This is applicable to Americans in the country and better answered if you actually live in it. The question stands - have you given up on America or do you really think there is a shred of a chance for a turnaround?
I think I have given up on America for it to do anything better for itself. I think the passing general election nailed the final nail in the coffin, that people who voted wrongly, wanted to worsen things in general to appease selfish personal agendas.
I think Americans in general really are set in stone about baking a cake and having it too with their interesting levels of double standards. They complain about big tech having your information, but turn around wanting you to sign a petition that asks for your information. They complain about commercials all year long, but will tune in by the millions for a Super Bowl. They complain about unfair wages, bad workplace environments and shitty bosses but didn’t make so much of a fuss during the pandemic.
There’s just too many things internally wrong with this country, that dampens what hope I ever had for it. Politicians and the “Real Owners” want to keep Americans dumb, complacent, tight and stressed to do anything. But if you give Americans a bit of leverage that could chip at those odds, they shit the fucking bed with their own incompetence.
So what gives, really? Live your life, do the best you can for yourself and those around you. Live another day but god damn fuck the majority of Americans and this country in general.
I gave up on America when Bush got a second term and overall that was the right call.
The fascists have been getting bolder and the “opposition” more feckless and confirmatory the entire time.
But we’re also not going to have like a sudden collapse th8ngs will just keep getting worse and worse and people quality of life will continue to decline and as it gets worse people will get more anti social, violent and willfully ignorant.
Rich people and right wingers will be able to murder you in the streets on your way to spend a weeks wages on a days worth of food.
I think this is the most reasoned take. The US is clearly having a very real decline, but it also won’t disappear overnight. But the truth is its global relevance will likely only decline from here.
I have given up. Collectively, we’re incapable of long range planning. Climate change and non-renewable resource depletion are intractable problems. A significant number of us refuse to even acknowledge the existence of the problems. Things will have to get massively worse before anyone will have any success in changing approaches.
Turnaround to what, exactly? A retreat from fascism would be great, don’t get me wrong, but what we had before wasn’t exactly working otherwise we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation. As much as Democrats like to blame Donald Trump for literally everything (and he’s certainly done enough), he’s just the manifestation of peoples’ resentment and desperation at how much this country doesn’t work for most of its people.
Worse still, even if there is a return to the status quo from say 10-20 years ago, aside from not fixing the problem, that will just make everyone focus more on their relief at not being under a fascist regime anymore and thus they will become even more complacent about the things that didn’t work before. The politicians who opposed this backslide into fascism - and their ‘vote blue no matter who’ supporters - will be ever more convinced of the rightness of their position and thus have even less reason to change anything, so we’ll just wind up right back here again.
But also, let’s address your specific complaints.
They complain about big tech having your information, but turn around wanting you to sign a petition that asks for your information.
Yeah, let’s not actually try to, you know, do anything about any of this, let’s just sit around and let those tech-bros enshittify their platforms and cram ads down our throats. Let’s not inconvenience anyone with a protest or a petition or a call to your representative, for shame! Also if you can’t see the difference between a giant, all-devouring megacorporation having your data and putting your email/phone# on a petition then I’m afraid it’s going to take more effort than I care to muster to unfuck your worldview, so, uh, good luck figuring that one out on your own.
They complain about commercials all year long, but will tune in by the millions for a Super Bowl
Are you sure these are the same people? You’re painting with an extremely broad brush here. I only have anecdotal evidence to offer, but I complain about commercials and I haven’t watched a Super Bowl ad in probably 20 years.
They complain about unfair wages, bad workplace environments and shitty bosses but didn’t make so much of a fuss during the pandemic.
So your issue is both that they complain, and that they don’t complain hard enough? Talk about having your cake and eating it too, you’re straddling that fence so hard you’ve found a way to whine about both sides of the same issue.
So what gives, really? … fuck the majority of Americans
Apparently what gives is that you are confused and angry and lashing out at people you don’t know for perceived slights you don’t seem to understand, wishing for the impossible return to a magical happy place that never existed (go ahead, ask those of us who remember the 2008 crash how great the world of 20 years ago was, I dare you) because you don’t understand that there is a world of distance between ‘not a complete dumpster fire’ and ‘actually decent.’ You seem to be mad at people who don’t vote the way you think they should without even attempting to understand where they’re coming from or what their motivations might be, you don’t seem capable of learning from the mistakes of the past that led to where we are today, or even particularly interested in acknowledging that they exist. You seem convinced despite generations of evidence that just voting harder will fix anything, and you ridicule the fact that other people have not somehow received this ultimate self-evident truth from on high as you have. And worst of all you seem too exasperated or confused by all of the above to try to actually change anything, you fail to understand, much less support and encourage, the means by which others are trying to do that, and you’re way too up your own ass to realize that everyone around you is a person with their own internal life, hopes, dreams, etc just like you, much less to have a shred of fucking empathy for anyone who isn’t within arm’s reach (and I’m skeptical about even that.)
In short, what gives is: Fuck you, and while you’re at it read a book, you’re embarrassing yourself.
don’t blame the Americans for where we are friend, that’s what the billionaires want you to do.
turn your attention to the rich and powerful who use vote suppression and information control. theyve worked very hard to crush democracy and also to turn away any blame from themselves.
They’re so successful that even you—one of the oppressed—would blame your poor and powerless brothers and sisters for the actions of the fascist rich who truly rule this land.
you’re right that there’s no future in electoral politics, but the Americans living here are as a rule not the problem. if you look past the foolishness of oligarch media and see how it benefits your real enemy you’ll understand the scope of the problem.
then once you see, turn away from that as well and focus on mutual aid within your own community. is you do that you will soon understand what i mean for yourself.
I explain all of that to those unfortunate manipulated victims of capitalism and they call me a slur and say I’m jealous.
You can absolutely blame the people at some point.
If I tell somebody “that guy’s an obvious con artist, don’t give him money he’s going to scam you. Here’s examples of him doing exactly that to the last 5 people. Heres my degree showing that i have specifically studied for years to be able to identify scams” And then that person calls me a cuck while handing his money to the scam artist, I’m going to blame the person I correctly and explicitly warned for not listening to me for the 500th time in a row.
And then the anger increases as every single one of the hundreds of people enthusiastically lining up to give the scam artist money has the same conversation with me.
And then a group of 50 of them get together and decide it’s my fault because they think I was being condescending as I explained exactly how they are fucking themselves over.
I explain all of that to those unfortunate manipulated victims of capitalism and they call me a slur and say I’m jealous.
You can absolutely blame the people at some point.
i understand what you mean, but your voice isn’t going to override the professional loudspeakers continuously propagandizing your fellows. right? even if youre the most eloquent and well read person, you don’t have the platform or the power
so when i touched on moving past electoral politics, i meant it. there is simply no point in casting blame on your fellows, full stop. nobody needs to hear another damn explanation, right? people are sick of *empty explanations.
if you want to get people to believe in you then focus on what actually matters, and that’s food on the table and safety. community. the first two things make up the second, and they are rapidlydisappearing from our lives. That vacuum will be filled. focus on being a part of the solution going forward instead of working about why we are here, and people will follow you
Kind of hard to build a community with the people with giant “fuck your feelings” flags on the side of their house.
That’s what I’m saying, maybe you can’t blame people for believing a lie but you can absolutely blame people for being literally antisocial and willfully ignorant.
I’m not going to waste my time and put my friends and family at risk by trying to build a community with people who would call them slurs. Especially because they are, fundamentally, antisocial assholes.
You try to build something with them and then as soon as that “thing” has any value they’ll attack you and try to take it from you. That’s their idea of a smart strong guy, being completely willing to fuck over and lie to other people. It’s why trumps president, and he’s still got north of 90% approval with people who voted for him, which makes up about 70% of my community.
As soon as you had more food then they deemed appropriate, which is going to be basically any amount, they’ll take that using the guns they’ve been hoarding in the hopes of having an excuse to shoot me. Kinda hard to focus on food and security with those people.
Frankly I’m getting pretty tired of the response to me getting upset at fascist to be “yea but you gotta understand they’ve enthusisatically brainwashed themselves because somebody told them it was a trans person’s fault their boss fired him and that seemed like a good point to them”
i never said you have to reach out to those who’d have your head on a platter. i am telling you to focus on mutual aid programs.
community farms, food pantries are a good place to start. find like minded people near you.
im not telling ya to turn chuds into allies, im telling you to focus on doing what you can for the people around you who want the same thing you do.
start small, doing things you can do and joining with existing orgs that are doing good work. build from there. that’s what i mean.
I’m saying there’s like 4 like minded people and we all already know each other. My mom’s retired so she has time to volunteer at the local food pantry. The vast majority of people who come in are chuds who gloat to the volunteers about all the great stuff trumps doing because they know my mom and the other women who volunteer are all liberals.
I’m saying your strategy of not being realistic about how much of an impedance the slack jawwed local contingent is gonna be is flawed.
They’re the one holding us back, as has been true for the entirety of this country, and saying it’s not their fault that they are like this is a fundamental failure in planning.
It sucks but we’ve got to accept “if we just help these people improve their lives they’ll come around” is literally not true. I live in upstate new york surrounded by people that would either freeze or starve to death in the winter if it weren’t for state run organizations. They also all have giant flags on their homes and vehicles making it very clear they want to get rid of those programs because they dont like all the lazy undeserving people taking advantage of the programs that keep them alive.
i feel youre not really hearing me. for a change of pace, would you kindly tell me your strategy?
No, you do not get it.
71+ Million. Yes, 71+ million Americans, decided the country’s fate last year. You are not going to skew this into a whole “blame the billionaires” spin.
Blaming the billionaires and rich yadda yadda even has its stretch. There are countless pieces of evidence that directly say that - yes - it is the people’s fault. It is the American’s fault. You wouldn’t know that because it sounds like you don’t live here and just know.
Trump did everything and I mean everything, to make him look and sound as unappealing as a candidate and retainer for presidency as possible. The guy is a fucking murderer of negligence to over 350,000k Americans during a pandemic. And STILL - Americans willingly picked him.
This reads like you are at the “scratch a lib” phase.
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I don’t know what the fuck that means but if the Dems actually wanted to win, they’d run an actual candidate instead of a girlboss genocider cop.
Of course you jump to ableism when called out.
Well this is one of the most incredibly smug and confidently wrong things I have seen in a while and that is saying something.
But you’re right, it isn’t individual billionaires that are the problem, it isn’t the American people as a whole either though, as has been explained to you above. The problem is the system that allows billionaires to exist. The problem is capitalism and that the US is a genocidal colonizer state. There is no such thing as voting “right” in the US. Perhaps you should actually listen to the people that are explaining this to you who have spent our lives tirelessly studying and working on the ground to address this problem at its root while doing our best to treat the symptoms of this cancer on the earth we call the United States.
i replied to the superior comment. you don’t get nothin but a slap in yer gobb and a hearty fuck you
read my and the other’s messages until you understand them.
You asked a question, created a thread using words that show your ignorance. Now it’s time for you to read those fucking answers.
Do not make this thread suffer your useless mouth, and dont ever waste people’s time askin questions you think you know the answers to, ya reddit assed dweeb.
sheesh.
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being blocked by a commenter like this is a badge of honor to me. chat, i will in fact enjoy it ngl
No, the US is lost. This is a situation that voting cannot possibly fix. We cannot say what needs to be done without getting banned. We cannot even post pictures of a guillotine or a Mario based video game character on most sites.
It’s not political, that is the distraction game … it is the billionaires doing this; however, we cannot break out of the disinformation they create.
“All hope is lost. There’s nothing I can do without going outside into the real world.”
I will continue to fight, annoy, and agitate the capitalist status quo. Majority of Americans do not agree with current politics, our current “leader”, or oligarchs controlling everything.
Same here.
https://www.nokings.org/?SQF_SOURCE=50501
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events
One of the speakers from the Mayday protest talked about reforming the government itself from attending town halls to running as candidates for the next term.
If we want changes to happen, we need to change, as well.
Edit
Please ignore my ANeko cat on the picture. I guess it wanted to show it’s support, as well.
The US Empire cannot be reformed from within, it needs to be completely dismantled as a state. This new state needs to place indigenous Americans at the forefront as a starter for decolonization, must be Socialist in character, and comprehensively democratic with minority protections. The current US State works entirely off of Imperialism, and maintains hundreds of overseas millitary bases to terrorize the world into bending the knee. The state is not democratic, candidates are pre-approved by the capitalist class. Megacorps rule the US, and have dominance over both parties.
This does not mean “genocide against all who live in the US.” Rather, it means that the working class of the US must overthrow the state and replace it with one run by and for the working class, in an anti-Imperialist and de-colonial manner.
bury the past, rob us blind, leave nothing behind
RATM will always get upvoted by me heh right on
‘people voted wrongly’ is an incorrect framing
People voted against genocide
America is in the death spiral of late stage capitalism. It will implode, as the scientific material analysis of Marxist theory predicts. So its not about ‘giving up’ per se, it’s more like how do we manage the implosion
America has been dead to me for years. It’s a crumbling empire and I have no respect for any of its leadership. I will never give up on myself or the working class, but we have far too much rabid individualism and egos to work together.
The people will weather the storm and come out the other side, albeit differently, but any semblance of government here is trash. Both parties are nothing but greed-driven parasites and everyone knows it. The new generations aren’t fooled by the same bullshit propaganda and the ruling class knows it. That’s why they’re ruling with an iron fist and the cops have zero accountability.
Cop cities going up everywhere; a military base on every continent; Israeli money weaving into everything; the Democrats are useless fucks; the Republicans are unmasked fascists. This country is in the final stages of late capitalism. I don’t want to live here and haven’t for years, but I persevere for family and friends. I’ve already told my wife if a revolution ever happens, I’m probably going to be the 65-year-old man that dies in it.
This is something my fellow Americans need to come to terms with:
There are some lovely, smart and aware people in that huge country. It’s not homogeneous. But overall? It won’t get much better without a revolution. And that’s a huge ask. It’s possible, other countries have managed despite police repression and mass illiteracy, but it’s a long journey, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the people with the awareness and the means will just try fleeing instead.
Yeah, it would take a particularly competent, wise and self-sacrificial dude/tte or team to wrangle the masses of hateful morons, kindly direct them towards thought, morality and prosociality, and make something new out of country that was baptized in the blood of innocents (and loves taking blood baths!).
Make no mistake, this is far beyond one dude/ette. You’d need a whole (non-electoral) well-organized party to educate and agitate, and earn the support of many thousands or even millions of citizens through their actions, in order to build the necessary movement.
Again, it’s been done before and under more oppressive conditions, but it’s a tough road.
Forgive my ignorance but would you be willing to list those more opressive conditions where they were successful?
Could really use some hope right now…
Russia, China, Cuba, etc. Many such cases of successful Working Class revolutions in more dire circumstances.
Maybe I give up too easily. Let’s hope God heard ya and has some plans for the few (?, am I just too negative?) Americans that can still be saved/lay the foundations for a new society. I kinda feel they’ll need Him, lol.
Hey, please don’t use ableist slurs. It’s easy to criticize conservatives without doing so.
Fair enough, I made the adjustments. 🙏
Thank you!
It’s time to start working on dual power structures in your respective city.
I think America will walk back from this particular brink, but I don’t think the American people have the chutzpah to liberate themselves from their shackles.
C’est la guerre, I wouldn’t raise kids here.
Only half my life ago, but as a surly teen I didn’t yet have the vocabulary to explain why
