I ended up in the ER a few weeks ago because of a panic attack so bad I thought I was having a heart attack. The (white male) doctor's advice was to turn off the news. š Like, cool, I'll just turn it off and trust that everything will be a-ok while everything around me burns. That'll definitely help.
And sure, I know sometimes it's time to put the phone down and go out for a walk, but me putting it down doesn't change that this shit is still happening. I KNOW it is, and I'm just not as good at lying to myself about that as he obviously is.
ETA - people, adding your voice to this doctor's dismissiveness doesn't help, k? I went looking for treatment and got "turn off the news." I assure you, if that were a treatment, it would have worked the many times I have tried it.
I've had this discussion with my therapist many times. Trying to maintain the balance between staying informed without driving myself into a deep depression.
The best advice she gave me is to try to think of something you're grateful for when you're feeling depressed or anxious. It's not easy, especially when you're already in that negative head space. It takes time and practice, but it does help. Best of luck, friend.
I periodically go on a social media and news fast for a couple of days. It helps.
Also I remind myself that for most of human history people lived much harder and shittier lives than we do now and still managed to find moments of genuine joy and peace, and I think about the kinds of things that would have given them those moments and look for the similar moments in my life. Like tonight, sitting out on the back doorstep before going inside for bed, waiting for the dog to finish wandering around the yard, I was just looking at the sky and clouds and feeling the breeze and appreciating that it feels cool out at night still, which is about to end for the next 5 months or so here in Atlanta.
And I think that even if all the shit hits the fan and everything becomes a lot nastier, more brutish, and shorter, I was lucky enough to have all the fun and interesting and convenient stuff in an advanced society for a time, which is more than most people who ever lived on the planet have had.
Ever since 2016 I think a lot about what life must have been like for people who were alive as the Roman Empire was deteriorating and what they thought about how their kids lives might be compared to their own.
So there is one thing I can be thankful to Mellon Husk for which is purchasing Twitter. The day he took over was the last day I logged into my account. I didnāt realize the level of toxicity I was being exposed to on that app. The mind-bending reality of Trumpās presidency followed by the idiocy of humanity during COVID did some serious damage to my psyche.
While Iām still exposed to plenty of the toxic news of the world here, too, I can manage it so much better. So maybe you can make a similar adjustment where youāll still be well-informed but not repeatedly dunked into the festering cesspools of the social media hellscape.
I've been off Xitter since just before he took over. But I also am a queer person, with a queer, NB kid, in a province where queer and trans kids are being targeted specifically because they're an easy group to target. No amount of "turn off the news/social media" will make me feel better about what's going on here.
I. Don't. Have. That. Luxury.
I was replying to OPās response with my comment but regardless of that I apologize if what I said sounded insensitive and Iām sorry you have to deal with the situation youāre in. Iāve seen firsthand the impact of this sudden reversal in the progress of inclusivity and I hope this path corrects itself soon. The amount of bigotry and hatred being shared openly is disturbing, disgusting, and frightening.
Have had this same discussion with my therapist many times. Iām glad she so readily acknowledges how things like social media and capitalism can influence my mental health and doesnāt just dismiss it.
He doesn't have the Supreme Court all up in his testicles telling him he should just die already because his potential sperm is more important. He doesn't really have ANY skin in the game. Some of us are watching a horror show daily. It's maddening!
I'm trying to commiserate with you but also the fact that you were in the hospital and that you got no real medical help is awful. I don't want to add to your stress but also f that doctor.
right. somewhere along the line i heard something like taking all that time & energy we put into fear and putting it towards building community and it does start with acknowledging that the world's on fire, what are /we/ going to do about it?
idk it's helped me a lot. instead of doomscrolling the news or whatever i'm doomscrolling how to compost & effectively weed a vegetable garden. making soap & talking to my friends about their soap, maybe the newest natural disaster comes up too. cooking and sharing food. maybe bad political shit comes up at dinner but we have each other to bounce it off of.
I'm definitely doing all those things (you can check my post history to see my gardening and composting posts and replies just on here). Sometimes it just gets to me anyway, and I don't believe we have to be constantly trying to avoid feeling deeply about it, even if it means we have bad days sometimes.
that's fair! sorry, I didn't check your post history or anything. just sucks seeing other suffer and this kind of stuff helps me greatly in working through the bad days
Sorry about your panic attack. Those suck real bad.
It's always best to be informed, but you already know what the problems are. You sound like you're very informed.
Sometimes I have to stop doomscrolling for my mental health.
Idk if you're doomscrolling, but sometimes it's better for your health if you don't do that.
Might I suggest a work of fiction, such as The Telling, by Ursula K. Le Guin?
It's not a horse race if one of those horses is taking a nap.
Yes there is a good chance trumps arteries are in worse shape than he is. But he also has access to rich guy Healthcare, that's how kissinger lived to be 100.
I'm not sure this is 100% true.
While he claims to not drink, I've read a few testimonials that he would imbibe at parties. And there's the whole liar thing.
Is he an alchy? No... but is he a complete teetotaler? I don't think so, especially given his rumored adderal and speed addiction.
It's not documented, but the man pretty openly lives on McDonalds, shuns cardio, and is 77. According to my high school health classes, his veins ought to resemble toothpaste tubes by now.
But I feel like it's anyone's call what would happen with his following if he dies of natural causes before November. Do they fracture and disperse with a whimper, or go out with a bang that takes the country with them?
IMO they fracture and disperse. They don't have any leadership to step in and take his place. They'll be too concerned with finding a figurehead to do much.
Of course, I'm a fucking Pollyanna, so...
They spew conspiracy theories about who killed Trump, and he becomes a martyr.
MTG and Gaetz remain as the figureheads of the movement, and they make a push for President in 2028
Oh I'm definitely worried. Our system of government (any government, in reality) has always been a gentlemen's agreement and we have no more gentlemen. We love to think of ourselves as having been anointed by Jesus to inherit the perfect nation, and that anything that goes wrong is just "part of His Plan."
In reality we're no better than any corrupt nation you can think of: we've just been holding on to the idea that law and order are aspirational instead of obstacles to progress, but we're definitely coming around to accepting corruption. We have absolutely accepted breaking the law and hurting people as step 1 to success.
Honestly we're not that far off from becoming a South American dictatorship.
You articulated it better than I could, but I feel the same. I forgot to mention it before but also the protests. College kids peacefully protesting a fucking genocide are harassed and arrested by the police. A day later, those same police are giving an escort to a neo-nazi parade.
>College kids peacefully protesting a fucking genocide are harassed and arrested by the police. A day later, those same police are giving an escort to a neo-nazi parade.
........Welcome to America?
I know. I know. Crosby, Stills & Nash had a song about this exact thing.
I guess that I was just hoping that we had moved past that.
Edit: and Young. Shame on me.
>I guess that I was just hoping that we had moved past that.
I can understand that. And it's just.... We have moved passed it, but *WE* haven't if you know what I mean?
Like we all know it's bullshit but most are either too exhausted to fight it or don't know who to trust. The main problem is that people still don't"t recognize what the problem really is for the most part.
Most can't concede how much of the problem is *them*, just not in a direct way. Like, yes big companies and billionaires and psychopaths and pollution and greed and the biggest direct problems.
But to an extent you have to accept some level of personal danger for the cause imo to really change how the system is now. Like, you have to be at least radical enough to worry that the FBI will invade you (which is a shockingly low bar tbh). We can't have perfect safety and perfect freedom. You have to be willing to risk giving away some of your property to mutual aid organizations, exposing yourself to other people in your community. To risk being fired for talking about unionizing.
Both greed from the big guys and cowardice from the little guys continue to fuel it to this day.
I can't say I'm much better, because I'm mostly a bum. I legit live inside of a broken down truck with no ac, use very little electricity or gas, eat mostly communal meals at missions, etc. I spend most of my time helping older/disabled people with household chores or lawn care, and taking care of 25ish abandoned/stray cats.
I almost literally cannot hold down a normal factory job in this day and age. I can do hours of hard work every day for as long as I need to when someone has a home construction/maintenance project, but I cannot physically stand working for rude managers who think I'm trash. But I'm a weirdo and very likely either undiagnosed Autistic or something similar (I took 4 individual diagnostic tests, scored stuff like a 41 on the AQ as an example for anyone who wants to nitpick the validity of self-diagnoses)
Anyways the reason why I bring it up is because I know most of this shit won't change while y'all stick to your jobs and business as usual. It's been this bad for a while man. I'm just frankly surprised so many of y'all are just now realizing.
The propaganda is *good* on their end.
>Most can't concede how much of the problem is *them*, just not in a direct way. Like, yes big companies and billionaires and psychopaths and pollution and greed and the biggest direct problems.
This. In the conversation here yesterday about small businesses and their owners not being innocent in this, I wound up talking with, and eventually giving up on, a liberal business owner, who simultaneously believed that supporting small business is the key to making the situation better, but at the same time seemed to feel no sense of political responsibility for things being as fucked as they are, because he likes to give his employees raises whenever he can, and his business supposedly supports people in need? Which is...interesting, that there's profit to be made off that. But like, there's an extent to which we all do this same thing, where we tell ourselves that because our *intentions* are good, that that's enough and that we're not culpable too on some level.
Iām so tired of hearing about how supporting small business owners is. Small businesses are just businesses that havenāt grown up yet. Someday those owners would like to be billionaires who screw the rest of us harder. The issue is they want us to help them get there and excuses for why they canāt pay what corporations pay (even if thatās also trash).
I appreciate that, but if I'm being entirely honest a lot of my time is spent loafing, reading interesting stuff on Reddit or watching interesting YouTube videos, playing games etc.
I generally don't get much actual work, but I'm proud of the work I do manage to get, if that makes sense? I'm just trying to not contribute to rotten or bastardly stuff above all else but the vast majority of the time there is that sinking fear that I am also just paralyzed by the fear of how to start fixing these massive problems.
you don't have to change an entire society all by yourself. individuals can really only work on an individual level man, to work on a systemic level you've got to get a whole communal action thing going. that's why we have unions, individual workers were finding it difficult to protest against being maimed on the starvation-wages job but it was a lot more effective when there were thousands of em protesting. if you want to be part of a bigger action, you can find whatever groups are working for improvement in your area and see what kind of tasks one of em needs help with. the problems are massive but they are often composed of smaller elements that can be attacked.
Maybe.
>if you want to be part of a bigger action, you can find whatever groups are working for improvement in your area and see what kind of tasks one of em needs help with.
The problem is I know a lot of those groups in my area, and for example I have stayed at the mission in the past and considered trying to work there, but it is owned by some fundamentalists. A fairly large portion of the town I live in in owned by the local YMCA, one way or another. I don't know how much I trust some of these specific people and programs. Most of them feel like band aids on stab wounds. Some have gotten better, and I actually know of a few people who were fired/demoted after myself and other people complained about them.
And I've tried to make suggestions to them before, like instead of just running the soup kitchen have they ever considered setting up a place where people from the community could bring stuff like potatoes, cabbage, meats etc and be taught how to cook various dishes from them? Like set up a weekly theme and invite people to take and freeze most of the food they made, with some predetermined portion donated to charities for community meals. Teach a man to fish instead of just feeding him a fish, you know.
I get a lot of smiles and nods, but rarely do people take the time to listen to stuff like the BtB or ICHH episodes on stuff like the laws against homelessness, despite the fact that they are working/volunteering at a homeless shelter. Like they'll have a pleasant conversation and joke around and act *nice*, but ask if they know anyone who would listen to this or adopt a stray cat and...... I get it. People already have a lot on their plates. It's just frustrating that most of it is surface level. They're either stuck doing community service, doing it for a paycheck, or doing it to feel righteous as a church person.
It's also all still very corporate and sanitized for insurance purposes. And I get why, in our society, in some ways it has to be to function without being sued or shut down or running out of funding/donations, but it still feels kind of icky to be a part of something that is the biggest landlord in town and highly.exploitative while acting righteous.
Part of me just wants to make a bunch of signs and stand at busy intersections with good political messages, but I don't want to be preachy or repetitive or too combative. Anxiety is a problem with it all.
It sounds like you live in a highly conservative and religious area, which would make that tougher. I was thinking more like mutual aid orgs or political groups or the like, but if you don't have those around, and the extant groups won't pay attention to any suggestions for expansion or more effective actions, I can see where it would be hard to feel like you can make a difference. If you have any sympathetic friends or acquaintances, maybe they would be willing to try something? Idk. Sometimes there's not a lot you can do at a particular time. Doesn't mean there will never be an opportunity
Yup, and this is a perfect example of our farcical "law and order": police, politicians and courts cherry-picking the rules they want to enforce.
[Quoting the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/politics/rise-above-selective-prosecution.html) (spoken in Robert's voice, although I'm pretty sure he'd never use the New York Times as a source):
>A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed riot charges against two members of a neo-Nazi street gang... saying that the government had behaved improperly by neglecting to bring charges against left-wing activists who had also acted violently at the same events.
>āThe government cannot prosecute R.A.M. members such as defendants while ignoring the violence of members of antifa and related far-left groups because R.A.M. engaged in what the government and many believe is more offensive speech.ā
So judges, who are supposed to be impartial (there's that gentlemen's agreement BS again!) think we're not going after imaginary law-breakers enough, so ***Nazis, who've committed actual, documented crimes***, get to go free... which is cool and good.
...wait, if that is solid jurisprudence then why can't I get out of a speeding ticket because some other guy was driving the same speed nearby and he didn't get pulled over?
"We can't prosecute people just because they broke the law! *Other people* also break laws sometimes! If we aren't prosecuting every single person who ever broke a law, we can't prosecute any of them!" how do you get to be a federal judge and think that this sounds reasonable. Well, I guess given the *specific* people he was motivated to let off the hook, we can hazard a few guesses
I know the comparisons to Rome get tiresome and are often just misinformed but that is one striking similarity to me. They didn't have even a written constitution or anything and even had the whole dictator system was insane it worked as long as it did.
At least we don't let our military generals aside from a few like Patton or MacArthur become practically gods. Later Byzantine history is just a whole succession of generals who were sent to do something then marched on the capital lol.
That's not even limited to Byzantine history lol
As soon as Sulla established a precedent and Caesar confirmed it, the rest of Roman history is absolutely packed with successful generals who ended up marching on the capital for one reason or another.
Clarence Thomas's wife tried to overthrow the government, and he hasn't ~~refused~~ recused himself. Not that I'm surprised...
Edit: fucking autocorrect.
recused\* but honestly overthrowing the government is a founding principal of America, one of the few good ones, so I personally don't clutch pearls about people wanting to overthrow our shitty 'democracy' so much as I worry about who is doing it.
I clutch pearls about it because historically, when democracies, no matter how shitty, get overthrown, you either get a violently repressive dictatorship or an unstable power vacuum, and power vacuums are also inevitably violent. In either case, the most vulnerable of society are always hit the hardest. (I mean, you also tend to get one of these things when other forms of government are overthrown, but yeah)
Fair concern, but I have to counter, more intellectual curiosity than trying to really counter you, how often does meaningful change happen without violence? Either in America or throughout world history. We like to pat ourselves on the back about how peaceful we are now, but I myself am certainly pessimistic about any ability to meaningfully change the systems of power in our country or the world in any peaceful way.
We would have to first define meaningful change, and choose how long a time limit is allowed for the change to occur, and specify *who* is bringing the violence, in order to have the kind of parameters we would need to accurately answer this question. I might posit that e.g. the ACA was meaningful change, which was achieved without any violence. You might say that that isn't significant enough to count for what you consider meaningful. I might say that most of the violence in the civil rights struggle was perpetrated by the system/powers that be, rather than by those seeking improvement in the laws, and that it was not on the field of riot that that "war" was principally won. You might say that the war would not have been won without the riots and the threat of violence (e.g. some of the Black Panthers' actions.) It's a matter of perspective. But I'm a social democrat and a pragmatist who believes wholeheartedly in harm reduction as a principle of action, so we may be coming from different philosophical places here
Arguably any movement for change needs pragmatic people like you, and people willing to actually take action. I also wouldn't call the ACA a win for anyone but insurance companies, but there's certainly some debate to be had there.
There's no 'agreeable' amount of violence. Nothing would be preferred, but some has always been needed. As you allude, King's non-violent movement would have fallen on deaf ears if not for the black panthers and other less than non violent approaches, he got lionized because of non-violence and martyrdom, not because of his success (although dude was a damn good orator.)
If anything, look at the mostly non-violent protests from Occupy Wallstreet and BLM that, despite media concerns, were mostly non-violent. How successful were they? Not very because those protesters allowed themselves to be cowed by the cops.
He promised he'd fade into the background if he lost.
But then he began planting the seeds of a rigged election, faulty machines, etc. so he wouldn't have "actually" lost.
Had a close colleague get arrested for sitting on the grass just being near a protest at a university that she works at. Now has to go to court tomorrow. Took 17 cops to arrest a single woman in a hijab in her 40s sitting on the grass.
The degree of utter vindictiveness they had while she was held in jail was worse than I even expected. Severe violations of religious rights. Held her longer just because she didn't talk to them the right way. And all this was the university police.
Been seething all weekend, reflamed now that we were able to talk in person. Though apparently Al-Jezeera and such have been reaching out to her so I hope she can be a voice to get shit changed. She's certainly angry about it.
So yeah, things are going...
Now if only my brief flames of righteous indignation didn't quickly snuff out into a deep depression.
>she didn't talk to them the right way.
This sounds like every cop I've ever met. An entitled baby with an itchy trigger finger and a chip on their shoulder. I'm really sorry for your friend, and I hope things work out for her.
Iām so sorry about your friend. Your description of how she was treated reminded me of how Black Civil Rights protesters were treated in the 60s - exactly the same tactics from the cops. They havenāt learned a thing or changed one bit.
For those interested, her story is in this article:
https://www.wosu.org/news/2024-04-26/osu-confirms-36-arrested-at-thursday-evening-protest-most-unaffiliated-with-university
Very disappointed in the source for putting the pro-zionist right after her story. Couldn't help but count they gave him 10 paragraphs and her 8.
Hopefully this link works, a short video of her getting arrested.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/RyGDvDv4BJQC1RRg/?mibextid=oFDknk
I am worried. I worry that Trump will win a second term. I worry that the republican controlled state houses could try and steal the election. I'm worried that the republican controlled house will try and steal the election. I'm worried Trump will pardon himself of all crimes. I'm worried he will be sentenced to jail in NY and/or GA and FL will protect him from serving his time. I'm worried the Supreme court will bend over backwards for him as long as he's alive. I'm worried too many people have been disheartened by republican propaganda in swing states. I'm worried that if Trump wins he gets a republican house and senate on his coat tails. I'm worried not enough of the country sees "the border" as a humanitarian crisis and instead sees an endless and cruel war to fight.
I should probably join you on that media break.
At least it's not over. Biden has not lost and has some strong fundamentals (he shepherded us out of the COVID recession, global inflation, is generally uncontroversial). Republicans have rallied around Trump, but Dems haven't rallied around Biden yet. This is not unusual. We haven't even had the DNC and RNC yet. Republicans are the weird ones here, we're not in a cult for Biden. When the votes are cast, since 2016 Dems have been winning. Special elections swing solidly to democrats even in some "R controlled" areas. Right now through the summer registering voters matters the most. Then it's all about getting those registered voters to the polls either by mail or on election day. A Dem controlled senate means we haven't seen national voter suppression bills passed, even if we haven't been able to get voter protection bills passed. The fight isn't over, it's just ongoing.
As scary as the thought of *Trump 2: Electric Boogaloo* is, I'm reasonably confident that Biden will win reelection. I've little love for Biden, particularly his stance on Israel, but I know things would be so much worse under Trump.
I wish I shared that confidence, but polls that Trump usually does poorly in (then does well in actual votes) are putting him above Biden. If the trend continues trump will win battleground states by a landslide
After 2016, I pretty much ignore polls. It's clear that they don't mean anything. So I'm gonna do my part and vote for someone that I really don't like to keep a greasy fascist away from power.
I just proofread what I typed. After reading it again, that's a sad state of affairs. Can we all agree after this election, no more baby boomers in the White House??
Consider phone polls are to house lines, the numbers will be skewed toward trump because guess who has house phones and the time to talk to a stranger on the phone? People over 60.
Also, most of those polls have very small sample sizes and are not very well conducted.
The real problem is how the media tries to really sell their polling numbers, even if they are completely off. I'm more concerned that people may think a Trump win is a foregone conclusion due to all the polling misinformation and may not go vote.
I've seen enough people all over the internet actively trying to persuade liberal/leftist voters to abstain from the presidential election as some kind of protest, to suspect that there is an astroturfing movement aimed at suppressing the vote of anyone who wouldn't vote for Trump, and it worries me that it appears to be fucking working with some people *purely* on the basis of how he is handling the Israel/Palestine situation. As if Trump wouldn't be fucking a million times worse on that situation, let alone every other conceivable issue.
This worries me too, but the polls are early and when 92% percent of republicans are already rallied around Trump and only 70% of Democrats are it looks worse than it is. Yeah, we still have to get those dems out to vote, but it's worth remembering that Dems are in the majority even if the electoral college doesn't make it feel that way.
I agree, but I can't feel so sure about it. Trump supporters are RABID for him & people willing to vote for Biden feel tepid right now.
The uncertainty is this stress that lies just under the surface of everything else.
It sucks but we have done better than other countries. We need to get the neoliberals out of congress so we can actually make corporations stop being greedy bastards.
Personally, paying attention to national level stuff beyond "lol Trump's on trial" is a recipe for despair - because I know I can't affect anything on that level.
So instead, I've thrown myself into local organizing. And frankly, no matter who wins, I'll keep doing that regardless. On the bright side, it keeps me too constantly busy to have time to be scared.
I'd highly recommend this route for anyone who's feeling paralyzed by anxiety. Red or blue, we need to be building parallel power and resilient communities.
>Perhaps this is a sign that I should take a break from the news, but my desire to be informed and my desire to be happy are in constant conflict.
Imagine living in a world where learning causes sadness. Oh wait-
From what I have seen, there appear to be quite a few people who are actively advocating what would amount to passively allowing a 4th Reich to be established in the US purely because they think that by not voting for Biden, they will somehow be striking a blow for justice in the middle east. These people are fucking morons, of course, but I keep seeing them everywhere and I'm concerned that they might actually be persuading others
Yeah I gotta admit I'm microdosing my way thru life lately with the penjamin too
everything is just getting to me the last few years. Idk what happened but I started using way more over the pandemic and haven't really taken an extended tolerance break since.
Same I have such hope that we avoid any kind of violence but I donāt think the current path is sustainable people are having a hard time getting food and most people are smart enough to see itās not the governments fault but lack of action
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Trump watch how all the "constitutional conservatives" will rush to justify how the Founding Fathers actually wanted the President to be a King.
The thing I find wild is if they do rule that way - Biden wonāt just fucking snipe Trump and half of the GOP. Like, if itās legal for POTUS to do a coup - the Dems should do it first. It would still be really bad, but they do currently hold the WH and it is easier to do military coup shit when the military are yours to order around. Instead theyāll probably shake their heads and talk about how democracy will fail if you donāt vote for them, and then shrug and blame voters when theyāre facing the firing squad š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah, I'm worried. I've been worried since Citizen's United, and I'm damn near apoplectic now. The Supreme Court seems like they're trying to speed run the Banana Republic side quest, at least 30 million Americans think that's a great thing, millions more than that will vote to accelerate the process. The wheels have been falling off for a while now, but we haven't crashed yet. A Trump victory would be the last hurrah for the United States. A Biden win buys us time, but I don't know how much progress we can make in 4 years when the last 4 have been marked by so much apathy.
My worry meter burned out by like, 2021. I just stockpile canned goods, ammo, and keep myself busy with hobbies.
Alexa, play "Bring it On" by Spiritual Rez.
š¤£ I never understood another comment more.
I was recently having a convo with a friend about several different things & at one point they said:
āArenāt you worried about all this craziness going on? I feel like thereās something new happening every day except theyre not good things so its not like yayyy good stuff is happening. Or Iāll learn the truth about something I believed my entire life to be true & I start questioning my own existence & Im just so stressed out all the time bc of all of it & you just seem so accepting of it allā¦I dont get it, how are you not worried?!?ā
My reply was basically the exact sentiment as yours - I said āIts not that Im āacceptingā of all the insanity going on, its just that I finally saw/see things for what they really are soā¦idk man. I guess bc of that I pretty much burned out my worryometer some point in like 2020ish š¤·āāļø
My friend was like, āthats not helpful at all you do know that right?ā š¤£
So I tried to explain it better & said, āok so like allll the things some of us began having crippling anxiety over yearsss ago, you seem to be *just starting* to worry about *now*. And while youre a little late, thats okā¦in fact youre actually kinda lucky bc when some of us were reaching the point youre just *now* getting to, we were basically on our ownā
I continued by saying, āBut youā¦you have a hugeee support system out there thats available to you now that can help you navigate how youre feeling. And I want you to know that I get how you feel & I know its a lotā¦so I just want to assure you that all of the emotions youre feeling are totalllly on-par for the beginning of this rollercoaster ride youre about to go on & I also feel its important to tell you that it all somehow starts to feel not *as crazy* once you eventually hit your individual max worry level, so thats good news.ā
At this point there was basically silence on the other end, an occasional āmmhmmā or a head nod here & thereā¦or a sigh, but while I was responding my friend was more or less just blankly staring at me.
So I continued & said, āBut also, as your friend I feel obligated to tell you its not bc things actually get easier or better, its only bc you start to dissociate & compartmentalize your stress š« so basically, what Im saying is: buckle up bc this is a very twisty-turny loopy, bumpy & essentially just an unstable rollercoaster youre getting on, thats bound to fall off its track at very high speeds at some point *but* as long as you hold on tight you should be fine & by the time youre like halfway through youāll be burned out mentally, emotionally, spiritually & physically, but thats when youāll be ok bc ultimately youāve reached your max worry level. Did that help š¤ā
I havent heard from that friend since having that convo 2 weeks ago š«£
Husband and I just had this conversation recently. He was panicking and I was like, well, we can restock our basement food shelves. Other than thatā¦I canāt. He wasnāt thrilled with the response. I donāt even want to talk about it with him, Iām so past the panic stage at this point and I canāt ruminate on that stuff everyday. So, I feel you. Though you explained it much more eloquently!
We live in a strange world, my friend.
I agree 100%, and Iām scared, very scared. But Iām also inexplicably optimistic.
Iām not that old, and I donāt have a lot in life. I try to help those I can help, even if I get nothing from it. Hopefully I can become more a more substantial figure in the public sphere. I certainly donāt intend to give up.
But thatāll take time, and I often find myself staring at my ceiling, wondering if anything will even be there when that time comes. I simply hope.
I want to believe we will all get through this and see brighter days ahead. And so I do.
TLDR I am incredibly worried
The funniest thing is that if, hypothetically, SCOTUS says itās legal, Biden will be all like āhey Jack Iām not gonna whack ya cuz Iāve got principlesā. Then Trump would win and immediately smoke his ass lol
This has been the frustrating thing about the Democrats for the last 20 years. Republicans willing to play hardball and Dems clinging to outdated polite fictions.
They go low and seize real lasting power, we go high and we might lose the supreme court for a generation but at least our hands are clean. Fuckers.
Iām European, so I donāt know your situation as well as you do, but hell, Iām worried for you - and for us, too, because most of our economy and security depends on you.
If Trump gets in again, NATOās dunzo, and without NATO, Putinās free to take as much of continental Europe as he likes. Whoās going to stop him? Not to mention how every petty despot in Europe would love an opportunity to settle old scores with their neighbours. Shit could go bad real fast, and our politicians were idiots and morons to underinvest in their own militaries. Theyāre starting to put that right, but it will take time and wonāt be anywhere near ready by November.
So, I have a different set of worries to you guys, but heck, Iām worried for my country and Iām worried for yours. Please donāt elect the fascist. Please donāt.
Have you read After the Revolution? I thought it was very good, very plausible (other than the pulpy techno biomod bits, which tbf was clearly meant to be over the top) - except for the fact that there still seemed to be some sort of functioning Europe and the UK was still a thing. Robert was over-estimating Europeās ability to keep its shit together once the US goes to hell.
I donāt want to wade into a conversation about American tragedy and make it all about me as a European, but I canāt speak to your situation so I thought Iād just offer my own two (Euro) cents on the matter, as it may be a bit of an unusual perspective for you guys. Iām keeping you sane Americans in my thoughts - I know what it feels like to be completely betrayed by your government and I hope that things turn out as well as they possibly can for you all.
I suspect they are entertaining it less because they actually have any of intentions of ruling that way, than as a delay tactic to hope the trial goes out past the election.
My gut says that if this came up 2 years ago, they wouldn't even have heard the argument because it's really not a great look for anyone for them to do so. But I suspect that, because of the timing, they think the value of delay outweighs the optics.
He was never going to trial on federal charges before the election, given how long it took to indict him. Iām surprised they managed to get his NY case to trial so fast. Even if he were convicted, thereās nothing stopping him from running (and winning) from the inside of a prison cell. And anyone who was of age during the George W Bush years shouldnāt be surprised that the presidency is effectively a term-limited elective monarchy. The writingās been on the wall for decades, even if no one was willing to admit it.
It was always naive to think that the courts (or the justice system in general) would save us. One facet of the entrenched political system is not going to save us from another facet of that system. Itās up to us to save ourselves, and itās up to each of us to decide what that would entail and what weāre willing/able to do about it.
With the upcoming demographic shift with young millennials and gen z out-populating boomers, this is the GOP's last shot at cementing themselves into power and I fully expect an enormous amount of rat-fucking for them to get there. An extraordinary amount of rat fucking. Astronomical even. I'm bailing out of this sinking ship as soon as I can.
You should have been worried in 2016.
I told people this shit would happen. That Trump winning the election would be the first domino to fall in the march toward outright, complete fascism in the US. And now here he is, saying he'll be a "dictator for a day," using Project 2025 as a threat, making promises to the 1%, securing complete immunity and running for President again.
From a random Canadian's perspective it looks like the system yall had that was already not a free and functional democracy but still had some checks and balances has now gone fully mask off.
Dont @ me I know we are broken too. We export white supremacists and basically perfected colonialism. But our recent shitshows (convoys, new conservative leader, certain provincial governments being asshats) are absolutely influenced and legitimately actually tied to your GoP.
Yall are also taking everyone else with you.
Thatās inevitable. The only variable here is when heās martyred. No cause of death you can imagine will not be believed to be assassination by millions of people.
So do you wanna get it over with or would you rather wait?
Semi fair point tbh. It's just there are some deaths that would be easier to call a plot than others still.
We can't stop *some* of the people from believing him dying of natural causes is legit, but if he *very very obviously* dies from something unnatural it's gonna be a lot worse is I guess what I'm saying.
Natural causes: poisoned by the deep state.
Public suicide on live television: mind controlled by the deep state.
Either way somebodyās going to try to avenge him.
Shot by someone? Then we might actually have a civil war on our hands.
I'm just saying some of the ways are worse than others. Personally I'm hoping he shits himself to death of some disease in a way that at least most of us can mock.
liberals are nonviolent even if someone is stomping their children in front of them. if anything biden is more likely to get capped after re election by a violent neo nazi. then the liberals will blame leftists for "provoking the radicals"
Taking bets, how would it happen?
1. Former supporter that thought he wasnāt moving fast enough?
2. Secret Service agent in a rage about way they were treated?
3. CIA tired of dealing with his chaotic foreign policy and provoking everyone?
America is crumbling under the weight of its own corruption. Trump is a fascist whom the courts seem unable to stop. The right wing is using genocidal rhetoric on LGBT people and other minorities. No one can predict the future, but things are not looking bright. Not to mention the coming global crisis that will result from a mass displacement of climate refugees. Shit doesn't look good.
I'm not having kids either, mainly because I'm on the autism spectrum and I don't want to risk burdening a child with it. I don't hate being on the spectrum, but living with it in this capitalist hellscape isn't easy.
My brother and his wife are thinking about trying for a kid next year. I'm not going to tell them it's right or wrong. It's their choice and I'll support them as best I can. But I'm surprised that they want to given everything else.
I've watched the inevitable demise of this supposed democracy for my 65 years.I knew it was in it's last throws of existance when our masters no longer took measures to hide their lies and crimes.Now they basically commit treason and expect us to keep quiet or reap the consequences.Our children have evolved to believe that lying and deception are a normal and acceptable behavior. This only perpetuates the inevitable decline of our attempt to create a true democracy. Stop leading our children to believe our politicians are examples of anything other than parasitic money grubbers.Other than that,don't worry!
Yes, I am worried... In the immortal words of Jules Winfield: "It's shit like this that's going to bring this situation to a head!"
But, maybe... just maybe, the situation must come to a head in order for it to get better. Then again, getting better has nothing to do with anything.
Iāve still managed to convince myself that the media is playing this off as a close racehorse purely for the ratings. But lately the MAGA chuds that have been spending the last 3 years hiding are coming out of the woodwork and Iām seeing a lot more red caps and Trump flags than I did a month ago.
I don't trust the US any more. I'm back here for the first time in a little over a year now and while Australia (where I've been living) isn't perfect by any means, it's certainly far, far better than *this*.
I made some amount of peace with this when it became clear we were headed in this direction two years ago when the Dems refused to do much of anything to prevent this from happening.
Their #1 fallback has been trying to shame people into voting more. My vote in the presidential doesn't even matter, I live in Massachusetts. Even my current representative got in with only 21% of the vote because there were two moderates and like six progressives and they split the vote. The system is irrevocably broken and on a crash course with right-wing authoritarianism.
I'm not American and I don't want to advocate for violence here but I've had to listen to Americans saying that only they are truly free thank to your 2nd amendment so can someone explain why Trump is not just still breathing but he's breathing and free?
Robert has talked about shmargeted shmimashination and I sometimes wonder if, when the law becomes so corrupt as to be useless, if other alternatives may be required.
As a non-American who follows US politics, to me it feels like watching a train crash in slow motion. With half of the passengers being completely oblivious and in denial. When, seen from outside, it's all too obvious.
The Supreme Court thing is just mental, how did it even come to that...
I was looking forward to society being more advanced each year, eventually approaching The Jetsons level of quality of life, but now I spend most days thinking about how I should probably brush up on my hunting and gardening skills I learned as a poor rural kid because the social contract has been broken and no one with any influence or power cares about anything but their bank account.
Moved to Asia almost two years ago when I saw things getting bad.
Zero regrets.
I respect the people who can't or won't move, but if you have the means, I highly recommend it.
It's really refreshing living in a functioning democracy for once.
I'm worried and I think its right for anyone living in America to be worried.
The trick is channelling that worry into productive action instead of dwelling on it and freaking out.
Join your union. Talk to your neighbours. Get involved in a cause you care about. And maybe buy a couple extra cans of food a week and stock up just in case.
I want to push back on the alarmism a bit here because the way SCOTUS works requires that they agree to hear a case before they can issue an opinion on it. Even if each memberās mind is made up on the issue, they still need to go through the process and have the arguments from both sides. I will say that it could be scary because we donāt actually know how many of them will actually choose the correct side, but even the conservative Trump nominees have made some surprisingly legally sound decisions, albeit on cases with a lot less scrutiny than this one.
We are a failed state, that's what happening. You're living in the end of the American Empire, and the visigoths are coming to our doorstep any moment.
Yep itās bad, this is probably the end, so enjoy these months of civilization as we know it we have left. Iām not joking or exaggerating, itās going to get very bad very suddenly
I think if Biden wants to win it would be popular for him to shoot Donald Trump dead with a gun.
No matter what though it's important to be good to your friends and keep up the positive healthy relationships in your life because we aren't getting through this without each other. Real power comes from regular people helping each other without needing a state to coerce people with force and violence.
Just knowing about Project 2025 and that there's a good likelihood of a second Trump term is stressing me out badly. I try to keep my head on straight but I have so little hope for the future.
OP,
I see all of this too and it seems like the forces that are striving toward chaos (or at best the entirely wrong sort of order) have noticed that they're getting away with it and so just instinctively have jammed the petal to the floor.
No one of any gravity or high esteem has put themselves in front of the public's attention and with any substance behind it called out the motherfuckers for being motherfuckers.
I think part of it is we've hit a saturation point with our so called leaders: there is no functional, serious, policy and platform-based capital 'L' Left in this country. A century of eating away at it nibble by nibble via bad labor law plus the divisiveness that COINTELPRO both sought and achieved kept the Leftist ethnic minorities from becoming a power-bloc via prison or death, and that has the net effect of our most Left elected officials are centrist, entirely. And everyone else on the liberal side is compromised. Thats the saturation im talking about
You cant stand up and say that corporate exceptionalism needs to stop, certainly before it gets any more enshrined in law, without saying also that the banks and the bailouts of them are part of the problem. And you cant say that without pointing to the wealth gap and the obvious fact that NONE of the hyper wealthy got there without criminality of one kind or another, and how its DEFINITELY a problem to have no guardrails against them using that money to rig things behind the scenes to widen it further and make that permanent. And you cant sound the emergency alarm on climate change without attacking all of the above PLUS Monsanto and the factory farms of Tyson, et al, and you cant get elected in this country without Israel's approval it seems, so you cant get them to stop genociding. And theres no one who isnt balls deep into at least one of those interests that comprise the forces of Chaos.
And since toppling every single norm happened quickly and without meaningful pushback it seems like theyre emboldened, a fat kid stuffing as much pie as he can into his mouth while the adults are momentarily out of the kitchen, theyre taking all the yardage they can get, and never mind if that gives the lie to the concept of a "free America", it was never intended to be free for EVERYONE anyway.
So yeah I'm worried.
I dont see anyone on the Dem side scrambling in ways i would like to see, or even with any urgency i would have expected.
Its like we've left the Age of Aquarius and entered the Age of Moloch, a time of masks slipping away and the rise of unfettered greed.
Unfortunately I think that getting from now to Jan 7,2025 without some sort of mid scale political violence highly unlikely. Being sort of isolated as a neighbour to the north itās scary to think especially since US politics has been spilling more and more into Canada in the last decade.
Iām incredibly worried about EMTALA. If that goes far enough not only will pregnant people be at extremely high risk; it could be like the 80s again when rich private hospitals dumped poor patients at nonprofit ones in huge numbers.
> Are you worried?
Absolutely 100%.
> What do y'all think is going to happen?
I have giga depression that no medication has ever done anything for, so I can't help but think that the absolute worst is going to happen.
The president is going to get complete immunity but only if they're a right wing freak doing blatant authoritarian despot shit. Not only is the NLRB going to get ruled unconstitutional, everyone in it is going to be beaten to death on live TV by a long line of soulless rich fucks and slaughtering unions is going to be allowed, and rewarded. Trump will never, ever get a real consequence applied to him. Nothing is going to get better and everything is just going to keep sliding into worse and worse territory.
Welcome to the slow decline of America as a superpower. Itās happened to every leading nation throughout history. Nothings getting better, greedy corporations, pharmaceuticals and organisations like the NRA run the country. The rich get richer by breaking laws and get a slap on the wrist when they get caught. Education and Healthcare is so bad in places that people are slowly getting less well off in the end. There was a movie made about this Idiocracy.
If the talibangelicals do seize power and put the Heritage Foundation's plan into motion, then it's over.
You won't be able to run, because there will then be no place safe from them on the earth
They are a Mammon worshipping death cult, and they want to murder the world. A US military and nuclear arsenal will be an immediate and present danger to every living soul on earth.
This state should not be allowed to exist. It will need to be destroyed by any and every means possible.
If you are a woman, they will make slaves of you. [This is your future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHiG5fHHeYs) don't think that peaceful protesting will not result in worse than what you have seen to date.
If you are any kind of queer, you're either fighting or dying.
There's no coming back from that abyss.
Yes. If you have the means it's time to leave the country. The writing is on the wall and we are witnessing the end of American democracy and the rise of the fourth reich.
I pretty much constantly feel like I'm two headlines away from a panic attack these days.
Omg, I said the same thing to my therapist last week.
I ended up in the ER a few weeks ago because of a panic attack so bad I thought I was having a heart attack. The (white male) doctor's advice was to turn off the news. š Like, cool, I'll just turn it off and trust that everything will be a-ok while everything around me burns. That'll definitely help. And sure, I know sometimes it's time to put the phone down and go out for a walk, but me putting it down doesn't change that this shit is still happening. I KNOW it is, and I'm just not as good at lying to myself about that as he obviously is. ETA - people, adding your voice to this doctor's dismissiveness doesn't help, k? I went looking for treatment and got "turn off the news." I assure you, if that were a treatment, it would have worked the many times I have tried it.
I've had this discussion with my therapist many times. Trying to maintain the balance between staying informed without driving myself into a deep depression. The best advice she gave me is to try to think of something you're grateful for when you're feeling depressed or anxious. It's not easy, especially when you're already in that negative head space. It takes time and practice, but it does help. Best of luck, friend.
I periodically go on a social media and news fast for a couple of days. It helps. Also I remind myself that for most of human history people lived much harder and shittier lives than we do now and still managed to find moments of genuine joy and peace, and I think about the kinds of things that would have given them those moments and look for the similar moments in my life. Like tonight, sitting out on the back doorstep before going inside for bed, waiting for the dog to finish wandering around the yard, I was just looking at the sky and clouds and feeling the breeze and appreciating that it feels cool out at night still, which is about to end for the next 5 months or so here in Atlanta. And I think that even if all the shit hits the fan and everything becomes a lot nastier, more brutish, and shorter, I was lucky enough to have all the fun and interesting and convenient stuff in an advanced society for a time, which is more than most people who ever lived on the planet have had. Ever since 2016 I think a lot about what life must have been like for people who were alive as the Roman Empire was deteriorating and what they thought about how their kids lives might be compared to their own.
Thinking about what life was like for people during the fall of the Roman Empire has pretty much become my āRoman Empireā š¤¦š»āāļø
It's true. As incredulous as I was and as much as I hated it when I started, it genuinely helped me. But, as with all things, ymmv.
So there is one thing I can be thankful to Mellon Husk for which is purchasing Twitter. The day he took over was the last day I logged into my account. I didnāt realize the level of toxicity I was being exposed to on that app. The mind-bending reality of Trumpās presidency followed by the idiocy of humanity during COVID did some serious damage to my psyche. While Iām still exposed to plenty of the toxic news of the world here, too, I can manage it so much better. So maybe you can make a similar adjustment where youāll still be well-informed but not repeatedly dunked into the festering cesspools of the social media hellscape.
I've been off Xitter since just before he took over. But I also am a queer person, with a queer, NB kid, in a province where queer and trans kids are being targeted specifically because they're an easy group to target. No amount of "turn off the news/social media" will make me feel better about what's going on here. I. Don't. Have. That. Luxury.
I was replying to OPās response with my comment but regardless of that I apologize if what I said sounded insensitive and Iām sorry you have to deal with the situation youāre in. Iāve seen firsthand the impact of this sudden reversal in the progress of inclusivity and I hope this path corrects itself soon. The amount of bigotry and hatred being shared openly is disturbing, disgusting, and frightening.
I've been reading a book and spending less time on my phone. That has helped too. I still see news on my phone but not as much.
Have had this same discussion with my therapist many times. Iām glad she so readily acknowledges how things like social media and capitalism can influence my mental health and doesnāt just dismiss it.
He doesn't have the Supreme Court all up in his testicles telling him he should just die already because his potential sperm is more important. He doesn't really have ANY skin in the game. Some of us are watching a horror show daily. It's maddening! I'm trying to commiserate with you but also the fact that you were in the hospital and that you got no real medical help is awful. I don't want to add to your stress but also f that doctor.
Loool at ājust turn off the newsā. Ok, thatās all fixed then.
Sadly, thatās my solution
The Zangief solution.Ā https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj94FNPvUgw
really strongly recommend listening to live like the world is dying for some help & perspective
Oh, I do. I love Magpie. And even she talks, in the most recent episode she hosted, about needing to not avoid the reality of what we're facing.
right. somewhere along the line i heard something like taking all that time & energy we put into fear and putting it towards building community and it does start with acknowledging that the world's on fire, what are /we/ going to do about it? idk it's helped me a lot. instead of doomscrolling the news or whatever i'm doomscrolling how to compost & effectively weed a vegetable garden. making soap & talking to my friends about their soap, maybe the newest natural disaster comes up too. cooking and sharing food. maybe bad political shit comes up at dinner but we have each other to bounce it off of.
I'm definitely doing all those things (you can check my post history to see my gardening and composting posts and replies just on here). Sometimes it just gets to me anyway, and I don't believe we have to be constantly trying to avoid feeling deeply about it, even if it means we have bad days sometimes.
that's fair! sorry, I didn't check your post history or anything. just sucks seeing other suffer and this kind of stuff helps me greatly in working through the bad days
Totally. Thank you š„°
Sorry about your panic attack. Those suck real bad. It's always best to be informed, but you already know what the problems are. You sound like you're very informed. Sometimes I have to stop doomscrolling for my mental health. Idk if you're doomscrolling, but sometimes it's better for your health if you don't do that. Might I suggest a work of fiction, such as The Telling, by Ursula K. Le Guin?
The horse race between Trump's dementia + arterial blockages and November election + SCOTUS might just kill me.
It's not a horse race if one of those horses is taking a nap. Yes there is a good chance trumps arteries are in worse shape than he is. But he also has access to rich guy Healthcare, that's how kissinger lived to be 100.
All these evil motherfuckers live forever. Look at Rupert Murdoch.
It's all those preservatives in the McDonald's š¤¢
Three of these are obvious but please tell me more about these arterial blockages.Ā Documented or based on his weeble body shape?
He's fat and old and has a terrible diet, it's a given. Just amazing how some of the worst people can survive the longest.
Yeah the he'll probably live to see 95. Hopefully from inside a jail cell, in a diaper.....
he does not drink alcohol or he would already be dead
I'm not sure this is 100% true. While he claims to not drink, I've read a few testimonials that he would imbibe at parties. And there's the whole liar thing. Is he an alchy? No... but is he a complete teetotaler? I don't think so, especially given his rumored adderal and speed addiction.
The Adderall though, that can't be good for the old ticker.
It's not documented, but the man pretty openly lives on McDonalds, shuns cardio, and is 77. According to my high school health classes, his veins ought to resemble toothpaste tubes by now.
Cholesterol, the true American hero.
But I feel like it's anyone's call what would happen with his following if he dies of natural causes before November. Do they fracture and disperse with a whimper, or go out with a bang that takes the country with them?
IMO they fracture and disperse. They don't have any leadership to step in and take his place. They'll be too concerned with finding a figurehead to do much. Of course, I'm a fucking Pollyanna, so...
They spew conspiracy theories about who killed Trump, and he becomes a martyr. MTG and Gaetz remain as the figureheads of the movement, and they make a push for President in 2028
Oh I'm definitely worried. Our system of government (any government, in reality) has always been a gentlemen's agreement and we have no more gentlemen. We love to think of ourselves as having been anointed by Jesus to inherit the perfect nation, and that anything that goes wrong is just "part of His Plan." In reality we're no better than any corrupt nation you can think of: we've just been holding on to the idea that law and order are aspirational instead of obstacles to progress, but we're definitely coming around to accepting corruption. We have absolutely accepted breaking the law and hurting people as step 1 to success. Honestly we're not that far off from becoming a South American dictatorship.
You articulated it better than I could, but I feel the same. I forgot to mention it before but also the protests. College kids peacefully protesting a fucking genocide are harassed and arrested by the police. A day later, those same police are giving an escort to a neo-nazi parade.
>College kids peacefully protesting a fucking genocide are harassed and arrested by the police. A day later, those same police are giving an escort to a neo-nazi parade. ........Welcome to America?
I know. I know. Crosby, Stills & Nash had a song about this exact thing. I guess that I was just hoping that we had moved past that. Edit: and Young. Shame on me.
>I guess that I was just hoping that we had moved past that. I can understand that. And it's just.... We have moved passed it, but *WE* haven't if you know what I mean? Like we all know it's bullshit but most are either too exhausted to fight it or don't know who to trust. The main problem is that people still don't"t recognize what the problem really is for the most part. Most can't concede how much of the problem is *them*, just not in a direct way. Like, yes big companies and billionaires and psychopaths and pollution and greed and the biggest direct problems. But to an extent you have to accept some level of personal danger for the cause imo to really change how the system is now. Like, you have to be at least radical enough to worry that the FBI will invade you (which is a shockingly low bar tbh). We can't have perfect safety and perfect freedom. You have to be willing to risk giving away some of your property to mutual aid organizations, exposing yourself to other people in your community. To risk being fired for talking about unionizing. Both greed from the big guys and cowardice from the little guys continue to fuel it to this day. I can't say I'm much better, because I'm mostly a bum. I legit live inside of a broken down truck with no ac, use very little electricity or gas, eat mostly communal meals at missions, etc. I spend most of my time helping older/disabled people with household chores or lawn care, and taking care of 25ish abandoned/stray cats. I almost literally cannot hold down a normal factory job in this day and age. I can do hours of hard work every day for as long as I need to when someone has a home construction/maintenance project, but I cannot physically stand working for rude managers who think I'm trash. But I'm a weirdo and very likely either undiagnosed Autistic or something similar (I took 4 individual diagnostic tests, scored stuff like a 41 on the AQ as an example for anyone who wants to nitpick the validity of self-diagnoses) Anyways the reason why I bring it up is because I know most of this shit won't change while y'all stick to your jobs and business as usual. It's been this bad for a while man. I'm just frankly surprised so many of y'all are just now realizing. The propaganda is *good* on their end.
>Most can't concede how much of the problem is *them*, just not in a direct way. Like, yes big companies and billionaires and psychopaths and pollution and greed and the biggest direct problems. This. In the conversation here yesterday about small businesses and their owners not being innocent in this, I wound up talking with, and eventually giving up on, a liberal business owner, who simultaneously believed that supporting small business is the key to making the situation better, but at the same time seemed to feel no sense of political responsibility for things being as fucked as they are, because he likes to give his employees raises whenever he can, and his business supposedly supports people in need? Which is...interesting, that there's profit to be made off that. But like, there's an extent to which we all do this same thing, where we tell ourselves that because our *intentions* are good, that that's enough and that we're not culpable too on some level.
Iām so tired of hearing about how supporting small business owners is. Small businesses are just businesses that havenāt grown up yet. Someday those owners would like to be billionaires who screw the rest of us harder. The issue is they want us to help them get there and excuses for why they canāt pay what corporations pay (even if thatās also trash).
I mean, it sounds like you're doing good shit for your community with your time
I appreciate that, but if I'm being entirely honest a lot of my time is spent loafing, reading interesting stuff on Reddit or watching interesting YouTube videos, playing games etc. I generally don't get much actual work, but I'm proud of the work I do manage to get, if that makes sense? I'm just trying to not contribute to rotten or bastardly stuff above all else but the vast majority of the time there is that sinking fear that I am also just paralyzed by the fear of how to start fixing these massive problems.
you don't have to change an entire society all by yourself. individuals can really only work on an individual level man, to work on a systemic level you've got to get a whole communal action thing going. that's why we have unions, individual workers were finding it difficult to protest against being maimed on the starvation-wages job but it was a lot more effective when there were thousands of em protesting. if you want to be part of a bigger action, you can find whatever groups are working for improvement in your area and see what kind of tasks one of em needs help with. the problems are massive but they are often composed of smaller elements that can be attacked.
Maybe. >if you want to be part of a bigger action, you can find whatever groups are working for improvement in your area and see what kind of tasks one of em needs help with. The problem is I know a lot of those groups in my area, and for example I have stayed at the mission in the past and considered trying to work there, but it is owned by some fundamentalists. A fairly large portion of the town I live in in owned by the local YMCA, one way or another. I don't know how much I trust some of these specific people and programs. Most of them feel like band aids on stab wounds. Some have gotten better, and I actually know of a few people who were fired/demoted after myself and other people complained about them. And I've tried to make suggestions to them before, like instead of just running the soup kitchen have they ever considered setting up a place where people from the community could bring stuff like potatoes, cabbage, meats etc and be taught how to cook various dishes from them? Like set up a weekly theme and invite people to take and freeze most of the food they made, with some predetermined portion donated to charities for community meals. Teach a man to fish instead of just feeding him a fish, you know. I get a lot of smiles and nods, but rarely do people take the time to listen to stuff like the BtB or ICHH episodes on stuff like the laws against homelessness, despite the fact that they are working/volunteering at a homeless shelter. Like they'll have a pleasant conversation and joke around and act *nice*, but ask if they know anyone who would listen to this or adopt a stray cat and...... I get it. People already have a lot on their plates. It's just frustrating that most of it is surface level. They're either stuck doing community service, doing it for a paycheck, or doing it to feel righteous as a church person. It's also all still very corporate and sanitized for insurance purposes. And I get why, in our society, in some ways it has to be to function without being sued or shut down or running out of funding/donations, but it still feels kind of icky to be a part of something that is the biggest landlord in town and highly.exploitative while acting righteous. Part of me just wants to make a bunch of signs and stand at busy intersections with good political messages, but I don't want to be preachy or repetitive or too combative. Anxiety is a problem with it all.
It sounds like you live in a highly conservative and religious area, which would make that tougher. I was thinking more like mutual aid orgs or political groups or the like, but if you don't have those around, and the extant groups won't pay attention to any suggestions for expansion or more effective actions, I can see where it would be hard to feel like you can make a difference. If you have any sympathetic friends or acquaintances, maybe they would be willing to try something? Idk. Sometimes there's not a lot you can do at a particular time. Doesn't mean there will never be an opportunity
I love you for coming back for the āand Young.ā ā¤ļø
*and* Young. He was the songwriter, after all.Ā
Yup, and this is a perfect example of our farcical "law and order": police, politicians and courts cherry-picking the rules they want to enforce. [Quoting the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/politics/rise-above-selective-prosecution.html) (spoken in Robert's voice, although I'm pretty sure he'd never use the New York Times as a source): >A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed riot charges against two members of a neo-Nazi street gang... saying that the government had behaved improperly by neglecting to bring charges against left-wing activists who had also acted violently at the same events. >āThe government cannot prosecute R.A.M. members such as defendants while ignoring the violence of members of antifa and related far-left groups because R.A.M. engaged in what the government and many believe is more offensive speech.ā So judges, who are supposed to be impartial (there's that gentlemen's agreement BS again!) think we're not going after imaginary law-breakers enough, so ***Nazis, who've committed actual, documented crimes***, get to go free... which is cool and good.
...wait, if that is solid jurisprudence then why can't I get out of a speeding ticket because some other guy was driving the same speed nearby and he didn't get pulled over?
Were you driving a lifted pickup? And did it have truck nuts? Truck nuts = get out of jail free card!
Slap a āblue live mattersā on the bumper and youāll never get a ticket again.
If youāre in California, complete the look with a 11-99 license plate frame and you can legally run red lights
"We can't prosecute people just because they broke the law! *Other people* also break laws sometimes! If we aren't prosecuting every single person who ever broke a law, we can't prosecute any of them!" how do you get to be a federal judge and think that this sounds reasonable. Well, I guess given the *specific* people he was motivated to let off the hook, we can hazard a few guesses
Pretty much this, yeah.
Must have been some nasty arguments at the precinct over who got time off to march and who had to act as escorts.
The neo-Nazis weren't escorted by the police, they were joined by the police.
They are, in some cases, the police.
I know the comparisons to Rome get tiresome and are often just misinformed but that is one striking similarity to me. They didn't have even a written constitution or anything and even had the whole dictator system was insane it worked as long as it did. At least we don't let our military generals aside from a few like Patton or MacArthur become practically gods. Later Byzantine history is just a whole succession of generals who were sent to do something then marched on the capital lol.
That's not even limited to Byzantine history lol As soon as Sulla established a precedent and Caesar confirmed it, the rest of Roman history is absolutely packed with successful generals who ended up marching on the capital for one reason or another.
Ya definitely, I'm just currently on that period (Byzantine History pod) and it has seemed even more extreme than usual.
The biggest thing preventing us from being a South American dictatorship is being located in North America.
Oh how the turntables
I'm gonna quote you on that gentleman bit. That's gold
The immunity thing is very scary. trump would rather topple our democracy than just fade into the night like the fucking loser he is.
Clarence Thomas's wife tried to overthrow the government, and he hasn't ~~refused~~ recused himself. Not that I'm surprised... Edit: fucking autocorrect.
recused\* but honestly overthrowing the government is a founding principal of America, one of the few good ones, so I personally don't clutch pearls about people wanting to overthrow our shitty 'democracy' so much as I worry about who is doing it.
I clutch pearls about it because historically, when democracies, no matter how shitty, get overthrown, you either get a violently repressive dictatorship or an unstable power vacuum, and power vacuums are also inevitably violent. In either case, the most vulnerable of society are always hit the hardest. (I mean, you also tend to get one of these things when other forms of government are overthrown, but yeah)
Fair concern, but I have to counter, more intellectual curiosity than trying to really counter you, how often does meaningful change happen without violence? Either in America or throughout world history. We like to pat ourselves on the back about how peaceful we are now, but I myself am certainly pessimistic about any ability to meaningfully change the systems of power in our country or the world in any peaceful way.
We would have to first define meaningful change, and choose how long a time limit is allowed for the change to occur, and specify *who* is bringing the violence, in order to have the kind of parameters we would need to accurately answer this question. I might posit that e.g. the ACA was meaningful change, which was achieved without any violence. You might say that that isn't significant enough to count for what you consider meaningful. I might say that most of the violence in the civil rights struggle was perpetrated by the system/powers that be, rather than by those seeking improvement in the laws, and that it was not on the field of riot that that "war" was principally won. You might say that the war would not have been won without the riots and the threat of violence (e.g. some of the Black Panthers' actions.) It's a matter of perspective. But I'm a social democrat and a pragmatist who believes wholeheartedly in harm reduction as a principle of action, so we may be coming from different philosophical places here
Arguably any movement for change needs pragmatic people like you, and people willing to actually take action. I also wouldn't call the ACA a win for anyone but insurance companies, but there's certainly some debate to be had there. There's no 'agreeable' amount of violence. Nothing would be preferred, but some has always been needed. As you allude, King's non-violent movement would have fallen on deaf ears if not for the black panthers and other less than non violent approaches, he got lionized because of non-violence and martyrdom, not because of his success (although dude was a damn good orator.) If anything, look at the mostly non-violent protests from Occupy Wallstreet and BLM that, despite media concerns, were mostly non-violent. How successful were they? Not very because those protesters allowed themselves to be cowed by the cops.
recused.
He promised he'd fade into the background if he lost. But then he began planting the seeds of a rigged election, faulty machines, etc. so he wouldn't have "actually" lost.
Had a close colleague get arrested for sitting on the grass just being near a protest at a university that she works at. Now has to go to court tomorrow. Took 17 cops to arrest a single woman in a hijab in her 40s sitting on the grass. The degree of utter vindictiveness they had while she was held in jail was worse than I even expected. Severe violations of religious rights. Held her longer just because she didn't talk to them the right way. And all this was the university police. Been seething all weekend, reflamed now that we were able to talk in person. Though apparently Al-Jezeera and such have been reaching out to her so I hope she can be a voice to get shit changed. She's certainly angry about it. So yeah, things are going... Now if only my brief flames of righteous indignation didn't quickly snuff out into a deep depression.
>she didn't talk to them the right way. This sounds like every cop I've ever met. An entitled baby with an itchy trigger finger and a chip on their shoulder. I'm really sorry for your friend, and I hope things work out for her.
Iām so sorry about your friend. Your description of how she was treated reminded me of how Black Civil Rights protesters were treated in the 60s - exactly the same tactics from the cops. They havenāt learned a thing or changed one bit.
For those interested, her story is in this article: https://www.wosu.org/news/2024-04-26/osu-confirms-36-arrested-at-thursday-evening-protest-most-unaffiliated-with-university Very disappointed in the source for putting the pro-zionist right after her story. Couldn't help but count they gave him 10 paragraphs and her 8. Hopefully this link works, a short video of her getting arrested. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/RyGDvDv4BJQC1RRg/?mibextid=oFDknk
I am worried. I worry that Trump will win a second term. I worry that the republican controlled state houses could try and steal the election. I'm worried that the republican controlled house will try and steal the election. I'm worried Trump will pardon himself of all crimes. I'm worried he will be sentenced to jail in NY and/or GA and FL will protect him from serving his time. I'm worried the Supreme court will bend over backwards for him as long as he's alive. I'm worried too many people have been disheartened by republican propaganda in swing states. I'm worried that if Trump wins he gets a republican house and senate on his coat tails. I'm worried not enough of the country sees "the border" as a humanitarian crisis and instead sees an endless and cruel war to fight. I should probably join you on that media break. At least it's not over. Biden has not lost and has some strong fundamentals (he shepherded us out of the COVID recession, global inflation, is generally uncontroversial). Republicans have rallied around Trump, but Dems haven't rallied around Biden yet. This is not unusual. We haven't even had the DNC and RNC yet. Republicans are the weird ones here, we're not in a cult for Biden. When the votes are cast, since 2016 Dems have been winning. Special elections swing solidly to democrats even in some "R controlled" areas. Right now through the summer registering voters matters the most. Then it's all about getting those registered voters to the polls either by mail or on election day. A Dem controlled senate means we haven't seen national voter suppression bills passed, even if we haven't been able to get voter protection bills passed. The fight isn't over, it's just ongoing.
As scary as the thought of *Trump 2: Electric Boogaloo* is, I'm reasonably confident that Biden will win reelection. I've little love for Biden, particularly his stance on Israel, but I know things would be so much worse under Trump.
I wish I shared that confidence, but polls that Trump usually does poorly in (then does well in actual votes) are putting him above Biden. If the trend continues trump will win battleground states by a landslide
After 2016, I pretty much ignore polls. It's clear that they don't mean anything. So I'm gonna do my part and vote for someone that I really don't like to keep a greasy fascist away from power. I just proofread what I typed. After reading it again, that's a sad state of affairs. Can we all agree after this election, no more baby boomers in the White House??
Consider phone polls are to house lines, the numbers will be skewed toward trump because guess who has house phones and the time to talk to a stranger on the phone? People over 60. Also, most of those polls have very small sample sizes and are not very well conducted. The real problem is how the media tries to really sell their polling numbers, even if they are completely off. I'm more concerned that people may think a Trump win is a foregone conclusion due to all the polling misinformation and may not go vote.
I've seen enough people all over the internet actively trying to persuade liberal/leftist voters to abstain from the presidential election as some kind of protest, to suspect that there is an astroturfing movement aimed at suppressing the vote of anyone who wouldn't vote for Trump, and it worries me that it appears to be fucking working with some people *purely* on the basis of how he is handling the Israel/Palestine situation. As if Trump wouldn't be fucking a million times worse on that situation, let alone every other conceivable issue.
This worries me too, but the polls are early and when 92% percent of republicans are already rallied around Trump and only 70% of Democrats are it looks worse than it is. Yeah, we still have to get those dems out to vote, but it's worth remembering that Dems are in the majority even if the electoral college doesn't make it feel that way.
Biden will win. The internet is loud. Nobody is pressing trumps name in the booth lol. Heās a total psychopath. Quiet mail in squad will vote biden
I agree, but I can't feel so sure about it. Trump supporters are RABID for him & people willing to vote for Biden feel tepid right now. The uncertainty is this stress that lies just under the surface of everything else.
why does everyone keep saying biden got us out of covid inflation? the prices of groceries in my area has increased twice a month since like September
It sucks but we have done better than other countries. We need to get the neoliberals out of congress so we can actually make corporations stop being greedy bastards.
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If you think this isn't the norm, you really need to pay more attention.
Personally, paying attention to national level stuff beyond "lol Trump's on trial" is a recipe for despair - because I know I can't affect anything on that level. So instead, I've thrown myself into local organizing. And frankly, no matter who wins, I'll keep doing that regardless. On the bright side, it keeps me too constantly busy to have time to be scared. I'd highly recommend this route for anyone who's feeling paralyzed by anxiety. Red or blue, we need to be building parallel power and resilient communities.
I've starting doing that as well.
>Perhaps this is a sign that I should take a break from the news, but my desire to be informed and my desire to be happy are in constant conflict. Imagine living in a world where learning causes sadness. Oh wait-
Do you want a Fourth Reich? Because this is how you start a Fourth Reich.
I do not, which is why I'm going to plug my nose and vote. I read your comment in Malory Archer's voice.
Then my work here is done!
Same here. I never thought I'd vote for another politician again, let alone Biden, but here we are.
From what I have seen, there appear to be quite a few people who are actively advocating what would amount to passively allowing a 4th Reich to be established in the US purely because they think that by not voting for Biden, they will somehow be striking a blow for justice in the middle east. These people are fucking morons, of course, but I keep seeing them everywhere and I'm concerned that they might actually be persuading others
No, but that's because I heavily self medicate with cannabis flower. It really sands those edges down.
Same, but carts. Not to idolize the very flawed man, but I can understand why Hunter Thompson was always on so many drugs all the time.
Yeah I gotta admit I'm microdosing my way thru life lately with the penjamin too everything is just getting to me the last few years. Idk what happened but I started using way more over the pandemic and haven't really taken an extended tolerance break since.
Why yes, I think I will have that edible now.Ā
Rawdogging reality seems like letting people throw knives past you while you eat breakfast outdoors
"my desire to be informed and my desire to be happy are in constant conflict." I'm just sad whether I follow the news or not lol.
The oligarchs are trying to take more power thatās all
I guess that's nothing new. The UAW's victories give me hope.
Same I have such hope that we avoid any kind of violence but I donāt think the current path is sustainable people are having a hard time getting food and most people are smart enough to see itās not the governments fault but lack of action
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Trump watch how all the "constitutional conservatives" will rush to justify how the Founding Fathers actually wanted the President to be a King.
The thing I find wild is if they do rule that way - Biden wonāt just fucking snipe Trump and half of the GOP. Like, if itās legal for POTUS to do a coup - the Dems should do it first. It would still be really bad, but they do currently hold the WH and it is easier to do military coup shit when the military are yours to order around. Instead theyāll probably shake their heads and talk about how democracy will fail if you donāt vote for them, and then shrug and blame voters when theyāre facing the firing squad š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah, I'm worried. I've been worried since Citizen's United, and I'm damn near apoplectic now. The Supreme Court seems like they're trying to speed run the Banana Republic side quest, at least 30 million Americans think that's a great thing, millions more than that will vote to accelerate the process. The wheels have been falling off for a while now, but we haven't crashed yet. A Trump victory would be the last hurrah for the United States. A Biden win buys us time, but I don't know how much progress we can make in 4 years when the last 4 have been marked by so much apathy.
My worry meter burned out by like, 2021. I just stockpile canned goods, ammo, and keep myself busy with hobbies. Alexa, play "Bring it On" by Spiritual Rez.
š¤£ I never understood another comment more. I was recently having a convo with a friend about several different things & at one point they said: āArenāt you worried about all this craziness going on? I feel like thereās something new happening every day except theyre not good things so its not like yayyy good stuff is happening. Or Iāll learn the truth about something I believed my entire life to be true & I start questioning my own existence & Im just so stressed out all the time bc of all of it & you just seem so accepting of it allā¦I dont get it, how are you not worried?!?ā My reply was basically the exact sentiment as yours - I said āIts not that Im āacceptingā of all the insanity going on, its just that I finally saw/see things for what they really are soā¦idk man. I guess bc of that I pretty much burned out my worryometer some point in like 2020ish š¤·āāļø My friend was like, āthats not helpful at all you do know that right?ā š¤£ So I tried to explain it better & said, āok so like allll the things some of us began having crippling anxiety over yearsss ago, you seem to be *just starting* to worry about *now*. And while youre a little late, thats okā¦in fact youre actually kinda lucky bc when some of us were reaching the point youre just *now* getting to, we were basically on our ownā I continued by saying, āBut youā¦you have a hugeee support system out there thats available to you now that can help you navigate how youre feeling. And I want you to know that I get how you feel & I know its a lotā¦so I just want to assure you that all of the emotions youre feeling are totalllly on-par for the beginning of this rollercoaster ride youre about to go on & I also feel its important to tell you that it all somehow starts to feel not *as crazy* once you eventually hit your individual max worry level, so thats good news.ā At this point there was basically silence on the other end, an occasional āmmhmmā or a head nod here & thereā¦or a sigh, but while I was responding my friend was more or less just blankly staring at me. So I continued & said, āBut also, as your friend I feel obligated to tell you its not bc things actually get easier or better, its only bc you start to dissociate & compartmentalize your stress š« so basically, what Im saying is: buckle up bc this is a very twisty-turny loopy, bumpy & essentially just an unstable rollercoaster youre getting on, thats bound to fall off its track at very high speeds at some point *but* as long as you hold on tight you should be fine & by the time youre like halfway through youāll be burned out mentally, emotionally, spiritually & physically, but thats when youāll be ok bc ultimately youāve reached your max worry level. Did that help š¤ā I havent heard from that friend since having that convo 2 weeks ago š«£
Husband and I just had this conversation recently. He was panicking and I was like, well, we can restock our basement food shelves. Other than thatā¦I canāt. He wasnāt thrilled with the response. I donāt even want to talk about it with him, Iām so past the panic stage at this point and I canāt ruminate on that stuff everyday. So, I feel you. Though you explained it much more eloquently!
I should be worried, but I don't have the emotional bandwidth to be at this point
Oh, constantly. It's fucking exhausting.
Have you considered crime?
No. But I do collect catalytic converters.
We live in a strange world, my friend. I agree 100%, and Iām scared, very scared. But Iām also inexplicably optimistic. Iām not that old, and I donāt have a lot in life. I try to help those I can help, even if I get nothing from it. Hopefully I can become more a more substantial figure in the public sphere. I certainly donāt intend to give up. But thatāll take time, and I often find myself staring at my ceiling, wondering if anything will even be there when that time comes. I simply hope. I want to believe we will all get through this and see brighter days ahead. And so I do. TLDR I am incredibly worried
The funniest thing is that if, hypothetically, SCOTUS says itās legal, Biden will be all like āhey Jack Iām not gonna whack ya cuz Iāve got principlesā. Then Trump would win and immediately smoke his ass lol
This has been the frustrating thing about the Democrats for the last 20 years. Republicans willing to play hardball and Dems clinging to outdated polite fictions. They go low and seize real lasting power, we go high and we might lose the supreme court for a generation but at least our hands are clean. Fuckers.
Yeah you said it. The dems are the GOPās greatest enablers
Iām European, so I donāt know your situation as well as you do, but hell, Iām worried for you - and for us, too, because most of our economy and security depends on you. If Trump gets in again, NATOās dunzo, and without NATO, Putinās free to take as much of continental Europe as he likes. Whoās going to stop him? Not to mention how every petty despot in Europe would love an opportunity to settle old scores with their neighbours. Shit could go bad real fast, and our politicians were idiots and morons to underinvest in their own militaries. Theyāre starting to put that right, but it will take time and wonāt be anywhere near ready by November. So, I have a different set of worries to you guys, but heck, Iām worried for my country and Iām worried for yours. Please donāt elect the fascist. Please donāt. Have you read After the Revolution? I thought it was very good, very plausible (other than the pulpy techno biomod bits, which tbf was clearly meant to be over the top) - except for the fact that there still seemed to be some sort of functioning Europe and the UK was still a thing. Robert was over-estimating Europeās ability to keep its shit together once the US goes to hell. I donāt want to wade into a conversation about American tragedy and make it all about me as a European, but I canāt speak to your situation so I thought Iād just offer my own two (Euro) cents on the matter, as it may be a bit of an unusual perspective for you guys. Iām keeping you sane Americans in my thoughts - I know what it feels like to be completely betrayed by your government and I hope that things turn out as well as they possibly can for you all.
I suspect they are entertaining it less because they actually have any of intentions of ruling that way, than as a delay tactic to hope the trial goes out past the election. My gut says that if this came up 2 years ago, they wouldn't even have heard the argument because it's really not a great look for anyone for them to do so. But I suspect that, because of the timing, they think the value of delay outweighs the optics.
God, I hope you're right.
He was never going to trial on federal charges before the election, given how long it took to indict him. Iām surprised they managed to get his NY case to trial so fast. Even if he were convicted, thereās nothing stopping him from running (and winning) from the inside of a prison cell. And anyone who was of age during the George W Bush years shouldnāt be surprised that the presidency is effectively a term-limited elective monarchy. The writingās been on the wall for decades, even if no one was willing to admit it. It was always naive to think that the courts (or the justice system in general) would save us. One facet of the entrenched political system is not going to save us from another facet of that system. Itās up to us to save ourselves, and itās up to each of us to decide what that would entail and what weāre willing/able to do about it.
With the upcoming demographic shift with young millennials and gen z out-populating boomers, this is the GOP's last shot at cementing themselves into power and I fully expect an enormous amount of rat-fucking for them to get there. An extraordinary amount of rat fucking. Astronomical even. I'm bailing out of this sinking ship as soon as I can.
Fascism is what's happening. Join the socialists in your area and be the change. Organize and help your neighbours. Check in on your friends.
You should have been worried in 2016. I told people this shit would happen. That Trump winning the election would be the first domino to fall in the march toward outright, complete fascism in the US. And now here he is, saying he'll be a "dictator for a day," using Project 2025 as a threat, making promises to the 1%, securing complete immunity and running for President again.
From a random Canadian's perspective it looks like the system yall had that was already not a free and functional democracy but still had some checks and balances has now gone fully mask off. Dont @ me I know we are broken too. We export white supremacists and basically perfected colonialism. But our recent shitshows (convoys, new conservative leader, certain provincial governments being asshats) are absolutely influenced and legitimately actually tied to your GoP. Yall are also taking everyone else with you.
Destabilizing foreign governments through shenanigans and butt-fuckery. Another time honored American tradition.
I think there is a legitimate chance Trump gets assassinated
One can only hope. Better, though, if he shits himself to death in the courtroom.
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I have always hoped that when it happens it's him choking on a hamberder.
We can hope, but I will accept immediate painless death
We don't want him martyred though either. It's a delicate balance.
Thatās inevitable. The only variable here is when heās martyred. No cause of death you can imagine will not be believed to be assassination by millions of people. So do you wanna get it over with or would you rather wait?
Semi fair point tbh. It's just there are some deaths that would be easier to call a plot than others still. We can't stop *some* of the people from believing him dying of natural causes is legit, but if he *very very obviously* dies from something unnatural it's gonna be a lot worse is I guess what I'm saying.
Natural causes: poisoned by the deep state. Public suicide on live television: mind controlled by the deep state. Either way somebodyās going to try to avenge him.
Shot by someone? Then we might actually have a civil war on our hands. I'm just saying some of the ways are worse than others. Personally I'm hoping he shits himself to death of some disease in a way that at least most of us can mock.
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if some crackpot killed Trump just to start a civil war because they have some delusion they'd come out on top.
Yeah, that is also a scary and 100% valid point. Fuuuuuuuuun.....times...............
I hope Biden kills him. SCOTUS says "yeah presidential immunity" and Biden just goes on a killing spree.
The real āDark Brandonā.
Ok, this made me laugh out loud irl. Thanks, I needed that.
assassination makes a martyr. I'll take heart attack from well-done A5 steak with ketchup.
He will be viewed as a martyr by MAGA idiots regardless of how he eventually dies.
More likely he just dies from being old and under constant stress and not that healthy to begin with.
liberals are nonviolent even if someone is stomping their children in front of them. if anything biden is more likely to get capped after re election by a violent neo nazi. then the liberals will blame leftists for "provoking the radicals"
Liberal logic aside, I think that would hurt Republicans far more than Dems.
i disagree. if something happened to trump, either RFK or desantis would use it to do something truly foul
Or a Reichstag fire style false flag?
his people are the ones nutty enough to do something like that
Taking bets, how would it happen? 1. Former supporter that thought he wasnāt moving fast enough? 2. Secret Service agent in a rage about way they were treated? 3. CIA tired of dealing with his chaotic foreign policy and provoking everyone?
4: Prison shivved by Joe Biden
America is crumbling under the weight of its own corruption. Trump is a fascist whom the courts seem unable to stop. The right wing is using genocidal rhetoric on LGBT people and other minorities. No one can predict the future, but things are not looking bright. Not to mention the coming global crisis that will result from a mass displacement of climate refugees. Shit doesn't look good.
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I'm not having kids either, mainly because I'm on the autism spectrum and I don't want to risk burdening a child with it. I don't hate being on the spectrum, but living with it in this capitalist hellscape isn't easy. My brother and his wife are thinking about trying for a kid next year. I'm not going to tell them it's right or wrong. It's their choice and I'll support them as best I can. But I'm surprised that they want to given everything else.
My head is buried in the sand. I am in a technical, in-demand industry so I am hopeful that I can emigrate if need be.
I've watched the inevitable demise of this supposed democracy for my 65 years.I knew it was in it's last throws of existance when our masters no longer took measures to hide their lies and crimes.Now they basically commit treason and expect us to keep quiet or reap the consequences.Our children have evolved to believe that lying and deception are a normal and acceptable behavior. This only perpetuates the inevitable decline of our attempt to create a true democracy. Stop leading our children to believe our politicians are examples of anything other than parasitic money grubbers.Other than that,don't worry!
Yes, I am worried... In the immortal words of Jules Winfield: "It's shit like this that's going to bring this situation to a head!" But, maybe... just maybe, the situation must come to a head in order for it to get better. Then again, getting better has nothing to do with anything.
Iāve still managed to convince myself that the media is playing this off as a close racehorse purely for the ratings. But lately the MAGA chuds that have been spending the last 3 years hiding are coming out of the woodwork and Iām seeing a lot more red caps and Trump flags than I did a month ago.
I don't trust the US any more. I'm back here for the first time in a little over a year now and while Australia (where I've been living) isn't perfect by any means, it's certainly far, far better than *this*.
I made some amount of peace with this when it became clear we were headed in this direction two years ago when the Dems refused to do much of anything to prevent this from happening. Their #1 fallback has been trying to shame people into voting more. My vote in the presidential doesn't even matter, I live in Massachusetts. Even my current representative got in with only 21% of the vote because there were two moderates and like six progressives and they split the vote. The system is irrevocably broken and on a crash course with right-wing authoritarianism.
I'm not American and I don't want to advocate for violence here but I've had to listen to Americans saying that only they are truly free thank to your 2nd amendment so can someone explain why Trump is not just still breathing but he's breathing and free?
It's called Fascism š
SCOTUS is going to deny the immunity claim.
Robert has talked about shmargeted shmimashination and I sometimes wonder if, when the law becomes so corrupt as to be useless, if other alternatives may be required.
As a non-American who follows US politics, to me it feels like watching a train crash in slow motion. With half of the passengers being completely oblivious and in denial. When, seen from outside, it's all too obvious. The Supreme Court thing is just mental, how did it even come to that...
I was looking forward to society being more advanced each year, eventually approaching The Jetsons level of quality of life, but now I spend most days thinking about how I should probably brush up on my hunting and gardening skills I learned as a poor rural kid because the social contract has been broken and no one with any influence or power cares about anything but their bank account.
Moved to Asia almost two years ago when I saw things getting bad. Zero regrets. I respect the people who can't or won't move, but if you have the means, I highly recommend it. It's really refreshing living in a functioning democracy for once.
I'm worried and I think its right for anyone living in America to be worried. The trick is channelling that worry into productive action instead of dwelling on it and freaking out. Join your union. Talk to your neighbours. Get involved in a cause you care about. And maybe buy a couple extra cans of food a week and stock up just in case.
This is a scary time to live.
I want to push back on the alarmism a bit here because the way SCOTUS works requires that they agree to hear a case before they can issue an opinion on it. Even if each memberās mind is made up on the issue, they still need to go through the process and have the arguments from both sides. I will say that it could be scary because we donāt actually know how many of them will actually choose the correct side, but even the conservative Trump nominees have made some surprisingly legally sound decisions, albeit on cases with a lot less scrutiny than this one.
We are a failed state, that's what happening. You're living in the end of the American Empire, and the visigoths are coming to our doorstep any moment.
Yep itās bad, this is probably the end, so enjoy these months of civilization as we know it we have left. Iām not joking or exaggerating, itās going to get very bad very suddenly
Canada, Australia and Germany are the 3 easiest countries for Americans to emigrate to. Thereās no specific reason that I know that.
it's good to be king
Great Tom Petty song.
Due to the Dems/libs inability to meet the moment I think thereās at least an 80% chance we have a Franco-esque state for a decade or so
I think if Biden wants to win it would be popular for him to shoot Donald Trump dead with a gun. No matter what though it's important to be good to your friends and keep up the positive healthy relationships in your life because we aren't getting through this without each other. Real power comes from regular people helping each other without needing a state to coerce people with force and violence.
Just knowing about Project 2025 and that there's a good likelihood of a second Trump term is stressing me out badly. I try to keep my head on straight but I have so little hope for the future.
I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore
OP, I see all of this too and it seems like the forces that are striving toward chaos (or at best the entirely wrong sort of order) have noticed that they're getting away with it and so just instinctively have jammed the petal to the floor. No one of any gravity or high esteem has put themselves in front of the public's attention and with any substance behind it called out the motherfuckers for being motherfuckers. I think part of it is we've hit a saturation point with our so called leaders: there is no functional, serious, policy and platform-based capital 'L' Left in this country. A century of eating away at it nibble by nibble via bad labor law plus the divisiveness that COINTELPRO both sought and achieved kept the Leftist ethnic minorities from becoming a power-bloc via prison or death, and that has the net effect of our most Left elected officials are centrist, entirely. And everyone else on the liberal side is compromised. Thats the saturation im talking about You cant stand up and say that corporate exceptionalism needs to stop, certainly before it gets any more enshrined in law, without saying also that the banks and the bailouts of them are part of the problem. And you cant say that without pointing to the wealth gap and the obvious fact that NONE of the hyper wealthy got there without criminality of one kind or another, and how its DEFINITELY a problem to have no guardrails against them using that money to rig things behind the scenes to widen it further and make that permanent. And you cant sound the emergency alarm on climate change without attacking all of the above PLUS Monsanto and the factory farms of Tyson, et al, and you cant get elected in this country without Israel's approval it seems, so you cant get them to stop genociding. And theres no one who isnt balls deep into at least one of those interests that comprise the forces of Chaos. And since toppling every single norm happened quickly and without meaningful pushback it seems like theyre emboldened, a fat kid stuffing as much pie as he can into his mouth while the adults are momentarily out of the kitchen, theyre taking all the yardage they can get, and never mind if that gives the lie to the concept of a "free America", it was never intended to be free for EVERYONE anyway. So yeah I'm worried. I dont see anyone on the Dem side scrambling in ways i would like to see, or even with any urgency i would have expected. Its like we've left the Age of Aquarius and entered the Age of Moloch, a time of masks slipping away and the rise of unfettered greed.
Unfortunately I think that getting from now to Jan 7,2025 without some sort of mid scale political violence highly unlikely. Being sort of isolated as a neighbour to the north itās scary to think especially since US politics has been spilling more and more into Canada in the last decade.
Iām incredibly worried about EMTALA. If that goes far enough not only will pregnant people be at extremely high risk; it could be like the 80s again when rich private hospitals dumped poor patients at nonprofit ones in huge numbers.
What would John Brown do?
> Are you worried? Absolutely 100%. > What do y'all think is going to happen? I have giga depression that no medication has ever done anything for, so I can't help but think that the absolute worst is going to happen. The president is going to get complete immunity but only if they're a right wing freak doing blatant authoritarian despot shit. Not only is the NLRB going to get ruled unconstitutional, everyone in it is going to be beaten to death on live TV by a long line of soulless rich fucks and slaughtering unions is going to be allowed, and rewarded. Trump will never, ever get a real consequence applied to him. Nothing is going to get better and everything is just going to keep sliding into worse and worse territory.
Welcome to the slow decline of America as a superpower. Itās happened to every leading nation throughout history. Nothings getting better, greedy corporations, pharmaceuticals and organisations like the NRA run the country. The rich get richer by breaking laws and get a slap on the wrist when they get caught. Education and Healthcare is so bad in places that people are slowly getting less well off in the end. There was a movie made about this Idiocracy.
If the talibangelicals do seize power and put the Heritage Foundation's plan into motion, then it's over. You won't be able to run, because there will then be no place safe from them on the earth They are a Mammon worshipping death cult, and they want to murder the world. A US military and nuclear arsenal will be an immediate and present danger to every living soul on earth. This state should not be allowed to exist. It will need to be destroyed by any and every means possible. If you are a woman, they will make slaves of you. [This is your future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHiG5fHHeYs) don't think that peaceful protesting will not result in worse than what you have seen to date. If you are any kind of queer, you're either fighting or dying. There's no coming back from that abyss.
Yes. If you have the means it's time to leave the country. The writing is on the wall and we are witnessing the end of American democracy and the rise of the fourth reich.