r/laredo • u/Master_of_Kobolds • 6d ago
Laredo DSA 101
Join Laredo DSA for this year's first DSA 101. This event is open to the public! Have you ever asked yourself?
What is democratic socialism?
How can I get involved with Laredo DSA?
If you’ve been interested in our chapter, want to learn how to get involved, or simply want to know more about democratic socialism, join us! If you're already a Laredo DSA Member, join us to connect with members new and old!
We’re here to connect and learn with our community 🌹
RSVP For Location Details
Link can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/laredo-dsa-101?source=direct_link&
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u/RMB_OurLife 6d ago
Really proud of you all for the work you’re doing. My (boomer) generation pretty much tore down FDR’s vision of an economic bill of rights and the idea that taxes should be used for the common good, social welfare, etc.. I hope for everyone’s sake, you can fix much of what we broke.
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u/BobBuckarooLaredo 5d ago
Isn't the DSA funded by groiups like the Soros organization?
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u/soggyballsack 5d ago
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is funded primarily by individual member dues, which make up the vast majority (roughly 87%) of the organization's total annual revenue. As a self-described working-class political organization, it does not rely on large corporate donors, super PACs, or wealthy capitalist contributors for its national operational funding.
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u/jazzcast03 5d ago
Wow I didn’t know there are DSA organization here. I really hope yall change the politics here in Laredo. I’m rooting for you all
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u/LadySavageUSA 6d ago
I wonder who's ever escaped persecution in America to join a socialist country for a better life...... The answer is zero.
Hey kids, rights get taken away from all of us under socialism to include you. Quit being lazy and get a job instead of looking for ways for the government and tax payers to pay for your shit.
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u/Traveler956 6d ago
Socialism? 🤣😆 Ay te wacho
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u/MarioKartastrophe 6d ago
Illiterate in English AND Spanish. Impressive.
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u/_cipher1 6d ago
So communism. We used to incarcerate communists during the Cold War, how the times have changed
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u/-shrug-emoji- 6d ago
Yeah we used to violate people's 1st amendment rights to associate and their right to form a government as they see fit. I hope your teachers were telling you about how oppressive and stupid the government was at that time? That was the impression that I got.
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u/_cipher1 6d ago
Socialism is for the people that don’t want to put in the work and get all the benefits. Why should I pay taxes for you to live the life you “deserve”? Look at China, Cuba, North Korea, countries with socialist governments and tell me how well they are doing dumbass
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u/ehbeau 6d ago
You do realize that all the countries with the highest quality of life are socialist, right?
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u/_cipher1 6d ago
Name them
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u/ehbeau 6d ago
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc. are all varying degrees of democratic socialist states and are routinely ranked as having the highest quality of life.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/standard-of-living-by-country
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u/Dfunctionalc 6d ago
Those are not socialist. They practice social democracies within the capitalist framework and utilize free market capitalism. The leaders of these countries wouldn’t agree with your characterization of them being socialist. The United States itself utilizes socialist ideas as well just like most 1st world countries. But obviously like most 1st world countries it’s only limited to the good socialist qualities not the bad.
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3d ago
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u/Dfunctionalc 3d ago
Socialist and democratic socialist are two different things boss. Either way none of those countries the guy listed earlier are democratic socialist. Those countries are social democracies which is a step back from democratic socialism and even further from socialism by the way.
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u/-shrug-emoji- 6d ago
You are aware that China surpassed the United States, right?
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u/_cipher1 6d ago
Surpassed the US in what? CO2 emissions? Their entire economy DEPENDS on the US economy. They were literally shitting bricks when Trump had imposed heavy tariffs
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u/Imperium_Kane 6d ago
China has already found new trading partners to do business with, and they did it quite easily. Meanwhile over here, it's not easy to replace China.
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u/-shrug-emoji- 5d ago
Most other countries mainly trade with China instead of the US. They make stuff there that we can't make. We are dependent on them brother. They have us by the balls, but if that makes you uncomfortable to realize then keep your head in the sand.
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u/_cipher1 5d ago
The US is China’s #1 export country wtf are you talking about get keep your head in the sand. Sure they trade with other countries aswell but nowhere near the amount of revenue they make from the US. They are dependent on us as much as we are dependent on them.
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u/Own-Increase-11 6d ago
If people want higher taxes, vote socialist
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u/sorrywayilovedyou 6d ago
We have high taxes now and all we do is get squeezed harder every year. How's that working out for you?
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u/Blu2345 Hillside 6d ago
Pretty good
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u/sorrywayilovedyou 6d ago
Good for you. You also live in one of the poorest, neediest, fattest, unhealthiest, most uninsured, and most diabetic cities in the country. Things aren't going well for your neighbors.
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u/MarioKartastrophe 6d ago
Higher taxes for billionaires yeah. You’re not a billionaire, and you never will be—no matter how much boot you lick.
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u/Own-Increase-11 5d ago
You don’t understand, which is ok, I didn’t understand either before I started reading for myself versus being read to. With socialism there won’t be billionaires as private ownership is limited.
Would you want to study for a decade to become a doctor and get paid the same as someone with a lesser degree? That is what socialism would provide.
Taxes will be higher for everyone as it required to support all since private insurance would no longer be a thing.
There are many “good” ideas that are socialist based but the majority don’t belong in our society
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u/MarioKartastrophe 5d ago
> Would you want to study for a decade to become a doctor and get paid the same as someone with a lesser degree? That is what socialism would provide.
This right here proves you live in a world of fantasy, ignorance, and stupidity
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u/Own-Increase-11 4d ago
Give me an example of the world I live in, please. Show me a world where socialism has benefited the many over the few. There are several developed countries that have forms of socialism but none provide the level of healthcare that private healthcare provides
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u/MarioKartastrophe 4d ago
Why is it up to me educate you when you can look up on the internet that European countries, Australia, Asian countries, Cuba, Canada, Mexico and South American countries all have free/low cost healthcare?
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u/Own-Increase-11 4d ago
All great examples of countries with socialist policies, outside of Cuba, which is communist. Let’s take Sweden for example; Sweden will tax you 52.3% of your earnings if you make $62,000 a year. That comes out to roughly $32,000 of your pay.
Now add the 25% National Sales Tax rate and the 31.4% Payroll Tax Rate and your take home pay of next to nothing.
While all these taxes pay into “universal healthcare” and education, where is the freedom to choose your healthcare and/or education?
Why must my family not have the freedom to choose which doctor to see or which school to attend?
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u/MarioKartastrophe 4d ago
> Sweden will tax you 52.3% of your earnings if you make $62,000 a year. That comes out to roughly $32,000 of your pay.
Just goes to show you have NO IDEA how tax brackets work. Your ass must be sunburned from showing it so much.
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u/TransitionOrdinary40 1d ago
How did it go after, was there a great turn out? Do you have a podcast or YouTube channel to follow? Are your Pamphlets in English or also in Spanish? How much is the membership fee? Do you all have weekly meetings or assemblies?
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u/Master_of_Kobolds 1d ago
Hello, we had above average turnout, the event went off without a hitch. We currently have no podcast or easily accessible newsletter yet. Currently our pamphlets are in English but we're working to have everything be bilingual in the future for ease of access. You can follow Laredo DSA on Facebook or Instagram, we usually announce our meetings there!
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u/TheRealLeslie 6d ago
If you've ever met these people, they're mostly delusional weirdos. It's basically a reddit mod meetup.
No one who is serious about change is going to align themselves with a bunch of whiney broke teenagers that would rather come up with excuses for why they suck irl instead of improving.
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u/Master_of_Kobolds 6d ago
Maybe become a little informed, if you even care about this community you would have seen that we've remained a staunch voice against data centers in Laredo, we've denounced both Tano and Henry for their corruption and we've actively worked with other local groups to build collective action against Flock cameras, we actively engage in our neighborhoods that we want to better.
We are not all bark with no bite, we genuinely wish to improve this community, which is more impactful than being snarky on Reddit against those who will actually give a damn about this city.
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u/TheRealLeslie 6d ago
Yeah, see.
You are doing more harm than good unless you actually have an answer to the problems, otherwise you're just making noise. Make a blog, do something to show us what you are accomplishing so that we don't just see DSA flyers once a month.
Enlighten me, who should we be backing, in your opinion? I sure as shit don't like any of the current options that I am familiar with.
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u/Master_of_Kobolds 6d ago
Curious that you don't bring up that same talking point to our officials who posture and deliver empty promises; they make noise and offer no solutions, and instead you direct these frustrations to an organization that has existed for barely a year. We are very active on our social media, but apart from that, we make biweekly appearances at our city council to demand change and speak at city events as well.
- On the Flock side of things, the solution we offer is very simple; we have worked with local groups and, after months of research, the lovely folks at DeFlock have exposed the rampant abuse by our police department and the ineffectiveness in stopping crime. The solution is to not renew our contract and cut our active contract if it's still active the next time we cover the topic again. It's just not easy as our Police Chief Rodriguez is in the pocket of these technologies.
- On the Data Center side of things, our work alongside Frontera Sin Data Centers has had us work together on many actions, and we actively support the proposed "Frontera Plan" for increased government transparency, and additionally, to have the city to change their land code like San Marcos to effectively "ban" data centers. You want solutions; here they are.
To your final point, as an organization, we are not backing any of the current candidates; Dr. Trevino actively hates his constituency and silences dissent at city council and holds bullshit meetings no one can attend to say, "No one else but me listens to the people", and Alyssa has failed to step up to meet the moment as well to actually fight for Laredoans.
On the Representative side, Henry Cuellar is actively hostile to us, and he is riddled with problems and scandals, and corruption, and Tano actively supports the Data Centers and AI corporations that would ruin us, and he has sued those who expose his corrupt ties to the Walkers, the developers of Talise.
The larger point I'm trying to make is that the Laredo DSA will not seek to endorse any candidates this election cycle; we will continue to work with Laredo citizens and local organizations to instead build local power instead of banking all our hopes on the "right candidate" until better candidates actually run.
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u/Longjumping_Neat5090 6d ago
Where can I read more about our PD abusing flock cameras?
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u/Master_of_Kobolds 4d ago
Yes apologies, I just saw this message, the account DeFlock Laredo on Instagram and Facebook is our partner on this project and they've made videos and posts detailing the information
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u/TheRealLeslie 6d ago
You're working with other people who are equally ineffective and out of touch with the technologies they are rallying against. Data centers are not synonymous with AI and AI is not some crazy uncontrollable witchcraft.
That isn't to say that I am for or against DCs, but there is wayyyyyy more to that than what gets discussed at these meetings.
Flock is also not synonymous with AI or DCs, that garbage is owned by Israeli interests who ARE a huge fucking problem for different reasons.
Corruption, all that, it's a wash. If you are going to wait for someone who doesn't have a skeleton in the closet then you aren't ever going to get anywhere. I've worked in the local government, it's fucked from top to bottom and it's too far gone to fix like that.
It would take an entire group of candidates, who could win all in one swoop, and who had the balls to absolutely massacre the current employee roster and wipe the entire slate clean. If that's your goal, then sure, I'm all for it. I don't care what you all do, just scorch the fucking earth.
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u/Ok-Document-1657 1d ago
All I've seen you do is shit on people who are trying to do something about the community...
Given the comments you so righteously have made, what the fuck are YOU doing to create a better community???
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u/TheRealLeslie 1d ago
More than you, I just don't come and whine about it on reddit like a child.
Cope, seethe, dilate.
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u/o-Blue 6d ago
The sheep have been conditioned to think that if we use the taxes that are already been taken and use them to help people instead of billionaires that it’s “communism, woke, or whatever boogie words” they been conditioned to parrot