Politicians Will Not Save Us.

Even more astounding to me is the large segment of the population who know that Trump is fascist and trying to become a dictator, yet can’t even be bothered to show up at a protest for two hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Literally all of my family and friends except for my partner (I’m so lucky there) fall into this category. Only two friends have attended a protest with me. One was clearly there just for the experience and the other was complaining the whole time that the protest won’t do anything.

You know who has been showing up in my area? The fucking boomers. It really feels like my generation is still waiting for mommy to fix the world for us.

I pose this question to leftists a lot. I rarely see a realistic take, so thank you for taking the time to type out something that isn't the usual performative or delusional nonsense like "Creating a new party, one which recognizes xenogenders and native American LGBTQ issues, issues which hard-working Americans really care about" or the other extreme which seems to involve young people not thinking they're going to live to 40 anyway, so nothing matters, retreat to fantasy and their discord servers.

I would maintain this:

we should care for our neighbors and through tough times community can be a major source of strength

Actually has a LOT more power to topple fascism. And I am speaking from my experience actually talking to people who have done it, it always starts in neighborhoods, in towns and counties (or the foreign equivalents they had) and this is also such a threat to the forces of capital trying to gain power through fascism that it's the one thing they are knowingly or instinctively working hardest to squash down, with substitutes for social interaction, luxuries and conveniences that let us order everything we need from home, suburbs and single-family homes, etc.

But I am doing my best to drive this home to liberals and leftists broadly. They need to hear it the most, because the Right has already done this to fantastic effect. This is why they are pulling in lonely guys and every social reject, they give people a sense of belonging and community because their entry requirements are almost non-existent as long as you buy into the latest narrative.

Sustained general strike.

You are right, nobody has the heart or drive to do this to the degree that would be required to actually stop the gears. America is the heart of the world still in terms of economic and military might, it would take a LOT to get enough people to work together to grind it to a halt.

BUT, we can cause pain. Look at Target. Look at Las Vegas. Imagine doing this on a large enough scale that corporate lines start stalling even a little. And it takes doing the hard thing and smart thing right now, which is saving money. I know so many suburban families who claim to live paycheck-to-paycheck and never factor in their coffee shop trips, their new phones, their movie and entertainment subscriptions, their new video games, their new shoes, and so on. While there are necessities for families to function, not many people really cut back where it hurts. Many are already at the edge of their means, and I don't mean them, I mean the middle-ish class suburbs that make up America's money-basket that the mosquitoes feed on. Just get enough people to cut back on spending and you start taking the money out of the hands of the oligarchs and Musks of the world.

Now is a really, really good time to quit vaping, pot and alcohol. That little background voice that says "We will quit and get healthy someday"? Now is the time to listen to it. We may need the physical health too, depending how bad it gets.

Or, if you don't like roleplay, you can get involved in your local and county elections, push candidates that lean towards social reform and socialist platforms, even if slightly, because that's literally the best we can fucking hope for, so every time you kids splinter off and decide to start like, saluting Soviet flags and shit, you're just wheeling the whole cart backwards.