and working poor in western societies have become increasingly angry and resentful about their financial situation and their country's economies, especially in the US. Carter was actually the very first neoliberal US president, but Reagan really took the rise of neoliberalism into overdrive and every president after him has followed suit. Obama was the least neoliberal president we had before Biden. Biden actually became the most left-wing president ever since LBJ in the 1960s. He really had our economy transitioning away from neoliberalism into more of a social democracy. Now, we are really going to be in a second Gilded Age, and the working class, middle class, and working poor in western societies have become increasingly angry and resentful about their financial situation and the economies they are in. We probably are going to have another severe recession as bad the 2008 financial crisis or COVID-19 recession were within the next 10 years. I actually wouldn't be surprised if in the next 10 to 20 years, we have an economic depression that is as bad as the Long Depression during the late 1800s was or as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s was. Years-long violent labor strikes and historic civil unrest across the country will happen within the next 30 years.

I don't think the neoliberalism of today is the same as it was from the late 70s/early 80s to the 2010s We are now in a new age of unchecked capitalism that involves a resurgence of a certain amount of protectionism and the rise of technofeudalism in the Western world, particularly in America.

So, I've been contemplating about that YouTube vid you did years ago called 'How Society Evolves.' From what I understood, you said that a society evolves by developing various key factors, including infrastructure, economy, population density, education, technology, etc. Once these factors are sufficiently developed, then that society can become more free, just, and tolerant of diversity. At that point, it can also better accommodate people from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, genders, religions, and more. However, what you didn't mention in that video, but have said before on this forum is that real progress in government often requires a catalyst, and unfortunately, that catalyst is usually a major crisis or disaster that occurs under the watch of a conservative-led administration. This is because most voters tend to be reactive and less intelligent, only demanding change when they're directly impacted by a problem. Until then, they generally don't think critically about the long-term consequences of their decisions. Furthermore, I've noticed that a lot of times when America is actually in a time of peace, prosperity, and stability the country goes back to electing conservatives into power such as the election of Bush in the year 2000, the election of Trump in 2016, and in some ways with Trump and MAGA regaining power after this 2024 election. So, just to make sure I understand this. Is it not enough for a society to develop a strong foundation in areas such as its infrastructure, economy, and level of education? Does significant social progress, particularly in the way of liberalism, also require the catalyst of a crisis or disaster, to occur and be exacerbated by conservative policies or leadership? Does it also movement require a movement that shows how much those who have been victims of some kind of injustice have been suffering?

Very sad.... We really are living in a Second Gilded Age.

All of these TechBros should terrify everybody. They could all ruin the whole world.

I see what you're saying. All of these factors ultimately determine how and when there will be setbacks, stagnation, or progress. So, it is that sometimes progress happens from a society developing various key factors, including its infrastructure, economy, population density, education, technology, etc. and other times progress can come from disasters or crises under the watch of conservative rule? Or sometimes due to current media trends and ideologies? Or due to any combination of the above factors? Could a right-wing media ecosystem that perpetually dominates the entire media landscape cause all progress to stop forever by influencing the masses to no longer vote for liberalism/progressivism ever again? Or is that truly impossible?

I fear that the Washington Post is already on its way to being corrupted by Jeff Bezos just like how X was massively corrupted by Musk.

As if things weren't bad enough right now. If right-wing billionaires buy all of the mainstream media then all of truth will be gone and if that happens, then democracy will truly die in America.