Bottom line, I try not to buy what the 1% is selling, but it can be hard to resist

The utter pervasiveness of it, the relentlessness of it, can make it seem like truth, but it is indeed lies, sometimes bold lies, sometimes insidious lies.

One the one hand, watching the voices of what remains of DU's "left of the left" become stronger has been good.

On the other hand, all of DU has bigger things IRL to worry about than their fellow DUers. A message board, no matter how addictive, is easier to walk away from than unemployment or a callous, lying government.

The 99% outnumbers the 1%, hence the strategy of "divide and conquer." But, if Democrats can't even come together over shared goals and hopes......

weren't telling everyone that our shared goals were silly and unattainable, 24/7/365.

It's quite clear that any recent push here for "Third Way Sensibility" is a calculated reaction to progressive angst over our latest election slaughter; an attempt to herd the sheep back into the flock so that they follow the same corrupt shepherds who will lead us back to the same slaughterhouse once again.

They don't really give a shit if Democrats or Republicans win elections, or how many people suffer, as long as their profits keep rolling in for them. And they might delude themselves into believing they are doing what is best for the majority of people by maintaining the status quo, but that is only because they have enough cash on hand to insulate themselves from the troubles, pain, and suffering of those who do not have the cash on hand to insulate themselves from the abject cruelty of their cash cow system.

God forbid we should nominate a candidate who will actually try to combat the status quo in the interests of the 99%.

Mother fracking sociopaths who hold back human evolution for cash, and destroy the planet for profit, anymore.I'm getting old, I've been struggling against the same goddamned greedy neoliberal/neoconservative assholes since Vietnam, and I simply just can't find it in myself to be "cordial" to these sociopaths anymore.

I'm done, it's serious war, the 1% is engaging in a major deadly offensive with the intent to crush the working classes, and render us powerless serfs, and it is now to the point where you're either for, or against, the 99%.

the push for Third Way "Sensibility" has been going on since I've been posting here.

The idea that anything left of center right is impractical, unrealistic, etc. started a long time ago. The home page of the Progressive Policy Institute, an offshoot of the DLC formed in 1989, years before Third Way, used to say something like "Welcome to the Progressive Policy Institute, home of pragmatic progressives."

I might make it to the 1% if I had a nickel for every DU post I've read that says, "Of course, I am a liberal and would just love a liberal government, but I am realistic enough to know that's impossible. (unsaid: So I want you to STFU about it, once and for all.)"

Not a word of the above, outside the parenthetical is true. The meme been peddled assiduously for decades, though. So, some honestly believe it and some are just quite consciously among the peddlers.

What has been happening on DU more recently, in my observation, is that a sub-group is admitting that Third Way is actually what they want. They don't want a New Deal/Fair Deal Democratic Party. In essence, they want a Republican Party that is not openly and virulently anti-minority, not openly and virulently anti-choice, not openly and virulently anti-gay and not all-around batshit crazy.ugly.

Another recent change is that arguments have been getting uglier, more thuggish. More like the right on Discussionist.

On the other hand, leftist posters are standing up more--perhaps exactly because the arguments from the other side have been changing.

Still, I think the point in my first reply is valid as well.

collectively.

Governments and corporations, pundits and politicians, advertisers, terrorists and lobbyists are all trying to sway your opinion.

They spend billions, plan and scheme, pull stunts and push propaganda, all to try to convince you to do what they want you to do and think how they want you to think.

When public opinion turns in one direction, nothing can stop it.

So be proud of your opinions, stick up for them, but make sure they're informed ones. Don't let the aforementioned forces spoon feed you their opinions and lead you by the nose.