President Biden will not take a cognitive test as part of his upcoming physical exam, the White House confirmed Monday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, does not believe a cognitive test is necessary.
    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
      74·
      1 year ago

      The question you’re asking is probably the most important question that needs to be asked right now. How to organize and how to find like minded people is something that’s the first step towards any real change.

      I can’t help you with the specifics since I have no idea what the situation is like in your area. In my city there are a number of socialist orgs, and they meet face to face. I definitely think any actual serious organizing needs to happen offline, and if people can’t be bothered to make even the effort to meet in person it’s safe to say they’re not really serious about effecting any actual change. Perhaps look if there are organizations that meet up to do mutual aid, help homeless people, and so on. There must be shelters where people volunteer at to help. Getting involved and talking with people like that would be a good start.

      If there really is nothing around you and you genuinely feel motivated enough to organize people then stepping up might be the thing to do. To do that you have to first figure out what your politics actually are. How you think things should work, how they work now, why the problems you see exist, and how you think they should be solved. It’s also worth thinking about why current movements in US are failing and what you think needs to be done differently to succeed. The reality is that there are millions of people just like yourself who are in the same situation as you. And as long as people stay atomized and isolated, then they stay powerless.

      Unfortunately, there’s no recipe that you can follow here, and there’s no guarantee of success. This is a process of trying things, evaluating the results, and iterating on what you’re doing. Good news is that there are lots of examples of successful worker movements around the world that can be learned from. There are no easy answers here, but the only way that’s guaranteed to fail is to do nothing but vote every 4 years.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
          53·
          1 year ago

          Glad to help. I can very much relate to the frustration you’re feeling. I live in Canada, and a lot of the same dynamics are happening here as well. Each and every year things get worse, and there’s no clear path to change. What I’ve come to realize is that meaningful change takes time. It’s not something that will happen as a result of a one time action like winning an election and putting your guy in charge. It’s a long process that requires long term commitment. People in US are just entering the stage where they’re starting to become politically aware and to ask questions about why things are the way they are. It’s going to take time for people to develop solid understanding of the issues and to learn to work together towards solving them.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
              44·
              1 year ago

              Thanks, and you’re absolutely right that right wing populism is taking root because there is fertile ground for it. In my view, the question of why people are becoming increasingly enamoured with these ideas is the one that really needs to be asked more. People like Trump have always been around, so what factors are enabling these opportunists today that didn’t exist previously. The systemic pressures leading us where we are today are the real problem that needs to be addressed.

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOPM
                  53·
                  1 year ago

                  I’d actually argue the internet has been a net positive overall because it counters a lot of the control the oligarchs have over the media. For example, if Israel was conducting the genocide before the days of the internet we simply wouldn’t know about it. And we’ve had the internet for a long time now, so access to things like social media and different views doesn’t really explain why particular views become more popular than others.

                  In my opinion, the main driver of discontent is the deteriorating economic situation. We have major crashes roughly once a decade, and each time a crash happens we see a massive wealth transfer to the top occur. This happened during dot-com bubble, then in 2008, and now with the pandemic. Each time the rich got bailed out while the public was left out to dry. People end up being pushed further and further to the margins, and they have less and less of ability to absorb the next crash that comes. Many people are losing whatever savings they had, and have no hope of retirement. Younger people see little opportunity for themselves, while becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future and problems like the environment.

                  All of this is pushing people out of the mainstream because they see that the system is not working in their interest. Once people leave the liberal mainstream they become open to different ideas. These come either from the right or the left, and because the left has been effectively gutted in the west, the right is the main source of alternative ideas.