Thank you this sums up pretty accurately how I’ve felt lately too.
Like, we’re effectively a collection of pseudo-countries loosely tied together by a federal delegation spread across a contiguous landmass roughly a third the size of the continent of Asia. Our cross-border infrastructure is a joke, worker protections are nonexistent and to drive several hours/days to the nation’s capitol to protest (which we’re being told does and doesn’t work??) is a level of cost many literally cannot afford.
In a lot of states we do see grassroots efforts to fight back and improve. That is a better comparison to smaller European countries that have won in fighting against government corruptions, imo. Even Texas recently had a small wave of progressive wins in local races.
Unfortunately I think a lot of outsiders see “you have guns there!” and as such want us to start an all-out bloodbath. I don’t think it’s wrong for the average citizen to not want to die unnecessarily, and/or only use arms for literal self defense rather than reckless political violence. (inb4 “bUt Ur gubbermint is aLrEadY violent!1! DoN’t WaIt!2!” yeah no duh, see “literal self defense”)
A good chunk of the 20th and 21st century European revolutions people point to when we ask were largely nonviolent. That’s what we’ve been trying too. Not unarmed, but nonviolent (also corporate property damage doesn’t count as violence).
Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and of course MLK are solid figurehead examples of American protest that led to some level of success. Protesters during the AIDs crisis too. But it took them years. We’re trying.
Another thing to think about here is that it’s only been about 4 months of this dipshit being in charge.
They are comparing what is happening now to other episodes of revolution or cultural rebellion that took (sometimes) decades to foment enough unrest to cause change.
People are doing things, and we’re pissed. But like, what can a person living in LA effectively do? We have blue reps in a blue state that is suing the government multiple times over multiple grievances.
Short of going out and getting kinetic there’s not much for people to ‘do’ yet.
Thank you this sums up pretty accurately how I’ve felt lately too.
Like, we’re effectively a collection of pseudo-countries loosely tied together by a federal delegation spread across a contiguous landmass roughly a third the size of the continent of Asia. Our cross-border infrastructure is a joke, worker protections are nonexistent and to drive several hours/days to the nation’s capitol to protest (which we’re being told does and doesn’t work??) is a level of cost many literally cannot afford.
In a lot of states we do see grassroots efforts to fight back and improve. That is a better comparison to smaller European countries that have won in fighting against government corruptions, imo. Even Texas recently had a small wave of progressive wins in local races.
Unfortunately I think a lot of outsiders see “you have guns there!” and as such want us to start an all-out bloodbath. I don’t think it’s wrong for the average citizen to not want to die unnecessarily, and/or only use arms for literal self defense rather than reckless political violence. (inb4 “bUt Ur gubbermint is aLrEadY violent!1! DoN’t WaIt!2!” yeah no duh, see “literal self defense”)
A good chunk of the 20th and 21st century European revolutions people point to when we ask were largely nonviolent. That’s what we’ve been trying too. Not unarmed, but nonviolent (also corporate property damage doesn’t count as violence).
Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and of course MLK are solid figurehead examples of American protest that led to some level of success. Protesters during the AIDs crisis too. But it took them years. We’re trying.
Another thing to think about here is that it’s only been about 4 months of this dipshit being in charge.
They are comparing what is happening now to other episodes of revolution or cultural rebellion that took (sometimes) decades to foment enough unrest to cause change.
People are doing things, and we’re pissed. But like, what can a person living in LA effectively do? We have blue reps in a blue state that is suing the government multiple times over multiple grievances.
Short of going out and getting kinetic there’s not much for people to ‘do’ yet.