Excellent point! I feel like Americans don’t like to understand that practically everyone in the U.S. is working class now. If you cannot quit your job tomorrow and live off of passive, savings, and residuals you are working class. The system is designed to facilitate this, with spartan social safety nets and lack of pensions. It’s shit-tier by developed nation standards.

What’s that other quote, ~“it only takes 3.5% of the population to generate massive change”? Obviously I am being flippant in this specific instance, but America is a failed democracy and empire in decline.

There is hope, but it requires taking back the power by direct action.

We’ve been hurtling past brightline after brightline for decades. Now it is so flagrantly obvious, can it get any more obvious than multiple Goose-step Salutes, but more importantly the propaganda spin to play them off and justify it as not being a disqualifying action. They used to have to dog whistle their zeal for bigotry and xenophobia.

The question is, what the actual fuck are we going to do about it?

Organize? Direct action? That magic word that happens when you mash up insurance and male arousal? The DNC would not support or pardon folks involved in that effort, and the corporate media would absolutely vilify it.

The answer is obvious, with historical underpinning, although we still have to figure out how to “televise the revolution” in this day and age.

Too late at this point, mostly. You could still replace your comments with something else to possibly marginally taint new data, but that damage is likely imperceptible and a time sink for you.

I admit, I clicked this expecting to agree but not expecting much out of the unassuming title. Thank you for this, it echoes the sentiment felt by all of those experiencing the precipitous decline in our democracy who have even a modicum of awareness.

Shine on you shiny diamond! It’s time to rally up the posse and go to town on these rat bastards! They are pillaging the coffers, destroying lives and careers, as they institute direct fascism without any pretense.

“The revolution will not be televised!”

That’s great news, it’s really too bad that Austin is in Texas given the political climate. The governor is a malodorous bigot.

This is vile and those initiating and facilitating it are evil.

What if a person took personal responsibility and held them accountable?

It’s an interesting question. It’s possible that an action of this nature could embolden the masses and the person would be remembered in a fashion similar to a valiant person sharing a name with a Nintendo character.

Their Shock Doctrine approach (thank you Naomi Klein) has been incredibly successful. Reading about history in my youth, I now understand why evil prevailed then as it is now. I was looking back at times of immense tyranny and thinking “why didn’t everyone just rise up against them!?” Some are fully onboard, others partially, but many are detached, struggling to survive. The rest of us do what we can, when we can, but disjointed and unorganized.

It’s a whole lot of “please will somebody DO something!”, but the modern Democrats are not an opposition party, ever. The news media is complicit as well. There are a handful of judges and attorneys who are doing their damndest, but this is no longer a country of laws (for the rich and powerful).

The country is geographically massive and your average citizen is both poor and uneducated, both politically and otherwise, by Western standards. Now that large swaths of worker’s livelihoods are being devastated they may have more time on their hands.

I won’t hold my breath for “Occupy Washington”, but when the next movement comes it will be met with intense and violent opposition. Hopefully a silver lining may be a wake up call, far too late.

I shudder to think of what comes next as it has been festering and fomenting within this country my entire lifetime. The sophisticated propaganda machine and socioeconomic warfare has kept our citizens dumb, divided, and despondent, I pray something beneficial rises from the ashes.

There is no single answer to your question. My aim was to provide a contemporaneous snapshot of what I am experiencing. As I have been observing our descent into flagrant fascism, and telling anyone who would listen, for the better part of a century. And I hate it with every fiber of my being.

It would be too bad if the 20-somethings who are doing Musk’s bidding, and have already had their identities revealed, had their lives made difficult and had to live in worry of reprisals, after accepting financial compensation in exchange for betraying their country! /s

Care to expand a bit, please? This is entirely new to me, I just read the Wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle

Big Head from Silicon Valley! 😆

Honey s’mores! Every other comment in this thread is by him… The timeline is spaced so it’s conceivable it’s a human, however that is somehow more troubling. Dude needs to go outside!

T

The Big 3 are: Hair Transplant, Hair Systems, or Shaving.

The Medium 3: are Oral Dutasteride, Oral Minoxidil, and Microneedling.

The Small 3: are Oral Finasteride, Topical Minoxidil, and Ketoconazole.

The Meh 3: are Head Massage, Vitamins, and Laser Caps.

That is downright bizarre!

"Between the lines: In the aftermath, members remain divided on whether it was right for NABJ to extend the invitation and give a platform to Trump. Some said it was embarrassing; others praised the interviewers for their tough questioning.

Brittany Cummings, a communications professional, was among the members who didn’t think the organization should have extended the invitation to Trump. “I’m not sure that any group of journalists has the ‘secret sauce’ to make him tell the truth and speak as a normal candidate would,” she said. “He’s not a normal candidate, so we can’t treat him as such.” “During the actual discussion, he was disrespectful, and I don’t think there was anything new to learn.”"

That’s normal. That’s what normal people do… Right? Right!?

People simply can’t/won’t hear it. Society is clinging to any doubt or contrary viewpoint (and oil companies and their paid shills provide plenty) because it is difficult to envision the delicate and finite nature of our situation. Triggered methane releases are currently ratcheting up the warming, you can’t refreeze the permafrost, it rapidly cooks the planet.

No one wants to believe it, but this is the end unless dramatic changes are made. Having children, at this juncture, with what we know, is profoundly selfish. And folks cannot accept this, let alone, the changes that must be made, systemically, for society to survive.

As myopic and divorced from reality as it is, I appreciate the brazen simplicity of your worldview. Snuggled up in your security blanket of ignorance, inoculated from the pain of confronting cognitive dissonance, or growth.

Bake 'em away toys! Case closed!

I don’t know, I figure I could make a pretty positive impact on the world with that kind of seed money. And that would certainly make me extra special happy!