As an outsider (I live in Belgium) it feels very weird and dystopian to see everything happening in American politics with Trump and Musk.
On one side, it’s very interesting and almost entertaining; on the other side, it’s scary. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in the USA.
Americans, how do you cope? What’s your take on the situation?
People have just started to realize after 50 years that both major parties, and our system undermines the formation of a third major party, stand with the robber barons against needs of the people while stoking social division to protect the robber barons from reprisal.
Kinda demoralizing. Especially considering all the “Herp derp Freedom” kool-aid poured down our throats from birth.
I used to be really frustrated with 2 party systems. Now I realize that each party is a coalition of special interest groups that only care about their narrow special interests and otherwise vote the party line on everything else.
Multi-party PR systems like Israel are basically the same thing, except the coalitions are explicit instead of informal. You vote for your favourite special interest party and they join a coalition to represent that interest but otherwise vote the “party line” on everything else.
Can I offer you our political system with 6 governments?
If you’re offering me a closet to live in over there where people act like a society then yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
This is exploitation, antisocial hell. We aren’t a society so much as a gaggle of rugged individuals at each other’s throats for ever dwindling oligarch scraps. There is no hope here, no community, only tribal division and hatred stoked 24/7 by for profit media, with intentionally poor public education that doesn’t teach basic critical thinking or reasoning that leaves most unable to separate the propaganda from reality.
There’s a society here, yes! Be my guest!
My reaction is to get to work. The far-right is trying to take over much of the world, and it’s going to take many of us to push it back. Don’t wait for someone else to step up - everyone else is waiting too. Be the person who steps up. The people have power if we use it
There’s groups like Indivisible doing directed pressure of those in government that need more people to contact their house representatives and senators. With that pressure for instance, they’ve started to get Democrats to use procedural tools to slow down senate confirmation of Trump’s picks
There’s movements like the 50501 protests in many cities in all 50 states yesterday, on Feb 5th, and there will be future protests
For anyone else reading this, don’t think this can’t happen wherever you are in the world, join the fight back locally. People in the US thought it couldn’t happen to them too until it did. People in the UK thought Brexit wouldn’t happen until it did. It can happen to you. Take what’s happened in the US as a warning for you too to get involved in the push back
Surviving.
Right now, it feels like all I can do. Keep going, keep reaching out to other members of the local LGBT community to help be a wall to lean on, keep telling my partners that I love them. Keep sheltering whatever tiny spark is left.
And making sure that spark is fed, in whatever little ways I can. Letting myself be more open, letting my colors flash a bit more. Trying to smile in the face of hate.
As to my take on the situation, it’s fucked. There’s no nuance to it. We’re watching our siblings and ourselves being actively erased, waking up wondering when our actual existence will be a crime. Even if we make it through, things somehow get better, there’s so much trust that has been completely broken.
Our government has pissed on lines that, even with a total change of leadership, will take time to repair. Both within the country and on a global scale. Many people within the country have done the same, there will be no taking back things said and done while they thought it was “okay”. There’s no forgetting the hate that has been exposed.
We live in a blue bubble so I’m just ignoring everything the next four years and saving money.
My biggest dream is my state along with the other western states just decides to leave the US and we create our own thing.
The notion that this will all blow over in four years is absurd. The damage that has already been done will take years to repair. I understand wanting to put your head in the sand, but if you do that during a rising tide, you’re gonna drown.
No I get that thinking it will go back to normal in 4 years is optimistic. But there’s nothing else I can do and being optimistic is the only thing keeping me from blowing my brains out.
Now now, don’t blow your brains out if you get depressed; there’s plenty of worthier targets.
Has it ever not been weird, or are people just too young to remember. Like people lost their shit when obama wore a tan suit, or like dijon mustard. He got a nobel peace price while drone striking schools and being in 2 active wars. Bush was maybe a bit smarter than trump, but he was still an idiot son of an asshole. And just overall buffoon, that gor elected twice. I was too young to really care for clinton, but we all know how this went down. But every president you read up is either just a straight up criminal, or a spiteful asshole or both. And the ones who weren’t comically evil just got fucked.
Americans, how do you cope? What’s your take on the situation?
Trying not to think about it. It very well may lead to my death, but so does every avenue radical enough to avert it by my personal intervention.
I think the hardest part considering it is how okay people are with everything that’s going on. Despite the high levels of copium from liberals and leftists about how there’s TOTALLY a grassroots movement ready to rise up, the fact is… there isn’t. The protests are smaller this time 'round than they were last time. Public opinion is more in favor of Trump than it was at the start of his last administration.
Many of us noted that this country isn’t as left as many of the “Trump will make the moderates SEE that fascism is BAD!” types wanted to believe it was. We were ignored.
People live in a bubble, where what they want to believe is true, and goddamn reality.
Anyway. I’m fucked, and just trying to stay alive until I can’t avoid dusting off my old suicide plans.
The way I see it, even if our lives are basically worthless anyway, we ought to at least give them in glorious revolution. Better to die on your feet for what you believe in surrounded by comrades than by your own hand alone. I’ll go on living until that happens, and you should try to survive too.
lol, Donald Trump ripping apart the American democratic underpinnings of Check and Balances, and driving a wedge into post war Western alliance so deep Europe can no longer rely on the US to fire at Russia ever again, coupled with threatened worldwide reciprocal tariffs which are sure to plunge the country and rest of the world into the greatest global economic depression (coincidentally) since the 1930’s. Nope, not much going on over here, how the weather where you are?
Isn’t it ironic that Trumpyboy is ruining a lot of things righ-wing patriots care about and they themselves don’t see the problem?
Republicans would light their own children on fire, if it meant that “mud people” (look it up), MIGHT have it worse than they do. This is the philosophy that has driven the American Republican Party since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and ensuing Southern Strategy. Christofacsist racism, misogyny, and homophobia. They could not argue the merits of their political aims on their face and win for 60 years, so their hatred drove them to support simply burning it all down, and that’s exactly what Donald Trump is doing now.
It was freezing this morning. Right now the sun is shining which results in mild temperatures. Going to be a lot warmer later this week!
Still figuring out that coping part. Right now I have a daily anxiety spike early in the morning that wakes me up, so not going great currently.
I hope you guys can hold it together across the pond. I’ve heard that some of the same powers are turning their attention and money towards you guys now (or at least in Germany).
Yeah, Germany has its elections on Sunday. I’m anxiously awaiting those results, tbf. You’d think Germans know how well it went the last time the extreme right-wingers were in control, but you never know…
In Belgium, we had elections for the federal government in June and regional (Flanders, for me) government in October. Although the right wing gained a lot of votes, we were able to form a government without the extreme right. At the moment we still have a “cordon sanitaire”, look it up, I think it’s quite nice. The extreme right-wing party says it’s undemocratic, of course, but in this case I don’t mind. The formation took 236 days, tho, but that’s another story. We still hold the world record for longest period without a government (592 days in 2018-202, breaking our own record of 541 days in 2010-2011)
Hearing about your election makes me realize how little I know about how your system works. The idea you form a new government every time is very wild sounding to me, but also the horribly entrenched two parties we have is an absolute disaster at this point and I’d be curious to see basically anything else at this point!
Oh if you’re into politics, it’s very interesting to follow hahaha. It’s definitely not ideal, but better than a two party system for sure. Also not that difficult of a system, but for outsiders it can be a lot I think. I also struggle to fully understand the American system, with the value per state etc. Forming a new government is fun and exciting, plus it gives you some hope that a terrible minister will lose his function four years later
I’m definitely interested in other country’s politics. My own’s not so much since they’re insanely depressing feeling these days. 🫤
The american system is deeply flawed, so I don’t think you should try that hard to wrap your head around it honestly. Nothing to be learned except what to avoid 🫠
I’ve encouraged my teenage children to seek employment outside of the States after college, and even attend college abroad if possible. Since the news information ecosystem is compromised, I have no hope for a future USA that is free and equitable.
All of the media about this stuff has felt increasingly like misleading propaganda to me since 2016, and getting an accurate, unbiased, big picture understanding of what is happening seems somewhere between a lot of work and actually impossible with so many people trying so hard to manipulate you. It is like reality television. I try to tune it out as I can but enough gets through.
I’m glad everyone is finally coming around to hating Twitter though.
As a 50something American, it has never been weirder. While I saw this building during most of my life, I didn’t think I would actually live to see Americans voting to get rid of democracy.
But here we are - no longer a functioning democratic republic.
That American Exceptionalism is a real bitch, huh?
Many of us never believed in American Exceptionalism, since we could see this country slipping backwards while the rest of the world continued to progress.
It feels like American Exceptionalism was only seriously being challenged post-9/11.
I don’t have a take on the situation; I’m just making sure I stay informed about the news through reputable sources and nonprofit news networks local to me and other places. And I try to combat the situation by boycotting mega corporations every single day by voting with my wallet. By prioritizing mom and pop shops and Etsy stores, we can hurt Donald Trump and his greedy pals.
I’m not really sure I am coping. I’ve been seeing a decline for a long long time, but even though I knew it was possible I really didn’t think we’d reach the point were we’re pretty much going to be living under a dictatorship.
I knew that capitalist interests would continue to decrease everyone’s standard of living, and I figured there would be some kind of reaction, I just never in a million years thought it would be the dumbfuck duo of Trump and Musk that actually harnessed the reaction in such a destructive manner.
It’s been incredibly depressing to see the right get what they want time and time again making things worse for everyone and yet the propaganda machine somehow manages to create more right wingers.
But then again “the house always wins” and billionaires are the house so it shouldn’t be a surprise. :/
Well a lot of it is just rage bait. Our journalists aren’t very honest.
For example, USAID was giving money to ridiculous things, like a musical in Ireland. There’s no reason for it. You start digging into it, we were paying billions of dollars to even more nonsense.
Yet people are defending it because some people are now getting fired over it.
It’s simply just stupid tribal fighting
USAID is a know corruption hot spot.
It was jobs for people of certain backgrpund, contracts awarded to certain companies, then there is classic over charging…
To be fiat this normal in all government contracting but US AID is specifically bad at it.
Most of the money is so that some people can have good jobs and live their best lives.
I’ve heard people say they’ve never felt more american than they ever have since the last month. It’s a different perspective for everyone. But it does concern me that some people base their entire perspectives on the first ten words they hear, and refuse to think further
