This is America now.
I’m ashamed of my country.
This has always been America. We are just seeing pictures this time.
The pretense has fallen
If people wondered what they would do during the 1930s, now we know.
A lot of people would cheer for the Nazis.
I know I’m not doing enough, and it’s depressing as heck. Most people I know are doing less. No protests. Not talking about it. Just head in the sand.
It’s still early. The Nazis took over in 1933, but their first euthanasia program didn’t start until 1936. The Holocaust didn’t really start in earnest until about 1939.
We can’t let it get that far, of course, but the point is that it will take some time to get bad enough for people to start really fighting back. I suspect that protests will get really ugly and violent next summer, in the closing stretch before the 2026 Midterm Election.
There are a lot of different ways to resist. I’m throwing my money and some volunteer effort at lawsuits to gum up the works, add friction to a bunch of the Trump administration’s decisions, and make them expend a ton of resources even to accomplish the things within their power (or that are inevitable).
I know people who are feeding bad data into the surveillance state, clogging immigration and DEI tip lines with plausible but ultimately incorrect leads that waste their time.
There’s a pretty serious boycott movement and it is making a difference to some businesses’ bottom lines.
There’s a bunch of other ways to contribute:
- Stirring the pot and feeding internal faction rivalries, like DOGE vs populist MAGA vs business interests. Elon Musk has lost a few prominent internal fights (China briefing at the Pentagon, hand picked IRS chief fired less than a week in, his NASA pick being withdrawn). These guys think chaos is a ladder, but chaos can swallow them up, too.
- Disruption with plausible deniability: blocking doors and driveways that look unintentional, jury nullification, firing Trumpers for pretextual reasons, wasting Trump supporting businesses’ time and money, pranks that cause Trumpers to gather in the wrong place, etc.
- Further escalation as situations warrant.
If things escalate to where property destruction, outright fraud or scams or other white collar crime, or violence is justified, it won’t be sudden. It will be a gradual build up, with legal resistance giving way to nonviolent disruption to property destruction and theft to violent resistance. But I think it’s worth exhausting the less disruptive options first, and be satisfied that escalation is justified at each step where that actually happens.
I like the way you think.
I particularly think sabotage and malicious compliance strategies can be very effective at weaponizing their virtuosic incompetence against them.
Further escalation as situations warrant.
this.
I think some of these protests so far are controlled opposition to prevent real progressive movement in preference for same old bs from DNC. We need to weed out the fakes
What makes you think that that sentiment itself isn’t fostered by controlled opposition? Don’t get me wrong, as an anarchist I have no love for Democrats or republicans. But unfortunately with our electoral system the way it is. Realistically we have to be bedfellows with one or the other at some level of government.
At least of course until all national parties are abolished, and the electoral system reformed. Trying to push change from the top down has backfired every single time. The unions thought it would be good to give Carter a lesson. And instead Carter lost and they ended up becoming irrelevant. There’s plenty of parallels between that and the recent presidential election. Honestly I don’t think the Office of the President shouldn’t even exist. It’s too much power just begging to be abused as it currently is.
That will only change however by building up local parties and making National parties irrelevant, or at least serving the interest of the accountable local parties. Till then we can gnash and wail, grinding our teeth at every shitty candidate the National Party puts forward. But as long as they are in control and full of shitty candidate fodder. That’s never going to change. But us focusing on that over everything else certainly enables the worst actors in society.
That will only change however by building up local parties and making National parties irrelevant
Even this is thinking too narrow. Power in our society comes from a lot of places. We all have different capacities to do directly, to fund, or influence things.
If I go to the food bank and actually prep bundles of food to distribute, I’m doing something outside the government. Maybe the government should be doing that, but it doesn’t much matter what should happen when we’re out there doing.
If I donate my money to a food bank, or a nonprofit that litigates immigration cases against the government, my money might make a difference by slowing down the government, maybe even stopping its ongoing actions, or even reversing its past actions. And that threat can deter some of those actions from taking place in the first place. (And even if unsuccessful, laying bare the administration’s lawlessness lays the groundwork for morally/ethically breaking the law in resistance).
If I have a podcast that has a bunch of listeners, I can influence public opinion. There are big voices in support of the current administration, and there are some voices against.
We each have our own power. Some of us even have substantial economic power that isn’t our own individually: organizing collective action, making spending decisions of our deep pocketed employers, etc. And at the end of the day, if nonviolent or even violent resistance becomes justified, the government and the political parties won’t have a role in how that power is deployed.
Elections and campaigns still matter, of course. But so much else matters, too. And those decisions and those actions don’t go through a political party or any party officials. The key is finding balance between trying to influence the politics versus just bypassing politics and influencing the world directly.
Yes all that was implied, anarchist, mutual aid, investment in communities, yes. The point was the national parties were never our friends. And will never be our friend. You can “weed out fakes” indefinitely.
It doesn’t matter how much you food bank etc. No National Group as a whole is going to sit up and take notice of you and dedicate themselves to you. Local groups and politicians will though. And it is absolutely part of what will be required to build up and empower local groups to take back leadership. It just won’t solve the problem on its own.
You’re right, but your not alone. There are thousands of us around the US protesting, boycotting, going to town halls, and getting involved in the government (https://www.fiftyfifty.one/). It’s just hard to see since media corporations want to keep the status quo. It’s not going to be easy to change our political system, but it’s been done before. Just read our Declaration of Independence. We have to keep fighting or no on else will.
Edit
Here’s part of the second paragraph of the declaration
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
I’ve got to a couple protests but they feel like they’re just for show. They’re not disruptive. They’re not making clear, actionable, demands. They’re better than nothing. i saw people handling out flyers so maybe some people went to more meetings.
But I feel like there needs to be more specific stuff. Like, a demand that musk be removed from government, or trump be removed via the 14th amendment, or whatever, and that needs to be backed by “if you don’t listen to us, then you don’t get any more labor”. (Violence, I’m told, is less effective, but can also be there in the subtext)
But actually organizing large things is hard, especially when the state and the money are opposing you.
I can’t even get my friends to suffer the mild inconvenience of getting off facebook, nevermind getting off the couch.
I agree with you. More needs to be done. If I had a higher income and sustainability, I’d be getting ready to be one of the candidates for the next local election, but for now, I’m just doing what I believe is right, so I have no regrets. Change will happen. Whether or not I’ll see it in my lifetime, I don’t know. All I’ll know is that I did everything I could to start that change and pass it on. They may have the finances, but they can’t overturn the masses when we all unite.
I thought the 50501 was to build up numbers and momentum for organization, but honestly don’t think they’re gonna do anymore than monthly protests.
I feel like this ‘movement’ is a pressure valve to let off steam and stop any actual rising up.
Protesting, boycotting, and townhalls were acceptable methods before he got power. Now praxis is needed.
It’s whatever you want it to be. For me, this is just the beginning. Brainstorming and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Change has happened before and it can happen again. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s gotta start somewhere.
America needs to change their anthem.
Team America has some bangers they could use. And most would not even get the satire
team america only starts as satire, in the end it’s pretty ra ra usa
Parker and Stone would also just make a cartoon character about an American soil genocide, but have it to the B plot of an episode bullying trans people.
Born in the USA.
deleted by creator
No need for human rights when you’re not viewed as a human 👍
Nazis doing Nazi things.
MAYBE those CHILDREN shouldn’t be CRIMINALS!
-People who Voted ENTHUSIASTICALLY for the Convicted Felon!
Imagine being a shitty heartless fucking Republican.
The judges complicit in this fascist administration will be on the same list as the rest of the fascists
They will be prosecuted at the next Nuremberg Trials
Facist in action
Ai, make a picture of fascism
but if I were to cut them loose, I would be the criminal?
If you were to shoot the fascists next to them in the head, I would consider you to be the hero.
Hell, I’ll chip in for bail
Friend, if you shoot a cop you do not survive to receive bail
You mean the cops do not survive for you to need a bail
That’s a lot of shootin’
#FreeLuigi!
This is so fucked.
That sundress and hair bow are a clear sign of possible violence. I’m pretty sure that pink butterflies are some sort of gang sign. I’m so glad those officers are now safe from that threat. Bless. 🙏
Sundress is where they hide their handguns though
The Americans don’t consider them children, to them they are “subhumans”
Republicans like to call the minorities “adults” the moment they’re born in an attempt to diminish their innocence.
you mean “the moment they’re conceived”, right? adulthood starts at conception obv
Illagals
Nazi fucks.
“Hans, are we the bad guys?”
All immigration officers that follow orders are like Nazi SS, a human would refuse to carry these ideals through
The Nazis were very much humans. We need to stop “othering” evil. The Nazis weren’t some grand anomaly of people and Fascism works by prying on the same vulnerabilities that are present in all humans when it gets enabled through capitalist policies
Es waren nicht Hitler, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler oder wie die anderen heißen, die mich wegschleppen und prügeln ließen. Nein, es war der Schuster, der Nachbar, der Alte, der Milchmann, der Postbote, die Formlosen bekamen plötzlich Armbinden und eine Mütze auf dem Kopf und dann waren sie die Herrenrasse.
-Karel Stojka, Ausschwitz survivor
“It wasn’t Hitler, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler or whatever the others were called who had me dragged away and beaten. No, it was the cobbler, the neighbor, the old man, the milkman, the letter carrier, the shapeless suddenly got armbands and a cap on their heads and then they were the master race.”
I recognize biology, but if you choose to follow nonsense and have no critical thinking, you are a rascist Nazi.
I think the point is: anyone can end up acting out a facist fantacy, even you, if you’re not careful. The quality of ‘evil’ is surprisingly all-too-human… If you’re interested, the film “Jojo Rabbit” explores the idea a bit. Worth a watch!
Nope, would not happen here, even as a kid I defied stuff that didn’t not make sense, logically, or for community or humanistic views. Like Israelis supporting palestinian kids getting shot in the head daily, you have to be a moron to think murdering children is good retaliation for Hama’s attacks. Maybe I’m an outlier in my obstinance, But as a teen all my friends did acid, smoked weed, or took pain killers, and they would pressure and I’d be like nope, not happening.
I boils down to the level of Empathy one has.
Empathy is a scale, not an absolute, and plenty of people who do have some Empathy can switch off the little they have easily enough, whilst some can’t or, if they do, doesn’t last long.
If you look around you can sorta see that people can be roughly divided into three groups, a minority who are really good people who care for others and help them out for no gain for themselves (sometimes even at a loss for themselves), another minority that couldn’t give a rats ass about others and are willing to destroy other people’s lives if they themselves personally benefit from it (sometimes in petty ways, such as just the feeling of being powerful) and the majority who are in the middle and just float towards whatever they perceive is the main mode of being of the time and place they’re living in, which in America now is Selfish Individualism, or in other words, being a lot like the second group who has no Empathy.
So yeah, you’ll always find individuals who won’t bat an eye at doing this, and in the right time and place most people will be in practice living with their empathy switched off hence will look at this and feel nothing (because they won’t empathize with the children at all), and at the same time as the other poster pointed out some people find it impossible not to look at this and feel disgust and even rage because they can’t switch their empathy of, or at least not for long.
I get what you’re saying, but you’re talking about people as if they were immutable. Empathy only works if you see the other side as human or deserving — which is why there’s always a concerted campaign to dehumanize the victims of a genocide to the aggressors. Never believe you are above falling into that trap, because the second you believe you are the exception is when you’re most easily duped into losing your humanity. You may see it plainly here and now, but you might not another time when the circumstances are different…
Well, yeah, the whole point of dehumanizing other people is to switch off empathy for them, which is why that’s pretty much a core Fascist practice.
My point being twofold:
- The massive middle floats around and can be made to feel more empathy for others, or less empathy for others, including through tricks like dehumanization of people and on the opposite end things like good Theatre and Film to bring close to people the experience of others whom they never met (which, given that it’s fantasy but with a real emotional backing - thanks to modern Acting techniques - can also be abused to leverage people’s empathy to grow sympathy for a specific group even when the members of it mostly don’t deserve it)
- There are people, at both ends of the scale who are pretty close to immutable on this, on one end those who can’t empathize at all and never will because they simply don’t have the brain wired for that (such as Psychopaths), and on the opposite end those who can’t switch off their empathy and can at most temporarily suppress it.
More specifically to your point, this also reflects in how easy it is to convince people of the inhumanity of others - those with little or no empathy will easily believe it, those in the middle can be easy to sway with a concerting campaign of misportraying a group of people (which is what we see in for example places like Fox News when it come to immigrants, but also the New York Times when it comes to Palestinians) whilst those with very high Empathy will be very very hard to convince of that, and even if indeed everybody can somehow be made to feel nothing for a select group of others, the high empathy types would require a lot more work and done a lot more direct than the rest of people, and that’s beyond what modern mass-media and social media can achieve by themselves - the system is setup to brainwash the bulk of people, as turning those is enough to make happen whatever the puppeteers want to see happen.
Your point is entirely correct and appropriate for the bulk of people but isn’t correct for everybody - you’re jumping to conclusions about everybody by observing the norm and, worse, in a society that currently is pretty much anti-Empathy: I mean, if even gender in humans is a lot more fluid than looking at the norm would lead us to believe, why do you think that it’s possible to make any statement about Empathy that applies to everybody?!
This is how its possible for both you and the other poster to be correct.
That said, I agree with you that everybody should just in case not assume themselves immune to modern manipulation and thus should be eternally on alert for attempts by others to make their minds against “outsiders” (and similarly, to make their minds favor “insiders”, such as the phenomenon of “copaganda”).
Your last paragraph I completely agree with and is exactly the point I’m trying to make. No matter how sure you are that you’re in the right and championing the right cause, the only way to make sure that you really are is to be in a position of constant doubt about it. The second you stop reflecting on it is when you can be made to do anything. The ones that think themselves outside ideology are always those most deeply inside of it.
And they’re still 100% human. You’re introducing unecessary complexity into the discussion.
Evil is human. Humans are sometimes evil.
I disagree with evil being human, that is learned. And even in indoctrination cults etc you always have people who leave because they know it isn’t right.
Humans aren’t inherently good or evil but most of what can be considered good or evil comes from humans. Nature or nurture doesn’t really matter because it’s still humans, either how some of us would be on our own or how we are as a reaction to others.
Evolution ingrains community for survival, while war to protect the tribe may also be instinct, however we have grown past war mentally, or at least many have whom realize it is stupid. I don’t discount some are susceptible to brainwashing, I see it in an ex friend, but its not just hate/racism/homophobia critical thinking issue, I also saw it in their day to day reasoning skills where they make leaps in logic, that others would prove out.
Sometimes evil is just negligence.
