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If what they taught us about checks and balances was a lie maybe what they taught us about civil disobedience was a lie too.

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Submitted ⁨⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

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  • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨minute⁩ ago

    Mlk jr got cameras.

    Malcolm X got results.

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  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    School is indoctrination. I’m surprised so many of my peers don’t realize it.

    When I was in China (country of birth), they did national anthem like either weekly or daily. I think it was every week, they would also do a flag raising ceremony. They then did a weird ceremony where first graders did wore little red scarfs, which I as an adult looked it up and its apparantly called the Young Pioneers program where they attempt to brainwash children into their “communist” ideology. (“communist” in quotes because it wasn’t even real communism). So yea I always get weirded out by these weird rituals.

    Then when I immigrated to the US, they do the “pledge of allegience” and the national anthem of the US, of course, being a foreign national at the time, I didn’t do the pledge, but just stood up to sort of fit in, but I remained silent. I thought these rituals, national anthem, pledge of allegience, making kids wear red scarfs, was normal, just part of every country.

    Then I grew older and went online and apparantly Europeans tell me the flah of allegience wasn’t considered normal.

    I eventually got US citizenship derived from my mother’s naturalization. I did eventually get attached to the concept of the constitution and rule of law, checks and balances (I did NOT have any attachments to the US administrations or congress btw, that’s a whole differe t thing). But there was always something very uncanny about the way they teach things.

    They keep saying “freedom” “freedom” all over everything they teach, and when they teach civics, teachers say that “police cannot do X if they don’t have probable cause” “you have rights” “innocent until proven guilty”, but we know for a fact that these things do happen, but of course, they are brushed off as “mistakes”, and yet cops don’t seem to get held accountable.

    So again, I slowly see the same pattern all over again, different country, similar indoctrination.

    And to top it all off, while the US (pre 2025) was considered “democratic”, schools are anything but. Schools admin and teachers always have a lot of draconian rules and some doesn’t even make sense.

    Like wtf is school uniform, teaching conformity and just “obey” the rules, no questions asked? Also, you aren’t allowed to wear any outerwear even if its winter and you’re cold unless you purchase the school’s sweaters, wtf? This is a liberal city btw. So much for freedom. Freedom to get a fucking cold.

    Security cameras everywhere in school, they had fucking security patrolling inside the school, like wtf its K-12.

    The fucking police the bathrooms so much. They sometimes LOCK THE FUCKING BATHROOM because “drugs”. LOL FUCK YOU. I’M GONNA PISS ON THE FUCKING FLOOR. (sry for caps).

    Its just, when you’ve seen so much shit from schools in 2 different nationalistic countries, and also have to deal with your abusive parents’ bullshit, you quickly develop the pattern recognition to recognize authoritarianism.

    Public school is indoctrination. (And private school would be much worse, especially religious ones). Sad that people don’t recognize this.

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    • ILoveUnions@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      School uniforms are absolutely NOT the norm in usa cities for the record

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  • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What did you guys not learn about civil disobedience?

    It’s non-violence, but it breaks the laws “designed to keep things civil.” It’s meant to disrupt, it’s means to obstruct, it’s meant to annoy the shit out of the people you are protesting.

    I haven’t seen any civil disobedience. Which is weird because the boomers did it all the time.

    A protest isn’t civil disobedience. Boycotts aren’t civil disobedience.

    A crowd of hundreds blocking a bridge is. People blocking entrances to government buildings is. People surrounding bases is. People flooding the capitol or disrupting the discourse of policy is. The reason they use the military and ICE is because they are terrified that people will remember that even 1% of the US doing this far outnumbers them.

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    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      A crowd of hundreds blocking a bridge is. People blocking entrances to government buildings is. People surrounding bases is. People flooding the capitol or disrupting the discourse of policy is. The reason they use the military and ICE is because they are terrified that people will remember that even 1% of the US doing this far outnumbers them.

      The absolute whining from people when they are moderately inconvenienced is depressing. “Sure, death camps are bad but did they have to block the bridge? I’m going to be late for my brunch!” Well, the person in a camp is going to be late for stuff, too.

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      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Which is why it’s effective if coordinated and done well. It makes things relevant immediately for the public, for officials, for businesses.

        It will annoy them to the point of either joining them out of frustration, or at least saying “do something!” To the government.

        I have no misconceptions that they will happily massacre civilians when those orders arrive, but until those orders arrive they are only trying to intimidate. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the current orders are quite simply: “Walk and look scary.”

        They are clearly more afraid of us than them. They’re nothing more than buzzing insects with stingers.

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    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      There’s a reason why Marsha P. Johnson is remembered.

      For throwing the first fucking brick.

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    • squaresinger@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      So basically what the climate protesters are doing.

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      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        YES! As my aunt would tell me: if you aren’t getting arrested, you aren’t making an impact.

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      • FerretyFever0@fedia.io ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Ehhhh.... they're more so just being a bit... annoying once in a while. They make the cause look bad sometimes. Throwing soup on a van Gogh just looks a little dumb.

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      • yucandu@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        The only way you are hearing about protesters on privately owned media is if those billionaires want you to hear about them.

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    • ssroxnak@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Non violent protests work if the alternative is violence. Otherwise they just keep sending in violent bullies to dismantle the protests.

      …wikipedia.org/…/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      We learned the hippies were ineffectual drug addicts that believed in super weird stuff. Then HIV happened and free love was over. Then Manson family killed a bunch of people and became a scape goat. The hippies lost their appeal. Computers blew up and we never went back to that place to try and figure out how to do it right.

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      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Wow. Really? When was this? Where was this?

        I certainly remember several times when learning American history throughout my education about the Civil Rights movement and the resistance to the Vietnam War.

        Admittedly though, I don’t know how much of that I learned in school, vs learned in Museums.

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  • mlg@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    There was actually a pretty good comment here once about how MLK and Gandhi only really succeeded with progress when a visible and difficult threat to the system was perceived.

    Civil rights stagnated until the ramp up with the march to Washington and widespread riots from groups like the black panthers were damaging public society.

    Similarly, Gandhi had trouble convincing the British to even consider independence until widespread communal violence swept the nation in the aftermath of WWII.

    Both figures were touted as succeeding in history books due to their non violent movements, but in reality they simply became the center of attention for media at the time which solidified them as icons of their respective movements.

    Ironically, both were assassinated which means their opposition definitely viewed them as a a powerful political threat, and not just some supporters for peace.

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  • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Oh for fuck’s sake, if you want to start a revolt then fucking start it already. Fascism is here right now, so you need to fight it right now. You’re doing no good by sitting around and saying “I would have totally joined the Revolution if one had spontaneously formed around me.”

    If a violent resistance isn’t feasible in the here-and-now (and it isn’t) then you need to find other ways to resist.

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    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Bruh, it sounds like you and OP are both on the same side. Like the point of this post is to kind of -nudge nudge- that “disobedient” thought that’s teetering on the edge of realization, without making a direct call for action. You call for it one way, they call for it another way, but both of you seem to be attempting to conjure the same idea.

      Why in the world waste time complaining that your teammate isn’t using the same tactics as you? We all have the same goal, we should be aiming together. We have to stop letting arbitrary shit divide us.

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      • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        The OP isn’t suggesting any tactics at all. They’re just saying “we should do anything” and expecting kudos for that. If you want to do something then do something. The time for hypotheticals is over.

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Ok I go do a revolution now, thanks for the pep talk.

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      • tamal3@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        We will join if we hear about it

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    checks and balances is not a lie it just does not work when folks don't do their job. its like they did the patriot act because bush jr. didn't do his job. No system can work when a significant amount of the components are bad actors.

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    • thermal_shock@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, we entrusted too many shitty people.

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      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Threat actors are colluding... Democrats included

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I read: “checks and balances do not work”

      They arent working. Att least the checks and balances we have now.

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      • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Yeah you can't be taught about future failures of a system. The only way for it not be able to not be working is for humans to not be in the equation of government. Which is one of the reasons ai taking over does not scare me. Either they kill us all. Win for the planet. Or they run things properly. Win for everybody.

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  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    One misconception I had about civil disobedience from what I’d learned in school is that it’s a reliable means of drawing attention to your cause: your willingness to subject yourself to legal punishment will communicate to the public how critical you consider the issue.

    What I learned from witnessing it first-hand is that the media will invent its own narratives about your actions out of whole cloth, and your ability to communicate anything to the public is subject to arbitrary media distortion.

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Sounds about right.

      When it comes to the media the well is poisoned. We need to teach an entire population how to consume new media and we cant do it fast enough.

      Eventually, though, that will stabilize. Then there will be cultural revolutions in that space.

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      • Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        What is thia “new media” for you? Because for many it means sources that tell an alternative truth. Usually written in Sankt-Peterburg.

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    • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Civil disobedience is not meant to draw attention. It’s meant to fight back without violence.

      Drawing attention is a protest or a boycott.

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      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Civil disobedience can overlap with both direct action and protest. But that’s my point: we were only ever taught about the latter.

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  • Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What did the nebulous “they” teach us about civil disobedience again? Because I’m not sure I ever learned that lesson in the first place 😈

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    • yesman@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      IDK, in school they spent a lot of time on MLK and Gandhi, focusing on non-violence. You’d never even know that these men ever talked about anything else.

      Nobody ever learns about Fred Hampton, the Haitian revolution, or Malcolm X by sticking to the curriculum.

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      • Nougat@fedia.io ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Or the Pullman Strike, Haymarket.

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      • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        We covered Malcom but mostly as independent research.

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    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Teaching is something usually done by teachers and or parents

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      • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Or youtube… now…

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  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I remember learning about people like MLK with respect and admiration for his methods, but also being taught to not use our first Amendment Rights to stir up trouble. It was definitely a conflicting message, and probably the reason everybody today recognizes that we have an extremely serious problem, but nobody wants to start the trouble that will finally deal with it.

    We won’t have to, though. They want trouble, and they will have their trouble, even if they have to instigate it.

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    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The thing is that MLK’s legacy, while absolutely awesome, has been appropriated by whites and we’re constantly told “he was one of the good ones”. Many of MLK’s false advocates will conveniently forget that he was the target of the FBI for sowing civil disobedience.

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  • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I was taught that the founding fathers’ did not take into account a two-party political system when they designed the system of checks and balances.

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    • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      They did take out into account and George Washington himself said it was a terrible idea because it would lead to exactly where we are now.

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    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Fuck those slavers.

      It is kind of just the endstate of democratic systems. If you need the populace to vote for you (whether directly or through representatives in a parliament or whatever), you inevitably end up down selecting based on key issues. Which means you get more and more coalitions based on, generally speaking, the French Revolution (i.e. Left and Right).

      The US is obviously ahead of the curve. But we are increasingly seeing coalitions between the political parties in Western Europe and so forth. Because they understand that splitting the vote between the three left leaning parties that disagree on the exact level of taxation or the priority queue is just a guaranteed loss once the other side has already stopped doing that.

      Ranked choice voting theoretically helps with this (and isn’t too dissimilar in impact to things like the party primaries in the US…) but it still ends up on 2-3 core mega-parties.

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  • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They enshrined the 2nd amendment for a reason. but for now its enough to do simple things like:

    • boycott / disrupt any local companies that aid and abed ICE/national guard/armed forces. grocery stores/hotels/restaurants. etc.
    • disrupt these peoples ability to sleep.
    • repeat the above for any federal agents in your state who are carrying out trumps agenda.
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  • JollyG@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “Checks and balances” in the context of US federal government just means that each branch has the ability to check the growth of power of the others. It’s not “a lie” because it’s still true. Right now congress could, if they wanted to, impeach the president or pass laws preventing him from doing the things he wants. The SCOTUS could stop him too if they wanted to actually take up cases on the law instead of using the shadow docket to avoid making rulings.

    Trump partisans hold a trifecta in government right now so they are not going to use their checks they have available to them. But one branch refusing to check another because its members were elected from the same stock of partisan lunatics is not the same as checks and balances not existing.

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The executive is exceeding its power. Whether the other branches are just ok with it doesnt matter, they fail their obligation to the constitution. The executive does not have the power to rewrite the constitution. The executive does not have the power to write law. The executive does not have the power to deploy the military. The executive does not have the power to tariff. These are all things that are going unchecked.

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      • JollyG@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        The checks still exist to correct those abuses of power. Just because congress or SCOTUS is unwilling to use them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

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  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Someone has had an incentive to teach you pretty much everything you know. You hope much of it was benevolent, but maybe the teachers were taught to use benevolence that way (by pedagogical teachers before them)… Then there’s this whole thing xalled “The Hodden Curriculum” which is the accental lessons burried in the structures of lessons and systems… And then there’s Labour History, which is like this secret history of workers rights that most schools won’t teach, and it soon becomes obvious that teaching can have ideological and systemic purposes attached, and even hidden or subconscious back flows and scatter effects.

    It’s all a bit much.

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    • Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The internet is like a kaleidoscope. You feed it a bit of information and because of human nature it fractures into many different pieces.

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  • Ging@anarchist.nexus ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You guys are getting taught stuff?.jpg

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  • arin@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Jan 6 rioters got hired to run DOJ npr.org/…/doj-trump-jan-6-defendant-jared-wise-ca…

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