Worth noting that iirc the lorax doesn’t actually do anything except speak up for those who needed help and protection. He didn’t win immediately but his efforts weren’t in vain. The lorax (or at least the movie?) shows you many ways you can be a part of changing the world. You dont have to be Ted, you don’t have to be the Lorax, you don’t have to be granny norma, or Ted’s love interest, or the people who spoke up first when Ted planted the tree. All of these people made the world better with their own contribution. You should consider it, though.
The movie?
. . . Get out.
The Lorax failed as every single Truffula tree was felled. Then the person who destroyed everything passed the work of rebuilding off to someone else.
It is a great story as a warning, but a terrible example of avoiding destruction.
The very situation we are in now was greatly enabled because lots of people did what you are doing. Dont lose sleep and sacrifice your health (edit not help), but if you were ever an undecided candidate while Trump was running, or you don’t know what an oligarchy or nepotism is or why they’re relevant, or can’t recount what happened on Jan 6 2021, you NEED to pay more attention.
Sacrificing your servants is the worst thing you could do. Who’s going to butter your toast?
That’s a funny typo, but I gotta fix it.
Honest question, in the pre-Trump days people rightly pointed out that the "ruling class " (Koch brothers, Adelsons, Soros, Bloomberg, etc. etc.) would try to buy influence in their preferred party but also donated to the “other side”.
Those people were called oligarchs.
Now that Trump has taken the reins, the term has turned toward him. If you look at the donors in 2024, the top six or so donated to the Republican party (Elon tops that list) but it’s not THAT far off from previous years.
Aside from the obvious (Trump being a dangerous radical, to put it mildly) has anything changed in the way influence is bought and sold, or is the increased use of “oligarchy” more of a tactic to try and mitigate the damage that Trump can do by calling it out as loudly as possible?
I’m Canadian, and I’ve heard the term oligarchy thrown around in reference to American politics for many years, but never do often nor so forcefully as in the past two months.
On top of what everyone else has said, I’m gonna be that person and bring up capitalism, which I’m defining as private ownership of business (as opposed to state ownership, or ownership by the workers, etc). Capitalism concentrates money, and by extension power, which is never good for people without it. I’ll admit I’m biased as a socialist, but at this point the biggest indictment of capitalism for me is that most of what we’re seeing these days isn’t new: rampant wealth inequality which leads to institutions decaying, followed by liberal and conservative elites being either unable or unwilling to fix problems that are plain for everyone to see, followed by people being radicalized.
The new thing is global warming, which can’t be attributed solely to capitalism but is being exacerbated by it. A handful of people who get their money and power from fossil fuels would rather burn the world to ashes than give up that money and power (yes, they’re probably investing in renewables, but if they treated global warming like the existential threat it is, they wouldn’t be bankrolling climate deniers.
(this should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the Soviet Union or the current Chinese government, they are/were both also results of capitalism failing but neither of those is relevant to democracy failing in the West™ also I’m not a tankie, authoritarianism of every stripe is bad)
They’re now completely shameless, out in the open, and know that nobody is gonna stop them.
Under trump yes it’s both overt and flagrant. Any of his friends, people he owes, people he likes, or those in his orbit get things like cabinet positions, or government contracts, or ambassadorships. This is new under trump. There have always been better or worse candidates for positions and questionable angling, but the “my kid gets this position, her father in law gets that one, this fox news guy gets this” undeniable.
This is in addition to the fact that the connections are now in the open as well. Trump just calls up a supreme Court justice when he’s got a case before them and they answer. Senators, governors, and of course house reps are the same and increasingly industry CEOs are playing the game.
To wrap a brief oligarchy/plutocracy comment, you can even go find a soundbite by trump that says basically “Elon gave us a lot of money, so I guess I’m a fan of electric cars now”. There is no more quiet part, or quiet part loud, it’s just all loud.
Aside from the obvious (Trump being a dangerous radical, to put it mildly) has anything changed in the way influence is bought and sold
The world’s richest man did a nazi salute on stage, in front of at least 3 of the other richest men in the world who all showed up to support the incoming administration.
The owners of Twitter, Meta, Amazon, and most recently Tiktok with the “thanks Trump!” obvious power play have all quite openly kissed the ring and bent the knee.
This is very far off from previous years. The wealthiest of the wealthy are making public displays of loyalty to a man who has flagrantly profitted off of the office for four years straight while actively making life worse for everyone except the rich.
Now he flagrantly profitted off of the office again before he was even inaugurated by launching a cryptocurrency, and his first actions in office are all directly and obviously against the best interests of the people but custom-designed for the well-known interests of wealthy conservative idealogues.
Yes, this is new. And yes, this is very, very, bad. Was America an oligarchy playing dress-up as a democratic republic? Yes. Were there massive donors pulling strings behind the scenes? Absolutely. Were politicians and lobbyists enjoying a revolving door of public and private sector benefits and making bank on book deals? All true.
But now the masks are off, and the worst and wealthiest have taken control with a smile and a laugh. They aren’t playing the world’s biggest and stupidest game of Monopoly. They have the Commander in Chief of the Military with all the checks and balances intentionally removed, so at the very least they’re playing the world’s worst game of Risk.
They aren’t going to make money off of book deals. They will make money off of wholesale looting and dismantling the government, and they’ll blame the inevitable economic and societal problems on us, on immigrants, on un-American citizens, and they’ll do it in broad daylight on 5th avenue.
That’s bad.
Removing news from your regular feeds or taking a break from them for a week is chill, everyone should do that here and there. But don’t bury your head in the sand, you should keep an eye on it even if that is only browsing a dedicated news feed every week or two. Ignorance and complacency is how we got Trump 2024 with people actively voting against themselves.
Our political situation is currently quite extreme, read up on fascism specifically the “legal stage” of fascism
This thread is everything I needed to convince me to leave instead of fight.
Tune it out. I went all in last time. It’s not worth it for your mental health
Same. The mental health damage isn’t worth paying attention
It’s okay. We can take turns being vigilant, as each of our mental health allows.
Our billionaire overlords are incredibly powerful, but there’s a shit ton more of the rest of us, than there are of them, even counting their many paid cronies.
The billionaires are also the ones pushing the around the clock burn out news cycle, to wear us down.
Take time for your mental health, and trust random folks like me to be vigilant while you rest.
They want us to forget that we’re in this together.
Part of it is a war on information and memory, so it is important to stay aware. With the American Civil War, almost immediately after it was over they began rewriting history (the Lost Cause).
There’s a historical debate about the extent of which German civilians were aware of the Holocaust. I found Hitler’s Willing Executioners convincing myself. I think people knew what was happening in the camps, but allowed themselves an out - plausible deniability. (And again, the war on memory - that the deaths were all typhus, or the numbers were exaggerated)
I’ve already been living as an oppressed minority in a state that had already started implementing Project 2025 before Trump was even elected. The one thing that’s hardest to deal with is the gaslighting. I’ve just wanted to be seen.
I don’t think they’ll put trans people in death camps, but I believe they are planning on weaponizing the mental health system against trans people. Forcible institutionalization for most AFAB at least. Trans women they might declare sex criminals and use the increased powers of capital punishment on - we’ve seen moves towards this in Florida. I think it’d be like Nazi’s and the original eugenics program - some trans people do have families who might protest if a bunch of us disappear.
I do believe they will start killing immigrants. Texas has volunteered land for this purpose, and if they are already placing barbed wire along the Rio Grande, they are willing to kill.
So how does this knowledge help? What is the point of keeping up with the fear and terror?
Perhaps to try to help the lesson stick this time. To keep screaming that this is not normal. To ensure that when it is all over, there won’t be “it was all about states rights!” That we saw this coming, that we kept saying it was coming, but America was too scared of a black woman in power and too obsessed with trans women’s penises to say “no” to Stupid Hitler.
You can stay aware to know where small places of action are - can you print out cards with information on what to do when ICE arrives and leave them in places? You can stock up on mifepristone or estrogen if you have friends who might need it. Find local mutual aid networks and pitch in. Provide emotional support to your queer/immigrant/woman friends. Tell children that this is not normal, this is not the America we grew up in.
Action is how to combat trauma. It’s the feeling of helplessness that “causes” PTSD - a situation where you know that nothing you do has an impact on the outcome. Mental health under fascism is learning what you can do, and focusing on that.
Really minor side note. I don’t think comparisons of Trump to Hitler really help that much, there’s too many differences between the two men. What I think helps much more overall is comparisons of Trump to Benito Mussolini, who he much more closely aligns with, and who predated Hitler in the interwar period as a fascist dictator. The term fascist is originally an Italian word, even.
Mussolini comparisons capture Trump’s smallness and bumbling nature while still highlighting his ability to do great harm much more accurately. Trump is an American Mussolini.
But in the US, the average reading comprehension stopped around 6th grade. I don’t think a good chunk of Americans under 35 have more than a VERY passing knowledge of Mussolini (and they probably confuse half of it with Stalin)
Not sure how you mean “I am in the US” but based on a bunch of assumptions, my advice would be to tune it out as much as possible and focus on being a good person making your friends and famliy happy.
This trump administration will very likely follow the last in that it will be a storm of incompetence and reversing-of-decisions such that whatever actual evil they are able to implement will show up somewhere you’d likely see it in your day-to-day life.
You’ll get a lot of stress and anxiety watching the news / social media about it because those things will include all the “might happens” and "said they would"s and so on. Forget that stuff. Just make some good food you like and make someone close to you smile today and that’s the best you can do. (And it’s not bad!)
Plenty of good responses. I assume you are foreigner and I will give you one suggestion. Make sure your passport is valid just in case you need to flee the incoming disaster.
This stuff matters and we’re approaching a point where you can no longer safely ignore it. Pay attention and within a month or two you’ll find your newfound political opinions appear obvious in hindsight. Make sure to fact-check stuff when you can to avoid getting tricked by disinformation. Remember to avoid common fallacies, especially that there must always be perfect equality between both sides of an argument-- sometimes one side is unambiguously right, and sometimes it actually is grey. Remember that “always” and “never” are usually incorrect, but that you can still make statements about what’s likely to be true or to happen in the future, and that those statements are still very important. And lastly, make sure that you’re confident in your opinions before arguing about them. Oh, and asking questions may get you downvotes, but it’s great for learning; just remember that people can lie. I know that’s a lot, but it’s better to know it now than later! Mostly I’m just trying to safeguard you against the common pitfalls people make mistakes around.
Join your local DSA and tend to local issues. The things that the national level are indeed serious, but spend your time and efforts where you can make the biggest difference.
Donate a few dollars to your local land trust to keep land out of the hands of big business.
Join local housing boards or City Hall meetings, wherever decisions on zoning and housing are decided. Anytime someone tries to blame something on bigger buildings designed for more people, and better public transportation, fight them tooth and nail. Single residence zoning, parking minimums, etc. are one of the reasons homelessness exists.
Show up to protests
Make friends with your neighbors
Please do anything but just vegetate. You are important. But only if you help.
I’m off the opinion that knowledge is always power. You can always ignore what you’ve learned to stay sane.
Not so easy to Ignore what you know.
Knowledge is power, but ignorance is bliss.
I follow the news until I can’t take it any more, and take a break until I can again.
Yeah, actually sounds like what I do. It can get depressing, but I try not to stay away too long. I don’t want to be blindsided by something that might affect me.
A good example is when I got rid of cable TV, I didn’t get a lot of local news and wasn’t aware until late that a hurricane was heading my way.
If you don’t plan to help at all then yes, might as well stick your head in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you pay attention or not if you don’t offer any form of resistance. Indifference is the default response for a significant portion of Americans and it’s a huge part of the problem.
The deck is stacked against us, no doubt. But we can look to historical examples of what happens if you don’t fight Nazis coming into power, and I refuse to be one of those examples.
There really are only two pragmatic options at this point. Fight or leave. Anything else is a waste.
You hurt your own cause by being so willing to make everything black and white.
I want people who fight for good by cooking meals to do that and understand they are having an impact.
I want teachers who will not lie to their students.
I want religious leaders who will point out the hypocrisy of those using religion to divide.
None of those things are “fighting.” All of them, and many more, are important.
If you feel like violent resistance is what you are good at and what is needed, I encourage you to think about all the other forms of resistance necessary for any violent campaign to produce long-lasting positive results and perhaps reconsider how quick you are to dismiss others and if that is truly helpful for your cause.
I encourage you to not be so black and white by your definition of “fighting”. I consider most* forms of resistance as fighting, not just violent ones. We’ll take whatever we can get as far as that is concerned, but you can’t deny that it will ultimately take physical resistance as well. Some have the capacity for both.
Perhaps it is worth considering why your comment got my response, then. Perhaps you aren’t conveying your meaning as well as you could.
Absolutely and agreed. We need people much more adept than me at conveying this information to the people that need to hear it.
If you haven’t noticed that a lot of things in your life are political, I feel sorry for your lack of grasp on reality. The taxes you pay are political. The laws you have to follow are political. Decisions on how your kids go to school are political. How you work (you payment, your job- and personal safety) - guess what, it’s political. If the CDC will protect you against the next pandemic, if the FDA will protect you against being poisoned - it is all political.
Tune out reality at your own risk. You should have paid attention to this ages ago.
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You had an upvote until the doomerism. Now is the time, it’s never too late.
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The peons will be some of the most impacted, so it is good to stay in the loop. I wouldn’t obsess over what is going on, but a weekly digest of news is helpful.
