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Dear Americans,
I know there are some of you that are still good people, but the polls show that over 80% of Republicans and 30% of Independents (edit.. Fixed this) support this President. Overall is about 40%. Fucking two in five. This is fucking insane.
Know this: If you invade Mexico, it will very likely be WW3. If you invade Greenland it most certainly will be. Everyone that I know in Canada is preparing.
If you are a good American, you are at a turning point RIGHT NOW. You may be past the point where protest matters. Maybe a general strike is the next step. And maybe that cherished 2A, which you've paid for in the blood of dead children, needs to be exercised. The point wasn't just to look cool shooting your guns. You know what the purpose of the 2A is, and it's ugly and it's hard.
I'm telling you as a Canadian that if you talk about it and deliberate it, and talk about how people are acting and talk about how people are talking about it, you're wasting precious time. You need to ACT and you need to ACT NOW. I'm sorry, but it has to be you guys. You have friends and support in other countries, but YOU are the ones that need to lead it.
Edit. Looks like I upset some Americans. That's really unfortunate for you. If you think you didn't ask for this, think about how I feel in another country. You have the means to upset things, I do not. Take some responsibility.
Edit 2. To all of the good hearted and suffering Americans who read this, I want to pull back a bit. I know there are good people, I have family and friends in the US. In my defense there is a lot happening very quickly, and the potential for actual, existential impact to me and my family is becoming real enough that I've started a trigger based prep plan and have started reconnecting with my CAF contacts. In the last few days this has ratcheted up to a new level. I'm really fucking angry. I'm angry at everyone. I'm angry that I couldn't give my kids a future in a better world than I had. Yes I'm angry at you but not at you in particular. In fact I want you to have courage and strength because I realize what you face is also an existential threat. I want you to succeed. I need you to succeed. Please look past my anger and realize that you do have people around the world who will rise up and support you, who will fuel the fire. But we can't light it. That's all on you guys.
I’m simply going to say that the reaction to your comment is also a big part of the problem in the US. We are so hopelessly divided that we don’t even know where to start, much less how to talk about it. It frustrates me on a constant and enraging basis.
Also, you’re screaming to the void a bit. Making a plea to Americans as a whole on Lemmy is like burping into a mailbox and expecting the weather to change.
No offense meant, and I agree with the meat of your sentiment. Nor am I dismissing what you said - just giving my insight as someone who sees what this country is and what it’s about on the daily.
How? Its not like we got here because the people okay with this are capable of being reasoned with and we refused to.
We've literally been trying to get people to wake the fuck up and smell the fascism for over a decade at this point.
Almost 4 or 5 decades at this point.
https://youtu.be/fam5wRXcoQE
https://youtu.be/vHn9AWYU0Hg
Hit them where it hurts, in the pocket book. Stop being a productive pawn in their schemes.
Dude healthcare is tied to employment and majority of us are living paycheck to paycheck. We can't afford to lose our jobs.
Unfortunately you will probably believe that right up until you start losing your lives and then it will be much too late.
By design and you well loose your job to AI or offshoring anyway.
Problem is you always need rich people for revolution just like the fairy tale Americans tell about their founding.
Medical insurance is the only reason I keep working.
Same.
I already practically spend all day at work, doing basically nothing, getting baked in my car in the name of slowing fascism.
I do any less they'll replace me with a stooge that does harder work for less dough, and then I couldn't pay for rent, estrodiol, food, or weed.
I'd love a general strike. Good luck in this individualist shithole.
You know how, but it involves personal sacrifice and you don't want to do it. You don't want to lose your job, you don't want to be jailed, and you especially don't want to turn to violence. But I'm sorry to say that all of these things are possible, and it's the risk you have to take.
Find trusted like minded people and start reacting. A critical mass of visible resistance is needed, and that critical mass is made up of small visible actions.
Why on gods green earth should I have to face the wraith of something I had nothing to fucking do with? I didn't vote these people in, I've not even had the right to vote for a decade yet.
I'm barely any more part of this than any other poor sucker in any other fucking western country.
i've been fighting this shit for 30 years longer than you dude. why the fuck should i have to keep fighting? still do. we need people with working backs too.
things are bigger now, jail is a fucking horrible thing that will leave you jobless, homeless, losing all that currently makes it even moderately worth existing for. its a sort of thing that indicates this game was won long ago and our individual perceptions or choices in the moment have no effect.
when people complain about the lack of effect and say, 'get together and start reacting', its ignores the problem that most people do not want to engage.
systemic learned helplessness results in helpless people trapped in various systems of control
the duality of karen: to be hysteric is our only option when we are wronged, but that same hysteria does others wrong as they are what makes up the meat of the machine-structure.
Scream at the retail worker, is that justice?
I'm sorry you're being downvoted. I agree with you. This is our country, and it's been established that our government isn't acting to protect it. Ultimately, if we want to keep it, we need to be ready and willing to make sacrifices for the betterment of the future. I don't blame people for balking at the immense personal costs this could bring, but what's the alternative?
No one is coming to save us. We are facing a lot of frightening choices right now, but this means it's the time for courage.
So you’re going to pay for my trip to the other side of the country and a gun when I get there, right? Or are you just going to continue blaming people who are not at fault?
Dear Rest of the world: I think you're still in denial and need to understand some things.
There are three main factions in the US, two of which have actively taken a side: Pro-trump/Maga and Anti-trump/anti-fash (because this is way bigger than just trump). The third group is staying out of it and consists of the apathetic("I'm too busy just trying to get by"), the dual-haters ("Democrats are just as bad so fuck everyone"), and the frightened targets who are lying low.
When you say things like, "you sacrificed children for your 2nd amendment, this is what it's for,now is the time to use it" you are talking to the Magats. They love guns and the second amendment but they are the PRO-trump faction--they aren't going to go against him, they love him. The Anti-trumpers are not the gun nuts, though some of them have been acquiring guns recently out of fear.
The numbers are against the Anti-fash faction: There are a lot of magats/maga supporters, more than many want to realize or admit. They do not live in the same reality as the rest of us. They watch and listen to pro-fash propaganda from Trump, the media, their religious groups, and now the institutions of government itself. They believe it and believe in it. Anti-trumpers are in the minority compared to the magats and the third group. Looking at protester demographics, a large percentage are older/retired, which doesn't help in a general strike. These numbers will likely shift toward the anti-fash as things get worse, but it hasn't happened fast enough.
The entire republican party apparatus is completely under trump/maga control, and it controls the entire federal government and the majority of state governments. The Supreme Court majority is 90% in agreement with their agenda, so the regime can do whatever the hell it wants with impunity. And is.
The magas have taken control of the election process in many States. We don't know how free and fair the 2026 elections will be. We can be sure that by 2028 they'll have even more control over the election process in more states than they do now.
Trump will invade Greenland, at least if Europe and NATO don't make it clear they will go to war against the US to stop him and I've seen nothing but hand-wringing and "please don't talk like that" from them so far. Trump is all in on the "Sphere of Influence" worldview with Putin and in that worldview USA gets the Western Hemisphere. Europe and Canada: Stop wishing and waiting for American citizens to be able to depose this regime and start preparing for what you're going to do about the US.
Personally I don't think it'd lead to any war. If the US empire decides to take Greenland, the EU will almost definitely let it. Almost all European leaders are either weak and spineless or straight up American assets.
I mean, the historical parallel is Hitler assuming he could get away with Poland and he'd get more appeasement but instead suddenly found himself at war with France and Britain. You can get away with alot until suddenly you can't.
This would work if someone supported the dissenters financially. Until then you are asking people eho have been systemically drained to travel thousands of miles to their capital. Need I remind you Jan 6 only happened because Republicans paid for people to get there.
Oh wow, I didn’t think of “acting” — thanks for the hot tip.
You are talking sense.
US liberals REALLY don't like that. The mere suggestion that their good intentions mean fuck all will turn them into rabid MAGA-level ad hominem shitheads real quick. They REALLY don't like being reminded that they're a bunch of goddamn cowards who care far more about maintaining their lifestyles than they do about their country.
Ok. I didn't and never have supported anything Trump is doing, but I'll be sure to let them know at the next meeting that invading either Mexico or Canada will be really super bad. I'm sure they'll listen to me this time.
What fire will we light? What will we do? Prisoner dilemma is in full effect. There are hundreds of millions of Americans spread over billions of acres of land. This isn't like getting past the tipping point of protesters in a few major cities, as would happen in Europe. This would require a movement the likes of which the world has never, ever seen in all of recorded history. And we've been purposefully divided for generations now, to avoid such a thing. Bread and circuses.
Lemmy is the real place people are huffing their own farts. People imagine, in leftist bubbles like this, that Average Joe down on Main Street USA believes some of the same. They don't. I'm in a gayborhood full of progressives, exactly where you'd expect to see movements coalesce. Everyone is trying to get through their day, still. Because no matter what any one of them do, 300 million Americans will continue doing their thing. Their rent and mortgage won't get cancelled because of this. Their kids schools won't suddenly become free, their groceries won't suddenly buy themselves.
I really encourage people to study game theory and understand the reasons underneath it that nothing will continue to happen, no matter how many impassioned speeches they type out on a forum. I really encourage people to go speak to non-leftist Americans, who are the majority.
I'm in a capitol city in the US, an today we had about 10 people on an overpass, holding up "fuck trump" signs and big banners that said - nothing about Venezuela or Greenland. They were Jan 6 banners. And not a single mind was changed towards our side. If anything it probably peeled a few more folks off our side, thinking "wow they look pathetic, everyone else has moved on, there's less than a dozen of them." We stopped realizing how we're perceived by the others here.
And let's talk about that. Jan 6 was the most troubling day our democracy has EVER FACED. I watched it unfold live, thinking, "surely this will be what breaks the maga coalition." You know what happened? Maga got stronger. They were emboldened. It was normalized for Gen Z, they think this is just politics as usual. And look how they voted in 2024.
Venezuela and Greenland are likely building his strength. Americans are idiots, they love strongmen, even if they're illusory. Surely that should be obvious to everyone by now. People associate the military's strength and legacy with Trump whenever he uses them. A lot of folks have hardons thinking about how our forces dropped from the sky and yanked a world leader out of his secure base in just 140 minutes. They think, wow look at us go! We're so strong, god bless the troops.
Yes, this is more or less what I've been telling people for almost a year now.
For all the doom and gloom stories you see about the US, life has changed very little for most of us. Your average American is living their life as usual, focused on one day at a time. As long as we're not hungry and don't fear for our physical safety, there's little that would compel us to risk imprisonment or deportation to oppose this regime. Those in power ensure that life is just comfortable enough for most of us that we don't dare disrupt the status quo. Even for those that oppose Trump/MAGA, the vast majority won't do anything more than attend a Saturday afternoon protest once or twice a year and then pat themselves on the back.
Conservatives have been wildly successful for generations at defunding and dismantling public schooling in this country. Our news media has been dumbed down by the likes of Fox News and relentless disinformation campaigns to the point where the news is more entertainment and propaganda than actual reporting. The result of poor schooling and a propagandized news media is that many Americans aren't able to distinguish between fact and opinion and they'll believe anything at face value. That's the abridged version of how we ended up with so many dumbasses that consistently vote against their own interests, if they vote at all.
The Americans you meet on Lemmy and Reddit aren't the norm. Most Americans are very poorly informed about world events and not curious enough to educate themselves. I would bet most Americans never had a single thought about Greenland or Venezuela until the last year or so. My MAGA neighbors don't care what happens in your European country and they almost certainly couldn't find it on a map.
You all need to stop waiting for Americans to rise up and save ourselves. I promise it's not going to happen. Cut your losses and build up your militaries. Even if we all get lucky and MAGA implodes, our electorate is stupid enough that it's only a matter of time before we'll vote in equally terrible leadership.
Yep, it sucks. Sorry, nothing's gonna happen to stop it. Gonna be a shit show for a looonnnnng time.