I smoke a lot of pot. Probably the strangest part is how...I still have to live? I still have to go into work tomorrow, I've still got bills to pay. People just go about their day like nothing is happening. You sit in the office and joke about the ongoing hostile government takeover. Meanwhile, federal employees are getting fucked, trans people are getting erased, they're building fuckin camps down in Guantanamo, people are fuckin starving outside shuttered USAID depots, and I still got work tomorrow. It's like I'm just sitting here waiting for somebody to put a gun in my hands and tell me "the revolution starts now." My local organizations are very focused on making sure people survive right now, which is a very good and noble focus to have, but I haven't really heard of anyone planning something serious to fight back.
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As a 50something American, it has never been weirder. While I saw this building during most of my life, I didn’t think I would actually live to see Americans voting to get rid of democracy.
But here we are - no longer a functioning democratic republic.
That American Exceptionalism is a real bitch, huh?
Many of us never believed in American Exceptionalism, since we could see this country slipping backwards while the rest of the world continued to progress.
It feels like American Exceptionalism was only seriously being challenged post-9/11.
I've heard people say they've never felt more american than they ever have since the last month. It's a different perspective for everyone. But it does concern me that some people base their entire perspectives on the first ten words they hear, and refuse to think further
I am trying to ignore it. It’s like all the worst fears I could have coming true. The richest man in the world, a naked fascist and virulent transphobe, is gobbling up all the sensitive data the government has and is feeding it to AI so he can tear down the government and usher in techno-feudalism.
Meanwhile, I still have to go to work and pretend that everything is fine and normal, while the government is trying to define trans people out of existence, help Israel ethnically cleanse Palestine, and threaten every ally we’ve had.
I want to leave, but it’s extraordinarily difficult to uproot your life, and there’s no guarantee that finding a viable way to move elsewhere is going to happen.
So I’m just trying to imagine myself as a tiny individual, trying to hide from the brutality and eke out a good life with my little resources and community, and pray that whatever happens doesn’t happen to me directly.
Maybe I should be out protesting - I feel like I should - but there isn’t a mass movement right now, and there’s no leverage in government to stop them. So things are feeling pretty bleak right now.
but there isn’t a mass movement right now
Lookup the 50501 movement. There were protests across the entire country in every single state yesterday and they are planning future ones too. Many of them were quite large especially considering how short notice they were prepared
Here's one video montage with just handful of some of the protests https://bsky.app/profile/50501movement.bsky.social/post/3lifqkjki2k2o
Maybe I should be out protesting - I feel like I should - but there isn’t a mass movement right now, and there’s no leverage in government to stop them. So things are feeling pretty bleak right now.
Nothing is going to change in a big hurry, no matter what happens, but the efforts great and small that we all make are cumulative over time, so that when observable change happens, it'll be solid.
You're enough. What you can do is enough, even if it's as simple as making some space in your home to be able to accomodate someone who needs safety on short notice, getting involved in mutual aid, printing flyers, being observant and identifying small opportunities to make fascists think twice. Even just getting into a resistance mindset is a positive move.
Everything has risk, of course, and the level of risk you are prepared to take on, for you, is up to you. A teeny tiny bit of risk today might just make you feel that you can take on a bit more tomorrow, and a bit more the day after that.
and there’s no leverage in government to stop them.
Do you think government will do anything at all in the coming weeks, months, years? I can't wrap my head around the situation at all. How does anyone with a slight bit of brains and a small grasp of history just accept this? It's so dystopian...
There have been people fighting back. They just get 10x less media coverage than all the horrible things going on. This is part of what people mean when they say the revolution will not be televised
Many of their actions have been blocked in many of the federal courts and they are largely complying with those orders
There are many federal workers refusing to go along with all kinds of their action that slow them down
Many blue states and localities have already passed laws/ordinances to stop cooperating with the federal government ICE raid making them more difficult to carry out
Most people are living paycheck to paycheck, and the US is so big that getting from bumfuck, Arizona to DC is a monumental task. Hell, even getting from bumfuck, NY to Albany NY is impossible for some. It's all on purpose. Most Americans are barely getting by.
To add to that, half the country wants this
Over 50% of our population reads below a 6th year education and our school system has been steadily defunded and dumbed down over the past 40 years. A large portion of Americans only have 2 brain cells and they're both busy fighting for 3rd place. Ignorance and a lack of critical thinking skills is what has gotten us into this situation and I don't know if we have what it takes to get us out of it.
How do we even get out of it? How do you reconcile the fact that Americans live in entirely separate realities to each other? How are we meant to educate and connect to a group of people who demonize education and connection? Like I honestly don't know what can be done for some of these people short of actual re-education camps, because they need a full mental debriefing.
For anyone feeling small: Take a stand, join us. Masters are merely men.
Is there a website with this info somewhere? Mostly curious. Still going to share the image.
All of the media about this stuff has felt increasingly like misleading propaganda to me since 2016, and getting an accurate, unbiased, big picture understanding of what is happening seems somewhere between a lot of work and actually impossible with so many people trying so hard to manipulate you. It is like reality television. I try to tune it out as I can but enough gets through.
I'm glad everyone is finally coming around to hating Twitter though.
If we don't stop the rich from using the American military to take over the world then pretty soon the rich will come for your country too.
Would this be the military that could only reach a standstill in Korea? That lost in Vietnam? That lost in Afghanistan? That ran away scared from Mogadishu? That "won" in Iraq by generating the world's largest collection of terrorists until the blowback lost you two large towers and a smaller one?
That military?
I think you'll find, as a regular civilian or a VIP in the target country, that you're making a distinction without a difference.
Ask Saddam Hussein's opinion on the US's loss in Iraq or the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians how they feel about winning in Afghanistan.
The one that is only currently setup to drone strike any human on earth yes that one.
I've got some bad news for you...
I'm trans. I don't have the luxury of ignoring it.
I have been fighting against this bullshit for ten years. I even got arrested protesting Trump's bullshit once. Met some fantastic socialists and amarchists in jail.
Yeah, entertaining, isn't it? Seeing that every warning bell that was rung was ignored? That every day I waved a sign or shoved a cop, was just a day delaying this from happening?
Has it all been futile? Have I wasted ten years fighting the same fascists my grandfather fought in WW2?
The scariest thing is that the only reason we haven't done the violent uprising thing yet is because the only way it would succeed is if the military instigated the countercoup. We won't survive under American martial law, and they're bullbaiting us into giving them an exuse to kill and imprison us all. We must fight back, but we can't fight back.
This is hell. This is hell. Never, ever, ever let it happen in Belgium. For the love of any god that gives enough of a fuck to listen, care about politics. Care about politics before they decide they don't care about you.
Because in ten years, those of us who aren't in prison camps are going to be starving and freezing. Take a good look. Take a good, long look, and be smart enough to get up and do something dangerous and crazy once in a while when it matters most.
I’m trans too. I’m still closeted, though, and now I’m getting scared that I’ll never be able to transition. They’re restricting gender-affirming care for minors right now, but it feels like a small step for them to ban it for adults too. And I have ADHD and take antidepressants- I’m starting to be genuinely worried that they might put me in a camp. What do we do? Where can we go that is safe?
With his talk of invading Canada, I'm wondering how much of that is to drill oil in the Arctic, and how much of it is to hunt down the people who ran away from him.
This is hell. This is hell. Never, ever, ever let it happen in Belgium. For the love of any god that gives enough of a fuck to listen, care about politics. Care about politics before they decide they don’t care about you.
I try! It's a hard battle, sometimes, because even here right-wing nutjobs are getting more and more normalised. We can only hope that they see the situation in the US and realise they don't want this kind of shitshow. On the other hand... even here some of those nutjobs are celebrating Donny and Elmo. That's very scary.
Has it all been futile? Have I wasted ten years fighting the same fascists my grandfather fought in WW2?
It's not! I really believe it hasn't been futile! Keep on fighting! I know it's very demanding, but never underestimate the power of the masses. I support you, even if I can only raise my voice online. And here in Belgium, I'm fighting for sure to evade the same situation.
American here. Terrified about what's happening and even more terrified how unaware people like my parents are. The department of education going away is, to my mom, something that won't happen but if it does, they had good intentions. This is from someone who has always claimed "both sides are bad". But suddenly now the most nakedly evil people in the history of the country have taken over, it's out of our hands and just stop worrying.
Someone told me recently "People don't want to think. They want to be ruled."
AI can help them with that
Same. My parents tell me to just stop reading the news so I'll feel better. I can't look away from the train crash that is our country, how can you guys?
Americans, how do you cope? What’s your take on the situation?
Trying not to think about it. It very well may lead to my death, but so does every avenue radical enough to avert it by my personal intervention.
I think the hardest part considering it is how okay people are with everything that's going on. Despite the high levels of copium from liberals and leftists about how there's TOTALLY a grassroots movement ready to rise up, the fact is... there isn't. The protests are smaller this time 'round than they were last time. Public opinion is more in favor of Trump than it was at the start of his last administration.
Many of us noted that this country isn't as left as many of the "Trump will make the moderates SEE that fascism is BAD!" types wanted to believe it was. We were ignored.
People live in a bubble, where what they want to believe is true, and goddamn reality.
Anyway. I'm fucked, and just trying to stay alive until I can't avoid dusting off my old suicide plans.
The way I see it, even if our lives are basically worthless anyway, we ought to at least give them in glorious revolution. Better to die on your feet for what you believe in surrounded by comrades than by your own hand alone. I'll go on living until that happens, and you should try to survive too.
It’s difficult. You’ve got people that vote red or blue for no other reason than that’s what they’re told to do by peers/family. They don’t look at the possible outcomes, just that “they win”. And wanting to help people is almost looked down upon in many facets of society.
America has a critical thinking problem, coupled with an extreme lack of genuine empathy. Don’t let the “nice American” bit fool you if you ever travel here. The nice small talk is a front, and you can very easily find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. Health care is a great example. Or anything LGBTQ+.
Honestly, it’s a culture thing. It’s toxic as hell and hard to navigate.
I'm not really sure I am coping. I've been seeing a decline for a long long time, but even though I knew it was possible I really didn't think we'd reach the point were we're pretty much going to be living under a dictatorship.
I knew that capitalist interests would continue to decrease everyone's standard of living, and I figured there would be some kind of reaction, I just never in a million years thought it would be the dumbfuck duo of Trump and Musk that actually harnessed the reaction in such a destructive manner.
It's been incredibly depressing to see the right get what they want time and time again making things worse for everyone and yet the propaganda machine somehow manages to create more right wingers.
But then again "the house always wins" and billionaires are the house so it shouldn't be a surprise. :/
My reaction is to get to work. The far-right is trying to take over much of the world, and it's going to take many of us to push it back. Don't wait for someone else to step up - everyone else is waiting too. Be the person who steps up. The people have power if we use it
There's groups like Indivisible doing directed pressure of those in government that need more people to contact their house representatives and senators. With that pressure for instance, they've started to get Democrats to use procedural tools to slow down senate confirmation of Trump's picks
There's movements like the 50501 protests in many cities in all 50 states yesterday, on Feb 5th, and there will be future protests
For anyone else reading this, don't think this can't happen wherever you are in the world, join the fight back locally. People in the US thought it couldn't happen to them too until it did. People in the UK thought Brexit wouldn't happen until it did. It can happen to you. Take what's happened in the US as a warning for you too to get involved in the push back
People have just started to realize after 50 years that both major parties, and our system undermines the formation of a third major party, stand with the robber barons against needs of the people while stoking social division to protect the robber barons from reprisal.
Kinda demoralizing. Especially considering all the "Herp derp Freedom" kool-aid poured down our throats from birth.
I’ve encouraged my teenage children to seek employment outside of the States after college, and even attend college abroad if possible. Since the news information ecosystem is compromised, I have no hope for a future USA that is free and equitable.
Americans, how do you cope?
Alcohol
What's your take on the situation?
I'm leaving the country. My friends are stockpiling and getting sterilized.