SkyNTP

You aren't wrong. But being walked all over because you took the high ground instead of responding in kind to someone else raising tensions isn't the answer. Just ask how that worked out for the Ukrainians who gave up their nukes.

It takes two to deescalate.

Voting has consequences. The time to wake the fuck up was two weeks ago. I guess the next best time is now.

You can't have a democracy if you can't hold it accountable. Violence is the last option, of course. But it must be an option in the face of the threat of more violence. Fascists will always exploit this weakness in liberalism.

Institutions will not save democracy. Democracy is accountable to only the people.

Republicans aren't actually pro small government/freedom. That's all just opposition rhetoric. When they are in power, it's as much government in your face as possible.

Democracy isn't government on cruise control. Democracy is a responsibility. Blaming politicians isn't going to change the fact that it is not institutions that uphold democracy. It's the people.

So yeah, ultimately the people failed themselves. Some people just need to learn the hard way. If that is the only way these people will learn, why try to stop them from getting their lessons?

Americans are basically spoiled children. Never experienced government hardship. Why expect them to understand the value of what they have that prevents the hardship?

This may or may not be relevant to you or other's situations but Trevor Noah had some great advice: watch the news no more than once, maybe twice a week. That's all you really need to stay informed. More than that is just doom scrolling endless speculation pieces. This is exhausting.

Use this energy to get involved locally. You can't personally affect things in Washington (and accept this), but you can have an effect locally.

Elect a clown, expect a circus.

Common guys, we've already been through this.

Simple solution: Try looking at the pictures of you through a mirror.

We are in uncharted territory here. There is no crystal ball for what comes next.

That being said, this is not sustainable. Society is a contract. The contract goes away when parties to that contract begin to disagree on what that contract says, and that is inevitable when people are fed garbage without results. Most empires have collapsed under their own weight. I suspect this will happen to the US as well, which has always been the purpose of all this disinformation: not to consolidate power into a dictator, but instead to sow division, and rip apart the social contract. The fact that Americans are so polarized is proof of that division. You ask if people will ever wake up. Clearly half the the US has.

The only question is how that collapse will happen, and how peacefully it might be.

Consumption tax for everyone! Unless you all want to go to work in a shoe factory.

You are absolutely right. But I guess the meme wouldn't work then...