The great revolution is not coming. Datacenters are flammable today!
Man, those guys look like assholes.
Everyone is demanding that somebody else go and do something.
Right? And then i go and read the "well what can you really do" comments and it's shit i've already been doing for the last 30 years. So like, it's time for other people to step up ALSO because i am fucking tired and covered in scars from this fight already.
I can't help but feel like a huge, huge problem is that like half the country, and the most rich and powerful of us, are fully behind the same things that everyone else wants to gather up and blow up DC or something over. This is not like the country is united at all. Its more like half of the Americans (the poor half) are super unhappy with what's happening and the other half absolutely love it. Makes things a lot harder.
It's the 'Murican way
Not much civilians can do about it...
There are only 3 groups of people who can do anything:
Congress could impeach, again. But they won't with Mike Johnson in charge. Even if they did, there wouldn't be the 67 votes in the Senate to convict.
J.D. Vance could start the 25th Amendment process, but he's out of the country sucking up to Victor Orbán:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyv16lq2rp1o
Average citizens can vote out all the Republicans... in 7 months...
I wish our country was able to do what the French do, but I would have to drive the length of three entire Frances before I made it to DC to protest. I don't have the freedom or the finances to do that.
It’s mind boggling how people in the 19th century were able to make a coup and they didn’t even had a cars to drive. So much have changed since, I guess. Maybe Americans are only interested to defend slavery with all their guns.
The secret ingredient is more protests. How far are you from a city that has around 10k inhabitants?
The European mind cannot comprehend this
Those of us who live in the civilised world absolutely understand
The question is how far you Americans will allow things to go?
You're already fucked, but your opiates of shitty TV, pissy beer, fast food and the satisfaction that you seem to enjoy when you see people who are really suffering seem to placate you
You don't care about the vulnerable, the marginilanised, the suffering because you think you're somehow going to dodge it, until it happens to you
Americans gauge their happiness by the misery of others
Sorry but you clearly don't understand because you make the same tired arguments that work for the rest of the world where things aren't a nightmare but make no sense in the context of how life in the US specifically works, both due to absolutely zero social safety nets whatsoever and the fact that we can't all just hop on a train and be at the capital in a few hours for the equivalent of €20 or whatever
Then you've gotten so used to the meme of being the super smart enlightened non American educating the stupid fat lazy hamburgers that you ignore the countless times it is explained to you because no actually you are the smart one who knows everything better than us so clearly we are just wrong and stupid because you are correct and enlightened
How did the Protests during the Vietnam War happened? It is possible, but if you dont want to, you dont want to.
Or, maybe instead of insulting Europeans because no way they understand your special society, understand that your arguments are simply excuses to not revolt. Your zero safety net is reason enough to revolt. A pedo starting wars in your name is the follow-up.
You don't have to drive to DC to do something useful.
There is much that civilians can do besides twidling their thumbs hoping that congress or the military do something.
The protests are good ways of meeting like-minded people in your community to form connections, as well as spreading awareness of local mutual aid groups so more can join or form ICE resistance groups who can join an encrypted chat to coordinate, alert neighbors, and talk strategy. It also is a good place for unions or union members to encourage others to unionize their workplaces, which can also ultimately work toward a national general strike, which is our most tangible and powerful collective action.
The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor, allowing us to directly demand real changes (such as ending the war in Iran, ceasing support for the genocide of Palestine, and Abolishing ICE).
The General Strike was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would've had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.
There are some concrete steps all of us can take toward enacting that hard-core general strike to make it more viable and bearable for us all. (the titles below expand if you click them).
Learn First Aid! ⛑️
Violence is being used against those who resist and it will only continue. It extremely important to have the skills to be able to keep yourself and others alive if they get hurt.
Tacticool Girlfriend provides a great introduction to building a personal first aid kit, called an IFAK, which can deal with things like bullet wounds and other serious bleeding wounds. I also want to emphasize her recommendation of only buying medical gear from reputable sources (not Amazon!), such as North American Rescue to avoid fakes that could cost you your life.
But you'll need to learn how to use that equipment, too. The best resource for that is to take a local Stop The Bleed class, which are pretty widely available in most places. They may cost a small fee, but can also sometimes be free. Alternatively, if you cannot access a local class, this video by PrepMedic will give you a solid understanding of how to use Tourniquets and Gauze for wound packing.
Injuries are less harmful if they are tended to early. Learning first aid can help conserve resources when healthcare becomes unaffordable. Having several medics in case of harm by police is an extremely powerful morale booster during a protest that may become a police riot. When you become comfortable with the basics of first aid, riot medicine is the next suggested step.
Establish or join local Mutual Aid networks ✊
If you haven't already, get to know your neighbors. Mutual aid is a willingness to support and grow your community. This can include informal networks through friends, tenant/renter organizations, solidarity groups, and industrial unions.
These are groups using direct action to solve each other's problems. Building strong communities makes it difficult for fascism to take root. The actions of the government are going to hit every community hard, and the ones who build trust in each other and work together are most likely to survive. We've been building a list of resources in !inperson@slrpnk.net to help you on your way. Also check out this handy guide to find existing groups in your area.
This isn't only for your own community protection. Your ability to organize today will change the political landscape tomorrow. When revolution occurs, the social organizations that show the greatest resilience through the regime are the ones typically calling the shots when the dust settles. When it comes to elections, get out the vote drives are useless if most of the voters are fascists. At some point, you have to do grassroots political education if you don't want fascist candidates winning elections. Mutual aid networks are excellent forums not only for teaching each other good political ideas, but demonstrating them in practice.
There's also some projects you can do that help build community (and can be fun in themselves!), for more info, go here, and scroll down to the "Fun Projects to Build Community) section"
Join a Union to help prepare for a General Strike! 💪
If you aren't in a union (or even if you are, it's worth dual-carding), consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you'll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to make a general strike possible.
Once you are in a union you and your coworkers will need to pressure your leadership to prepare for a general strike, as well as pressure them to organize with other unions to enact a general strike. This is especially true if you are in a more traditional union that isn't the IWW. Your local shop may need to organize directly with other unions if your union leaders are too cowardly to do so.
Most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike). A General Strike is officially planned by the UAW for May 1st 2028, but it was planned before Trump was elected, and by then will be too late, so prepare now for one that may start sooner.
You can contact the IWW with the link below:
And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn't listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above, and they'll help you set up a new local branch.
Adopt Security Culture and Digital Camouflage 🛡️
Sometimes benign seeming efforts can turn into unexpected personal data collecting traps. Like an obscure website for exchanging contact info with other students turning into a global ad-tech surveillance network (Facebook), or innocent seeming online personality tests being use to harvest character profiles. Even Etsy, Reddit, Tinder, and Duolingo are feeding information to US Government Agencies like ICE.
Security culture is commonly used to describe the general awareness of such potential traps and how it can affect groups or entire communities. This goes beyond mere individual privacy efforts, as without joint efforts these often fail to work.
Especially in activist circles, security culture is paramount. For opsec reasons not everyone in the group might be aware of what clandestine efforts others are involved in, but with a general security culture many potential data leaks can be avoided.
Movements are made by the volume of their participants, and the easier and less dangerous it is to participate, the more people will get involved. As more people get involved, individual involvement becomes even less dangerous, creating a virtuous cycle.
We'll start it off with some General Advice:
For a full guide on what encrypted communications platforms to use, and how to stay off the radar, read the Digital Camouflage section within the Monthly Meta post here (you'll need to scroll down. I'd add it here, but it won't fit in this comment).
I'd also highly recommend Full Spectrum Resistance to anyone who wants further info on how to resist (audiobook version here).
The problem is timing. You can't get a world class protest or general strike together overnight, it takes organizing and planning, and that takes time.
Trump is threatening action tonight, which is why it's down to either congress, the cabinet, or the military.
In theory, if we all stopped working and spending, it would stop within days. The system is set up to make that extremely difficult, risky and painful, but in theory we could get change through overwhelming collective action.
I have a different suggestion
Lemmy always wants a revolution, but here's the problem, you need someone to lead and organize it and there is absolutely nobody in that position.
Particularly if Trump goes ahead with his action of destroying Iran tonight. There is no organized civilian resistance to that and even if you started organizing today, it would be months before you could overturn a sitting President, if at all.
Stop within days, but Trump is threatening action tonight, which is why I say there's nothing civilians can do about it.
Well you could also be impolite about it and become a nuisance for the enablers and supporters.
Or organise so that you aren't as helpless the next time the same or another tries to abuse power.
I always kind of understood that the majority of people would stay out of revolution to cope with just surviving. I just didn't expect them to be so vocal about the apathy.
So all those guns were for schools only?
And gay pubs.
God damn so we need a recall function that's able to be initiated by the public.
Imho everyone from the president down to the dog walker should be subject to a recall possibility
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
If I do anything non-violent to “rise up” against the government, it’s “not enough.” If I do anything violent, I put everything I have to care for at risk. I have a kid and a wife and a house and a mortgage and a job with a healthcare plan to be worried about.
I want trump and his corruption and his cronies gone. But I’m not going to put my child’s chance at a stable future at risk to make it so.
I will/do vote against him. I will/do protest. I will/do volunteer to help the victims of his shit policies. But I will not deprive my family of a husband/father/home. I can’t.
So if that’s not enough, I’m sorry. I want to do more but they’ve got us pinned down. We need “air support.” We may even need outside help.
Or to use my preferred way of phrasing it "I won't be first in line for the revolution, but you bet your ass I'll be third."
yep. just gonna drink about it
McDonald’s?
More like Taco Town
Lazy shit. Its easy to point and say "nothing" and never help or suggest a single idea to help.
40%
To me, that’s the real issue. I’ve heard of and yearn for these situations where a population overthrows a corrupt government. But SO much of America is brain damaged enough that they intentionally, willingly, without a gun to their head, voted for this and believes it to be okay.
There is a heavy propaganda machine affecting them as well as a deep religious institution. We don’t even see much of it often on international media. Even then, while it can move the needle, it also points to a sizable percentage of that 40% not being ignorant or scared of Kamala, but openly Evil as well as stupid. Even when Trump says the most insane shit, they’re still worried that a Democrat will burst into their home with a loaded Immigrant and kill them all.
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