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[McTraveller]

Wow that introduced bill is Not Even Wrong.

It's pretty terrifying too - it's like the regressives (I can't in good faith call them conservative, that's too kind) are specifically trying to cause people to be ignorant.

Too many good people are standing by... which is all it takes for evil to succeed.

[nenjin]

One of the replies in the thread said to vote, to which someone replied "Voting isn't enough."

They didn't elaborate one what they meant by that.

[Rolan7]

There's volunteering time and/or money for:
Candidates who deserve it (particularly local seats)
Mutual aid: Helping the people who are, for example, disowned
Ride-sharing on voter day: Fighting the BLATANT voter-suppression against poor and minority neighborhoods

And later, bail bonds for the less positive yet completely justified and unavoidable demonstrations of civil unrest  (unavoidable until we achieve justice).

Voting isn't enough by itself.

[Dostoevsky]

Any Representative can introduce any bill at any time. That's why hundreds are introduced in every session, a pretty large proportion of which go nowhere.

Hundreds? Hahahaha. These days it's 10 to 15 thousand per congress.

(I laugh because I've hard to trawl through many thousands of introduced bills in my lifetime...)

(But yes, you are right that introducing a bill costs nothing, people introduce dumb things all the time, and unless there's a strikingly high cosponsorship count it means very little.)

[Vector]

joining Antifa, tipping your local drag queens,

The Republican House unveiled its Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.

Proposes to end federal funding for any entity which mentions sexual identity to children under 10. That's a pretty gross oversimplification. The bill equates discussion of sexual identity as exposing children to sexually explicit material. (And goes on to state that "library systems, museums and other educational facilities that receive federal funding have purchased sexually-oriented material that targets preadolsecent children and teaches them about concepts like masturbation, pornography, sexual acts and gender transition."

Mmhhhmm. I'll bet they did. Because if you subtracted the first 3 things before that, you'd look like a complete asshole and be telling the truth at the same time. Instead it tries to associate gender-transitioning to showing children pornography.

I wonder if they actually have to provide any facts as part of their bill's raison d'etre, or if proposing bills in Congress has a lower bar of proof that you're not full of shit than an internet forum.

I don't know what to say. I really don't.

[Loud Whispers]

At some point words fail and only laughter suffices

[McTraveller]

There's also just being involved in your local community.  Talk with people. Interact with them.  One of the best weapons against the trend to make people be "other" is to interact in ways that demonstrate that we really aren't that different.

Sure we have differing opinions about things, but at the end of the day, we're all people.

[Dostoevsky]

I wonder if they actually have to provide any facts as part of their bill's raison d'etre, or if proposing bills in Congress has a lower bar of proof that you're not full of shit than an internet forum.

Oh, and having just noticed this, I can say: there is no such requirement, no. You can include a findings section or the like to try and justify it (as this bill does, though of course how persuasive it is is another question), but there are very little requirements for an introduced bill beyond formatting and the like.

I always like to use this example when showing what may be required for a bill introduction. One section, one sentence, no consideration of how it impacts existing law or anything else of that nature. There are some potentially some points of order that could be made against the bill if it were to get to the floor, but those can be waived and most of the implementation would come down to lawsuits trying to interpret how the heck to deal with the consequences of something like this.

[Vector]

There's also just being involved in your local community.  Talk with people. Interact with them.  One of the best weapons against the trend to make people be "other" is to interact in ways that demonstrate that we really aren't that different.

Yeah, I'm doing my union organizing stuff to make sure that the other students in my dept see me as directly useful and valuable to them.

[Random_Dragon]

Welp, went out and dealt with early voting today.

[MaxTheFox]

It speaks to my sadness of the growing trend to "it's ok to 'stick it to the rich and powerful, because they are rich and powerful" - it de-humanizes those people (as heinous as they may be), which puts us as no better than them... just with fewer resources.  It's not ok to "stick it to" anyone...

When a person, despite your attempts to deter them and deescalate, and despite concrete, material evidence they are doing harm, examines your suffering and decides to become wealthy from it, that person has stepped over a line.

Recognizing this by no means dehumanizes the person who looked at their options and decided that what they wanted today was to wring you for all the grief in your body.

I dehumanize them and I'm proud.

You can say it makes me as bad as them. Skill issue.

[EuchreJack]

In politics, there are basically three things a person can contribute:
1) Money
2) Labor
3) Organization

Money requires money, labor requires time, and organization requires skill, experience, and temperament that some folks just don't have.

As for candidates, I would suggest:
1) Meet and vet your candidates
2) Support the good ones

The problem is that sometimes there is a lack of decent candidates. And sometimes there is an overabundance of talent.

It helps to remember that fearmongering and prejudice have been components of our political system since the very beginning. So, things HAVE overall gotten better. America's original constitution enshrined slavery. American women had to wait almost a century and a half to vote.  The "yellow scare" was part of Teddy Roosevelt's platform. FDR actually placed Japanese-American citizens in internment camps.

Kids, you only THINK things are bad. But they got better.

As for political parties...you just have to join and fix from within.
There are good people in both parties, but they need support. There are also bad folks in each party, they need to be opposed, as best as able (they're still there for a reason).

[hector13]

Interesting article on the uptick in vasectomies in the US after Roe v Wade was repealed.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20221024-vasectomy-the-us-men-embracing-permanent-birth-control

As an aside to the more serious parts of male contraception the article considers, it would amuse me if an unanticipated side effect of the repeal would be a reduction in the already low birth rate, increasing how quickly whites are “replaced” as the majority, but I’m a prick (pun mostly intended) so I would think that.

[Starver]

As for candidates, I would suggest:
1) Meet and vet your candidates
2) Support the good ones

...and (even more obvious a retort, in light of the very next post)...
3) Go back and "vet" the bad ones...

((Obviously not serious. You'd probably need to bring along a physician, not a vetinarian.))

[EuchreJack]

I'm actually quite in favor of mandatory vasectomies for all male candidates for political office.