You aren’t wrong. But being walked all over because you took the high ground instead of responding in kind to someone else raising tensions isn’t the answer. Just ask how that worked out for the Ukrainians who gave up their nukes.

It takes two to deescalate.

Voting has consequences. The time to wake the fuck up was two weeks ago. I guess the next best time is now.

Institutions will not save democracy. Democracy is accountable to only the people.

Republicans aren’t actually pro small government/freedom. That’s all just opposition rhetoric. When they are in power, it’s as much government in your face as possible.

Democracy isn’t government on cruise control. Democracy is a responsibility. Blaming politicians isn’t going to change the fact that it is not institutions that uphold democracy. It’s the people.

So yeah, ultimately the people failed themselves. Some people just need to learn the hard way. If that is the only way these people will learn, why try to stop them from getting their lessons?

Americans are basically spoiled children. Never experienced government hardship. Why expect them to understand the value of what they have that prevents the hardship?

Elect a clown, expect a circus.

Common guys, we’ve already been through this.

Simple solution: Try looking at the pictures of you through a mirror.

We are in uncharted territory here. There is no crystal ball for what comes next.

That being said, this is not sustainable. Society is a contract. The contract goes away when parties to that contract begin to disagree on what that contract says, and that is inevitable when people are fed garbage without results. Most empires have collapsed under their own weight. I suspect this will happen to the US as well, which has always been the purpose of all this disinformation: not to consolidate power into a dictator, but instead to sow division, and rip apart the social contract. The fact that Americans are so polarized is proof of that division. You ask if people will ever wake up. Clearly half the the US has.

The only question is how that collapse will happen, and how peacefully it might be.

Consumption tax for everyone! Unless you all want to go to work in a shoe factory.

I spent an unhealthy amount of time on Reddit. Getting bored of Lemmy is a feature, not a bug. Embrace it.

That institution is rotten to the core. No amount of this is going to fix it.

MAGAS are incapable of associating anything bad with their dear leader. Hold them accountable.

Sounds to me like you are not very well read on 1930’s German history.

A constitutional crisis is very likely over the next 4 years. And if it does, all bets are off.

Holding Trump supporters accountable for their actions is the only way forward. There are no more excuses. Every bad thing to happen now moving forwards is 100% on Trump supporters AND complacent bystanders who chose not to take a stand. It was plain for everyone to see. Repudiate fascism and the toxicity plaguing the country at every opportunity.

I get how you feel, and I desperately want to feel the same way. But we aren’t going to win people over back to the rational side with this attitude. It just feeds into the tribalism and makes the problem worse.

We need to empathize with the other side, which means start by listening to their concerns, and then the moment they feel listened too, we have to completely repudiate the awful stances they believe in, shut down their flawed logic and force them to face facts and reality: one human being to another.

This is brain washing remedy 101. Did we all forget the painfull lessons we learned through the first Trump Presidency? I feel like we have all collectively forgotten that period in time.

I think issues are too complicated for uneducated voters to understand when lectured to. People can learn, but many often only in hindsight when they experience something first hand. The educated/uneducated divide sheds light on this so obviously. Which is why it is so frustrating. Not suggesting being educated makes people smarter, but I think people who pursue education are more accepting of lecture. Obviously.

Democrats have to stop and realize this. It’s why there is no debate to be had with many Republicans. They don’t think about issues through rational extrapolation and curiosity. Everything is an emotional response to the now. They are just wired that way.

The good fight. Keeping majority voters accountable for the choices they impose on everyone else is as much a part of democracy as anything else, especially with candidates who actually deliver on the promises they make during elections.

God speed. I hope you can be reunited with your family again.

Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.

American individualism goes too far. It’s just sad.

Trump voters: “Trump is the most peaceful president ever. We need to bring the defence spending to Ukraine home. America first”.

Trump is elected and inevitably drags the US into yet another war in in the Middle East

Trump voters: Pikachu face

Nah. Just kidding about that last part. It was all just empty rhetoric to justify the grift and looting all the way down as the country burns to the ground in the background.