Right? All of the sudden Democrats are really concerned about who the Dem candidate is, even though I thought that didn’t matter.

Do you really think any Democrat in the country would say “I liked Biden, and if they get rid of him I’m staying home?”

I mean, yeah, I kinda do. There are a lot of democratic voters who don’t know who Newsom or Whitmer are, but they know Uncle Joe, the guy who was Obama’s vice for eight years.

It’s more likely the opposite, that people aren’t looking forward to voting for Bide and may end up staying home instead.

Is it? I don’t know.

Like you said, if Biden’s on the ticket you’ll vote for him. I think a lot of people will do the same.

Nothing would hurt fossil fuel companies more than if everyone stopped buying their products. Putting executives in prison won’t do anything, they’ll just be replaced by new executives. Fining the companies won’t do anything, even if you fine them into bankruptcy, some other company will take their place, so long as there is a demand for the product.

I’m not sure Biden dropping out is such a great idea. Biden has a lot of supporters among Democratic voters. I’m not sure there is another democrat with his same level of support. There were a lot of contenders for the nomination in 2020, Biden beat 'em all. I think there are a fair number of independents who are motivated by preventing a second Trump term, so they’d vote for anyone who isn’t Trump. Biden meets that criteria. I get why Biden makes people nervous, but who would be better? Who has the same level of support among the diverse democratic voter base?

Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason…

Folks need to make sure they’re voting in state elections, for representatives who share their views on abortion rights. Can’t just wait for POTUS or SCOTUS, it’s gonna have to be done at the state level.

Anyone living in a swing state just needs to go and vote for Biden. I know a lot of people don’t want to, and, believe me, I get it, but you gotta just do it. It’s like a chore you need to do that you really don’t want to do, that you resent having to do, even, but that nonetheless has to be done. Just do it then take a nice, long hot shower after.

That being said, holy shit something has to be done. Clearly, just focusing on the presidential election every four years ain’t gonna cut it. We have got to get more involved in the political process. We have got to vote in every local, state, and congressional election. We have to encourage better people to run for office. We have to do something. I don’t know exactly what needs to be done to improve our democracy, but we gotta figure it out. We can’t have another election cycle like the last several.

And if you want people to significantly simplify, well that’s a real uphill battle

Well, I can’t disagree with you there. Few people will simplify or reduce their consumption or their use of resources willingly. You’re right, they’re going to have to be forced, somehow. But, I don’t think space is going to be the thing that forces them, I think it will be some kind of major collapse. Regardless, I don’t think anything is going to stop people from continuing to do profound, irreparable damage to the environment anytime soon. I expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.

I think the best way to achieve sustainability is probably through simplification, rather than relying on technology of ever increasing complexity. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use any form of complex technology, but I think we implement the complex technology more strategically. I think we should utilize more complex technology where necessary but simplify where possible. I think we should try to live more within the bounds of our ecosystem and become more connected to it and its natural cycles, instead of becoming more disconnected from it.

I’m not necessarily opposed to having grand, long term ambitions, but I just don’t see how something like that could be considered a priority. When I think of a priority, I think of some immediate need. I don’t see space exploration as a necessity. Again, I’m not against it, necessarily, but I think preserving this planet’s biosphere should absolutely be considered the priority. After all, the Earth is the only human supporting habitat known to exist in the universe.

It means we can finally start reaching out in a real way.

I personally don’t consider that to be a priority.

I can’t think of a higher priority project.

I can’t think of how it would be a priority at all.

The last mass extinction (excluding the current, ongoing mass extinction) that occurred approximately 66 million years ago, resulted in the extinction of three quarters of all plant and animal species and wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs, and yet the Earth then was still more hospitable to life than any other planet we know of.

Some day this world will be barren and lifeless and totally uninhabitable.

“Some day” is likely to be several hundred million years, if not a billion years from now. That is hundreds and hundreds of times longer than our species has existed. To say that’s not as urgent as the environment is a pretty significant understatement. In fact, I’d say that threat is about as far from urgent as one could imagine.

Wiping out wildlife is a small price to pay so that one day we might be able to rocket to barren, lifeless worlds that are totally uninhabitable.

Greater than 2/3 of the people are either “very proud” or “extremely proud” to be American. Maybe not where it was but it’s still a large majority. I’m not in that majority, personally, but I’m used to feeling like an outsider in my own country. I think that’s part of the reason I find it SO hard to stay engaged in the political process in this country. I just have a very different vision for America, a very different idea of what I want America to be than most other Americans. I’m outnumbered and that’s just the way it is.

There was no indication the person was talking specifically about a certain instance, and there’s significant reason to believe their rhetoric is not context specific to the upcoming election alone, as this exact rhetoric has been used multiple times over multiple elections, and I have every reason to believe this exact rhetoric will continue to be used in future elections, even in elections that don’t involve Donald Trump.

I get through my days perfectly fine. Quite well, actually. I’m not the incompetent here. The person said that they would vote D no matter what, and that independents must be mentally deficient. The implication couldn’t be clearer: the Democratic party represents the correct, orthodox ideology, and thus they should be supported no matter what, the Republican party represents an incorrect, heterodox ideology, and any independent who doesn’t recognize that must be mentally deficient. To illustrate my point, simply imagine the same statement only with the D replaced with an R. The problem isn’t that some people adhere to wrong ideologies, the problem is ideology itself. Everyone should be an independent, instead of adhering rigidly to one ideology or another. That doesn’t mean all ideologies are equally harmful, and many, if not most, independents know that. In fact, I think many, if not most, independents recognize that Biden and the Democrats are the less harmful of the two options, which is why I think many, if not most, independents will vote for Biden in the general election. Many people are simply confusing independents’ criticisms and displeasure as a failure to recognize that the Democrats are the less harmful option.

Again, you folks are ignoring a key part of what was written. They didn’t say they would vote for any D so long as the Ds can be considered a preferable choice by reasonable and informed people, they LITERALLY said “no matter what.” I sincerely hope you can see a difference.

They didn’t say they would vote for any D so long as they are better than Trump, they specifically said any D no matter what. There’s a big fucking difference.

So, you’d vote for literally ANY Democrat, no matter WHAT, but you think it’s the independents who are mentally defective? You think anyone who ISN’T 100% committed to political party tribalism is defective? Well, I adamantly disagree. I think it’s the unquestioningly partisan voters who are the defective ones.