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Comment on Gimme some evidence that anyone at all in the government is pushing back on Trump with any effectiveness at all. Someone throw me a bone here. 😬

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

I want to add a running theme in GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire is that doing gross and inhumane things may horrify us in the moment and make us feel overwhelmed but tends to turn around on those who would resort to such methods despite Tyrion Lannister’s opinion that those method are not to be excluded from all options considered.

The most well known example in the series was the Red Wedding, the marriage of Edmure Tully, Roslin Frey, which was followed by the massacre of Rob and Catelyn Stark and many others, while under the protection of the tradition of hospitality. If we ignore the GoT Season 8 revenge by Arya Stark, reputation of fell deed figured in House Frey losing allies and trade, and Frey casualties far greater than those inflicted on Stark and its allies.

IRL, Trump’s heavy-handed response to the George Floyd protests in 2020 only doubled the protest sizes in the following days. Notoriously after Putin-style LGMs (unmarked uniformed men in military gear abducting citizens without due process) and brutal police action at the ICE building resulted in the moms joining the protests and then the dads (who brought their wireless leaf blowers).

An example that will be applicable to the US is the rise of the French Résistance during the German occupation of France. Despite efforts by German administrators to advice soldiers to stay polite, they couldn’t help themselves and were brutal to the French civilians. The people started engaging in light direct action, tearing down or defacing German propaganda, slashing tires, cutting phone lines, until they found each other and organized. Within two years, they were a formidable fighting force.

Yes, the find out portion of the upcoming era is going to be harsh. People who need services and supplies will not get them. Police will be cruel to folks at the border, and may even hunt down migrants and Trans folks like the SS after Jews. It will be fucking scary, but it will turn bystanders into resistance sympathists, sympathists into activists and activists into militants. And yes, it appears police just can’t help themselves but be brutal, and the resistance will not only feel justified in cutting them down, but will eventually hunt them to the ends of the earth to assure they see tribunal, even when the last guard and bureaucrat is ninety.

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tryagain@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Plenty of despots around the world stayed in power for decades and died peacefully in their beds. Tyranny as a means of maintaining power is a “solved problem” and Americans are no smarter or more sophisticated than the citizens of North Korea, Cameroon, Congo or Uganda. Or Spain or Portugal for that matter.

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- uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Yes. And if we go down that path, not only will millions perish in the purges, but then China will take us economically, and may be the Allies to our Axis.
  
  And much like Germany, the brain drain and infighting at the top ranks will slow them down and become an exploitable weakness.
  
  If we’re not careful, we’ll organize a rebellion and overthrow the Trump regime only to have it replaced with another despot, and then (as the pattern goes) another and another and another until everyone knows someone who’s perished in the fighting. And that’s no guarantee of a democracy.
  
  It’s one of the reasons I’ve advocated we do something that (AFAIK) we’ve never tried before, and create a constitution before we try to overthrow the government. Make it public; get legal experts to pick at it for loopholes and exploits to close until it’s ironclad. And then, unlike the constitutional framers of the US, don’t let the fighting leaders take place as administrative officials.
  
  But I’m a novice at history and sociopolitical studies. Maybe we are doomed to a century of tyranny and all we have wrought will burn in fire. But I know instances have occurred in which something different happened, via non-violent resistance, even.
  
  At this point get involved with your mutual aid orgs and community orgs. The more of us that organize to resist, the more likely it will actually succeed.
  
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  - drthunder@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Having an idea of the government we want to have before shit goes down is a great idea. I’ve thought about writing down my thoughts for what a better government would look like and maybe I should do that. I’m sure none of us randos on Lemmy would be the people in the room where it’s happening, but if we talk about it maybe we can influence it.
    
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    uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    If you’re near a university, get your butt to the law school department and ask professors how feasible this is. (Buy them lunch if possible / necessary) And if it’s as brilliant as it sounds, they might be able to hook us up with the legal experts necessary to follow through.
    
    We are in very interesting times, which may give the notion more traction than a far off whimsy.
    
    We have colleges here in Sacramento. I’ll see what I can do here.
    
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- rayyy@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  One BIG thing to consider is that in other countries citizens weren’t nearly as well armed as the U.S.
  
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  - tryagain@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    the most heavily armed citizens in America are, by and large, A-OK with events as they are currently unfolding. they just want a pretext to shoot a load of brown people and soy liberal cucks
    
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  - PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    An even BIGGER thing to consider is that I’m other countries the armies under the control of the leader weren’t nearly as well armed as the US
    
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