Bread and circuses.
Though that’s a little antiquated, so now it’s “high fructose corn syrup and superbowl”.
Brainwashing from the moment they were born
My education in California was only to facilitate me becoming a wage slave.
I’m mad, but what? Once we pull out the guillotines there’s no going back, so right now I’m hoping that checks and balances thing starts to kick in soon.
I agree. I fought very hard for harm reduction. I just think the time for that has came and went. Now we have to mobilize the population and that’s like a 10 year ordeal, if it’s possible at all. It’s slow going but we gave the democrats 8 years to do something I think 10 years for the people to get their act together might be doable.
Because a third of Americans are uninformed, another third is misinformed and thinks the current administration is in line with their goals, the other third is being gaslit by the other 2/3s that this is normal… And for those not buying the gaslighting, they are ignored and still too small of a group to do much.
The majority aren’t at the point where they are willing to sacrifice everything yet. They have families, homes, food, friends. Currently the administration hasn’t taken away enough from enough people to get it really going. It will be coming though. People just haven’t felt the affects yet
As a young man (I’m under 30) with 2 kids I feel stuck like this. A lot of the protesting actions I would have taken are tapered by “I have to be around for my kids”, but at the same time this country is not how I want my kids to be raised in and I don’t know my own red line for this. Suffice to say if I’m thinking about this 3 weeks into Trump’s America, then I hope I will feel compelled to be more active. NYC might be coming to a heat with the Mayor Adam’s BS so I’m keeping my eye out for any manifestations in the city.
Why not?
Because people believe that they might be able keep what they have if they keep quiet and also believe they might loose their way or life or in general their life if they take up arms
Their way of life is disintegrating before their eyes. Even the people who have generational wealth will start to see their small hoard be taken. What they really want is to ride it out as long as possible and they think the status quo will save them. They think the status quo is invincible. I’m telling you the status quo just got purged from the government but keep on hoping.
Serious question: wouldn’t the MAGA/Republicans just pick up arms in return?
It feels like the divide in the US is so massive right now that you can’t agree on anything at all. No offence intended…There are less maggats then you think. And many of them if seeing a revolution would switch sides quickl
Republicans have majority control over the media. They don’t know what’s happening because their news doesn’t cover it.
I’m pissed off. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. If there’s a protest near me I’ll join it. If I see somebody getting fucked with by a Nazi I’ll step in but I have responsibilities and a job and can’t really afford to travel. So until shit really kicks off I’m kind of stuck in this state where I can’t do anything.
All this is happening thousands of miles away from me behind locked doors.
30 years of watching progressive movements flounder and civil action lead to absolutely zero substantial changes has given me a defeatist attitude. What good is getting mad? It’s not like it will change anything.
From the outside it seems that your progressive movements were a pretty good tool to spread thin the effort that could have gone someplace right, and also to weaken movements which were targeted at the real problems (for example, in the small world of FOSS it’s how FSF and GNU were slowly marginalized into something perceived as unreasonable and Stallman specifically pressed out, and no, his logically correct defense of some kinds of pedophilia and him being generally cringe were not the reason).
Also let’s please remember that everyone flocking to centralized platforms was welcomed by those progressive movements, their activists for whichever reason thought that the scale and the censorship will work in their favor and not those calling to fell the tall trees.
So - this is the logical outcome of what various movements have been doing. This part should make you optimist. And the feeling that you can’t certainly show at something at say that it will succeed should be liberating, not depressing.
Why cling to the defeatist attitude? It defeats itself. Why have a defeatist attitude when defeat is inevitable?
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Like it or not social media got us here. Just not your social media. I could argue with you all day but I won’t. Your message is stupid and a self defeating prophecy. 350000000 people in the US and I don’t need to turn you. I need to reach any other of the 3499999999 who won’t waste my time.
Ever get tired of the hole you live in come join us on the surface. Our drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens.
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I dunno, they seem to be mad. It’s just most of them are wrong about who they should be mad at and why
Most of my countrymen are very, very fucking stupid.
The rest are generally angry
The stupid ones are angry too… They’re just so stupid they are angry at the wrong things/people
Nice, so we’re all angry! We did it!
Oh, my baseline emotional state these days is fury, but it’s because I know where this road leads, and it damages my calm constantly to know that the powers that be don’t seem to give a fuck.
The powers that be are in on it
The powers that be are in on it in the sense that they are the literal, whole problem.
See, I don’t know where I fall on this list. Because I’m angry everyday, but I’m also pretty stupid. Then I see how stupid OTHER people are.
Like I’m over here wondering if the universe is infinate, how is it expanding? Doesn’t that negate the concept of it being infinite? Or, if it’s not infinite, but it is expanding, doesn’t that suggest that the galaxy is, in perspective, very very young? We’ve found other planets that can support life. We have no evidence that life is on those planets. I’m willing to bet there IS life on those planets. It may be microscopic, and maybe it’s still in the water, but I bet it’s there. Which then raises the obvious question which we have no way in our lifetimes to accurately answer. Will those planets generate a naturally evolved set of humans completely unrelated to earths humans? I mean, logic says no, right? Theres so many variables, that they would evolve to cater to the needs of their planet. Right?
Then I see guys get on the bus, and rummage through the trash can, and yell “WHY DOESN’T ANYONE THROW OUT GOLD OR DIAMONDS, OR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS???”
That is a true story. I saw that.
And I wonder to myself, am I as stupid as I think? Is the whole scale slanted? I feel smarter than those around me…but I also feel like those around me are a few brain cells away from being medically classified as mentally retarded. So it doesn’t feel like I’ve cleared an especially high hurdle there.
But we all know the government lies to us. If they DO know of another life form out there, would they even tell us? I don’t think so. That makes me angry, because I know we don’t have the technology to visit those planets. They’re hundreds of light years away.
So realistically, we would have to start development on a transportation method that travels hundreds of thousands times faster than the speed of light to be able to get there with any realistic time frames. Nobody is going to sit on a space ship traveling for 4 years straight. But that kind of speed in an astroid filled space, with rocks just floating about? You’d have no ability to fly that fast. Any crash would be lethal, and it would happen virtually instantly if you’re traveling like 400,000x the speed of light.
So what did we do before here on earth when traveling long dangerous distances? We built permanent solutions that are still in place today, hundreds of years later. Train tracks!
YES!!! LETS BUILD BULLET SPACE TRAINS!!! AWWWW YEAH!!!
In space, nobody can hear you choo choo motherfucker!
This post is a journey, not a destination.
I want to comment on the username without it being cliche.
I’m not even American and I’m mad. Most of what I’ve heard from Americans is that they’re mad.
Same. I’m so mad and disappointed in America, but I can’t let that override my compassion for its people. This whole thing is so frustrating to watch. Look at how the French do it, Americans! It’s time to break some shit.
You have compassion for us Americans, and that’s nice, but bear in mind we voted for this. As much as the people who voted for Trump may have done so out of desperation, we still made a catastrophically stupid decision. Trump isn’t the problem, he’s a symptom. The problem lies in the American people. We have been squashed by both our government and our corporations. We need a wake-up call, and if that means we need to suffer from our own choices then so be it. Maybe we haven’t suffered enough yet. If we’re so dumb that we vote for a malignant narcissist like Donald Trump, maybe we need to be squashed a bit more. We have the power to take back our country, we just need the will to do it. Maybe that comes from more hardship and regret. Maybe that comes from more suffering.
But maybe not. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m so disappointed with my own countrymen right now, maybe I’m not seeing things clearly. I don’t know. But I know we deserve what we voted for. The world doesn’t, and that’s a tragedy, but maybe America needs to take a hit and the world needs to rely less on us for both America and the world to be better. Again, I don’t know.
we voted for this
<Tinfoil hat>
Did we? There are some suspicions of voter fraud in some swing states and it sure as hell isn’t below musk to attempt something like that.
Yet, I think that the past MAGA crazies screaming about “election fraud” and “stop the steal” has poisoned the well for legitimate future calls for investigating potential fraud in elections. On top of that it also makes people that question the results sound like the crazies of the past.
It could explain why trump is allowing so much power to musk.
</Tinfoil hat>
Source: I have no source. It’s all feels over reals and a partial lack of acceptance that so many American people are that dumb.
We can’t just claim that an undesirable outcome is the likely really of election fraud… I do wish the result was different but sewing a rumor that has no credible basis in reality serves minimal value.
I completely agree that we can’t blindly blame this on election fraud, that is a form of denial. Which I will admit is part of my Tinfoil hat rant above.
But if there are credible sources that are stating they have doubts about the legitimacy of the results there should be an investigation. Note, this isn’t really about this past election, I know of no evidence that shows fraud only slight rumblings from “unknown sources” which isn’t legitimate to me.
My concern is that the Stop the Steal movement, that was using weak or even made up evidence to support their cause has made future allegations less likely to be taken seriously.
I think internet in general specifically social media. It allows you to vent your frustrations without doing actual damage. It’s also easy to disconnect compared to marching to the streets.
I think social media has done tons of damage. It think it brought together a group of people who would have never found each other, because they don’t have any decernable skills, and let them spread and consume misinformation at alarming rates.
I’m not American, but from what I can see, its mostly:
- Apathy
- Not being clued in
- Beliving nothing can be done
and #4: we dont believe if we take a bold step forward that our neighbors will show solidarity and endurance, which then puts us at risk of prosecution. A lot of us have kids to protect.
Not being clued in is a serious problem here. A lot of people dont take in any form of news whatsoever
Beliving nothing can be done
This one in particular has been so corrosive. I believe if people believed in their vote, something would change. But the electoral college does more harm than good by diluting the vote. Couple that with gerrymandering to completely erode people’s trust in the system.
The last one is insistent. Probably because there is a lot of truth to it but it’s also obviously flawed and deserves more nuance.
It feels like there is little that can be done individually, but collectively everyone can do a lot.
The USA is a big nation. Lots of people from very diverse backgrounds. Coming together for a common cause isn’t something that happens everyday.
Especially since 2 Americans with multiple generations of American ancestry can have drastically different historical experiences.
I’m mad as fuck. Get me one (or more) of those traitorous bastards within arm’s reach and they’ll find out precisely how mad.
Nothing. Everyone I know is very mad about it. The people who aren’t mad about it aren’t mad because they’re being lied to and told that all their racism, homophobia, xenophobia and just plain mean spiritedness is somehow normal and good.
I assure you that anyone who isn’t a monster is very unhappy about the whole situation
I dunno, I walk through my day and most people’s demeanor hasn’t changed in the slightest. The way we suppress all this is very severancesque. Like sure we have our outies memory’s but seems we don’t have their emotions.
I walk through my day and most people’s demeanor hasn’t changed in the slightest
I’m unhappy and angry at the situation. But, am I supposed to mope around all day or have depressing conversations with everyone I meet? Should I start fighting every Trump supporter in my small town?
For some reason your rhetorical question about fighting everyone reminded me of this very important quiz. Know thyself or something.
I don’t know. I just know maybe we hold back when we shouldn’t. Doesn’t that just demonstrate their control over us?
It’s hard to truly internalize this but no matter what you think about something and/or how wrong you think someone else is, we are walking through life with imperfect imaginings of what other people think and feel. Trying to make sense of people is even harder than making sense of a person. And we are quite literally incapable of truly knowing what goes on in someone else’s head.
Definitely ask these questions but don’t drive yourself crazy if people don’t make sense. The behaviors and actions we witness in others are only the emergent characteristics of a lot of brain activity that we aren’t privy to.
Maybe it’s time to be a little crazy. If “a little crazy” is not living in an autocracy.
Most people won’t talk politics unless they know the other person’s opinions already. I’ve had discussions about every day with my friends and wife, but there is no way I’m going to get into a discussion with my parents or maga coworker. I don’t have the energy to debunk every stupid thing they say when they won’t change their mind.
Because most people are blissfully ignorant. They’re going about their day and if anything they’re possibly reminded that Trump is president by some news channel they pass over on their way to the newest true crime show or whatever the hell is on tictok.
Most people couldn’t be forced to care if you had a gun to their heads as evidenced by our disgusting voting numbers. “Didn’t vote” would win every election if it was a candidate.
Most people “aren’t political” which is nice if only politics didn’t affect your life so deeply. :/
I guess that’s true but who is watching the news then? Who is posting online?
Not enough people unfortunately, although I’m sure there is some overlap between those that don’t vote but still watch the news. I think we overestimate how many people are “politically engaged.”
I mean, you don’t just randomly bring up politics. You never know if the other person is a nazi that would report you for “being a communist”. Also, if you do this at work, you’d probably get fired because you get reported for “harassment” and now you’re evicted and on the streets, and starving.
I mean, if you have a pride flag or some other symbols that you wear, I might talk to you because I think you’re safe to talk to.
So, if you want to have conversations about this nazi government, wear a pride flag pin thingy (idk what those are called) or something like that, to signal you aren’t a magat.
