… a good portion of the country that either accepts it or supports it …
… and the rest of the country that just idly sit by and either say little or do nothing about it all.
A year ago, I had some respect for Americans … since then, I’ve lost almost all my respect for them. At first they were ruining themselves, now their stupidity is threatening us all everywhere.
The protests should be shutting down the country … not violently … peaceful protest refusing to use your work to continue running the country.
If enough people stood up and just said ‘enough is enough, we’re not working any more until this government changes or becomes more responsible’ … then things might actually change.
You’re on the path now … you can say that you can’t protest because you’ll lose your job or livelihood and that you have to make ends meet but the way things are going … if you do nothing, you’re still going to lose everything eventually.
Can’t afford not to. Losing health care, value of money, retirements, farms, etc, etc. If everyone keeps their heads in the sand they’ll be broke anyway.
Mass social change requires protests as a baseline of dissent. They should be menacing, but remain only a threat to power, which is their primary purpose. A non-peaceful protest is unskilled and uncoordinated use of violence,and gives authoritarians an alibi for escalating repression. This is why they send in agent provocateurs.
A march turned mob is a huge error. You need coordination and planning for revolutionary violence, even mass rebellion.
In between the necessary peaceful marches and that hopefully avoidable bloody rebellion, there is the opportunity for a lot of targeted activism, based on the leverage that the threat provides. It’s also a period of targeted sabotage and vandalism, as well as widespread passive resistance. More importantly, it is a delay in which to network, organize, and develop coordinated strategies. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
This way, there is a time tested path to rule by the people, AKA democracy, without violence. Failure of this method is the violent insurrection, which can lead to interesting things like Nepal (though the violence was VERY disciplined, despite appearances). It can also lead to Pol Pot.
Idiocy and the far right has been normalised in America. I’m not a conservative (don’t think I would ever be) but I have been downvoted before when I said there are smart conservatives but the dumb ones are being propped up instead. That’s why people know Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, but never heard of Thomas Sowell, Roger Scruton and David Frum. There is a well-funded far right propaganda machine going on for decades to normalise both idiocy and what would have been considered extreme before. That includes propping up idiot far right personalities that I mentioned. The oligarchs know these mouthpiece personalities are dumb and want that stupidity to trickle down to people.
… and the rest of the country that just idly sit by and either say little or do nothing about it all.
A lot of Americans are conditioned to pick the lesser evil. Sorry to American liberals, but that notion and “vote blue no matter who” slogan are thought terminating clichés. Placing high value on always “pick the lesser evil” is, a matter of fact, a conservative talking point prevalent in other countries (so yes, American liberals, you are conservative for repeating those silly slogans). It paints the idea to stick with the status quo and it is better to deal with “the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.” The Democratic party is like “look, we are giving you breadcrumb policies or you will get the fascists.”
It isn’t like there is no precedence for Americans to mobilise and think outside the box. They used to be good at it and holding their politicians accountable. Third parties used to get into both senate and congress. The first Gilded age and the reign of monopoly barons ended because of people’s collective will. What happened is that there is brainwashing since the advent of mass media to think within certain acceptable thoughts and under capitalist framing. A Singaporean diplomat opined that the worldview of American people and their media are just as insular and self-referential as those who are in totalitarian regimes. Just to drive home the point further, here is a quote that i always love to share:
What the fuck is wrong with America?
You got nutjobs like this saying stupid things …
… a good portion of the country that either accepts it or supports it …
… and the rest of the country that just idly sit by and either say little or do nothing about it all.
A year ago, I had some respect for Americans … since then, I’ve lost almost all my respect for them. At first they were ruining themselves, now their stupidity is threatening us all everywhere.
We’ve had some of the largest nation-wide protests in our history, the news just won’t cover it
The protests should be shutting down the country … not violently … peaceful protest refusing to use your work to continue running the country.
If enough people stood up and just said ‘enough is enough, we’re not working any more until this government changes or becomes more responsible’ … then things might actually change.
You’re on the path now … you can say that you can’t protest because you’ll lose your job or livelihood and that you have to make ends meet but the way things are going … if you do nothing, you’re still going to lose everything eventually.
You can’t shut down a country that is essentially 50 different countries in one. The US is just too big and segmented.
People can’t financially afford that. They are paycheque to paycheque.
Can’t afford not to. Losing health care, value of money, retirements, farms, etc, etc. If everyone keeps their heads in the sand they’ll be broke anyway.
“Peaceful protest” is a psy-op.
Tell that to Gandhi. Comments like yours are the psy-op.
Ghandiji was non-violent but his cause was also shared/backed by violent groups that had frequent success violently driving out their oppressors.
Well, yes and no.
Mass social change requires protests as a baseline of dissent. They should be menacing, but remain only a threat to power, which is their primary purpose. A non-peaceful protest is unskilled and uncoordinated use of violence,and gives authoritarians an alibi for escalating repression. This is why they send in agent provocateurs.
A march turned mob is a huge error. You need coordination and planning for revolutionary violence, even mass rebellion.
In between the necessary peaceful marches and that hopefully avoidable bloody rebellion, there is the opportunity for a lot of targeted activism, based on the leverage that the threat provides. It’s also a period of targeted sabotage and vandalism, as well as widespread passive resistance. More importantly, it is a delay in which to network, organize, and develop coordinated strategies. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
This way, there is a time tested path to rule by the people, AKA democracy, without violence. Failure of this method is the violent insurrection, which can lead to interesting things like Nepal (though the violence was VERY disciplined, despite appearances). It can also lead to Pol Pot.
To be pedantic: I think it’s “agents provocateur” like attorneys general. Could be wrong
Nah you are correct, but the autocorrect is 'murrican and gaslit me.
Idiocy and the far right has been normalised in America. I’m not a conservative (don’t think I would ever be) but I have been downvoted before when I said there are smart conservatives but the dumb ones are being propped up instead. That’s why people know Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, but never heard of Thomas Sowell, Roger Scruton and David Frum. There is a well-funded far right propaganda machine going on for decades to normalise both idiocy and what would have been considered extreme before. That includes propping up idiot far right personalities that I mentioned. The oligarchs know these mouthpiece personalities are dumb and want that stupidity to trickle down to people.
A lot of Americans are conditioned to pick the lesser evil. Sorry to American liberals, but that notion and “vote blue no matter who” slogan are thought terminating clichés. Placing high value on always “pick the lesser evil” is, a matter of fact, a conservative talking point prevalent in other countries (so yes, American liberals, you are conservative for repeating those silly slogans). It paints the idea to stick with the status quo and it is better to deal with “the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.” The Democratic party is like “look, we are giving you breadcrumb policies or you will get the fascists.”
It isn’t like there is no precedence for Americans to mobilise and think outside the box. They used to be good at it and holding their politicians accountable. Third parties used to get into both senate and congress. The first Gilded age and the reign of monopoly barons ended because of people’s collective will. What happened is that there is brainwashing since the advent of mass media to think within certain acceptable thoughts and under capitalist framing. A Singaporean diplomat opined that the worldview of American people and their media are just as insular and self-referential as those who are in totalitarian regimes. Just to drive home the point further, here is a quote that i always love to share: