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Editorial: A president just disrespected America in the Oval Office. It wasn’t Zelensky
(kyivindependent.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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Dude, we're fucking trying.
I wrote letters to voters trying to keep this guy out of office, I donated money, I hassled friends and family to get them to vote, I wrote letters to my congress people. I've been to one protest so far, which is not enough. I argue with people in person about politics and I shitpost on Lemmy, which seems like a waste of time electoral-outcome-wise, but I think the wild success the Russian troll farms are having kind of implies that there's at least a little bit of impact from it.
I think this weekend I will apply for some jobs outside the US. I can't stand the idea of my taxes going to help all this bullshit happen. I have no idea how much if any I will follow through on that kind of thing, but I've been thinking about it anyway, and this was a hell of a kick in the pants to motivate it. It is probably better for my safety, to be honest, anyway.
I'm not asking for a medal from you for any of that of course. I get it. But also, helping us fix our democracy is going to be a better and safer way for the rest of the world than is trying to come after us as a "rogue state." That kind of problem is still in our wheelhouse, and is likely to remain so for the most part even as Trump tears apart all the rest of it.
No, we're not. Not really. Really trying, at this point, requires thinking beyond "electoral outcomes."
If you were asked what Russians should do to stop Putin, would your answer be electoralism?
You're going to lecture me about how trying to stop Trump from winning in November was not important, because it is "electoralism?" Please tell me that's not what you are saying. It sounds like that's what you are saying.
I am clearly including activities outside of "electoral outcomes" in what I am saying, and don't need any sanctimonious reminders about them. You can read back, if you missed it. Lecturing me about how electoral outcomes are unimportant, in the wake of what's happening right now, deserves some kind of every-single-person-in-the-audience-smacking-their-forehead gif.
This right here is the problem. Literally a perfect example.
Fucking look at you two. We bicker and fight amongst each other. Please, for the love of God. STOP BICKERING.
If we want anything to change, we are first going to have to accept the fact that we’re all in this together.
We're clearly both capable of having a normal discussion, I think, and have now started to do so. Strong feelings on this type of topic are okay. Just because we're together doesn't mean we need to agree 100%. It is ok. I definitely didn't come here to bicker, and I think neither did the other person. Look at the nature of all our other comments.
Holy shit, that's not at all what I was saying!
I have no idea why you thought it was, considering that I was speaking in the present tense (i.e. about February, not November), but yeah: the election was incredibly important and the failure of some Americans to comprehend that basic fact resulted in a catastrophe for which I will never, ever forgive them.
Wait -- did you think I was the person upthread that you replied to? 'Cause FYI, I'm not.
What my point actually was is that we, COLLECTIVELY, are not doing enough to stop Trump. You, personally, may not need any "sanctimonious reminders," but the citizenry at large sure as fuck does! When you write things like "we're fucking trying" -- speaking for all of us, not just yourself -- don't you agree that it rings a bit hollow?
You used the word "electoralism" as a pejorative. In my experience, that is associated 100% of the time with being opposed to voting in elections. Also, most of what you described as "not really trying" that I described was referring specifically to trying to stop Trump getting elected.
Stopping Trump from getting elected would have been the easiest and safest way, by far, to stop all this ongoing nightmare from happening. If my interpretation of your reply was wrong, and you're agreeing that trying to stop Trump from getting elected was incredibly important, and a good thing, then sure. Surely you can understand how I could have gotten some other impression, though.
If you have ideas for what to do now, I'm all ears. Protest sounds good, strikes and boycotts sound good, spreading truth and standing up for the forces of "2 + 2 = 4" sounds good, but that's about all I can think of that I think will take things in the right direction, and it all doesn't sound likely to succeed any time soon.
I didn't mean everyone in the US. A lot of us are though, a lot of them more than me. I get that it could have come across as talking about all the people here and that it's pretty hollow. That's why I explicitly said that I get it, and I don't want a medal or a cookie for any of it, because it's pretty cold comfort for someone in some other place who wasn't involved who is now also staring down the barrel. That part of it, I get.
Elections work until a country votes in a dictator who destroys all the checks and balances, and then they stop working. That's how it went down in the Weimar Republic, that's how it went down in post-Soviet Russia, and, well, [gestures broadly].
Go check my comment history if you want -- before the election, I was very emphatic about the importance of voting for Harris, and fucking kept my mouth shut about even valid criticism of the Democrats that could harm that goal. But it's not before the election anymore, is it?
Circumstances change, and when they do, our arguments and tactics have to change with them if we want to succeed (or indeed, if we want merely to not be crushed under the heel of jackboots). In February 2025, talking about voting is basically irrelevant, with the sole exception of keeping "pound some fucking sense into the Democratic Party before the midterms" on our to-do list (just on the off chance the process hasn't been completely subverted by the fascists by then). But everything else on that list has fuck-all to do with elections.
There's a huge gulf between what we're doing now (e.g. ranging from complying like Hakeem "what leverage do we actually have" Jeffries, to today's 24-hour economic boycott), and the sorts of actions that would actually be necessary to defeat the MAGAs. That's the reality us Americans are living in right now, whether we like it or not. The sooner we get through our stages of grief about it, the better off we'll be.
Let's see: I'm from lemmy.world, you're from ponder.cat, and we're talking in quokk.au... what are the governing ToS and rules, again? I need to figure that out before I can answer.
Maybe I'll put it this way: if you buy into the narrative you were taught in school about MLK and Gandhi and whatnot, think again. What your teachers didn't tell you is that "peaceful" movements like theirs only ever succeeded because they were able to present themselves as the moderate alternative to a radical flank, and those radicals were the ones who had done the work of shifting the Overton window.
While I appreciate everything your doing. The reality as I see it is your in the minority. Until that changes America is fucked and destined to bring us l down with you.
I get and agree "not America" should be able to stand without you. Your political body has spent my life time at least working against that.
I will admit that I'm exceeding frustrated with the situation i have less than fuck all control over while living within your dead range of 2 high priority nuke targets when w3 kicks off again because America felt the need to elect a removed monkey as president while posting old man dream is the good old days
Edit. Honestly I'm half the age of these old cunt in charge and all I want to do is leave the world in a better place for my granddaughter than I found it. That the hell is wrong with these assholes and their supporters
Even if you get a job outside the US, if you keep citizenship, you will still be charged taxes.
True, but according to what I just became an expert on two minutes ago, you can file form 2555 and deduct the first $130k of your wages, and all your housing expenses on top of that. It sounds like working abroad means you still have to keep in touch, but your tax burden is likely to become minimal as long as you're legit not maintaining a presence in the US.
It's all still theoretical as applied to me personally. And there is still the big decision of "flee to safety" versus "stay and fight."
Yeah, from what I recall, you can deduct whatever you pay in the other country in taxes, so unless you moved to Monaco that's going to be higher anyway.