The Cold War? Child’s play compared to what lies ahead, according to U.S. historian Robert Kagan. Trump, he says, is leading the world into the most dangerous era since 1945.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    It is without resistance. The citizens offer protest while the Democratic Party looks out for their retirement checks. The protest has been ineffective other than getting press and bringing out trump’s goon squad.

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Americans are too obsessed with themselves to give a shit. And when ICE starts busting the heads of white people, they’ll happily report their neighbors and coworkers for disloyalty.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The last decade has made it abundantly clear how weak America actually is.

    Growing up I just assumed we would stomp this kind of shit out real fast. Instead we’re bending over and letting an almost dead felon rapist pedophile fuck our country and our futures up. We’re allowing a clearly treasonous party to abdicate all their responsibilities to a fat creep that falls asleep and shits his pants during official duties.

    It’s truly pathetic.

    Don’t think I’ll be able to muster up much patriotism for this shithole for the remainder of my life.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    The 2001 Patriot Act is the cornerstone and the MAGA fucknuts pushed ahead with their insane Project 2025 BS!

  • Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk
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    6 hours ago

    The American constitution means there was a way of stopping America from becoming a tyrannical fascist state.

    Turns out it is just for show.

  • kresten@lemmy.wtf
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    8 hours ago

    Which in my view is not that different from any other county historically falling under dictatorship. Most of them has for one or another reason wanted the dictator in charge initially and welcomed the overlord.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Not true, that is mostly one dictator replacing another. Democracies turning authoritarian is not common since the fascists and Nazis pre WW2.
      And Nazism taking over in Germany was a pretty violent affair, and far from merely winning an election.

      • 7101334@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        America wasn’t a democracy or the majority of Americans who oppose military aid to Israel would’ve had an opportunity to vote. It’s a plutocracy with democratic components (if you’re feeling generous, “democratic theater” if you’re not).

    • Smaile@lemmy.ca
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      21 minutes ago

      they didn’t have high spread internet back then to show they’re crimes of to the wider public, given that there losing seats in deep red states tells me the majority does not support these people and they’re not getting a lot of back up if things get ugly for them.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      9 hours ago

      They were concerned with stopping socialists and communists, not putting an all powerful fascist in charge. Which is a recurring theme in history, afraid of reform they get a dictator worse than reform.

      They thought big business could stop hitler if he got out of control, arrogantly thinking they could control the political monster they supported, just as now.

  • bunkyprewster@startrek.website
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    14 hours ago

    There is a brutal man with a gun, controlling and threatening a group of good citizens with consciences. He’s going to do terrible things to them, and make them do terrible things themselves.

    They have him outnumbered, but he has the gun. If they rush him, they can easily defeat him. But, the first one or two or three or four people to move forward will be shot and probably die painfully. Going first is going to cost a terrible price and you don’t know for sure that anyone else will follow you, that your sacrifice will be for anything at all.

    You feel a little paralyzed and at the same time ashamed you are just standing there.

    What happens next?

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      This is what frustrates me most as a Canadian watching this from over the fence.

      I’ve seen ICE videos of them killing people. There are 6 officers and 75 people with phones. ICE shoots someone and none of the 75 people do anything. They let it happen. The 75 people just stood by and watched ICE murder a citizen in broad daylight. When in reality those 75 people could have not only stopped the murder from happening, but likely killed those 6 ICE agents and prevented a future tragedy.

      The fact no one wants to try and stop this is why it’s still happening. America is filled with keyboard warriors and when push comes to shove, a bunch of pussies.

      America is falling not just because of people not voting (Which 1/3rd of eligible voters allowed this to happen), but because of deliberate inaction as fascism takes over right in front of everyone with no resistance at all.

      But maybe we’ll have a protest on a Saturday afternoon. That’ll show em.

    • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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      10 hours ago

      Only half of those citizens have consciouses at all, and many of those are still confused about how bad the guy with the gun is. They still at least believe in there being a guy with a gun, just not this exact one, they want their handsome gun guy instead of this ugly gun guy. The other half rabidly love the guy with the gun.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      What happens next?

      Everyone pulls out their phones and starts scrolling for what’s new and trending, several people answer their discord messages.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      11 hours ago

      One man can’t keep a hundred of his peers in subjugation, but a million can keep 400 million so. It’s about organization and leadership. The analogy you give doesn’t really fit, and neither do my statistics as they’ve far more than a million at their disposal. Half the country still supports them to boot and they’ve millions under arms, following orders and we have, the democrats organizing what passes for resistance.

      • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        There were about 1 million jews that died in Auschwitz, where they had about 10,000 guards. Quite literally a ratio of 100 people being subjugated by 1 person.

        • hector@lemmy.today
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          10 hours ago

          It’s a point made in decline and fall of the roman empire, that an organized group can hold a large population down even as in a smaller group that ratio could not.

          Looking at concentration camps is different, those people were already captured, you would want to look at the size of the police, and SS, and SA, and the like.

          Also there were a lot more victims of nazis than just 'the jews." They killed unionists, socialists, communists, gypsies/roma, the mentally ill, homosexuals, leftists, political opponents, and so forth.

          They matter as well, we repeat casualty figures of the nazis like jews were the only victims, and it’s not true, and gives people a false impression that if they aren’t a member of the out group they will be fine.

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            I wasn’t trying to say jews were the only victims, just trying to show a real-world example of how it took about 1 person per 100 to subjugate a group of people. Yes the concentration camps were different but I would still say those people were subjugated.

            • hector@lemmy.today
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              7 hours ago

              I just made the point because the media does that all the time they never mention other victims, and it’s left the population with a very inaccurate view of the nazis, their victims, and whom their victims would be if they got in power.

              Not all immigrants it’s an ever expanding list, especially when they will need a lot of scapegoats to cover for their stealing and corruption. People won’t risk their neck if their neck isn’t on the chopping block and all, I think it’s a on purpose of them.

              It also feeds into the victim mentality that is used by some groups to commit their own abuses and force their own others into ghettos they control, about 6 million of them in fact, coincidentally.

  • Asafum@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Tyrants always have the advantage in a “civil society”…

    (Almost) Everything he does is legal so people treat it as fair game even if we don’t like it, and aside from ICE murdering people, there isn’t any direct violence to fight against so the “civil society” has to wait until it’s wayyyyyyyy too late, to the point that we’re all being sent to the gas chambers, until it decides it’s morally correct to use violence.

    Until that point we’re left hoping our “representatives” will “fight” for us (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha… Ughh…)

    :(

    • GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      Not me; I think it’s been warranted for probably 6 months now.

      But unlike my namesake I’m not willing to go it alone.

    • FerretyFever0@fedia.io
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      14 hours ago

      People forget that morality, legality, and constitutionality are all different. Andrew Jackson ignored court orders regarding treaties with the Cherokee, nothing bad happened, because the people supported him. Lincoln blockaded the South without congressional approval, that was a good thing, also unconstitutional. He suspended habeas corpus, which was also unconstitutional. ICE is likely not breaking the constitution in many instances. However, that doesn’t make their actions the slightest bit less abjorrent and evil. The constitution is a centuries old piece of paper. If anything, the Bill of Rights and some ot the other amendments (namely the 14th) are significantly more valuable.

  • Raglesnarf@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    I’ve mentioned this before to others whenever this comes up. most or a great majority of people in the US have it “good enough” to not “risk it all”.

    Things over here “aren’t bad enough” for people to full-on revolt. I’d say we’re kinda close but modern, white, boring america just doesn’t want to get caught in the shit storm. They understand it might come for them at some point but that time isn’t now so why “stick their neck out”

    • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      most or a great majority of people in the US have it “good enough” to not “risk it all”.

      Most of the people I know are barely hanging on and desperate to keep the little they have. When you’re barely getting by, like 60% of Americans currently living paycheck to paycheck, you can’t afford to risk anything.

      They’re too busy making sure their kids don’t starve, or making sure they can stretch the last bit of money until the next check. Doesn’t help that all we do is exploit these people any chance we can.

      And I’d bet a lot of people in that situation don’t really care to help repair a system that never really worked for them in the first place.

      It’s not the right approach, you and I know that. But desperate people don’t act rationally. They act emotionally. And our society has gotten really good at manipulating peoples emotions.

      • jaaake@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        The people living paycheck to paycheck are ones who would make the most impact by striking, but are least able to as they will starve, be evicted, lose utilities/cell/internet if they do.

        The people who are making enough money to be comfortable are afraid that if they upset the people above them, they will become the people living paycheck to paycheck.

        The independently wealthy and top tier capitalists are the ones that have the most financial freedom to protest, but have the least reason to, are the smallest group, and are mostly fine with how things are (at best) or actively making things worse (most likely).

    • Absolutely. I’m very aware of my “white privilege”.

      I vote. I’ve protested and will again.

      Yet, I’m going away for long weekends and I have a very big vacation coming in 2 months. I’m sure many people find that selfish and offensive. However, I consider it my personal survival technique.

      Best of luck to everyone.

        • Oh, I am… My GF and I are logging at least one day of OT per week to pay for that big vacation. I’ll be @ 54 hrs this week by end of today’s shift. And my company pays “critical staffing” bonus of $10/hr on top of my 1.5X OT rate.

    • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      First they came for the ‘illegals’, but I did not do anything as I wasn’t an illegal.
      Then they came for the trans, but I did not speak up for I wasn’t trans.
      Then they came for etc etc etc.

      Waiting for dictators to do the right thing is never ever a good idea.

      • lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 hours ago

        first they came for the immigrants, and i’m freaking out because i’m trans and i’m worried we’ll be next, but everyone’s telling me to calm down. wonder what they’ll say to me when they come for the trans.

        • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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          8 hours ago

          They’ll say, “Where’s lolola gone? …Oh, ohh, ohhhhhh. Oh well, never mind, I’m not trans. I’m just gay, they’ll never come for me.”
          {Flashing lights outside. Knock on the door}
          “Whoever could that be?..oh, hello officer, how can I help yo…why are you handcuffing me? Help! Help! No one could ever have seen this coming!!”

    • WanderWisley@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Sadly yes, when it finally does get to the point where most of America says “we’ve had enough!” I feel the water will be boiling and the frog will be almost cooked.

      • hector@lemmy.today
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        11 hours ago

        The water is so full of toxins we won’t even have to wait for it to boil. Endocrine disruptors and whatever else have turned us into compliant slaves of the ruling class without a fight. I’m serious about that, something dosing us is making us compliant, I’m convinced of it, it could be endocrine disruptors perhaps, which are everywhere.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    There is a combination of factors that is turning America, a country founded on evicting a King from our government, into a country with a de-facto one.

    First, one of the foundational principles of the country was the separation of powers. Specific powers were given to specific branches of government. The founders anticipated that ambitious people would fill those branches, and they would not give up that power so easily. They did not anticipate a Congress that would abdicate it’s power over directing the Executive branch when their guy is there. And a Supreme Court picked expressly to choose sides.

    Second, the founders realized that there needed to be someone in charge of the Federal executive that had some real power. Recall that we had already formed one government , under the “Articles of Confederation”, with a weak central government that was not working. But, they did not trust the general electorate to pick it. That is the original purpose of the Electoral College: State Legislatures would name delegates, and those delegates would pick the President. We retain the Electoral College not because it still works in the modern era, but because it is too hard to change. (The fact that Congress hasn’t changed in size for 100 years also contributes to the inequity of the Electoral College, since each state’s votes are tied to their representation. In fact, I think the EC might still be workable if each district were smaller…).

    Third, we had built up a strong tradition of non-partianship in the executive branch, with career civil servants doing their jobs across administrations, providing continuity. We even thought that protection was entrenched in law. But then this guy comes along, and decides that none of those laws matter. Once that merit-based expertise leaves, it is very hard to get back. And he can violate laws with impunity because of Point #1.

    So, while we don’t call Trump a King officially, his office is being turned into a monarchy, where his opinion rules all and the rule of law is subject to it.

    • Meron35@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      On the one hand, the founding fathers were tasked with constructing an entire political system before the fields of game theory and political science even existed to tell them the fragility of their checks and balances.

      On the other, they also had very particular opinions about who were even eligible to participate in their new system (read: land owning whites).