United States | News &amp; Politics

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[–] LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 10 months ago

Apparently, the majority of people ‘in charge’ are just fine and want to continue…

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works [S] 24 points 10 months ago (16 children)

So where’s the general strike? Where are the blockades, the sit-downs? Sorry, from over here it looks as if the USA is pretttty complacent!

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Speaking for the general strike, there are arguably a number of reasons why that’s a lot harder to get rolling in the states. Social safety nets are laughable, worker protections are shittier and union busting is greater than a lot of other nations. A lot of people keep their heads down and don’t act up for fear of loosing what they have.

IMHO complacency oversimplifies and ignores the root causes behind collective action or inaction.

And that said, when it came to shit like ICE, and communities literally have nothing left to lose, that shit gets fucking LOUD in a city. Block by block citizen patrols, lots of organization, etc. But that doesn’t seem to get a lot of press in the news, and people assume Americans are just taking it lying down.

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[–] plateee@piefed.social 22 points 10 months ago (1 child)

Social safety nets are laughable...

I think this is probably the #1, or close to the top reason why we don't see more from Americans (including myself and my family).

I have medical conditions that would bankrupt me in a year if it weren't for the shitty health insurance I get through work. I'm not quite living paycheck to paycheck, but it's fucking close.

If I stop working, I'll get fired (for cause) lose my health insurance and income and be SOL. My family will get fucked over. Heck, even my life insurance will stop existing because that's through work too.

So what's left? Weekend protests? Let me look up the next "No Kings" in this podunk town...

When your country is the size of Texas, a general strike or mass protest makes sense. When your country's landmass is a bit smaller than all of Europe, but its population is less than half (and arguably 30% of that population thinks Trump is doing fine) - general strikes and mass protests don't work well.

I'm not saying we shouldn't protest, but you've gotta curb expectations and know the dynamic here is much, much less friendly for those activities. (It's a big reason why I'm constantly on edge and having daily panic attacks.)

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[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 3 points 10 months ago

Yeah look distance isn’t the issue, it’s unity among a large population.

Australia doesn’t struggle holding decent protests and it’s not much smaller in size, with a much smaller population.

Lack of unity, combined with the lack of social safety net, plus individualism, all of which are pretty valid are the bigger reasons. If they were all on the same page or had some unity, the distance wouldn’t matter.

I’ll say this as well; it seems US citizens aren’t willing to do hardship to get what they want. All of these probably make the easy way out, voting, an attractive option but selfishness stops that one.

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[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

I’m hoping that people like me that can’t afford healthcare this year will be more willing to strike. Since we don’t have a social safety net or universal healthcare like France or wherever.

When we had that brief social reinforcement during the pandemic BLM happened.

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works [S] -5 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I guess the best thing to do is join a union, and make sure to always make use of your opportunity to vote

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Problem is that for the majority of Americans “join a union” in 2026 means “start a union, and go up against a multibillion dollar company that is going to use endless amounts of money and lawyers to stop you”

Some people pull it off successfully. More fail and end up unemployed with shit unemployment and no healthcare.

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[+] spionspion@lemmy.ml -12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I wonder how people were able to ever revolt and kill their masters when healthcare, etc is a pretty new thing.

I think US americans are just lazy, complacent and do want all this

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[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 months ago

You're forgetting that the weaponry and surveillance are better now too.

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[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

historically, revolutions have followed times of great hardship, where the working class (or peasantry if we're going back further) had nothing left to lose. They also frequently had wealthy backers in the shadows and/or charismatic leaders.

None of that is currently true of the U.S. If you want to call that laziness, fine, but then you have to recognize that humans were "lazy" for most of recorded history.

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[–] spionspion@lemmy.ml 1 point 10 months ago

Historically i dont think we had a country/a people that has been flooding the world for decades with propaganda that they are the good guys and believing it themselves. Americans were never too lazy to tell the world how awesome they are.

Americans were also never too lazy to kill people. Probably only the easy kills. Hmm

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[–] Vertelleus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

It's because they have us right where they want us as wage slaves, scraping by to maintain your lifestyle picking up a second job so you can afford higher prices of food and the cheapest health insurance. It's hard to look around when you're just trying to make ends meet for your family.

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works [S] -3 points 10 months ago

I guess the best thing to do is join a union, and make sure to always make use of your opportunity to vote.

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[+] spionspion@lemmy.ml -11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Lazy lazy bullshit talk.

You are doing nothing because youve got too much lifestyle you dont wanna loose. And the only thing you seem to care about is "yOuR fAmIlY"

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[–] bonsai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

Yeah, most people do tend to care about their family? Was that supposed to be some gotcha?

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[–] spionspion@lemmy.ml -3 points 10 months ago

The world is more important than mine or yours family.

Yes obviously this is a gotcha. US americans dont give a fuck about the world

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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

So where’s the general strike? Where are the blockades, the sit-downs?

Europeans don't understand how militarized the US is. They have FBI, CIA, ICE, DHS, Army, National Guard and a few I forget, all with tanks and guns and ready to kill any form of protest. They literally mass murdered singing students in 1970 and no one really cared.

Everyone talks about the right the bear arms against oppressive government...but it's really just fear of visible minorities.

They will just take it because the whole country is afraid.

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[–] PostaL@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Didn't the majority of US vote for Trump?

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

Roughly 1/3rd voted for him, 1/3rd voted for Harris, and 1/3 of eligible voters didn’t show up at all.

And he didn’t run on invading Greenland or Venezuela. He famously ran on “America First,” and constantly shit on foreign conflicts / nation building. So this literally the exact opposite of what his voters signed up for… which is why some of the big MAGA people are super pissed right now.

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[+] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

[removed by mod]

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[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

One might think that... but no. Unfortunately, most voters get their information from cable news sound bites. It's also worth remembering that the average American can't read above a 6th grade level. Critical analysis is not a skill they are well-versed in.

I base who I vote for on personal research into the background (and often voting records) of every person that I expect to see on my ballot. I get nervous about city elections because I usually only have a single newspaper article to summarize all of the candidates to go on and it's not enough. I'm an extreme minority in this case. Most educated people may do a little research over big-time candidates but almost nobody looks very deep. Hell, I find myself inadvertently bashing the former president Joe Biden specifically because he never would have won if his constituency were more familiar with his voting record as a senator. They just mark down whichever candidate has the correct team designation next to their name.

Go! Team! Win! Dems are gonna win Super Bowl LXII!

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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -4 points 10 months ago

he majority of the US doesn’t want any of this and think this is bonkers.

Nah. You don't get a pass, 77 million voted for this cunt, and 90 million didn't care about democracy at all. Now you're all like...