I don’t think they were aware of what this meant for them. Discussing why they voted the way they did, and why so many apparently didn’t vote at all, seems rather pointless to me now.
The question seems to me to be whether the American people will manage to shake off their agony and fight back. Despite the protests, which are naturally to be welcomed, I see no signs of this happening. I don’t think this will be enough, because these protests are not large enough to pose a threat to the government— and to my knowledge, there are no plans for a general strike.
It seems to me that the majority of US citizens have already resigned themselves to their fate or are not prepared to take the necessary risks to defend what remains of their democracy, which is a shame because I don’t think the majority of US citizens want a dictatorship (maybe some still don’t comprehend what this actually means for their lives).
Therefore, in my opinion, things will turn out as feared, because no resistance is to be expected from the Democrats, and I consider a recourse to the legal system to be absolutely unrealistic—it is already too deeply infiltrated (the proof of this is the fact that the incumbent president is still the incumbent president instead of being in prison for all his serious crimes).
I’m sorry to be so pessimistic, but I think this assessment reflects reality.
Still, I think it’s pretty important that I share it.
I worked at a gas station on Jan 6 in an area that gave Trump very close to 90% of the vote. I seen two reactions from the common people. “I can’t believe they’re doing this and he’s doing nothing to stop it.” And, “Good! I’d rather have a Trump dictatorship than a Biden presidency.”
Even the ones who were shocked and appeared to be facing the last straw were thoroughly brainwashed by the end of the week. “It was ainteefuh, they just want to make Trump look bad!” Even years later, when the so called “antifa” got a blanket pardon Trump, it never dawned on them.
The ones who called for a dictatorship are watching with glee as democracy is dismantled. They believe they are going to get a Christian nation. They believe that all of the things they don’t like will be illegal. They are donating money to the men who are working to make this happen. They are bragging about it openly and getting their friends involved.
Yes, this kind of irrational behavior is not a US phenomenon; unfortunately, these deluded people exist all over the world. Here in Germany, there are a lot of people who vote for a neo-Nazi party, but don’t even understand that it’s also a neo-liberal party that pursues policies that are absolutely not in the interests of these voters (edit: by neo-liberal I mean US-style capitalism that wants to abolish the welfare state that still exists in our country). Apparently, it’s enough for people to have an imagined enemy – namely, some minority group – to no longer recognize their real enemy.
Sad, but that’s the way it is. Unfortunately, I don’t expect it to be too long before we end up in the same situation as in the US: despite Germany’s history, fascists will be back in power – and once again, no one except the 1% will benefit from all the cruelty and inhumanity. The only question for me is whether there will be more resistance in Germany - I’m not so sure about that, unfortunately.
Most Americans are completely clueless that anything is even happening. They’re just going about their days as they always have. Especially the older generations.
That’s because there is no longer any independent journalism. Neither in the traditional form of newspapers, magazines or TV, nor online. “The media” has long since been taken over because the billionaires who own it profit from fascism. The frightening thing is that the great utopia of the internet, namely to break the power of mass media, has turned out to be false: it has only made things worse - although people could freely obtain information, but they do not do so.
In the age of AI, it’s only going to get worse.
Unfortunately, it’s still Joseph Goebbels’ program: whoever controls the media controls people’s minds.
I think that’s just as true today as it was during the Nazi era, which is now reviving. Nothing has changed, since people are utterly incapable of learning from history.
I don’t think they were aware of what this meant for them. Discussing why they voted the way they did, and why so many apparently didn’t vote at all, seems rather pointless to me now.
The question seems to me to be whether the American people will manage to shake off their agony and fight back. Despite the protests, which are naturally to be welcomed, I see no signs of this happening. I don’t think this will be enough, because these protests are not large enough to pose a threat to the government— and to my knowledge, there are no plans for a general strike.
It seems to me that the majority of US citizens have already resigned themselves to their fate or are not prepared to take the necessary risks to defend what remains of their democracy, which is a shame because I don’t think the majority of US citizens want a dictatorship (maybe some still don’t comprehend what this actually means for their lives).
Therefore, in my opinion, things will turn out as feared, because no resistance is to be expected from the Democrats, and I consider a recourse to the legal system to be absolutely unrealistic—it is already too deeply infiltrated (the proof of this is the fact that the incumbent president is still the incumbent president instead of being in prison for all his serious crimes).
I’m sorry to be so pessimistic, but I think this assessment reflects reality.
Light the match, all we need is more gasoline
Anecdotal, I know.
Still, I think it’s pretty important that I share it.
I worked at a gas station on Jan 6 in an area that gave Trump very close to 90% of the vote. I seen two reactions from the common people. “I can’t believe they’re doing this and he’s doing nothing to stop it.” And, “Good! I’d rather have a Trump dictatorship than a Biden presidency.”
Even the ones who were shocked and appeared to be facing the last straw were thoroughly brainwashed by the end of the week. “It was ainteefuh, they just want to make Trump look bad!” Even years later, when the so called “antifa” got a blanket pardon Trump, it never dawned on them.
The ones who called for a dictatorship are watching with glee as democracy is dismantled. They believe they are going to get a Christian nation. They believe that all of the things they don’t like will be illegal. They are donating money to the men who are working to make this happen. They are bragging about it openly and getting their friends involved.
Yes, this kind of irrational behavior is not a US phenomenon; unfortunately, these deluded people exist all over the world. Here in Germany, there are a lot of people who vote for a neo-Nazi party, but don’t even understand that it’s also a neo-liberal party that pursues policies that are absolutely not in the interests of these voters (edit: by neo-liberal I mean US-style capitalism that wants to abolish the welfare state that still exists in our country). Apparently, it’s enough for people to have an imagined enemy – namely, some minority group – to no longer recognize their real enemy.
Sad, but that’s the way it is. Unfortunately, I don’t expect it to be too long before we end up in the same situation as in the US: despite Germany’s history, fascists will be back in power – and once again, no one except the 1% will benefit from all the cruelty and inhumanity. The only question for me is whether there will be more resistance in Germany - I’m not so sure about that, unfortunately.
Looks over the boarder from NL with concern, both for you and our own homegrown NAZIs.
Yes, it’s really frightening how incredibly stupid many of my fellow countrymen are.
Same.
Most Americans are completely clueless that anything is even happening. They’re just going about their days as they always have. Especially the older generations.
That’s because there is no longer any independent journalism. Neither in the traditional form of newspapers, magazines or TV, nor online. “The media” has long since been taken over because the billionaires who own it profit from fascism. The frightening thing is that the great utopia of the internet, namely to break the power of mass media, has turned out to be false: it has only made things worse - although people could freely obtain information, but they do not do so.
In the age of AI, it’s only going to get worse.
Unfortunately, it’s still Joseph Goebbels’ program: whoever controls the media controls people’s minds.
I think that’s just as true today as it was during the Nazi era, which is now reviving. Nothing has changed, since people are utterly incapable of learning from history.
The fact that so many Americans forgot that this was what 2017-2020 was like is frustrating.
Indeed, but I believe that was just a test run to see what people would tolerate — now it’s getting serious.