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You have to find your own sanity. Same for peace, purpose, and meaning in life.
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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Only 4 years? Nah, this is going to last decades, unless climate change takes us all out faster than we expect, and it's going to be a dictatorship. One of the most dangerous dictatorships in history based solely on the massive military the USA has
America will withdraw from anywhere without a direct financial benefit to the administration. This creates a vacuum and blond spots that will be filled by the US's adversaries, creating an even more opaque playing field for the US.
Heavily tarrifed sales to the US will be paid for by the US citizens while at the same time non US companies will see their sales in the US decline. If he removes income tax, this might be a bump in take home, but won't offset the rise in prices, especially not if US companies will just raise their prices to as close as possible match the non US alternatives making record profits.
Trump will demand countries pay for us protection, but having shown to be unreliable, this might mean some short term income for the US, the countries will scramble to be independent from the US and the US MIC as they cannot be trusted either (the us might stop sales, or even turn of supplied weapons).
The same for Ukraine, most likely Trump will just tell Europe to poney up the money and as long as the EU has no alternative they will have to, or they will allow Ukraine to fall, blaming it on trump. Regardless the relationship between the US and the EU will dramatically sour.
Since the EU is in an energy crisis, most likely Trump will try to price gouge the EU here as well.. on the other hand, drill baby drill could mean cheaper energy overall giving him severe leverage over countries in the middle east.
Sanity will be in non-compliance.
Don't comply with anything. Involve yourself in governance locally if you can. Work with your district or state. Disobey anything going against your principles.
If you cannot get involved, see what you can do as a private citizen. Who could you hide in your anttic, figuratively speaking (hopefully).
The US is not such a strong federal state. You make it real by believing in it.
Stop believing in it. It is dead.
The decision Americans just made will have catastrophic effects on our democracy. We will, absolutely, be living with the negative effects of this decision for the remainder of our lives.
One guarantee is that we will have an ultra conservative Supreme Court for the remainder of our lives. In just the last few years an ultra conservative Supreme Court has removed women's federally protected right to bodily autonomy and decided that presidents are above the law and cannot be held accountable for anything they do while in office. Decisions like that will now continue for the rest of our lives, slowly altering the society we live in, and most likely rendering it unrecognizable by the time we die.
Trump ran on fundamentally changing our government, including dismantling the public educational system. He plans on making an anti-vaxxer the head of the Department of Health. We know Trump only helps those who benefit him personally. That means Ukraine is gone. That means Palestine is gone (I hope the liberals and independents that voted 3rd party or didn't vote over Palestine are happy about that one). Russia will expand their borders and threaten Europe. We will lose allies.
Trump and Elon Musk are vehemently anti-union. We will start seeing anti-union laws, weaking worker's rights and bargaining power. Obviously we will see a continuation and expansion of the persecution of immigrants and LGBTQ+. They promised mass deportations, which will remove a ton of cheap labor from our nation, which will negatively affect our economy.
In addition to the lifelong ultra-conservative Supreme Court we will see our federal courts stacked with conservative judges who will help push through the will of the Republican party for the remainder of our lives.
We've all heard about the tariffs. If you thought life was expensive now, buckle up. Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy multiple times and has a rap sheet of failed businesses a mile long. He is not a good businessman and has absolutely no idea how to run a national economy. Even before the pandemic we were seeing the negative effects he was having on our economy. All metrics showed that post-pandemic we were recovering better than any other nation. You can kiss that goodbye.
The Repbulican party historically favors the wealthy, removing roadblocks designed to keep them in check, which ends up weakening the positions of average Americans. Trump will accelerate that. Prepare to watch the wealthy become even more powerful and average Americans lose what little power we have.
The last time they wre in total control the Republican party promised to address healthcare and infrastructure. They failed to do both. The Democrat president that came before addressed healthcare. The Democrat president that came after addressed infrastructure. Do not expect the Republican party to do anything to assist the average American.
I believe a lot of Americans live under the impression that no matter how bad things get, we can hit the reset button every 4-8 years. That simply isn't true. Even under a "normal" administration things can be set in place that are permanent, or that can only be changed through extreme effort over long periods of time. This administration promised changes to our government that cannot be undone without historically significant events, like war or revolution. They promised to change our system in such a way as to provide themselves with a permanent power shift. They attempted to overturn the last election. They've spoken about dealing with "the enemy within". Their representatives do not care about science. Their ranks are filled with conspiracy theorists. We just gave the keys to the kingdom to extremists with little to no government experience.
Make no mistake about this. What we just did changed the political paradigm for the rest of our lives and set us on a path of undeniable decline based on what we already know about Trump and the Republican party's history.
We just made a very, very large historical mistake. And we absolutely deserve the suffering that is to come, because it's our own fault. Be prepared for very hard times for the foreseeable future. Plan accordingly.
Even before the pandemic we were seeing the negative effects he was having on our economy.
Let's not beat around the bush here: trying to stave off the impending recession due to Trump's disastrous tax giveaway to the wealthy and trade war with China is why the Fed was already lowering interest rates in 2019, and therefore had no levers left to pull when the pandemic hit.
IMO the pandemic actually helped Trump by letting him off the hook for his economic fuck-ups.
But "businessman good", right?
Lol. We're a nation of utter failures.
Agreed, but not being American, other countries will also suffer from this as well. Obviously it will be worse living there, but it will be felt in many other places that had no say in the outcome.
Straight up. We're entering a period of likely suffering and that's that.
I’ve been trying to find some excuses to be optimistic. Here’s a few potential silver linings:
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If Trump/Project 2025 manages to accomplish their goal of tearing down the federal government, people will suffer immediately, including republicans, when they lose their Medicare, social security, access to healthcare, free education (daycare), prices go up, wages stay stagnant, unemployment and underemployment skyrocket, etc. This could open up a window in 2028 or 2032 where these programs need to be replaced, and it can be with non-halfassed universal systems like single-payer health insurance, UBI, etc. All the big brain swing voters might even be desperate and angry enough to actually pay attention and support them.
-
I hope 2024 demonstrated the importance of having primaries and participating in them. We might look forward to increased turnout in 2026 and 2028 primaries. If people want to nominate a left-leaning Democrat, primary turnout needs to be overwhelming. Unfortunately they might need to see centrists get wrecked a few more times. It’s possible that a third party rises out of this eventually, but more likely a progressive Democrat will eventually get a chance to run. In any case, sitting on your hands and whining about the system is not effective.
Do these help during the next 4 years? Not really, but go vote in the fucking primary in 2026 and nominate congressional candidates who want to talk about progressive policies. A little bit of hope goes a long way. Moderates don’t offer hope. 2016-2020 felt bearable because I thought Sanders would have a chance in 2020. I need some hope for 2028.
Also vote in your local elections in 2025 and 2027 too.
You've reminded me about the 2026 primaries. If anything is to go right, it'll soften the blow of what we're going to be dealing with between January of next year up until that election. The mid-terms will be interesting and hopefully, some voters will be paying attention enough to make things tolerable.
Just about every single Internet platform or service which you can now access for free, will cease to be free. Internet access itself will be 3 to 4 times more expensive. Digital Surveillance will increase geometrically across the board.
Demonizing people who disagree with you makes them dig in their heels and elect the dangerous candidate and party, in spite of their best interests. Demonizing those people feels satisfying and necessary in the moment, but it ultimately backfires.
The so-called enlightened people can't be counted on to vote. (I say this as one of those so-called enlightened people, albeit not in your country and therefore unable to shift the balance with you.)
Until you folks figure these two things out, this is your new reality.
(I don't think you can save many of the extremists, but you folks could relatively easily stop the extremist factory by deploying more strategic compassion. But that's just, like, my opinion, man.)
The System is held together with baling wire and gum. Never forget that.
You will get through this, but you might need help and to help others along the way. I wish you many goods and cheese.
Fuckin' preach. It's easy to see that it's all shadows on the wall once you're out of the cave. That doesn't make the people chained up inside any less intelligent or human. There's something else keeping them there, and it's hard to be convinced that something you've lived with your entire life is chaining you down.
The "they called me racist, so now I'm going to hate immigrants harder!" memes are both more real and more damaging than anyone, self-included, realized.
Demonizing people who disagree with you makes them dig in their heels and elect the dangerous candidate and party, in spite of their best interests. Demonizing those people feels satisfying and necessary in the moment, but it ultimately backfires.
The so-called enlightened people can't be counted on to vote. (I say this as one of those so-called enlightened people, albeit not in your country and therefore unable to shift the balance with you.)
Until you folks figure these two things out, this is your new reality.
This is absolutely right. There's been an arrogance and complacency from moderate parties in the West over the last 20 years, assuming that the electorate will just automatically vote for them regardless. Now they've got to try and get these people back from the extremes, which is going to be harder to do than if they hadn't taken them for granted before.
Since he won the popular vote too no revolt is happening. Arm yourself if you aren't a white christian who is straight. Speak up when they come for the immigrants, speak up when they come for queer folk, speak up when they come for women, and just maybe someone will still be there when they come for you.
Don't forget to speak up for the disabled and atheists as well.
Here's an unfortunate hint: we're gonna have to speak up for everyone, even his own voters.
even his own voters.
SIGH ...I hate having a sense of morality sometimes. It would be so much more satisfying to laugh at them... But... They're people too. Shitty, hateful people, but still people...
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
-Karl Popper
I used to think that. Unfortunately, I no longer have the surplus stamina to focus on protecting everyone, and have to close ranks and attend to those close to me.
We’re apparently not “in this together” so I’m going to have to use all of my available resources to take care of my own.
See, I've completely checked out at this point. It's not because of trump. Trump is the symptom. If it weren't him, it'd be some other asshole. For me the cause is this overwhelming notion that it's us vs them. Where every issue needs to be seperated by culture. Lets take one example. This isn't the defining example. The concepts apply to all examples, but we don't have time on Lammy to read millions of examples. So we'll look at this one example to get the idea.
Let's look at abortion. The left says it's a necessary tool of health care to protect the lives of women nationwide. And the right says it's an evil tool of the libs to murder babies.
And so you say "Wow, those are some widely polar opposite stances. Ok, so let's see if we can find some middle ground to work towards a peaceful agreement."
And the most basic, fundamentally agreeable stance that requires no risk of being morally wrong, would be an incest rape baby. A father rapes his 12 year old daughter. Surely THAT baby, which by definition is inbred, and will likely require a lifetime of medical treatment to care for all sorts of medical mutations, not to mention a lifetime of mental health issues caused by the bullying that comes from a lifetime of being inbred. Surely THAT baby should be allowed to not exist a lifetime of pain.
And the reaction we've seen both verbally and by law, is, no. No abortions. No exceptions. It's the womans fault for getting pregnant. This is god punishing you.
Because anytime there's a disagreement, they pull the god card. When they can't logically justify their behavior, god works in mysterious ways. So bow down and bend over.
And somehow, these decisions that god made ALWAYS benefit rich billionare assholes. Because god is an all seeing, all knowing, all loving omnipresent being with control of the entire universe......and yet he just can't seem to manage his money on earth. So he needs you to donate to his churches, and he needs you to donate to the politicions who use his name in political campaigns. And he needs you to understand that even incest rape babies need to grow up, and give their money too. No child left behind......or something along those lines.
And so you begin to realize there is no compromise with these people, because they don't WANT compromise. They don't want peaceful. They want to attack any belief you have. They want to find out what you stand for, so they know how to stand for the opposite of that. Whatever it is.
You could say "I want to be a good neighbor, and follow in the footsteps of Mr Rodgers."
And they'd say "FUCK YOU!!! YOU'RE A TERRIBLE NEIGHBOR!!!! I HATE THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, AND ALL WHO LIVE IN IT! I'M GOING TO BLAST MUSIC AT 3AM, AND RUN CHAINSAWS JUST OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW, AND LOWER PROPERTY VALUES ON BOTH OUR HOUSES BY NOT TAKING CARE OF MY PROPERTY!!!"
So trump will pass. 2028 trump will be gone. Just as reagan is gone. Just as nixon is gone. Although to be fair to nixon, had it not been for the scandal, he actually had SOME decent policies. Whereas reagan was just one big ball of hate. But, reagan is gone, and his policies still haunt us. Ready for the next asshole to take the reigns. And he'll have full control of the government. He'll be able to reign supreme. I'm 41. His policies will affect me at 71. Long after he's dead, and I'm old. His actions now will do nothing to slow global warming. He'll speed it up. But again, he'll be gone. The next asshole after him will do the same. Then after him the next asshole will do the same.
So I'm at a point where I've lost my empathetic duty to protect anyone from themselves. I've lost any patriotic duty that this country is great, or ever will be great. Because if republicans are going to be this ultimate source for evil, then democrats need to be an ultimate source for good. And they're not. This isn't a "both sides" issue. This is "republicans are organized and meticulous with how evil they are, and what they want to accomplish" whereas democrats have their finger up their own ass, don't learn from history, and lack the balls to take stern action. So the republicans gain power, march 5 steps to the right, then democrats march 1 step to the left. They aren't both evil, but one is clearly making permanent progress.
So I've come to the conclusion that this is what our country is. Our country is racist. Our country is an asshole. Our country is willfully ignorant. Our country is unaccepting of others. Our country historically has killed opposition in ways that were no better than the nazis. In fact, the nazis cited Americans genocide towards native americans as inspiration for their camps. And our country has a leader that campaigned on the concept of cruelty. He campaigned on the concept of racism. He campaigned on the concept of hate.
And America made a choice. They said "Yes."
Trump is not the problem. If America wasn't into it, they'd have said no. If trump came in, and spouted hate, and won only states like idaho, and nebraska, while Harris won 40 some states? Then the next republican would know "I can't use that platform."
But now, whoever is after trump, will know that hate works.
This is our fault collectively. This is Americas fault.
I don't think any country in history has ever recovered from hate like this without being invaded and militarily destroyed first.
Which isn't an option anymore, due to nukes.
This has had me deeply concerned. Nazi Germany was stopped. Who says what would have happened if there was no one to stop them?
At the moment I don't believe there is anyone capable of stopping us.... :(
On the other hand, Nazi Germany killed an estimated 6 million people.
WW2 killed an estimated 70–85 million.
I know it's a cynical comparison, and pacifism isn't a popular stance in the best of times, but still...
IMO war is always the worst of all options. But sometimes it's the only one.
I mean, it is an option technically. If we all just went extinct we wouldn't have any more racists.
some say a comet will fall from the sky, Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still Followed by billions of dumb-founded dipshits Some day the end is near Some say we'll see armageddon soon I certainly hope we will I sure could use a vacation from this Stupid shit, silly shit...
One great big festering neon distraction I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied: learn to swim
Mom's gonna fix it all soon. Mom's coming round to out it back the way it ought to be...
The only way to start bridging this division is to keep in mind that they're people too. I'd even argue against calling Trump Voters strictly shitty, hateful people (though truly shitty, hateful people are among them). More often than not, they're scared, hurt people. They're people who have been convinced that if they don't defend themselves and their neighbours, the "other" will come for them.
Never forget that these people all genuinely believe that what they are doing is right. Attempting to dismiss and demean them is only going to further validate that they are right and you are the enemy. We need them to see the right-wing brain rot that has wormed it's way into the hopes and fears for what it is, and we'll never get there through further division and demonization.
Never forget that these people all genuinely believe that what they are doing is right.
I do have to admit some hypocrisy in my statement. I'm just too angry to be completely fair lately I guess, but I too have said in the past that I strongly agree with the sentiment that "no one is the villain of their own story." I do believe that to be true.
Except some people like Musk, I'm pretty sure he knows he's the villain.
Still people, but the lowest priority ones
Edit: I do worry and sympathize with their children however
Atheist Jew here. They really hate me.
See......I've never understood what being a Jew is. Not saying I hate Jews. For me Jewish people are like if you discovered a new kind of fish. And this fish was long and skinny like an eel today, and kind of blue tinted. It's the only fish in the aquarium. But the next day, it's round like a ball, and red. And has 16 eyes, when yesterday it only had 2. Then the next day this fish is green, and looks more like a shark.
So you're left asking "Ok.....what is this thing???"
A Jew is somehow a religon, but also a race, but also nationality, but also a culture? And each one of those things has nothing to do with the other, but also they're all interconnected?
In this example, you're an Athiest Jew. And my brain is like "How is that even possible??? It would be like a white person telling me they were an Athiest Christian". I thought Judiasm was a religion, so from my perspective, you're saying "I believe in things that I don't believe are real".
Like I said. I'm not hateful. I'm just really really confused. Jewishness: what IS it?
I appreciate the question, and like many Jews I love questions like this. It is never hateful to be curious.
Like many/most identities, being Jewish doesn't mean just one thing to everyone. First and foremost, Judaism is a religion that is passed down through the matriarchal side of the family. So if your mother is Jewish, you're Jewish. You're Jewish particularly to other Jews in this instance, even if you don't necessarily consider yourself Jewish.
Judaism is not a race, full stop. Just like Christianity is not a race. There are white Jews, black Jews, Latino Jews, South Asian Jews, East Asian Jews etc. There aren't a lot of us as a whole, but we do exist in most racial groups. But Judaism is often correctly linked to ethnicity, which is a set of shared traditions, culture, language, and norms.
There is a huuuuge range of 'orthodoxy' under the umbrella of Judaism. Different 'sects' holds fundamentally similar values (for example: you won't find very many anti-abortion Jews), but people inside these different groups will observe their traditions at differently levels/extremes or not at all. Most Jews in America don't keep Kosher, for example, but most Orthodox Jews do.
Judaism also has a rich tradition of questioning everything (which is why we usually love these kinds of questions). It is not considered heresy to question beliefs or authority, in fact it’s usually encouraged. You’ll find many Jews who openly identify as atheists, and yet most still fully consider themselves to be Jewish. This usually doesn’t bother anyone, Rabbis included. Atheists even hold a place of honor in some Jewish communities, because atheists get their morality from their own values or other people, not from a fear of god or some external force. This is part of why it is pretty common to find Jews (observant or not) who consider themselves atheist.
All of that is to say you don't necessarily need to believe in god to be considered Jewish.
Questioning the Jewish religion is deeply part of the Jewish experience, so a person born a Jew is still considered a Jew even when they lack faith. Typically they come back around when they decide how to raise their offspring. Basically if your mother was Jewish, you are always a Jew.
I'm not a Jew but a few I know who are non-religious told me it is the basis of their cultural and family identity. There are blurry lines around religion, philosophy, and identity. And not just with Jews. There are quite a few Buddhists who practice it as a philosophy but no a religion, and countless other examples.
There's a guy on YouTube (Esoterica channel) who is a post-theist Jew who (occasionally) talks about this. He observes Jewish traditions and so forth, but he doesn't think God is real, etc. Fascinating channel BTW.
Anyway, I understand your confusion and I hope this doesn't sound condescending, I don't mean to be. I think you're overthinking it a little bit. I was in the same place years ago.
Hopefully a Jewish person answers you and explains it better than I did.
To give a super silly and reductive example: imagine you belong to a Star Wars fan club that you LOVE being a part of. Some of the members think the Force is real but you do not.
"Jewish" can refer to a religion, ethnicity, culture, nationality, or any combination of the above, depending on context and who is using the term.
Thats the part that confuses me
Yea - we'll see how resistant the world will be to America going off its rocker.
I suspect most things will go pretty well outside of countries with deep economic ties to America unless Trump goes full crazy and openly backs Russian expansionism.
Trump goes full crazy and openly backs Russian expansionism.
This is exactly what will happen.
Trump's primary trait is to only help people that serve his personal interests. Putin does that. We can kiss Ukraine goodbye (one less democracy in the world) and we will now have to worry about Russia expanding and threatening Europe.
Most countries have deep economic ties to most wealthy countries, we're in a global economy. Even subsistence farmers in subsaharan Africa buy more of their seeds than you can imagine from Chinese companies that do the bulk of their R&D in the US and western Europe, if US policy becomes extremely isolationist that will affect them.
Also, the US is one of the biggest climate emitors, if that ramps up instead of decreasing the whole world will feel that too.
Best of luck!