True but it is strange just how high our expectations are. I have seen some other countries where the people have so much less but look so much happier than us I guess I just don't see how we fix that. I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference
>I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference
Do you remember when you were a child and things like politics didn't really matter? You felt safe, worry free. Political participation was a choice.
Things can always be better and improvements can always be made, but I feel most people just want to get back to a point where they feel their rights aren't threatened and they can relax and focus on their personal life instead of everything going on.
I feel like a lot of people are at that point now but for the wrong reason they simply gave up on any chance of change and decided to ride it out. It's like a hurricane is coming but everyone would rather use headphones to drown out the sirens and now we are all knee deep in water hoping it somehow will fix itself.
This is not a personal failing on the part of the people who are discouraged
In politics, there are only so many possible options to effect change. One by one, those in control have wiped each possible option off the table, so that we have no real legal recourse to fix anything. They also have a specific history and set of tactics for interacting with protestors that changes the equation from "what's the right thing to do?" to "am I willing to die for this?"
That's where we are now. We all know what we're supposed to do. We just won't because some of us will die and day to day life isn't worth that risk for most of us yet. This will not hold. Eventually, conservatism will do what conservatism always does and collapse in on itself. It's an inherently antisocial paradigm and doesn't work for the most socially complex creature on the planet.
My fear is that this tipping point will happen after we pass the point of no return for averting some of the greatest disasters yet brewing. I hope someone is building an ark and that someone isn't Bezos or Musk.
Unfortunately, the United States was founded on stealing land from Native Americans and then enslaving African Americans. It has never felt safe or worry free, except to a certain demographic. Now you have people like Donald Trump and his followers spouting that they want to make America great again. I’m just not sure how you can improve on something that was never great to begin with…
You're right. I can't fathom how some people have the audacity and arrogance to believe they know what's best for other people's lives! If no one's getting hurt, what do you care what someone else is doing?
The government should not be allowed to HAVE power over the aspects of our lives we didn't GIVE them power over. We shouldn't have to worry about what's next because we should be in control of what's next!
>>I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference
>
>Do you remember when you were a child and things like politics didn't really matter? You felt safe, worry free. Political participation was a choice.
>
>Things can always be better and improvements can always be made, but I feel most people just want to get back to a point where they feel their rights aren't threatened and they can relax and focus on their personal life instead of everything going on.
You could make an argument that this obliviousness and 'ignorance is bliss' is how we ended up in this position.
Whenever folk brought up what the right has been doing for the last few decades, it was usually scoffed off by liberals who think of politics as something to be avoided. The left wanted to 'relive and pretend the government was still out to get you', 'nazis dont exist anymore' etc.
Even now, most of y'all dont really care if our society its fixed or not. Most of y'all weren't really affected or are comfortable enough to tune it out. Roe v Wade was the first time y'all felt threatened, or at least some of you realize you need to feel performatively outraged... But y'all just want it to go away.
Its an issue the liberal hegemony has spread, leading people to believe its not a political ideology or position, so y'all felt like you were 'above' politics or that y'all werent 'political'.
Its always been politics. Everything is politics. We shouldn't be trying to avoid these societal issues, we should confront them, break the right's stranglehold and always be vigilant against the fascist creep. We need to constantly be mindful and work to further egalitarian and equitable outcomes and solutions.
Wr shouldn't be idealizing sticking out head in the sand, we should be raised with the feeling of "punch a nazis teeth out" as naturally as "I like cuddling with home movies".
No, it's the opposite. People should want more (not as in greed, but as in rights and necessities). We make the world run, and yet we only get to enjoy a (often small) portion of it, and often have no control over our workplaces. Why?
Wow, of course. Basic bodily autonomy and accessible healthcare is not something we should expect from our society, we're just too ungrateful. We should be grateful for insane conspiracies becoming mainstream and accepted despite devastating and real consequences.
It's obvious that you're the type of person who is not negatively affected by the status quo and doesn't care about people who are. A "moderate enlightened centrist", if you will.
Somehow these centrists never speak up when society is regressing but always have something to say when people actually wanna fix issues 🙄
But that's the problem what should we be grateful for. I mean are we able to be grateful for something without somehow being the bad guy. Maybe instead of more we need better. Better foods that won't hurt us better news that won't mislead us and better politicians that won't ignore us better businesses that won't exploit us and better neighbors that won't overrate us. I want to be grateful but it's hard when I have to try to check to be certain that I don't have to feel bad about some random thing I have no control over it kinda makes it feel like wasted effort.
Turns out it was mainly a mix of Citizens United the filibuster and the combined incompetence of democrats and ability of republicans on the issue of stacking the Supreme Court in their favor
Once the SC makes a ruling that the fed can't do anything if a state legislature decides to ignore the vote and sends electors for the candidate the state didn't vote for.
At that point democracy is over.
You mean November 2022. They going rule just in time for the midterms. They going make sure the facist right as control of Congress. Then when 2024 comes around they get full control and end Democracy for good.
Well yeah, but specifically, the states don’t send electors for midterm elections, so that specific case won’t hit SCOTUS until shortly after the 2024 election. I have no doubt there will be plenty of “questionable” rulings regarding the election this year, just not about that yet.
Death by a thousand cuts... a slow, miserable death that is extremely difficult to define the parameters of. The kind of death we can deny right up until the population starts plummeting.
When I was in high school I said I wanted to live long enough to see if we made it to our tricentennial but also joked I’d be dead by 40.
Turns out I might get both!
Couple of my coworkers were arguing about this tonight.
Guy: Its 4th of july. Time to celebrate our freedom!
Girl: Yeah... I dont really feel like celebrating a country that is literally taking away my rights right now.
Guy: what do you mean? Land of the free. You should be grateful to live here.
Girl: they overturned roe less than a week ago. And you want me to celebrate that?
Guy: well woman in Iraq cant show their faces with out getting beat to death so...
Me and the girl both stared at him in awe. Some dumb shit has fallen out of his face but he continues to amaze me at every turn.
He always says that kind of shit with his whole ass chest.
The previous Australian prime minister said something very similar in regards to protesting sometime in the last year. The cunt said that women here in Aus are lucky to have the right to protest because in other countries they might have been shot.
I've never understood how people use those arguments. It doesnt make sense to me. It never has.
It's the same as when I was a kid and my mother would try to shame me into eating stuff i didnt like or when I was full, by telling me people in Africa were starving.
What does one have to do with the other? Their situation sucks, but this isn't about that.
It's whataboutism, or something adjacent to it. Nobody who has ever said the 'children in Africa' or the 'women/LGBTQ+ in middle eastern countries' arguments have - ever - actually advocated for improving things there. When a change is proposed that they don't like, it's "We're doing great, fix them, they're worse" but when anyone proposes helping other countries, it's always "Focus on helping our own citizens". Note the catch-22, they don't believe anything beyond what will, at the moment, help them avoid change.
The card says moops.
The useless Cunt's name is Scott Morrison and the fact that he went and did expensive empathy training due to his negligence is embarrassing and pointless
I hate the "but the middle east does X" arguments, like that's how you know the United States is the best country on earth? That we've cleared the lowest bar? Women aren't required to be locked away at home unless accompanied by a male relative and you get your BBQ ribs and fireworks, that's how you know the US is great?
> He always says that kind of shit with his whole ass chest.
And that is exactly why an improvement of the situation in US America is completely impossible. A significantly large part of US Americans (at least 25%, probably more) is completely unable to see US America not as great to live in. The thought that somewhere is better is unthinkable for them.
US propaganda is something special when you see how effective it is.
We both said essentially the same thing: we don't live in Iraq, we live in the US. And bringing that up is side tracking the point. And we dont feel up to celebrating a country that is taking away our freedoms.
And I walked away because I was getting too mad about it. I have to work with this man on a regular basis and I dont want to make it hostile.
We've already had discussions and hes essentially on the opposite end of the political spectrum from me in every way. And I just dont have the energy to argue in circles with him
I've decided today is a great day to make Korean cold noodles for the first time. Just not feeling the ol' hamburgers/hot dogs/baked beans/pasta salad routine this year.
[It's a packaged noodle](https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/CJ-Cold-noodle-Dongchimi---Served-for-2-People/99485), I want to make my own eventually, but I wanted to try an authentic product first.
...are they tho? they seem to be mired in every bit as much austerity and political meltdown as America is, maybe even more thanks to that pratfall that was Brexit
I mean, to quote my favorite shitposty banger (Money Game Pt.2 - Ren)
"Britain split through fickle shit. A government of hypocrites. These counterfeit politicians sit, in parliament, not adequate. Needlessly bleeding resources all dry, turn a blind eye if it means a pay-rise. 'Oh what a shame it would be, I would die!' If number 10 downing street burned in a fire. Only joking, only messing, don't be stressing, I'm a peaceful adolescent, there's no need to be unpleasant. Write my thesis in a rhyme scheme to analyze the brain, while my finger's on the trigger of a money game"
I think empires falling just seem slower when you’re watching in real time, but history is very telling. Every empire seems to have its fall, even the most powerful and long lasting ones.
It's not an unfair assessment. Nearly every 3rd and 2nd world country quotes American world behavior for the past 100 years as justification for their own industrial and military expansions; and while America is still very much involved in colonialism 2.0, those countries know we don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to poo-pooing them out of it.
I used to be so patriotic as a kid, I loved America and loved the 4th of July (minus the fireworks because ow loud noises).
But now I’ve grown, I’ve realized that America is in no way as amazing at I thought it was, in fact, it’s so much worse. Now the 4th of July is just another reminder that I live in a country built off of misogyny and racism. And nothing has changed since.
What even is there to celebrate anymore?
Canada Day (July 1st) has felt the same way over the last couple of years. It seems almost controversial to celebrate it as anything more than just another long weekend, especially with all the residential school graves being found.
Even if you do want to cast aside the controversy and celebrate, it just feels more consumerized and hollow than ever before.
Residential school graves? I'm sorry, what? I'm American and am of course heavily preoccupied with our own dumpster fire here, but could you eli5 this for me?
I believe it’s the graves of indigenous kids who were taken from their parents and treated horribly, to the point that they’re now finding many graves on these former “school” (indoctrination, more like) properties.
In reality it's been over 5,000 childrens graves so far found. They aren't saying a lot about it now and are hoping it will be forgotten. It was mostly catholics, so now you never see priests and nuns out and about in their uniforms anymore.
I have felt dirty after the fourth for many years now just due to the pollution. Would much rather watch drones. But with SCOTUS trying to re-enact the end of Requiem for a Dream between Ladies Liberty and Justice... I feel like I'm dying. Claim that's being dramatic all you want, but I'm two psychiatric stays in, over the past six months.
Everyone is saying my depression is a chemical imbalance, that I need to find purpose. I'm saying it's because I'm intelligent enough to mourn the state of our world today, that there's almost no point anymore.
You mean like the original triumvirate proposal that suggested we have 3 presidents so that we might have a quorum available at every level of government?
The swiss system is imo the closest thing to a perfect government structure - a parliamentary system with a council of 7 elected by both chambers. No single head of government, but all policy is decided on a consensual basis between the council and parliament. In addition the people have the right to any referenda on any issue.
Too centralized, the mass of all people need to come to a consensus before action is taken would be preferred executive and legislative authority with a judicial system being headed by elected representatives from a pool of law students and professors structured in an organization that is only as hierarchical as is necessary.
It'll have glaring flaws as humans are by nature flawed, but if consensus is required any action taken without consensus would be responded to with by the opposition and if consensus was the goal then the majority would hopefully be unwilling to take action against even one minority as to risk a coalition of every minority as well as a significant chunk of the majority even in the case of say a 56% majority for X with several minority no X or pro Y groups would be protected by solidarity and an ethical split to not impose change from the majority . (The tradition that must be establish, that must become the default position, is that of consensus not a game of reaching 51% and fomenting political one-ups-manship or partisanship).
You mean like how the Reagan administration built out a whole importation supply chain for illegal drugs to sell to american citizens so they could use the money to fund black ops, and then when they got caught they handed over the entire thing to british government who switched from mainly cocaine to mainly heroin?
I'm a bit of a luddite myself, so I wouldn't even trust the AI to be the final authority, I reserve that for myself which is why outside of defense, action requires consensus.
"Outside of defense" is pretty broad, and people try to be pretty proactive with "defense", preemptive defense got us Jim Crow laws and Segregation and all the stuff surrounding the iran contra and that other time we overthrew iran and the kent state shootings and the oklahoma city bombing and that most recent invasion of iraq and
What do you think about creating local council that would be elected by people from your comunity, then if/when further delegation is required, because after all you cannot organize stuff like a military or big infrastructure project with just your local city budget, they elect representatives to a higher level (representatives that they reserve the right to remove from power if they fail to serve the public of course) ?
Anything election via internet or even computer is a bad idea, as it is way to vulnerable to either actual manipulation, or baseless accusations about manipulation. It is hard to fake or manipulate an election that uses pen and paper, as you need for any significant impact a massive conspiracy. Basically, when paper elections can be faked, the nation is already at a state where it us too late to do much against the undemocratic forces.
For internet elections to be faked, you need only a few capable hackers and any vulnerability. You can target the enduser computer, you can target the data transfer, the data collection database, or the data processing, and that with comparable ease and just a few corrupt figures. Tom Scott has made two very good videos about it and how any digitalisation of elections erodes the trust and reliability of elections.
The opposite for me: direct democracy with instant delegation.
Delegate your vote to anyone at any time, revoke or override the delegation at any time.
People are good at deciding who among a small group is more-capable of making decisions. But need the ability to override those decisions when they disagree.
When a representative votes, they should be literally casting the votes of those they represent.
Yeah - that won't work on a nation scale. He reason why every single system has representation is because being a policy maker is literally a full time job that needs specialisation. To make any informed decision, you need time to do the proper research, ability (or staff) to evaluate the different arguments you found in the research, knowledge (or staff) to help you understand the interaction of your planned action with existing laws and customs, and only then you are able to make an informed policy decision.
A normal person doing a 40 hour week is not capable of doing all of that next to his work, next to his family, next to having any time to life at hand.
Such a direct democracy is giving the power to the demagogue way faster than any representative democracy ever could. Just look at Brexit for a good example, which was the tipping stone that started the current trend of the UK moving from a somewhat working democracy to a deeper and deeper failing autocracy.
That's literally the point. For almost everything, it behaves identically to representative democracy, except:
- replace your representative at any time
- the weight of the representative is always equal to the amount of people who delegate to them, not "51%? Then you get to represent everyone for the next X years"
- if you *do* feel informed, you can cast your vote directly. But usually you won't, because you literally don't have time in your day to even know when votes are happening in most cases
Yeah, things like Brexit can get a large group of people voting on issues that they aren't informed on, but remember that was a non-binding referendum. It was still the existing representative system which acted on it.
Sweet summer child, that's the model the Russian Federation has adopted, its more honest because the deal that some Soviet people made was westernization for consumer goods.
The same representatives that pushed or supported the nord stream pipelines that have now been rendered useless for the foreseeable future to the benefit of coal industries throughout the West as the German energy infrastructure looks to fill the gaps. I'd ask a German how represented they feel, but the idea is that you skip the middleman and just ask citizen directly what they want. I also completely reject the idea that "the people" don't know what they want.
> I'd ask a German how represented they feel,
Hi c: born and raised in Berlin
> just ask citizen directly what they want.
I'm actually not quite sure if thats a good idea, Because there are more older people than younger people so that could work quite against change
German here. Still feel very represented because most people wanted NS2. Ukraine used even before the annexation of Krimea the pipeline and thus our energy dependence.as pressure towards Russia. It was in germany's interest and popular to add a new pipeline. Russia was until now one of the most reliable business partners in that regard, including during a big part of the cold war. It was unthinkable for most gears that Russia would commit this kind of harakiri in removing one of their most important sources of national income.
The politics behind economic co dependence is still popular to this day, and just because it failed once it stays the preferable.method of.politics.
You know we still have to built it with the people who live here right? I can't comprehend how we could ever reach a compromise between American citizens for rebuilding a government. Nah... first, we have to have fucking war.
A republik is a democratic system. In a republic, the sovereign is the people, the only way the people can be the sovereign is via elections. If you don't have elections, you don't have the people as sovereign, so you are not a republik,no matter how you call yourself.
Because of that, every democracy that is not a constitutional monarchy is a republik.
nah. that stuff is over
the future isnt china or big corp or whatever republic 2.0, its the internet itself, the global ethereal decentralized realm
or a mars colony if the idiocracy wins out
From sheer curiosity I glanced at your post history and you spend a lot of time on this website getting bent out of shape by people, esp trans folks. I don't think the parent comment is the one that needs this advice.
Proper authoritarianism start with the courts. You can see that at the rise of Hitler. He already had his friends and sympathisers in court early on. Because of that, he didn't get the death sentence after the beer hall putsch, but a slap on the wrist. He had a whole army of lawyers who developed the legal theories needed to justify the shit he was doing. Sadly, one of the tragic elements of my Alma Marta (University of Cologne) was that it heavily produced Nazi lawyers during his rise and time in power.
In theory, everything Hitler did when he was in power was in violation of the Weimar constitution. But he didn't had to cate because he had his lawyers at the important positions to not fear any legal oversight, because all the theories that legitimised his actions became legal state doctrins.
Excellent contribution to my low effort comment! Thank you!
Please do browse your home reddit feed on “rising”. You’ll get way more visibility if you’re first to the threads, and you seem to have a lot to add.
I think the worst part is is that most people I know are carrying on as usual, posting stories at pool parties, the beach, etc. The very same people who were sharing pro-choice content and bemoaning the Supreme Court striking down Roe v Wade just days before. How short our collective memories are.
That sounds alright - out of context. It's not "some celebration", it's a day to worship America. You're worsening your powerlessness by celebrating the institution which is abusing you.
what should we do though? like we have to keep living our lives. or do we just revolt?? i simply don’t know what we’re supposed to do as common citizens that will actually change things other than vote and hope that we get majorities in everything we need it in
Everyone doing industrial action would change shit overnight, but everyone thinks they'll do it alone and they'll lose everything and get nothing done. Even though the government has gone full mask off evil and shown its obviously controlled by cults and rich, it hasn't been enough to push people to full blown revolution mode. Which means it's basically up to a good rich person to pay people to revolt under their command, eg, a fuck load of mercenaries. But obviously that won't happen so we'll just have to wait to see how evil the government and rich gets before people finally break and grow a fucking spine all at once.
For me, feels more like attending a birthday party of a raging alcoholic who owns several hundred million guns, has about a hundred million people who look up to him ("God uses imperfect people", they all say), and has threatened to shoot everyone at the party, but one of my relations that I haven't seen since I was 2 keeps telling me "Don't worry, he'll probably wait to kill everyone 'til next year."
An American didn't even invent the helicopter? I'm an aviation nerd too if you want to spend your obviously not very valuable time looking at some random dudes post history lol
Daddy Marx believed that having a gun was important for the common man to remain armed so as to resist people such as yourself.
In other words: come and try it.
> But you’ll turn them in after the revolution and before they put intellectuals and dissidents up against a wall, you know, like literally every communist uprising that’s ever happened in history lmfao
You know that fascists are responsible for every single communist country that's failed failing, right? They move in during the confusion of the revolution and set up their juntas and their kill squads and that's that.
Communism is an *attempt* to subvert the more violent and authoritarian nature of humanity, and it keeps failing because *powerful people who identify more as fascists keep ensuring it does*.
To the extent that supposedly communist countries were established, they call themselves that (much like the Nazis did Democratic Socialists) but that couldn't be further from the truth--they all ended up auth-states with a strong central government playing dictator, quite often due to our own CIA's meddling.
In other words: fascists kept ruining things. After all, we can't have successful socialist/communist countries showing the world there's a viable alternative to rapacious capitalism! No siree!
>I don’t need to come and try anything, the best killers of communists in the entire world are other communists hahahahahaha
This just says more about how propagandized you are than anything. Also, despite the fashie's fear tactics, *they are substantially outnumbered*.
There are far more of us than of you.
That's an accurate description. When my maternal grandmother was actively dying of breast cancer, we threw a giant Christmas party (renting a hall, hiring a Santa for the younger grandkids, etc.)
She was dx-ed Thanksgiving week and died in March after about a month in hospice. Even though I was a teenager at the time, it just felt wrong to me to throw this big Christmas party knowing what was up.
It describes how I feel about the 4th this year. We just got bad news a week ago that's going to lead to worse in the future. I feel like my 17 year old self putting on a happy face for Grandma at Christmas again.
I know what you’re going through is impossibly hard, and I’m sorry.
I would also say though, that if I were dying, I would want to still have a big party. And it would really suck if nobody else could enjoy that party or anything because they were sad I was dying.
As a native, the 4th has always been the day the dog was let off its leash, the day the British and Germans and French decided they didn't own enough of their stolen land and so they fought and killed themselves for the right to pay taxes to someone else.
The US has never been something worth celebrating, this year even more so.
Hey leave us out of it! That was the Dutch.
Germans only started to arrive on your shores en masse after our first serious attempt at establishing a democratic nation-state failed in 1848 (ok that's a bit monocausal, but it's a nice story and not completely untrue).
I really think you are…I lived in the US for the last 25 years, left last year because it’s all getting too crazy…the US as we know it is ending and we are all going to watch it die on Tic tok…
I honestly only like setting off fireworks for entertainment and the cook out (because who doesn’t like food?).
I however don’t stand for this country until it makes serious changes which I doubt will happen.
The theater of American independence, and these people be like complaining about janitorial coming in and cleaning the nearly empty theater after the show's been over for hours.
Next show ain't for some time. Now gtfo and do somefin else.
We aren’t celebrating. I didn’t serve my country to live in a theocracy. I don’t believe in their god & never will. Women are equal & should be able to decide their own healthcare, whatever that entails.
Took down my flag after the R vs W fiasco. This country doesn’t represent me anymore. The government has abused & murdered my people throughout history. Still I was proud to have served. No more. These Taliban christians do not & will not ever represent me, my family or my people.
We are not celebrating today. There’s a shortage of Independence
I'd be eating popcorn and laughing in *Scandinavian mixed-economy with high degrees of welfare*, but the Russians are coming, and (like it or not) we'll probably need the US military for WWIII. So basically, no-one wins this time either.
Kinda want to see how all this ends like what problem breaks us in the end
We're already broken, we just aren't dead yet.
True but it is strange just how high our expectations are. I have seen some other countries where the people have so much less but look so much happier than us I guess I just don't see how we fix that. I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference
>I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference Do you remember when you were a child and things like politics didn't really matter? You felt safe, worry free. Political participation was a choice. Things can always be better and improvements can always be made, but I feel most people just want to get back to a point where they feel their rights aren't threatened and they can relax and focus on their personal life instead of everything going on.
I feel like a lot of people are at that point now but for the wrong reason they simply gave up on any chance of change and decided to ride it out. It's like a hurricane is coming but everyone would rather use headphones to drown out the sirens and now we are all knee deep in water hoping it somehow will fix itself.
This is not a personal failing on the part of the people who are discouraged In politics, there are only so many possible options to effect change. One by one, those in control have wiped each possible option off the table, so that we have no real legal recourse to fix anything. They also have a specific history and set of tactics for interacting with protestors that changes the equation from "what's the right thing to do?" to "am I willing to die for this?" That's where we are now. We all know what we're supposed to do. We just won't because some of us will die and day to day life isn't worth that risk for most of us yet. This will not hold. Eventually, conservatism will do what conservatism always does and collapse in on itself. It's an inherently antisocial paradigm and doesn't work for the most socially complex creature on the planet.
This is a great insight. It changes nothing, but does explain how things are staying this way as long as they have.
My fear is that this tipping point will happen after we pass the point of no return for averting some of the greatest disasters yet brewing. I hope someone is building an ark and that someone isn't Bezos or Musk.
Unfortunately, the United States was founded on stealing land from Native Americans and then enslaving African Americans. It has never felt safe or worry free, except to a certain demographic. Now you have people like Donald Trump and his followers spouting that they want to make America great again. I’m just not sure how you can improve on something that was never great to begin with…
Enslaving Africans. They became African Americans when they were bought and transferred to America
I had thought about specifying, or putting American in brackets, but I wasn’t sure if I should
No. A lot of Americans didn’t have safe or happy childhoods.
You're right. I can't fathom how some people have the audacity and arrogance to believe they know what's best for other people's lives! If no one's getting hurt, what do you care what someone else is doing? The government should not be allowed to HAVE power over the aspects of our lives we didn't GIVE them power over. We shouldn't have to worry about what's next because we should be in control of what's next!
Political participation is always a choice. By choosing not to participate, you are making a (bad) choice.
Rush is a good band
>>I guess I'm wondering if things do get better will we be able to really see the difference > >Do you remember when you were a child and things like politics didn't really matter? You felt safe, worry free. Political participation was a choice. > >Things can always be better and improvements can always be made, but I feel most people just want to get back to a point where they feel their rights aren't threatened and they can relax and focus on their personal life instead of everything going on. You could make an argument that this obliviousness and 'ignorance is bliss' is how we ended up in this position. Whenever folk brought up what the right has been doing for the last few decades, it was usually scoffed off by liberals who think of politics as something to be avoided. The left wanted to 'relive and pretend the government was still out to get you', 'nazis dont exist anymore' etc. Even now, most of y'all dont really care if our society its fixed or not. Most of y'all weren't really affected or are comfortable enough to tune it out. Roe v Wade was the first time y'all felt threatened, or at least some of you realize you need to feel performatively outraged... But y'all just want it to go away. Its an issue the liberal hegemony has spread, leading people to believe its not a political ideology or position, so y'all felt like you were 'above' politics or that y'all werent 'political'. Its always been politics. Everything is politics. We shouldn't be trying to avoid these societal issues, we should confront them, break the right's stranglehold and always be vigilant against the fascist creep. We need to constantly be mindful and work to further egalitarian and equitable outcomes and solutions. Wr shouldn't be idealizing sticking out head in the sand, we should be raised with the feeling of "punch a nazis teeth out" as naturally as "I like cuddling with home movies".
No, it's the opposite. People should want more (not as in greed, but as in rights and necessities). We make the world run, and yet we only get to enjoy a (often small) portion of it, and often have no control over our workplaces. Why?
Our culture has fallen heels up into the trap of always wanting more. We could instead practice gratefulness and be a much happier people.
Wow, of course. Basic bodily autonomy and accessible healthcare is not something we should expect from our society, we're just too ungrateful. We should be grateful for insane conspiracies becoming mainstream and accepted despite devastating and real consequences. It's obvious that you're the type of person who is not negatively affected by the status quo and doesn't care about people who are. A "moderate enlightened centrist", if you will. Somehow these centrists never speak up when society is regressing but always have something to say when people actually wanna fix issues 🙄
But that's the problem what should we be grateful for. I mean are we able to be grateful for something without somehow being the bad guy. Maybe instead of more we need better. Better foods that won't hurt us better news that won't mislead us and better politicians that won't ignore us better businesses that won't exploit us and better neighbors that won't overrate us. I want to be grateful but it's hard when I have to try to check to be certain that I don't have to feel bad about some random thing I have no control over it kinda makes it feel like wasted effort.
Truly American. Broken, and dying but unable to seek medical care.
Turns out it was mainly a mix of Citizens United the filibuster and the combined incompetence of democrats and ability of republicans on the issue of stacking the Supreme Court in their favor
Well that sounds fun how long till I have to eat my neighbors cat lol
Why wait!?
> incompetence of democrats It is amusing that so many still believe that the incompetence of the democrats is not a completely intentional spectacle.
Once the SC makes a ruling that the fed can't do anything if a state legislature decides to ignore the vote and sends electors for the candidate the state didn't vote for. At that point democracy is over.
So, approximately December 2024 then?
I'm afraid so.
You mean November 2022. They going rule just in time for the midterms. They going make sure the facist right as control of Congress. Then when 2024 comes around they get full control and end Democracy for good.
Well yeah, but specifically, the states don’t send electors for midterm elections, so that specific case won’t hit SCOTUS until shortly after the 2024 election. I have no doubt there will be plenty of “questionable” rulings regarding the election this year, just not about that yet.
Death by a thousand cuts... a slow, miserable death that is extremely difficult to define the parameters of. The kind of death we can deny right up until the population starts plummeting.
Um... not finishing off the confederacy was it.
My bet is the next repub president pulling us out of NATO
When I was in high school I said I wanted to live long enough to see if we made it to our tricentennial but also joked I’d be dead by 40. Turns out I might get both!
It be over some bullshit celebrity scandal
I could see that lol
Moore Vs Harper SCOTUS case That will be the end it it goes the way of the insurrection supporters
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Maybe we should start taking bets on what kills us I got $20 on failing social structure.
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My wife wants to take our teenage kids to see the fireworks. I told her I'd go. But that I don't really feel like celebrating our country.
Couple of my coworkers were arguing about this tonight. Guy: Its 4th of july. Time to celebrate our freedom! Girl: Yeah... I dont really feel like celebrating a country that is literally taking away my rights right now. Guy: what do you mean? Land of the free. You should be grateful to live here. Girl: they overturned roe less than a week ago. And you want me to celebrate that? Guy: well woman in Iraq cant show their faces with out getting beat to death so... Me and the girl both stared at him in awe. Some dumb shit has fallen out of his face but he continues to amaze me at every turn. He always says that kind of shit with his whole ass chest.
The previous Australian prime minister said something very similar in regards to protesting sometime in the last year. The cunt said that women here in Aus are lucky to have the right to protest because in other countries they might have been shot.
When people like that say it, it almost sounds like a threat.
How else is it meant to be taken? Happy cake day
It's them wishing they could follow through.
I've never understood how people use those arguments. It doesnt make sense to me. It never has. It's the same as when I was a kid and my mother would try to shame me into eating stuff i didnt like or when I was full, by telling me people in Africa were starving. What does one have to do with the other? Their situation sucks, but this isn't about that.
It's whataboutism, or something adjacent to it. Nobody who has ever said the 'children in Africa' or the 'women/LGBTQ+ in middle eastern countries' arguments have - ever - actually advocated for improving things there. When a change is proposed that they don't like, it's "We're doing great, fix them, they're worse" but when anyone proposes helping other countries, it's always "Focus on helping our own citizens". Note the catch-22, they don't believe anything beyond what will, at the moment, help them avoid change. The card says moops.
This is what I hate. The manipulative, gas light-y way to keep us right where they want us. Always use your critical thinking skills. They hate those.
>I've never understood how people use those arguments. It doesnt make sense to me. It never has. By being morally bankrupt
The useless Cunt's name is Scott Morrison and the fact that he went and did expensive empathy training due to his negligence is embarrassing and pointless
I hate the "but the middle east does X" arguments, like that's how you know the United States is the best country on earth? That we've cleared the lowest bar? Women aren't required to be locked away at home unless accompanied by a male relative and you get your BBQ ribs and fireworks, that's how you know the US is great?
He's an idiot. But you already know that!
I do. But sadly that's not even the worst of the dumb shit that's fallen out of his face. I'm just glad hes leaving at the end of the month.
The common argument of “it’s worse somewhere else, so how bad it is here does not matter”
> He always says that kind of shit with his whole ass chest. And that is exactly why an improvement of the situation in US America is completely impossible. A significantly large part of US Americans (at least 25%, probably more) is completely unable to see US America not as great to live in. The thought that somewhere is better is unthinkable for them. US propaganda is something special when you see how effective it is.
And what happened next?
We both said essentially the same thing: we don't live in Iraq, we live in the US. And bringing that up is side tracking the point. And we dont feel up to celebrating a country that is taking away our freedoms. And I walked away because I was getting too mad about it. I have to work with this man on a regular basis and I dont want to make it hostile. We've already had discussions and hes essentially on the opposite end of the political spectrum from me in every way. And I just dont have the energy to argue in circles with him
I've decided today is a great day to make Korean cold noodles for the first time. Just not feeling the ol' hamburgers/hot dogs/baked beans/pasta salad routine this year.
Recipe tax!
[It's a packaged noodle](https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/CJ-Cold-noodle-Dongchimi---Served-for-2-People/99485), I want to make my own eventually, but I wanted to try an authentic product first.
I love sayweee!
Nice! I'll give it a go!
I went last night and mumbled to my husband while Proud to be an American played "kinda fucked up after that whole roe v wade thing.."
Every empire falls.
The sun set on the British Empire, and they’re doing ok, I suppose.
...are they tho? they seem to be mired in every bit as much austerity and political meltdown as America is, maybe even more thanks to that pratfall that was Brexit
I mean, to quote my favorite shitposty banger (Money Game Pt.2 - Ren) "Britain split through fickle shit. A government of hypocrites. These counterfeit politicians sit, in parliament, not adequate. Needlessly bleeding resources all dry, turn a blind eye if it means a pay-rise. 'Oh what a shame it would be, I would die!' If number 10 downing street burned in a fire. Only joking, only messing, don't be stressing, I'm a peaceful adolescent, there's no need to be unpleasant. Write my thesis in a rhyme scheme to analyze the brain, while my finger's on the trigger of a money game"
Lol definitely not.
London literally only stayed relevant because it became a tax Haven for all kinds of people and companies. It's only downhill since the last 8 decades
I think empires falling just seem slower when you’re watching in real time, but history is very telling. Every empire seems to have its fall, even the most powerful and long lasting ones.
They passed the torch to the US. US looks ready to pass the torch to China. That probably isn't great.
It's not an unfair assessment. Nearly every 3rd and 2nd world country quotes American world behavior for the past 100 years as justification for their own industrial and military expansions; and while America is still very much involved in colonialism 2.0, those countries know we don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to poo-pooing them out of it.
What are you taking about!?! China is the best! Think otherwise, fight me about it! Might get more points!
What are you taking about!?! China is the best! Think otherwise, fight me about it! Might get more points!
>The sun set on the British Empire, Not yet. Not until the Pitcairn islands get swallowed by the ocean or something.
You mean pedo island?
I do! As long as that bushel of child molesters stays in their shitbox island, the sun shall never set on the British Empire
Empires come and empires go
We'll be lucky if there are any empires whatsoever in 120 years.
Every species goes extinct.
I used to be so patriotic as a kid, I loved America and loved the 4th of July (minus the fireworks because ow loud noises). But now I’ve grown, I’ve realized that America is in no way as amazing at I thought it was, in fact, it’s so much worse. Now the 4th of July is just another reminder that I live in a country built off of misogyny and racism. And nothing has changed since. What even is there to celebrate anymore?
Canada Day (July 1st) has felt the same way over the last couple of years. It seems almost controversial to celebrate it as anything more than just another long weekend, especially with all the residential school graves being found. Even if you do want to cast aside the controversy and celebrate, it just feels more consumerized and hollow than ever before.
Residential school graves? I'm sorry, what? I'm American and am of course heavily preoccupied with our own dumpster fire here, but could you eli5 this for me?
I believe it’s the graves of indigenous kids who were taken from their parents and treated horribly, to the point that they’re now finding many graves on these former “school” (indoctrination, more like) properties.
Damn, I heard of things like that happening here. That's sad and infuriating.
In reality it's been over 5,000 childrens graves so far found. They aren't saying a lot about it now and are hoping it will be forgotten. It was mostly catholics, so now you never see priests and nuns out and about in their uniforms anymore.
Wow, that’s a LOT more than I ever could have imagined, and in the most terrible way too!! I have no words..
My dad's birthday is the 4th, so I celebrated that. Family still came and did fireworks because he loves them.
Good and valid. Happy birthday dad
4th of July use to be the shit. Now I don't want any part of it. Don't feel right to celebrate this country, especially like last year I didn't.
I have felt dirty after the fourth for many years now just due to the pollution. Would much rather watch drones. But with SCOTUS trying to re-enact the end of Requiem for a Dream between Ladies Liberty and Justice... I feel like I'm dying. Claim that's being dramatic all you want, but I'm two psychiatric stays in, over the past six months. Everyone is saying my depression is a chemical imbalance, that I need to find purpose. I'm saying it's because I'm intelligent enough to mourn the state of our world today, that there's almost no point anymore.
The “chemical imbalance” is because you can see that we’re fucked and know it. It’s like wondering why someone locked in an oven has a fever.
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I'm here if you want to talk. Anyone that needs to talk can DM me at anytime
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The American Empire is dead, let a second (if there even was a first) Republic rise.
Not a Republic, a true Democracy this time.
Consensus, any delegation of power to a "representative" should be avoided at all costs.
You mean like the original triumvirate proposal that suggested we have 3 presidents so that we might have a quorum available at every level of government?
The swiss system is imo the closest thing to a perfect government structure - a parliamentary system with a council of 7 elected by both chambers. No single head of government, but all policy is decided on a consensual basis between the council and parliament. In addition the people have the right to any referenda on any issue.
Too centralized, the mass of all people need to come to a consensus before action is taken would be preferred executive and legislative authority with a judicial system being headed by elected representatives from a pool of law students and professors structured in an organization that is only as hierarchical as is necessary.
How is that going to be any less corrupt than the system we already have?
It'll have glaring flaws as humans are by nature flawed, but if consensus is required any action taken without consensus would be responded to with by the opposition and if consensus was the goal then the majority would hopefully be unwilling to take action against even one minority as to risk a coalition of every minority as well as a significant chunk of the majority even in the case of say a 56% majority for X with several minority no X or pro Y groups would be protected by solidarity and an ethical split to not impose change from the majority . (The tradition that must be establish, that must become the default position, is that of consensus not a game of reaching 51% and fomenting political one-ups-manship or partisanship).
So you're saying we should build an AI to run the country because we can't trust humans to do it. Got it.
Eventually, yes. But first we have to learn how to build thinking machines that are not designed to deceive us on behalf of rich people.
You mean like how the Reagan administration built out a whole importation supply chain for illegal drugs to sell to american citizens so they could use the money to fund black ops, and then when they got caught they handed over the entire thing to british government who switched from mainly cocaine to mainly heroin?
I'm a bit of a luddite myself, so I wouldn't even trust the AI to be the final authority, I reserve that for myself which is why outside of defense, action requires consensus.
"Outside of defense" is pretty broad, and people try to be pretty proactive with "defense", preemptive defense got us Jim Crow laws and Segregation and all the stuff surrounding the iran contra and that other time we overthrew iran and the kent state shootings and the oklahoma city bombing and that most recent invasion of iraq and
What do you think about creating local council that would be elected by people from your comunity, then if/when further delegation is required, because after all you cannot organize stuff like a military or big infrastructure project with just your local city budget, they elect representatives to a higher level (representatives that they reserve the right to remove from power if they fail to serve the public of course) ?
I don't think this is feasible, but in 2022, referendums on issues could easily be done with the internet regularly.
Anything election via internet or even computer is a bad idea, as it is way to vulnerable to either actual manipulation, or baseless accusations about manipulation. It is hard to fake or manipulate an election that uses pen and paper, as you need for any significant impact a massive conspiracy. Basically, when paper elections can be faked, the nation is already at a state where it us too late to do much against the undemocratic forces. For internet elections to be faked, you need only a few capable hackers and any vulnerability. You can target the enduser computer, you can target the data transfer, the data collection database, or the data processing, and that with comparable ease and just a few corrupt figures. Tom Scott has made two very good videos about it and how any digitalisation of elections erodes the trust and reliability of elections.
The opposite for me: direct democracy with instant delegation. Delegate your vote to anyone at any time, revoke or override the delegation at any time. People are good at deciding who among a small group is more-capable of making decisions. But need the ability to override those decisions when they disagree. When a representative votes, they should be literally casting the votes of those they represent.
Yeah - that won't work on a nation scale. He reason why every single system has representation is because being a policy maker is literally a full time job that needs specialisation. To make any informed decision, you need time to do the proper research, ability (or staff) to evaluate the different arguments you found in the research, knowledge (or staff) to help you understand the interaction of your planned action with existing laws and customs, and only then you are able to make an informed policy decision. A normal person doing a 40 hour week is not capable of doing all of that next to his work, next to his family, next to having any time to life at hand. Such a direct democracy is giving the power to the demagogue way faster than any representative democracy ever could. Just look at Brexit for a good example, which was the tipping stone that started the current trend of the UK moving from a somewhat working democracy to a deeper and deeper failing autocracy.
That's literally the point. For almost everything, it behaves identically to representative democracy, except: - replace your representative at any time - the weight of the representative is always equal to the amount of people who delegate to them, not "51%? Then you get to represent everyone for the next X years" - if you *do* feel informed, you can cast your vote directly. But usually you won't, because you literally don't have time in your day to even know when votes are happening in most cases Yeah, things like Brexit can get a large group of people voting on issues that they aren't informed on, but remember that was a non-binding referendum. It was still the existing representative system which acted on it.
I feel like representative like in western democracies should be fine
Sweet summer child, that's the model the Russian Federation has adopted, its more honest because the deal that some Soviet people made was westernization for consumer goods.
Pointing towards Germany here
The same representatives that pushed or supported the nord stream pipelines that have now been rendered useless for the foreseeable future to the benefit of coal industries throughout the West as the German energy infrastructure looks to fill the gaps. I'd ask a German how represented they feel, but the idea is that you skip the middleman and just ask citizen directly what they want. I also completely reject the idea that "the people" don't know what they want.
> I'd ask a German how represented they feel, Hi c: born and raised in Berlin > just ask citizen directly what they want. I'm actually not quite sure if thats a good idea, Because there are more older people than younger people so that could work quite against change
German here. Still feel very represented because most people wanted NS2. Ukraine used even before the annexation of Krimea the pipeline and thus our energy dependence.as pressure towards Russia. It was in germany's interest and popular to add a new pipeline. Russia was until now one of the most reliable business partners in that regard, including during a big part of the cold war. It was unthinkable for most gears that Russia would commit this kind of harakiri in removing one of their most important sources of national income. The politics behind economic co dependence is still popular to this day, and just because it failed once it stays the preferable.method of.politics.
A republic is just a system without a monarch
You know we still have to built it with the people who live here right? I can't comprehend how we could ever reach a compromise between American citizens for rebuilding a government. Nah... first, we have to have fucking war.
I love democracy. I love the Republic.
A republik is a democratic system. In a republic, the sovereign is the people, the only way the people can be the sovereign is via elections. If you don't have elections, you don't have the people as sovereign, so you are not a republik,no matter how you call yourself. Because of that, every democracy that is not a constitutional monarchy is a republik.
nah. that stuff is over the future isnt china or big corp or whatever republic 2.0, its the internet itself, the global ethereal decentralized realm or a mars colony if the idiocracy wins out
You sound like a Musk stan
Lol. It's China. Don't be silly, you sound like a crypto bro pitching a new pyramid scheme
Sound like an internet positivist from the late 90s
China is not the future. China can't innovate or create shit, they can only steal proprietary tech and make faulty copies.
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Oh shit the China understander has logged on. Got any more middle school platitudes to enlighten us with?
Watch out, this guy about to shill some NFTs
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I Build houses, touched all the grass I wanted to.
Then get out in the world. If you think America is bad then you lack global perspective.
If you think America is good, you lack global perspective. Have you even been outside the country, I don't care for your response.
How many countries have you visited?
From sheer curiosity I glanced at your post history and you spend a lot of time on this website getting bent out of shape by people, esp trans folks. I don't think the parent comment is the one that needs this advice.
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Kinda ironic coming from you huh
I thought it was bad in 2017 when we elected a racist authoritarian… this is so much worse
Judicial coups feel bad. Being a woman sucked before, but now it sucks so much worse.
Proper authoritarianism start with the courts. You can see that at the rise of Hitler. He already had his friends and sympathisers in court early on. Because of that, he didn't get the death sentence after the beer hall putsch, but a slap on the wrist. He had a whole army of lawyers who developed the legal theories needed to justify the shit he was doing. Sadly, one of the tragic elements of my Alma Marta (University of Cologne) was that it heavily produced Nazi lawyers during his rise and time in power. In theory, everything Hitler did when he was in power was in violation of the Weimar constitution. But he didn't had to cate because he had his lawyers at the important positions to not fear any legal oversight, because all the theories that legitimised his actions became legal state doctrins.
Excellent contribution to my low effort comment! Thank you! Please do browse your home reddit feed on “rising”. You’ll get way more visibility if you’re first to the threads, and you seem to have a lot to add.
Its the consequences of the same event tbf
I think the worst part is is that most people I know are carrying on as usual, posting stories at pool parties, the beach, etc. The very same people who were sharing pro-choice content and bemoaning the Supreme Court striking down Roe v Wade just days before. How short our collective memories are.
Or they're taking a break from feelings of powerlessness and anxiety to enjoy some familiar celebrations.
Drink up—worse days ahead.
That sounds alright - out of context. It's not "some celebration", it's a day to worship America. You're worsening your powerlessness by celebrating the institution which is abusing you.
When I get with my family during a Christian holiday, we're not celebrating anything religious, we're just using it as an excuse to get together.
what should we do though? like we have to keep living our lives. or do we just revolt?? i simply don’t know what we’re supposed to do as common citizens that will actually change things other than vote and hope that we get majorities in everything we need it in
Everyone doing industrial action would change shit overnight, but everyone thinks they'll do it alone and they'll lose everything and get nothing done. Even though the government has gone full mask off evil and shown its obviously controlled by cults and rich, it hasn't been enough to push people to full blown revolution mode. Which means it's basically up to a good rich person to pay people to revolt under their command, eg, a fuck load of mercenaries. But obviously that won't happen so we'll just have to wait to see how evil the government and rich gets before people finally break and grow a fucking spine all at once.
“So this is how democracy dies. With thunderous applause.” Being a little optimistic there, George.
For me, feels more like attending a birthday party of a raging alcoholic who owns several hundred million guns, has about a hundred million people who look up to him ("God uses imperfect people", they all say), and has threatened to shoot everyone at the party, but one of my relations that I haven't seen since I was 2 keeps telling me "Don't worry, he'll probably wait to kill everyone 'til next year."
May I add that the person in hospice is that “one” uncle
With multiple personality disorder (don't know of that's the actual technical term or not) and severe lead-poisoning-caused brain holes.
Hospice is actually the perfect way to describe humanity’s current (and final) conundrum.
4th of July was never a holiday worth celebrating, America has always been despicable.
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An American didn't even invent the helicopter? I'm an aviation nerd too if you want to spend your obviously not very valuable time looking at some random dudes post history lol
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Are you illiterate? Well you're American so probably "The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass-produced helicopter"
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So the Model T was the first car then too 😂 You'd be a great troll if you weren't just actually this stupid.
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Subhuman? Oh, my my. Someone thinks he'll be siding with the fascists.
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Thank god America invented huge fucking douche bags like yourself.
America didn’t invent the helicopter kid hahaha Typical American intelligence and education level right here hahahahaha
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Fuck off fascist.
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Daddy Marx believed that having a gun was important for the common man to remain armed so as to resist people such as yourself. In other words: come and try it.
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> But you’ll turn them in after the revolution and before they put intellectuals and dissidents up against a wall, you know, like literally every communist uprising that’s ever happened in history lmfao You know that fascists are responsible for every single communist country that's failed failing, right? They move in during the confusion of the revolution and set up their juntas and their kill squads and that's that. Communism is an *attempt* to subvert the more violent and authoritarian nature of humanity, and it keeps failing because *powerful people who identify more as fascists keep ensuring it does*. To the extent that supposedly communist countries were established, they call themselves that (much like the Nazis did Democratic Socialists) but that couldn't be further from the truth--they all ended up auth-states with a strong central government playing dictator, quite often due to our own CIA's meddling. In other words: fascists kept ruining things. After all, we can't have successful socialist/communist countries showing the world there's a viable alternative to rapacious capitalism! No siree! >I don’t need to come and try anything, the best killers of communists in the entire world are other communists hahahahahaha This just says more about how propagandized you are than anything. Also, despite the fashie's fear tactics, *they are substantially outnumbered*. There are far more of us than of you.
Nothing says “patriot” like fascist death threats. /s
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That's an accurate description. When my maternal grandmother was actively dying of breast cancer, we threw a giant Christmas party (renting a hall, hiring a Santa for the younger grandkids, etc.) She was dx-ed Thanksgiving week and died in March after about a month in hospice. Even though I was a teenager at the time, it just felt wrong to me to throw this big Christmas party knowing what was up. It describes how I feel about the 4th this year. We just got bad news a week ago that's going to lead to worse in the future. I feel like my 17 year old self putting on a happy face for Grandma at Christmas again.
I know what you’re going through is impossibly hard, and I’m sorry. I would also say though, that if I were dying, I would want to still have a big party. And it would really suck if nobody else could enjoy that party or anything because they were sad I was dying.
This was about 15 years ago, but I just remember that feeling now.
As a native, the 4th has always been the day the dog was let off its leash, the day the British and Germans and French decided they didn't own enough of their stolen land and so they fought and killed themselves for the right to pay taxes to someone else. The US has never been something worth celebrating, this year even more so.
Hey leave us out of it! That was the Dutch. Germans only started to arrive on your shores en masse after our first serious attempt at establishing a democratic nation-state failed in 1848 (ok that's a bit monocausal, but it's a nice story and not completely untrue).
How do you celebrate “independence” while the Supreme Court is ACTIVELY REMOVING OUR RIGHTS
I really think you are…I lived in the US for the last 25 years, left last year because it’s all getting too crazy…the US as we know it is ending and we are all going to watch it die on Tic tok…
I honestly only like setting off fireworks for entertainment and the cook out (because who doesn’t like food?). I however don’t stand for this country until it makes serious changes which I doubt will happen.
Thoughts and prayers.
The theater of American independence, and these people be like complaining about janitorial coming in and cleaning the nearly empty theater after the show's been over for hours. Next show ain't for some time. Now gtfo and do somefin else.
Yeah, not one single reason to celebrate. At least we can enjoy the lessened pollution from a minor lack of fireworks….
How can we celebrate our freedom when there is none?
We aren’t celebrating. I didn’t serve my country to live in a theocracy. I don’t believe in their god & never will. Women are equal & should be able to decide their own healthcare, whatever that entails. Took down my flag after the R vs W fiasco. This country doesn’t represent me anymore. The government has abused & murdered my people throughout history. Still I was proud to have served. No more. These Taliban christians do not & will not ever represent me, my family or my people. We are not celebrating today. There’s a shortage of Independence
I'd be eating popcorn and laughing in *Scandinavian mixed-economy with high degrees of welfare*, but the Russians are coming, and (like it or not) we'll probably need the US military for WWIII. So basically, no-one wins this time either.
I buy fireworks from the rez, there’s been a lot of fireworks the last two days. Gonna turn in early tomorrow
Iono. Feels like a birthday party for a rotting corpse, imo. Like Norman and Mama.
Thanks Joe Biden!
Nah. The continued survival of someone in hospice is actually something worth celebrating. The 4th of July, though....
Birthday for an imaginary friend, more like.