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.

  • Quirky Quinn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    34 minutes ago

    The US hasnt had a meaningful election in a long time. We were basically already a dictatorship. Now at least we can stop pretending that voting harder will change anything.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    “Almost”? What meager resistance are they referencing? Protests? Protests are not resistance, they are just saying “we don’t like you and what youre doing”. As we have so far seen that has had no effect other than get people outside and on the street when they otherwise wouldn’t bother.

    • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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      4 minutes ago

      Those people on the street are building connections, coalitions, and community around resistance. If the protests didn’t mean anything and weren’t effective they wouldn’t be getting met with such a violent reaction from the regime.

      Stop with the doomerism, get off the keyboard, and get involved.

  • Jhuskindle@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    It is hilarious to me and also annoying that they say there is no resistance. Millions are flooding the streets. Record protests. Hundreds of thousands have made networks of information systems. But yeah sure no resistance. A toy company took the administration to Supreme Court and won but okay yeah no resistance . Women gassed and burned ice warehouses but okkkkk no resistance. Kids punching nazis. No resistance. Ridiculous.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      they say there is no resistance

      There’s street resistance, but virtually no political opposition. At every level of government, Democrats are falling over to comply, even as their constituents scream in protest.

      • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        There’s a somewhat valid excuse that the Dems are minority powers in house, Senate, and supreme court (which is now partisan) and the American system doesn’t grant any political power at all to a minority party against a lock-step majority.

        That said, remember during COVID peaks, when Trump had his BS press conference updates? Andrew Cuomo, himself no saint, also had daily (?) live streams to give important information and quarantine/medical advice. Dem politicians could absolutely be using their voices right now to make a lot of noise - even without mechanical political power.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Democrats are not the minority in California or Oregon or Minnesota or New York. Nevertheless, state and municipal leaders have rolled over to ICE, co-mingled local PD resources, and left grisley murders unprosecuted.

          • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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            59 minutes ago

            That’s somewhat true, there has been mixed local/state resistance - I was focusing on nationally. I wonder if there’s some pressure being applied behind the scenes to local Dems, fear of retribution, or if it’s mere fecklessness.

            My conspiracy hat suspicions are that Dem leadership is willingly sacrificing our rights/lives and letting things get worse in the hopes of boosting their midterm election chances. Althe answer to that is progressive sweep in the primaries

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              26 minutes ago

              I wonder if there’s some pressure being applied behind the scenes to local Dems

              Yeah, it’s called the DN fucking C.

              Capitulating to Trump is a party policy

    • Arthur Dent@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 hours ago

      So what ?

      Trump and his crew are still going on with their plan.

      Your highest court rules that the taxes are illegal, and orange Don just creates new ones.

      Some crowds walking on the streets and yelling is not any resistance, when the bad guys simply continue.

    • pinkcans@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      You’re winning some battles but that doesn’t mean you’re winning the war.

      The efforts you’ve described are admirable and I’m sure has saved lives and the truth, but if the control runs deep, so must the resistance. I think the more we look into the secrets and recognize manipulation, the more enraged we will feel at how normal it was all made to seem.

      It blew my mind when I realized how much of the internet and how much of national media in many countries is propaganda and flawed reporting. Leaving out details is lying imo and it’s often normalized because it’s “PR” or “protection”.

      It all often takes me back to my abusive childhood home where I was kept inside/sheltered not to be protected from harm, but to keep me from realizing what was going on. To keep me from reaching people and information that would tell me it isn’t normal. But without the internet, its privacy and the people (not AI) I met there, I might still believe in that normal. It was thinking that got me out, and intense self-reflection. When the AI (even the algorithms sometimes) thinks for you, it doesn’t allow you to go through the process of reasoning and critical thinking.

      I first thought it must feel like magic for the kids, then realized no, it’s as normal as our childhood surroundings were to us. And that is terrifying.

      There’s a reason the word “renaissance” means rebirth. Wounding isn’t the same as killing (a status quo or a powerful person). They obviously know that, I think most of us don’t though. We didn’t even recognize the evil grow because they pit us against each other. I cri sorry for rant lemmy.

    • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Oh boy, so this is what you think resistance is? I’m afraid you’re even more fucked than I was afraid of.

      • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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        4 hours ago

        I’m sure that wherever you’re from has some history of armed uprising. Heck, you might have even been a part of it. But this is still the keyboard warrior trope. There are definitely more productive and friendly ways to explain that you think it’s going to take a lot more than what has already been tried than treating strangers in conflict zones like your own personally loathed chess pieces.

    • cujo255@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      Ok, honest question. That Wikipedia article doesn’t seem to say anything about him being a piece of shit, what do you mean?

      • bmoney@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        He is a neo conservative, which I dunno if it qualifies him to be a POS but it does make everything he says pretty fucking suspect.

        Sure, the never trumpers are better than not but they still helped usher in this current day madness

  • KelvarCherry [They/Them]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 hours ago

    It’s relieving in a terrible way to see this acknowledged. I’ve heard far too many people over the last 15 months argue that this is just a roadbump, or talk about it like the typical Republican administration of economic strain and erosion of some civil rights. This is unprecedented in our country’s history. This is not something to hunker down and wait out.

    Even the idea that “fascism will inevitably collapse” is an oversimplification and wishful thinking. I understand that much of this inaction is trauma from the strain of us living in a post 9/11 America, which up until now has been a slow-burn erosion of rights and tightening of economic conditions. Trump’s second term is in every way a different beast. It was well apparent that it would be since before the election even happened: Project 2025. The signs reading “MASS DEPORTATIONS”. Hell; I thought the Alt-Right Insurrection on Jan 6th, 2021 was so blatantly anti-democratic that Trump would have no chance of winning in 2024. I was clearly wrong.

    Look at China. Look at Russia. That’s where the USA is heading. Those nations are fascist, too. That is the type of fascism I see this country falling into. It’s not going to be loud, with massive parades and MAGA Youth programs—Not in a country with this many people, this large an area; and this many guns. The fascism of the USA will be like it has been for the last year: With citizens disappeared from our streets; Agents exploiting our already shredded rights; and surveillance networks tracking our every move. That is life in China and Russia; and those nations are well-settled in those systems.

    The course of the USA is to fall into a fascism of the system. It will not be our military harming our citizens. The violence will be carried out in policies enacted by people with faces and roles; under the guise of “just doing a job” or “protecting their community”. Hell, let’s not pretend like that wasn’t already the case. The War on Drugs, The Patriot Act, the regular abuses of police against protestors… This nation has been one of systemic violence since well before Trump took the stage in 2015. Just look to the population held imprisoned without being found guilty in our prisons, hospitals, and CIA detention centers.

    I applaud the resistance in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. What happened in the Twin Cities was the first bit of resistance we’ve seen in this entire administration (excluding one-day attacks—I am not downplaying their significance.) Regarding the rest of this nation: What happened throughout the last year (especially the atrocities of ICE) is well beyond what I inherently assumed would be the “snapping point”. The fact that our economy and institutions are continuing in the midst of such blatant oppression and corruption, has me convinced there is no snapping point at all. En large, no draconian policy will trigger an out-roar, because the masses simply do not have it within them. We’re too worn down, too distracted, too traumatized, and too used to it. What scares me most is how clear it is—by the public conduct of our corporations, our elected leaders, and our government accounts—that our rulers know this.

    • Best_Jeanist@discuss.online
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      7 hours ago

      I thought the Alt-Right Insurrection on Jan 6th, 2021 was so blatantly anti-democratic that Trump would have no chance of winning in 2024. I was clearly wrong.

      You overestimated the intelligence of both the Democrats and the voters. The Democrats are too feeble-minded to appeal to the voters, and the voters are too narrow-minded to suck it up and vote anyway.

    • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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      5 hours ago

      Look at China. … That’s where the USA is heading.

      你好!我是一名逃离美国百年屈辱的难民。请问哪里可以找到火车?

    • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      That’s the scam.

      You’ll be relieved when the Democrats “take over”, and the system will survive another term or two.

      Then, a Republican will “take over” and the system will survive another term or two.

      Mix and match a few issues and it’s as easy as pie. Every one of those “hot button” issues is there for you to mash (like abortion), meanwhile, the real problems aren’t touched (these usually involve a great deal of money).

      The majority of the party members are at “war”, whilst the leadership of both are colluding, and getting filthy rich on insider stock trading as a reward for sharing the power (and being a relief valve for the abuses of the other).

      You’re falling for the “good cop”

    • DylanMc6 [any, any]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      The fact that there will be an election in 2028 is a lot better than saying there won’t be an election in 2028 because that’s electoral doomerism.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    8 hours ago

    My friend Bob, who lives down the street, said the same thing (and he’s no historian).

    • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      The problem is that the system is functioning perfectly. It was always intended to help rich people carry out their will, and now that their will is to dismantle the US so that technofeudalism can reign, the system is enabling them to do that.

  • MortUS@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    I don’t blame the Citizens. The Citizens are against a huge media blitz working against them: Online, social media, and traditional media. They’ve been systematically targets to oppose on another on multiple levels.

    The Democrats and the Republicans both failed. This is Democratic Erosion over a long timeline. We’re seeing the results of a failure of Democracy.

    Democratic guardrails were removed over a long enough time and/or were not reinstated fast enough. The same people who thrive in high-level social circles tend to be sociopaths and psychopaths, both can be corrupt, this is humans nature. Technology moved faster than geriatric politicians could keep up with, and this was taken advantage of by both the psy/sociopaths and International Forces. We are living through the downfall of American Democracy driven by both Capitalism and International Forces doing what all Internationals Forces have done since Pangea split or whatever.

    We don’t live in a perfect world. Democracy will always be a tug of war between ideas of shared power and the want of absolute power; this is human nature.

    The only forces that can hold a POTUS accountable, especially at this stage when there’s so many stooges in place, is a literal mob or the Military Branch. If this administration doesn’t want to give up power; I’m not sure there’s anything to stop them.

    • NorskSud@lemmy.pt
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      16 hours ago

      So some people in a secondary city of the US have been protesting? Great, but that only proves the point. At least 2 of those people were murdered in the meantime by a government militia that faces no trial about it.

      • RykardNixon@lemmy.zip
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        16 hours ago

        Secondary?!

        You chaff. If every Minnesotan pulled their conceal and carry to rightfully pop these fucking invaders, it opens the flood gates of the tyranny’s army. This shit is delicate. The fact that we showed restraint so that a “legal” full fledged invasion didn’t happen is astounding. We’re being held captive by our own government who holds the world’s largest military card. The fight IS happening, but we can’t do it physically. We’d be decimated. It’s not that we don’t want trials, it’s that the entire power structure is against the people, reason, and justice. We’re TRYING to change it. And there IS a lot of good legal cases being built. But that doesn’t mean shit while our country is being held captive by a small hegemony of captors and a whole lot of “I’m just doing my job” sub-humans carrying military equipment playing gestapo

        P.S. I honestly just used your post to vent after seeing my city being called “secondary”. You didn’t say anything untrue otherwise and I likely agree with most, if not all of your standpoints

        • NorskSud@lemmy.pt
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          16 hours ago

          I didn’t mean secondary in an offensive way. It’s just a fact, it’s not LA, NY, SF, Chicago or DC. It’s a city with very little international recognition, it’s probably more significant than what I assume, but from my European POV it seems a city way out of the main US metropolis.

          I do wish it inspires more people around the US. But again, from what and where I see, it’s seems like the US is going into a real dictatorship with very little resistance, be it the opposition party, the courts, the media or the man on the street.

          • RykardNixon@lemmy.zip
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            15 hours ago

            I see you.

            It’s fucking horrific to live through. The opposing party has no real power beyond a vote, of which they’re outnumbered by retarded egomaniacs. The courts are a fucking joke just like the rest of our “checks and balance” system. Algorithmic media is actual cancer that pushes rage, ignorance, and the agenda. “News” and cable like media either push the narrative of the regime or just “tsk tsk”’s the shit going on. And the fucking good people on the street are fighting with a hand behind their back because if they cast a singe real stone, like say, a bullet, it opens the flood gates of martial law. Of which, with our current moral, we would be properly fucked into submission like Trump so loves to do.

            We’re in check until a couple of potential turning points. Midterms could prove interesting which would add stopping power. There’s already dissent in the Republican Party, of which I hold little hope because they’re all retarded egomaniacs, but that makes the dissent even more of a point. If Trump actually does start a war to post-pone elections, instating his third term, I think hell would be raised within his own support system. And of course, he could just fucking die already and I’m fairly confident his cult would rapidly deteriorate.

            All to say, you’re right. America is being raped by its president. But I hold hope that is not unfounded that this will not go unpunished. Even if it does take years…

            • NorskSud@lemmy.pt
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              15 hours ago

              All to say, you’re right. America is being raped by its president. But I hold hope that is not unfounded that this will not go unpunished. Even if it does take years…

              I hold the same hope. My comments around here are not intended to be discouraging, but provocative, I’m sure the “American freedom” stills rings bells within most US citizens. So I do hope they’ll do something to get it back.

              The current framework however does seem too weak, the rich dudes own the country.

  • DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Putin won the Cold War. Things that are happening I would never though would happen and I really believed republicans would defend the constitution, they talked about it so much.

    Now even talking against them is dangerous since they are tracking everyone. I really though people would protect more democracy

    • ShergalFarkey@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Nahh… The US had a good run at Democracy, but being the father of Capitalism, Fascism was inevitable eventually. The guardrails of democracy hold back infinite growth at any cost, something that the oligarchy demands. The US population doesn’t have the drive of the French to change things, so Fascism will succeed, sadly.