If you’re one of the folks that didn’t vote, then please feel guilty for the absolute moron you got. Regards, Europe.
Life is political. Don’t bury your head in the sand.
Our political situation is currently quite extreme, read up on fascism specifically the “legal stage” of fascism
If you haven’t noticed that a lot of things in your life are political, I feel sorry for your lack of grasp on reality. The taxes you pay are political. The laws you have to follow are political. Decisions on how your kids go to school are political. How you work (you payment, your job- and personal safety) - guess what, it’s political. If the CDC will protect you against the next pandemic, if the FDA will protect you against being poisoned - it is all political.
Tune out reality at your own risk. You should have paid attention to this ages ago.
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You had an upvote until the doomerism. Now is the time, it’s never too late.
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Politics is life.
You might as well ask to avoid gravity.
honestly, regardless of what you do, vote in the midterms. It’s the only way to mitigate somewhat what’s been done. it’s November next year and every seat is up for grabs in the house, and 33 seats are up for grabs in the senate.
As a “peon” there isn’t much you can do until then about it. So really it all depends on if you wanna be blindsided by the changes or live in blissful ignorance.
We’ve tried telling people to vote in midterms for about half a century. Any better ideas?
Vote in the primaries. That’s the most important part. The Democratic establishment has failed it’s constituents and is clearly interested in serving only themselves and the wealthy. At this point it’s not just a matter of beating the Rs. We need actual progressives that care about the working class running the Democratic Party if we want any hope at bettering this country and not simply slowing down the current trend to the right. We need more folks like Bernie and AOC in the ranks. And that only happens if folks get involved in the primaries and support the most progressive candidate they can. Simply showing up and punching D on Election Day won’t get us anywhere.
This is the best answer.
I’ve been paying REAL close attention for the last 20 years and things have devolved so much I’m pretty much ready to stop paying attention and live in blissful ignorance as things collapse around me. But I still plan on showing up to vote every 2 years. It’s our duty. It’s the only thing I can really do. I thought trying to fight misinformation online would help, but clearly that isn’t working.
So yeah, live in blissful ignorance as much as you can to maintain your mental health, but show up for the only actual things you can do to actually make a difference. At least then, if total collapse happens, you can take solace in knowing you maintained your duty as a citizen.
Your mental health comes first but always remember that pretending it doesn’t exist is different from protecting your sanity. It’s a tougher needle to thread than you think!
Pretending it doesn’t exist hurts the most vulnerable.
Very succinctly put
Depends on what you can realistically influence.
Might be worth it to tune to protest news, and also changes in your local area, if there are any.
Doomscrolling the feed will just make you continuously more obsessed with what ultimately screws your mental health to no benefit.
The peons will be some of the most impacted, so it is good to stay in the loop. I wouldn’t obsess over what is going on, but a weekly digest of news is helpful.
don’t tune it out. there are people being deported, people afraid for their rights and their lives. people not paying attention is how we got the Holocaust
Depends. Are you a rich, white, straight male? You will be fine and can ignore everything. But if you are any shade of brown, an immigrant or belong to any minority group or are female or have loved ones belonging to anyone of these groups, then you should pay attention as they might genuinely be in danger.
Are you a rich, white, straight male?
Good list. Need to add “healthy” to it, too.
Somewhat redundant. He already said “rich.”
A terrible diagnosis can deplete savings rapidly in this shitty country.
You could also Steve Jobs yourself with a treatable but deadly disease
This is probably my fav comment here because he absolutely could have been saved. What a shame.
I’m not riding his dick. I just think Apple was less awful under his leadership than under Tim Apple. I know the software would be in better shape.
upvoted and downvoted.
okay so perhaps “feeling lucky”
I’m not so sure I’d call someone that would have to dip into savings for healthcare all that rich. Well off, maybe.
Rich white dudes have great health insurance.
Before they started killing Jews it was the disabled
Eh, if you are rich you can travel and get socialized medical care in a real country
If the US keeps its current direction of antagonizing any place that isn’t a dictatorial shithole, the OP’s freedom to travel can get restricted very soon.
I keep hearing this “if you’re a straight, white male, you’ll be fine.” I’m a straight “white passing” male (half Cuban, with no Latin origin names).
When people say this, I ask, “what about my friends? What about my family? What about the people I love?” Does that not affect me? Are we supposed to ignore their plight?
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
If you can get out do so and I hate the idea of more guns on the streets but if at this point everyone that’s at risk or has loved ones at risk needs to be armed as much as possible and have a go bag ready to go. If goon squads are coming for ya don’t go quietly with them.
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
How do you think we got anything good at all, ever?
The left lost its way. BLM and Floyd protests were the closest we’ve gotten to the anger the left displayed for the Vietnam war.
Did you just stop reading after the first sentence?
Also, bullshit. You think climate change doesn’t affect us? The damage to NATO? Threatening Greenland?
I get your point that a lot of hate is directed at immigrants and minority groups, but you don’t need to be dismissive to such a large group of people, many of which are on your side.
Don’t try to make extra enemies. No war but class war.
Rich, white, straight, christian male. Given recent events, that second-to-last part is especially important :/
I’ve literally seeing the rights of myself and other get taken away in the last week. I’m moving cross country to get out of the state I’m currently in because it does not recognize who I am.
They want to open up people like me to descrimination and hate crimes. I’m wondering what will happen with my job if this stuff keeps happening.
There are real world consequences to politics and people sticking their heads in the sand is the reason literal fascism is on the rise.
If you are privileged enough to feel you don’t have to worry about politics that generally means you aren’t the current target.
WA? DE? At least there’s a few states you can still be ok in…
This stuff matters and we’re approaching a point where you can no longer safely ignore it. Pay attention and within a month or two you’ll find your newfound political opinions appear obvious in hindsight. Make sure to fact-check stuff when you can to avoid getting tricked by disinformation. Remember to avoid common fallacies, especially that there must always be perfect equality between both sides of an argument-- sometimes one side is unambiguously right, and sometimes it actually is grey. Remember that “always” and “never” are usually incorrect, but that you can still make statements about what’s likely to be true or to happen in the future, and that those statements are still very important. And lastly, make sure that you’re confident in your opinions before arguing about them. Oh, and asking questions may get you downvotes, but it’s great for learning; just remember that people can lie. I know that’s a lot, but it’s better to know it now than later! Mostly I’m just trying to safeguard you against the common pitfalls people make mistakes around.
Pay attention to “events that actually happen” and “things that people in power say.” Pay far less attention to “kvetching and predicting.”
If you stop paying attention entirely, you’re going to end up with a whole lot of Shocked Pikachu Face in your future.
If you stop paying attention entirely
This is the part which normalization works to accelerate. Every message is crafted to rally supporters and repulse opponents; enough to get one to tune out and stop paying attention. Do it long enough and whatever they want to do will be done without any scrutiny.
This is one of the reasons the consolidation of mainstream independent media is a serious problem.
I read something long ago that I can’t find anymore that said something to the extent of, pay attention to the movement of money, troops and people. I struggle to understand what stuff that the news reports on means, so I like the deeper stories that report on an expert’s opinion of what somebody said means or shows like 60 minutes over the Nightly News. I avoid the bloggers and vloggers since they are not experts on the important topics.
Join your local DSA and tend to local issues. The things that the national level are indeed serious, but spend your time and efforts where you can make the biggest difference.
Donate a few dollars to your local land trust to keep land out of the hands of big business.
Join local housing boards or City Hall meetings, wherever decisions on zoning and housing are decided. Anytime someone tries to blame something on bigger buildings designed for more people, and better public transportation, fight them tooth and nail. Single residence zoning, parking minimums, etc. are one of the reasons homelessness exists.
Show up to protests
Make friends with your neighbors
Please do anything but just vegetate. You are important. But only if you help.
