As an American who didn’t vote for him, I understand your anger. I feel it too but there are still genuinely good caring people here who do not agree with this monster. Please don’t hold it against all of us.
I’m Danish and I refuse to make this about nationality. I’ve had an immeasurable amount of American friends over the years. I’ve loved your music, your company, your viewpoints, your stories - and I’ve had nothing but respect for you. I’ve been on American social media with you for decades. I’ve laughed at the same jokes as you. I speak your language, I sing your songs, I share an incredible amount of your culture. We learned to celebrate Halloween from you. We wear your clothes. We are your friends.
This is where you’d expect to see a “but”, but there is no “but”. I just wanted to say this, because I refuse to be divided by national borders. The America I see now, is not the America I grew up with. And now I’m fucking crying. It feels like losing a good friend, to some sort of neurological illness. We will always share your values. Not MAGA values, but OUR values.
Your friends are still here, but they’re not in charge. Violent, armed bullies have taken over and are driving this country - with the rest of us in it - off a cliff. They aren’t just invading Greenland, they’re invading us. Our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our courts, all invaded. The authorities we armed and entrusted to uphold the law have seen their opportunity to go mask-off and support fascism. Your friends here are outclassed, outgunned, and oppressed.
Remember that America isn’t a monolith. If you were to put a bullet in the head of every US soldier to set foot on Greenland, we will celebrate your victory. Because we care about humanity, and our armed forces have given theirs up to fulfill a hateful dream. They’ve made their decision and deserve whatever’s coming to them.
And reading the stories of ICE is absolutely terrifying to us too. We are reaching a point where democrats may be forced to consider their 2nd amendment rights.
Democrats would have to effectively organize and train in a large enough group to not just be instantly wiped out or imprisoned as “insurrectionists”. Technically it would be an insurrection, but with some outside help or military backing it could turn into a coup.
Does the rest of the world want a destabilized civil warring nuclear state? It’s not likely to stay contained even in the western hemisphere.
The European aristocracy was “absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic.”[134]
Take that feeling like losing a good friend, and now imagine it’s your own mind you’re losing. Everything you held close and understood is upside down. It’s disorienting, because they (fascist regime) intended it to be disorienting to paralyze any organized effective response.
I miss the America I grew up in. 80s were amazing. Like 1996-2010 felt so hopeful, bush years were bad an helped enable alot of what is happening now but I’d gladly take him over what we have now
In any war there are soldiers who don’t wanna be there. Good, honest people, forced to march on because their masters will it.
If they come for my country I will have to shoot them nonetheless.
Take this motherfucker down by any political means necessary and if you can’t, then form your “well regulated militia” that your all too precious 2nd amendment affords you and take back your own country instead of others
As an American, l say that any soldiers that willingly take part in this invasion, even in a support role, are NOT “good honest people”. They are traitors following illegal orders. I fully support you defending your country with lethal force if it comes to that.
I wish that I had more power to stop this, but I don’t. Do what you have to do, and don’t feel guilty about it. Give us the hell we deserve.
Your government is threatening to invade its allies!
Our countrymen died fighting side by side with your military in your misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We don’t have the patience and time to distinguish between good and evil Americans anymore. As long as your country keeps act like this you’re all guilty!
Please read up about collective German guilt a term coined by the US when your country was still on the right side of history.
The sane Americans here are saying, “Hey, we’re your allies in this, we are trying to help,” and you’re literally saying, “No, you’re the enemy.” This is basically moral reasoning on the level of “my daughter crashed the car so I’m going to hit my son with a baseball bat.” It’s too much work on your part to distinguish between innocent and guilty? That’s some very firm moral high ground you’re lobbing spears from.
Not only is that nonsensical from a moral standpoint, but it’s terrible strategic thinking. You just prefer it if we’re all to be enemies?
But to be clear, I understand when you spew hatred like this, you’re not thinking. You’re lashing out emotionally because you’re upset. Now the question is, will you acknowledge this, or will you respond by increasing the volume and digging in deeper?
Every time I see this argument I’m reminded of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. If “trying to help” is limited to thoughts and prayers online, it isn’t help, it’s just masturbation.
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I understand it may remind you of that, but it’s not an apt comparison.
I’ve been advocating direct non-violent action here like MLK was doing (and, reminder, I assume non-violent protest won’t satisfy the angry non-Americans here who are telling us to “arm up”). I don’t think anyone is advocating for “wait[ing] for a more convenient season” - we know fascism is here, but the question is what is the move that (a) doesn’t cause it to dig in deeper like a tick, and (b) maximizes the good that we pay for with the risk to ourselves and others.
And yes, we’re all talking online, that’s what Lemmy is. I have called what I am doing “therapy” which I would suggest it in fact is, rather than “masturbation.” Living in the US and not being MAGA right now feels like being a battered family member. (And it’s super helpful to tell us that we’re awful because our abuser made a mess while they were abusing us, thanks for that everyone.) I come here to vent and commiserate - that’s not mutually exclusive from taking action.
I wake up and go to sleep (very poorly) fighting learned helplessness and awful emotions because I see the same headlines we all do here, and whatever the world feels seeing it, it’s happening here to us first.
I’m not asking to be a victim, not that anyone is offering any empathy here. I’m just saying, hey, maybe those of us in the US who are doing what we rationally can to stop Trump don’t need another abuser? I guess that’s my message for comrade_twisty and others gleefully (but definitely not masturbatorily!) piling on the “all Americans can fuck themselves” bandwagon.
Not to dogpile you too much here - I understand this is difficult - but part of the problem is framing this as a Trump issue. It really isn’t. Even with all this insanity, he still enjoys a 40% approval rating! This doesn’t end only by cutting off MAGA’s head, ahtough that would help - it also means salting the earth where it grows by finally eradicating the christofascist, patriarchal, racist current in the population that has been there since the country’s founding and before. That fight is just as important as going to DC and [REDACTED].
I have no idea why people are just taking those numbers at face value.
Any Americans in this thread, have any of you ever been polled about anything regarding any of this? I know I sure haven’t. I wish they would poll me, I got an awful lot of opinions for these mfers.
Trump and his associated hangers-on have a long and storied history of pulling numbers directly out of their asses. It perplexes me that anyone takes anything the government says right now at face value.
That 40% is what makes me think a 2nd American Civil War is needed. The festering wound that is the Confederacy still lingers in America, and needs to be cleaned with a thorough Reconstruction.
I get it. But just like the UK isn’t Boris Johnson, China isn’t Xi Jinping, and Italy isn’t Giorgia Meloni, no country is going to show the reality and complexity from headlines generated by a handful of people.
What is happening here seems to be everyone taking out their frustrations on the exactly people most likely to help.
I wholeheartedly applaud and support them! They’re absolutely not the ones I’m referring to. Those I take issue with are the ones who do nothing but seek a pat on the head for being “one of the good ones”. I don’t care that you voted for Kamala or repost every Occupy Democrats meme you see. I care about praxis.
Americans spout all about needing their guns to stop a tyrannical government and then a tyrannical governmnet comes along and they don’t take their guns into the streets to stop it.
Because the people afraid of a tyrannical government started supporting the tyrannical. Not to say I hate or am against guns but to think a yokel was going to make a difference in a country this big is absurd. The police are a military force themselves.
I often wonder if the Oklahoma City bombing would happen today by Tim Mcveigh. I mean this is literally the government they feared it’s just that they are targeting the people they hate so they don’t care. If it was the other way around it def would. And Oklahoma has embraced his ideas hell they might have shut down the FBI office in the last few years.
What am I or we supposed to do? The majority of us are broke. I don’t have money to travel to a blue state right now to help resist.
I have a family I very much love and a daughter I want to watch grow up. I know others are losing their ability to be with their families but I’m not putting that at risk unless I absolutely have to and if it was going to make a difference
The venn diagram of Americans who think they need guns to stop a tyrannical government and Americans who support Trump is a circle.
(All kidding aside, while this is still painfully close to true, there are signs it’s changing, such as the recent resurgence of the Black Panthers. However by and large the people who are horrified over the pain and suffering inflicted by the Trump administration are also anti-gun on account of all the pain and suffering they cause. The peaceful, anti-violence, anti-war types are not exactly well equipped–literally or figuratively–to stage an uprising against the government, certainly not one with a military budget the size of Mt Everest)
No offense, and I love Superman… but this is aimed at children.
“Setting an example” only matters when it’s impressionable equally powerful youth enacting cruelty… not some sociopath with access to a mind-bogglingly world-destroying thermo-☢️ arsenal at the press of a button.
I’m sorry, but this would be like asking that same child (who doesn’t have Kryptonian super-powers, mind you) to stop a Predator drone by “setting a good example.”
It’s going to drop its laser-guided payload either way. Being nice isn’t going to help in such a scenario. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it won’t help in any currently unfolding situation being discussed in this thread either.
Greenland won’t be able to stop anything by attempting to appeal to a “better nature.” Such nature does not exist within that person. Not that I’d ever advocate for it, but they’d probably sadly have more success just taking inspiration from 3-letter peeps doing what they did on the bottom half of the blue marble for a handful of decades.
Just wanted to say - no idea what’s going on in the comments, don’t take it too hard. People are angry. Just as I would not condemn every Russian because Putin is a giant asshole, I wouldn’t condemn every US american. Especially not those in the fediverse - it’s likely you suffer as well under your dictator.
It’s hard to make that distinction. Even in Germany under the jackboot of National Socialism there were still good people, some even dared to take action while others dragged their feet as much as possible without endangering themselves and their loved ones. This is where the difference between guilt and responsibility arises. In my opinion not all US Americans are guilty, just like not all Germans were, yet all US Americans share a responsibility to rid themselves of their political polarisation and the hatred at its root, just like the good people of Germany managed to do in the decades after the war.
I agree. However one can address this responsibility in many ways, depending on ones skills and situation in life. Telling people to just go out on the streets and overthrow the government or get rid of their leaders is an easy appeal, but not everybody is able to translate that into action. Caring for yourself, for your family, your neighbors and your community is what most people care for in the first place. In hindsight it’s always easy to say you would have joined the resistance. Many young Germans today would claim they would have prevented the rise of the Nazis, but I doubt very many of them would have done so.
I don’t condemn every Russian because Putin is a giant asshole, I condemn them because they’re content to “stay out of politics” and let Putin use their country to commit atrocities against their innocent neighbours. I condemn all of those who haven’t taken at least the same risks and efforts that their neighbours are forced to take to defend themselves.
I understand that there are a lot of Americans who did not vote for him or support his actions. But he’s your monster. You need to deal with him.
If you do nothing and stand back while he invades other countries and force them to fight the battles you won’t, then you are neither a good nor caring person.
Sorry, running out of sympathy here. All my life Americans have talked a big game about how anti-tyrant they are, how their democracy is so wonderful and in the event that it fails they’ve got their precious guns to go set things right. Land of the free, home of the brave.
You don’t get to talk that big game and then flip over to “please don’t hold it against us!” Without getting called on it. I keep seeing Americans begging for other countries to come in and “save” them. Isn’t that the problem? Sort your own problems out. The only thing the rest of the world is obligated to do is keep you contained.
I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.
I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.
Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.
Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.
The French would have general striked and yellow vested the country to a grinding halt by now. Folks in the United States either lack the courage or confidence or interests or all of the above combined.
General strike, demonstrations where they can’t be ignored, organised resistance, organised campaigning, even striking in solidarity with others.
Oh. You’re all struggling too much to be able to do that?
That’s you being oppressed, and you could organise against that: you could organise war chests for striking, unionise to regain rights, vote or campaign for actual peoples representation rather than corporate such, build resilient communities, picket biased media, organise or join collective action, prosecute and pressure corrupt politicians, counter lobbies, educating yourself and others, etc.
Gather neighbours, save funds, support eachother, resist where you can and coordinate with others to have a greater impact.
But most aren’t going to, cus there’s always someone else to blame, someone else that should save the day. And while you’re passing blame, the fascists consolidate, divide and terrorise, both your domestic neighbours and international friends. Leaving you more vulnerable, more isolated, and with less and less support to resist or survive.
I like that “realistic” caveat that you’ve thrown in there. Does that mean that all that rhetoric about the 2nd Amendment and “the tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants” was never realistic?
Self education that leads you and your friends away from heroic individualism, hypercapitalism, parochialism, cults, and other cultural excesses that lead to authoritarianism. It’s what we’re dealing with around the globe but the USA is struggling to understand.
The fun thing about America is that you can literally just walk to a shop and buy a gun today. The fact that everyone who opposes Trump hasn’t done that says a lot about the real situation on the ground there.
Not true. I live in a state where we require a gun permit in order to purchase a gun. You have to that a gun safety class and fulfill other requirements. This is more a thing in blue states than in red states.
I personally don’t own a gun because someone in my household has a history of suicidal ideation.
That, and the common refrain of “I can’t go to the protest, I need my job” clearly indicates that freedom has a price tag for them and it’s surprisingly low.
Shameful to pick survival of family over something that will make them homeless, locked up, or killed. /s
And yes, people both in the past and now in some places go that far to try and change things, or to just fight back. But those people also got put against a wall to make those choices, and unfortunately most Americans, even the ones in trouble, aren’t quite at that level yet.
Says in one of the great documents that people “are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” It’s human nature to deal with things than totally uproot them. This isn’t an excuse against rebelling, it’s just a reason why there isn’t more of it.
As long as it’s other people who are made homeless, locked up, and killed by your government, that’s a price worth paying, eh?
I’m well aware that Americans are just regular people and are going to have all the same regular-person failings that allow authoritarians to take over as well. But Americans have spent generations bragging triumphantly about how different and better they were and how it couldn’t happen there, so I don’t think I’ll be letting that slide quite yet.
As an American who didn’t vote for him, I understand your anger. I feel it too but there are still genuinely good caring people here who do not agree with this monster. Please don’t hold it against all of us.
I’m Danish and I refuse to make this about nationality. I’ve had an immeasurable amount of American friends over the years. I’ve loved your music, your company, your viewpoints, your stories - and I’ve had nothing but respect for you. I’ve been on American social media with you for decades. I’ve laughed at the same jokes as you. I speak your language, I sing your songs, I share an incredible amount of your culture. We learned to celebrate Halloween from you. We wear your clothes. We are your friends.
This is where you’d expect to see a “but”, but there is no “but”. I just wanted to say this, because I refuse to be divided by national borders. The America I see now, is not the America I grew up with. And now I’m fucking crying. It feels like losing a good friend, to some sort of neurological illness. We will always share your values. Not MAGA values, but OUR values.
Your friends are still here, but they’re not in charge. Violent, armed bullies have taken over and are driving this country - with the rest of us in it - off a cliff. They aren’t just invading Greenland, they’re invading us. Our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our courts, all invaded. The authorities we armed and entrusted to uphold the law have seen their opportunity to go mask-off and support fascism. Your friends here are outclassed, outgunned, and oppressed.
Remember that America isn’t a monolith. If you were to put a bullet in the head of every US soldier to set foot on Greenland, we will celebrate your victory. Because we care about humanity, and our armed forces have given theirs up to fulfill a hateful dream. They’ve made their decision and deserve whatever’s coming to them.
Thank you. Borders are stupid, we are all humans and we only have one floating rock. Also, I love the Danes I’ve met.
Thanks.
And reading the stories of ICE is absolutely terrifying to us too. We are reaching a point where democrats may be forced to consider their 2nd amendment rights.
Democrats would have to effectively organize and train in a large enough group to not just be instantly wiped out or imprisoned as “insurrectionists”. Technically it would be an insurrection, but with some outside help or military backing it could turn into a coup.
Does the rest of the world want a destabilized civil warring nuclear state? It’s not likely to stay contained even in the western hemisphere.
History rhyming again I guess.
Take that feeling like losing a good friend, and now imagine it’s your own mind you’re losing. Everything you held close and understood is upside down. It’s disorienting, because they (fascist regime) intended it to be disorienting to paralyze any organized effective response.
I miss the America I grew up in. 80s were amazing. Like 1996-2010 felt so hopeful, bush years were bad an helped enable alot of what is happening now but I’d gladly take him over what we have now
Agreed. It definitely feels like we’re losing a good friend. Signed Norwegian dude
In any war there are soldiers who don’t wanna be there. Good, honest people, forced to march on because their masters will it.
If they come for my country I will have to shoot them nonetheless.
Take this motherfucker down by any political means necessary and if you can’t, then form your “well regulated militia” that your all too precious 2nd amendment affords you and take back your own country instead of others
As an American, l say that any soldiers that willingly take part in this invasion, even in a support role, are NOT “good honest people”. They are traitors following illegal orders. I fully support you defending your country with lethal force if it comes to that.
I wish that I had more power to stop this, but I don’t. Do what you have to do, and don’t feel guilty about it. Give us the hell we deserve.
Your government is threatening to invade its allies! Our countrymen died fighting side by side with your military in your misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We don’t have the patience and time to distinguish between good and evil Americans anymore. As long as your country keeps act like this you’re all guilty!
Please read up about collective German guilt a term coined by the US when your country was still on the right side of history.
The sane Americans here are saying, “Hey, we’re your allies in this, we are trying to help,” and you’re literally saying, “No, you’re the enemy.” This is basically moral reasoning on the level of “my daughter crashed the car so I’m going to hit my son with a baseball bat.” It’s too much work on your part to distinguish between innocent and guilty? That’s some very firm moral high ground you’re lobbing spears from.
Not only is that nonsensical from a moral standpoint, but it’s terrible strategic thinking. You just prefer it if we’re all to be enemies?
But to be clear, I understand when you spew hatred like this, you’re not thinking. You’re lashing out emotionally because you’re upset. Now the question is, will you acknowledge this, or will you respond by increasing the volume and digging in deeper?
Every time I see this argument I’m reminded of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. If “trying to help” is limited to thoughts and prayers online, it isn’t help, it’s just masturbation.
I understand it may remind you of that, but it’s not an apt comparison.
I’ve been advocating direct non-violent action here like MLK was doing (and, reminder, I assume non-violent protest won’t satisfy the angry non-Americans here who are telling us to “arm up”). I don’t think anyone is advocating for “wait[ing] for a more convenient season” - we know fascism is here, but the question is what is the move that (a) doesn’t cause it to dig in deeper like a tick, and (b) maximizes the good that we pay for with the risk to ourselves and others.
And yes, we’re all talking online, that’s what Lemmy is. I have called what I am doing “therapy” which I would suggest it in fact is, rather than “masturbation.” Living in the US and not being MAGA right now feels like being a battered family member. (And it’s super helpful to tell us that we’re awful because our abuser made a mess while they were abusing us, thanks for that everyone.) I come here to vent and commiserate - that’s not mutually exclusive from taking action.
I wake up and go to sleep (very poorly) fighting learned helplessness and awful emotions because I see the same headlines we all do here, and whatever the world feels seeing it, it’s happening here to us first.
I’m not asking to be a victim, not that anyone is offering any empathy here. I’m just saying, hey, maybe those of us in the US who are doing what we rationally can to stop Trump don’t need another abuser? I guess that’s my message for comrade_twisty and others gleefully (but definitely not masturbatorily!) piling on the “all Americans can fuck themselves” bandwagon.
Not to dogpile you too much here - I understand this is difficult - but part of the problem is framing this as a Trump issue. It really isn’t. Even with all this insanity, he still enjoys a 40% approval rating! This doesn’t end only by cutting off MAGA’s head, ahtough that would help - it also means salting the earth where it grows by finally eradicating the christofascist, patriarchal, racist current in the population that has been there since the country’s founding and before. That fight is just as important as going to DC and [REDACTED].
The fact that his approval rating is FORTY FUCKING PERCENT is absolutely crazy. Makes me so sad for my fellow human.
I have no idea why people are just taking those numbers at face value.
Any Americans in this thread, have any of you ever been polled about anything regarding any of this? I know I sure haven’t. I wish they would poll me, I got an awful lot of opinions for these mfers.
Trump and his associated hangers-on have a long and storied history of pulling numbers directly out of their asses. It perplexes me that anyone takes anything the government says right now at face value.
That 40% is what makes me think a 2nd American Civil War is needed. The festering wound that is the Confederacy still lingers in America, and needs to be cleaned with a thorough Reconstruction.
Great, I agree with everything you just said. Constructive discussion! I’d like for that to be what we spend our energy on.
Unfortunately we outside the US see mostly impotent hand-wringing coming from there. That’s why we’re so frustrated.
I get it. But just like the UK isn’t Boris Johnson, China isn’t Xi Jinping, and Italy isn’t Giorgia Meloni, no country is going to show the reality and complexity from headlines generated by a handful of people.
What is happening here seems to be everyone taking out their frustrations on the exactly people most likely to help.
What about the Americans how are standing up and doing something and not sitting back.
I wholeheartedly applaud and support them! They’re absolutely not the ones I’m referring to. Those I take issue with are the ones who do nothing but seek a pat on the head for being “one of the good ones”. I don’t care that you voted for Kamala or repost every Occupy Democrats meme you see. I care about praxis.
Americans spout all about needing their guns to stop a tyrannical government and then a tyrannical governmnet comes along and they don’t take their guns into the streets to stop it.
Because the people afraid of a tyrannical government started supporting the tyrannical. Not to say I hate or am against guns but to think a yokel was going to make a difference in a country this big is absurd. The police are a military force themselves.
I often wonder if the Oklahoma City bombing would happen today by Tim Mcveigh. I mean this is literally the government they feared it’s just that they are targeting the people they hate so they don’t care. If it was the other way around it def would. And Oklahoma has embraced his ideas hell they might have shut down the FBI office in the last few years.
What am I or we supposed to do? The majority of us are broke. I don’t have money to travel to a blue state right now to help resist.
I have a family I very much love and a daughter I want to watch grow up. I know others are losing their ability to be with their families but I’m not putting that at risk unless I absolutely have to and if it was going to make a difference
The venn diagram of Americans who think they need guns to stop a tyrannical government and Americans who support Trump is a circle.
(All kidding aside, while this is still painfully close to true, there are signs it’s changing, such as the recent resurgence of the Black Panthers. However by and large the people who are horrified over the pain and suffering inflicted by the Trump administration are also anti-gun on account of all the pain and suffering they cause. The peaceful, anti-violence, anti-war types are not exactly well equipped–literally or figuratively–to stage an uprising against the government, certainly not one with a military budget the size of Mt Everest)
Was that coined before or after we invited all the nazis here to help with with space program?
Than maybe its time to take some good and caring acctions? It’s not enought to see it and be bothered by it.
No offense, and I love Superman… but this is aimed at children.
“Setting an example” only matters when it’s impressionable equally powerful youth enacting cruelty… not some sociopath with access to a mind-bogglingly world-destroying thermo-☢️ arsenal at the press of a button.
I’m sorry, but this would be like asking that same child (who doesn’t have Kryptonian super-powers, mind you) to stop a Predator drone by “setting a good example.”
It’s going to drop its laser-guided payload either way. Being nice isn’t going to help in such a scenario. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it won’t help in any currently unfolding situation being discussed in this thread either.
Greenland won’t be able to stop anything by attempting to appeal to a “better nature.” Such nature does not exist within that person. Not that I’d ever advocate for it, but they’d probably sadly have more success just taking inspiration from 3-letter peeps doing what they did on the bottom half of the blue marble for a handful of decades.
What comic is this?
Superman black white and blue (eddit: or maybe red? )
Just wanted to say - no idea what’s going on in the comments, don’t take it too hard. People are angry. Just as I would not condemn every Russian because Putin is a giant asshole, I wouldn’t condemn every US american. Especially not those in the fediverse - it’s likely you suffer as well under your dictator.
It’s hard to make that distinction. Even in Germany under the jackboot of National Socialism there were still good people, some even dared to take action while others dragged their feet as much as possible without endangering themselves and their loved ones. This is where the difference between guilt and responsibility arises. In my opinion not all US Americans are guilty, just like not all Germans were, yet all US Americans share a responsibility to rid themselves of their political polarisation and the hatred at its root, just like the good people of Germany managed to do in the decades after the war.
I agree. However one can address this responsibility in many ways, depending on ones skills and situation in life. Telling people to just go out on the streets and overthrow the government or get rid of their leaders is an easy appeal, but not everybody is able to translate that into action. Caring for yourself, for your family, your neighbors and your community is what most people care for in the first place. In hindsight it’s always easy to say you would have joined the resistance. Many young Germans today would claim they would have prevented the rise of the Nazis, but I doubt very many of them would have done so.
I don’t condemn every Russian because Putin is a giant asshole, I condemn them because they’re content to “stay out of politics” and let Putin use their country to commit atrocities against their innocent neighbours. I condemn all of those who haven’t taken at least the same risks and efforts that their neighbours are forced to take to defend themselves.
And now you understand what we Germans feel when Americans ask what our ancestors did during the 1930s and 40s.
I understand that there are a lot of Americans who did not vote for him or support his actions. But he’s your monster. You need to deal with him.
If you do nothing and stand back while he invades other countries and force them to fight the battles you won’t, then you are neither a good nor caring person.
We know there are lots of great Americans. The world needs you to get off your asses and fix your shit.
Sorry, running out of sympathy here. All my life Americans have talked a big game about how anti-tyrant they are, how their democracy is so wonderful and in the event that it fails they’ve got their precious guns to go set things right. Land of the free, home of the brave.
You don’t get to talk that big game and then flip over to “please don’t hold it against us!” Without getting called on it. I keep seeing Americans begging for other countries to come in and “save” them. Isn’t that the problem? Sort your own problems out. The only thing the rest of the world is obligated to do is keep you contained.
Blah blah blah.
Good caring people that allow bad things to continue to happen are not good people
What realistic actions do you expect an average American who opposes Trump to take?
They expect us all to commit suicide by cop but don’t want to come out and say it. If we haven’t died yet, we haven’t done enough.
I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.
I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.
Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.
Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.
Yup, that’s the only option. One desperate inflatable frog suit charge into a hail of bullets.
The French would have general striked and yellow vested the country to a grinding halt by now. Folks in the United States either lack the courage or confidence or interests or all of the above combined.
I don’t think a lot of people realize how big the US is. Organizing a group of a size enough to actually make a difference takes time.
Yes, that’s why revolutions have only been successful in much smaller countries like Russia and China.
You misread my comment, or you’re being disingenuous.
General strike, demonstrations where they can’t be ignored, organised resistance, organised campaigning, even striking in solidarity with others.
Oh. You’re all struggling too much to be able to do that?
That’s you being oppressed, and you could organise against that: you could organise war chests for striking, unionise to regain rights, vote or campaign for actual peoples representation rather than corporate such, build resilient communities, picket biased media, organise or join collective action, prosecute and pressure corrupt politicians, counter lobbies, educating yourself and others, etc.
Gather neighbours, save funds, support eachother, resist where you can and coordinate with others to have a greater impact.
But most aren’t going to, cus there’s always someone else to blame, someone else that should save the day. And while you’re passing blame, the fascists consolidate, divide and terrorise, both your domestic neighbours and international friends. Leaving you more vulnerable, more isolated, and with less and less support to resist or survive.
Nice try, CIA. Answering that question is how I got my Reddit account banned.
I like that “realistic” caveat that you’ve thrown in there. Does that mean that all that rhetoric about the 2nd Amendment and “the tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants” was never realistic?
No it’s wasn’t. People in the fediverse aren’t likely to be right-wing gun nuts in the first place.
Maybe now’s the time for them to become left-wing gun nuts, then. Or did guns suddenly become hard to come by in America?
Self education that leads you and your friends away from heroic individualism, hypercapitalism, parochialism, cults, and other cultural excesses that lead to authoritarianism. It’s what we’re dealing with around the globe but the USA is struggling to understand.
AH yes, the tired old “not all men”. Nobody cares.
Look at all the Americunts downvoting the truth while they eat their MacDonalds hamburgers
You are forcing us to fight your fight. I am not going to waste time trying to determine who is who.
Do something about it.
America has the richest and most heavily armed population on earth. No one feels sorry for your inability to control the actions of your own country.
The people who oppose Trump tend to be the people who don’t own guns.
Then go out and get guns. ASAP.
The fun thing about America is that you can literally just walk to a shop and buy a gun today. The fact that everyone who opposes Trump hasn’t done that says a lot about the real situation on the ground there.
Not true. I live in a state where we require a gun permit in order to purchase a gun. You have to that a gun safety class and fulfill other requirements. This is more a thing in blue states than in red states.
I personally don’t own a gun because someone in my household has a history of suicidal ideation.
That, and the common refrain of “I can’t go to the protest, I need my job” clearly indicates that freedom has a price tag for them and it’s surprisingly low.
Shameful to pick survival of family over something that will make them homeless, locked up, or killed. /s
And yes, people both in the past and now in some places go that far to try and change things, or to just fight back. But those people also got put against a wall to make those choices, and unfortunately most Americans, even the ones in trouble, aren’t quite at that level yet.
Says in one of the great documents that people “are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” It’s human nature to deal with things than totally uproot them. This isn’t an excuse against rebelling, it’s just a reason why there isn’t more of it.
As long as it’s other people who are made homeless, locked up, and killed by your government, that’s a price worth paying, eh?
I’m well aware that Americans are just regular people and are going to have all the same regular-person failings that allow authoritarians to take over as well. But Americans have spent generations bragging triumphantly about how different and better they were and how it couldn’t happen there, so I don’t think I’ll be letting that slide quite yet.
You are all the same to us now.