Fear. But people need to realize that capitulation only makes this political terrorism stronger. The only solution is solidarity. United we are much stronger than this administration.

I can’t predict the future, I’m just speaking to what I see in the culture today. I heard from a lot of Trump voters that their perception of him as an anti-war candidate was a factor in their support, so I do think this is true in this moment. How deeply held that conviction is and how easily it will be swayed when our rulers decide war is to their favor remains to be seen but at minimum it will require political capital to drag people along with their imperialism.

Maybe you are right that I should have phrased it differently. I apologize for that but I am frustrated by this kind of rhetoric that in my view misses the underlying dynamics and makes us feel powerless.

It’s not an attack it’s just a lack of knowledge that almost all people share. But we need to understand these things to fight back.

But whatever, I can’t force you to be interested.

He means it but I think this one will be way too unpopular to go anywhere. But we’ll see I guess. I’m no prophet.

Eventually yes probably but the mood right now continues to be very anti-war at least in terms of direct US involvement. So that makes these imperialist fantasies at least more difficult and costly to implement.

Trump likes to cosplay as the supreme leader but like all presidents he has limited political capital to spend and going against his base will be very costly indeed.

You don’t seem to have a clear understanding of politics. He doesn’t have a choice. Like all leaders, Trump’s power comes from his supporters. If they don’t follow him then he can’t do a damn thing.

Now I think it’s possible he may be able to drag them along but the fact that people on the right are already rejecting this idea is a good sign.

They surely don’t like this idea but they’re scared of daddy Trump.

Also they know it’s going nowhere and will be forgotten if they just ignore it.

When we ask for housing for our homeless neighbors there is no money. But when they decide they want to deport millions of immigrants without justification suddenly we have plenty of funding for shelters.

Glad to hear a relatively mainstream voice in Krugman accurately describe the situation here. I’ve been trying to raise awareness among my friends and most don’t seem to see the big picture yet. That if they succeed in this sneaky civil service shit they will gain dictatorial power in this country.

I believe we can still beat Trump the dictator but it will be a lot easier to beat Trump the president before that.

Hell yeah! Fight to the bitter end!

If there’s one silver lining to this insanity it’s that it does seem like there is widespread consensus in American society that we don’t want any more foreign wars or adventurism.

I can’t believe it was unanimous. In my city support for bike lanes is almost unanimous (though they still won’t fund their construction…)

I guess if democracy fails then all that’s left is direct action. Anyone live in that area know anything about organizations that could spearhead something like this? I would think the Bay Area would have something like this going on but maybe not.

Not really. I mean they do discuss other topics but the ideology flows through everything there.

I don’t understand how you could possibly think this. Literally any discussion of China, even non-political that does not conform to the admins beliefs results in an immediate instance-wide ban. It is one of the most censored spaces on the internet and absolutely not safe for anarchist ideas.

I saw it being denounced as a psyop which I thought was funny, since I think it pretty clearly isn’t one. But directing people to lemmy.ml is bad advice as most of us know.

There are plenty of examples where protest movements have forced the resignation of authoritarian leaders without major acts of violence. So this is not accurate.

Also, the most effective movements violent or nonviolent are large and diverse. So the main actions need to be building the movement first rather than direct confrontation—unless that confrontation is strategically designed to further grow the movement.

You don’t understand yet. The words are a cover for their real intentions which are to go after the enemies of Christianity under the guise of investigating hate crimes.

Lol my partner is like this.

Absolutely. I also felt it was important to demonstrate to people that it is still safe to resist. A lot of people are already too scared to do anything even though the Trump administration hasn’t done a single thing to crack down on dissent yet.

I saw so many people afraid this was a trick, or the police were going to swoop in and arrest everyone. But guess what, we all went out there, it was a great time and nothing bad happened. Hopefully more people will show up for the next one. One protest won’t do much it’s true—but a sustained campaign can shift the conversation.