• Political Incorruption@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Explain what people are supposed to do. The largest US protest in history happened during the No Kings protest in October. Until the stock market crashes and everyone is fucked don’t expect people to violently rise up against him.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      12 hours ago

      Everyone gets all bent out of shape when I say this, but those kinds of “yell at concrete buildings” protests are absolutely worthless when the government doesn’t give a shit about what you think.

      The only thing that will get anyone to do anything is threatening wealth. We need a general strike, and not this “oh how does 2028 sound” b.s strikes people are planning… We need one immediately, not planned for years and years ahead…

      • fizzle@quokk.au
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        11 hours ago

        Yeah I was listening to a smart sounding guy on a podcast, an expert on authoritarian regime changes. He was saying change can only really happen when the oligarchs become dissatisfied.

        The stench on dear leader needs to become so bad that the oligarchs start to actually hurt.

        The tariffs might have reduced their profits to some extent, but they probably consider it to be temporary, and effecting everyone more or less equally. They’re happy to weather that storm because they’re not losing position on the wealthy and powerful ladder, and in the long run they’ll get some carve outs and hand outs if they haven’t already.

        You’ll notice though, in April when the tarriff “war” was really getting going, someone had a word to Trump and said enough is enough and he had to step back.

        Smart podcast guy said it didn’t take much of the population to hurt oligarchs. As in a dedicated change in behavior from as few as 3% of the population could make a difference. The thing is I don’t really believe Americans have that in them. For example, you need 3% of people who regularly use facebook and buy things from Amazon to stop doing those things permanently.

        The protests in May were like: “do your shopping on Tuesday and Thursday but not Wednesday, unless you really need something and then it’s ok. This will really communicate our general feeling of discontent to people working at the checkout.”

        I just looked it up and the guy was Dr. Jack Goldstone on ologies podcast: https://www.alieward.com/ologies/revolutionology

      • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        Everyone seems to forget that sociopolitical change requires multiple fronts.

        Protests are absofuckinglutely required even if they don’t appear to enact change directly or immediately. They serve multiple purposes in a comprehensive strategy that is built on coalition and education.

        They simply aren’t big enough yet. Start there.

      • blackbearjesus27@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Absolutely agreed re: your points but I’d argue some of it IS working.

        How many GOP members have broken with trump recently? And House leadership? How many folks are actually not even running for office next year because they can see the writing on the wall?

        It’s not nearly enough based on what he’s done and what he wants to do, absolutely. But for someone as recently as early this year appeared to have an iron lock on his party approaching lame duck status nearly a year ahead of time and before any votes have been counted in the midterms IS progress.

        • fizzle@quokk.au
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          11 hours ago

          Perhaps, but this kind of progress seems insignificant compared to the progress they’re making in establishing authoritarian rule.

          • blackbearjesus27@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            No disagreement from me but the wheels of justice are slow and unrelenting.

            Trump can plead with the American people to wait a little longer for relief to show up. I’d argue wait a little longer until it doesn’t / is underwhelming.

            • fizzle@quokk.au
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              8 hours ago

              Nah. The wheels of justice have been running in reverse for the last year.

              I thought we were making progress in early 2024, but the wheels of justice just fell off. There’s no justice.

      • subignition@fedia.io
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        11 hours ago

        A general strike without planning will just kill people, because most people don’t have the resources to get by for very long.

          • subignition@fedia.io
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            8 hours ago

            What’s the plan for when everyone runs out of food in a couple weeks? Mass looting of grocery stores?

            • myrmidex@belgae.social
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              7 hours ago

              The community could pull in surrounding farmers. By redirecting labor away from power structures towards mutual aid, communities could make the needed food products.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        11 hours ago

        Yep. And all the trumpets, who were mostly not essential workers, parroted all of their talking points.

        • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          It’s too bad deprogramming takes so long and so much energy. Imagine if we could win them over back to reality.

    • noahm@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      When the No Kings protest happens every single day, things will change. Until then, it’s an inconvenience to be waited out, nothing more.

      There’s a small group of committed people in my small town who protest every week, but we’re a long way from getting something of the scale of the No Kings protests.