Everyone in this thread is crying for violence or strike or terrorism.
Just fucking vote.
Do not listen to the hexbears, the .ml bots, the morons.
If Not Voting was an option it would dominate every single election cycle. Every single time.
The problem with our system is nobody is engaging with it to have it work at 100% power.
#If voting didn’t work they would not try so goddamn hard to discourage and discount your vote!
And that doesn’t mean just you, get others to the poll. Convince Grandma republicans aren’t it this cycle.
How do you expect a system to function properly if nobody is maintaining it? Look at New York. Look at how quickly they can fuck things up. It’s actually a lot easier to fix it. Fucking vote.
No, use every tool at your disposal. Vote and throw a brick through your local Republican politician’s window.
How about organize a strike before you try to push for violence. Otherwise you’re asking to not only hurt yourself but others around you and gain literally nothing.
Dude its not hard to stand outside a politicians house and yell at them. The brick is honestly optional but its how we got our rights. This is how you have to do it in America. Band together and make the politicians scared. It shouldn’t have to be this way but if you look into history its no accident the police became so militarized.
It’s easier to vote for politicians you don’t have to do that to.
Well, you see, by the state of things, we apparently do.
They are literally trying to not make voting work and possibly stole the last one. I will not be the least bit surprised if the least popular president of all time manages to magically pull off a red wave in November, and if he does, then the riots need to happen.
What we need to do is fine everyone om their taxes if they don’t vote. Even $100 would do wonders.
Could even flip it and give them a $200 credit on thier taxes (not a payout) and watch people show up on droves.
Unfortunately tracking that sounds like a PITA trying to keep it anonymous. Maybe hand out vouchers when people leave the booths.
Right? Same problem in Canada, we bitch and moan and will spend so much energy on so many things but our turnout is dogshit. The last Montréal municipal election had 36%, the last couple Ontario provincial elections had less than half, and the last federal election was only 69.5%. Last time the federal election saw more than 70% was in 1988.
The honest fact of it all is that votes are currently not weighted differently. No matter how fucked things get, if populations said “NO” to these openly corrupt assholes then that would be the end of them. Instead, it feels like nothing will stop idiots from voting for pure evil and nothing will get 30+% of the population to actually pay any attention at all.
No one is telling anybody not to vote. I think most of us here, if not all, are going to vote. And most will probably be voting blue, despite objections of a lot of us having establishment dem candidates.
We just don’t have a lot of confidence in how this is going to turn out. It doesn’t look good at all.
Yes they are all the time. I see the sentiment everywhere on lemmy. People are convinced voting is a sham and doesn’t work because people have not done their duty to defend voting.
Yeah, no. You are just conflating doing more then one thing at a time with only doing one thing and being smug about it.
Lol being smug?
People should just vote. This push to leap to violence and destruction is exactly part of the playbook for everyone except the poor people who are actually going to suffer for it.
Poor people are currently suffering from the attitude that people should just vote.
No people are suffering from a dying democracy because they don’t go out to vote and then when faced with the death of their democracy, they want to instantly quit or shrug and say it’s already dead and commit to not doing anything and when you say shit like this you’re doing it too.
“Dogs already choking guess I shouldn’t bother to help, he’s already done for” that’s your mentality.
If people had voted you’d have a much different country. Different senators, different supreme court, different representatives every level. None of this bullshit.
Did you know Reagan won in a landslide election with only about 50% voter turnout which at the time was the lowest turnout in almost 30 years?
Every election roughly 30% of the population votes for the candidate that wins. 30%.
And these are just presidential elections, the numbers are worse for local elections and midterms.
Did you know AOC’s election which is regarded as a huge step in the changing demographic of our Congress upset a 14 year stranglehold by the same candidate who held that seat unopposed and she only won by a tiny margin in an election where 13% came out to vote.
The guy she beat was one seen as a great pick for speaker of the house. Now he’s nobody. 13% barely managed to shift the course of this country. Now look at the state of NYC. Say what you want about AOC but her victory did mark a shift and it is absolutely for the better.
Just fucking vote dude
Nope, I’ve literally been banned from instances for telling people to vote (while also doing other things at the same time). There are absolutely tons of lemmings who actively discourage voting.
The ones being smug are those who insult anyone who says to vote, while throwing out all their keyboard warrior battlecries while also doing nothing, and then always having an excuse why it’s not their responsibility to do the thing they’re shaming everyone else for not doing.
Oh so those outside of the states should what? Invade?
The projection on expecting everyone else to fix your mess is insane. And no you don’t get to call foul when non americans share their opinion with you about your shit ass nation, as this is what america has done to everyone else (and still is) for as long as I have been alive. Don’t like it? Then fix your shit. How you do that (at this point you are doing nothing but defending your poor nation from your keyboard) is up to you.
So please, try and not put words in peoples mouths.
I love this vacuum every single country hides behind blaming America while simultaneously doing awful shit itself or directly benefitting from that relationship.
Not hiding behind america, not putting any claims on Cuba or Greenland or anyone, and really really not getting anything “good” from our relationship with the states.
If everyone says you guys suck, it must clearly be the whole world that is stupid, right?
Exhibit A. Thank you for demonstrating.
So please, try and not put words in peoples mouths.
This is so fucking ironic, especially paired with you’re accusing me of projection. I didn’t project a damn thing, and I never said I expect “everyone else to fix” “my” mess. All I said was that you’re a smug little keyboard warrior who isn’t contributing anything to the solution.
(at this point you are doing nothing but defending your poor nation from your keyboard)
Fuck all the way off with that shit. You have no clue what I do or don’t do, and I’m not about to hand you my resumé, but pretending that I’m defending this hellhole is a new level of asinine.
Fuck all the way off with that shit. You have no clue what I do or don’t do, and I’m not about to hand you my resumé, but pretending that I’m defending this hellhole is a new level of asinine.
Same as you putting words in the mouths of non americans. We don’t own you shit, and that includes dealing with your problems inside your own nation.
Too right. Lets worry about the rest after we try to save the country from itself.
Serious request: I don’t have any background in political science. Can someone help me work through this hypothetical situation?
Blue politicians call for a general strike to protest the activities of the Trump administration. Let’s assume everyone in the country knows about it.
In which states does it actually happen? What industries are most impacted? What percentage of the adult population in those states takes part? How long does it last? What does Trump do in retaliation to those states? Is it effective?
I ran it by an llm and it seemed thoughtful about it, it uses MN as a model since it had the highest participation rate earlier in the year. Here is some of what it returned:
Based on the Minnesota model, union density data (BLS 2025), and what actually happened on May 1, here’s a reasonable extrapolation for states most likely to see a replicated “full” general strike (i.e., businesses/schools actually closing, not just rallies):
Effectiveness ceiling: A one-day strike in any single state (even NY) would not paralyze the national economy. The real leverage is simultaneous multi-state action — if MN + NY + IL + CA + WA + NJ all hit the “Minnesota threshold” on the same day, you’d see:
~30–40% of the national MTA-equivalent transit system down 200+ school districts closed Major port disruptions (LA, NY/NJ, Seattle) Boeing/Amazon/Apple supply chain hit
Edit: check for accuracy
It’s a start. Do we think those 6 states would join a general strike? Maybe the goal shouldn’t be a nation-wide strike per se, but a coordinated strike across consistently blue (city, state, fed), high-population regions. That way, the conversation shifts from “it can’t happen” to “where does it need to happen”.
The Postal Service wants to require that both the “outbound” envelope carrying the ballot to the voter and the “inbound” envelope bringing the ballot back to the election office have a barcode for automated tracking that’s unique to each voter.
No more secret ballots?
Yeah this is kind scary. Let’s open up this ballot and see who he voted for so we can put him on our ICE harassment list.
Since trump got back in office, over half of my mail and packages have been opened and taped back shut (without the usual slip notifying me of inspection).
Usually they do an ass job taping it closed too, things could literally just fall out and a couple times I’ve had items missing that were on the manifest…
I’m pretty sure that’s illegal but in this day and age I’m not sure that means anything.
Yeah, who’s going to enforce it? Who would you suggest I report it to?
By design, more court cases to confuse
What fucking rules?
None of this has been vetted by Congress or the courts, or, more importantly, by the states; tiny-d donnie and his administration and his bootlicks in the USPS are just making shit up as they go, because they don’t want the normal democratic processes to work in this country.
Yes, but have you considered “trans, immigrants, communism socialism, think of the children, support the troops, and ice is one phone call away, what’s your background anyway”?
Exactly!
Could have voted for,
Progress but were told that Dems,
Make gay trans furries
You’re right, time to buy a red hat and a Cybertruck that’s been modified to roll coal.
Honestly i think they already do that, ya know, catching on fire
It’s not a “defective battery”, it’s energized coal!
All states except Alabama, New Hampshire, and Mississippi offer some kind of no-excuse early voting you can do, from days to weeks. New Hampshire and Mississippi require an excuse, while Alabama offers NO early voting whatsoever.
I bet they think voting is only done day-of or by mail, cuz thats what the numbers probably show, so thats what they focus on.
Vote no matter what. Vote early, by mail, avoid voting on Election Day. Make a plan we will have to treat voting like it’s a disaster evacuation. Go in a group, stay safe and informed everyone.
WHEN ARE YOU FUCKERS GONNA START SETTING YOUR FOOT DOWN?
CALL A FUCKING GENERAL STRIKE.
Americans make movies depicting themselves as badasses ready to fight for freedom, while in reality they can’t even do the most basic thing to defend their democracy.
Not to mention how their shit spills out all over the world.WHEN ARE YOU FUCKERS
I’m just gonna mention it’s historically been a lot easier for people to send others into the fray than go themselves. I think we called those people chickenhawks, in the day, but I don’t think it applies here.
Still, it’s an important historical point.
You mean like the one my entire city did this year? Unless everyone is on board it doesnt work. And not everyone is. Theres still a strong perxentage of the country rooting for this and a large portion that just doesnt care or thinks it will blow over.
Even though the 1% are fucking over the 99%, its not 99% against the 1% its more like 50% of the most evil and vile people with the vast majority of guns against the other 50%
Was it one day long?
Listen pal, nearly every American is a slave to their day job(s) - especially given the massive uptick in living expenses over the last year/months.
If I “strike” and refuse to show up for my second shift at Winn-Dixie, all that will happen is I lose my sub-30 hour a week job, and someone else gets their prayers answered for more shifts (offsetting their cost of living a sliver) while I get to have Mr Ulcer come back over concerns about how I’ll feed my family.
I’m not saying a nation wide stoppage wouldn’t have an impact - but this nation is geographically massive compared to your average European country. There is no social safety net outside of if someone is lucky enough to be in a defanged union.
Calling for general strikes in this way feels like an oil exec saying I should use paper straws/recycle to save the environment while they are boiling the ocean.
That is exactly what you’re supposed to be fighting, dumbass. You all keep saying this as if we didn’t know, but how else is it going to happen? You can’t keep waiting for your white knight in shining armor.
People have left their families behind, lived in forests eating scraps for years while being actively hunted, with victory never certain. Just never in the US. When Europeans say that you can’t even see how much privilege you’re not willing to give up, we say it because many of us heard stories from our elders of giving up everything to follow an ideal and join the resistance.
I say this with no hate, but seriously - go watch a documentary and grow some balls.
It’s true in many ways, but balls aren’t needed lol. The controlling systems (like maga that the voters elected) use propaganda against minorities for problems they did not cause to stir fear and tribalism. They keep people afraid, or unable, to take one day off, a Monday or Friday for a long weekend maybe. 23% don’t have paid sick time to use for a day, maybe use vacation if they have it and ask early enough. True it’s not like the fear of wars like in so many places today still, tragically. They are all caused by the controlling systems, for supernatural reasons, greed, punching down or all those.
Workers in other countries have those benefits and healthcare not bound to employers. Other countries have abusive working conditions and other life stress, that is another tragedy. Some states with enough Democrat majority, passed paid sick and family leave, school meals for all and other things that help working people. Those benefits could be national with enough Dem majority, AND for long enough to pass the changes, that people notice in their lives, like happened with ACA eventually, while maga attempts to sabotage it.
I’m afraid enough people get the “good benefits” so they wrongly think everyone can and don’t want it for all, and they are team maga. It is part of the founding lore of usa, land of the free, do it all on their own with bare hands, self-made, etc. As if many people in other lands didn’t work hard from meager start and do well. It’s all been done before, not special, it’s the indoctrination. Let’s do better, unite to solve the global climate refugee crisis, and keep human health as the top goal! Be excellent to each other!
Oh just fuck all the way off. Jfc
There’s not a lot more infuriating than DUMBASSES that don’t live here sitting from their comfortable chair and stable lives dictating what we should or should not do all the while the people that live here know what it’s like and moreover know there is no popular “resistance” to attach to like you’re talking.
In case you are that fucking unaware, a third want this shit, a third didn’t and does not, and a third didn’t fucking care and still don’t.
Whatever BS youre spewing clearly doesn’t jive with reality in the US. All the while you ignore everything the op explained quite succinctly to you.
Signed, someone actually fucking here.
There’s not a lot more infuriating than DUMBASSES that don’t live here sitting from their comfortable chair and stable lives dictating what we should or should not do all the while the people that live here know what it’s like and moreover know there is no popular “resistance” to attach to like you’re talking.
You are just displeased when the shoe is on the other foot. The world is watching you all fail, and just like you all did for years, have opinions about it.
We’ve all heard these excuses before. Why do you want to force me to repeat the usual answers?
What few rights you have were paid in blood, and you refuse even slight discomfort, you simply don’t care enough, stop making excuses.
I don’t see how the size of the country matters, when labor movements have always been GLOBAL. What does Europe have to do with this?
I mentioned Europe because places like France have their protest game on point. (grills mounted on tram tracks for making burgers while protesting? Genius.)
And yes, our labor rights (not much anymore as they are) were paid in blood. I remember learning about the Triangle Waistcoat Factory as a kiddo.
But I take issue with saying “slight discomfort” when referring to keeping my family housed and fed. Most Americans are living not just paycheck to paycheck but have zero significant savings to weather a medical emergency (or an open ended strike).
And the only alternative party to the current administration isn’t offering options like, “if you all just wait it out for a few months, we can take back the House/Senate/Presidency, pass UBI, help you get your money and financial stability back… Oh and pad SCOTUS so some fucker in a red state doesn’t sue to undo all this relief”.
You have to understand. This shit is bleak. We are clawing on to the only thing we have because there is nobody coming to save us, and we cannot save ourselves.
Yeah the only action that could possibly have an impact at this point would be to resurrect the militias of old and start a good old county war. Not particularly viable in the current political and economic climate, also I’m not entirely sure where you attack to cause significant damage outside of maybe bridges on the interstate and highway systems, the rails, and maybe the electrical grid around industrial centers and AI data centers.
Saying that and doing that is also a massively different thing, back when the old militias were about they didn’t really have in investigationn methods and also they could literally go to work with basically no reprisal after shooting up some deputy or whatnot.
outside of maybe bridges on the interstate and highway systems, the rails, and maybe the electrical grid around industrial centers and AI data centers
Not a bad starter pack you got there.
Im an American-Scot Redneck, the theory behind how to cripple a government through unorthodox means may as well be genetic to me.
It’s not meant to be comfortable.
You’re not Netflix and chilling, you’re fighting for your country.
Why do we have to take special understanding for your country and your people? Why are you different to the rest of us?
Did I say comfortable?
I said keep my family house and fed. I’m already dodging parasite lettuce and massive food recalls, paying a sizable amount of my paychecks to rent and gas.
None of this shit is currently comfortable.
And you (or the original person I replied to) are saying, yeah, fuck your kids and your spouse and dog. Go throw yourself on the fire of REVOLUTION.
(Also, we had to cancel Netflix and most eveything else to actually afford to live, so that’s fun.)
We’re not different, but I don’t see myself or other Americans telling the nebulous “you” to go throw yourself off the precipice for god and country.
In that case then, if it’s all that bad I have to ask what two more weeks of suffering, which is all it would take if enough did a shutdown, is going to add.
I’ll say this much, I would throw myself on it if it was that bad for me, because I’d have nothing to lose. I think Americans fail to understand that other countries had it better because they did that suffering and striking a while ago.
We all constantly hear how bad it is and how oppressed you are, well, what is there to lose? You’re saying it, not us, but you got no problem claiming we don’t get it or understand.
No one wants Americans to take violent paths but they are where they are because the easier options weren’t taken. That’s why there’s so much push from the outside for peaceful shutdowns. Yes, we know, you constantly remind us…jobs, kids.
There’s an excuse every time. Sorry, a reason, it must be remembered which nation that is and the filters applied.
The easier options work too, the Republicans prove that repeatedly. Or did. It might be gone now.
Don’t prove Churchill right again. The sooner it’s gotten out of the way, the easier it’ll be. It would have been easier if done earlier, though it’s got to be remembered this president was elected so there’s limited ways to get rid of him outside a vote or violence.
Shutting down the country (to paint a broad brush) to get enough influential people to act, Congress to act then enforce an impeachment seems to be one of those, looking from the outside.
I’ll add this; none of us outside and our governments, even if they wanted to, can help. We are having enough trouble with our own wingnuts and that in no small way has been driven by the problems with the US.
Mate, some of us got kids to feed. Them going hungry isn’t just a slight discomfort.
Right, it’s that system which pays so low and bad benefits, that you can’t take one day off work, w/o pay or with paid sick or vacation, which workers in decent countries have since people deserve it and demanded it. Will never get that in usa when so many vote against it with maga.
Are you ok with the future that your kids will live in if nothing changes? Or do you believe that someone else will come and save you? Genuinely asking
Look, man, I get it, I really do, but I don’t think you quite grasp the responsibilities some other people have. Maybe, just maybe, if we could actually coordinate something big enough to have an impact, but there’s nothing like that to join. We had some of the biggest protests in national history multiple times, and nothing really happened. When we lay it all down and sacrifice everything not only for ourselves but on behalf of our whole families, under the current circumstances, what exactly do you expect to happen? A handful of us try a general strike, get fired, and immediately get replaced because the job market is absolute trash? Because that’s what’s going to happen if we just act on our own.
You want people to do something, and that’s really understandable, but you’re ultimately asking people to give a lot when the current circumstances mean we’re unlikely to get much in return. If you want people to act, we need to figure out how to change circumstances or at least reframe things so people can see the value in their own personal sacrifice.
The only way you’ll change circumstances is if everything is shut down long enough for your Congress to act.
Yeah sure, vote in these midterms, hopefully they’re good
This position however that we don’t understand or don’t know…yeah it’s a cop out. One that’s not offered to others.
Yeah, it’ll take some hardship, cost some jobs, some people will go hungry for a while. We know and yes it’s easy for us to say…doesn’t change anything though. That’s the importance of taking the collective responsibility seriously.
If you want people to act, focus on giving them a way to act that feels meaningful and worth the sacrifice. There’s not much for safety nets in the US, so if people are going to risk hunger and homelessness, they need to feel like they have a meaningful choice, one where their sacrifice makes an appreciable difference.
What option do they really have as individuals? You can say general strike as a concept, but people need concrete plans, and they need to be widely known so people can act in unison. Just telling people to get off their ass and act is trying to set people in motion without any idea how to keep all the headless chickens moving in the same direction. If there’s not a fully coordinated attempt at massive unity, there’s just no way it accomplishes something. People will act here and there, they’ll get fired, they’ll get replaced because tons of people need work, and the mess will continue. It must happen coherently, or it’s just a bunch of martyring. We need to figure out how to coordinate on a large enough scale when so many people are so heavily reliant on corporate media and social media, who will most certainly be weaponized against any such movement.
I wish we were, badasses that is. Most of those badasses with weapons are more like gravy seals that probably like all this racist bullshit. Most of us are too scared to get noticed like this. I’m not sure what it would take to rile us up to do something about it. Right now I feel like we are the frogs in the pot that is slowly being heated up and everyone is just waiting for it to be over.
Don’t get me wrong I’m pissed but I have too many people relying on me to cause too much trouble. And I imagine I’m not the only one like that.
And look at them roll out the excuses about not striking.
It doesn’t matter, the only thing weaker than an American politician is an American citizen. They have excuses for the lot, ones they don’t offer others, and when they are told they react with American foreign policy…attack.
You don’t understand, they’ve got children! Which matter, unlike the children their governments likes to massacre all over the world.
Give closing the door on asylum seeking from a vote result a shot by telling them they need to stay home and fix the problem
Watch them go full US foreign policy on that
They don’t like it when it’s put back on them. There’s an excuse for everything.
Well that good because it’s been blocked by a Federal judge.
As if that means shit.
Since when. Do I have to subscribe to CNN read their articles
paywall
Reader mode will bypass many-a-paywall
I don’t understand the how or why it works, but it was life changing when I started tapping that little magic button.
Wait, what the actual fuck?? How long has this existed?! Thank you Hotsauce and Moose for teaching me about this.
Reader mode is amazing. I don’t recall whether I’ve ever used it for bypassing paywalls, but I used to read Rock, Paper, Shotgun a lot and, when they started getting disgustingly cluttered, reader mode made it a lot easier.
It also helps with navigating tech blogs when troubleshooting something and, on the rare occasion when I search for recipes, finding the only part that matters.
Same with adding unwall.app/ before many urls. Or looking for it on archive.is.
At this point, I just assume most things are behind a subscriber wall, at least, and act accordingly.
