I’d like to thank everyone for my most upvoted post on lemmy ever. Not only have you upvoted it to the top for like 2 days you commented the shit out of it. I’d like to take this opportunity to say fuck the mods of this instance. This was my second post coming off a 30 day ban and I want to say these fucking mods have been nothing but bitches. I’ve never been more attacked on any other instance, subreddit, forum, etc. then I have been in this fucking instance. Not only have I been attacked I’ve been told my memes arent memey enough again and again.
I’ll be honest, I do not know how to make a meme but I keep posting just to piss in these mods cheerios.
Thanks lemmy.world/politicalmemes for being the worst community I’ve ever been a part of.
Look, cards on the table, shit IS scary. We’ve got an intelligence apparatus that has every message every one of us has ever sent electronically, and probably microphone data from every Internet connected device we’ve ever been in earshot of, so organizing something a little more potent has to happen nearly spontaneously. You’re dreaming if you think our operatives (or cops for that matter) are above just throwing a bag over your head, breaking your legs and throwing you down a mineshaft. Those intelligence agencies, for most of a century, have been spearheaded by the kind of people that sponsored violent right wing reactionary movements around the world to depose peaceful communist/leftist regimes you’ve maybe never heard of. They’d gladly take this over someone even as far left as Sanders.
Half the country still thinks that everything happening is perfectly cool and normal and totally how a republic works. A lot of the people in power still aren’t convinced that Trump won’t wake up one day and just be normal; they come to each new day of horrors completely shocked and surprised that he continued to be what he said he would, and to suggest that we should maybe do something about that is scandalous to them. Those two things together mean that the meaningful support is not great. Being a lone gunman is unlikely to change much, given that MAGA is a movement, and others around Trump- the people who hand him the EOs, and the billionaires who sponsor them- will remain. Being an armed resistance is effectively a death sentence, and nobody’s quite ready to sign up for that, at least until it’s absolutely clear that the alternative to fighting is just as bad. If I go rogue and catch a bullet, nobody’s going to take care of my family, they’re going to be homeless until RFK sends them off to a camp. Plus, as others have mentioned, it’s pretty goddamn difficult to organize mass protests in DC when everyone who feels like you do is living dollar store hot dog to dollar store hot dog and DC is further from you than Moscow is from London.
For as long as I’ve been alive, the consistent message to the American people has been that help is not coming. The cops will gladly form a task force to come shoot your grandma in her living room, but routinely have argued that they have no duty to protect you. When the BLM protests were happening, a bunch of my coworkers cheered and giggled at videos of cops doing drive by pepper spraying of people who were just walking, and derided that dude (I think it was in Seattle?) who returned fire when the cops shot at him first. When the great recession happened, our government spent a trillion dollars bailing out banks instead of people. If you need assistance, you’re ruthlessly scrutinized and continuously presumed to be a criminal or a parasite, only to be given not nearly enough at the end of it. Not only that, but we’ve even been attacking the helpers. We’ve spent decades eroding the ability to join a union, eroding the efficacy of unions, fighting and propagandizing against them at every turn (it doesn’t help that I’ve had my fair share of experience with worthless unions where the rep wouldn’t even return your calls. I know more people who’ve had experience with weak ass unions than people who’ve had experience with unions that are prepared to bury your boss under a sports stadium). We’re shutting down churches that house the homeless, arresting people who try to feed them, and our authorities have the goddamn audacity to frame that and bulldozing encampments as acts of “compassion” because to not make the homeless miserable is to enable them. Every one fundamentally understands that help is not coming, we must help ourselves, and this is a really, really, really big job for an individual.
So, yeah, I’d say I’m pretty goddamn scared and I feel rational to be so.
The only thing that makes real sense, imo, is to start laying the groundwork for cold balkanization. It will break the federal government’s power, finally allow needed social, legal, and economic changes, and hopefully can be achieved without much bloodshed.
Revolt? Americans proved that they would rather let the country burn under a fascist psychopath than oppose him and vote for an imperfect alternative. Americans get what they deserve, even the left went full toxic American this election, they can’t unify to oppose shit.
The American leftists are currently surrounded by the fire and wreckage of their future while going “take that democrats”
Who would have thunk that the Americans claiming - school shooting after school shooting - that they cannot ban guns because they need them in case the government turns evil on the people are the same Americans that cheer at a Nazi saluting oligarchic quasi-president and a moronic manchild puppet president while democracy is demolished and rights, especially of women, queer people and immigrants, are taken away.
Greetings from Germany, we’ve been there before and we’re starting to take the same path again currently as politicians of the far and the not so far right are taking the shitshow we’re witnessing in the US as an example and instruction manual to push their own agenda here. Not trying to say it’s America’s fault, it’s just that we’ve all not been conscious enough about the developments, and America honestly stumbled more blindly into fascism than I ever thought was possible. We all need to fucking get our asses up and do something. At least in Germany it’s not too late yet. In case any fellow German here reads this: GO VOTE ON SUNDAY.
And don’t ONLY vote, make your voices heard in other ways as well!
Yes! Protest, join a democratic party, talk about politics to your friends and colleagues, be vocal on social media, etc.
The reason we can’t ban guns has to do with the 2nd Amendment, it guarantees gun ownership.
There is a process to change the Constitution, but at this point it’s an impossibility given the political makeup of the country.
You start by getting 290 votes in the House, which is currently split 218 Republicans, 215 Democrats, 2 vacancies.
The majority is decided by 218 votes. So to start the Amendment process, you’d need all 215 Democrats (unlikely) and 75 Republicans (who are universally opposed.)
Assuming you get that, it then goes to the Senate which is split 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and 2 Independent. Since everything in the Senate starts with a filibuster, you need 60 votes to break that, and the Democrats are 13 votes shy of that.
If they managed to get those 13 votes to get past the filibuster, they still need +7 more to pass the Amendment.
If, by some miracle, all three of those votes happened, then it goes to the states for ratification and you need 38/50 states to approve.
In 2024, Trump won 31 states, Harris only 19. So you’d need all 19 Harris states (unlikely) plus 19 Trump states (even more unlikely).
Flip these numbers around and you’ll see why we similarly can’t get amendments on conservative issues.
The reason we can’t ban guns has to do with the 2nd Amendment, it guarantees gun ownership.
That’s questionable, and has been hotly debated for a long time.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
It’s an entirely reasonable interpretation that this protects militias and not individual gun ownership.
Nope. Supreme Court.
D.C. vs. Heller, 2008:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/554/570/
“as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty.”
Re-iterated 2 years later because D.C. is a special entity and not a state:
McDonald vs. City of Chicago:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/561/742/
“In Heller, we held that the Second Amendment protects the right to possess a handgun in the home for the purpose of self-defense. Unless considerations of stare decisis counsel otherwise, a provision of the Bill of Rights that protects a right that is fundamental from an American perspective applies equally to the Federal Government and the States. See Duncan, 391 U. S., at 149, and n. 14. We therefore hold that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right recognized in Heller. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.”
Now, both of these are about handguns, so what about OTHER weapons?
Caetano vs. Massachusetts, 2016:
This one is particularly fun because it initially didn’t involve guns at all. Woman was scared of her ex and bought a stun gun for protection. State argued that stun guns didn’t exist back then, so the 2nd amendment didn’t apply.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/577/411/
“The Second Amendment covers all weapons that may be defined as “bearable arms,” even if they did not exist when the Bill of Rights was drafted and are not commonly used in warfare.”
So, if it’s a carryable weapon, it’s covered under the 2nd amendment.
That is the current interpretation. Before Heller (2008) many scholars and federal courts supported the collective interpretation.
My point being that you are falsely treating this as a settled conversation/that the text is unambiguous. It’s famously unclear, and there have been pages and pages of arguments written about this.
The Supreme Court is the arbiter, and while the court CAN overturn itself, as it did with Roe, it takes 50 years and a concerted effort by the Presidents and Senate to change the composition of the Court.
Since Heller, the Court has only become MORE conservative, not less, so the opinions on gun rights and the 2nd amendment aren’t going to change any time soon.
We saw it again with Bruen in 2022 where the Court gave the test by which all gun laws should be judged:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/597/20-843/
“Today, we decline to adopt that two-part approach. In keeping with Heller, we hold that when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command.” Konigsberg v. State Bar of Cal., 366 U.S. 36, 50, n. 10 (1961).[3]”
Which does not bode well for California this year when the Supreme Court takes up the ban on AR-15s and magazines with more than 10 rounds.
Snope vs. Brown will be the next one to watch:
And that’s why it’s not “gun ownership is guaranteed by constitution” but “gun ownership is guaranteed by the recent decision of 9 unelected people, but actually less than that, some of then were against it”.
All it takes is a majority ruling to set the precedent, and they have done so four separate times now.
June is going to probably be another heartbreaker for folks expecting the court to suddenly swerve left.
reasonable interpretation
Except the folks with the guns determine the interpretation.
Well yeah, that’s kind of the problem right now isn’t it? It actually doesn’t matter what the Constitution says, because the current Supreme Court is a partisan organ that exists to rubber stamp everything Trump whatever Trump does.
Except the part where there was NO militia when the amendment was conceived, written and passed. Everyone, (well every male), was “the militia”. Formal or not. And if you actually look closely at the military organization of the US, you would see that it’s still the same today. There are layers to the US army. And it goes down to you as you walk around on the street.
Except the part where there was NO militia when the amendment was conceived, written and passed.
The beginning of the United States military lies in local governments which created militias that enrolled nearly all free white men. The militia was not employed as a fighting force in major operations outside the local jurisdiction. Instead, the colony asked for (and paid) volunteers serving in ranger and other provincial troops (see above), many of whom were also militia members. The local Indian threat ended by 1725 in most places, after which the militia system was little used except for local ceremonial roles. The militia system was revived at the end of the colonial era, as the American Revolution approached; weapons were accumulated and intensive training began. The militia played a major fighting role in the Revolution, especially in expelling the British from Boston in 1776 and capturing the British invasion force at Saratoga in 1777. However most of the fighting was handled by the Continental Army, comprising regular soldiers.
Everyone, (well every male)
Not black men. Not “mulattos”. Not slaves. Which the funny thing is that gun regulations have been historically motivated by black folks getting guns - see how laws changed in response to the Panthers.
There’s a difference between a compulsory service in an organized regiment, where you presumably receive training on how to use said weapons, and “the founders wanted everyone to have the right to have anti aircraft rounds in their home.”
There is an argument that the reason the 2nd Amendment exists was to put down slave rebellions, so it goes back to the very start:
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002107670/historian-uncovers-the-racist-roots-of-the-2nd-amendment
“It was in response to the concerns coming out of the Virginia ratification convention for the Constitution, led by Patrick Henry and George Mason, that a militia that was controlled solely by the federal government would not be there to protect the slave owners from an enslaved uprising. And … James Madison crafted that language in order to mollify the concerns coming out of Virginia and the anti-Federalists, that they would still have full control over their state militias — and those militias were used in order to quell slave revolts. … The Second Amendment really provided the cover, the assurances that Patrick Henry and George Mason needed, that the militias would not be controlled by the federal government, but that they would be controlled by the states and at the beck and call of the states to be able to put down these uprisings.”
Thats how Bowling for Columbine presented it as well.
I don’t think it’s controversial to see a direct line of descent from militia -> slave patrols -> police.
Germany is so far up Israels ass in supporting a genocide and demonising, cancelling and straight up arresting leftist/artists/intellectuals/Muslims/Arabs you’re in no position to talk frankly.
What the hell are you talking about? Who is that “you” that is in no position to talk? You don’t know anything about my view of Germany’s position towards Israel.
I also feel like you have no clue about German politics. It’s the far right AfD that acts as the big defender of the Jews currently and you can read above what I think about them. At the same time, we have a historic responsibility towards the Jews that is not as simple as you probably think it is. And there are lots of high ranked politicians, including our foreign minister, who speak very critically of Israel’s policies and actions.
That being said, none of this has anything to do with my initial statement. Or are you one of those people who voted for Trump because the evil Democrats supported Israel? In that case I think it is you who should be silent now.
So many Americans have taken the oath of defending the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. They should all be on their way to the White House to actually follow this oath.
Can’t do shit when tens of millions of citizens would go batshit insane if anything forceful was done against this new breed of Nazis.
If nothing else, there have been countless Secret Service agents and military personnel around figures like Trump and Musk - every single one of them who had the opportunity to take the shot but chose not to, has violated their oath, and are complicit in this country’s downfall.
I’m a vet. I’m unsure why the DoD hasn’t put a stop to this yet. There have been clear violations of this oath by elected officials. At the very least, letting Elmo wreck shit.
We have a problem though. The retired boomer vets, and some younger ones, voted for this. Conservatives tend to be the ones that raise their hands. They seem to have forgotten the oath and think that all of this is A OK. They’ve been guzzling the kool aid. Hell, my base still shows Faux “News” at the base hospital on some TVs. Even though a base commander banned news channels during COVID.
Those of us that do recognize this as a violation of the constitution do not number enough to do anything. Rising up involves getting rid of the entire GOP, plus multiple billionaires, multiple media moguls, SCOTUS, lower court appointees, appointees of many other government agencies, and on and on. It isn’t something even a couple thousand can accomplish. We saw this with the attempted coup on J6.
What we’re doing is making sure we’re armed enough to defend ourselves in case of a civil war, or violence from the lunatics who still think this is all fine and good while we scream towards fascism. I hate this. I wish I could go do something. With every fiber of my being I do. My nervous system is fucked. I can barely leave the house many days. Especially in the winter when the cold shoots pain and fatigue through the roof. I can defend my own, probably my own neighborhood if it came to it. That’s about the extent for me.
I live in a place with a bunch of these nut bags as it is too. There is a crazy trump church in my town with heavy ties to a christian nationalists extremist group. It’s the largest church in the small town. Those people concern me. There is a crazy guy 2 houses down from me that thinks the local base dropped COVID on us with the tankers. I think I broke the gerbal wheel in his brain when I told him I’ve seen them inside and out and there isn’t anywhere to even put a “bag o covid”. We had a major wildfire hit and he blamed the firefighters for not flying in heavy smoke, at night and in super high winds. We’re talking 70mph+ gusts and 45 sustained. There are some that still have trump/pence signs up. That’s the type of crap I’m working with. Many are vets as well.
I get how it looks from the outside. We’ve been claiming that our firearms are for exactly what is happening. Thing is, those that support this. Those that voted for this, have the vast majority of firearms in this country. The last statistic I saw was from 2022 and republican firearm owners numbered nearly 2x democratic owners. That didn’t even count the amount of firearms owned. That percentage is the same for individuals who live in a home where firearms are present. The left has slowly been arming up due to increased violence from the right against the left, but we’re in no position to rise up.
If the right does end up realizing that they fucked up and need to finally rise up with the left, then you’ll see it at a local level first. Other countries poke fun at us for not taking vacations because we don’t have the days or money to do so. Yet they expect us to travel across country, with absolutely no guarantee others will be there, to maybe get a shot off at 1 person? It’s over 2500 miles for me to get across the country. That’d take me at least a week and a half. I wouldn’t even be able to do that solo due to the medical issues. People can’t afford to do that. So the local level would be the target. Local congressmen (most of whom live in DC over half the year as it is). Local senators. State capitals, provided they’re red states and are following suit with the fed govts.
This got long, I’m sorry for that, but this is a much more complicated issue. I seriously don’t think people realize just how fucking far it is to get to DC. Just how useless it would be without some serious backing by the right and the military, or at least enough of the military that remembers their oath and don’t fire on us. That combo could hold off the cops, but remember as well. We’re dealing with police who are militarized now. They’ve been eating up old military equipment for at least a decade now. Some even have old APCs. They have no qualms over shooting everything all the way down to your dog just because it looked at them funny.
I’m confused… Who are you talking about? What oath? Are… Are we talking about our mandatory “pledge of allegiance” we indoctrinate kids with?
You people can’t be real…
The oath to defend the Constitution applies to most federal workers, the military, and (I think!) law enforcement.
https://bensguide.gpo.gov/j-oath-office
https://www.army.mil/values/oath.html
https://police-brutality.usattorneys.com/do-police-swear-an-oath-to-the-constitution/
We have cheap debt. It delays things anywhere between 3 months to 100 years.
These are the kind of people that can’t even run into each others without going ballistic over a simple greeting and you expect them to enact a revolt LMAO 🤣
Hard to get people to want tol shoot their family members
Orange pig could shoot someone and rape them lawfully on main street and no one would bat an eye. That’s the law for rich assholes.
Wait, I remember this kid. What video was he from again?
That is a great point! Turn your flags to show others that they are not alone!
Any resistance we do have gets met with “well aktchually” its not doing enough, its too little too late, where was this when? Maybe stfu and pick up a pitchfork mf
Oh shit, we cussin out the liberal Americans again? Fuck yeah, deal me in, that shit’s cathartic as fuck
I love that we’re starting arguments against one another. This is going to make it extra easy for Trump to polarize more and more people.
Lemmy has like, what, twelve conservatives on it? Who do you people think you’re insulting here?
After Roe v Wade went down with no response, I lost any hope I had of ever seeing Americans revolt for anything. This year I already didn’t expect them to do anything.
