As an American I think I’m going insane? The last 3 weeks have been some of the most anxious and stressed I’ve ever been.
Trump’s first term was nothing like this, there’s a feeling of apathy in the air among people and coworkers (I live in a very liberal city in the deep south). Folks around here just seem to be on edge at all times, whether you’re pro or anti in a much more divisive way.
There’s a strange feeling knowing there’s a solid chance we won’t make it out of this one. There have been plenty of times in the past where we’ve had doom and gloom (Trump v1, conservatives and Obama), etc. Nothing ever happens, but this time I’m fairly confident the country I was born into will be dead and gone given the shear destruction being waged against our institutions.
I’m protesting and will continue to do what is needed to ensure 47 isn’t the final chapter.
I’m fairly confident the country I was born into will be dead and gone
I do feel bad for the american citizens suffering the consequences, but the US Empire falling is a net positive for the rest of the world. Ask people from Palestine, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, who suffered the US hegemony
Id love for the US to transition to having less influence globally without totally collapsing, but if this is how we do it, so be it.
It’s kinda the devil we know situation, if the US steps down, who steps up? Are they going to be better or worse, who knows. I never really bought into the notion that we had to be the world police or that all the evil stuff we did, we did because we had to.
Im normally against gun ownership, but these are not normal times, these are times to use that 2nd amendment in your constitution for what it was created.
It’s because this isn’t Trump’s term. It’s elons. And I know people say that to make fun of them, but it’s also said because it’s actually true.
Trump is incompetent. Useless. Corrupt. Elon has actual dedication, he’s shit at it, but he actually tries. He’s not lazy. But he’s still corrupt
“Shush your mouth, you are not the president” - xj4856df (i can’t remember the characters of his identification)
It’s more than Elon’s… There’s a lot of crypto billionaires behind the scenes.
Billionaires in general
Protesting is a good start, but I’d say the McMillan TAC-50 is a better choice at this point.
Weird that we have more solidarity with the EU than Mexico.
I’m Mexican and I’m baffled that Canada is trying to distance itself from us. I sincerely don’t get why we’re constantly being excluded.
Its very frustrationg. We should be taking notes from you guys, not pushing you away.
Are we? That’s disappointing.
As a Canadian, I am confused by that also. Mexico would be a lot safer if the US had more stricter gun laws, and didn’t smuggle them into Mexico.
Shared language and cultural background goes far. But it’s definitely time we strengthen ties beyond that
Edit: why downvote for this? I suspect I misrepresented something
Re: downvotes
could be that only 44% of EU citizens understand English, and most don’t really share a cultural background with us
Yeah, that’s a pretty good point.
Guess it all comes down to racism then :/
Racism goes even further.
Yes, sadly.
We need all the help we can get. If some of the Americans are on my side, then I gladly accept their help. Hopefully they rise up before it’s too late.
“What do you mean, I can’t fix this by posting on social media? Stop oppressing me 😢😢😢”
I posted it all over X, why isn’t it working?!
What is it you are suggesting exactly?
Perhaps The things Americans should be doing are the things you shouldn’t post publicly about doing.
Look at countries that have successfully enacted change when they are angry with their government: Serbia currently, France whenever pensions are threatened, the Maidan Revolution, the Arab Spring (for what that was worth). What do they all have in common? Hint: it isn’t posting from the comfort of your couch.
Well, I see how you reached that conclusion. Unfortunately the US is socioeconomically completely different than any of those places, and our own oligarchs have engineered the system to keep us in our place.
How true, Americans are much more oppressed and less free than Ukrainians under Yanukovych or Egyptians under Mubarak. People everywhere are saying they’re the biggest victims by far — yuge victimhood.
Americans are fed insane propaganda from birth to death about how they’re powerless to change our government. It’s a total lie. And curiously, a large chunk of them are really into the second amendment to protect themselves against tyranny (wtf are they doing the tyranny is here). I guess we’ll see what happens when president musk finally goes after social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Here are some ideas:
- Do a risk assessment for your specific situation and relationships and work to reduce your risk
- Form stronger bonds with people in your community
- Read history and the mechanisms of similar situations
- Work to reduce fascists radicalization where you can (hint: probably not online)
- Stop enabling whiny “there’s nothing we can do” bullshit
Protesting and organizing is a start instead of the defeatist “it won’t do anything” or “but it annoys people.” Proceeds to do nothing but annoy people online.
Protests don’t work. Luigi does.
And then you get fired, and then you lose your health insurance
Unionize. Organize a strike with coworkers. Ostensibly for better wages, but actually for fighting back.
Unionizing does not make sense for where I am at. For those for whom it does make sense, they will get fired before ever coming close to having a union, and then they will lose their health insurance. Please see Amazon for a good example.
Alright, well, go ahead and get in the box car.
Listen mate. I’m not advocating for this viewpoint. I’m trying to illustrate for y’all the difficulties we face here, that are baked into the system. Obviously we need to unionize. A lot. Soon. But it’s very much stacked against those who try. I will give them all the support I can. But these are very real challenges.
Defeatist logic never got anyone anywhere. It does work. There is so many companies actively unionizing right now, especially mid sized ones that can’t simply close down shop. I’m on the ground, my local has 3 elections for it in 3 weeks coming up.
Please see Amazon for a good example.
We’re actually making a ton of progress on them. That might get wiped with the trump shit. But it’s far from as impossible as their propaganda makes you want to think.
You may be, but clearly more than half of you are not 🤷♂️
Have you checked the voter turnout? Because I didn’t but it’s traditionally low in the US for different reasons. And this doesn’t take into account people not allowed to vote. I don’t live in a utopia either but the US is especially undemocratic by design
Surprisingly this was one of the most active elections since 1900. Others being JFK and 2020.
Nonetheless, turnout in 2024 was still high by modern standards. The 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon (63.8 percent) is the only other election in the last 112 years to exceed 63 percent voter turnout.
I wasn’t talking about this vote compared to other US elections but about the US voting system compared to other nations. 63.9% is still low for international standards. The comment above me said “half of you did”, turns out it’s closer to a third. And I’m not blaming the third that stayed at home, I’m blaming the system for shying them away.
I blame them too. They could have voted. It’s not that hard.
How many eligible voters chose not to out of apathy or other factors within their control?
I’m absolutely blaming the third that did not vote. When you’re in a car that is barreling towards a cliff, the only acceptable choice is to hit the brakes. Not doing anything is just as bad as pressing the gas pedal.
It’s about half as bad. Still unbelievably terrible though, and equally indefensible
Voters that chose to stay home are functionally the same as Trump supporters. They chose this.
Trump didn’t even get half of votes, much less half of the population. The vast majority of Americans aren’t Trump supporters. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans don’t vote.
I consider those who didn’t vote to be just as bad as Trump supporter
Bingo. Yes, the system is rigged against minorities, but I wager there’s far more other people who easily could have voted but didn’t.
Yeah for sure. I respect that Republicans have made it difficult to vote in some areas but when Trump and Project 2025 are on the line, I really don’t care. If you didn’t jump through every possible hoop to vote against Trump then you may as well have voted for him in my eyes
He got more than half the votes, unfortunately.
He got less than 50%
Source? Here’s one of mine:
Note the popular vote section.
49.8% is less than 50%… I used AP. I genuinely don’t understand your meaning.
I meant he got the most, but yeah you’re right that’s not over half of the total votes
I think they assume the votes for the two should add to 100%?
Nah, I appreciate the good Americans. Hopefully as many as possible can get out.
I’m in Alberta. The not-all-of-us thing is real.
Hey, me too.
I appreciate you all. I also appreciate hearing about the organizing and resistance efforts.
There have been effective protests that prevented hospitals from complying with doge. Make it hard to be a sellout Democrat or Danielle Smith supporter.
I knew this was the route America was going on since I was a kid. Walked the picket line with teachers during high school when they went on strike, and was appalled at how I was spit on and cursed at by conservative adults.
In 2015/2016, told everyone Bernie was our second chance after we whiffed on Al Gore, and then we again fucked that up.
The masses here are beyond stupid. Wish I had the means to bring my family elsewhere.
then we again fucked that up.
The masses here are beyond stupid
European here. The fault is rarely ever in the masses. The oligarchs you’re trying to fight against control the media and the narrative, it’s extremely hard to win against that. Furthermore, wasn’t Bernie chosen by popular support and then kicked out by DNC?
This time it certainly feels like it - more people than I ever expected really do openly support what Trump is doing. It’s baffling.
And yes, they did. I can’t say for certain that he had the majority of Dem voters in his corner, though. It seemed like most anyone over 40 in 2016 wouldn’t give Bernie the time of day. Lots of older folks thought he was way too progressive
Don’t know who needs to hear it, but here’s some advice that my philosophy professor left me with a long time ago:
Sometimes you can only save one person, and it’s okay for that person to be you.
where tho?
like, where is accessible but also an improvement in this metric, because I see conservative assholes proliferating like a disease.
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Imagine telling Jews in the Holocaust their opinions and thoughts don’t matter because Hitler was elected.
That’s not what’s happening. People weighing in on the political situation, airing their concerns, or trying to highlight issues that aren’t being reported on aren’t the ones being called out here. It’s the “but I’m one of the good ones” comments that have been peppered into every discussion on non-US-centric communities.
Whether you’re one of the good ones or not is immaterial. It’s contributing nothing. It’s just people trying to make the discussion about them.
So there were no German Jews in the 1930s? You don’t think they voted? Or are you saying since they weren’t successful in defeating the NSDAPT in the elections they weren’t good? Seems like you are being disingenuous and letting propaganda to support a narrative.
That’s our way of begging you to take us in if things get bad. Are you willing to or is your progressiveness and ability to take refugees conditional on where they come from?
Our electoral system has been rigged for decades. The only way forward is coordinated mass strikes and if that doesn’t work, violence.
My dude, if things get worse Canadians are not going to be in a position to offer anything. All this trade war shit will annihilate our economy, for a start. And if we get invaded, how can we help? This is like Russians asking Ukrainians for aid.
I mean, realistically, people will figure things out on a local level if and when it happens, but it doesn’t sound like you have thought through the implications of where things could be going.
You have to realize the US is 50 countries in a trench coat. Some of us leave the United States and join Canada as territories, you get our tax dollars, we get your healthcare. We don’t burden housing or food because we’re coming with land already. We’re living under a technofascist coup right now and the quicker we break up the less bloody it will be.
Definitely agree that the faster fascism gets interrupted the better. 👍🏻
What is it you are saying those people should have done/should be doing?
You do realize we’re going through a fascist coup right?
Not really. The people voted for this.
No, land voted for this. And people manipulated by the technofascists and their propaganda machines, social media, voted for this.
We haven’t had a free and fair election since before 2000.
This time he won a popular vote. Well, there was enormous amount of voters suppression, but that’s a given, everyone knew that will happen and had time to prepare. Half of eligible population didn’t even tried to do bare minimum.
Lol no you are not.
What the fuck, is that a real tweet?
Unfortunately
Yes. And historically, what is the right response to a country that is doing that?
Complaining to other countries? /s
Healthy dose of Bolshevism
Time to prove that the second amendment really works then?
I hope we have other off ramps before that but we’re running out
Don’t make us Canadians do it for you!
Nobody is asking that, we have way more guns than you anyways. But some of us - such as queers like me - may want to seek refuge in your country.
Or maybe there could be a bloodless secession and some of us can join you as territories. If you’ll allow.
We might be forced to if Trump orders an invasion to try to make us the “51st state.”
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I do, yes.
Aaaaaand?
It doesn’t matter who is of what opinion, even if you were an anti-2A advocate, now is the time to start testing that 2A.
God I’m so tired of this shit. I swear the intent is to downplay the danger that many of America’s marginalized communities are in. That way trans people don’t have anywhere to run. People with disabilities have no where to run. POC have no where to run. Most, if not all, of y’all have laws specifically forbidding refugees from the US. This is because the US has traditionally been considered a safe harbor for refugees. However, the US government is now sending immigrants to Guantanamo and threatening to do the same with trans people, people with disabilities, and so on.
We need your help. Not by stepping in and correcting course, but by giving us safe refuge. Most of us are already in very serious danger and sweating bullets while we watch the gun slowly move to point at us, but we have nowhere to run because no one accepts US refugees.
I’m trans. I’m living in Texas. I voted for Harris. I’m watching the gun as it attempts to murder my friends (I have some birthright citizenship friends) as it slowly drifts ever closer. We need your help, because right now I’m expecting that our expiration dates are less than a year away. They gotta find something to do with us once they start running out of space in Guantanamo c::
Why are you looking at other countries when literally any state would be better than the shithole you’re in? And even there I think you’ll be perfectly fine in major cities.
But you’re welcome to California. Not prefect, but not fucking Texas.
Yeah, uh, that hasn’t stopped them from going after people in blue states.
Edit: that’s a valid question, though. However, I’m concerned that it won’t be enough.
In Canada, we need to start prioritising accepting more trans people, POC, and other marginalized communities fleeing persecution. It is absolutely dehumanising and disgusting how the USA is treating trans people right now. Trans rights are human rights.
We also urgently need to deny Pierre Poilievre the election, since he is openly hostile to and scapegoating trans people and other minorities, while cozying up to white supremacists.
I’m trans and not out IRL besides people in my direct family and I’m fucking terrified. The idea of living like this for years makes me feel hopeless and seeing messaging like this makes me feel even more like no one cares. Its so isolating. I don’t think I can just not transition at this point, my own skin is repulsive but on the other hand at least I am alive.
Are you guys aware that the point is to show you, as a sign of camaraderie, that there are Americans who disagree with the current admin, rather than to try to get praise?
I understand it’s not as easy as a comment on The Internet but the American resistance needs to nut up and someone needs to put one between the eyes if everyone who architected or who is actively implementing Project 2025.
At this point the American military needs to stage a military coup and take back the country.
I don’t think it will ever happen but wishful thinking.
So many people are sitting on their hands going “Violence is never acceptable”.
I think I ate a 3 day ban on one of the communities for making a joke about guillotining billionaires. Bunch of bootlicking cowards. I get not wanting to go and do some murder on your own, but come on.
Because, and I’ll be blunt, a blanket of “guillotine billionaires” is disgusting. Billionaires shouldn’t exist but I have no qualms with Bill Gates or Warren Buffet for simply playing the game we were all forced to take part in.
Some billionaires like Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison however… They should all be hung for treason.
I would give them a chance to divest before guillotining. But someone having that much money is disgusting. You know what you could do with that? You know how much was stolen from how many people to acquire that? That’s disgusting.
Look at this “wealth to scale” website https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?v=3
In case you lost sense of how big these numbers are.
But at least we agree that some billionaires should be hung.
Ain’t no war but a class war.
there is most certainly a point where you must start fighting dirty, and i think it’s time for us Americans to seriously start considering our use of that whole 2nd Amendment thing - murder is bad, obviously, but we are one of the most heavily armed populations in the world, and that means a lot.
To be fair, considering the attempts on Trumps life so far I was quite surprised that people were taking matters into their own hands.
History will look kindly on them IMO.
yes we totally understand how all this must feel for you. Even for people who voted for TFG didn’t want this stuff to happen. These arseholes are actively dismantling your country from the inside. We’re counting on you folks to do something.
Its really hard to have sympathy for any americans because even “the left” seems to have done everything possible to enable fascism by repeatedly throwing the working class under the bus in favour of corporations.
You all had your chance with Bernie but you kicked him to the curb for a creature grown in a lab by credit card corporations.
You’re making the same mistake as many Americans themselves do and confusing Democrats in general and the left. I didn’t think leftists were the ones who kicked Bernie to the curb. The left in America is very small but they do protest, do mutual aid, and form unions. You could argue they aren’t doing enough and when things get bad enough it’s time for terrorism, but that’s big talk when you are sitting behind a computer.
You’re grouping us all together. I wish Bernie had been elected so bad… we even voted for him in my state, but the democratic party overrode that.
I have a lot of sympathy. I feel awful for them. Unfortunately, it is the kind of sympathy I would feel for an enemy soldier that I think is maybe fighting against their will. I feel bad for them but there is no way I am putting my gun down while they are around. They are still the enemy and “they” are still trying to kill me. We are not going to be friends.
Dont let this post speak for all Canadians. I personally appreciate every single one of you american brothers who are against these fascist regime. We fucked them up in 1945 and we will do it again!
<3
Together as one!
See the responses to your post on [email protected], I can’t be bothered copying them here
Well, I’m not looking forward to the German elections next week either. #notallgermans #fckafd
Americans whining about wanting to leave the country and take refuge in Canada
for what, so you can squat here and continue to do nothing while your country becomes a Fascist and Imperialist Oligarchy?
No. Maybe we can talk after the Civil war starts when your country invades ours. But for now, this is your problem to deal with.
…
Civil war starts when your country invades ours
…
Ohhh, when the USA erupts in civil war AFTER they invade us. I initially thought that you were saying America invading us would be civil war
So…we don’t want allies before they invade us, only after. Got it.
There are a few people in America who agree with your stance on refugees.
Those aren’t allies. they’re mouths to feed and heads to put roofs over, which we dont have.
Wow you really sound a lot like 4547
We have enough problems with people coming into the country with false pretenses and fake asylum. The last thing we need is trojan horses from a country thats suddenly started threatening to invade us.
we have a housing crisis being inflamed by an immigration crisis. Now that we are being directley threatened, Canada isn’t just a refuge for people to use as a safety net to hide in. If they want to come to the country they can apply through the usual process, but there isn’t any special relationship anymore. Thats dead.
if things get really bad, and the US devolves into a civil war, (we will be a part of it). then we can talk about taking in people. but for now its just way too much of a risk for very little reward. Unless they’re going to bring their businesses and jobs with them, they would be consumers, not contributors. and we can’t afford that as the world inches closer to world war than its ever been. especially now that America is not a reliable ally and more importantly, a threat.
It’s kinda a weird take? Like if I’m in a discussion about some scary things AfD are doing and a left-of-center German joins the conversation, I’d like to think I’d have the ability to…you know…hear what they have to say about things.
There are a bunch of Americans who asked for this; there are a bunch who stood by and did nothing to stop it; and there are a bunch who tried to stop it, did not, and are devastated.
I guess at the end of the day it’s just a meme.
Here’s my (admittedly hotheaded) Canadian perspective.
Germans, as a baseline, don’t dominate online culture. Everywhere I look on the internet, I’m reading about Americans. It never stops. I have to constantly filter through American politics, drama, and celebrity news. It feels like we are finally moving away from American-centricity and having discussions about how living at the whims of this superpower is negatively affecting us.
Americans butt in on this and give their takes on it and man… I just don’t care. Their country collectively chose this. My career and ability to provide for my family is seriously at risk because 90 MILLION of them couldn’t be bothered to vote.
For this one, single discussion, just this one time, please, butt out.
After years of being lumped in the same group with every momentarily [in]famous idiot from each of our countries, years of disregard of our regional differences and being plastered with stereotypes from obscure towns a whole country away, it’s time we get to stop caring. The United States of America is threatening us. Not one guy, not one party, not certain states. Why should we give a shit that you live in one state or another? As the saying goes, if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem. I don’t see many solutions, just a whole lot of distancing yourself from those who represent you by whatever arbitrary distinction you can come up with. America is the problem. We don’t want to hear from you until you’ve solved it.
I totally understand this perspective and it’s true the American presence online is overwhelming, but I wonder how much the enemies of collective flourishing, the oligarchs, disaster capitalists, Putin, et al, are loving to see this divisiveness.
Not American, btw
It would be very nice to move away from this American-centrality hyperfocus for once. I try to avoid it but you just can’t, there is too much noise online or default-ism.
I guess how many of the do nothing’s are now the ones saying I didn’t vote for this. Umm yes you did.
Oh absolutely; the folks who sat at home, are outraged that a fascist is in power, and are too dumb to understand how voting works to realize that they enabled it — they are infuriating.
As an American who lives in the EU I’d say I experience what you hypothetically describe a LOT more than what the comic does.
Like even to the point of it sometimes being a little annoying. People I barley know asking me my opinions on trump, why people can like him, what’s up with the whole egg price thing, etc
Most Europeans I know just want to understand wtf is going on and what things are actually like
