it's not going to be simple
Sadly, while the myriad ways that this could play out from here are yet unknown, some things really are just flat *that* simple that we can guarantee them.
e.g. tell a child "you better do this before I count to 5! 1... 2... 3... 4... 4 and a half... 4 and a quarter... 4 and uh..." - do you see what we've lost? This was a test, in the same way that every single thing everywhere is always a test. The goalposts are now shifted: this much they can do - there is no use pretending that we will suddenly decide to halt their *next* set of actions, or the ones after that, or the ones after that, etc. "First they came for" is happening now, LIVE.
The ruling by the Supreme Court that a sitting President could do anything he ever wanted - including assassination of any American citizen anytime for any reason, iirc without much if anything in the way of oversight (although I never did get clarity on that point) - *already* ended our "democracy", months before the voting. Biden may not have chosen to use it, but the goalposts had already been shifted even then.
Even if we had elections again 4 years from now, and I see no reason that we would bother (for the same reason that Trump promised us that he had never so much as heard of Project 2025, during the election, except in this case he's outright said that we will not), the ratchet has already been sunk in, and the do-nothing Democrats will do... absolutely nothing about it. Man I sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist or even a subversive agent but... the facts and conclusions should stand or fall on their own merits regardless.
This is the new normal. You've seen the link I'm sure, but here it is again for easy reference: https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no. And the Democrats are silent, to save their own families from the death threats that they are literally and actually receiving (https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1ieiom5/senator_chris_murphy_on_why_the_democrats_are/?share_id=Ce7meV-39mMJsjvxXgn9N).
Democracy has been on the decline now since before I was alive, so it's not exactly unexpected, just nerve wracking as we go through this transition. It's also simply a natural consequence: this is what the people *want*: to not have to make decisions anymore. We could have... well, in the past we could have done *things*, whereas instead, this is what we've done: nothing. And it is what we will continue to do, I predict, bc it's what we are good at, so long as the price of eggs and gas isn't too awfully high...
PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 day ago
This I 1,000% agree with. We get the quality of government that we deserve. And, since most people have been absolutely checked out from any attempt at controlling or even taking an interest in what’s happening, what we’re getting is a bunch of plundering thieves in charge of the granary. It’s been okay, sort of, not really. People have been hurting. But what’s about to happen is going to be astronomically worse. Whether people wake up and start trying to wrestle the levers of power back into their own control again, or whether it’s even possible to recover from this point, I don’t really know. I have some level of hope but I have no idea.
OpenStars@piefed.social 1 day ago
What will really blow all of our minds, is that once we get this tiny little matter of the fate of the USA under control (I'm mostly joking here bc I think there's a strong, >50% chance of that never happening), there is still the fact that climate change has radically altered our word forever.
And the internet too.
And globalization as well.
Oh and automation likewise.
Meanwhile, to deal with all of THAT, we have... "Congress".
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No matter what, things will never be the same again, nor would those of us who think about it even want to. You can't un-pop a bubble, and why would we want to make a new one? (bc that worked out so well the last time)
Damnit, I'm not trying to be fatalistic here.
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PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 day ago
Yeah. All the problems in the US government are self-created. They’re not small, but they’re also purely solvable, we’re just too incompetent at the government level to get it done.
Climate change is a real problem. The kind that can’t be solved instantly if you can just get 60 people to all vote the right way, one day, when it gets too bad. And it doesn’t go away if you move.
OpenStars@piefed.social 1 day ago
No no no no no, you are supposed to reassure me with nice-sounding "factual" statements!? Everything will be okay bc... Cap't America, or sumtin.
What I know is that if people have principles but not convictions, then they have neither.
And unfortunately, greed is a principle.:-(