1mo ago

In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return?

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Not really. Not to be dismissive of the harms of a 2nd term trump.
But you have to understand what American history has been.
People were literally enslaved in the early days, then the country was literally at war with itself over slavery. Then Jim Crow and Segregation. Black people were lynched. White mobs would kill black people.
Chinese people were targeted by the Chinese Exclusion Act and banned from entry, some were US Citizens too and they weren't except either.
The US had a major economic crash in 1929. Got into 2 world wars. American Citizens of Japanese ancestry were literally arrested and held in camps because of their ancestry. Went through cols war, the red scare, mccathyism. People randomly getting accused of being "communists" and arrested. Unions get cracked down. Protests were brutally suppressed, more violently than in modern day. Black people protesting for their rights and took a bus down south got burned. Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. literally got assassinated.
That is the American history.
And here we are, through such a shitty history, democracy survived, and voting rights expanded to so many people. First to Black people, then to Women.
Back then a majority of the population supported segregation, institutionalized racism. But today, a majority of people are okay with interracial marriage.
I have high hopes we can survive another trump term.
It won't be pleasent, but we'll survive.
- It should be noted that through all this people fought for those rights. So don't fall asleep, dear America, because organizing even within small communities will make a difference.
  If done correctly, massive change can happen. Dream big so that those who fear negotiate back down to the levels you'll accept.
  
  The Beastie Boys certainly did.
- I feel like a lot of people online need to read this comment, go outside, and live their life. This is not defeatist, and it's not unreal optimism. Thank you for this.
- I think the problem here is the concurrent effects of climate change. The US couldn't have picked a worse time to move from flirting with facism to full-on marrying it.
  You can deal with one crisis if you're coordinated enough but the chaos that's already occurring with the climate - and is set to become exponentially worse - doesn't give me much hope for a harmonious conclusion to this. Obviously, I hope I'm wrong and you're right.
- The part about our history you're forgetting is that we never, through any of that, gleefully elected a guy that has made it abundantly clear he doesn't give a fuck about democracy and will work to subvert or destroy it if it doesn't suit him.
  This is new territory.
  And we're about to experience the deconstruction of things that will be very difficult to build back.
  Your point is that we've been around for a few hundred years, so we can bounce back. But history would like to point out that nations that were around much longer than us have ceased to exist many times over.
  I wish I had your optimism.
- On the other hand, do keep in mind that mighty empires have fallen. We cannot say for sure that things will be fine just because in the past the USA has survived
- Dont forget the trail of tears.
  The US has been through a lot and will likely recover, but it would be nice to avoid making the same mistakes again. How many more people have to get hurt before humanity learns?
  
  How do you replenish the oceans and maintain life for any ecosystem humanity lives off of? Most of America is set to be desert by 4 degrees c average warmth increase. You won't grow crops outdoors. We know we are guaranteed to blow past 1.5 now without being able to stop it as are actions are to late. Yet we are saying "drill baby drill". The topographical map will change drastically.
- democracy survived
  LMAO!!
  Choosing between two candidate picked by lobbyists/corporations, and anyone else not having a slightest chance in hell isn't a democracy, but hey, you do you.
  It's slightly better than China/Russia having a single candidate and everyone else is just for show.
  
  It is a democracy.
  Not a good type, but still a democracy.
  Remember, Democracy and Autocracy isnt binary states of its either a Full Totalitarian Regime or a Full Direct Flawless Democracy.
  There's a sliding scale in between.
  We don't just go from Monarchies to a perfect Utopian Flawless Democratic system overnight. Change is incremental.
  I do agree with the sentiment that 2 party system isn't really a good idea, that very much need to be changed.
  But its not like the constitution says "The United States shall be a 2-party system", its an emergent property of First-Past-The-Post electoral systems. But unfortunately, human brains always look for the first thing they think of, I mean "Most Votes Win" sounds simple right. People never thought about the fact that "Most" doesn't mean majority, but by the time people realize, its too late, people go too used to it.
  But its still a democracy, a very very flawed democracy. But if you argue that First-Past-The-Post isn't a democracy, then most of the world are living in dictatorships.
- I share your broader view and cautious optimism. In fact I think that some of what we are seeing are death spasms of that white hegemony that used to lynch blacks at will. They lost their “hard” power long ago with the end of Jim Crow. And they have been losing their “soft” power ever since. Demographic trends point to white people in America eventually becoming a minority. Religion is also dying out. So much of what we see is a panic of a dying group that was once dominant. There is no way that’s ever going to be pretty, anywhere, at any time. But look at the trend behind it and it’s an encouraging one, even if the death spasms are incredibly difficult. TBH if the Democrats could just provide some real leadership into this future, America could flip into a totally different country, much like the liberal democracies of Europe (but way stronger) inside of 20 years. This is the reality that the old guard are scared shitless of, and why they are pulling out all the stops to go the other way.
- one difference today is that govt/establishment/utra-rich have centralised way more power than anytime in human history.
  add that with extreme surveillance & automated weaponry, “govt” can do basically anything they want. 1% can easily crush any opposition to them with no matter how strongly united the rest of us are. dnc just ignored its entire voter base to continue a genocide & support fracking while letting corporate greed run rampant for last 4 years.
  with ai+drones it will become way worse. it’s not unimaginable what’s happening to palestinian will happen to the non-white population here in next 10-15 years.

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