this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
216 points (99.5% liked)

politics

31051 readers
1669 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
  3. No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
  4. No manipulating votes via bots or alt accounts; this will result in permanent bans. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules and use critical thinking when reading, posting, and commenting. Users that repeatedly have comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago (3 children)

There’s a quote (from a European) that goes something like «If Americans are so upset, why is nothing on fire?»

To be more helpful, reading Why Civil Resistance Works by Erika Chenoweth would be a place to get some ideas.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Most Americans are about one or two pay cycles away from bankruptcy. We also lose our healthcare w/o a job. Having conservatives "cancel" your livelihood may result in complete economic devastation, including homelessness.

I'm not sure where everyone on this thread is from, but that is the situation that I think keeps even the outraged mostly docile here in the United States.

As shitty as everything might be, people can quickly find themselves in even more dire situations.

[–] DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I completely agree - Americans are fucked. But will any of these things change without civil resistance?

Fuck Jefferson, but «The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants» is kinda they way this is headed. Otherwise, 250 years of uninterrupted democracy was a hell of a run.

On the other hand, «Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious» according to Oscar Wilde.

But what do I know. I learned both of these quotes from The Rock (the movie, not Dwayne).

See the thing is most mofo's here snitch ya out in a second, can't trust anyone farther than you can throw them. I'm older white guy and they other crackers are the worse, I ditched all my friends for this reason. Can't build an underground resistance with all the snitching

[–] assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Man, I don't buy it. Remember BLM during Trump 1? The US had multiple federal buildings actively on fire in multiple cities. That was like 8 years ago, things are worse now, but the best they have is protestors in inflatable costumes.

The answer is quite a bit more simple: Americans are either apathetic, or charitably, fatigued/acclimated.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

It was 6 years ago, but which federal buildings in which cities? I was able to find one incident related to BLM in 2020 and federal buildings - in the entrance to the federal courthouse entrance in Portland.

Also, what did that even accomplish? Setting stuff on fire - even if it's only opportunists that show up to do stupid shit and who had nothing to do with the protest - only built more sympathy for the anti-BLM position.

If there were federal buildings on fire in all 50 states right now it'd only give donnie a pass to do exactly what he and his fascist enablers want him to do - unleash the death squads - deputized right wing authoritarians - on normal Americans.

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This deranged pedophile pile of shit will have absolutely no problem unleashing the military on citizens. People are mad but also stuck in a rut of living life, not wanting to lose their life.

While history shows putting your life on the line for things you believe is a common tactic, Americans have been trained methodically for decades to be complacent enough to get by. Given JUST enough freedoms to keep going despite all the undoing they're attempting.

[–] DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

He’s already done this in Minneapolis with ICE. Only once they came to the realization that nobody was coming to save them did things change. The «don’t tread on me» LARPers don’t seem to have a problem with it though…

You’re absolutely correct - tonnes of pablum readily available on tap to distract/lubricate the wheels.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So you want us to read a book?

[–] DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Well it’s an alternative to the other thing…