this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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politics

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Summary

It’s time to reengage with politics as Trump prepares to take office again.

Unlike 2017, Trump now has a more compliant establishment, streamlined strategies, and influential allies like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos.

Concerns include his administration’s potential for sweeping authoritarian measures, such as Project 2025, and media normalization of his actions.

Vigilance is necessary to counter efforts to dismantle democratic institutions.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Nah, bruh. I’ll take care of my own and contribute to NPR, local schools, local libraries, shop locally (fuck bezos). That’s about all I have to give. Idiots brought this on themselves and I can’t give a fuck about them.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago

the idiotic condescension in this premise: "It’s time to reengage with politics as Trump prepares to take office again."

get fucked. liberals never disengaged, a lot of us puked in disgust after the election but disengaged?

where are the fucking MILLIONS of 'unengaged voters' that shrugged and said "eh it won't be so bad either way" and stayed home?

those are the fucks I'm upset with.

The maggots knew what they wanted and voted for it. I despise them, but at least they stood up for their values.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Nah, I've been having the same 6 arguments online for like 8 months, starting to think nobody in this land is worth saving.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What is the actual news here beyond "hey people, cower in fear!"?

This idiotic coverage is how Trump controls the media. Say something worthwhile or shut up.

(not you, OP, you are a good and valuable person, the news corp putting out this shit)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Say something worthwhile or shut up.

OK. Get out there and disable the propaganda outlets.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I can absolutely get behind the stance here of "We need to volunteer and help dems win the next one, then work in different directions from there" but I admit it's all just been so draining.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

The rich are getting their way and their newspapers are going to spin it. There will be theatre about Dems and Republicans fighting it out (read the working class and poor getting screwed by both sides) but it's really just the rich re-tightening their grip.

This is about corporate greed, teleworkers endangering the landowners real estate value, keeping affordable healthcare tied to employment, removing health and safety regulation in the workplace, land and sea, and wrestling the few remaining government services out of the public hand and into private hands.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Biden was 78 years old when he started his presidency. Trump is 78 year old now. We shouldn't be worried by what Trump is going to do. He is like Regan at the end of his presidency: so out of it that everyone around him just did whatever they felt like they can get away with. We should be worried about his advisors and people actually signing the bills.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wager there's a drunk president with his finger over the button incident by age 80. if he isnt dead. (in this case its dementia not drunk)

He is mentally cooked, and the stress of actually having to do the job he's been yapping about for 4 years in his advanged age, will accelerate the dementia.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Trump is so clueless and lazy that he probably doesn't experience job-related stress. Just rage and narcissistic injury.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What about those of us who haven’t taken a break, but have just given up. I don’t think anyone or anything can fix what’s wrong, it’s going to collapse and I’m just now getting ready for it. Why expend efforts on a pointless, lost fight?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I’m in the same spot. I’m just glad I don’t have children so they’d be subjected to what’s coming.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do, it’s fucking terrifying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I’m just waiting for the Free Palestine folks to show us the way. I am ready to see some real radical action, amirite?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

remember how Antifa was treated by the trump administration?

they'll straight up open fire this time.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Fucking wild to me that, even when abandoning Palestine didn’t work and the post mortem showed it definitely hurt Harris’ turnout, libs are still doubling down on it and kicking the people affected by it in the face.

But hey, maybe “shut up the ~~rich people’s yacht fund~~ economy is fine” will resonate more in 2028.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Libs really aren’t doubling down on it. The people who have infiltrated the libs to keep the focus on smashing the democrats are focusing on it, as a distraction, so the United States crumbles and dies.

Basically, the “woke” have been tricked into eating themselves, which is what we all though would happen to the right wing… but it turns out they are more strategic than we thought.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The people who have infiltrated the libs to keep the focus on smashing the democrats

Maybe you think I'm one of those. I think the Democratic Party is a spent force, and we should be organizing from the grass roots like Occupy and BLM, and like groups outside the US such as Podemos in Spain. Or we can instead spend our effort trying to overcome the inertia of the dead hand of the DNC. But I think that has as much likelihood of success as reanimating a long-buried corpse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I think the left is just dead. Sadly.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I am sure they have all the answers. They sure had the answers for everyone during the election.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The answer was pushing for a ceasefire. Both sides accepted the agreement that had been on the table since May. All it took was a little bit of pressure from the US to get Israel to sign it, something Biden refused to do, and Harris refused to break with Biden on this.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago

We know. We've always known.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yeah... I get the point but like, man, there's a reason we feel helpless out here. I'll probably still hear about political stuff through sheer osmosis, but what can I do to affect presidential actions other than vote?

The only things within my power are local, mutual aid type stuff, which is important, but has no effect on what Trump et al can or cannot get away with at a federal level.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just overly pessimistic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I hate to state things in such stark terms, but at this point our only choices are to take orders, or to take over. And that starts locally. Get out there and connect. Otherwise they'll pick us off one by one.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

You're not. This is the way. Work local. We got off track and forgot this and spent way too much time worried about national and internation politics that are a function of systems, not individuals. You gotta build your systems locally through individuals.

LFG

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Politics and politicians will not help you anymore. You will need to [email protected], in whatever ways large or small you are able to. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Be prepared.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The best way to "resist" is to build parallel systems through Mutual Aid. If we cannot rely on the systems and institutions we traditionally relied on, then it's up to us to build new, parallel systems from the ground up.

That works far better than political resistance. We need to give up on direct resistance and start building the alternatives of the future

Why waste energy "fighting" when we could be spending our energy "building?"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And what do you do if the Trump government starts attacking people?

Up in Canada, some of us are now being forced to have serious discussions about the nonzero chance that America becomes hostile to us. When the world is already more or less entering a global conflict stage thanks to Russia, Making jokes about "acquiring" countries like us, Denmark's Greenland, Panama Canal, etc. is all about as funny as a heart attack.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Making jokes about “acquiring” countries like us, Denmark’s Greenland, Panama Canal, etc

Keep in mind that Trump has no sense of humor.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's one way, yes, but there's also going to need to be obstacles put up in front of the brownshirts and jackboots.

political resistance

I am not referring to political resistance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

There are many forms of political resistance.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Of course, the Black Panthers started out as exactly that. The open carry copwatchers, there to protect the rest of the group practicing Mutual Aid from unfair interference by law enforcement. Which became white people's first time they gave a shit about gun control.

So yeah, absolutely, but like the Black Panthers, the plan should be protection and to be "those who watch the watchmen" more than violent resistance. It can turn to violent resistance if the cops won't leave the group alone, but the overarching goal shouldn't be violent resistance. That kind of resistance will be needed occasionally to prevent any Fred Hampton-esque violent law enforcement assassinations.

Mostly because we have plenty of historical evidence that building the parallel alternatives works better than directly fighting the system. The system is failing, and you build a better system, then people will flock to it. In that way, you don't need to fight, you can just show others a better way and have the old way slowly dissolve in importance. You are correct that on that path to irrelevance, the old system will try to stop a new system from forming.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That kind of resistance will be needed occasionally to prevent any Fred Hampton-esque violent law enforcement assassinations.

They'll do those anyway. Don't pretend that you can avoid being targeted if you resist in any way.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We're not in opposition to each other, but you're definitely more optomistic than I am.

"There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge (or ammo). Please use in that order."

Three of those have already failed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

America can't exist as a single country anymore. Its too divisive. Sooner or later, yall are gonna have to sort this out.

either a bloodless split like Czechoslovakia, or the other way, like Yugoslavia.

... Or there wont be a fight. and you'll become a one party state that ratfucks the election system so that it can never lose again, and the country gets carved up by oligarchs, and mobsters until they become the government itself. (you become, basically Russia

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

I don't disagree, but building a new parallel system falls squarely outside of the norms leveled in that quote. Soap, ballot, and jury all are actively within the context of the system as it currently exists, it's not building something else outside of it.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Too bad libs checked out during the election, just coasting on genocide.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Vigilance is necessary to counter efforts to dismantle democratic institutions.

No, action was necessary. Democrats preferred keeping the fucking filibuster instead.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Since 2015 I've been yelling at the clouds in warning but people have this keen knack for hallucinating their versions of reality and being willfully ignorant. Even, and especially, in times like these.

Below is a series of screenshots of a conversation from j6. I watched on pbs, knowing what would happen, telling people what would happen, yet still watching it happen and still people chose to be blind.

I knew this person for 40 years.

I do not speak to them anymore.

rip USA

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Your friend may be crazy, I don't know, but it seems pretty clear to me that he was not interested in having the discussion you forced on him. Discussion is a generous term too. You were link spamming and steamrolling them at every opportunity. People don't enjoy being spoken to that way.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

How dare he try to inform his friend of the largest terrorist attack on our capital since the civil war...

Oh people dont enjoy being spoke to shut the fuck up. When democracy is being attacked put your fucking ego aside and grow up.

Fucking Disney kids I swear

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're welcome to your own interpretation of things. I'm no J6 sympathizer but I found OP to come off preachy and very condescending. If that's how you want people to view you then feel free to emulate this approach but I can promise you it's not an effective way to educate people. I don't think that's really the goal of communicating in this fashion though. That's just the rationalization certain types of people use to justify being a dick to others they view as beneath them in some way. You can be right and a dick at the same time as evidenced by your response to me here. There's nothing wrong with what you said from a logical perspective but you intentionally framed it the same way an asshole would. Whether or not being an asshole was your primary intent is largely irrelevant at that point.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, what we need is more tone-policing. That'll stop the fascists.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Being rude to your friends and family is not going to stop the fascists either. Communication style matters. If you don't know that to be true then it's guaranteed you're not good at it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

The exchange I posted was pretty typical of the information we shared. Nothing out of the ordinary for us.

They were once one of my best friends.

So, it was all the things, all the time.

We would talk about everything. All the crazy ideas. All the debates and meandering philosophizing.

She used to be ... someone else.

We grew up together. Made music, art, protested the machine Seattle style. Then, she went all libertarian. Rugged individual and all that. With the inheritance that paid for her house. And the YouTube algorithms ate her alive. And her open mind refused anything new that wasn't Jordan or Rorgan or Harris.

That exchange wasn't the end of our friendship.

It just got worse.

And 4 years after that I decided I can't talk to someone who can't be spoke with anymore and whose thoughts were essentially an echo of the tube.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

It’s time to reengage with politics

This is what pisses me off about some liberals. These dorks disengaged from politics and look where it got them.

Maybe this time when they reengage with politics they don't go back to brunch as soon as Bad Guy is out of office.

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