Why Liberalism Won't Solve Anything
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มี.ค. 2022
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How many times have you heard "we need to vote for the lesser evil," or "they're not perfect, but they're better than the alternative"? The entire philosophy of harm reduction is based on "who is the least bad," and when that is your only criterion, things will get worse and worse with every election. Let's talk about the insufficiency of liberalism and the "harm reduction" strategy.
Why Liberalism Won't Solve Anything - Second Thought
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![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
I can't believe TH-cam thought it would be a good idea to show me a pragerU ad before this video
same, at least their ad money is wasted on us
They really don't know how to target their consumers. Surprisingly.
PragerU spends a lot of money on ads.
I got one for Death's Door gin.
I got one for some shit called “The Veritas Forum”
Most people conflate leftist with liberal. We are not the same.
@@ryan-sh8vi My smugness isn’t limited to the internet. I’d say that shit to your face. GFY
@@Coolguyallthetime2k Just look at almost every elected Democrat. They are business as usual, status quo, Neoliberal supporters of Capitalism. Leftists are not. Joe Biden = Liberal, Bernie Sanders = Leftist. Hope this helps.
I want to socialize the means of production, you want to charge more taxes so you can give universal rights
We are not the same
@@parsazaher3186 I want to democratize the workplace. You want to start shit on the internet. We definitely are not the same.
@@erikalesi7603 I want to remove wage wage slavery from society, you want to give more of the breadcrumbs to the working class
We are not the same again
In my freshman year of HS, I had a substitute teacher who told me, "I hate all politicians. Can't trust a single one--they're all corrupt." Back then I was just getting into politics and thought she was being harsh.....but oh how right she was.
I always think, this comes through the system and what kind of people it prefers. U need to be cold, overly selfsecure and focused on career and nothing else, to succeed in many areas. With such mindset, the chances of an honest, idealistic and caring politican gets smaller. What i see here in Germany a lot, is that people choose the most famous party to make career in it, cause it brings the highest chances of success. Also i think its a generall problem that politcs is too often a career and nothing you do out of dedication. Ofc this does not apply to everyone but how often did politics decide over there opinion by choosing the most popular one? sometimes it seems to me, thats all what politics is nowadays.
Liberals, people who lean left, and Democrats are the good guys, while conservatives. people who lean right, and Republicans are the bad guys. Liberals are always right, while conservatives are always wrong.
Hence why communism sounds naive, almost to the point of malice. I mean for starters you can thank the citizen united ruling for the blatant corporate overreach we see today. The initial plan of checks and balances was for the explicit purpose of keeping power decentralized and thus more representative of the people, which if half of the original founders had their way would have included everyone not just white men.
Bernie isn't corrupt, and there can be more politicians like him. Don't let apathy stir you to inaction, and CERTAINLY don't let it steer you away from voting!
I'm pretty sure that trusting any politician is flatly ruled out in a democratic mindset. The whole idea of democratic forms is to subject public officials and their policy decisions to public influence and review. The opposite of trust. It's built right in
Like The Late Great George Carlin said “it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it” Great content man thank you for this. I will be sharing and subscribing.
I pray to George Carlin
\-_-/ but I don’t worship him 🤦🏾♂️
It’s a Big Fing club and u ain’t in it!
Let’s not forget George Carlin was a cantankerous hateful guy and purely driven by nihilism in his sets towards the end. Also had some interesting views on progressive politics, feminism and “soft language”
He’s not exactly the best role model for the progressive socialist of tomorrow.
This video really hit the nail on the head. The system is constructed in such a way that even the means you are given to "change" that system are designed to prevent any actual upset of the economic and political hierarchy. As long as the government is dominated by capital it will not serve the interests of the people and it falls to us to take care of one another.
Still got 8 minutes to go
@@henrycrabs3497 I watch them early bc I'm subbed to JT's onlyfans
@@TheSundownState 🗿
State itself is a hierarchy that must also be destroyed... it will always collaborate with other hierarchies and legimitize the concept of having rulers. Not just capital, we need to do away with governments as they currently are in favor of a horizonatally organized society.
@@henrycrabs3497 🅱️
This channel is great. It teaches about Marxist ideas without using any of the scary terminology. Nowadays that's really the only ways to get most people to listen to you.
yeah, he's really good at sneaking in narratives and people who promote things like: the invasion of Ukraine, the North-Korean state, denying the Uyghur genocide, defend Stalin and call queer rights a "color revolution". He'd definitely scare people off, if he was open about this.
@@arnigeir1597 You could have saved yourself a lot of typing by just saying "he's a tankie"
@@arnigeir1597 keep copeing and strawmanning
@@arnigeir1597 source on him saying that LGBTQIA rights are a color revolution?
@@arnigeir1597 Ok lib
I'm glad some lefties are able to appreciate how ineffective voting really is, without advocating for people not to vote. It's a fine line and a lot of otherwise intelligent people trip up
Yeah, it's low effort and doesn't do nothing so you may as well... The only problem is that people think of voting as the most you can do, rather than the least!
I don’t think boating is necessarily the problem, I think the problem is the two party system that we have. More parties means less votes for each which in theory makes each vote more valuable, and also gives us more of a choice than just the bad guy and the worse guy.
How is voting ineffective? Black Civil Rights activists, women, they all fought for voting rights.
CLEARLY voting is really important which is why political pundits exist to add more fuel to the fire.
I may be living under a rock, or what I watch may be too right wing but has BLM caused any policy changes? Other than "defund the police" (making the problem worst btw).
It's a good thing enough people thought voting was important enough to go to the polls and help defeat the disgraced, twice impeached, twice felony indicted former president. What a crock of bullshit.
I don’t like that he said voting probably doesn’t matter in the red states. The only way a red state can become anything other than a red state is if enough people there vote blue. Republicans don’t give up on blue states, and we shouldn’t give up on red states. Voting may be the least we can do, but it’s still worth it to resist the right with everything we’ve got.
As a teenager and just learning about politics, I considered myself a liberal but that changed when I learned more. Which is why I watch your channel. I agree with you.
Good! When I was a teenager, all the adults around me brushed off politics by using both sides-isms, lesser evil-isms, and just generally saying that it’s all stupid and not worth spending any time thinking or talking about. It’s a goddamn shame because I think that kept a lot of people out of learning about the world around them and working towards effecting meaningful change. Godspeed.
Me too. I'm a teenager in the deep red south east USA. When I've just considered myself conservative and blindly semi-agreed with what the super conservative adults in my life have told me. When I started to really think about what I believe in, i just considered myself a moderate. Here, Democrat or Liberal is one of the worst insults. For example one time as a middle schooler i lied to my grandma and she told me i was just like those liberals on tv. This is absolutely normal behavior here and the concept of anyone being liberal is foreign. Even when I realized I was more of a Democrat it was still upsetting for people to call me one. In my school (I'm a high schooler), I'm in the most liberal government class. This class has about twelve students and about half are more left. This is unheard of here. Ig i got side tracked but i just felt compelled to write about this since I'm in a similar situation. I didn't really understand socialism or communism until i discovered this channel. Wikipedia uses big incomprehensible language and the other TH-cam videos just didn't explain it in a way i could understand. Thanks to this channel i see that i agree with most with socialism
@@mossballus lmao 😂😂 you agree with socialism??? Thats becoz you lack of reality checks, and reality exposure
You should learn from milton Friedman n his successor thomas sowell
Dont fall into the trap of Idiocracy of the socialism
@@dyfrigshandy you don't seem really grounded in reality yourself. I don't really care about either of those people and I don't really care about you. Seems kind of mindless and cultist to tell me to watch these random specific people out of nowhere. Please get a life outside of what these people tell you
@@mossballus really? Is that all you got to counter? A classic old projections? So giving you some other perspectives as a counter balance/argument tips or advice, makes me a part of a cult? Rather than you who follow it blindly while ignoring the counter measure??? Seems n sounds like i got more life outside, compared to you listening to bunch of mental gymnastics propaganda... Like literally, really...? Come on now...
Like the ironicities of saying im the one who is in the cult...
Get real... Here
I got a feeling youre not even 17
the problem with harm reduction is that there is always harm to be reduced. reducing harm isn't the same as fixing the etiology of the issue
@@divine3363so it is just like always giving more morphine to keep away the pain and never doing a surgical operation to remove the cancer?
“In their moral justification, the argument of the lesser evil has played a prominent role. If you are confronted with two evils, the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Its weakness has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget quickly that they chose evil.” Hannah Arendt
@@geekyradical4985 You said the quote misses the point, but the rest of your comment pretty much validates the quote. Go ahead and vote, but always remember that the arena of class struggle is not in the voting booth.
@@RedRosa It's also in the classroom! Change shouldn't wait.
Harm reduction can't be avoided. Because nothing exists that is purely good, everything will be at least somewhat harmful.
,,Between lesser evil and greater evil, I choose none."
-Geralt of Rivia
@@jk7074 Oh boy, that uh... that really changes with context.
Gotta love Malcolm X .
People were terrified of him so affraid that without him Dr King would not have been so succesfull.
We have conservatives thinking liberals are communist/socialists, while here you are roasting liberalism. Very satisfying
"I'd like to live in a true democracy, and I don't."
Greetings, fellow Texan.
👋 Texan here, born and raised, surprised to learn Second Thought is apparently a Texan.
@@Boss_Isaac He wasn't born there, but was raised there
I had to relocate to Texas for reasons…kinda glad it was at least near Austin. Dunno what would happen if I had to live near Ft Hood…
Hey, good thing we can write ourselves a new constitution immediately if we want to. Article One Section Two.
@@doomsdayrabbit4398
...I'm sure that would go swimmingly well.
In fact?
Somebody ought to tell those sovereign citizen people to have a national convention and write their own constitution. And Livestream it.
...I do have a mean sense of humor.
I think this is one of your best videos so far in terms of how I walked away from it. It renewed my critical eye for 2-party politics, AND it re-inspired my revolutionary optimism to work outside the confines of the election trail.
@@JohnT.4321 If either of those parties every reaches any level of relevance, which they won't, they will be co-opted by corporate interests. America will destroy itself. All China has to do is sit back and wait.
@@JohnT.4321 our best two options.
@@patternrecon5271 my god you libs don't listen do you
@@JohnT.4321 did we not just watch the same video? Electoral politics is not the answer here
Labor power!!
Yeah, electoral politics isn't usually worth wasting much time on. So much drama, most of which you're powerless to effect. Help organise unions, deliver mutual aid, or fight for minority rights instead. There are so many areas where you can make an actual difference.
The gag is political power can also grow from mutual organization. Let's not put the cart before the horse. Mutual aid is the key.
Ok. Yes. Do all of that. And then also spend that 15 minutes a year going to a voting booth and voting Dem. No reason not to. It costs a negligible amount of time and energy and can only be to our benefit.
@@uhlan30 Voting blue, no matter who isn't going to solve the problem.
@@whyplaypiano2844 That’s why you do other things IN ADDITION to voting blue. But it must be in addition to. Not instead of.
@@uhlan30 We already know that voting blue isn't going to make a difference. It never has. Same with voting for republicans. Start voting for third parties only. The fewer people that vote for either evil, the better.
Combining ratchet affect with Malcom’s quote: Republicans won’t even admit the knife is there and Democrats will admit the knife is there (sometimes) and will only pull it out 3”(sometimes), then Republicans will stick it in another 4” and cycle continues.
I'm honestly almost more impressed with you managing to have this sponsored by Audible than any other part of this video
“Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.” Geralt of Rivia (Andrzej Sapkowski)
What a great work you do, in name of educating people about sociopolitics in general! In a world where young people go to youtube to know more about it, It's extremely important to have someone like you, to face up against the overwhelming numbers of pseudo philosophers and scholars that try to lure people to thinking that your/our current model of democracy is healthy and reliable for a sustainable future!
Kind regards from Portugal/Europe!!
Keep up the good work!✊
Democrats have done their job. The REPUBLICANS have VOTED AGAINST or BLOCKED every bill to help the AMERICAN people
@@cks7548The democrats have not. They have had numerous chances to pass certain bills that would help the American people or to elect certain people that would help. They have passed on the opportunity every time in the name of “compromise” or not aggravating republicans. This is not a mistake on their part, it is on purpose. They do not want to help you. Republicans are not some big scary boogeyman that’s going to kill or destroy the democrats if they pass something the right doesn’t like, it’s not good to pretend that this fantasy world is the truth either. Do not defend a capitalist, they will only stomp you further down.
@@cks7548 Republicans have done more for the average person than Democrats. Democrats keep people reliant in order to keep their vote or try to influence rich people to fund them for their false virtue to keep people buying. Republicans want people to persevere and succeed by their own merits and believe in building jobs and opportunities for people who wouldn’t have had it with your indoctrinating leaders. Without poverty the Dems would be out of power, what incentive do they have of putting people out of it?
The GOP is poised to become irrelevant politically. Polls show a widespread and deepening divide between the GOP and what most people feel about women's rights, gun control. and voter rights. These three weighty issues are center in the minds of most Americans. The GOP consumed by vengeful extremist politics ignores this growing chasm at its peril. Also, Republicans are trying to defund the FBI. They only want to defund law enforcement only when non-Black citizens feel targeted.
@@brandoncannon4093 Biden is the next step where humanity is being restored. After 6 years, I could never be more relieved to watch news like where the border restrictions are ending at this moment and children from the borders get to reunited with families from other countries even Mexico. And it just the beginning of creating the future for America and of course other countries too.
Thank you, President Biden, for actually working on the border. Unlike Trump, you are actually not just rambling. We are looking forward to another 6 years of your amazing leadership.
Good job Joe!! Everyone knows there’s a problem, but no human should be put in cages and build a giant wall that takes two days to dig under that would cost American tax payers billions of dollars. Let’s find a solution not a bandaid.
This is basically called, "learned helplessness".
I learned this term in Psych 101. Bradley’s right.
That sums it up exactly.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. In the states, we only have the rights to vote and speak “freely” because our politicians know that we can’t change anything if we try to vote all our problems away and organize to tell people to vote for democrats.
Counterpoint 1: "Free speech zones."
Counterpoint 2: In 2013, the Supreme Court removed pre-clearance from the Voting Rights Act and Republicans in the South immediately removed 1700 polling places from minority-majority districts and increased polling places in white-majority districts. This, despite minority districts growing much faster than white districts. (And for that matter, if Democrats weren't afraid of minority votes in primaries or local elections they wouldn't ignore voting problems every time they come up and then suddenly complain in the general election every four years as if they'd just heard about it.)
If you're not a person of color, it's possible not to notice that millions of votes are being stolen. This is likely because, demographically, you're more likely not to care about the things that people who steal votes do and will either not use your vote to stop them (by choosing not to vote), or you will secretly vote for them while pretending you're against them.
Granted, making the lesser choice of two evils means you're still making an evil choice. But it's absurd to think that casting a vote steals energy from activism. Do people who organize voting drives make the hard choice to sacrifice their own vote so that others will vote instead? Is there not enough time to run a soup kitchen and stand in line? Do you have one stamp in your house and have to choose whether to put it on a letter to your representative or your mail-in ballot? (That last one was a trick question, mail-in ballots are pre-paid.)
If you don't want to vote, don't vote. But don't pretend that it's a hard choice in a matrix of hard choices and you had to sacrifice the vote in order to march for trans rights. You didn't vote because you don't like to vote. That's it, in the end.
And this is where we come to the difference between the failures of electoralism and electoralism simply failing due to neglect. Vote for 1-10 is a non-binary vote that happens at various levels of government, and if you don't vote for one of those choices then you end up with fewer choices later. The reality, and this is a shocking reality, of many anti-electoralists is that they don't realize there are elections other than the general election. I literally sat in an argument that made no sense until I realized two of the people debating had based their premise on the electoral college ultimately stealing their vote.
The electoral college... which only applies to the president. Not the legislature... not the governorship... not their local ombudsman or city councilperson... the president.
The one-vote-every-four-years* crowd are very much convinced that their vote doesn't matter. Which is a mistake that fascists are very eager to reinforce.
Anyway, I vote for the same reason I do most of the things in my life: because fascists really hate it when I do. And it's the same reason I march and agitate and write angry letters. Because it makes fascism just that much harder for fascists to implement.
@@MrBazBake I was talking about voting rights/free speech in a sweeping sense, that the working class is legally allowed to vote and speak “freely” in the US *at all.*
And, you inspired me to take part in electoralism at all levels. Not because it’s going to get a Marxist in office, but because it *really* pisses fascists off.
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal"
_Emma Goldman
YES! This is exactly what I've been trying to convince people of for years! There's so many people who have resigned to voting for "the lesser of two evils" that they don't realize that if everyone just voted with who they actually believe will support them when push comes to shove, American approval of politics would be so much higher.
What we need to do is find the person who is closest to what we want and believe in, then vote for that person. We need to take out the "trash".
During the last election I saw a T-shirt that said: "Cthulhu for President! Why vote for the LESSER evil??"
I live in Seattle WA and work with the socialist city council office, and like every single matieral gain for the working class has come from Kshama, I don't understand how anyone could live in Seattle, watch her stand up to our "progressive" council and still think the progressive Dems give a shit about the working class or homeless folks.
Is progressive the new dem buzzword?
@@growingsage yeah, basically. Where the Dems have single party dominance in local elections, they're always posturing as "progressive" and calling their opponents "moderate". The policy difference is almost indistinguishable .
It's so true. I got squashed down from good middle income to the "new" version of poverty - low "middle income", where your pay can't even cover a month of rent and if you are single you got nadda since you make above the government "poverty line" but not enough to survive drowning in the reality of what modern poverty is.
Liberalism is socialism…
Sawant dgaf about gun violence in the cd though. I called her office after those kids were killed near chucks on union couple of summers back and they hadn’t even heard about it. Later under pressure she suggested speed bumps to solve the issue. As someone who often walks nearby with my little kid, I lost a lot of respect for kshama over that.
Fun fact(-ish): harm reduction was, from what I heard, originally about radical activists finding ways to reduce harm outside of the system, like illegally providing clean needles for drug addicts
At some point harm reduction got turned into lesser-evil-ism
Yeah, from what I understand it was about actually reducing the harm people suffer, providing resources and knowledge to people whether the system likes it or not. That it has gotten turned into lesser-evil-ism is really frustrating.
Went into it thinking the thumbnail meant drug harm reduction 😂
Its still the case when referring to drugs. Psyched Substance talked a lot about it over the years in references to various situations.
Political recuperation at its finest. /s ~Cherri
Looks like it got co-opted by liberals, like everything else.
Hot damn, how are you always on point? You’re channel is more than education, it is consistently the most important intellectual experience on TH-cam.
Sincere appreciation to you, sir🙏🏽
One of the phrases I tend to use for the system as is, "It's a feature, not a bug" with how poorly us plebeians can interact with the official system. You might be able to intellectually corner someone with the failures of the system as they carry water for it, but without our own power and influence outside of the official system what does it amount to? Doing politics outside of voting is building this power.
"like a newly renovated wall in an elevator shaft, you're getting screwed on every level"
I need to use this phrase more often it's so clever
I didn't understand the joke. Could any1 explain it to me
@@8lec_R plz
Oh I'm absolutely redistributing that joke
@@8lec_R Because you still go down.
@@AndrewManook thx
I literally just had an argument about this with a liberal family member about the ineffectiveness of liberalism and radical liberalism. Thanks again Second Thought. Always there when I need ya comrade lol.
I mean the ineffectiveness of leftism makes liberalism and radical liberalism seem quaint in comparison. This all or nothing politics and the refusal to engage in effective politics is at the root of why leftist politics have consistently failed. Because to engage in politics inherently means at some point making some compromise and lessening harm by degrees and videos like this cause people like you to frame that reality as some inherent flaw instead of realizing that by refusing to do so you're just handing the victory over to the other side. You can't win every political battle all at once and not having an overarching political strategy that engages in politics has been the primary characteristic of why so many revolutionary movements end up failing. Look at the French Revolution, look at the 1848 revolutions.
@@runtoth3abyss So I’m not really in the mood to argue with someone who’s never picked up a history book, So I’m gonna just be professional and say that I disagree with your argument.
@@runtoth3abyss tldr?
I’ve read many history books and he’s pretty much right.
@@ryanruopp3711 Oh wow good for you.
A friend recently sent me one of your videos, and my first thought was "Eh, this guy just seems like a standard social democrat who thinks the biggest problems are that we don't have enough welfare, and we can solve things by just voting for better politicians." But having watched a bunch of your videos, I can clearly see an evolution of your level of political analysis to full-throated Marxism. You're clearly actually educating yourself all the time. There's still plenty of room to grow, just like all of us, but you're absolutely not just a liberal who wants better policy from the capitalist state. Keep it up ✊
How much you wanna bet he votes for democrats though?
I first came across his content with some of his more recent vids so when I got served up some of the older, more lib-ish ones I was *very* confusticated.
Hey JT, I appreciate your work and want to say thank you for igniting the interest in all of the issues you argue for within your content! I hope to educate myself and help spread awareness alongside you and perhaps one day I would enjoy having a conversation with you!
As an ex liberal I can say that “harm” reduction only reduces change
Also, it’s literally called “harm reduction”. It’s not called “choosing the best option”. The inability of harm reduction to actually improve conditions is right there in the title, and decades of being inured to a government that does whatever it wants mean that even harm reduction looks positive.
i second what ^ ian said but also, harm reduction is buyng time to organise politically but most importantly economically, organize the workplace, unionize everywhere we can.
the answer is building class solidarity, organizing around class lines and in such a way that incorporates the needs of the other sections of society, who, and that, are used as wedge issues but through a class lens, because no matter what margenalized group we may be a part of, if we are in the working class we have infinitely more in common with eachother than the copital owner and ruling class has in differances across all lines weather it be race, religion, sexuality or ideology.
No war but Class War!
I'm a liberal socialist
@@jefrreyjeffery2192 you should aspire to scientific socialism and looking to abandon liberalism altogether.
@@lalosalamanca3814 yeah and so??? Religion is illogical and must be rooted out
I used to consider myself a liberal until I realized how ineffective it is (atleast I feel like I could be doing more). I appreciate the video
What are you now?
@@sr2291 I don't really know what I'd call myself. All I know is that I have been getting involved in my community by protesting and doing community service. Currently, I have been fighting with a group of activists to save a community plaza from being renovated as a condo. We want the property to remain as an open space for the community. I am a musician so I have been performing there when able to. I have also been feeding the homeless with my portable electric generator and portable stove. Nothing crazy (just Ramen most of the time) but I try to help.
@@MoFiTheMagnificent Amazing you're doing great stuff.
@@MoFiTheMagnificent Direct action gets the goods
@@MoFiTheMagnificent
What exactly is your idea of „effectiveness“ then? Abstaining from voting letting Republicans win so that they implement their reactionairy policies is anything but not effectiveness.
We don't have a liberal and a conservative party. We have a conservative and a reactionary party. That shit needs to stop
I cant describe how much your videos resonate with me. I’ve been doing a lot of personal writing and reflection about much of what you talk about and it’s deeply satisfying and reassuring that you think the same way. I hope to be the change you talk about in this video. I hope to create content as profound as this. I am working on a manifesto of my own right now and I’d love to talk to you personally if that would at all be possible. I’m 18 years old and I want to get a foothold in some sort of way before I release any content, and seeing as you have years of experience in creating content I think it would be great to be given some sort of guidance by you. I’ve been listening to The Deprogram as well and it really resonates with me as well.
I’m always so surprised that you manage to put out such incredibly stated, well researched, and visually gorgeous videos every single week. Can’t believe how much work must go into each episode, thanks for all the hard work JT, appreciate everything you do!
No joke, I mean does he ever take a break lol
@@whogavehimafork for real AND him and yugopnik and hakim put out a killer ep of the deprogram every week too. It takes me a week to get through a few chapters in a book let alone do all the research this kinda content must take
I love this channel a lot, but I gotta say a lot of these researches and conclusions have been collectively made and circulating in the leftist (actual, socialist left not Democrats or liberals) circle for a long time. JT is really good at reorganizing these arguments in a less radical language so the general public audience won't immediately feel alienated
I've really enjoyed the injection of more humor into your videos since around the time the podcast started. I feel like it helps to get people on board and willing to listen as opposed to jumping straight into academic Marxism straight out the gate. I've been looking forward to these videos more and more recently. Thanks, JT!
Thanks so much! Glad you’ve enjoyed the change
@@SecondThought yea its good to ease people into things
@@SecondThought could you use YTP editing?
@@johnphillips5993 what's ytp
@@saajiddaya2152 youtube poops
Dang. I've totally been swept up recently with trying to figure out how there can be massive change that I've been completely overlooking what's most important: helping those around you. While it's good to understand and acknowledge the broader picture, local work is amazing. As long as you do what's right to improve people's lives, you cam hope that others will be inspired and contribute too. Hopefully, one day, there will be enough of these good people that there can be systemic change. We need change from the bottom-up.
You are spot on. People are expecting a massive change from a single place but forget that change comes within.
I'm hopeful that other non-socialists watch this channel. It's good to hear out other political, social and cultural points of view, objectively.
Good job on not trying to sell your point of view to people @Second Thought. I appreciate you explaining the way you see America and helping me to understand your point of view better.
Politics effect every aspect of our lives.. It saddens me when people say they don't care about them.
Thanks for another great video.
What difference does caring make? Do you get to implement policy because you care more than me? This system will never represent either of us, you're just enough of a rube to embrace it and defend this shit.
Everything is political.
Why should anyone care about politics when we’re basically powerless to effect it?
Aw, that's cute. You actually think "politics" will make a difference in our lives. How naive.
people who say they don't care about politics are privileged enough to not be affected by it. saying that politics won't make a difference in people's lives ignores all of the revolutionary work across the globe, in the imperial core and periphery who advocated for the bettering of people's lives.
Oooh, this one started off really strong. One of my favorite statements from Malcolm X.
He also had a lot to say about the white liberal (as did the Real MLK).
Malcolm X was for civil rights... while supporting thugs like Fidel Castro...
@@lockdown8614 irrelevant.
Focus man
@@joncoda365 How is that irrelevant? How are you gonna be for civil right whilst simultaneously supporting murderers? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
@@lockdown8614 what you're saying has nothing to do with the subject of the post.
I don't care that Malcolm X, a guy who was killed in the 60s, supported some cold war figure who did some bad things.
We're talking about this particular statement by the man, and what he said about the uselessness/harmfulness of white liberals. Not that Malcolm X was perfect in all of his associations.
His supporting someone (who was the enemy of his enemy) is irrelevant. Focus!
@@joncoda365 Why would you, though, listen to a statement from a man who supports Fidel Castro?
i love your channel and the fact it exists... i really hope you'll gain greater audience in the future, you really need to be heard especially by the people who are too lazy to undergo sociological or political research by themselves and don't yet have that much of a political conscience
As always, profoundly great for your work. Thank you!
I love that Malcol X clip.
The thumbnail's "Harm Reduction" made me think this video was about drug policy. I was thoroughly confused for a bit.
Me too, I almost lost faith in him for a moment.
I was worried for an entirely different reason (Australian, that term here doesn't have quite the same context).
I love your videos! They are so informative and have helped me understand the complexity of these major issues. I’m just wondering, as someone who is trying to work on educating myself on these topics further, how did you learn about this. What books did you read?
I appreciate how this channel’s suggestions for how I could best spend my political efforts on self education did not include any sponsored messages!! (This was the deciding factor that made me a subscriber on this video, although I likely would have subscribed upon seeing any of the subsequent videos)
The other day someone called me a liberal, it was pretty funny because I don't like liberals either.
What did you say that offended them?
Huh
a lot of people don’t even entertain the idea that stances outside of republican or democrat exist so if you say something bad about libs (in the us sense of the word, dems and reps are both liberal) then you’re obviously a trump-loving republican and if you say anything remotely progressive them you’re a democrat. look at how they talk about democrats on fox, calling them leftists, socialist/communist, etc. i wish the dems were half as radical as the reps say they are.
@@sr2291 he called him a liberal
I don’t think people like you
We live in a society now that has allowed corruption, greed & corporatism to run amok for at least 42 years, & now we are on the verge of becoming an oligarchical dystopia.
Yikes.
The western world already is an oligarchical dystopia, it’s just not bleak enough yet for us all to realize.
It’s always been like this. And the chances are it’ll continue be like this. Take the tips from the video and control what you can control. Make your time efficient.
Or another civil war.
Both parties want to do that
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. So riddle me this. Why do we keep voting in the same people to the senate and house of representatives? They serve only the rich and powerful corporations. They don't serve the working class.
Everything you are saying is so true and you hit the nail with the hammer. 💯👏🏾🎉It is seriously frustrating with the politicians in Washington. Yhis past July I lost my father but it is due to huge medical malpractice with multiple hospitals he was in and the rehab facilities. I wrote Biden, my two senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and I wrote my Congressman Antonio Delgado. I told them my family and I were ignored with oir request to have my father sent to the best facilities that was covered by his insurance and the insurance company, hospitals and rehab facilities all were in cahoots with omr another, lied to my mother and me about why we were being denied sending my father to the best facilities and since my dad needed long term care the insurance he had stopped paying for his care and my mom had to come out of pocket to pay for his care. I wrote them because I wanted to push for medicare for all since I have seen first hand that when if you have insurance you are dealing with a 3rd party who comes between a doctor, patient and their family as to what they will pay for and what they will not. And we pay these companies every week and they dictated if they will pay for our care/treatments. I still morn my father's lost but my motivation to push for healthcare as a human right and it shouldn't matter if your rich, wealthy, poor, or a politician everyone in this country should have equal healthy care. We are not consumers when it comes to healthcare. After only hearing back from my Congressman I have given up on fight to push my corporate politicians in my state to even reach out to me. I need to focus my attention on trying to start a medicare for all organization in the Hudson Valley.
Voting in local elections is pretty rad tbh. St Paul just enacted a 3% rent stabilization initiative by popular referendum
Wow, that's a huuGE accomplishment. What did they take away, for u guys to get ur 3% (hahaha) rent stabilization?
@@Roxrox2023 Take away? And also limiting rent increase to 3% is some of the strictest in the country, might as well take a little pride in that, why not?
Alaska voted in rank choice voting. We’ll have to watch how that plays out.
@@nate4fish Minneapolis and St Paul have ranked choice voting and its pretty lit tbh.
I just moved into an apartment in St Paul from South St Paul with a friend of mine, that was awesome to hear! I was in a toxic group home before, so I'm much happier these days!
Glad to see you finally got sponsored again!! 🦀🦀🦀
Thanks!
Really good and refreshingly honest. I've been a fan since I found your channel and might have been one of the people that has criticized some of them because of a perceived lack of alternatives presented. My apologies and thanks.
Work with other people to make the changes you can while refusing to participate in the systems that support this system as much as possible.
These videos are so well structured and well researched.
Dude I was so hyped to see you shout out the Malcolm X autobiography! I listened to it at last summer and it was amazing, such a great narrative and also amazing to see how much history repeats itself. Highly recommend 👌
Taking Bezos money to speak against Bezos, that's what I call a pro gamer move.
@@Jasonmakesvideo
You'll need benzos
To deal with the Bezos
Cause he runnin ya down ina Mercedes Benz, ohs!
In more American terms, it's a Theodore Roosevelt move. Guy took campaign funding from trusts then engaged in trust-busting against the exact same trusts. Essentially a case of "Thanks for helping me dig your grave.".
fight fire with fire i guess
This video will never hurt Bezos in anyway,it will benefit him more as he gets more audible subscribers from this channel which has over a million subs. The law and land was made for people like Bezos.
Goes to show Amazon doesn't see this dude as a threat... and sees his audience as potential customers... this whole charade is a joke
As someone who lives in a less bad country: unionise, and use the power of unions. This is far from risk free, but it is the most effective use of ordinary people's power
I'd just like to thank you for continuing making videos like this
I thought this was gonna be about harm reduction in the context of public health policy regarding drug addiction, and I was about to lose it about how criminalizing addicts makes things worse. Glad that I was wrong lmao, great video.
there is a war on drugs and with this in mind wouldn’t drug addiction be treason therefore criminal?
@@f.b.lagent1113 Nice meme
Honestly, same! I'm a harm reduction outreach worker on the frontlines of the opioid crisis so when I first saw the thumbnail, I was about to go off. Thankfully, Second Thought doesn't disappoint 😌 I think he makes a good point about the philosophical divide between leftists and liberals though. We on the left tend to view the world through a consequentialist lens so the utilitarian approach, voting for the lesser of two evils, seems like a natural consequence. However, in the same way we point out the flaws inherent to an "it is what it is" approach to capitalism - We also mustn't grow complacent in our plutocracy poorly disguised as democracy. That includes our approach to voting, protest and direct action.
@AliceFoxxo real compelling "argument" right there
@@f.b.lagent1113 could you like rephrase that question, but in english
Keep on doing your best, Second Thought. You and I would probably see eye to eye on nearly everything even to this day. Being both faithful and logical would lead everyone to the honest truth instead of doing the opposite of what it should do. Balancing both religion and science. Not focusing on one or the other. People everywhere need to understand when enough is fucking enough!!!
Great video once again JT. Really eye-opening.
Whenever I come down still have a little good mood helps me a new video from you and my world is gray again 👍
😘
Based
Me and the boys getting hyped in Paul's livestream before the new theory drops at 10
You're truly amazing creator man. Thought I have a bit more depressing thoughts but I am more happy that I am a comrade with you
Between the asides here and the Deprogram it's great to see you loosen up in between banger takes, keep it up ✊
This was a phenomenal video, I'm practically speechless. Well freaking done, brother. Keep doing what you do, man, because you are one of the people out here _most willing,_ and _most able_ to put the long hours that it takes in, and to exert the enormous effort that is required, to be able to of course not only _just_ *effectively* pull this kind of balancing act off, which has a direct result of bringing radical leftist politics (and an education _about_ those, and other kinds of politics relevant to our world today) to the well-intentioned people who could very well feel overwhelmed by politics, including if not especially lefty politics in America (which are the politics that the Democratic Party and our corporate news media have been painting caricatures of for years and decades, trying to steer us all away from even learning about what sorts of policies the left may be able to offer-EVEN MORE SO THAN THEY DO FOR THE EXTREME RIGHT WING that's become such a potent violent threat in more ways than one, almost definitely because all of the fascists and hateful bigots on the right don't pose an IMMEDIATE threat at least to their wealth & power.....this country is ill, we're honestly sick, diseased, our own worst enemy, and we're totally rotting from the top down), and/or folks who don't have a good sense on where to start even if they certainly DO already have that feeling inside of them that _voting for Democrats clearly isn't doing enough for the people who need the most immediate help,_ and I think your channel is genuinely uniquely finding and continuously even REFINING many different ways that I've never seen anyone else on TH-cam trying, to help people find their own ways into the fight to make the world a better, more just, and safer place for everyone.
On their terms. You meet people where they're at no matter what they already know or don't know about politics, and just how *extremely well-researched and well-sourced* your videos always turn out being is undoubtedly one of the very top most, if not *the* most critically important and helpful part of the work that you've been doing here.
Much love and solidarity, my brother. I am extremely and will be eternally grateful for all of what you do.
Thank you times infinity ✊🔥✊
"The Nazis are just a gang of stupid hooligans, but they do serve a purpose. Let them get rid of the Communists. Later, we'll be able to control them." -Max, Cabaret
Great content as always. Neoliberalism is insidious. My autocorrect didn't even want "insidious" used after that word.
Neoliberalism *is* insidious….
What word did they want you to use.
@@MyEyesWithin none. It was insisting the word doesn't exist.
@@Purpleturtlehurtler That's so meta. Just like how actual neoliberals endlessly repeat that neoliberalism isn't real but the figment of progressive imaginations.
as a neoliberal i highly disagree .... the main problem of murica is corruption & cronism not capitalism
Even when I was a teenager and simply just a liberal, I knew my positions wouldn’t cause any drastic and overtly positive change. I don’t know how people can go into adulthood and still think being another milquetoast liberal will help.
I really do enjoy the new deadpan tone youve taken on in this video, please keep doing it
That was a good call to action in the middle there, the section about spending your energy better and more effectively.
YES, exactly. This is why I'm getting involved with my local DSA chapter. The DSA is not a perfect organization, but it's genuinely working to build a better world, and it seems like a far better use of my time than pulling a lever for some "blue" sociopath.
Maybe you'll be the first to get this answered from your leaderships 1. Why dsa not antiimperialist? 2. Why they are not antiapartheid? 3. Why is it ok to continue to colonize the global south as long as the country gets universal Healthcare? Just some questions.
@@gannibalof21st I'm pretty sure DSA is anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist?
@@ringo8410 check your history. That's what everyone should do before joining any Organizations.
The DSA is just pro-Democratic Party
@@gannibalof21st they are legitimately against imperialism, apartheid, and colonization of the global south. All of what you said is nonsense. Please provide sources.
From the age of 18, I was ready and pumped to be involved. Local elections, I was there. Primaries, I was there. Midterms, I was there. General, I was there.
But after about a decade+ of caring, I got to the point where I finally started understanding why everyone else doesn't give a fuck. And now I'm slowly heading towards the road of apathy. Caring is exhausting and I'm burned out.
We can't give up bro
Take breaks. Because no one can fight 100% of the time.
That's part of the power in being a collective. You can stop singing for a bit and the rest of choir can continue the song.
Rest. Recover. Rejoin when you're ready. We'll cover for you until then.
Very well said about direct action. We encourage a heavy-handed approach to direct action because that's what works historically.
Love loveee this channel! Thank you so much.
Hell yeah can’t have enough of this content thank you
I come here every Friday for my hit of hopium
I love the fact that you provide recommendations of things everyone can, actually, do. I'm a bit more on the "we need molotov cocktails" side of the spectrum, but I respect the way you frame things. I suspect we may actually have a lot, personally, in common. You mention you travel a lot for work. So do I. I guarantee you, every one of my colleagues would be shocked to know where I sit on the political spectrum. I am still from a "working class" and there is more solidarity there than most would expect.
Molotov cocktail buddies!
But in all seriousness, yea. There is almost always something we could be doing. Though it is really hard to stay focused and motivated.
@@cyberfruit3141 Just keep feeding ears. Once the working classes realize they will never advance under existing rules they will be more inclined to take matters into their own hands. Maybe they don't need to start throwing Molotov cocktails, now. It would be better if they prep them in their basements for later use.
I’m more about the regular cocktails. The idea that someone could vote sober is beyond me.
Hey! I got this in my suggestions finally let's gooooo. I hope your videos get in the algorithm more
Excellent production of critical thought once again. Thank you for the upload ☮️
Great work as usual, though I must say you have changed a lot since I started watching you a long time ago.
I love these indepth videos. This should be used in schools.
Sadly Schools are pretty Conservitive (at least in the U.S.A.)
But PragerU has University in the name, so obviously the best for education /s
Thank you for this. I found it eye-opening.
Thanks JT!
Another great video, you're doing a big collaboration to society (sometimes it doesn't feel like much)
But it is. Believe that brother!
Speaking as one old man to presumably another old man, "my heros *are dead,* my prospects for a democratic future *are living-dead,* and my wife *isn't dead."*
As someone who is on the conservative side of the spectrum, it was refreshing to listen to someone on the left who wasn't delusional, highly hypocritical, or parroting surface level talking points. Pretty much everyone can agree that ceaseless wars, corruption, failed promises, and big business in government are horrible. But to many on both sides just settle for the lesser of two evils. I agree that the best way to fix our country is to do our best as individuals to help our local and regional communities thrive. Only through grassroots efforts by many individuals will our nation heal. Having a European style election system would help to. I haven't watched any of your other videos, but this was excellent and somewhat enjoyable. Thanks.
Thank you for this video. I need to listen to this everyday.
Informative as always
Just got a Prager U ad on this video lol
Me too. Lol
One of the best ways people in the US can learn more about how to be better is to spend some time outside of it. Living outside of the US is so much cheaper and more fulfilling. We are told our whole lives to think of every other place as less than or scary, but I have found how wrong that is. See how the rest of the world lives, and come back to help show people how to be more accepting of differences.
Great video JT, you really nailed it this time!
Anytime I bring up any criticism of the American system:
My dad - "Why don't you just vote? You should lierally save all the Afghani kids if you keep worrying about them when we talk about Ukraine! Put your money where your mouth is! Stop criticizing my lib beliefs and let me put the onus of responsibility on you for everything! Totally not regressive! Just vote!"
Vote the pain away
Is your dad 20?
Voting isn't bad advice. I know this channel encourages the idea that "we're past the point of voting," but I think it's irresponsible and short-sighted. Young people need to fucking VOTE outside of presidential elections. Of COURSE voting doesn't work at all if you don't even do it. Sheesh.
When I go to vote in local/state elections, everyone in sight is a senior citizen, and the old ladies at my polling place exclaim "Oh my! A Democrat!" Point being, the only people voting in local and state elections are old Republicans. For many of these elections, there's a Republican running unopposed. If young people came out to vote and run for public office, there would be far more progressive ideas in local and state governments. That would translate to MORE progressives in Congress in the future.
There is no quick fix to get the country on the right track. I like this channel overall, but some of the messaging is not great in my opinion. There is not going to be a glorious revolution. If a violent revolution did happen, _everyone_ would lose their taste for the violence almost instantly, and we likely wouldn't be in a better position when it ends. The Constitution sucks in its current form, it's true, but it can be amended. We can make the Constitution say whatever we want it to say.
VOTE.
@@choronos I would say that we're only past the point of voting if we are in an actual dictatorship - in which case we'd have a lot more to worry about than just a stagnant status quo. Things like slavery or Holocausts (or at best, entire sectors of society being shut out of survival and a single state religion - where the religion does the persecuting). If we were to have that to worry about - well, it might be time for solutions we generally don't want to think about. But until then, vote, protest, call Congresspeople, do whatever.
And also if you have information on things that can help people recognize authoritarian tendencies, be it in politics or at home (i.e. abusers), share it - or share sources you find that talk about such things (one of the ones I find is Dr. Ramani, who talks about narcissistic abuse, which uses some of the same dynamics you see in larger authoritarian settings). And support local anti-authoritarian movements, be it strikes, someone leaving their aforementioned abuser, school walkouts, whatever. Because defeating authoritarianism where we find it can also contribute here - it makes people less likely to put up with it elsewhere.
@@choronos Voting wont change the fact that the US will still intervene in other country politic and will use it's military and economic power to destibalise country it sees as not capitalist enough. Just ask the chillian who had to suffer under Pinochet, a brutal dictator backed by the US who destroyed the fist elected comunist party.
For us outside the US voting dont really change anything if the first world power decide to "bring freedom" to us.
Oh and if you cant see people dying because of capitalisim and state regulation, or the lack thereof, then you are truly privileged and/or as of yet, didnt make the efford to see it.
Anytime someone dies from the lack of healthcare in the US it's your gourvernement/capitalisim fault.
Anytime a child dies under US bombs it's your gourvernement/capitalisim fault.
When global warming cause death it's your gourvernement/capitalisim fault.
When you are saying that people would loose the taste for violence in a "glorious revolution" you choose to ignore that people only respond to the violence imposed on them. If you cannot see that violence then I understand how you cannot imagine why would people give their life for a better future. Plus, the violence dont come from the people, but the state. Just ask the spanish anarchist who died under fashist bullet in the 1936 spanish revolition.
Another great, awesome video by second thought!
Was kind of worried, but you've actually made a decently nuanced argument. Thank you for acknowledging that the solution is not to simply not vote or to vote for parties that will never win, but to vote for the lesser of two evils and then spend the rest of your time pushing for a system where we don't have to pick between the lesser of two evils.
Great video. Wish you talked about ranked choice voting here, people need to know we gotta implement that as a solution
Just a reminder, democrat gavin newsom vetoed ranked choice voting. If you want it, you have to stop voting for democrats.
@@Otome_chan311 oh no, ONE democrat voted against it. Watch out
@@johtojonnytompkins Not "one democrat voted against it". A governor of a state prevented it from being enacted. Democrats consistently do things against democracy, such as the recent democrat push to kick green party off the ballot.
Another brilliant video! Thanks again!
Why am I just NOW finding this channel? This is awesome
If a few little details were changed around first past the post and some party names, this is astonishingly accurate for the context of Australia
It doesn't matter if you vote Democrat or Republican, the bottom line you are going to get a screwing with or without the grease.
I'll order mine with grease plz.
I literally haven’t been notified of your videos in over a month. Even though I rang the bell. TH-cam is really trying.
Brilliant analysis! Thank you!