I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.
I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.
Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.
Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.
General strike, demonstrations where they can’t be ignored, organised resistance, organised campaigning, even striking in solidarity with others.
Oh. You’re all struggling too much to be able to do that?
That’s you being oppressed, and you could organise against that: you could organise war chests for striking, unionise to regain rights, vote or campaign for actual peoples representation rather than corporate such, build resilient communities, picket biased media, organise or join collective action, prosecute and pressure corrupt politicians, counter lobbies, educating yourself and others, etc.
Gather neighbours, save funds, support eachother, resist where you can and coordinate with others to have a greater impact.
But most aren’t going to, cus there’s always someone else to blame, someone else that should save the day. And while you’re passing blame, the fascists consolidate, divide and terrorise, both your domestic neighbours and international friends. Leaving you more vulnerable, more isolated, and with less and less support to resist or survive.
The French would have general striked and yellow vested the country to a grinding halt by now. Folks in the United States either lack the courage or confidence or interests or all of the above combined.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the US for work about a decade ago, mostly in the midwest. I’m fully aware of the spread out nature of the country. Even “cities” often feel like a patchwork of suburbs outside of the urban core and population density is generally quite low. Nonetheless, things like strikes require people to actively not do anything, which should be possible. Even the yellow vest movement in France was most successful in the rural and suburban areas, more similar to the US in density. I believe it’s more about a culture of compliance, complacency and fatalism.
Russia actually isn’t as spread out as the US in a way. You can literally ignore anything east of the urals, all the cities that matter are in the western part of the country.
I like that “realistic” caveat that you’ve thrown in there. Does that mean that all that rhetoric about the 2nd Amendment and “the tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants” was never realistic?
Self education that leads you and your friends away from heroic individualism, hypercapitalism, parochialism, cults, and other cultural excesses that lead to authoritarianism. It’s what we’re dealing with around the globe but the USA is struggling to understand.
What realistic actions do you expect an average American who opposes Trump to take?
They expect us all to commit suicide by cop but don’t want to come out and say it. If we haven’t died yet, we haven’t done enough.
I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.
I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.
Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.
Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.
Yup, that’s the only option. One desperate inflatable frog suit charge into a hail of bullets.
General strike, demonstrations where they can’t be ignored, organised resistance, organised campaigning, even striking in solidarity with others.
Oh. You’re all struggling too much to be able to do that?
That’s you being oppressed, and you could organise against that: you could organise war chests for striking, unionise to regain rights, vote or campaign for actual peoples representation rather than corporate such, build resilient communities, picket biased media, organise or join collective action, prosecute and pressure corrupt politicians, counter lobbies, educating yourself and others, etc.
Gather neighbours, save funds, support eachother, resist where you can and coordinate with others to have a greater impact.
But most aren’t going to, cus there’s always someone else to blame, someone else that should save the day. And while you’re passing blame, the fascists consolidate, divide and terrorise, both your domestic neighbours and international friends. Leaving you more vulnerable, more isolated, and with less and less support to resist or survive.
The French would have general striked and yellow vested the country to a grinding halt by now. Folks in the United States either lack the courage or confidence or interests or all of the above combined.
I don’t think a lot of people realize how big the US is. Organizing a group of a size enough to actually make a difference takes time.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the US for work about a decade ago, mostly in the midwest. I’m fully aware of the spread out nature of the country. Even “cities” often feel like a patchwork of suburbs outside of the urban core and population density is generally quite low. Nonetheless, things like strikes require people to actively not do anything, which should be possible. Even the yellow vest movement in France was most successful in the rural and suburban areas, more similar to the US in density. I believe it’s more about a culture of compliance, complacency and fatalism.
Yes, that’s why revolutions have only been successful in much smaller countries like Russia and China.
Russia actually isn’t as spread out as the US in a way. You can literally ignore anything east of the urals, all the cities that matter are in the western part of the country.
You misread my comment, or you’re being disingenuous.
I like that “realistic” caveat that you’ve thrown in there. Does that mean that all that rhetoric about the 2nd Amendment and “the tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants” was never realistic?
No it’s wasn’t. People in the fediverse aren’t likely to be right-wing gun nuts in the first place.
Maybe now’s the time for them to become left-wing gun nuts, then. Or did guns suddenly become hard to come by in America?
Self education that leads you and your friends away from heroic individualism, hypercapitalism, parochialism, cults, and other cultural excesses that lead to authoritarianism. It’s what we’re dealing with around the globe but the USA is struggling to understand.
Nice try, CIA. Answering that question is how I got my Reddit account banned.