I'd recommend checking out BlackFlag Civilian's videos. He's a leftist who covers relevant topics, including how to select ammo, how to set up comms on a budget, and more.
I'd also suggest TacticoolGirlfriend (who has a great beginner series) and InRangeTV's videos.
There are still things you can do that will drastically help.
This method would not only work in the US, but anywhere in the world.
Union Suggestions:
If we put in the work, we can resist this and we can win. Look at how effective these methods were when used in Chile in 2019.. If we completely reject the political system and rebel on a mass scale, there is NOTHING they can do to stop us.
It never seems that bad unless you're in that small percent. Cancer's a damned awful way to die.
M-discs don't rot, theoretically they're one of the best consumer long term storage mediums. I think the practical issue with them on a super long timescale is keeping a functional reader if blurays fall out of fashion.
Ammo brands can have a small difference in residue buildup, but not enough to consider one other another. You'll want to focus more on what shoots accurately and reliably in your specific rifle.
I'd recommend checking out BlackFlag Civilian's videos. He's a leftist who covers relevant topics, including how to select ammo, how to set up comms on a budget, and more.
I'd also suggest TacticoolGirlfriend (who has a great beginner series) and InRangeTV's videos.
A lack of resistance now will only guarantee a quick decent into Russian style authoritarianism. We resist now, or wait years or potentially decades for it to crumble and break.
The 50501 resistance movements have already shown us that there are millions who will openly resist. The military parade showed hundreds of slouched out of step soldiers, who would only do so if they disapproved. Trump only barely won the election.
Does he have supporters still? Of course, a wide amount of brainwashed people are were caught in that trap, and it will take a great deal of hardship for them to come out of that cult.
But just as many are not. Just as many are awake to what is happening. It may decent into civil war, and I think it'd prudent to be ready for that possibility, but hopefully it won't come to that.
But don't wait for a mass movement to make it safe for you to stand up, or you may never stand up.
I didn't mind the RPG elements of the gunplay either, it was how lame all the guns felt to use even with higher skill levels.
The shotguns take way too many rounds to down people, the smgs are pea shooters, and pistols can work 'okay' with headshots, but still just feel meh. I assume the sniper rifle is more effective, but I never used it much.
I wish they had made it to where low skill makes reloading and accuracy suffer greatly, but if you do manage to score a hit, it hits hard. That would make shotguns in the early game super valuable, but they could've still encouraged stealth and more thoughtful tactics by limiting ammo availability.
Basically the RPG and story elements combined with Tarkov style gunplay and thief-style stealth would be heaven for me.
I'd be curious of your thoughts on revision, if you ever feel like coming back to this comment section by the time you finish it!
I've made multiple attempts to finish Deus Ex over the years after giving up each time due to aspects of the gameplay. I would normally never give a game so many shots, but I love so many aspects of Deus Ex, I want to finish it, but I just can't push myself to continue at certain points.
I think the biggest blockers for me is I love stealth games (thief 1 & 2 are all time favorites), and since Deus Ex does have a stealth system (though primitive), I tried to play it like a stealth game. a vanilla install means that tranq darts make enemies run around like headless chickens for a minute, and knocking people out with the baton is unreliable. Combined, stealthing is both visually comical, and realistically very frustrating to play.
I could deal with that, and I've tried switching it up by going more guns blazing, but the gunplay of Deus Ex is just as clunky, with slow firing weapons that deal little damage on fairly bullet spongy enemies. Combat just doesn't feel good.
I tried mods and overhauls to see if I could rectify either of those points, which do sorta work as a bandaid. GMDX makes stealth WAY more fun by making headshots with darts work instantly, and baton-ing more reliable. With it, I was able to get all the way to France without quitting, but I think due to GMDX, I hit a massive difficulty spike where my stealth build became much less viable, and it once again just became frustrating. Perhaps a gun-build with GMDX would've been the winning combo.
I think my best experience was with the Revision overhaul, but by then I had started the game over so many times over so many years, I just didn't have the appetite to get all the way back to France.
It's a truly spectacular game in terms of story and open-ended level design, but the mechanics really are a turn-off. I wish my first playthrough had been with the Revision overhaul (though I wish it didn't radically change the level design so much), but even still, I think it would benefit from a Nightdive style remake.
I don't believe it, or rather, I think Warren Spector and Ricardo Bare really didn't intend for it to be political, as both of them were far more focused on the game parts of Deus Ex; the mechanics, the balancing, the level design, etc, and are seemingly oblivious to how the writers took those puzzle pieces and made it political. Though the extent that Spector is completely unaware of that fact seems unlikely, and instead he almost appears to be whitewashing what the writers intended? Based on his stance that only movies and books can be political (which is a wild take, since games actually seem the most ripe medium for that), he may be trying to frame Deus Ex as A-political because of that.
It's very odd that this article didn't interview the lead writer of Deus Ex, Sheldon Pacotti, for an article about the politics of the game. Sheldon absolutely intended for it to be political, and in an old interview even goes into how capital is used to exploit and suppress the working class, which is what leads to radical terrorist groups, such as the NSF. He mentions in the first part of that interview series how the designers would create the levels without any concept for a story (citing the blown up statue of liberty as an example, which the level designer just thought would be an arresting sight to the player, but didn't consider how it would tie into a wider narrative).
I think Ross's Game Dungeon on Deus Ex really shows how Pacotti was able to make Deus Ex realistically political by tackling real societal problems that we all now face, and very few games dare touch, which continues to set it apart it decades later.
If you'd prefer a more standard union, there's quite a few to choose from. The United Workers Union looks to be alright.
An issue with more 'standard' unions is that they are often centralized with leaders that can become corporate captured, and thus begin to actually work in the interests of the capital owners to only achieve modest or lackluster gains from negotiations or strikes. They also often don't have a particular interest in truly changing the status quo, such as working toward building up popular movements to challenge capitalism itself, instead only hoping for a wage increase so they can continue as usual, with a little more breathing room.
The ASF-IWA doesn't demand that their members don't vote in political elections, only that as an entity, they're more focused on direct-action instead of waiting for permission from a corporate captured system.
But in the end, joining any union is still a win in my book.
We better start preparing for a stronger resistance now while we still can.
This method would not only work in the US, but anywhere in the world.
Union Suggestions:
If we put in the work, we can resist this and we can win. Look at how effective these methods were when used in Chile in 2019.. If we completely reject the political system and rebel on a mass scale, there is NOTHING they can do to stop us.
And quick reminder that the IWW will help anyone (including you, dear reader) unionize their job, no matter what it is, and even if you can only get one or two others on board with you!