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Matt Rowan@veryrealbatman.bsky.social |
277 followers 252 following 1220 posts
Dad, humanities teacher, editor, antifascist author of HOW THE MOON WORKS and other things of varying quality. “I'm the hero Gotham needs BUT not the one it deserves.”
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Honestly I don’t care for either and am coming down on Biden’s side in this one. The stupid crap the @nytimes.com has focused on during his presidency has drastically lowered them in my esteem.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Can I get some soma?
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Ugh
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I should note I consider myself a leftist or at least most ideologically sympathetic to leftist ideals. There, Trump's Gestapo has it in writing.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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What a terrible time to pick to be an opportunist, though.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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doing fact checking. Yep, that all checks out.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Indeed, and I hope everyone gets real cozy with the crazy high stakes of this stupid election fast.
1 replies 1 reposts 8 likes
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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AS EVERY LEFTIST SHOULD RECOGNIZE RIGHT NOW. We have no choice but to be pragmatic. Read up on what happened to leftists after Weimar Germany fell if you want a more lucid sense of where this could go.
1 replies 3 reposts 79 likes
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Same.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I guess if I could have foreknowledge that this version of the Republican Party would be banished from all subsequent elections if Dems win that would get me pretty hyped, too. They're definitely going to kill a lot of people regardless of outcome, aren't they? This is a huge problem, isn't it?
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Yeah, that wasn't exactly passing the smell test. Unless it was some 18 year old intern who doesn't know what they believe about anything, I guess?
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Look at those two fucking losers.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Agreed, I'm all about banding together with likeminded people to defeat a common enemy. Hopefully centrists will follow France's lead.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I will say if there was ever a year that polling was likely to be wrong it would be this year and 2022. More and more voters don't answer phones, and even when they do, they're skeptical of who is calling them and why. Politics is super fraught right now.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. Pollsters are very much not aware of the context in which we are living and the strong likelihood for many that admitting to certain political views could get them killed.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Kill as many of the fascists fucks as you can, at least.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Honestly, it's becoming smarter and smarter as full-throated fascism tells us violence is their plan for our subjugation.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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And if it isn't civil war, you and I will be rounded up and put in camps. If past is precedent and we aren't able to flee.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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True, which means definite dictatorship, definite public outcry and upheaval, and the likelihood of civil war only grows.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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We will have to agree to disagree. It feels plausible at this point that Trump will massively overstep the limits of the presidency in the eyes of blue states, and either he'll successfully replace their elected officials or secession is the outcome.
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Brendel
@brendelbored.bsky.social
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When polls are saying Biden is up five in Michigan but New York is a battleground and Trump has 40% of the African American vote but Biden has 60% of the elderly, idk man polls are fucked some sort of way. Maybe Biden loses a historic landslide or he’s up by 5 but they’re fucked some sort of way
37 replies 78 reposts 571 likes
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I still don't think they've found a good means of polling younger voters. Honestly, I never answer my phone for unknown callers and I know that's super common for Millennials and GenZers alike. Not that that's the only way people are polled.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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At this point I'm just trying to stave off "hunted down like dogs" by an army of Trump appointees. If we fail at that I have to hope for a civil war. Something similar could happen under Biden but the odds are diminished slightly (not that there aren't other problems).
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Yeah, sorry I missed this. I definitely do focus on local politics and vote for alternatives to Dems when it feels politically viable. Hoping we get an opportunity to have ranked choice voting in California, too, at some point. That would massively shift my calculus.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I generally agree but then we are just doomed. Unless there are options. I haven’t found one that feels viable on left yet nationally outside of their pocket of the Democratic Party. I’m enthusiastic about supporting alternatives, especially at the local level. I frequently vote Green in primaries.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Ok so what do we do about it then? How do we correct that? If we can’t change it from within because obviously the progressives in Congress have accomplished nothing, what’s next? Total revolution?
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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As I've said elsewhere, for me it's an issue of semantics. And maybe it was silly to weigh in with that as my motivation. There have been major inroads for progressives in the Democratic Party since 2016. They do not control it, though, which is a massive issue for policy. I agree.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Right, I think I've gotten lost in semantics. I generally agree with the above. I just don't want to downplay progressive victories, either.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Fucking madness. Just absolute wage theft.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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True but were Clinton and Obama's immigration policies appreciably better than Biden's? Sadly, not really. That's one area -- you're right -- both major parties are perfectly fine with scapegoating, which I despise and condemn in all cases.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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No way! Clearly you're a smart person. We all do that differently. But it's just whatever way comes natural for sure.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I don't disagree massive conservative forces are embedded in the Democratic Party that have major influence and have set things back still, but the idea that they have more power than they did doesn't square w/ evidence. The party was vastly more hostile to the left when Bill Clinton was president.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I feel like my default status is just a long and arduous debate with my own feelings and misgivings about where we are. Do y'all do that nonstop, too, or is that a "me problem"? Like a tiny court in my head weighing evidence and debating pros and cons, etc.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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You should! We all should! We are accomplishing things! It sucks how much the far right has risen in the last ten years (especially) but we have to keep focusing on what we can control and winning over folks with our positive, hopeful messaging.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Hell, connecting a candidate to the label "liberal" during the George W Bush era was politically toxic in the early 2000s. I remember how hard Gore and Kerry dodged it.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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People forget that politicians like AOC would have been unthinkable pre 2016.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Yeah, I'm talking more about the courts / law enforcement, and generally the status quo of the broader American culture. It's never been static, but it seems to have deep sympathies for the framers' rich white male centered take on "democracy" that we still need to disentangle ourselves from.
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K. A. “Kick Åss” Pillë
@keithpille.bsky.social
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Your move, Hemingway
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I don't really agree. There's been a groundswell of progressivism in recent years that's visibly connected to Democrats' winning. It's not what I'd like it to be, but "the Squad" didn't exist before 2018. I'm glad they do now.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Above all else has it on record that people in our political system are identifying their corruption. The Court as it is currently oriented deserves to lose the public trust and can no longer be relied upon to judiciously respond to questions about the law.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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We get voters active and out there, we win. That's the game, folks.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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The two most realistic ways of changing that system are somehow from within, which will require at least some incrementalism as we've seen, or a revolution, which will be terrible for the people most of the left says they care about -- the already marginalized -- and bad for everyone.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Furthermore, America is, institutionally, a deeply conservative country, mainly b/c it's so difficult to make changes to our Constitution, so we have a ton of stuff in it that was last relevant in the 19th century. Ergo, imposing leftist policies on this system will continue to be an uphill battle.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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I mean not to be too Pollyanna in what is absolutely a terrible situation for Democrats but FiveThiryEight hasn't shifted much related to the party favored to win Congress: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/generi...
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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This was literally yesterday: www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Yeah but I think Harris will do a lot more, so maybe best case is he wins in the short term and then dies or is incapacitated? I don't think he'll leave willingly, unfortunately.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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True, it's why I called Biden the second worst *realistic* option of 2020 (and no, despite money spent Bloomberg was never realistic, neither was Gabbard), his unwillingness to disrupt the status quo to deal with the fascist threat. It was like having Robert Mueller as president in a lot of ways.
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Like, oh it was an effective business model before when employers were essentially stealing from their employees by not paying them enough to get by? A woman in your article who worked full time couldn’t afford her cellphone bill until she got this raise? Wtf
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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Do you expect to continue to retain credibility when your framing of this issue is wildly misleading at best?
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Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
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All the better to control us and aggregate power in the hands of the few.
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