Memes

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[–] s@piefed.world 8 points 1 year ago (16 children)

What does the appositive “That” refer to? My understanding of grammar would say it is the most recently preceding noun, which in this case has a specifier.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Harris wrote in her memoir “107 Days,” which was released Tuesday, that she predicted how Trump would act in a second term, but she didn’t expect the level of capitulation from the private sector toward him.

She was pressed on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” about why she didn’t anticipate such action and responded that she believed “titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy.”

“And one by one by one, they have been silent, they have been … feckless,” Harris said. “It’s not like they’re going to lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons.”

“Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy. And, right now, we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the Ellipse, a tyrant,” she said, referencing her rally last year on the White House Ellipse in Washington. “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up,”

Harris predicted that corporate leaders haven’t spoken up because they fear Trump’s threats, want a merger approved or want to avoid an investigation.

The former vice president in her Ellipse speech before the 2024 election called Trump a “petty tyrant” and warned that “the United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”

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[–] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago (13 children)

She believed that the "titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy?" WTF? The people spending billions of dollars to make sure people believe that unions are evil and that trickle-down economics was created by God?

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Yeah. Before the rule of law was so corroded from trump farts it actually was a fairly reliable thing for industry to support the Constitution and society as a whole; to respect it, to not try publicly and zealously to destroy it.

I know it sounds like a different planet.

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[–] WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Well except for fascism in Europe, American companies overthrowing democracies overseas or the Business Plot.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago

oooh what's the Business Plot?

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago (9 children)

No, it wasn't. I don't know where you got this idea, but it's so wrong.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago (8 children)

From . . . living in it? i don't mean to suggest corporations were crusaders for truth or justice or anything, just that they weren't typically inclined to support blatant authoritarianism from a demented babbling rapist idiot.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

Except they were!

The Business Plot, aka the Wall Street Putsch is a 1933 example of an attempted fascist takeover by business people. Then there's all the attacks on unions that they've done, and so many other examples. The elite are always trying to gain more power. They always have and always will.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago (6 children)

In general, I’d agree, but I find that it’s usually the guy who started ThingCo who’s funding ALEC and the FOP rather than ThingCo as an organization. With banks, oil, pharma, (now tech), and Hobby Lobby excepted. Those aren’t the only corporations in the country tho. And there’s nothing that says corporations can’t be fair and do good. Employee-owned, sustainable, fair-trade, cruelty-free, organic etc., these are not bad things.

I think she’s saying these are people with outsized power and thus outsized responsibility to keep blatantly illegal incompetence from disrupting everything have been worse than useless in the face of a shakedown, and that’s bullshit. It doesn’t seem crazy to me as a thought. They should be fighting because their business is going to get hit one way or another.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

In general, I’d agree, but I find that it’s usually the guy who started ThingCo who’s funding ALEC and the FOP rather than ThingCo as an organization.

Clearly you don't know how willing companies are to work with Fascists. Historically, they are very willing to do anything that's profitable. They only don't break laws if they think it'll cost more than they make.

Employee-owned, sustainable, fair-trade, cruelty-free, organic etc., these are not bad things.

These are exceptions, not the rule. Also, most of them are just greenwashing.

I think she’s saying these are people with outsized power and thus outsized responsibility to keep blatantly illegal incompetence from disrupting everything have been worse than useless in the face of a shakedown, and that’s bullshit. It doesn’t seem crazy to me as a thought.

They don't have the responsibility to do shit, but I wish they would. I agree we should try to hold them accountable, but historically they are not. Just look at how many businesses became what they were because of their assistance to the Nazis.

They should be fighting because their business is going to get hit one way or another.

Yeah, I don't know about that. If they fight back then they for sure get hit immediately by the fascist Trump regime. If they play along they may, but may not. They will probably even be rewarded in the short term, which let's them get ahead of competition.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

Clearly you don't know how willing companies are to work with Fascists.

I guess it just seems like WWII was a different time, but since it’s Never Okay, if your recent examples are anything more than republiQan funding, I’d be interested to hear.

These are exceptions, not the rule. Also, most of them are just greenwashing.

Everything’s an exception until it becomes the norm and - it keeps heading that way. Greenwashing keeps being exposed making it harder for the next fraud to get away with it. It’s not like the 60s where plastic and leaded gas are unchallenged.

Just look at how many businesses became what they were because of their assistance to the Nazis.

Yeah like IBM and . . . Ford? Well, a bunch of German business certainly. And although IBM isn’t the 800 lb gorilla anymore they’ve had to address their role and it’s all to the good of making the company accountable, the public aware, and that’s a positive. I remember as recently as the 2010s finding their role was not well known. I think that’s changed.

They should be fighting because their business is going to get hit one way or another.

I mean if they continue with the fash train they’ll be branded as such, and whether they do or even if they don’t, their market and resources are going to be negatively impacted by the incompetent chaos we’re in.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah like IBM and . . . Ford? Well, a bunch of German business certainly. And although IBM isn’t the 800 lb gorilla anymore they’ve had to address their role and it’s all to the good of making the company accountable, the public aware, and that’s a positive.

I think this represents the issue we're having in the discussion pretty well. You assume they're doing things out of good will. I think they're doing it because they're forced to. The outcome is the same for now, but if I'm right (which I'm very confident I am), as soon as it's profitable they'll do it again. What is there to lose for them?

I mean if they continue with the fash train they’ll be branded as such, and whether they do or even if they don’t, their market and resources are going to be negatively impacted by the incompetent chaos we’re in.

For the branding, what does it matter? They're all playing ball. For the most part you can't choose to avoid buying one of their products.

As for the incompetence, I agree. That's the only reason I think we've seen any push back from them. They invested in the Nazis because they were reliable. The Trump regime is anything but. Still, it's better for them to be in their favor when everything crashes than to be on their own. It's all going down no matter what. It doesn't matter if you fought them or supported them. You're on the same ship. You might as well get what you can out of it (in their opinion, because morality is not a factor).

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

. . . as soon as it's profitable they'll do it again. What is there to lose for them?

What would IBM lose if they supported a holocaust again? Well - presuming we defeated those bastards again, they’d lose everything. I guess I just don’t buy that all corporate giants are salivating to support fascism, but maybe so. They’re certainly doing sweet fuckall against it at the moment.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

What would IBM lose if they supported a holocaust again? Well - presuming we defeated those bastards again, they’d lose everything.

Why do you think this? I'm actually curious. Volkswagen, for example, was literally a company that exclusively worked with the Nazis. After the war they were expanded to be even bigger. How many companies were actually harmed by working with the Nazis? How many have been harmed recently by working with fascists/extreme right wing groups?

Edit: I thought I should add this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_fallacy

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago

Two reasons:

One: Volkswagen is a German company so I'm not including them Two: IBM wouldn't be able to claim "that was then" or "we made mistakes" because all of it has already played out.

The just-world fallacy, or just-world hypothesis, is the cognitive bias that assumes that "people get what they deserve"

I don't think this is that. It's not a karma thing. It's a people vote with their wallets thing, and I don't think we're voting for out-loud-and-proud fascists. Seekrit crypto-fascists, of course.

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[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

I think she was referring to him just being a dictator

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago

She’s using communism the way republicans use it: evil bad guy I don’t like boo hate him.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago (7 children)

You should absolutely read the interview transcript.

Misquoted barely scratches how deliberately misleading that headline was.

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[–] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

My barber escaped communism in Albania. He says Trump is acting like the communist dictators used to act. He was unaware of Kamala’s comments, so I told him. He said no no it’s true. He’s behaving like them. The economic shade of meaning is irrelevant here. The dictatorial part is the main message.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I am aware of this.

The phrasing of the headline in question is deliberately meant to portray Kamala as criticizing Trump for being a commie, not an authoritarian.

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[–] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was agreeing with you and adding another, more experienced perspective. 🤷‍♂️

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In this political climate, the goal of many outlets is to grab attention and leave impressions, superceding any sense of obligation to inform accurately.

It is well understood that whenever a Republican sees empathy in policy, it's communism. Reductionistic. Idiotic.

Attempting to paint Kamala as someone who is calling Donald Trump a communist, is a specific attempt to lump her (and by extension, democrats) in with the mouth breathers who invoke communism, meant as a slur. As in, she's just as reductionist and stupid as the Republicans.

She isn't.

We can certainly exchange stories about survivors of the Warsaw Pact, but that just doesn't enter into what's going on with this particular story.

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[–] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

And this is why people dislike engaging with our side. Professorial condescension is not a great way to convince people to agree with you. I’m sure you’re the life of every party.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Like your other point, this is tangential.

How much further, and how many more exchanges do you intend to have, discussing anything other than what is most required for this very specific smear/hit?

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[–] UsernameHere@lemy.lol 0 points 1 year ago

This is just another campaign to help the GOP

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[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

[–] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Rofl goddammit classic Simpson was so good

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[–] ekZepp@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

No, she didn't.

"We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators,” she noted. “That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up.”

She's calling him a "dictator " in a roundabout way and compare his mandate to a communist dictatorship ( you guess wich one).

[+] Cethin@lemmy.zip -6 points 1 year ago

I believe that says "communist dictator." If she meant any dictator, or fascist dictator, I assume she would have said that instead. Sure, she says it's bad that he's a dictator, but also that he's communist. He's a fascist dictator.

Either her English sucks here (and her editor missed it) or you're wrong. I think she's fairly good with language, so I don't think it's the former.

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

she believed “titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy.”

Jesus Christ what a fucking chump.

I would regret voting for her if I’d had any other reasonable choice at the time.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

the US political spectrum is now dumb to stupid.

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[+] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one -8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So you voted for the actual Nazis instead?

Get fucked.

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[–] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

My reading of this holds that they don't regret voting for her. But the would have if there was a better choice.

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Read it again, and think. How could I regret voting for her if I didn’t vote for her? Dumbass.

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[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Each side accusing the other of being communism is peak American politics.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Each side accusing the other of being communism is peak American politics.

Misinformation is peak American politics. You can see Kamala Harris's direct quote in the comments on this post, and see with one hundred percent clarity that she said nothing even vaguely related to the smear headline.

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think even if people knew the quote they would still tell her to shut up and go away because most Americans are done with her.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

I think even if people knew the quote they would still tell her to shut up and go away because most Americans are done with her.

You've demonstrated how effective the attack is.

You're more inclined to aid and abet the misleading headline than call it into question.

This isn’t me attempting to browbeat you into resisting misinformation, but to point out how easily it slips past people's filters.

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago*

People have hated her since she dropped the "he's weird" meme to felatiate the DNC.

That's unironically about when her campaign started going downhill.

Then they hated her more after she made it clear she intended to support a genocide.

These days people want her gone, to retire. She failed and we want a representative of the people.

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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

And peak Lemmy is people presuming a Howard university grad who has a JD is not aware of what communism is and isn’t comparing him to a “communist dictator” because MAGA folks know communism=bad.

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[–] F_State@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago

Are Bolsheviks right wing? Yes, yes they are.

[–] DonkMagnum@lemy.lol 8 points 1 year ago

"I thought the Titans of industry would be the guardrails of democracy".

Such bullshit. Industry has always loved fascism, it's the ideal state for corporations. This explains why mainstream politics in the US has been inching towards fascist authoritanism since at least Nixon.

Trump didn't start this... he's just the right guy at the right time, the US would have gotten here sooner or later.

[–] Una@europe.pub 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If I go into politics, everyone gets free kitty from government and if you are allergic to cats or similar you get another pet :3

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world [S] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

@Una@europe.pub for president!!!!

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[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

"Grab 'em by the kitty!"

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[–] Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Animals are not objects.

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 4 points 1 year ago

We are all objects on this glorious day.

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[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago

...she believed “titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy.”

What fucking planet are you living on, lady?

[–] udon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Might be a good angle. Ask people what they hate about communism, then point to how our current system is exactly that.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

She lost to Trump. She needs to just leave politics.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 1 year ago

I'm not fan of hers, but that's not how politics work.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I’d rather the people that voted for Trump leave politics, because I can see no logical process by which they make that decision…

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[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 1 point 1 year ago

The problem is that the reverse is happening in reality.

Trump got about the same amount of votes in 2025 as he got in the previous election. The reason why he won seems to be that less people that previously had voted for Biden just didn't bother to vote for Harris.

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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Why can’t you see she was being hyperbolic?

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago

What you should really wait for is "see, Nazis are socialists! It's in the name!"

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 1 point 1 year ago

Rabid anti-communism poisons everything