this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 minutes ago

I read the question as "why would you stop a transition to a dictatorship," and the answer to that is to stop a transition to a dictatorship. Like, duh.

But for real, I don't really have the answers. Things aren't that dire yet where I live, but the best time to start on mutual aid is yesterday - and the second best time is today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Well, first I'd fight off speech censorship. We effectively did that through one man, so in that sense we were very lucky.

Look at England right now. They're ahead of us a few years into censorship because they didn't have the guy we do. People going to prison for social media posts. Wild

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Mass murder

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

If you mean the current US election, absolutely nothing. Americans need to suffer at least for a short while to truly understand what they have done. Once the American people are willing to accept reason then any method of resistance from civil disobedience to revolution becomes acceptable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

Suffering people vote for authoritarians.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago

I'm not as optimistic about that as you are. The average person only knows what they're told and as long as the right controls the narrative in their homes they're going to think 'liberals' and 'illegals' and 'trans' are causing their pain, no matter how bad it gets.

Maybe some pain is what they need to snap out of this, but they also need a trusted voice to tell them the truth about who is doing it to them. Right now that person doesn't exist in a vast swath of American homes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

If history is repeated isn't it more likely that it results in a one party nation that isn't taken down unless a foreign country intervenes militarily?

These type of movements seem to lean towards one that as reflective of what the people of the country want with the initial stages more downplaying people's worst criticisms until power is successfully seized from all corners of that country's government.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Americans need to suffer at least for a short while to truly understand what they have done.

Americans need to suffer at least for a short while

to truly understand that they are victims of a deeply, deeply flawed electoral system that can only result in fascism in its current state.

FTFY

polarization is a feature not a bug in FPTP elections.  UK will lose NHS for the same reason.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I would get into fierce arguments on the internet to insist that we must vote for the lesser of two evils every election so that we get that dictatorship a little later instead of right now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 hours ago

I can't tell if downvotes because people don't did understand the s or in spite of it.

reading comprehension aint people's strength online tho

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

The kingdom of Korea will not fall tonight!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

Nope, not today, glowie.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

I would like to think a lot of sacrifices for the sake of my "fellows".

Realistically some mild ineffective activism with a whole lot of hiding because I'm not responsible for the idiots that let the situation get there in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

I wouldn't. I'd just move somewhere else.

Why? Because whatever I do to attempt to stop the transition will be much less effective on obtaining quality of life improvements for myself and my loved ones than moving somewhere else. And that's not even going into the risks of attempting to get between a potential dictator and their power.

Votes are individually irrelevant. Protests are ignored, even if massive. Opinions and relevant facts to change opinions are lost in a sea of extremely well funded narrative-affirming propaganda. Civil disobedience will get you nothing but legal trouble. Strikes are broken.

Let's be real. There is nothing that can be done, realistically, as an individual without an extraordinary amount of political capital, money or military influence.

Anything short of a huge chunk of the armed forces organizing an armed coup is completely irrelevant.

The only realistic solution is jumping ship.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 hours ago

Why follow a particular course of action?

Or why try to stop a dictatorship?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

A year ago I was unemployed and single. My answer then would have been considerably different than now. I'm much happier with my life but the world is now much worse off and I'm currently struggling to reconcile my radical progressive views with the desire for a comfortable life. I'm still strongly of the opinion that our society (in the US at least) is beyond repair, but I'm less eager to see the reset button pressed. I'm fortunate to be in a blue state (though like all blue states, it gets real red outside the city limits), so my plan at the moment is to pretend the federal government doesn't exist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I just have to continue reminding myself that people somehow continued to live happy, fulfilling lives during the fall of the Roman Empire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

It’s because they still had the trebuchet, long may it reign!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

And that's why the US isn't ready for another revolution. Even with Trump, the US is far from a third world dictatorship.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Similar boat. I'm climbing out of a pit of 10 year of shit luck and painful life events. I've been getting glimpses of the good life and was starting to accept my progress and recognize how far things had come. My trajectory was success. Now I have 4+ years of bullshit to look forward to and even if the dems win the next time, they've shown they won't, can't, don't know how to wield that power effectively.

My partner has an adult dependent who now lives with us and it is going to put a wrench into the wheels of our own plan to leave for overseas where we want to start a family somewhere where it is affordable and they are less likely to be victimized or murdered at school and will actually learn something. This would not be such a big deal as we make a good family, but staring down the barrel of this red white and blue idiocracy, the barriers to leaving feel like a sledgehammer to the face.

To your last point, I'm moderately happy with my state government though my municipality is Religious, MAGA, Jesusland, hell. I used to wish for revolution or huge social change as a kid, but as an adult I realize that we all need to change our own hearts and start treating each other with respect. Institutions can be changed, but it has to happen from the bottom up through individual actions (or intentional lack of action). Top down always results in tyranny. That's why this education domino is going to hurt so bad. People won't learn how to think anymore, just what to think, and they'll be monitored closely from the day they are born to the day they die. Still holding out hope though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Dictatorships seem to hit the first stage through votes, so by the time that happens it usually means a majority are in favor of such a transition of power.

Don't think there is a way of changing it unless population that ushered it in changes.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Dictatorships are built on narratives. To stop them one must break their narrative, which is an iterative process—they’ll change the narrative to explain away new developments, but if you force them to keep making changes faster than their adherents can absorb them, their shared reality will fall apart.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

They've given up on narratives and now say lots of conflicting things to overload your brain.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 hours ago

Ding Ding Ding! This right here. Unfortunately, they say one thing one day, and the opposite the other, and know their followers will latch onto the answer they want to believe/be true. It is exactly how religions work too.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I feel this is really the most important answer here. We must break the false narratives that they use to hold power.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

And nothing does that better than video evidence. Fortunately, virtually every cell phone still in existence can record video.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago

You say that as if dictators, by their nature, aren't going to sneak up on us. The question, sadly, should be what we would do once one reveals themselves, and the answer to that is in a battle of wit VS law.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

At least 30,000,000 people protesting non violently for a year, hoping no war will erupt. This might help

[–] [email protected] 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

"Protesting" isn't what we need. We need them running for office, whether that is president, senator, congressperson, or even for the local school board: a lot of those lower officers will move up over time.

Just like the remnants of the Tea Party took over the GOP, we need a "Guillotine Party" to redirect the Democrats to focus on the robber baron billionaire class.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

That's the next step. But running for office is far from being enough without an engaged base, and you get this by sustained protests and other non violent means. Especially if you're facing a regime with fascist aspirations. Soon it might be too late

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

Yes, if that many people would do that it could make a huge difference

[–] [email protected] 47 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

after all other options are exhausted civil disobedience is the only thing left

examples would include handing about abortion pills in illegal states

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago

Yes, this makes sense! Hopefully while doing so one could build a coalition that includes more and more people.