I’m starting to really consider the whole “reality is a simulation” angle, and whoever is running the game has put in a cheat code. (not really really, but more than I ever have before)
It’s like a shitty unrealistic movie plot has unfolded over the past decade. And every time it looks like maybe things are heading back on track, BOOM, we get another event that just turns us right back on the track to crazytown.
I’m having a hard time coming up with anything I can cling to in the hopes that Project 2025 isn’t going to go exactly as planned down to the last detail.
How are we not going to become real-world Gilead (but with more racism)?
You are experiencing what they want you to experience in this situation: A state of shock.
This is “Shock and Awe.” It’s a blitz to make the enemy feel like the task to fight back is insurmountable and to give up before trying.
Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight
This is not a military battle, but it is clear that Trump is practicing rapid dominance. He is using the Project 2025 pre-written Executive Orders to execute rapid dominance over the US government and make us feel shocked, confused, and desperate.
Naomi Klein wrote The Shock Doctrine in response to the Iraq War, and this is the Shock Doctrine being used on the US citizenry to whip them into submission.
We must resist this shock. The feeling you have, that it is hopeless, that no one is pushing back, is exactly how they want you to feel.
Get involved in Mutual Aid. Give back to your local community. Check out of national politics, we can’t affect it anymore. Focus on building parallel systems (food banks, community gardens, community mesh-networks, community first aid) for people to rely on since we can no longer rely on the systems that Trump is actively trying to dismantle or twist to harm the American populace.
Losing hope right now means losing the long-term battle against this. Losing hope is what they intend to force you into, broken, submissive, no hope. Do not go silent into that good night.
If you’re asking for someone to push back with effectiveness, you can be one of the first by giving your skills to your community.
In Klein’s own words:
Trump is a rolling shock machine, which a recipe for keeping us scattered and reactive to the latest shocking news. There will be moments when we need to react forcefully and meaningfully to protect one another.
EDIT: This also seems relevant right now:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
-Fred “Mister” Rogers
A best of post right here, thank you for the run down
I literally went and bought her audiobook after reading this post A few chapters in and it’s hard to believe it was written 20 years ago and not, like, last week.
Thanks, lots to think about there and just the sort of thing I needed.
You’re welcome. There’s lots of other real efforts, too. There’s been various successes at people preventing ICE from getting at people. I know a lot of people in /r/Seattle were doing the legwork of communications to help people avoid getting snared by ICE. The West coast will be a hold out. A school in Chicago also successfully repelled ICE agents from entering the school. Look for the helpers, they won’t be from the government anymore, they will be people like you and me.
Yes, OP’s asking where the alleged helpers are.
Putting a much finer point on it, we just got a 4 year long demonstration of how utterly disinterested Democrats are in helping.
There’s the Reagan-appointed federal judge who near instantaneously ruled that trump’s birthright citizenship EO was unconstitutional and expressed disbelief that anyone recognized by the Bar Association would argue for such a position.
The Inspectors General that Trump is trying to fire basically told him to fuck off.
Under a law passed in 2022 (you know, when the Dems were doing nothing 🙄) the president has to give Congress 1) 30 days notice of firing an IG and 2) enumerate the reasons why that IG was being fired. The second any reason is given to Congress these people are going to sue for wrongful termination since it’s blatantly obvious to everyone Trump is trying to rid the government of anyone who could hold him accountable.
I mean Jesus did literally walk into temples and flip tables over and kick people out for bad behavior, so this isn’t far off.
Can I ask a real question here? We know from being here on Lemmy that some people have a real hard-on for Marxism/Stalinism/Leninism. Why do these people think their pov is morally or ethically superior?
The whole DEI stuff seems a bit like a Trojan horse to sneak in Marxist propaganda. Forcing people to accept immigrants with different cultural pov in a democracy is dangerous because you can end up relinquishing your country to another country’s agenda.
Should people be more humane and considerate? Yes, fucking definitely. Should there be more regulations against some damaging effects of capitalism? Certainly.
Does that mean people want to give up the means of production? Absolutely not. Does that mean people want to live in a China-like situation where you cannot own the land your property is on? No.
Countries should be free to control immigration. That’s what sovereignty is. But the truth is simply this, all countries need immigrants, the natural competition created via the current state of capitalism demands this.
DEI. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Efforts within a company to NOT bar Black, Otherwise not white, and minority people WHO HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT to work in the country of the business, from being hired or promoted.
The active effort of a company to not refuse to hire, or refuse to promote black folks from working there. Nor Women, lgbtq folks, or other minorities of any protected class. Which, just to be very clear here, doesn’t include any person who doesn’t have a proven right to work in the country of said company.
Is creating an opening for other countries to change the priorites of the business’s country.
Do YOU understand what what your saying is such insane racist bullshit, that it doesn’t even make sense to anyone who owns a dictionary and knows how to use it?
Anti-DEI rhetoric is a very clear racist line of talking points Christo-Fascists in the US are currently using to justify overt racism, overt authoritarianism, and creating fear and division in a populace, The populace of the USA, that’s been extremely diverse with a large immigrant work force for literally mine and your entire lives, to weaken social bonds in the hopes that Trump and Republicans, who currently are eliminating goverment anti-corruption mechanisms, can get away with killing minorities, revocking civil rights, and looting the county.
Why are you like this? Why do you think Racism, the only thing your defending in you’re reply, is such a gosh darn good ideology, that you’ll gladly give up every right and economic stability you might have had in life, just for the satisfaction of watching Hispanics get ethnically cleansed?
Oh please, if you’re reading anything I am saying as racist you’re just fucked in the head
I’m not sure that you’re asking a real question because your question contains a moral judgement which you then use as a bludgeon to attach boogyman words to concepts you don’t seem to like.
DEI is completely unrelated to Marxism, and immigration policy. I get the distinct feeling that you either didn’t know what any of those words mean, or you’re hoping that the people reading this won’t know what they mean
Also “Does that mean the people want to give up the means of production?” assumes the people own the means of production which would be communism and/or anarchism. Not sure what they think the means of production is or if it’s just a buzzword they hoped to toss in there.
I meant private ownership of the means of production,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_mode_of_production_(Marxist_theory)
Ah, still this wouldn’t really apply because the workers/ people don’t own this mode of production because, so they can’t give it up.
The people you are thinking of are the ~400 individuals who own the means of product, and you are correct that they won’t willingly give that up.
Dude you read what I wrote wrong, or you didn’t get the context, it’s okay to say that instead of whatever verbal gymnastics you’re saying now. Grow up lol
Well that wasn’t very Mr. Rogers of you, please be kind here.
It seems a little unnecessary to spin words to be correct, you can just say you read it wrong or don’t respond 🤷♀️
Besides that, it’s okay. I know my anti-Marxist pov will always attract downvotes. I want to challenge the premise that a Marxist world is socially just or morally or ethically superior. I don’t want to troll or cause grief.
The climate justice aspects of DEI are philosophically meant to normalize “anti-Imperialism”.
https://lawliberty.org/the-philosophy-underlying-dei/
Meanwhile there’s nothing anti- imperialist about something like Marxism or Stalinism, the only difference is you’re ruled either by a single tyrant or a committee of tyrants.
Edit I’ll just say this though, the sad thing to me is that so much of LGBT rights is wrapped up in postmodern ideology, but LGBT rights speak to fundamental aspects of being a person. LGBT rights don’t need postmodern ideology to validate those rights.
