I’m starting to really consider the whole “reality is a simulation” angle, and whoever is running the game has put in a cheat code. (not really really, but more than I ever have before)
It’s like a shitty unrealistic movie plot has unfolded over the past decade. And every time it looks like maybe things are heading back on track, BOOM, we get another event that just turns us right back on the track to crazytown.
I’m having a hard time coming up with anything I can cling to in the hopes that Project 2025 isn’t going to go exactly as planned down to the last detail.
How are we not going to become real-world Gilead (but with more racism)?
I’m starting to really consider the whole “reality is a simulation” angle, and whoever is running the game has put in a cheat code. (not really really, but more than I ever have before)
🙄
I have some reeeeeeal bad news for you: the American voters handed Trump and the Republicans not just 1, not 2, but ALL 3 fucking branches of government, on top of a media in which at least 33% is in his fucking pocket and at least another 33% is too stupid to see through his bullshit.
I’m not sure what kind of push back you’re expecting or who you’re expecting it from exactly, but to whatever extent there IS push back it’s gonna be 90% performative gesturing and hand-wringing until at least 2026. And that’s the best case where people are smart enough to vote in their best interest, which knowing how fucking stupid you all are, I’m not gonna hold my breath.
GLHF.
I dunno, man, it just feels like the ol’ fascist/totalitarian tactic of flooding the zone with shit until people get exhausted from fighting it has worked, people are exhausted, and there’s this energy of elated resignation, like, we can’t swim upstream anymore, so fuck it, riding the current is kind of fun (and the inevitable waterfall is out of sight and out of mind for the moment).
Who just knocked?It’s the rich buying off both major political parties in the US. One is paid to implement a fascist oligarchy. The other is paid to pump the breaks on the fascist oligarchy when the population freaks out.
In both cases, political bribery has run amok and unchecked. Neither party is beholden to the will of the people. Low voter turnout means Republicans and oligarchy wins. High voter turnout means Democrats and the same oligarchy wins.
I want to add a running theme in GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire is that doing gross and inhumane things may horrify us in the moment and make us feel overwhelmed but tends to turn around on those who would resort to such methods despite Tyrion Lannister’s opinion that those methods are not to be taken off the table when considering options.
The most well known example in the series was the Red Wedding, the marriage of Edmure Tully, Roslin Frey, which was followed by the massacre of Rob and Catelyn Stark and many others, while under the protection of the tradition of hospitality. If we ignore the GoT Season 8 revenge by Arya Stark (which isn’t canon but is based off an implied plot by Lord Manderly), reputation of fell deed figured in House Frey losing allies and trade, and Frey casualties numbered to exceed all its gains and those inflicted on Stark and its allies.
IRL, Trump’s heavy-handed response to the George Floyd protests in 2020 only doubled the protest sizes in the following days. Notoriously after Putin-style LGMs (unmarked uniformed men in military gear abducting citizens without due process) and brutal police action at the Portland ICE building resulted in the moms joining the protests and then the dads (who brought their wireless leaf blowers, handy against CS gas).
An example that will be applicable to the US is the rise of the French Résistance during the German occupation of France. Despite efforts by German administrators to advice soldiers to stay polite, they couldn’t help themselves and were brutal to the French civilians. The people started engaging in light direct action, tearing down or defacing German propaganda, slashing tires, cutting phone lines, until they found each other and organized. Within two years, they were a formidable fighting force.
Yes, the find out portion of the upcoming era is going to be harsh. People who need services and supplies will not get them. Police will be cruel to folks at the border, and may even hunt down migrants and Trans folks like the SS after Jews. It will be fucking scary, but it will turn bystanders into resistance sympathists, sympathists into activists and activists into militants. And yes, it appears police just can’t help themselves but be brutal, and the resistance will not only feel justified in cutting them down, but will eventually hunt them to the ends of the earth to assure they see tribunal, even when the last guard and bureaucrat is ninety.
Plenty of despots around the world stayed in power for decades and died peacefully in their beds. Tyranny as a means of maintaining power is a “solved problem” and Americans are no smarter or more sophisticated than the citizens of North Korea, Cameroon, Congo or Uganda. Or Spain or Portugal for that matter.
Yes. And if we go down that path, not only will millions perish in the purges, but then China will take us economically, and may be the Allies to our Axis.
And much like Germany, the brain drain and infighting at the top ranks will slow them down and become an exploitable weakness.
If we’re not careful, we’ll organize a rebellion and overthrow the Trump regime only to have it replaced with another despot, and then (as the pattern goes) another and another and another until everyone knows someone who’s perished in the fighting. And that’s no guarantee of a democracy.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve advocated we do something that (AFAIK) we’ve never tried before, and create a constitution before we try to overthrow the government. Make it public; get legal experts to pick at it for loopholes and exploits to close until it’s ironclad. And then, unlike the constitutional framers of the US, don’t let the fighting leaders take place as administrative officials.
But I’m a novice at history and sociopolitical studies. Maybe we are doomed to a century of tyranny and all we have wrought will burn in fire. But I know instances have occurred in which something different happened, via non-violent resistance, even.
At this point get involved with your mutual aid orgs and community orgs. The more of us that organize to resist, the more likely it will actually succeed.
PS: To borrow some phrasing from Donald Rumsfeld, You build a society with the people you have, not the people you wish you had or might have at a later time. But we do still have access to the internet, and not just Facebook and Twitter, even if a lot of people barely move beyond social media. We have the resources to train people to think critically, to develop class consciousness and civic and political literacy.
ETA: PSS: Feel free to use that phrase and accredit as Rumsfeld’s law. I’ll enjoy the schadenfreude of the guy who tried to justify state-sanctioned torture programs being grossly annoyed that he is attributed with a left-wing adage.
Having an idea of the government we want to have before shit goes down is a great idea. I’ve thought about writing down my thoughts for what a better government would look like and maybe I should do that. I’m sure none of us randos on Lemmy would be the people in the room where it’s happening, but if we talk about it maybe we can influence it.
If you’re near a university, get your butt to the law school department and ask professors how feasible this is. (Buy them lunch if possible / necessary) And if it’s as brilliant as it sounds, they might be able to hook us up with the legal experts necessary to follow through.
We are in very interesting times, which may give the notion more traction than a far off whimsy.
We have colleges here in Sacramento. I’ll see what I can do here.
One BIG thing to consider is that in other countries citizens weren’t nearly as well armed as the U.S.
the most heavily armed citizens in America are, by and large, A-OK with events as they are currently unfolding. they just want a pretext to shoot a load of brown people and soy liberal cucks
An even BIGGER thing to consider is that in other countries the armies under the control of the leader weren’t nearly as well armed as the US
Not a single soul in the government is going to help or save you. I’m sorry you’re only realizing this now, but the U.S. government has never been your friend or given a shit about you. It was captured by corporate forces at least 20 years ago, and set down this path to fascism over 40 years ago by Reagan. At this point, you will have to be one of the ones to resist, and you should reach out to local organizations to resist with them.
I AM the one who knocks out your nazi face to the pavement
All I’ll say is you’re not taking the “reality is a simulation” angle far enough, because you still believe that there is some sort of outcome that is both objectively good AND long term stable. But the only such outcome is that the simulation goes on, with or without you.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
–
The Gospel According to MatthewLiberal Talking PointsThere are trumpers that read the bible. I always wonder what goes through their heads when they read the teachings of Jesus.
In verse 40, “brothers and sisters of mine”, they think it means white, middle class, cisgender, heterosexual, neurotypical, conservative people.
They really love using
Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me
in the context of abortion.
You are still on the acid trip, just ride it until it’s over. It’ll be more fun if you just let it do its thing.
There’s the Reagan-appointed federal judge who near instantaneously ruled that trump’s birthright citizenship EO was unconstitutional and expressed disbelief that anyone recognized by the Bar Association would argue for such a position.
I don’t think they expect this one to hold water, but it does serve as an excellent distraction from all the other nefarious shit coming down the pipe. Don’t lose sight of that other stuff - especially attempts to liquidate the treasury into $doge, $trump, or any other shit coin. That is the monumental heist they’re gunning for, make no mistake.
Thank you this is what I’m talking about! (Holding my breath to see if he’s somehow overridden or disbarred.)
Project 2025 won’t go exactly as planned, but at least half of it will and the rest will sow enough discord during the attempt to run the country into the ground. We will most likely still be the most powerful nation unless we split, just because of the massive population and resources available.
There are two countries on this planet with more than three times you population and enough resources to take over your position of most powerful nation if they stop fucking around and you guys screw up badly enough.
Buy a gun and practice marksmanship, you limp-wrist coward. Complain online while doing nothing and watch the world burn or do what I do and join an LGBTQ marksmanship club, protest, give back to local community with volunteer hours,.
Using a slur and telling someone to join an LGBT group is certainly a choice.
Join a LGBT+ friendly group, don’t be a a fuckin fairy about it.
As effective as they were in pushing Biden left
Who is Mike Pineapple?
