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As an outsider (I live in Belgium) it feels very weird and dystopian to see everything happening in American politics with Trump and Musk.

On one side, it's very interesting and almost entertaining; on the other side, it's scary. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in the USA.

Americans, how do you cope? What's your take on the situation?

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[–] compostgoblin@slrpnk.net 97 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (23 children)

I am trying to ignore it. It’s like all the worst fears I could have coming true. The richest man in the world, a naked fascist and virulent transphobe, is gobbling up all the sensitive data the government has and is feeding it to AI so he can tear down the government and usher in techno-feudalism.

Meanwhile, I still have to go to work and pretend that everything is fine and normal, while the government is trying to define trans people out of existence, help Israel ethnically cleanse Palestine, and threaten every ally we’ve had.

I want to leave, but it’s extraordinarily difficult to uproot your life, and there’s no guarantee that finding a viable way to move elsewhere is going to happen.

So I’m just trying to imagine myself as a tiny individual, trying to hide from the brutality and eke out a good life with my little resources and community, and pray that whatever happens doesn’t happen to me directly.

Maybe I should be out protesting - I feel like I should - but there isn’t a mass movement right now, and there’s no leverage in government to stop them. So things are feeling pretty bleak right now.

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 49 points 2 days ago (4 children)

but there isn’t a mass movement right now

Lookup the 50501 movement. There were protests across the entire country in every single state yesterday and they are planning future ones too. Many of them were quite large especially considering how short notice they were prepared

Here's one video montage with just handful of some of the protests https://bsky.app/profile/50501movement.bsky.social/post/3lifqkjki2k2o

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"a peaceful movement". Ok. Unilaterally disarming seems like a dubious move to me.

I don't think protests where you just stand around and chant are especially effective. Maybe in 1950 when seeing people get firehosed was shocking, but the world is different today. Media is captured by the wealthy and most people don't care.

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Protests are a starting point not an ending one. Many of the groups involved in this like Indivisible are also recruiting people from theses protests to do the less flashy work of fighting back in other ways

They also are quite the lighting rod to get people to feel engaged more broadly. If you've never gone to a mass protest, it's hard to describe how they reignite you to fight back. Seeing all those people there makes you realize you are not alone. That you are not the only one who doesn't think this is okay

These most recent protests were also much larger than the media is describing it. The media is saying thousands nationwide, but there were multiple cities that each had 1000+ people. Many smaller cities had hundreds protesting

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 8 points 2 days ago

This is a good point. Seeing other people get onto the street can motivate people who weren't feeling enthusiastic.

But I do worry that protests will fizzle out and be, as you say, an ending point. Maybe they won't be.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

glad to see you guys are doing a bit of socialism to fight back.

just wanted to wish you all the best in your endeavours.

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