No Stupid Questions

Something that might be useful is a general strike (see https://sh.itjust.works/post/9745322 and https://sh.itjust.works/post/31602246 also). It would be nice for more people to be unionized in preparation for that. I suspect that it would be better to start unionizing for jobs that more people have (like Personal Care Aides or people working in a retail store or fast food restaurant), since after having a union contract is more normalized it'd probably be easier for people like medical doctors or pilots or lawyers to have a union contract.

I'm personally interested in electoral reform (see !rcv@ponder.cat and !fairvote@lemmy.ca also), such that I wouldn't have to worry as much about coordinating with other people before I vote. However, it's guaranteed that someone will always be dissatisfied with the results of an election that isn't unanimous, so that might not be a complete solution. A more general solution might be to handle more things locally with voluntary organizations. Another option could be to generally devolve power to local institutions (like to a state government or municipality) or to create more independent institutions that are directly accountable to the government of the United States but can act autonomously (like the Federal Reserve System) so that less is dependent on the Congress or the President, and then to reduce the authority of more powerful institutions. If some states withdrew or were expelled from the United States of America that might help (since the power of an expelled state and a post-expulsion United States of America would naturally be more local, and the power of each would also affect less territory).

Emigration or civil war, I'd wager. My home country will be a fascist state during my lifetime, as I've been saying for about three to four years.

You are correct in your noticing Democrats have been the party of decorum - and that's the penultimate refuge of the incompetent before violence. So, now we've established that the two-ply paper-thin veneer of legitimacy has unraveled, what should we do?

There are ways out of this. None of them are easy.

Vote with your wallet, vote in primaries. Go to community board meetings. Speak up, even if you're afraid of what anyone might think. More people will respect you for trying than you'd think, but don't waste the opportunity on something trivial.

Don't do business with anyone with destructive politics to the point where it causes you personal/professional inconvenience and costs your money. Support local communities. Talk to the guy on the street corner you always see but never approached. Maybe they can tell you something. Talk to the guy that makes your sandwiches at the store, your bartender, your barista, your cleaning lady, your laundromat people. Hell talk to your drug dealer/street pharmacist. Talk to your coworkers and don't be scared. If they snitch then you will know indicators better for next time, and trust me - you will survive the mistake. Maybe it's BS, maybe you'll realize there's an angle to help yourself and everyone else. Never do anything unless it helps more people than yourself, and doesn't have an obvious negative externality that you can account for.

Go to rallies, go to meetings. Show support in public for people you believe in, someone standing up next to you when you stick your neck out counts for more than you can possibly understand. Put yourself on the front line facing armed police. Make the point that you won't break, and that they can't scare you. Remain nonviolent until you have no other option, but be prepared when they invent reasons to hurt you withing reason - and remember that they may have thought they never had a choice (even if they did).

This is going to get ugly.

The next time someone annoys or inconveniences you, or says something provocative, ask yourself why, and ask yourself what personal hell they are living in made them do that?

If this sounds a lot like religious nonsense, that's exactly what it is. That stuff was (arguably flawed and wantonly misinterpreted) attempts to give people a map going forwards. We've been putting in an abysmal effort to do better for not only ourselves, but everyone else, and now everyone's hurting. Some people you can't help, they're so stuck into their monomaniacal vision of reality that they don't care who they're hurting, even if it's ultimately themselves through consequence or some other metaphysical mechanism whether you believe in it or not.

Find a community, build a community. Be a leader and set a better example for everyone around you.

It may already be too late but your actions going forwards from here will determine what survives, and whether THAT is worth saving.

And remember - it's not just humans. There are many other living beings on this planet that don't have the technological capacity, legal status or physical ability to make themselves heard, and our status demands at very least the acknowledgement of some form of responsible stewardship.

Good Luck.

To all of us.

I have no idea, but I think something will have to happen that affects the majority of Americans. Another sustained Depression for example. Republicans will have to crash and burn the country down before their voters will turn on them. They have to experience pain for themselves, for they have no empathy for others. They say they do, but they cannot. They say they are Christian, but turn their back on what they say his teachings are. I'm fed up and scared at the same time. I hit retirement age in less than 10 years. Social security won't be there for me. I did a terrible job of saving, I spent most of my paychecks on frivolous things like bills, rent, and food. I make good money now, but it's not enough. I know I'm yelling into the void, but it feels good to say it.

The only way I see out of it is not a way I like or am willing to talk about online. Let’s just say the second amendment is making more and more sense every day.

As a non-American, it's always looked to me like the Republicans manage to get their shit done whether they're in charge or not and the Democrats are just there to assure everyone they have a choice in voting and not much else.

The whole thing to me looks like a game of good cop / bad cop. Bad cop comes along beats the shit out you, and then good cop comes along to give you a cup of weak shit coffee as a consolation for your black eye and says something unconvincing about being unhappy with bad cop's behaviour, before letting bad cop back in to beat the shit out of you some more.

And for every cycle of that, bad cop achieves his goals while good cop just acts as a glorified tea lady that tries to make sure you don't have any hard feelings about bad cop.

War.

Yep... war or a plane

Need to reorganize liberal politics from the ground up. Liberals need to justify their existence and the value of their policies at the city and state level and use that to build a national brand. Democrats in federal government seem to be totally unwilling to push their agenda in deference to political norms, but in my state they get quite a lot done when they're in power

Join your local advocacy organizations, volunteer and make the difference in your community/local area. It'll have more impact for you than you can ever do via federal level.

The two parties tango. The Republicans wouldn’t be getting away with it if the Democrats weren’t beholden to the same moneyed interests.

Did Obama prosecute any of the Bush Jr officials guilty of torture and guilty of invading Iraq over a lie? Worse Obama committed more war crimes.

Elite centrists have dominated the Democratic party since Clinton. They love to take a “responsible” center left position and try to grab centrists. Unions, minorities and people on the left have no recourse but to continue to vote for them because the Republicans were soo much worse.

Trump’s super power has always been his ability to say anything it takes to get votes yet deliver very little. Because of this he can say appealing things to unions and minorities who have been disenfranchised which undermines Democrats.

The generation of boomers who have lead the Democratic Party since Clinton is literally dying out. These next few election cycles are going to be interesting as the next generation of Xers and Millennials have a different opinion of government and are much more militant and vocal.

Right now, not much can done, but ideas will change over time as the people holding the old ideas eventually die from age.

In my opinion, the current shitshow is actually a sign of old ideas dying. It'll take time, but I don't believe the Project 2025 will be successful. It's happening brutally right now, but it will fail, because it's being done with only very slim support from the population.

I'm sure the French were asking this exact question in 1788.

Do you hate Russia and China? How about Iran, North Korean, Cuba and Venezuela? If yes, then politics funding warmongering are certain to prevail. Past US military budgets + interest on those deficits are sufficient to account for all US debt. Trusting the government and media telling you who to hate, keeps them elected. Netanyahu telling you Iran is the US's enemy, or Iraq has WMDs, is why you hate them and support war.

The DNC can't save you if they love Netanyahu just as much as the GOP candidate, because the GOP won't try to balance pandering to anti-genociders. Trump has no qualms in Kent State-ing university anti-genocide protesters. He is better for Netanyahu, and then the Zionist single issue lobby that determines election results.

Your tolerance for war is your tolerance for politicians that will give you war. Progressives for war do not get much progressive stuff done. Though oligarchist bribery money rains when they are close to a majority to get some small stuff done.

UBI is path out of the spiral. UBI redistribute power not wealth, and prosperity grows significantly to the benefit of everyone including the rich. War becomes unpopular because we could all just have more cash instead. Nationalist "war preparation"/tariffs unpopular because we could have cheaper stuff instead.

At this point? Probably not. Not if history is any indication. We've blown right past all the checkpoints that would have prevented this snowball effect. Our legislative processes are almost too irreparably damaged for a healthy democracy to exist. We've removed too many regulations regarding money in our politics and not placed enough regulations on the focus of power on individuals and entities within our government.

We're probably going to go through a really dark period where the quality of life is going to decline, rights will be stripped, and a lot of vulnerable people are going to die and then, hopefully, things will get bad enough that a revolution happens. It won't be like WW2 where more powerful forces come to our rescue. We'll have to do it ourselves. And I don't really have that much faith in our populace doing that. Again, it will take a really significant decline in quality of life for damn near everyone before that's even possible. It looks like that's where we're headed though.

Revolution

Grass-roots local freaking organization. People keep waiting for someone to save them not realizing: they're someone. Get involved with whatever local org is trying to improve people's lives. Address the problems that the right wing is lying about solving. Support whatever local candidate aligns with that view or hell become that candidate. Then get more people on board. We all love Bernie right? Well that's what Bernie has been preaching for decades. And the results for his state have been great.

The extreme right flourishes because the establishment (left and right) has for decades ignored real people's issues. You hears those interviews with Trump voters? They're not talking about wanting to reinstate the Third Reich, they're complaining about their real life hardships being ignored by politicians. And yeah Trump is obviously lying but desperate people will believe a lie if no one else is providing a better alternative.

The US will have a "Revolution of Dignity" moment similar to Ukraine.

If pro-constitution side wins, trump (and leading maga leaders) will flee to russia.

But if the maga wins, the US will remain a fascist nation for decades.

Yes. All modern human civilization will collapse with the coming climate change.

I see basically three ways out:

1. Democrats/someones sane win overwhelming majority for long enough to harden procedures, cement effective enforcement, and subversion proof the whole system, while not succumbing to their own corruption. Seems incredibly unlikely.

2. Autocracy and/or persecution of political rivals, where dissenters "fall out windows" a lot or the legislative body is replaced, until stability reforms and new norms can be reintroduced. Seems most likely currently, and has several contemporary examples.

3. Revolt, public and/or military, throwing out all the politicians and imposing exile or lynching of the offending politicians. Seems improbable, and especially to unite enough to throw out all the bad behaviour. Also will lead to a junta, civil strife and/or provisional government which come with their own slew of issues and corruption.

4. The Republicans grow a sense of decorum to protect the less privileged party. I can't imagine this happening without basically a GOP-internal pogrom under a strongman, but Republican conservatism pulls a strongman in the opposite direction. Unless perhaps they're some kind of upstanding teocrat perhaps?

This is all wild and slightly saddening speculation, please feel free to suggest other paths!

Somewhere along the way we decided punching Nazis wasn't cool. I worry it's too late now.

Try living here. I feel hopeless every time I go online or turn on the TV.

Armed revolution by the workers