Oh you sweet, summer child. After the election ends, we’re going to have at least a month of coordinated all-out fighting from the fascists to stop the votes from being certified – if Georgia’s and Arizona’s popular vote results get accurately reflected in the final EC tally it’ll be a minor miracle – and years of “stop the steal” election denial and stochastic terrorism after that.
The US election cycle is continuous. Someone will win in November, there’ll likely be some bullshit to keep it in the news until inauguration day, then give a week before the party that lost starts the process of finding their pick to contest the next election.
From a foreign perspective it’s tedious as fuck. Our elections are called and wrapped up within 8 weeks, and even that feels too long.
Precisely. The real ugliness and violence is currently only simmering. The election is when the boil begins. And the boilover comes after that.
Remember: if Trump wins, there will be disorder, dispersed violence, and then state violence: mass deportations and the disruption and dissolution of various dimensions of the state itself as fascism assumes the helm.
If Trump loses, there will be broad social conflict, disorder, and intensive violence, including a rise in domestic terrorism. I’m actually concerned we will see something like “The Troubles” in Ireland. Federal and state agencies and institutions will be attacked as well as infrastructure: things like power stations and bridges.
There is no threading the needle here. Either scenario results in chaos and violence. Both scenarios result in an increase in danger and a decrease in stability. There’s no winning move. We’ll think back to this moment as “the good days.” Strap in.
To be clear, Trump losing (not just the vote, but also his inevitable attempt to seize power anyway afterward) is definitely the vastly preferable scenario here – “Troubles” are way better than a full-blown dictatorship – so stopping him is, if not “the” winning move, at least the do-or-die first step towards it.
There is no validity to a dismissive “eh, either way it’s gonna be bad” attitude here. We are in an existential fight to achieve “pretty bad” because the alternative is “absolutely catastrophic.”
Recognizing that things are going to bad regardless of who is elected is simple pragmatism. There’s nothing dismissive about it at all. Quite the opposite.
Harris winning the election (which, in terms of the electoral college, she’s currently on pace to narrowly lose), will not decrease the amount of active fascists in the United States, so, regardless of who wins, there’s going to be trouble and there’s going to be a lot of work to do that can’t be done with upvotes, downvotes, or social media posts.
It would be wise for people to be prepared for what is to come. Ignoring it makes it worse.
Edit: for instance, there is a man in the woods near I-75 by London, Kentucky picking random people off with a rifle right now. I’m afraid we’re going to see a lot more of that kind of stochastic terrorism, which will not simply go way if Harris wins. There are serious problems in America.
Oh you sweet, summer child. After the election ends, we’re going to have at least a month of coordinated all-out fighting from the fascists to stop the votes from being certified – if Georgia’s and Arizona’s popular vote results get accurately reflected in the final EC tally it’ll be a minor miracle – and years of “stop the steal” election denial and stochastic terrorism after that.
And that’s the best-case scenario.
The US election cycle is continuous. Someone will win in November, there’ll likely be some bullshit to keep it in the news until inauguration day, then give a week before the party that lost starts the process of finding their pick to contest the next election.
From a foreign perspective it’s tedious as fuck. Our elections are called and wrapped up within 8 weeks, and even that feels too long.
Your comment makes me wonder if 1930s Europeans thought German politics were similarly tedious.
Precisely. The real ugliness and violence is currently only simmering. The election is when the boil begins. And the boilover comes after that.
Remember: if Trump wins, there will be disorder, dispersed violence, and then state violence: mass deportations and the disruption and dissolution of various dimensions of the state itself as fascism assumes the helm.
If Trump loses, there will be broad social conflict, disorder, and intensive violence, including a rise in domestic terrorism. I’m actually concerned we will see something like “The Troubles” in Ireland. Federal and state agencies and institutions will be attacked as well as infrastructure: things like power stations and bridges.
There is no threading the needle here. Either scenario results in chaos and violence. Both scenarios result in an increase in danger and a decrease in stability. There’s no winning move. We’ll think back to this moment as “the good days.” Strap in.
To be clear, Trump losing (not just the vote, but also his inevitable attempt to seize power anyway afterward) is definitely the vastly preferable scenario here – “Troubles” are way better than a full-blown dictatorship – so stopping him is, if not “the” winning move, at least the do-or-die first step towards it.
There is no validity to a dismissive “eh, either way it’s gonna be bad” attitude here. We are in an existential fight to achieve “pretty bad” because the alternative is “absolutely catastrophic.”
Recognizing that things are going to bad regardless of who is elected is simple pragmatism. There’s nothing dismissive about it at all. Quite the opposite.
Harris winning the election (which, in terms of the electoral college, she’s currently on pace to narrowly lose), will not decrease the amount of active fascists in the United States, so, regardless of who wins, there’s going to be trouble and there’s going to be a lot of work to do that can’t be done with upvotes, downvotes, or social media posts.
It would be wise for people to be prepared for what is to come. Ignoring it makes it worse.
Edit: for instance, there is a man in the woods near I-75 by London, Kentucky picking random people off with a rifle right now. I’m afraid we’re going to see a lot more of that kind of stochastic terrorism, which will not simply go way if Harris wins. There are serious problems in America.