We're considered privileged is one problem. Also, when N Korea talks shit nobody cares. If the US is your neighbor and seriously discusses invading you, that is a very serious problem. People are sick of US bullying and the US dollar being held above their head, along with access to marine trade routes. If Europe makes the Euro the reserve currency or BRIC moves to make one and everyone divests in US bonds, we are super fucked. I hope for the rest of the world that it actually happens, so some of the evil will stop.

I am Danish, and I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I refuse to let borders decide loyalty. I know the vast majority of americans on this platform, stand fully behind our values.

I appreciate every single apology, and I welcome it, and I fully understand and realize that you had nothing to do with any of this lunacy. But I also urge you to be careful. Because the extent to which you disagree with your countrymen is extreme.

I am speaking as someone who saw this far away. I sold my investments in the US when he was elected in 2016. I know you are not stupid either. But I see you calling him a fascist, a rapist, a child molester... All of which may be true. But what will you do when he is standing at your door?

They are carrying weapons. They are deploying armed forces in the street. They are dismantling all the institutions you stand for before your eyes. They hate the weak, the colored, and those they consider less than them. They will soon begin to take away your ability to vote. Do you not see it? Have you woken up? Whatever rules and regulations you think keeps him in check are crumbling before your eyes.

You need to start considering your options under the second amendment. You need to fill your pantry. You need to build lasting relationships with people close to you that you can trust. Right now your bully is mostly targeting those he considers weak outside his borders. Where will he look next? Where will the Trump who replaces him look?

If you think voting will beat these fascists, you need to think harder about how you got here. You do not have an effective opposition, the Democrats are bought and paid for by corporations.

The midterm vote will not be free and fair. And if you wait until that is clear before fighting back, it will be much harder to do so.

I know you can't do much against the power of the state alone. But you have to resist, or flee. Fleeing is fine, btw, there's going to be a lot of refugees.

Outnumbered by 88 million, really. More than a third sat at home, fine with the current state of affairs.

The point is that Trump did not get to where he is just from those who voted for him. There is a country that over the years swerved right, with the left doing nothing about it because they were too busy fighting themselves instead of fascism. And a good third to half of the population not fucking caring about this

I reserve my disdain for my coworkers who didn't see any point in voting.

Americans are getting treated like americans treat everyone else. All this whining about it is not endearing. I'm sorry the shoe is on the other foot for a change, but you are not the first or only people to get kicked, so stop acting like it.

This wave of fascism has been building for decades. If in all those decades not enough americans were able or willing to stop this then America, as a system, as a country, is broken.

Between so many of the "wow, Americans aren't doing anything" and "wow, is all Americans can think to do is shoot people" posts, and making light of mentions of protest or demonstration, all it's doing is just shifting the blame to the individual and shrinking the goalposts to nothing. Yes, America created this, yes, Trump won the popular vote in the second term (ignoring any possible voter manipulation), and yes, voter turnout was the biggest it's ever been. It's clear people wanted Trump. But for the people that will listen, that will take action, all this kind of stuff is doing is crushing their spirit and driving them further into inaction.

My read on this is that since the end of the cold war, America has had a monopoly on decisionary power, and news media around the world has assigned responsibility for geopolitical events accordingly: whatever happens, wherever it happens, America has, at minimum, assented to it, and is therefore responsible for it. The first truly bizarre application of this reasoning that stood out to me was assigning blame for Russia's invasion of Ukraine on NATO. Since Russia lost the cold war, it is relatively weaker than its western neighbors, propped up by the US, and somehow that turns its acts of aggression over its former territories into defensive measures. It's a unipolar read of geopolitics, where only one dominant power exists at the global scale, and any local complications in the balance of power are simply ignored. The same applies to the US's internal politics. The US decides, so the US is responsible. Never mind all the attacks on democracy, representativity, and citizens' safety and security. In the case of Milei, Orban, Bolsonaro, Putin, etc., people are more willing to see citizens as victims of their failing democracies; with the US, there is a failure to distinguish between the country's global power and its citizens' individual power.

Add to that longstanding resentment over the US's hegemony and you end up with a lot of people who have sincerely been looking forward to this shitshow. You're just one more piece of tinder in the bonfire they've been waiting for their entire lives

My point being, you're expecting too much of most people if you're hoping for a compassionate, nuanced read on the situation.

it's divisive propaganda. it's meant to divide people.

ignore it.

anyone who spreads it is either a bot or a fool.

I know this is Off My Chest, so I'm glad you could get it out there :) But here are some thoughts, if you wanna have a look.

I don't blame the average Russian for having Putin in power, I don't blame the over-worked people who get sucked into brainwashing. If you expect people with worse resources to perform as well as you with better resources, then shouldn't you expect even more of yourself? I don't really care for blame generally. Everything is ultimately very interconnected. I just want change, and try to focus on that and am happy for any positive actions people take.

I also think it's a bit silly to just look at voting, when that's such a small part of upholding/creating justice and democracy. What about the people who work on transparency, social and ecological justice, regardless of who's in power? Just a few of the things that contribute to direction an entire nation state takes.

Here's a related excerpt from MLK's Riverside Speech

Really, I think the entire speech is just as powerful and relevant today.

Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for in all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by the American people.

Many USA Americans vacationing here in Europe… when in fact they should be spending their vacation demonstrating against Trump in their hometown.

If doesn't matter if you like it or not, when Trump does unhinged shit real people suffer out in the world.

They blame our country, they don't blame just the president. And they shouldn't - because all of us here going through our lives, going to work, paying taxes, obeying laws, keeping the economy going, etc. are instrumental to the power he is wielding as a club against everyone else.

If you don't want to be blamed, then resist.

I think it depends. Some didn’t vote/couldn’t vote because their civil rights are being violated, because gop controlled states make it onerous for them to do so, usually in, ahem, “urban” areas

But yeah, others didn’t vote because they’re apolitical, or both sides are the same, or other bullshit, yeah fuckem

The last election in my country was 4 years ago, before that it was 9years ago. Both time the second turn was the "center" right versus the far right.

First time I voted center without thinking about it. Second time I really didn't want to. I looked at the polls, especially the late polls from foreign countries, and decided to vote blank. The "center" right won, but it was close. They didn't learn the lesson at all.

I hate them, but it still is way better than with the far right.

I don't know what comes next.

You did everything you could. Just keep doing that.

The fact of the matter is it doesnt matter what we deserve. It matters what actually happens. Right now, it appears America is having a one-sided civil war.

Worse leadership in terms of being more corrupt and evil? Yeah. Worse leadership in terms of leadership? Hard to think of any examples.

Dang it. You're right. But what to do with this nazi regime?!