• protist
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    9 months ago

    I don’t know a single person who’s “blindly loyal” to Biden. Most people I know think he’s overall pretty reasonable and certainly disagree with him on some things. I also know quite a few Trump voters, as I do live in Texas, and those people are beyond rationality at this point. Trying to have a conversation about an issue is utterly useless, because all they know how to do is restate whatever line they’ve been fed by whatever conservative media they watch.

    My point is this tweet is absolutely bullshit

    • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s not so much the blind loyalty as much as it is the “shh, don’t talk bad about what we all know.” Different, but feels the same.

      • Neato@ttrpg.network
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        9 months ago

        I think it’s more that people are terrified of Biden being criticized harshly while Trump gets a similar treatment. If news and pundits treat the two the same, it equates them. Which is NOT REALITY. But if outlets treat them as the same, there’s a real good chance we get Trump. And there’s a not insignificant chance if that happens we won’t have another fair election again.

        Biden has a lot of problems but they are absolutely nothing compared to Trump on all the same counts and vastly more.

        • Soulg@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yes, it’s exactly this. It’s the idea that you’re feeding into the “both sides” bullshit.

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          9 months ago

          Yeah I’m worried equating the too will lead to voter apathy. And voter apathy leads to Trump winning (like it did the first time). If we have to have a grandpa in charge, focus on the competency of their advisers.

          On is doing a lot to help the country. The other is planning an active takeover and purge of “half the ones who don’t agree with our dictatorship”.

          • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yeah I’m worried equating the too will lead to voter apathy.

            As someone who phone banks, canvasses and gets involved in primaries my anecdotal experience is that is not what’s driving voter apathy. What drives voter apathy is the fact that the DNC primaries keep producing these garbage candidates. When is the right time to have a conversation about the people who vote for them in the primaries? In my mind it shouldn’t be controversial at this point to say that voting for Biden in the 2020 primaries was selfish and stupid. So when does that conversation happen?

            • protist
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              9 months ago

              You’re sure winning hearts and minds over here by treating the majority of Democratic primary voters with utter contempt. There’s a reason Sanders ended his campaign early in 2020 and didn’t ride it to the end like in 2016, and there’s a reason he threw his weight behind Biden in 2020 where he did not support Clinton in 2016. Sanders trusts Biden and the people he surrounds himself with, and I do too, even if I disagree with his admin on some issues.

              • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                You’re sure winning hearts and minds over here by treating the majority of Democratic primary voters with utter contempt.

                Is that inappropriate? Because that’s the treatment I receive on a regular basis when I inform people I’ll be voting 3rd party.

                • protist
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                  9 months ago

                  “Someone was mean to me, so I’m going to be mean to everyone too.”

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Also “don’t talk bad about the people who voted for him in the 2020 primaries” which kinda guarantees it will keep happening.

        • protist
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          9 months ago

          The person you’re responding to is describing a conscious, rational thought process, not feelings

    • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      There’s degrees of loyalty. I agree with you that lots of people are willing to say Biden shouldn’t be leading the country and then start talking about how he’s better than Trump. Fine.

      But the missing part of that conversation is this: If Biden shouldn’t be leading the country what do we say about the people who voted for him in the 2020 primaries? Was that a selfish and foolish decision?

  • Nobody@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Stewart simply spoke the truth. Candidates are supposed to convince people to vote for them. That’s their job. Biden’s communications people hiding behind “He’s not Trump and is competent at the job” is a repeat of Hillary’s 2016 strategy, and the polling numbers actually supported that strategy in 2016. The reality was very different when the votes were counted.

    Relying on that strategy in 2024 is playing Russian roulette with American democracy. Biden needs a better communications team. Ideally younger.

    • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      The DNC should have also given their own other candidates support as well to give some semblance of a choice (except for the one that isn’t even eligible and is basically a Republican). Perhaps it wouldn’t have to be A few McCheeseburgers from death narcissist moron trying to stay out of prison vs. Dazed and Confused, replacement hips are now a matter of national security

      The DNC has once again failed their voter pool by trying to pre-pick their candidate. Last time, it ended in them disbanding their Super Delegates after causing a “fuck them both, I’m staying home” voter mentality.

      I’m agreeing with you and perhaps being a little too overzealous about it but I can’t believe that they are doing this again when they lost doing it the last time.

      • MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The incumbent president always has more support than another candidate in the same party. They know they can’t risk running someone else when the incumbent president will always have a bias from the voters.

      • hansl@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        What other candidates? Dean Philips joined too late. Nobody who could have challenged the President actually stepped forward.

        There wasn’t any candidate. The two alternatives we got to primary Joe Biden weren’t serious. The serious ones didn’t want to challenge Biden. Period.

        Saying the DNC should have run an alternative makes it sound like they should have held Newsom at gun point.

        • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          Marianne Williamson ran last time, so she already has national recognition, and she was making waves on new social media platforms like TikTok, really energizing the youth.

          Cenk Uygur is literally the CEO and lead anchor of the largest online news network in existence, since 2008, to present day - the young turks. He understands political nuance, has great ideas for how to lead, and would be a strong president who wouldn’t put up with the bullshit we see from the likes of Manchin and Sinema…hell, he even founded the justice democrats.

          Phillips is a relative nobody, but he’s the only one the corporate media gave any attention to at all because technically he’s in “the club”

          If you don’t know, now you know.

          The corporate media machine isn’t going to hand you real challengers for meaningful consideration, who might turn around and upend their whole ad-ridden apple cart. And neither is the DNC.

          • hansl@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Marianne Williamson

            Ah yes, Oprah’s spiritual advisor with zero political experience. Her national recognition sums up to being on TV. I don’t want to ridicule her (and you for saying so) so I won’t dig into her political campaign in 2020 and her California disaster. You can find debate videos on YouTube.

            Cenk Uygur

            The constitution is clear; you cannot run if you’re not born in the United States (or at least the McCain’s loosely defined US soil). I’m not gonna dig further there either (I had to google him) because just that is disqualifying and there’s no more argument about whether he’s a serious candidate or not.

            That’s the best you could do? You want the DNC to promote those two?

            • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              Being familiar with her history, I’m not a huge Williamson supporter personally but I do think she and the other primary challengers deserve a platform to promote themselves and their policy positions. At the least, Williamson challenges the establishment centrists from the left, which I am greatly in favor of doing.

              The constitution is clear - it has the capacity for amendments to change it over time. The 14th amendment gives naturalized citizens equal protection under the law. This is not ambiguous at all, they are citizens by all rights. This gives Uygur the ability to hold office, including President. This has already been settled case law in lower courts. Uygur is challenging it in higher courts now due to state DNC commissions removing him from the ballot arbitrarily, thus preventing his ability to garner delegates. But alas, wouldn’t you know it - the courts have opted to delay deciding on this until after the election. Even just recently the Supreme Court stated they don’t think states should have the ability to remove candidates from the ballot based on perceived constitutional issues, which also supports his case.

              The fact that you have to google Cenk just proves my point - corporate media will not allow for any inkling of challenge from the left. They refuse to platform leftists, and so unless a person is actually informed on politics, they won’t know about these types of challengers. However, if you’re an establishment outsider on the right, you get unlimited free airtime (Trump). The conservative bias is oppressive, and the reason American political discourse has moved so far to the right, despite the generally progressive nature of the American people (backed by lots of polling data). If you take a moment to consider who owns these multinational media conglomerates, this shouldn’t surprise you.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I agree with everything you said and I think something else we need to talk about is the people who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 primaries. There were much better options. Voting for Biden was incredibly selfish and foolish.

        • stoy@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          The fact that this happened should tell everyone that the US political system is completely broken.

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            9 months ago

            I agree that it should be improved to better reflect current population and demographics, but she entered the election Knowing the rules and system. She lost due to bad electioneering, bad strategy, hubris and a decades long negative campaign against her.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Oh it’s everywhere!

      Like in the heads of the journalist.

      And let’s not forget that one tweet.

      And I think I saw someone wrote a sad face in a bathroom stall.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        To them it’s “everywhere” because for so long the conversation about so many 2020 DNC primary voters making selfish and foolish decisions has been successfully swept under the rug. Now that it’s being mentioned at all they’re freaking out because they’re losing control of the narrative.

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    9 months ago

    The worst part of it for me was listening to Kamala Harris briefly speak about the President. She kind of stays in the shadows for the most part, but every time she emerges to speak, I feel as though she’s politically disingenuous and borders on being Lois Griffin saying “NINE ELEVEN” for applause.

    • Kiosade@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Yeah and she does that weird thing where she pauses every few words and nods, like she expects you to REALLY take in what she’s saying or something. It’s annoying!

  • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What the hell am I looking at in this image? Someone inventing reactions to what’s literally just a network announcement? Why am I not being show the “meltdown”?

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    9 months ago

    I feel in America that anyone labeling another “liberals” is telegraphing a lot of incoming bullshit and won’t be worth the time after that.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      It’s unfortunate that the term liberal has so thoroughly deviated from its original meaning due to right wingers who forget they are also liberals. I hate using it as a leftist because people assume I’m an American conservative which is unfortunate because liberal is a very useful term for classifying western capitalist ideolouges.

      I personally blame SJWS FAILS AND CRINGE COMPILATION #6 published on August 4th 2016 by SJWCentral on YouTube specifically for this phenomenon. /s

      do not actually go watch this they don’t deserve views it doesn’t pertain to anything I said it’s just a joke

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I think it goes something like this:

    • Dems are (rightly) scared to death of another Trump presidency.
    • Therefore Dems feel they should do everything they can to avoid a Trump presidency.
    • By trying to make everyone think the only realistic alternative (Biden) is not just better, but vastly better.
    • And when they see criticism of Biden (especially from left-of-what-the-U.S.-considers-center), they start having visions of Trump in the Oval Office again and panicking.
    • Fear leads to anger, anger to hate, hate to pretending Biden’s perfect.
    • Because if they admit Biden isn’t perfect, the vast numbers (/s) of centrists who haven’t decided who to vote for in the general election might vote for Trump.

    It’s the same logic as crypto “investors.” Their favorite cryptocurrency only goes up and they only make money off of it if they portray it as perfect. And pretty soon they stop differentiating between what makes line go up and what is actually true entirely. (And they absolutely cannot under any circumstances admit to even the tiniest flaw or valid criticism of the coins they’re invested in.)

    • protist
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      9 months ago

      Who is pretending Biden’s perfect?! From where are y’all pulling this stuff?

      • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’m mostly referring to what this article is saying.

        But more centrist Democrats, including those most likely to have appended “Blue Wave” and “Resistance” labels to their social media accounts in the Trump years, were appalled at what they saw as a betrayal by one of their own.

        • protist
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          9 months ago

          That article is based around four tweets from total randos and the hot takes of a couple famous people. And none of them anywhere state or even imply Biden’s perfect

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        They have a doctor with rubber gloves and a flashlight that helps them figure out what liberals are thinking.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The judgements against Biden from moderates or defenders of moderates are superficial at best and never go into detail about how we avoid this situation in the future. For example, if we do agree that we should be forced into a choice between Biden and Trump then what does that say about the people who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries? If we don’t call out that decision as selfish and foolish then it virtually guarantees the same thing will happen in the future.

        • protist
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          9 months ago

          You think the people who voted for Biden in the primaries are selfish and foolish? Why aren’t they allowed to choose the candidate they prefer? Fucking Bernie Sanders threw his weight behind Biden and supports him 100%

          • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Why aren’t they allowed to choose the candidate they prefer?

            I’m going to vote 3rd party in the 2024 general election. I’m allowed to vote for any candidate I prefer yes?

            • protist
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              9 months ago

              You sure are. As for me, I’m firmly outside the “both sides are just as bad” camp.

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                  9 months ago

                  I think people who think “both sides are just as bad” are pretty much fine with another Trump presidency and everything that comes along with that. What do you think about another Trump presidency?

        • protist
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          9 months ago

          What does that even mean?! I consider myself liberal, so does my wife and almost all of our friends and coworkers

    • ringwraithfish@startrek.website
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      9 months ago

      See, here’s an example of someone who thinks Biden is perfect! CULT CULT CULT /s

      If Dems ran a viable alternative to Biden then it’s likely they would have the nomination. Unfortunately, the DNC set their strategy and have no choice but to see it through to the end at this point.

      Best thing Republicans could do is run Nikki Haley. She has a real chance of pulling centrists to the right against Biden and his age.

      • Neato@ttrpg.network
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        9 months ago

        If Dems ran a viable alternative to Biden then it’s likely they would have the nomination.

        There’s a primary and no one is even close. There are no good alternatives mostly because no one is dumb enough to run against an incumbent. If Biden was not seeking nomination then yeah. But the bias towards incumbents is too strong to take a chance like that on. You’ll just end up with an otherwise viable candidate losing by 50-60% and looking terrible. Potentially torpedoing their chances next cycle.

        • GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          It’s always good to see some ELI5 to the people here. It’s such a fundamentally obvious fact about how things work, but even on a base level- people just don’t get how that works.

          Thanks for spelling it out. Hopefully it helps some people under how things work.

          • Nudding@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Maybe we’re out of time for business as usual lesser of two evils bullshit.

            • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              There’s where we’d like to be, and there’s where we are actually at. I want ranked choice voting, I want third party candidates, I think Biden is decent but not amazing. I’m still going to vote for him out of self interest and preservation.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          A lot of that has to do with how the DNC is run based on seniority. With the Democrats they will only really let you near power/funding if you’ve done the time, and have proven that you can be a party player.

          The vetting process has its benefits, it cuts down on the cult of personality types that can destabilize the platform. However, it also tends to filter out anyone more progressive than the party leadership, and basically ensures that key leadership roles are filled with people who should have retired in the early 00s.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t think this person is saying Biden is perfect. It’s just the same situation as the last five elections: most important election of our lifetimes, can’t let the other guy win because he’s so bad etc

  • Maeve@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    The comments itt would be funny if they weren’t so desperately sad and telling. :-/

  • TheDannysaur@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I don’t know what “sliding right” has anything to do with it. People need to stop assigning general human psychological phenomena to political parties.

    Being authoritarian or blindly loyal is not an exclusively “right wing” thing. There are people who want it to be against the law to not use a person’s preferred pronouns. That’s an extremely authoritarian ideology.

    And to put a fine point on it, using people’s preferred pronouns is a good thing, in my mind. But making that enforceable by law I view as the same as if religious zealots made a law that you had to refer to religious leaders by their title “Father” and or “Pastor”, etc.

    This tweet is really poor at addressing the real point.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      People need to stop assigning general human psychological phenomena to political parties.

      You do realize political parties are comprised of individual people. The same people that psychologists study.

      • TheDannysaur@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I mean yes, and political groups can have some leanings, but it doesn’t serve a useful purpose in discourse like this.

        Trying to say the left is “sliding right” traditionally would mean they are leaning more fiscally conservative and in favor of smaller government. But here the insinuation is by “sliding right” they mean “being sycophants for their leaders”. That trait is not part of the “left vs right” axis. And using it really confuses the two, and echos Stewart’s overall point… Identity politics is not exclusive to one side.

        As an example, if “the left” started gathering on a weekend day to discuss personal growth and the potential presence of the afterlife, would we call that “sliding right”? I would say no because it’s a behavior of people who, in general, align with a political ideology, but the activity itself is not part of that ideology.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
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          9 months ago

          The point is that America doesn’t HAVE a left. Just because the far right calls Biden a Marxist or commie doesn’t make him any further than mid right.

          The point is that democrats are exhibiting all the same faschie symptoms if you don’t fall in line with their guy. Democrats see leftists as a bigger enemy than Republicans at this point - because they’re still mid right, and sliding further right every go round.

        • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          This post isn’t saying that the left is sliding right. It’s saying that liberals, who are already right wing, are sliding further right.

          I think you’ve fundamentally misunderstood what’s being said here.

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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          9 months ago

          Trump supporters rabidly support him and react passionately to criticism. Republicans in general “fall in line” behind their candidates.

          Democrats have traditionally been more open to criticism of their candidates, and reluctantly support them.

          So the fervent hostility shown to anyone critical of Biden is what the tweet is addressing. And the comparison to right wing supporters apt.

  • BustinJiber@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Awww look at them pretending they aren’t pro Trump and failing. “MAGA are bad but liberals are absolute and utter evil!”

    • Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      Or maybe “MAGA are bad, and we are seeing some similarities with our own party. It would be cool if we were less like republicans”

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        They are definitely not fair and balanced in the coverage.

        They want ratings and will create any and all controversies about the president, even if it means reelecting Trump, for those clicks. They had their most profitable years covering the shit President Dementia was saying.

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            I thought “them” was talking about the journalists.

            CNN/NBC/… the fact you put daily show as a news outlet just prove how broken the fourth estate is.

            • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
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              it’s been like that since the bush era. before facebook, most college kids got their news from john stewart. possibly even earlier.

      • BustinJiber@lemmy.world
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        I was talking about the “Holding Biden Accountable” tweet. I can’t possibly imagine a “Biden cult”. Or supporting any politician is not automatically a cult behaviour?

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      It is possible to think that 1 group is awful, and the group almost as bad as them but not quite is not as bad and therefore should be supported over the worse group.