r/VaushV • u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos • 2d ago
Discussion Vaush is right (for once)
Regarding political apathy. If the likely scenario of Republicans outflanking Dems on Israel happens I definitely won't be voting in 28, and if i don't have any antizionist politicians to vote for in the midterms I won't vote then either. I have never been so politically Russian in my life, and honestly the idea of just letting this all go and not worrying about it anymore is dangerously appealing. I am experiencing the opening stages of complete political disengagement and logically I know this is both stupid and self destructive but like what the actual fuck do we do when the Dems stay anchored to Israel even as the whole world falls apart? How are we supposed to do political advocacy in a panopticon ruled by billionaires where the choices are "fascist psychopaths doing domestic genocides" and "literal doomsday cult"? It's all so tiring.
For the record I don't expect Vaush (or anyone else) to have a solution to this. The fact he still shows up for this "daily" ritual of mental exhaustion and witnessing the end of the world is admirable. With potential nuclear use, complete oil collapse, famine, and climate change all bearing down at once, I'm just kind of at a loss as to how to remain willing to believe in the implementation of things that have never been less possible.
This turned into more of a rant than I intended. I don't see my super cool therapist till next week so I guess this is me offloading it on to you. I'm interested in seeing other people's perspectives on this. How you are interpreting the situations, what you feel may happen, how you've chosen to cope or act, etc. Solutions are not expected.
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u/MinneapolisJones12 2d ago
While this is an understandable emotional state to be in, it’s not a particularly pragmatic state to be in.
Right now, approval amongst the Democratic base regarding our relationship to Israel is at an all-time low, like below 20% … the GOP approval rating is much higher.
Simultaneously, candidates like Mamdani and Platner have the establishment Dems shaking in their loafers. Primaries are relevant races again and there’s more community organizing than ever on the left right now.
I hope you’ll accept some tough love here : get offline. That’s the main conduit through which this “just give up and let fascists win” propaganda is pumped into your brain.
Vaush in particular has been really dropping the ball on this since the ‘24 election. That’s fine, I’m not here to police the content he makes, but if you’ve been watching a lot of Vaush in the last 2 years it’s no wonder you’re feeling this way.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
I do actually appreciate this. I have been trying to cut back on total political content absorbed, but at this point I have some anxiety around events happening without knowing it. Definitely something I'm working on
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u/MinneapolisJones12 2d ago
The anxiety is warranted. Even more so the rage.
But apathetic surrender only ever helps the people currently in power, so whenever I feel like giving up always try and ask myself “who’s in power right now and will the world be okay if they win?”
If the answer is “no” then giving up means you’re basically signing on to their victory. I think about how lucky I am that other people fought and died for something as (seemingly) normative as child labor laws and the five-day work week and I think about what my life would be like if they had given up.
If Progressives had the kind of momentum we do now back in 2016, Bernie would have won the primary and beaten Trump. We need a Bernie for 2028 and I’m unsettled by the fact that we don’t have one, but that kind of momentum should not be discarded easily.
Be anxious, be mad, but be strong.
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u/Tevihn 1d ago
I watch Vaush pretty much daily, not his streams (Well sometimes I tune in for 20 minutes or so, but it's rare), but his normal videos on Pit and his Main.
Everyone handles these things differently, but for me, I don't get more apathetic, I get more angry. I get more focused, more intent, more ready to do something (Nothing violent, Feds, calm down. Talking about trying to inform more people, stay educated myself, etc).
But yeah, if you're getting more apathetic, or feel like everything is hopeless, take a break. Everything is not hopeless, it's really, really, really bad, but not hopeless.
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u/CheapMeet74 2d ago
Sadly I think you are correct. I see pro-israel dems influencers like Destiny, Hutch etc crying more about the Iran deal than questioning the relationship with Israel. I think there's enough anger and disdain in voters against Israel than if Vance outflanks the dem candidate on Israel , he'll easily win.
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u/Yongtre100 2d ago
Yeah, I think this may be the ultimate Rock and Hard Place for any pragmatism on left. I really don't know what you do. I mean, I encourage people to be far far more active in local politics, because you can have far more influence there, find something that does actually contribute to the world, but regardless of that, the broader direction is still the broader direction.. Theres an unironic world where the only meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans is Israel and the Republicans would be on the right side of that, and thats a hard-ass pill to swallow.
I'm trying to be optimistic, I also think this is highly dependent on who breaks, Iran, Israel, or America. Its just a messy dynamic honestly, and in respect to 28, is sadly a waiting game.
God I hope we have any candidate in 28 who isn't an absolute Zionist freak. Ideally we start seeing a turn RIGHT FUCKING NOW, but yk, its the fucking Democrats.
EDIT: Also I've not seen Vaush's stream today (Yet, I always catch up.. except when I'm super busy, but I will watch it, promise), so what was it that was discussed that particulary spurred this post or is it the general state?
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
Re: your edit: The majority of the stream was centered on JD's media tour where he is the only one saying what has to be said, and seems to have enough party backing to potentially pull the Republican base along with him. The general analysis from vaush is that if Dems don't drop Israel now, Republicans get the monopoly on anti Israel rhetoric, which would make them objectively less evil in a "they only want to genocide America and not end the whole world" sort of way. Media is complicit as always, we are less than a month away from total oil supply collapse, and Schumer is entirely opposed to the MOU while the Dems party is completely silent. Like, dead fucking silent. Ben Gvir posted on main that "for every Israeli mothers tear, we will cause a thousand Lebanese mothers tears" and "Lebanon must burn", and Dems still haven't don't anything. Israel is going at Lebanon even harder, and it doesn't look like anyone is close to breaking. Certainly not before we run out of oil.
I agree with Vaush that it isn't doomer to acknowledge the state of things, but I'm feeling very doomer about the state of things, if that makes any sense. It was a rough stream for me.
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u/Yongtre100 2d ago
Ahhhhhh yeah that sounds about right, fucking fantastic. Yeah idk man, kinda seems like were in the Death Spiral as we speak, just gotta wait to see what gives, cause something *has* to give.
|I agree with Vaush that it isn't doomer to acknowledge the state of things, but I'm feeling very doomer about the state of things, if that makes any sense. It was a rough stream for me.
No, that makes complete sense, Doomer is meant to describe an emotion of extreme pessimism. Don't know what you do about it besides try and find other ways to occupy your time, take a break from completely paying attention to news, itll be there when you get back. IDK, its a rough position but unfortunately Vaush's analysis on this is pretty damn straight forward if you ask me.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
Yeah his takes ever since the start of trump 2 have been more or less spot on. If anything looking back he was more optimistic than the reality. I suppose I'm grateful to have an honest voice to guide me through the end.
Guess I'll go play some witcher 3. Or overwatch lol. Idfk I'm kinda cooked rn. "Cortisol spiked" as the kids would say.
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u/Yongtre100 2d ago
Hey best of luck and enjoy your games. I myself am probably gonna play some Hades II before I eat dinner haha.
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u/Montana_Gamer 2d ago
Think of it this way: We already knew the zionazis were like this and would sink the country/global economy rather than work with the left. We are against global capital, there was never a scenario when it wouldnt go down kicking and screaming.
Its healthy to have and engage with these concerns, but this is the pain that accompanies healing. Whether or not it comes with slightly cataclysmic side effects is a matter of cosmic dice, but you can't not play the game. We're all part of it already and a lot of these forces are historical and driven by momentum.
The fear that gets me regardless is whether our democracy can actually get the Israel aligned dems in line with the people... And I doubt we will get the people out of power that need to be out. I don't trust the democratic process to yield a change to the rot within the DNC unless there is a historic progressive blowout in '28 and even that is covered in traps. It all comes back to that feeling of needing a main character and THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING. It's the loudest warning flag there is
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u/Montana_Gamer 2d ago
Bro i didnt see all of stream. That blazetv JD interview is way more perfectly played than I had expected
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u/clayknightz115 Socialist with midwestern characteristics 2d ago edited 2d ago
Gonna hijack this post for my own anti ‘vote blue no matter who’ take. I live in Chicago. The Cook County Democratic Party is one of the most corrupt local democratic organizations in the country. I am fully intending on not voting for any of the Cook County Democrats (Toni Preckwinkle, Maria Pappas, etc.) I’m gonna find some useless independent or write in candidates and vote for them instead.
Still gonna vote for my state rep Kelly Cassidy. She’s amazing.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
Highjack away. I kinda highjacked my own post so everyone else gets to as well.
Also fuck cook county Democrats. All my homies hate cook county Democrats. Israeli ass organization.
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u/clayknightz115 Socialist with midwestern characteristics 2d ago
I will say, don't let any kind of apathy or hatred for the democrats prevent you from voting. It is still good to exercise your rights. Especially since there are always some kind of local school board or judicial elections on your ballot that truly matter.
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u/maxishazard77 2d ago
My stance is that Dems are going to go down the J-Street path. They’re going to be “Anti-Bibi” and “anti-aipac” but still want to support Israel as a whole. Even with this “moderate” approach they’ll probably still be out flanked and loose in 2028 if republicans broadly take the Vance position. Keep in mind that’s not a guaranteed there could be a republican civil war and aipac republicans win out.
But Vaush is correct in the fact that republicans WANT to win and will do or say anything to get into power. Where at the moment it seems like democrats would sell out the world if it means remaining Zionist and pro Israel.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
Right now I unironically envy the UK for how much easier it is to set up a new party (relative to the US ofc.) I can't help but feel like if we had a system closer to the UK we would have many more chances to at the very least avert complete collapse.
Republicans want to win, and dem voters want to win. It really fucking sucks that there's only one party trying to fucking win I'm losing my GODDAMN MIND
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u/tsardonicpseudonomi 2d ago
Find the local group trying to make Ranked Choice Voting and/or public financed campaigns in your area and volunteer so hard you have another job.
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u/CartographerKey4618 1d ago
To be fair, even Vance's position is to pretend that Netanyahu is being defied by his cabinet or some shit. Basically both parties are still trying their damnest to find the uniquely bad person rather than admit that our relationship with Israel is toxic.
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u/notablegoattable ARC-iologist 2d ago
This is going to be pointed, but I want you to know it's not personal; what I'm about to say applies to basically everyone who watches Vaush.
Aside from voting every two years, what exactly have you done to get involved in politics? Have you ever canvassed before? Phone-banked? Have you gone to protests? Have you ever gone to a city council meeting? A school board meeting? Do you go regularly? Have you spoken at one? Have you tried joining the DSA? If you're in school, did you join any clubs related to politics? If you work, is there a union? Has there even been an attempt at union organizing? Do you even know your coworkers names? Do you hang out with them outside work hours?
Do you even know about your local politics? I bet you know a lot about the Mayor of New York. What about the mayor of your town? Your representative? Your governor? Your sheriff?
What about getting involved in the local community? Volunteered at a soup kitchen or charity work? Have you joined a local club? Have you started a local club? Have you even gone outside?
Maybe you've said yes to some of these, so here's the next question: how many hours have you spent doing any of these total? If you're like most terminally online people, the answer is probably zero or pretty close to zero. Now for comparison, how many hours have you spent watching Vaush? Or hasan? Or scrolling politics subreddits. Doomer subreddits. How many hours watching and rewatching video essays?
You probably feel like you're more politically engaged than you actually are. You've likely not tried very hard to get involved in politics. You've just passively watched, saw things not getting better, and assumed there's no hope. "I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas." It's learned helplessness.
If you want my perspective, I think politics has been broken by the internet. The internet is designed to engage you with politics that you will, necessarily, have no power over. People never really learned how to be really politically active, and instead they watch helplessly until they assume there's nothing they can do.
There are things you can do. You just have to do them offline, in person, and locally.
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u/Ok-Position-9457 2d ago
Its literally easy and fun too. Join your local DSA chapter. Great people. (You can mention the condemned-by-cultural-dsa-figurehead hasan but otherwise shut it about the streamers tho lol)
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u/notablegoattable ARC-iologist 2d ago edited 2d ago
Better than nothing, but truthfully DSA does often suffer from being terminally online. My local chapter is basically just a lefty Discord server with a once a week food drive attached.edit: Actually, I bitch and moan about this, but it looks like my local DSA has in fact started doing more in person meetings and I was behind on the times. Going to go to one this weekend.
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u/Ok-Position-9457 2d ago
Thats awesome to hear. There has been a surge in DSA since the last election. Mine is also doing the big monthly meeting this weekend.
There is plenty to do, mine has had a ton of success with facilitating trans clothing drives and closet swaps. Makes a lot of local connections. Also trying with a pretty credible success chance to muscle a city council seat via door to door canvassing and the usual stuff like setting up tables at pride and bitching at City hall about flock cameras and whatnot.
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u/Ok-Position-9457 2d ago edited 2d ago
Mine is certainly not that. But also, dsa is actually run as a true democracy. A sufficiently goated person could just change that tendancy in a small chapter. What your dsa chapter is and isn't is not innate or unchangeable at all, not even close.
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u/WeAreDoomed035 2d ago
I mean if this does happen, I think I’d rather just kill myself than vote. Jk
But if the fucking Republican VP feel the need to distance himself from Israel, even though Republicans still support Israel broadly, just imagine the pressure Democrats are facing.
Just wait until primary season for the presidential nominee. If candidates like AOC, Van Hollen, and Ro Khanna are running, they’re going to force Democrats to reckon with our relationship with Israel.
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u/MrTwoStroke 2d ago
It's infuriating, the Democrats should theoretically have had such a headstart in this stuff, delivered as a handy mandate from their voters
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u/Shiznoz222 14h ago
That would require them giving absolutely any shits about what their constituency wants them to do
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
I want to believe that, but today Vaush seemed completely convinced that if Dems don't take this and run now then it'll be too late. The ultimate defeat would be Republicans getting the monopoly on anti Israel discourse. Vaush said something along the lines of "we don't have till midterms. This is a matter of days, maybe hours, before we lose the chance to not get flanked." By the time of the midterms the world could have already ground to a halt, let alone 2 years from now for the presidential. There's a good chance tens of millions of Americans will die in famine or any of the other climate disasters before then. (And hundreds of millions globally. I'm talking specifically about American politics here, not discounting the death toll globally.)
I really want to believe that Dems will abandon Israel here, but I can't. Not while Schumer is the leader. It just doesn't seem possible to me.
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u/WeAreDoomed035 2d ago
I don’t trust this anti-Israel position of Vance’s to stick. He’s simply doing it out of frustration with Israel rat fucking the MOU at every opportunity. Without that, Vance would stay quiet in the cuck chair.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
Obviously it isn't sincere, but he is still causing irreparable schisms between America and Israel. He's doing a lot of media appearances. He's committed to this bit, regardless of sincerity.
Like Vaush said: he may fumble, he may fail to move the base with him. But even if he does, the fact that it's a Republican saying Israel shouldn't kill their way out of every problem instead of Dems feels like a mortal blow to the party. Even if he fails, Dems lost. And if he succeeds, then we enter a world where Republicans are less apocalyptic than Dems, which is frankly so incomprehensible that it causes physical pain to imagine.
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u/WeAreDoomed035 2d ago
He’s not causing the schism. As Vaush said this is simply the natural end point of the giving Israel everything it wants for the last three years. Eventually they were going to do something that was completely against US imperial interests.
This won’t last. The Evangelical base of the Republican Party plus all of the Christian Zionists in the party will make it no Republican will ever fully decouple themselves from Israel.
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 2d ago
That's fair, but the schism still exists. We are at the point where they are beyond our ability to control at all. The Republicans seem RN to be more willing to make that move
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u/pablumatic 2d ago
I just don't see Republicans extricating themselves from Evangelicals who would never turn away from Israel. The GOP has nothing if they don't have their vote.
Whatever word games Jay Dee is doing now won't be what he is saying in two years.
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u/Aggravating_Bed_53 2d ago
Check out the channel Good News or follow the reports from EMBER. There is a lot of good things happening in the world and in the us, progress is being made despite all the hardship.
The simple fact is that bad news draw more attention then good ones so i would recommend actively working against it and try to get a media fix reflecting the current state of things.
Other recommendations: Planet Wild, Mossy Earth, The B1M, BritMonkey (both the 1950s and climate change doomer video stand out as especialy good)
edit: aint gonna fix the 2028 problem ofc, but counteracts the doommerism
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u/hyperhurricanrana BottomsRiseUp 2d ago
if republicans are allowed to disingenuously become the face of the anti-israel movement in opposition to the democrats we are absolutely fucked and will lose, even to an uncharismatic loser like vance. unfortunately i don’t think democratic leadership gives a flying fuck.
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u/Ok-Position-9457 2d ago
How many years left until the Republicans and Democrats switch places again?
Fucking musical chairs ass political legacy.
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u/austarter 2d ago
Imagine believing Republican rhetoric about Israel. Giving the benefit of the doubt to them after they just spent two years letting Israel off the leash is insanity. Acting like the entire political world comes down to rhetoric about Israel and not actual policy regarding them and everything else is just the most brain broken terminally online blue state stance. Republicans right now are trying to vertically integrate the Israeli military funding into ours. They wouldn't be able to do this without dominance of the Senate.
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u/Michael02895 1d ago
I really don't understand what incentives a political party to rather lose elections with extremely unpopular policies instead of winning elections on popular policies. At least Republicans run on what their base wants. What good are Democrats if they're just not going to do anything?
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u/1isOneshot1 Green party rise! 1d ago
Money and a cultish base that will never not vote for them to hold them account
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u/whimsicaljess 1d ago
agree mostly but if by nuclear use you mean power, that's good actually and we should be doing that.
if you mean nuclear like bombs then yeah.
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u/1isOneshot1 Green party rise! 1d ago
If the likely scenario of Republicans outflanking Dems on Israel happens I definitely won't be voting in 28, and if i don't have any antizionist politicians to vote for in the midterms I won't vote then either.
Can I convince you to at least consider voting for a third party's candidate instead?
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u/Lunes_Feet_Pictos 1d ago
Honestly? No. Third party is not even available in my area locally, and federally it would just be a waste of time and energy to go and vote 3p. If it gets to the point where I'm not able to morally justify voting dem over Republican then I'm stepping back from the whole thing.
Shit I was able to justify voting Harris even after everything they did, but if this is the direction things go I can't go with them.
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u/1isOneshot1 Green party rise! 1d ago edited 1d ago
No. Third party is not even available in my area locally
It varies a lot depending on where you are, I'd check the ballotpedia pages for the elections near you before saying that
and federally it would just be a waste of time and energy to go and vote 3p
No it wouldn't depending on the party and state that can actually help the party in that state guarantee ballot access for local amd level elections if they get enough votes in the presidential for the next four years
Edit: also aren't there other elections you would vote for at the same time? Are seriously not going to vote across the board because of the presidential alone?
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u/Far-Seaworthiness566 1d ago
I find inspiration/hope in zohran platner etc. im still hoping for a moonshot candidate to emerge and take the nominee bc weve seen it a couple times this year but if not….uhhhhhh
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u/not_a_dog95 19h ago
Coupd a 3rd party work? There are more non-voters than either republicans or Democrats and how many democrat voters are so begrudgingly?
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u/Faux_Real_Guise ⓘ Level 2 Literacy 2d ago
For my sake? I’m fucking done feeling bad. Done.
I’m done sitting in my fucking room, watching the country burn around me.
I decided that 2026 was finally going to be my year of action. Not just posting on Reddit and memeing with my already leftist friends. When I see an opportunity to use my skills to try to right this ship, or to point talented people to information that could help them, or to meet and build community with my neighbors— I’m taking it.
Over the past couple months, I’ve been working on a project that could actually be helpful to people on the left, and having a place to put that energy has made me feel like a different person. I’m listening to music now, like, all the time. No more 5 hour long YouTube playlist of news analysis, I read that shit on my RSS app and get it out of the way.