Asklemmy

If you think this is just for the next 4 years, you're fooling yourself.

I hate this reality, but remember that in 1950, Black Americans were literally being lynched. I don't think a trump presidency is worse than that or even nearly as bad, at least not this soon. If dems dont win the midterms and get a 2028 trifecta we might have a problem.

Remember, the US has federalism. Power is shared between the states and the federal government. The federal government dont have the manpower to literally put people in concentration camps, not yet.

If you live in a red state or red city, move, now. Move to a Blue State and Blue City.

Federalism is our last defence against fascism. Democracy might be dying, but it aint dead yet. The Climate however, thats another story :(

Only thing an average person can do is try to get people to vote, midterms, presidential, local. Every election Primary or General. Low turnout in Primary could lead to disasterous candidates.

my dad always taught me not to let the workings of the world affect my personal mood

even if the world is going to shit, you can carve out a little slice of life for yourself and the people you love. take care of those people, take care of what you own, do the things you're passionate about and let God worry about the rest

and I say that as an atheist. it's a metaphor

Plenty of great advice here, but one more thing to think about is how such a large win for Republicans can be used against them a bit in the future. They won the Presidency and have majorities in the Senate, likely the House, the Supreme Court, and governorships. They have free reign to do what they want, which is scary, but it also means that they can't blame the Democrats for any bad things that may happen in the next 2 years until the midterms.

Any law that passes with bad outcomes is solely their fault. If the economy gets worse, it's all on them. If the deficit increases, they are the only ones to blame. If they don't fulfill their campaign promises, it's because they chose not to. If there is a government shutdown, it's because they couldn't agree on a budget. If bills aren't being passed, they are arguing too much. They can't even fall back on blaming the Democrats in the Senate because they have enough votes that they could cancel the filibuster while they are in office and reinstate it before they leave.

This means that you, and everyone else, can point out anything the government does that has a negative impact and say definitively that it is entirely the fault of the Republicans. If this is done frequently enough and loud enough, there may be enough frustrated voters to change the outcome the next time around. They will definitely do things that annoy almost every voter, whether they are going too far or not far enough in their agenda, and they can't hide that it was only them that made those decisions.

The Senate does not have a filibuster-proof majority. They could potentially end the filibuster, but given that it’s the Republicans’ favorite tactic, there’s a decent chance they might not. Especially since the less extreme Republicans can use it as an excuse to let bills they don’t like die without having to vote against the.

The House margin is likely to be thin enough that the moderate Republicans will vote down the crazies. So even if the Senate ends the filibuster, the most egregiously stupid laws should still be stoppable.

Trump still has the ability to do a lot of damage, and he probably will. But if the Republicans piss off people too quickly, they’re likely to tank in 2026, with there being a decent chance to turn both the House and Senate blue and lame duck Trump for the rest of his presidency.

It’s going to be rough, but do not abandon hope.

The only way out of this situation is through.

One thing I know I'm going to be doing is reading "Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)" by Dean Spade. From the first two paragraphs of the first chapter:

Mutual aid projects expose the reality that people do not have what they need and propose that we can address this injustice together. The most famous example in the United States is the Black Panther Party’s survival programs, which ran throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including a free breakfast program, free ambulance program, free medical clinics, a service offering rides to elderly people doing errands, and a school aimed at providing a rigorous liberation curriculum to children. The Black Panther programs welcomed people into the liberation struggle by creating spaces where they could meet basic needs and build a shared analysis about the conditions they were facing. Instead of feeling ashamed about not being able to feed their kids in a culture that blames poor people, especially poor Black people, for their poverty, people attending the Panthers’ free breakfast program got food and a chance to build shared analysis about Black poverty. It broke stigma and isolation, met material needs, and got people fired up to work together for change.

Recognizing the program’s success, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously wrote in a 1969 memo sent to all field offices that “the BCP [Breakfast for Children Program] represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP [Black Panther Party] and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for.” The night before the Chicago program was supposed to open, police broke into the church that was hosting it and urinated on all of the food. The government’s attacks on the Black Panther Party are evidence of mutual aid’s power, as is the government’s co-optation of the program: in the early 1970s the US Department of Agriculture expanded its federal free breakfast program—built on a charity, not a liberation, model—that still feeds millions of children today. The Black Panthers provided a striking vision of liberation, asserting that Black people had to defend themselves against a violent and racist government, and that they could organize to give each other what a racist society withheld.

People in your community already need help. You and your friends can start building a mutual aid network today, one that can help queer people, black people, and women in need. You can decide what kind of aid you can provide. Maybe you're offering rides to airports to women who need to travel out of state for medical care. Perhaps you're providing safe places and spaces for the Trans population in your area. Whatever it is, you'll feel more connected and more in control of your community, and put out a positive influence within it.

Along the way, you should also try and educate yourself so that you can educate others.

Treat it like nuclear fallout. Everything sucks right now. So much life is going to be oppressed. But eventually it will end, and we can begin rebuilding.

I don’t know… revel in the fact that you are living (so far) through an event that could be epoch defining? Not everybody gets a front seat to history. That’s, uh, about all I’ve got for now. Sorry.

The federal gov has been nuked, act as if only your state legislature exist, organize unaligned party.

No point in hiding for 4 years, shits not going to be the same when you come out. The only thing we can do is get the fuck out or stay and fight. Shit’s gone get real bad if we all just hide. Pretty much what caused the issue since I feel like we all have been since Covid.

Just get on with your life.

Don't let the bastards grind you down. Take a beat of you need it. Take it one hour at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time. You can do this.

Get organized. Nobody ever won their rights by voting, they won by getting together with their neighbors and coworkers and standing up to capital. Unions used to be a major political player in the US, but capital has almost completely destroyed them, with the help of the dems and the repubs. The working class has been hypnotized by trinkets into ceding all political power. We need to claw it back.

1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer more advanced reading lists regarding Marxism if you'd like, but this is a good starting point.

3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must do so.

6. Be persistent. If you feel like a single water driplet against a mountain, think of the Grand Canyon. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.

You just gotta fight back and live your life. Sounds simple, but in my country, we lived through "the perfect dictatorship". We know this shit.

I think we overrate the ability of the government to change the living conditions in a country. The government is only one factor among others, such as technology, geography, ecnomics, history, climate, and the accumulation of small choices made over decades.

There are worse things in our daily lives. Like the giant pothole you hit on the way to the store. Your neighbors dog shitting in your yard. The stack of TPS reports your asshole boss left on your desk. These have a direct negative impact on your life. Regardless of their agenda, politicians will always have less impact on us than our daily does of regular human bullshit.

Pessimistic as that may be, there's an upshot. As many times as that dog shits on your grass, you might watch your favorite baseball team win. Or for every TPS report, you have a real sincere laugh at the water cooler. Think about the scope. Keep it in perspective.

Note: This is meant for the people who leaned hard into the move to Canada meme last time. Obviously, there are people who's lives will be irrevocably be changed. Check your privilege and fight for those who lack it. People of conviction don't hide.

Not so much advice as a selfish request: please try to stay with us. I mean that both figuratively (i.e. mentally checking out and becoming hollow) and literally (i.e. existing in this world). It's a selfish request because though I'm not even American, I am one of the countless people who are scared shitless today. I don't know how we will make it through this, but I know I can't do this on my own.

If you're here, scared with me, then I am not alone, and neither are you. It's a bit trite, but it helps me somewhat.

What were you doing from early 2017 to early 2021? I suggest you do approximately that, unless you've grown out of things you were doing at the time of course.

Your fear is understandable and valid, this is a dark timeline and a really bad outcome.

But being afraid and panicking cannot possibly help anybody, least of all yourself.

Take a few days if you can to reset mentally as much as possible.

Then, get to work building resistance, it's more critical now than ever. Find a leftist org near you and get involved. DSA, a local anarchist group, a worker co-op that needs volunteers, a democratic socialist org, anything leftist that is doing real work locally.

If you can't donate your time, donate your money. If you can't donate either of those, then help them spread the word on your social media. Post all their links and use your social media to advertise their events and meetups, help make people aware.

On the personal side, protect your health. The conservatives largely want to demolish healthcare, especially for underprivileged folks. Your health is so critical, especially now.

Quit your vices or at least, reduce them:

• Quit smoking/vaping.
• Stop drinking, at least heavily if you do.
• Stop eating junk food/candy.
• Get in shape, hike, calisthenics, walk, bike, etc.

It will not only help protect you from an administration that wants you to have less coverage if you're sick/injured, it will help your mental health and save you money, sometimes tons of money.

Final advice for money, save it as much as you can. Practice frugality, get together with friends to cook and share meals. Get involved socially with people, learn about your community, build solidarity.

We will get through this, I believe in you, and I believe in the human drive for true freedom, equality, and community. Don't let that flame burn out, we're in this together, and only together can we come out victorious. ✊

Republicans also control senate and might control the house in addition to majority conservative judges in supreme court. I so hope its going to be "just 4 years"