As America backslides into fascism and authoritarian consolidation, what do you think should be done to course correct?
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Haven’t you been paying attention? Lots of people are. What are you doing?
Violence is the only way
Unfortunately, this.
Boycotting any business which encourages discrimination against people, government surveillance. Engage in community outreach, teaching your fellow community members about socialism and progressivism and nationalism. Also shaming and calling out people who support them. Dont be too much of a dick about it. Just simply tell them they are evil for supporting those people who victimize the innocent and steal all of our tax money, and try to brainwash everyone with algorithms and advertising backed influencers.
Also get out and vote blue no matter who until the Republicans stop supporting the state and then unify with them to get rid of the state so we can reform our system, kick out the rich, and take back control of our laws and state. You need to vote in every election, even if you have no chance of winning. We also need to do our own polling to ensure they are not tampering with the votes.
Do not date anyone who is maga, tell them why as well. Tell them they need to either support the common people or they need be happy being alone with their big paychecks as they support the state. Materialism or humanism. Until we can reinstate democracy and reform the state and our laws. We cannot compromise with those people in any type of way. We have to start from the ground and work our way up. Also make sure you show up to jury duty to support your fellow citizens against the hostile anti American judicial system. Do not allow religion in your home. If you see people wearing religious symbols in your business, that comes from the big 3, then ask them to leave, since these same maga businesses do the same to non Christians. Observe no anti discrimination laws which protect religious people but do not protect queer people. Don’t get yourself sued or put in prison but there are many ways you can keep those people out of your community and make it hard for them. They don’t belong here unless they support the people and democracy and human rights first. If they want to strip people of human rights then do not observe their human rights. Don’t let them be hypocrites.
Nothing, look to pre War Germany
A significant percentage of people supoort this, many, many others think they’re not going to be targeted and this will all blow over.
It’s going to take everyone starving for people to care. I talk to my family and they say “what can we do, let the people who are supposed to fix this do their job”
Everywhere I look people are trying their best to look deeply into their tv shows, streams, video games, porn, etc and just waiting for this to impact them personally before they care enough to do something.
My husband has always said immigrants fleeing their country should stay behind and fight and now he’s looking at countries that would accept us.
I’m kinda at the point where nothing feels right. I don’t feel right. I’m on two antidepressants and I still feel trapped in this hell hole. I’ve always tried to vote and do the right thing and now I’m here.
I signed the strike card at the general strike website but it’s taking too long before they call the strike. I fear that website will get raided and all the sign ups will be lost. 😞
Honestly I’m really pissed we all didn’t start rioting when the Supreme Court ruled it’s okay to racially profile us. That should have been the breaking point for us all.
My husband has always said immigrants fleeing their country should stay behind and fight and now he’s looking at countries that would accept us.
That’s interesting. I’ve always agreed with that logic. But I’ve decided to stick it out no matter what happens.
I signed the strike card at the general strike website but it’s taking too long before they call the strike. I fear that website will get raided and all the sign ups will be lost. 😞
Unfortunately that’s not how strikes work. They need critical mass or it will do nothing. It needs to have everyone on the list willing to risk their house, home, and livelihood to make it happen. And to you need to realize not even close to enough people are willing to do so.
If you haven’t already, try getting a union involved in your workplace, as a unionized workplace will allow far more successful organization of such events. Align a union you create yourself with your coworkers with UAW’s mass strike line, join their cause
Unfortunately I’ve been laid off. So creating a union right now in this economy won’t do much good. I heard the jobs report was massively worse than they made it out to be.
So I guess I’ll have to wait until more people feel the impacts of the failing economy.
The only real path out of this is economic collapse.
The administration has engineered a clever slow rolling authoritarian takeover. There is no single line in the sand that you can point to and say this is where authoritarianism starts or this is where fascism starts. And pointing out a dozen things sounds hyperbolic “oh you think everything’s fascism”.’
The American citizens are going to sit here like a slowly boiling frog as long as there’s never one singular shock. And unless there’s a tea party-esque movement on the left in 26 the Democrats are not coming to save us.
But if there’s a crash like '08, and they’re very well could be, they’re not going to be able to sound bite their way out of that.
The American citizens are going to sit here like a slowly boiling frog as long as there’s never one singular shock.
I’m fine with the analogy but always want to point out: they ran the experiment, the frog jumps out. To the analogy too far, we’re worse than frogs.
Discover socialism. Not commie tanky left authoritarian bullshit. Just the moderate basic human decency stuff.
Old fashioned people caring about each other. Workers supporting each other. Vets supporting each other. Women supporting each other. Families supporting each other. Neighborhoods supporting each other. Inclusivity. Opportunity. Holding out a hand to the less fortunate. Redistributing wealth so people can have dignity and hope.
Start with taking back schools as safe places from gun massacres. If you can’t do that you can’t do shit. It’s a basic litmus test for a functional society. Take back streets for pedestrians. Take prisons and hospitals away from corporations. Get rid of tipping in favour of a fair living wage. Take a fucking holiday occasionally. It won’t kill you.
The problem is Americans are kept ignorant about what is possible. In place of knowledge all they have is lies. What is the point of change if you don’t even know what you want. You will just end up with more of the same.
On god please. However,
Start with taking back schools as safe places from gun massacres. If you can’t do that you can’t do shit. It’s a basic litmus test for a functional society.
Is not even close to true. There’s far more important issues to tackle that kill more kids. Focusing on that as the baseline when it’s tiny compared to the damage companies environmental damage and car do to kids is mixed priorities. We can focus on multiple things, but the priority should be on what’s killing the children in far greater numbers compared to the much smaller totals of school shooters. Focusing only on the sensationalist headlines instead of the greater dangers is misdirection from what truly is at the root of the damage to our society .
Which also makes it interesting you point out all Americans have is lies, when you yourself were fed the lie that the most concerning danger to children is guns, instead of cars, or pollution
The American Empire is falling apart, and has been for quite some time now, what we’re seeing right now is a childish trashing about and refusing to accept reality or adapt to present global conditions. Every year, more and more countries that used to be pro-US turn neutral, and countries that used to be neutral turn towards China. The US will become more and more isolated, diplomatically, economically, and so forth, and it will become increasingly impossible to pretend that it’s “#1,” while domestic conditions get worse and worse.
Soon, if not already, we will be in a situation where the only credible advantage the US has to leverage is the military, and it may choose to start WWIII with China in a desperate attempt to stay on top.
The ruling bourgeoisie don’t really want this, they’re doing just fine in the current system, but stoking fear and hate of the Other distracts from problems at home. The danger is that some true believer is going to get into a position of power. Someone who isn’t just saber-rattling to justify giving more money to the CEOs of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin so they can buy another beach house, but who actually sees a hot war between major, nuclear-armed powers as desirable. The further conditions deteriorate, and the longer we go on with fear and hate being stoked, the more this possibility becomes an inevitability.
If that happens, everyone will lose. If somehow it remains contained and doesn’t end life on earth (as it probably will), then, win or lose, the US will be finished. Maybe the US could throw everything it’s got into stopping China, but then another power will emerge and it’ll be spent.
To avert this future, we need a radical left wing shift, with drastic cuts to the military and the money going towards improving ordinary people’s lives and addressing various domestic crises. The US is not Superman, we are not invulnerable, we do not have the ability to go around the world “fixing” every situation everywhere. Instead, we need to focus on the things we can control, starting with within our own borders. Because when the world sees us falling apart, why would anyone want to follow us anywhere? And repairing domestic issues would go a long way to averting the rise of fascism.
But unfortunately, nobody seems to want this, Republican or Democrat. Every administration keeps funnelling more and more money towards the military, keeps getting involved in conflicts and resorting to force, and keeps failing to address domestic problems. No, we can’t just mind our own business and focus on getting our own shit sorted out, we have to go send bombs to Syria and Yemen and Palestine and Ukraine, bombs bombs bombs, the only currency the US uses in international diplomacy. If we had spent a tenth of the money we’re spending fighting over Ukraine on making life better for ordinary Ukrainians after the end of the Soviet Union, there wouldn’t be a war. And right now, there are tons of countries that are slipping away because we’re too stingy to spend that 1/10th on them (of even on our own people), because building bombs instead helps the rich get richer. But nobody cares. It’s madness.
Either we have some broad social reckoning with our obsession with militarism and hatred of the poor and forigners, or we stay on this idiotic course until we drive off a cliff.
I have been thinking about this for quite a while, and I think I have a pretty solid solution. Now, keep in mind, it is easy to dismiss it because it is simple, but once you dig into it you will see the benefits. I propose on-fire things.
I know, I know, but just consider it before you write it off. Yo dont have to go all-in, maybe dabble a little and see how it feels.
We need wide public support and organizing against the regime.
It’ll be like McCarthyism, it will be allowed to go way way too far, then in an instant it’ll be stopped, shunned and everyone will be repulsed by it. It‘s well on its way to the same fate.
We never undid the damage of McCarthyism and he didn’t have the military terrorizing civilians and Gestapo kidnapping people
Oh I’m not claiming it’s no big deal or that either this situation or McCarthyism aren’t terrible, and this is absolutely a worse situation. Right now a lot of people supporting all of this are in denial of how bad it is.
Massive job losses.
They need to protest. REALLY protest. General strikes, obstruction, shut down everything. You can’t walk around with a sign on a weekend once a month when it’s nice outside and expect a wannabe dictator will back down. They are spendinrg every minute of every day stripping away your democracy and you have to fight back with the same intensity.
Look at Nepal. France. Italy. They didn’t ask their government to listen. They MADE them. It’s YOUR country! Fight for it!
I think what needs to be said here is- yes it’s so terrible but in general day to day life for everyday Americans hasn’t really changed. That and the general ignorance of things means that people really are not ready to “go strike” or do anything at all.
The overall attitude is more “this is slightly annoying at most” and that is not the attitude that leads to general strikes (nor can most afford to do that here anyway.)
Everyone on the outside in is saying this and that- most Americans don’t know or aren’t affected enough from what they understand to make those steps.
That is reality here. Like I get the arguments but you also have to understand it isn’t bad enough for most people. My thought is once it is it’ll all be way too late.
And France protested but it wasn’t or wouldn’t effect they’re everyday life. But they obviously pay more attention.
Yeah but Netflix has some shows I need to watch and I can’t do that from jail, soooo… fascism I guess.
More like food is expensive as hell and so I can’t really afford to loose my pay check. Which is why organizing often starts as mutual aide.
People who can’t afford to unionize cannot afford to not unionize.
And advocating for a general strike is ILLEGAL and a very easy charge in Trump’s America at this point.
I’ve been rolling around forums and whatnot to see the interest for such topics, and they seem high, but no one is talking about what I’m supposed to do to pay for my pets and apartment when I have 0 support structures in a deeply red state. They don’t treat the homeless very well here, and it’s freezing half the year.
Not that you’re saying it’s easy, you rightly pointed out food too. I just wish there were more resources, or ways to get connected. My community does the No Kings protests, but most of them balked at the Kirk shooting so they’re not quite radicalized enough for the other actions that a not-entirely-peaceful protest would bring.
So have no savings?
I have a little, it’s to try and get me and my partner the hell out of this state. Not enough for a house, but enough for a used car and a u-haul and first and last month’s rent somewhere else.
A lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck, we’re lucky to be a bit above that and not have kids. Almost all the people we know from high school and college are in worse boats than us.
Personally, I think more of use should do little things, like damage government buildings, infrastructure, etc. primarily of right wing assets. You can get a used paintball gun pretty cheep, and in the dead of night from far away you could pelt a building with red paint relatively quiet.
Paintball guns are not exactly quiet and don’t have sufficient range to even allow you to stand outside the parking lot of most Federal buildings and still reach them, let alone outside of the purview of their security cameras. When you’re caught you’ll inevitably be holding a Gun Shaped Object, which is unlikely to go down well. I admire the spirit, but I’d advise you to think about that one a smidge harder, if I were you.
If you’re going to sabotage, then sabotage. Don’t go for middle school level vandalism pranks.
Paintball trebuchet it is then
I’m down. How many 55 gallon drums full of 'em are we chucking?
Nah, it’ll be gym balls
Give me an example of an act that would meet your qualifications
Creating a security incident at a federal facility and then getting away. You don’t even have to do anything, just cause the alarm. For Example:
Drone “bombing,” meaning just fly a normal drone into a federal facility.
Puncture the tires of Federal Vehicles.
Post CEO home addresses online.
If I recall, killing Nazis worked in WWII.
Except we didn’t kill any American Nazis, we just left them alone to fester
Hell, we imported a few of them from Germany.
We fought fascists overseas to keep us from fighting fascists at home…
when are you gonna kill a fascist? i think you’re an empty troll
As part of an organized war between opposing imperialist nations. I’m not seeing how that’s going to happen here.
Clearly we need a civil war
You’d need to recruit a significant proportion of the military for that to work. It didn’t go so hot for the last guys that tried this.
Do you mean the confederates who, by a different name, are in power right now?
The Capitalists won the civil war.
