• @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    Wasn’t the upside down us flag thing used by j6’ers? Are the line workers taking it back as the symbol of a stolen country for themselves, or is this Musk and crew indicating we’re fucked?

    • @[email protected]
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      955 months ago

      Its nothing exclusive to J6. Its an international sign that an insurrection or coup has occurred or is occurring.

      • @[email protected]
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        705 months ago

        Not quite, it’s an international sign that a vessel is in distress.

        Then mostly right wing lunatics co-opted it to mean that our country is in distress.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 months ago

          Which they co-opted from protesters in the 60’s, rallying against the Vietnam war, which they co-opted from the Revolutionary war, where (allegedly, much harder to source), the revolutionaries also flew the Union Jack inverted. Its history to mean insurrection in the US is as old as the US.

          Its been used in many other instances internationally, and yes, also at sea with a much deeper history to signal distress. Regardless, the pedantry is both technically and figuratively misplaced.

            • Yeather
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              25 months ago

              The flag isn’t symmetrical, which is where the orginial flying the flag upside down comes from. It’s subtle enough pirates wont notice but an experienced British naval officer will and come rescue you.

          • @[email protected]
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            345 months ago

            which they co-opted from the Revolutionary war, where (allegedly, much harder to source), the revolutionaries also flew the Union Jack inverted.

            If they did, I assume a half dozen vexillology enthusiasts with good eyesight got very concerned.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 months ago

          international

          How does that work for a ship from a country like Cuba?

          Do they hang it backward? I.e. With the red arrow pointing toward the pole?

          What about Japan?

          • @[email protected]
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            25 months ago

            I could be mistaken, but I think that was a consideration when designing the stars and stripes. The colors and lack of symmetry make it easy to see its orientation from a distance.

    • Chainweasel
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      1025 months ago

      It’s a sign of distress.
      They were distressed, but it’s only because they’re sore losers and couldn’t cope with Trump losing.
      This is actual distress, it’s appropriate this time.

    • Majorllama
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      115 months ago

      Eh. The majority are chillin.

      This is exactly what they voted for.

      • @[email protected]
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        385 months ago

        The majority did not vote for this. The majority of voters didn’t even vote for this. He only won a plurality (<50%)

        • Majorllama
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          145 months ago

          No vote. No opinion.

          He got the majority of votes. He got the majority of the electoral.

          The majority of participating voters wanted this.

          Just because you guys cannot fathom how anyone would want this doesn’t mean this is the same panic inducing situation for them. The majority of politically active people in the United States of America wanted this to happen as evidence of the election we just held.

          • @[email protected]
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            375 months ago

            No. He got a plurality of the votes. Not a majority.

            The majority of participating voters voted against him.

            How many times do you need that repeated to understand?

            • @[email protected]
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              35 months ago

              I mean, I’m sure you’re right. What I don’t understand is how that technicality is even relevant. Even if 40% of the people voted for this, does that not still mean you have a sick and dangerous population on your hands? We’re talking about tens of millions of people that voted for a fascist regime.

              • @[email protected]
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                65 months ago

                It means he doesn’t have the popular mandate they keep claiming they do.

                But yes. Half of adults are functionally illiterate. 5th-6th grade reading levels. They can physically read the words, but will only grasp the most basic surface level meaning. Republicans’ started attacking education decades ago. This is what they wrought.

                • Majorllama
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                  25 months ago

                  Yes thank you. It’s already been pointed out several times.

              • @[email protected]
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                5 months ago

                Outdated data. The votes were not done being counted on November 10th. Trump got 49.8% to Harris’ 48.3%

                • Majorllama
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                  65 months ago

                  Ah. Fair enough. Last time I had seen it it was more than 50% still. Well then by a technicality not a majority then. I do love a technically correct statement so I’ll give you that one.

                  Still. More people voted for this than didn’t vote for this.

        • @[email protected]
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          225 months ago

          He got the support of all the people who voted for him and all the people who didn’t vote against him.

          • @[email protected]
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            205 months ago

            Lucky the USA allows everyone to vote no matter what; doesn’t schedule it for a standard workday, meaning nobody has to choose between feeding their kids and voting; plans out enough polling stations so that people don’t have to wait for hours without access to food, water, or seating; doesn’t surprise deregister voters with little notice; and sends out absentee ballots reliably with sufficient time to return them…

            • @[email protected]
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              285 months ago

              Georgia had both mail-in absentee voting and, especially, 2 weeks of early voting including on weekends. In most places the early voting lines weren’t terribly long. On election day most places were short.

              Most people still didn’t vote.

              Some people couldn’t vote. Millions of assholes just didn’t bother and are partly to blame.

          • @[email protected]
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            35 months ago

            Given that he campaigned claiming he wouldn’t be enacting Project 2025 (even though it was obvious he would be), I don’t think you can claim people not voting are automatically okay with him breaking that very explicit promise.

            No. Americans do not want this. Americans especially didn’t want it done by some nutjob private citizen who has zero authority to do what he’s doing, and no oversight.

            • @[email protected]
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              25 months ago

              No. Americans do not want this

              Then they would’ve voted.

              By not voting they are saying they are ok with either option.

              That’s how democracy works. Voters can bury their heads in the sand, it doesn’t make the politicians go away.

              • @[email protected]
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                35 months ago

                Getting voted in is NOT permission to break the law.

                He’s illegally bypassing Congress with his actions. Doesn’t matter if this is what your dumbass voted for, it’s not how this works.

                • @[email protected]
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                  15 months ago

                  Sounds an awful lot like you’re trying to convince yourself rather than me.

                  Doesn’t matter if this is what your dumbass voted for

                  The projection doesn’t help.

                  Trump has been pretty clear that this was his plan. Anyone surprised by this is just willfully ignorant.

    • @[email protected]
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      1685 months ago

      Definitely. Do we know if the people who wanted a criminal moron in charge are still cheering him on, or are they starting to catch on to the fact that his plan always was to thoroughly fuck everyone over? Well, everyone but his clique.

      • @[email protected]
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        145 months ago

        in south park he fucks illegal canadians to death, but in real life he is doing it to americans

      • @[email protected]
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        455 months ago

        They’re completely caught in the misinfo and still cheering him on. Anyone getting hurt must have deserved it and if they’re getting hurt it just shows how important it is to hurt the others back.

      • @[email protected]
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        145 months ago

        Everyone just giving their opinion but the answer is mixed. Some regret, many don’t. And it’s not just disinformation, people have to deal with their own cognitive dissonance. Just on the radio earlier was an Arab man still defending vote for Trump because “it’s just rhetoric” right now. He’s willing to say it’s terrible rhetoric, but won’t come to terms with the vote being a bad decision.

        • @[email protected]
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          105 months ago

          They will deny it until they can’t and go right back to denial the moment they can.

          He’s their security blanket, their binkie. Any parent knows it’s nonsense but to the child’s mind the magic of the binkie it is real. Arguing the reality of the binkie is futile.

          Parents can rely on their child growing out of magical thinking but since these are adults, we’ve got to accept they are forever lost to the magic.

          Their need for president binkie cannot be argued with. It can be slipped from their grasp by logic or trickery. The magic must be shattered, utterly and irrevocably. Only they can choose when that occurs.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 months ago

          As long as the right people get hurt they’re happy.

          Republicans would shit their own pants just to make us smell it.

          They’re gonna be a lot less happy when they try putting armed citizens in camps and they get fucking shot.

          • chingadera
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            105 months ago

            Time has shown that these motherfuckers don’t even care if “the right people get hurt”

            As long as there is hurt, and their preferred propaganda machine tells them, they’re happy.

            • @[email protected]
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              15 months ago

              They do care. They’re ok with people in authority hurting them but if a minority does, someone lesser than them, they’ll burn a fucking neighborhood down to get them.

    • IninewCrow
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      805 months ago

      The house has been burning and smoking for hours and people are still thinking that the fire just started

      • @[email protected]
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        75 months ago

        No way. Harris getting elected would have been the end of this just like in 2020. That’s why we must attack anyone critical of her, apathetic voters, and pretty much everyone else except for the DNC.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 months ago

          The culture war would have taken a different direction, but the class war would continue unabated. The owners of the Republicans and the Democrats are all on the same side in the class war.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 months ago

            I’d prefer it if the radical liberals would fuck off so that they stop handing every election to the Republicans by running on diet-Republican policies thank you very much.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 months ago

              And what are you (or literally anybody else) going to do in the next two years to organize a viable progressive party with viable progressive candidates?

              You sure you got the demographics right? Or do you think maybe Lemmy isn’t an accurate reflection of the nation as a whole, with respect to political ideology?

              Radical liberals

              Lol k

              It seems like you people believe that voting for Harris (and pointing out objective reality that it was the only real choice) precludes a person from being a leftist or progressive. You alienate the people who actually probably agree with you on a lot of things because they don’t pass your purity test.

              Leftism in a nutshell.

              • @[email protected]
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                15 months ago

                You mean “viable candidates” like Clinton, Biden, and Harris who can’t win elections and put Israel, corporations, genocide, and xenophobia before the American people? These candidates who would gladly let Republicans take over the entire government if it means they don’t have to turn their backs on fascist leaders and their wealthy masters?

                The Democratic leadership are more interested in enabling the right than opposing them, which is why we all witnessed your “only choice” spend her campaign attacking immigrants and the working class and promoting human slaughter while touring around with the fucking Cheneys. This is why they crushed the only candidate who actually inspired voters in 2016 over the candidate who would get Donald Trump elected the first time. This is why they’re standing around now making empty statements of “concern” while the government is being dismantled literally feet away from them.

                What the fuck are you doing to prepare for 2026 other than demanding that everything remain exactly how it is now and attacking anyone who says otherwise?

                We truly are fucked if you reflect the nation as a whole because all you are is the controlled opposition arm of the Republican party. You only exist to give the voting process an air of legitimacy when the outcome has already been decided beforehand.

  • metaStatic
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    1545 months ago

    Imagine being the person running this up the pole at the fucking state department.

  • Kompressor
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    155 months ago

    There’s only one way this gets stopped. And the people that would need to do it think they’ll have a ‘prime minister’ title when the dust settles and not that they’ll be chucked out a window. It’s some weapons grade stupid and apathy letting this happen and they’re just hoping that god king chooses to keep them around it’s all so pathetic

  • @[email protected]
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    115 months ago

    should

    Ok now… This verb does not exist in state politics. Sooner you realize it, the better.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 months ago

          I used to regulate a local sanitary code that explicitly defined “‘should’ means ‘shall’; ‘shall’ means ‘must’” because lawyers do litigate over these terms.

          Saved a lot of time and resources (and public health) where a juxtaposed word in an administrative order didn’t blow up a civil case.

  • @[email protected]
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    285 months ago

    Performative resistance from inside the machine. Cute gesture, but distress signals only work when someone’s actually coming to help. Meanwhile, career diplomats keep writing memos and processing visas while posting their quiet protests on social.

    Remember when we thought these symbols meant something would change? Now it’s just content for the outrage cycle. Tomorrow there’ll be a strongly worded letter, maybe some resigned LinkedIn posts from mid-level FSOs.

    The machinery keeps grinding, upside down flag or not. Though I suppose watching institutional despair go viral is peak 2025.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      I disagree. Yes, this isn’t the same thing as direct sabotage or anything like that, but I think symbolic gestures like this can be extremely important for morale.

      I know that it makes me feel slightly better to see that I’m not alone in my frustrations.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 months ago

        Oh sweetie, let me break this down in terms you might understand. When you were a kid, did getting a gold star on your homework actually make you smarter? No? Same thing here.

        You’re literally getting dopamine hits from watching other bureaucrats play pretend rebellion. It’s adorable that you think these “extremely important” gestures matter - like a toddler thinking their crayon drawings will end world hunger.

        Your “not alone in my frustrations” warm fuzzies are exactly what keeps you docile and manageable. But I get it - thinking is hard, and feeling is easy. Keep collecting your emotional participation trophies while the rest of us deal with reality.

        Want to make actual change? Learn how systems work instead of clapping for performative theatre. But that would require effort, wouldn’t it?

          • @[email protected]
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            5 months ago

            Look buddy, let me make this kindergarten simple:

            • Clicking “like” on protest posts = playing pretend revolution
            • Actually changing things = learning how stuff works and building better systems

            Catch my drift or need me to use smaller words?

            • @[email protected]
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              5 months ago

              Actually, it’s made this one of the trending posts. Which means more people see it. Which… Can lead to important conversations.

              Also, the rise of the Nazi party happened because people allowed it to happen.

              Most folks tend to follow the herd. (Or the flock, if you prefer.)

              When people see that other people aren’t going to tolerate it…

              … That can help to spark/motivate others to actually organize … To lead to a movement.

              See also:

              • Bill Moyers MAP Movement action plan
              • Thom Hartmann on the real history of the Boston Tea Party (they organized in top-secret, and it was about corporate cross-Atlantic (global-trade supply-chains/globalization) high finance, tax exemptions for the wealthy and subsidies. And kind of like Walmart, which was driving local/Indy Tea businesses on the North American continent out from under by giving unfair advantages to the British crown’s East India Tea Company (W Military)
              • books via https://bookshop.org/ which supports the Internet archive & local Indy bookstores) ::
              • “The impossible will take a little while”
              • The dandelion rebellion/revolution
              • The power of habit
              • human kind (by “a more radical/progressive Malcolm Gladwell”)
              • @[email protected]
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                04 months ago

                Look buddy, let me make this actually simple for you:

                Your reading list is peak “I just discovered politics” energy. Throwing around Nazi references while recommending Malcolm Gladwell knockoffs? Really? That’s like citing Wikipedia while claiming to be a history professor.

                Actually changing things = understanding that real systemic change doesn’t come from your curated bookshop.org shopping cart. Your “movement action plan” reads like a LinkedIn influencer’s guide to revolution.

                And that Boston Tea Party comparison? Please. You’re basically saying “let me explain this complex historical event by oversimplifying it into a Walmart analogy.” The irony of using corporate metaphors to explain anti-corporate action is just chef’s kiss.

                The “dandelion rebellion”? Sounds like something a marketing team came up with after their third espresso. Next you’ll tell me we should organize via TikTok dance challenges.

                Catch my drift or need me to recommend some actual hands-on experience instead of your self-help revolution reading club?

                • @[email protected]
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                  24 months ago

                  You really don’t have to be such an asshole. Shit talking potential allies until they give up is not helping.

  • @[email protected]
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    185 months ago

    This has happened in México too, the most famously recorded one was during Enrique Peña Nieto’s term (sorry for linking to YT). They said the flag thing was an accident, but it was during the Flag Day and everyone was angry with the way the government was handling things. The government-influenced media was angry with the military because “they made a mistake”, but we all knew why it happened.

    https://youtu.be/cwW9X_GBtco

      • Cethin
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        45 months ago

        It clearly does have stars. They just blur into the field because the quality isn’t high enough. Zoom in and you can see there’s slightly whiter dots where the stars should be. You just can’t really make them out.

      • Chainweasel
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        505 months ago

        I’m surprised they haven’t pulled it the way they went ban crazy this morning.

        • @[email protected]
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          255 months ago

          Right??? Protest coordination on traditional social media is like… iffy now, at best.

          • Chainweasel
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            165 months ago

            It really makes me wonder how people were able to pull this shit off in the 50s, 60s and 70s when we can’t make it happen today with everything available to us.

            • @[email protected]
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              175 months ago

              they didn’t use maligned, monitored areas for communication… people today should coordinate face-to-face or at worst via telephone if they haven’t already exposed themselves.

              • nickwitha_k (he/him)
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                45 months ago

                Telephones have been insecure for at least 20 years. Cellphones have backdoors built into the protocol standards. Face-to-face or good encryption are the options.

            • @[email protected]
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              245 months ago

              They still had third places where they could organize face-to-face. Think union halls, fraternal organizations (which us Millennials only know about from old cartoons), churches, etc.

              See also this Adam Conover video, which isn’t specifically about organizing to protest but nevertheless is pretty insightful about it.

          • @[email protected]
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            15 months ago

            Oddly, the recent thing in LA was via TikTok, but to be fair their knee bending is probably superficial at best.

        • sunzu2
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          25 months ago

          Based on white people Twitter ban this is similar to Luigi situation…

          People are just overwhelming their modding ability.

          It will be taken down and the opposition sentiment will be supressed in due course.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      This does appear to be the state department flag pole (on 21st street looking East from the state department). And it does appear to be winter, and there is construction in that area around the fed building. But that’s all I can say. The photo is weirdly blurry and grainy so be suspicious.

      • Obinice
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        15 months ago

        The photo is weirdly blurry and grainy so be suspicious.

        You mean the filthy window? Yeah, something tells me they get pollution there and don’t clean the outside of the windows as often as they should. I’ve seen that kinda filthy often enough on office windows.

    • M137
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      5 months ago

      You write that like you’re sure it’s not real, and/or that others would or should think so. There’s no obvious thing pointing towards it being fake by just looking at the photo, no clear editing signs or anything like that. But we should make sure it is real by finding other photos, there must be more if it is real. And if there was ever a time in our lifetimes where this would be real, it’s now.

      • @[email protected]
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        04 months ago

        “hundreds of millions” is a typo…it should have said 10s of millions…but, I’m not a “serious” person because of that… GTFO…

  • tisktisk
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    265 months ago
    1. Is this real
    2. What does it mean?
    3. Where are we in terms of worrying? Should I begin to start to think about worrying or something more urgent?
    • @[email protected]
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      155 months ago
      1. I think so.

      2. That’s unclear but my take is that this is an expression of the distress felt by the employees, and perhaps the only possible outlet for their feelings. I suspect that it’s more likely the action of one or two people rather that some kind of collectively approved signal.

      3. I just don’t know. I’m not even American but I feel very discombobulated.

    • aasatru
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      405 months ago
      1. I see little reason to doubt it
      2. It means whoever hoisted it considers there to be a crisis, which is consistent with accounts of public offices being overtaken by random young white men who are rapidly taking control.
      3. Speaking as a non-American political scientist having worked a little with rule of law and fascism, it seems a bit late to start worrying. Think about what you can do for yourself, your neighbours, and your country, urgently or in the longer term. It’s going to be ugly for a while.
    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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      285 months ago

      #3 depends where you are on the hit list I suppose. I’m trans, so I’m well past worry-o-clock and am actively making arrangements to leave the country. Someone like a cishet white male tech worker has a lot less to worry about though

      • tisktisk
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        45 months ago

        You found a way to scream withouy caps–impressive I wish you the best comrade!

        • cabbage
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          45 months ago

          That looks like a PieFed bug - the leading # should normally not be parsed into a headline in Markdown unless it is followed by a space. I’ll give @[email protected] a heads up!

          That said, there’s every reason to scream at this point. I wish all Americans seeking to flee the country the best of luck.

          • Rimu
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            25 months ago

            It’s a bug, yep! Will look into it.

    • @[email protected]
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      45 months ago

      It appears to be real. The federal government is currently in the midst of the most comprehensive purge in the history of the nation, and many career civil servants are being asked to retire early with a severance “or else”. The worrying part should have come when Project 2025 laid out the groundwork for what is happening right at this very moment, back when it was first revealed. Trump intends to replace all of these government workers with yes-men and cronies who will be loyal to him and him alone, and not the constitution or the American people they are meant to serve. The damage being done right now will probably never be reversed in our lifetimes and will pave the way for absolute executive control - in other words, a dictatorship. This is not alarmist, this was the plan all along and nobody listened.

      If you don’t have a plan to GTFO in case things get even worse, I would start making one right now. You have to set an uncrossable line yourself and be prepared to act on it, because other people are going to continue to go along with this until the very end, so you can’t count on other people to be giving you signals on when to bail out.

  • @[email protected]
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    25 months ago

    It’s funny to think that any of these comments are relevant. Are you new to the internet maybe?. The best I can do is hope to influence. The best an American can do is contact people already working to correct this and ask them what needs doing. This leads me to wonder how all the Americans are posting in this thread, being that they are all so exhausted. Why not go to sleep? Then wake up later and get in touch and involved.

    It’s almost like Americans are here trying to convince themselves there is nothing they can do.

    How brave of you. What a testament to your freedoms. What a fine demonstration of what it truly means to be American: A blame shifting, feckless inheritor of a once great country. All hype. No substance, apart from the folds of blubber around their mid sections. What a legacy. All your talk of freedom backed by nothing. FREEDOM!

        • @[email protected]
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          14 months ago

          But I’m open to suggestions. Are their “missions” to save Amer8cans from themselves? Maybe some sad commercials showing masses of dumbfuck Americans all pointing blamesticks at each other like a spiderman meme, asking for donations?

      • BigAssFan
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        05 months ago

        Calling for action. Could also be directed to Europeans btw, with obesity and fascism also growing hand in hand there.

        • @[email protected]
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          14 months ago

          When European leaders start threatening my country I will do that. Until then this sounds like fictional whataboutism.

          • BigAssFan
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            14 months ago

            I meant that Europe is moving in the same direction as the US is, with fascism on the rise again. European leaders are now merely reacting to what the US leaders are doing in terms of tariffs, which will increase costs and inflation for both the internal markets.

            When you see your country as more important than (people in) other countries in the rest of the world, that’s just short-sighted and unjustified.

    • Realitätsverlust
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      15 months ago

      Why not go to sleep? Then wake up later and get in touch and involved.

      Because that would require more effort than posting a comment online.

    • @[email protected]
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      05 months ago

      Because freedom is propaganda unless you fit certain demographics. Otherwise, everyday you’re just surviving.

      White dudes can walk around heavily armed, try that as a black dude and see how free you are. We can’t even go for a run in a lot of places without the cops or neighborhood watch showing up.

      So shut the fuck up and stop blaming people caught in this bullshit and do something to help.

      • @[email protected]
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        14 months ago

        No thanks. I’m done sugar-coating it for Americans. They are all too good at doing that for themselves.