Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want
Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want | Rebecca Solnit
I have no choice at this point. I’m fully disabled, and most of my friends and family died within the last few years, so I have no support network.
I’m already struggling to survive, having to choose between food and medicine, and am overdrawn every month. All my savings are gone. I have literally no money to my name, and have been barely staving off homelessness for months. I rely completely on social services now, which trump has vowed to cut.
I will not survive this administration. My fellow Americans have voted for me to die.
I honestly need people to show any sign that this country is anything more than what my ever-narrowing gaze perceives it to be: a country full of ignorant, self-obsessed narcissists that would rather see people sacrificed than endure the slightest inconvenience.
I have never felt like part of a community here in my life (only a renter, a homeowner, a taxpayer). I have never experienced anything approaching solidarity in my life (only co-workers, bosses, executives). I have never even really experienced culture here (only concerts, for-profit festivals, open air markets, malls, seminars, and conferences). Everyone in this country has chosen to sell itself out continually to the almighty dollar and the highest bidder.
The only way out of any of this I see is people building actual community. I'm not hopeful.
The barbarians aren't at the gate. They are your neighbors and coworkers.
This is hardly the first time America has been revealed as a country of deplorables for deplorables. One only has to go back to the civil rights era for a clear example.
The barbarians aren’t at the gate. They are your neighbors and coworkers.
Agreed though I prefer the terms workspace / living space proximity associates.
How, exactly? They own the courts, and have the presidency, senate, and likely the house. How exactly do we fight back? America gave them the authority to do anything they want that doesn't require a super majority.
At the federal level, drag out everything and block everything you can. Their margins in the house, should it be called in their favor, will be extremely narrow. Let them in fight and flame against each other. Use every procedural rule to slow stuff down. Filibuster everything. Even if a specific issue is a losing fight, make them have to fight it so they cannot move on to something else. Republicans have used these tricks to block progress for a long time, time to flip it back on them
At the state level, we can much have more room to push back. A lot of what they are likely to pull is pushing things back into the states. Codify everything at state levels. Ensrhine our rights into state constitutions. A lot of federal operations rely on state government cooperating behind the scenes. Without it, a lot more can be slowed way down or made much more difficult
Outside the government, we still have power as individuals. Organize unions, protests, etc
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same tired speech we got in 2016.
Guess what, we fought, we organized, we donated, we voted.
Now you went and fucked it all up again while we fought, we organized, we donated, we voted.
And 15 million of you, including statistically a lot of Democrats and progressives, didn't do fuck all. For reasons unknown but I'm guessing petulance, economic anxiety, misogyny, supporting genocide, not supporting genocide. You all know the stakes, you didn't have our backs, you let the nightmare happen.
Now your coming back like nothing happened and tell us once again, we need you to keep fighting, need to organize, need to donate, need to vote?
No. I'm done. You all are on your own to fix your own bed. I'm tired of wasting my time and money on both Democrats who refuse to change and keep trying to be diet Republican and and progressives that throws tantrums and won't work the long game.
Get your shit in order on your own and count me out.
I feel the same way. Everyone has this blind belief that courts and laws are going to mean something to a group of people that laws don't apply to. Nothing is being dragged out or tied up except our bodies.
Yeah, the trust that the courts that are overwhelmingly now and going to be worse, MAGA controlled is bat shit insane. I mean it's sad that they haven't paid attention to everything they've done since Trump's days with the courts.
Yeah, hunker down, survive, get a backup plan and let America sort itself out whatever that may look like.
What about mockery and name calling?
I'm not afraid of some stinky senile child raping weirdo.
No, they don't. They love themselves. And they love praise. Otherwise we are nothing to them.
Trump didn't put me into dispair, America did.
Grief is natural, but we cannot give up the fight. Tens of millions did not vote for this. If they want to take away rights, make every one a fight
Everything we fight is time they cannot spend moving on to the next thing. Drag every fight out even if it's something seemingly minor. Give them no ground
The more resistance they see, the weaker they become
Tens of millions intentionally didn't vote at all, knowing full well this was going to happen. At this point, I don't want to help them when the shit hits the fan. This is what they wanted.
Yeah, I went through all of this in 2016 and now here we are back a freaking gain. America deserves it this time.
Same