IMO, only 3 things hold social order together…Laws, Consequences, and Prosperity. The loss of any one of those things will result in some pretty nasty stuff. We’re not going to go the way of Germany - at least not as fast…there are simply too many guns in this nation, too much communications capacity, too much ability for quick travel, etc.
Through trump 45, all the lawsuits, hearings, censures, lawsuits, protests, and impeachments were simply seen as “liberal tears.” When thenorange voters are directly, and negatively impacted by what they voted for, those liberal tears will a protest of government that will mean something. We’re still in the shocked-look, “I thought the other people were the problem” phase of things.
Orange voters are starting to lose their jobs. Orange farmers are starting to have distressed farms, or fields with rotting product waiting for harvest. Stress fractures are beginning to appear with Medicare/Medicaid and SS. Wait until the Farmbill is canceled.
Republican town hall meetings will reach a point where they’ll be canceled entirely. They’re starting to crack down on the ever-growing population of homeless and people living in their cars. They’re starting to crack down on social media negativity towards government. Just wait until conservatives come after the guns.
Our allies are doing their best to help us out by economic means, but they can only do so much, as the threat to our nation is coming from within our nation. Canada is rocking it with their tariffs, being focused squarely on red states.
Things will likely get uglier, but that might just be the way it has to be, before things can improve, and it’ll be scary for everyone. The US has been on a downward/rightward spiral since the early 1970s, and we’ve let it slowly happen to ourselves. Setting things right Will be difficult, and will certainly take more than a few 4-8 year presidential cycles, and people need to understand that.
Or use Amazon (I’m guilty), or shop at Walmart (sometimes guilty, but not often), or shop at Target, use Tiktok, use Facebook (reunion coordination only - but still guilty, I guess), use PayPal (very guilty), use LinkdIn, use Google (guilty).
It’s really difficult to live a modern life, without being guilty of using anything exploitative of something. Of course, all the things (and many more) mentioned above are made to make people reliant on them by design.
Amazon operated in the red for over 7 years, before turning any profit, often selling and shipping items for a lower cost than they purchased the items for. But after that 7 years, they’d driven much of their competition out of business. Now there are fewer choices with regard to finding some items, because Amazon drove everyone out of business. The cheaper prices on Amazon? Nothing like what they used to be - they don’t have to compete.
How many small towns have Walmart as virtually the only place to shop and/or the only employer?
It’s very important in our modern, separated society, for people to return to basics…get to know your neighbors, stick together, become friends, and help one another out. Reddit used to really drive me nuts, in the work-related subreddits, where everyone used to say, “Your co-workers are not your friends.” I wondered if many people ever looked past that, to ask if that’s how HR wants things. How do you ever achieve solidarity in the workplace, when you walk in with that attitude? I’ve certainly had my share of hated co-workers, but much more often, I have been friends with many of them. Co-workers are a great resource to vent, problem solve, find out what’s going on behind the scenes, and if there are problems - a great co-worker can be honest and let me know if I might be the problem, or not.
But, separated and isolated within our own little tribes/families, too busy working too many hours, for too little money, trying to keep up with too many financial obligations, is exactly how they get us exactly where they want us.