I once took a roadtrip to Matewan (where much of the war itself was centered, Blair Mountain is nearby, but it’s just one battle in a larger war), and there’s a little gift shop across the street from the Mine Wars Museum.

I distinctly remember looking at a rack of bumper stickers, and on the left side were stickers about the Mine Wars: Miners Union logos, “Rah rah, we’d do it again if we had to” kinds of slogans. Stuff like that. In the right side of the rack were all Trump stickers.

Matewan is a fascinating place with a lot of history, in a very beautiful part of the US. I would encourage everyone to go, if you have the chance. The people there are all incredibly kind, and very excited to tell you about the history of their home. But it is nothing of not a land of contradictions, and that rack of bumper stickers was really emblematic of that.

You have a wallet.

Politico, or any other outlet for that matter, can have a shitty editorial line on some things, and do quality reporting on other things.

You should be paying attention to the substance of the accusation here, which is about as credible as it gets. Not blowing it off because it’s from an outlet you dislike for a different reason.

And just like… Occam’s Razor, the guy with the SS tattoo being a bad guy isn’t exactly a wild leap of logic.

There’s even a famous skit about the exact symbol Platner had a tattoo of.

Good luck getting that motley crew to get along

I mean, this isn’t a project that started yesterday, and it isn’t some hypothetical. DSA has existed in its current form, a big tent with ideological and strategically based caucuses, for a little over a decade at this point. If anything the caucus system, which currently codifies those different tendencies in the org, makes it stronger. People within DSA debate endlessly about everything under the sun, but the minute any one part of the org is attacked by someone on the right, the org rallies around them, generating greater organizational coherence. It’s like having siblings. You can bully your little brother, but god forbid anyone else tries it.

Additionally, caucuses allow DSA members to collaborate across chapters in ways that national is improving on, but not currently able to fully facilitate. Caucuses also exchange ideas, strategies, etc. in ways that general membership might not do otherwise.

And that, I think, is what has allowed DSA to grow in the way that it has. All of these left tendencies are forced to come to the table in order to get what they want, instead of just imploding into a billion little sects. And those negotiations, both among caucuses, and with material conditions, mean that DSA is able to formulate a cohesive program and strategy.

I think the Caucus system, as it currently stands, will probably have to be done away with at some point, if DSA is to cohere more power, and thus a greater sense of party discipline, but for now, I think it’s a strength of the org, not a weakness.

instead of the inflammatory weasel-wording ‘what if socialism takes over’ like it’s some kind of coup.

If I can give some context, as a DSA member, while DSA is parasitizing the Democratic ballot line, it essentially acts like an independent party.

The goal isn’t necessarily to “take over” the Democratic Party. Rather, the dominant position in DSA is what’s called a “Dirty Break”, where the org parasitizes the Dems in the short term, essentially until they kick us out (Ideally in such a way that DSA comes out the stronger org, and that the Dems whither not unlike the Whigs).

Something which is already starting to happen, with Democrats telling us to go “make our own party” as though we haven’t looked at the US political system, and ruled that out for now.

Further, DSA is a big tent organization, with everyone from reformist social democrats, to Anarchists, Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninists, etc. And the DSA party platform (the updated version of which gets released on the 14th, I believe) expresses an overt desire by DSA to transcend capitalism. So this isn’t just a return to FDR style social Democracy, like you’re suggesting, there’s a bit more going on

Unfortunately, no. “Foid” is short for “Femoid”, which is what incels call women :/

I can’t believe the European Sexhavers Association would do this!

CoMaps fulfills most of my needs

The “But her emails” crowd loves drone strikes on brown people though