Ian Benz

big on the labor mvmt and police reform

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@JDVance So you're pro union, right?......right???

[ProgressiveAccount-Christopher Hennelly @AcctProgressive]

Dear Santa (@realmalikevans @CityRochesterNY) , could we please get a recognition of @PabWUnited as the union to represent @RochesterPAB workers.

Signed,

Accountability Elves of Rochester.

[Muntadhar al-Zaidi @muntazer_zaidi]

Thanks 🙏

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@_giacomo_volpe_ Very squishy. You think murder and being annoying are comparable?

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@BobLonsberry Imagine being mad about a thorough investigation that even ends up acquitting who you want it to.

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

Would love to see this in roc. DINOs will scream socialism though.

[Zohran Kwame Mamdani @ZohranKMamdani]

When 85% of New Yorkers say the cost of food is rising faster than their incomes, it's time for a real alternative.

Introducing a public option...for produce.

[Elise Joshi @EliseJoshi]

Why they want to ban TikTok

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@EndWokeness You spelled israel wrong

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@BobLonsberry How many kids did bin laden have

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@SenFettermanPA Now do Palestinians

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@JohnFetterman Why the fuck do dipshits like you still think that green voters would vote for democrats if green party candidates weren't on the ballot?

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@TheRickyDavila Jesus christ, it's not really about either of those things. It's about liberalism being a failed ideology that only serves capital and consistently enables fascism by leaving a power vacuum by not focusing on working class policies.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@cdiggi1 Thinking that voter shaming is gonna help you win

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@BobLonsberry And?

[Writers Against the War on Gaza @wawog_now]

As @HossamShabat said on live today, "if you can, just tweet. A tweet can help protect the journalists and their integrity as they are continuing to be targeted [by the IOF]. This tweet could be used to spread awareness of the plan the Zionist entity has for the journalists ... inside the Gaza Strip, so that [the IOF] can create [a] media blackout and silence the voices within."

[Ian Benz @IanBenz2]

@YousefMunayyer @tonydokoupil I thought him and John Berman were the same person until this video