politics

Tyrants always have the advantage in a "civil society"...

(Almost) Everything he does is legal so people treat it as fair game even if we don't like it, and aside from ICE murdering people, there isn't any direct violence to fight against so the "civil society" has to wait until it's wayyyyyyyy too late, to the point that we're all being sent to the gas chambers, until it decides it's morally correct to use violence.

Until that point we're left hoping our "representatives" will "fight" for us (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha...... Ughh....)

:(

There is a brutal man with a gun, controlling and threatening a group of good citizens with consciences. He's going to do terrible things to them, and make them do terrible things themselves.

They have him outnumbered, but he has the gun. If they rush him, they can easily defeat him. But, the first one or two or three or four people to move forward will be shot and probably die painfully. Going first is going to cost a terrible price and you don't know for sure that anyone else will follow you, that your sacrifice will be for anything at all.

You feel a little paralyzed and at the same time ashamed you are just standing there.

What happens next?

The last decade has made it abundantly clear how weak America actually is.

Growing up I just assumed we would stomp this kind of shit out real fast. Instead we're bending over and letting an almost dead felon rapist pedophile fuck our country and our futures up. We're allowing a clearly treasonous party to abdicate all their responsibilities to a fat creep that falls asleep and shits his pants during official duties.

It's truly pathetic.

Don't think I'll be able to muster up much patriotism for this shithole for the remainder of my life.

I've mentioned this before to others whenever this comes up. most or a great majority of people in the US have it "good enough" to not "risk it all".

Things over here "aren't bad enough" for people to full-on revolt. I'd say we're kinda close but modern, white, boring america just doesn't want to get caught in the shit storm. They understand it might come for them at some point but that time isn't now so why "stick their neck out"

It is hilarious to me and also annoying that they say there is no resistance. Millions are flooding the streets. Record protests. Hundreds of thousands have made networks of information systems. But yeah sure no resistance. A toy company took the administration to Supreme Court and won but okay yeah no resistance . Women gassed and burned ice warehouses but okkkkk no resistance. Kids punching nazis. No resistance. Ridiculous.

Just reading his Wikipedia page is scary as hell for an American president. Unreal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_presidency_of_Donald_Trump

There is a combination of factors that is turning America, a country founded on evicting a King from our government, into a country with a de-facto one.

First, one of the foundational principles of the country was the separation of powers. Specific powers were given to specific branches of government. The founders anticipated that ambitious people would fill those branches, and they would not give up that power so easily. They did not anticipate a Congress that would abdicate it's power over directing the Executive branch when their guy is there. And a Supreme Court picked expressly to choose sides.

Second, the founders realized that there needed to be someone in charge of the Federal executive that had some real power. Recall that we had already formed one government , under the "Articles of Confederation", with a weak central government that was not working. But, they did not trust the general electorate to pick it. That is the original purpose of the Electoral College: State Legislatures would name delegates, and those delegates would pick the President. We retain the Electoral College not because it still works in the modern era, but because it is too hard to change. (The fact that Congress hasn't changed in size for 100 years also contributes to the inequity of the Electoral College, since each state's votes are tied to their representation. In fact, I think the EC might still be workable if each district were smaller....).

Third, we had built up a strong tradition of non-partianship in the executive branch, with career civil servants doing their jobs across administrations, providing continuity. We even thought that protection was entrenched in law. But then this guy comes along, and decides that none of those laws matter. Once that merit-based expertise leaves, it is very hard to get back. And he can violate laws with impunity because of Point #1.

So, while we don't call Trump a King officially, his office is being turned into a monarchy, where his opinion rules all and the rule of law is subject to it.

One reason is that the US is just too big and too different to fight back effectively.

I think the most practical resistance is the west coast trying to split off.

It’s a lot easier to rally an entire state than an entire country.

The 2001 Patriot Act is the cornerstone and the MAGA fucknuts pushed ahead with their insane Project 2025 BS!

It is without resistance. The citizens offer protest while the Democratic Party looks out for their retirement checks. The protest has been ineffective other than getting press and bringing out trump’s goon squad.

The Weimar Republic also fell to the Nazis with almost no resistance.

It's relieving in a terrible way to see this acknowledged. I've heard far too many people over the last 15 months argue that this is just a roadbump, or talk about it like the typical Republican administration of economic strain and erosion of some civil rights. This is unprecedented in our country's history. This is not something to hunker down and wait out.

Even the idea that "fascism will inevitably collapse" is an oversimplification and wishful thinking. I understand that much of this inaction is trauma from the strain of us living in a post 9/11 America, which up until now has been a slow-burn erosion of rights and tightening of economic conditions. Trump's second term is in every way a different beast. It was well apparent that it would be since before the election even happened: Project 2025. The signs reading "MASS DEPORTATIONS". Hell; I thought the Alt-Right Insurrection on Jan 6th, 2021 was so blatantly anti-democratic that Trump would have no chance of winning in 2024. I was clearly wrong.

Look at China. Look at Russia. That's where the USA is heading. Those nations are fascist, too. That is the type of fascism I see this country falling into. It's not going to be loud, with massive parades and MAGA Youth programs—Not in a country with this many people, this large an area; and this many guns. The fascism of the USA will be like it has been for the last year: With citizens disappeared from our streets; Agents exploiting our already shredded rights; and surveillance networks tracking our every move. That is life in China and Russia; and those nations are well-settled in those systems.

The course of the USA is to fall into a fascism of the system. It will not be our military harming our citizens. The violence will be carried out in policies enacted by people with faces and roles; under the guise of "just doing a job" or "protecting their community". Hell, let's not pretend like that wasn't already the case. The War on Drugs, The Patriot Act, the regular abuses of police against protestors.... This nation has been one of systemic violence since well before Trump took the stage in 2015. Just look to the population held imprisoned without being found guilty in our prisons, hospitals, and CIA detention centers.

I applaud the resistance in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. What happened in the Twin Cities was the first bit of resistance we've seen in this entire administration (excluding one-day attacks—I am not downplaying their significance.) Regarding the rest of this nation: What happened throughout the last year (especially the atrocities of ICE) is well beyond what I inherently assumed would be the "snapping point". The fact that our economy and institutions are continuing in the midst of such blatant oppression and corruption, has me convinced there is no snapping point at all. En large, no draconian policy will trigger an out-roar, because the masses simply do not have it within them. We're too worn down, too distracted, too traumatized, and too used to it. What scares me most is how clear it is—by the public conduct of our corporations, our elected leaders, and our government accounts—that our rulers know this.

There are a couple of factors that play into the "lack of resistance."

• Healthcare and employment are intertwined in the US. Also, healthcare is more expensive in the US than just about anywhere else in the world.
• Employment in most states is "at will," meaning employees can be fired without cause. For most employees, there is also no employment contract. Unions in the US are very weak for the most part.
• Most people in the US live paycheck to paycheck, and don't own their primary residence.

These are the ingredients of a captive population. They can hate something all they want, but objecting to it is a risk of losing everything they have. And that's not hyperbole. There have already been reports of people being fired for social media posts, and ICE collecting info on "anti-ICE" social media content. Unfortunately, this is going to have to get to a point where enough people are willing to die to oppose this. When the economy starts hurting the upper-middle class, things might change, but I don't know.

There is and has been resistance, and it's resulted in American deaths. There just hasn't been the craziness of, e.g., Jan 6 (irony intended)!

Minneapolis protestors beg to differ

We have been sufficiently divided to prevent collective action until it is too late. Those who should be allied with us are too distracted by gender arguments and religious propaganda to notice the boot coming down for us all.

I don't blame the Citizens. The Citizens are against a huge media blitz working against them: Online, social media, and traditional media. They've been systematically targets to oppose on another on multiple levels.

The Democrats and the Republicans both failed. This is Democratic Erosion over a long timeline. We're seeing the results of a failure of Democracy.

Democratic guardrails were removed over a long enough time and/or were not reinstated fast enough. The same people who thrive in high-level social circles tend to be sociopaths and psychopaths, both can be corrupt, this is humans nature. Technology moved faster than geriatric politicians could keep up with, and this was taken advantage of by both the psy/sociopaths and International Forces. We are living through the downfall of American Democracy driven by both Capitalism and International Forces doing what all Internationals Forces have done since Pangea split or whatever.

We don't live in a perfect world. Democracy will always be a tug of war between ideas of shared power and the want of absolute power; this is human nature.

The only forces that can hold a POTUS accountable, especially at this stage when there's so many stooges in place, is a literal mob or the Military Branch. If this administration doesn't want to give up power; I'm not sure there's anything to stop them.

But also, fuck neocon Robert Kagan

We need socialism, and fast.

Which in my view is not that different from any other county historically falling under dictatorship. Most of them has for one or another reason wanted the dictator in charge initially and welcomed the overlord.

We all think the system will save it from itself and also none of us want to die

Something something society hinges on eight meals.

If the meals keep coming people will avoid violence and put up with a lot.

The American constitution means there was a way of stopping America from becoming a tyrannical fascist state.

Turns out it is just for show.

Did you know Hitler just took over the movement created by his mentor?

I didn't until recently

Down to the lil mustache and everything...

I don't want to sound like a Bible beater because religion is very much not a part of my life. But I know the Bible. If the warnings in Daniel, Theologians, revelation about an antichrist is true, everything that describes an antichrist, Trump fits to a a T, and this board of peace. I dunno it's starting to be more than a coincidence to me.

Is the interview only two questions and answers for anyone else?

Americans are too obsessed with themselves to give a shit. And when ICE starts busting the heads of white people, they'll happily report their neighbors and coworkers for disloyalty.

Netanyahu is in charge