I’m an American who has been living abroad for 20 years. I’m shocked, as I watch my home country being dismantled by oligarchs who sold US democracy. And I talk to other Americans and they’re just like “Oh, well, both sides, you know?”
Do y’all not realize what you’ve done? The US literally has no allies now, no rule of law, and no democracy. You’re living in an authoritarian dictatorship now, run by clowns.
How are so many Americans just going on with their lives like normal?
Consider brexit, an idea so dumb in every way every way, and yet it happened. Many journalists pointed out how russian influence and social media formed peoples votes, how it brought out the worst side in many of my countrymen, how many regretted it almost immediately. Turns out its really easy to get stupid people to hate things.
The fundamental issue really does seem to be education, which is why conservatives everywhere try to cripple and dismantle it. Conservatism in the US spearheaded anti-intellectualism, but the ideology everywhere else is not far behind; constantly appealing to the lowest common denominator. This proves that conservatism does not believe it can survive with an educated populace.
I’m guilty of calling them stupid myself, but the only thing that separates anyone from cavemen is education, and the psychopaths and narcissists of society have shown us that our education systems are not fit for purpose, and holding society back from progress. The failure in our ability to educate the majority sufficiently is one of the greatest threats we face.
What’s the alternative? I want to protest, but if I miss work then I might lose my job, which would cost me my health insurance and likely my house. I want to get back on social media and show people where I stand, but these MAGA people are rabid and will come after me for it. I’m ready to step up, but not while Trump has half the country behind him. I’m waiting for a numbers advantage. His approval rating is tanking, and once it gets low enough, I think people like me will be more willing to take bigger risks. Until then, we’re doing what we can while keeping our heads down.
Vote with your wallet. Try not to buy from the big companies if you can help it. It used to be a pain doing this but with a password manager it’s easy to create another account and don’t save your CC on the site if it’s just a one time purchase.
Protesting is fine to let others know they are not alone but the people in charge will not care or see it.
I went to a weekend protest for my job.
I’ve started being more active in the community and finding people like me out there. It helps.
I’m not a Australian and have never been to America.
It seems like I’ve experienced this feeling with America, and with Australia, more and more over the last decade.
I suspect that the answer to your question is yes, voters do not understand nor particularly care what is happening.
The vast majority of voters base their position on vibe-based reasoning. Low information voters, if you will.
Oh yeah, Australia is an authoritarian state due to… COVID laws right? Is that what you’re referring to?
COVID death camps?.. Or something?
We have an election in the next few months and our conservative party will likely win. They’re running a Trump-lite campaign around cutting government agencies.
Moreover we have always been very culturally, socially, militarily and politically aligned with the US.
For example, right now we tacitly support Ukraine but would have been very cautious in expressing that support since November last year. With our current progressive government it would be… challenging it Trump asked us to toe the line and declare Ukraine the aggressor. In a few months however I wouldn’t be surprised if our newly elected conservative government was much more willing to sing that song.
In my city last year there was a vocal group of conservatives trying to ban books at the library, and prevent the city supporting a LGBTIQ+ festival, and stoke foment over transgender people using public toilets. We import a lot of US conservative politics.
We may not seem like a particularly authoritarian country but we have ever been poised to become such. We’ve always scored very poorly on privacy, and media bias.
I went to jail for protesting citizens united and predatory banking. The news coverage made everyone believe we were just clowns having a party. It felt right, but in the end it meant absolutely nothing.
I have no hope for any government. I only hope that humans will continue to do interesting things despite their government.
Buddy I tell ya hwhat. Yer gonna be so happy because we are gonna do bigly interesting things.
We’re gonna build a big arena just for Trump rallies. We’re gonna find a princess to marry Prince Barron, who by the way is young enough that we’ll have the longest stable gubment in American history. King for 70 years bud.
Joel Olsteen is gon’ build big ol churches in ever state. We ain’t worried about prayer in school no more. We’re bringing school to prayer. Christian academy gonna be the normal school. Ever kid in American is gonna learn about being good with Ace Virtueson, Racer and the gang. They’ll learn that fish are fish because god wanted it that way and how we ain’t monkeys. Real science will git done like how many babies can good girls have.
I’m so tired.
If it’s gone so far that we’re back to planting seeds for the future, then all these things can mean a lot down the road.
I talk to other Americans and they’re just like “Oh, well, both sides, you know?”
I guess it depends on the people you are talking to. The Americans I’ve met all seemed kinda sad at what US is going through.
Remember the Arab Spring? Massive protests in multiple North African countries, mostly peaceful regime changes. Those protests were hundreds of thousands of people - less than 1% of most country populations. Most of those nations were still going about their daily business like normal. Complaining about the awful government. Complaining about the disruption of the protests.
It’s really had to get people out of their daily routines.
In the US, there’s the extra issue that a significant part of the population are actually happy with recent events because they think it’s going to work out well for them, personally. Some of them think that the chaos is exactly the overthrow of 4 decades of terrible government they’ve been hoping for, and they don’t care what comes after.
Some of us understand. Some of us understood before this even happened. But we got the same “Well, both sides-.”
Now I’m just furious.
There is nothing we can do. We haven’t actually been represented by our government in many many years. That doesn’t appear to have changed. For all the talk about owning guns to stop fascism, it is the vehement gun owners who won. A few of my friends and family are trying to leave the country. A few are too old, and a few still think their cult leader will actually make things better.
I would add that most of us aren’t allowed to talk about politics at work, and outside of work it is usually so explosive we avoid it there too so we can still have freinds and family. That leaves some social media as the only place these conversations take place.
Americans need to stop shooting schools and start shooting CEOs
Almost half don’t care. Of the remaining, almost half do know and are appalled, while the rest also do know and applaud.
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It’s social media. It’s TV.
So I bounce between 3 Trump states, and much of my family is glued to Facebook. Many don’t even know how to use a browser, just apps that serve them. Others religiously watch fox, a lot of cable opinion segments, things like that. I know a kid lost in Discord and YouTube.
Also, you should see the things pastors are saying in one of their churches, in spite of what the clergy have done…
I don’t know what it’s like overseas, but again, Americans seem totally consumed by social media, which is all just algorithmic propaganda that warps their world. And Trump/Musk are literally the top of that world.
It’s only getting worse.
That really is the root issue. No amount of protest, policy, empathy, anything is going to get through as long as people are immersed in these warped views of the world, and any political opposition is completely incapable of realizing that.
They’re utter morons. The trump cunts, the republicunts. They’ve always been this way. And now someone has harvested their crop.
Some know, but it’s very hard to see how to have a positive impact. I don’t have millions of dollars, and getting into politics is daunting (also, no money).
I’ve seen some say that the best thing is to make sure you have strong local communities and that at least I can try to work on. It doesn’t have huge visibility but knowing there is a network of people to count on when everything gets worse is a good thing.
At this point: Move to the EU or Canada. The USA has changed for the worst.
