I think it's cynicism. Maybe at one time he actually thought he could do something if he won, but when he was beaten into the dirt he gave up all hope on anything to the left of Biden. Now he's in a holding pattern trying to bail out Democrats and "save America from fascism" or whatever.

[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was already an involved Leftist by the time 2016 came around so I was never too much into Bernie and I never thought he would be allowed to really change much if he won, but that being said it is good there was someone around to talk to young libs about socialism-lite.

For most it may just be or was a phase, maybe some got involved in DSA or something, but even if only a relative few will end up being pushed further Left than Bernie for the rest of their lives because of him then that was worth him running.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I worry there were people who could have been pushed farther Left without Bernie that have instead been pushed into the Democratic Party by him and sheepdogs like him.

[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

It's possible, ultimately that was probably the Democratic Party's goal, but same could probably be said about Warren fans. There are always people that could be good Leftists but get caught up in either the Democratic or Republican Party, it's unavoidable when they are the dominant political powers, but it's still surprising there was someone around that got younger people thinking about organizing along the Left.

Libs gonna lib, though.

[–] Sephitard9001@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

No dude you're not allowed to do that, you can't point out that sheepdogs are effective and that's why that strategy is used, you're supposed to just assume things could never be better

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well i probably wouldn't be here without Bernie. Being as actively involved in the voting process as i was that year have me a front row seat to view how thoroughly it has been corrupted.

but he didn't get me in to the Democratic party, he got me out. I remember after he was ratfucked by the biden campaign, one of his faithful asked him "so what do we do now?" and his answer, vote broke my fuckin heart.

Cool story i know

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I worry, but I'm also hopeful that people outgrew Bernie the same way. I think what we really need is a party that can reach out to Bernouts to help move beyond playing voteball every couple years. As it is all we have are Internet communities and podcasts, so only a fraction of people are escaping.

[–] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah I think something like that needs to start local