Ask Lemmy

You gotta get to the point where you worry about the things you can control, and let go of the things that you can’t.

Alcohol, cannabis, and limiting my exposure to news/politics. It's working wonders, TBH.

Honestly, other than voting and trying to get those around me to actually give a shit, I'm not. Like in the past two elections, I'm having trouble grasping the fact that half of the (voting) country wants to elect a fascist. My mother told me over the phone that one of her neighbors is voting for Trump because "his wife is absolutely gorgeous". Like, how do you even respond to that, especially in any calm way?

Oh, and someone here reminded me: cannabis. Lots and lots of it.

Until the election happens I'm going about my life as normal, because I'm not about to self destruct while she still has a chance. If she wins I'm going to celebrate that I can keep living as I am.

In the meantime, I'm also making my exit plans in case Trump wins. I'm an openly leftist, transgender, neurodivergent, latina immigrant and performance artist. I'm going to be in the first wave of people rounded up.

People outside of US have the right to worry about this election as well imo. It's one of many currently on-going battles of autocracy vs democracy and this election will heavily shape the battlefield.

I wish all of the luck to my American friends and really that's all non-americans can do so I'll just grab a joint and catch up on the new season of What We Do In The Shadows until this blows over.

I figured out who to vote for and mostly lost faith in the American people. I deeply understand that the system is broken but electing a fascist is not the way to fix it unless you want it completely broken. Honestly pretty depressed about the whole thing because prospects are grim and I have little hope for the future after the past 10 years.

Bottled water and prepping the generator. I fully expect the racist fucks out here to cause real problems, regardless of outcome. We already have daily parades of giant lifted trucks covered in Trump flags doing burnouts and screaming the n-word at people. In 2020 we had some protesting high school kids get attacked and beaten by adult Trump supporters, cops looked the other way. My town has a giant painting of a Nazi on its largest building, which is a Mason hall. I hate this place.

Well, my folks and I will stay in that night. We're in a heavy Trump area, and I'm more concerned about if he loses than wins. I honestly never thought we'd have to deal with Trump after his horrible presidency, so I've been on high alert since he was confirmed their canidate. My mom has all of us renewing our passports as well.

I know this is dramatic, but I may actually stay home "sick" if Trump wins. To reconcile with the fact that people would vote this absolute embarrassment in again would make me so terribly disappointed in my countrymen. And this was the campaign I really put my money where my mouth is: I volunteered, donated (when I could) , even protested. It's not so much that I like Harris, but the future that Trump and his cohorts has painted has been horrific. I would need some time to "grieve" so to speak.

Election night, I plan to have good weed when it's all said and done, because good God. Even if Harris makes it, this whole thing had been exhausting. And it won't stop. If Harris makes it, we still have so much fucking work to do, and just thinking of that wears me out.

I've been writing postcards and letters to voters. It's a little too late to jump on the postcard wagon but letters can be written until 10/29. It's super easy, you're provided templates, instructions and addresses, you just need paper, envelopes and stamps.

https://votefwd.org/

I wrote a ton of both and it did wonders to distract me and give me something of purpose to do at the same time.

I'm pretty sure text banking and phone banking is still going on too.

Shit, man, I dunno. I already voted. I fly my blue-team flag in a red town. I hope that most of the people voting for him are just insensitive clods who aren't as personally hateful as the jokes they'll laugh at, or that they're somehow stupid enough to have been genuinely convinced that our creaky business-friendly center-left coalition is some sort of economy-dooming experiment in socialism. So yeah, I'm reduced to hoping that a large percentage of my fellow citizens are idiots and/or assholes, rather than actual fascists.

It's too close to know who will win, so things could turn out kinda okay if the Democrats pull it off. If Trump wins, maybe they don't manage the Senate and little of longstanding legislative harm gets passed. Sotomayor should be okay for the next four years, so for SCOTUS itself the damage is likely already done. Finally, I still mostly think that Trump will be content to line his pockets for four years and then pardon himself on the way out. He's too old to inspire any energy to repeal the 22nd amendment, and I don't see anyone behind him ready to slot in as an heir apparent, so maybe the less intensely awful republicans will reclaim some measure of control, or a gaggle of pretenders fragments their base and they can't really get organized to win nationally. A second Trump term is going to fucking suck, though, and a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt all across the world, many more than in a Harris administration, IMHO.

Shit's grim, and the Christian Nationalists see this as their time, possibly their last good chance in their current form, to really seize the reins of power.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that a) my candidates of choice likely won't win, and b) the results will be contested with complaints, nit-picking, tantrums, and probably violence across at least several states, and a final decision won't be known for a few weeks.

I'm trying to avoid political topics and articles a bit more than usual. I also have a lot of things going on in my personal life (not necessarily bad things, but lots of responsibilities) that are keeping me busy right now.

I had also saved up a couple of TV shows that I've been wanting to watch, to fill in some of the little free time I have right now.

Edit: fixed a word.

As shameful as it may be, I’m reducing my stress by reminding myself that I, personally, will be fine regardless.

But I fear for many friends, loved ones, and strangers who may not fare as well.

Planning my Amerexit. I don’t want to leave, we have a decent country, but if Trump wins this place is going to go to hell fast.

Weed, booze and benzos

I’m going to go drop off my ballot and sit back and wait for the results. There is nothing more I can do so there’s no sense in worrying about it. Focus on things you can actually change.

Doomscrolling, exercise, and looking up firing ranges near me. Been a few decades since last I went

Voted early.

Disconnected completely from any news source.

I've already voted. I don't have the ability to volunteer for anything, so I'm working on removing all the doomer posting and adding blocks on my feeds. No point in stressing about something I have no more ability to help with.

A particularly insidious strain of Christianity trained me to resign myself to a premature death when I was still a teenager. Hasn't happened yet, and I'm in no hurry, because I care deeply for others. While I hate religion very much, it did instill in me very little fear of death.. I'm afraid for the fate of humanity so much more than my own.

Ignoring it.

Bought a farm a few years back in northern Europe, it's beautiful, wife and kid moved, I'm communiting.

If shit hits the fan I'll be there, but some part of me has faith in my country, and even if the trash take over, I think we'll somehow survive.

Wife is thrilled to be out, kid is doing great. It's basically America but better, except without Amazon.

Besides, I survived the south, and I was a kid back then. I've seen their bigotry naked when they were strong and I was weak, i have no fear for them anymore. And if civil war does break out? I am an extraordinary engineer, particularly when it comes to military drones. Parry that with your crappy ar15 you filthy casual.

It helps knowing you literally can make a difference if you absolutely have to, so I recommend picking up a useful skill if you didn't during covid.

Head down just trying to do my hobbies, my job and some fun stuff like a virtual Bob Ross painting session tonight.

There's really nothing I can do besides voting and having others vote.

Writing my reps just gets me form responses.

The only country I can flee to is Ukraine since I was born there and uh...

if trump steals the white house again i'll be going to buy more security cameras and guns before they add an "acceptable voting history" requirement on those purchases

Not great... I'm not a US citizen yet so voting isn't possible. Only thing I could do is vote with my feet... so I moved out of Texas for good earlier this year. I think my current location is as safe as it gets in regards to avoiding political violence (since I'm not exactly in a group that the right isn't threatening) so there's that

Other than that? Nothing... If the worst happens I'll just hole-up in the building and ask my boss for permission to work from home

I used to be worried about having to idle on a hill while driving a manual transmission vehicle. Like backsweat.

But I got used to it. Time and practice. You start to see all the subtle motions and patterns; you start to know what you didn't know you didn't know.

Now it is just a basic part of the driving experience. It's a road condition, like weather. Voting, especially in federal elections and especially the general one every four years for president, is not the only or even the main course of politics.

Same story with parallel parking--which would be, I dunno: primary voting in this metaphor. Where the promise of a better way gets crammed between two other poorly parked cars and you always end up a few inches too far from the curb.

"Loosen your shoes
Don't listen to news
That keeps you up at night."

• Chris Smither

https://youtu.be/djzR7594I1U