No I’m not catastrophising.
The world is slowly lurching towards a fully fascist led America, India, Hungary, Russia, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Argentina.
Instead people are either ignorant or blaming “wokeism”* for their problems.
I have no clue what to do and this is literally a car crash in slow motion.
I’m despondent because I’m going to be crushed under the boot when the time comes and my morals get in the way of my survival instinct.
Humans are repeating the mistakes of the past. It’s just so anxiety inducing.
*Woke is a useless term promulgated by fascists to dog whistle the things they really want to hate - feminism, socialism, LGBTQIA+, immigration, brown/black people, equality and diversity.
I hate to say this but I’ve honestly just gotten used to the idea at this point. I’ve been watching the people around me howling in support of fascism since about 2015 now and the more egregious these politicians crimes become the louder these idiots seem to howl for them. It’s been going so long that it’s just part of the background noise of day to day life now, and I’m tired of caring anymore. It’s fucking depressing.
How can we convince people now is the time to act? What more information do we need? I think most people are clinging to the idea everything is business as usual. As long as they can keep the lights on they wouldn’t want to upset the stability they’ve managed to make for themselves.
I understand how you might feel this way. But a key difference to the early 1930s is that there are many large-scale protests against far right extremism in Germany. The elections in the Netherlands did produce a right wing tendency, but there is no government as of yet and the PVV is still pretty far away from fascism. The other three large winners of the election are not even that right wing. At least no more than the party that ruled for the last 15 years.
That said, I do kinda hope that this phase passes quickly and that people will start to finally get along and care about our fellow humans. Even though we never have.
I’m only 18 and I’m already so fucking tired of existing in this world, seems like everything is going downhill and I’m just gonna be forced to live in an authoritarian dictatorship world where all the air is full of toxins and the water is full of plastic
I hate thinking so negatively about the future but the more the world seems to crumble around me the more I feel like we might be one of the last generations of humans that got to experience civilisation for a long time.
The planet is dying, fascism is spreading, the tensions are rising, and everyone has nukes! woo! future!
You forgot to mention end stage capitalism to further enrich the 1% and corporations.
that’s part of the “planet is dying” bit, since nobody who can do something about it is doing anything
On the positive side a world ravaged by nuclear war could solve both problems!
Yay.
*cough* Posadism *cough*
TIL. The Federation already exists. We just aren’t communist enough to get the immortality beam and reality bomb engine.
TIL. The Federation already exists.
Weelll except for the nuclear first-use policy.
Although all in all that’d sort of track, too
Look on the bright side: it’s not as if this will continue forever. If our infrastructure is failing as deeply as it seems, society will reach a breaking point. The real question is where that point is and making sure you reach it. If it truly gets bad enough we’ll see the return of the guillotine, maybe even literally if we’re feeling spicy
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If our infrastructure is failing as deeply as it seems, society will reach a breaking point.
My sector. It is worse than you think and I am scared of quitting.
The French Revolution wasn’t what pop-history suggests. It was a genocidal civil war that killed far more commoners than nobles. There was a point where they were killing so many people, the only way they could keep up was to drown them en masse by chaining them to a barge and sinking it.
Just do what you can. Don’t join the army and minimize your contribution to fascist government. Put your efforts locally where you can :)
Just to give you a bit of a morale boost: every generation thinks they’re the last ans that everything is about to go to shit. In the end that never really happens.
Yes, a lot of right wing politicians have beek elected, also all previous ones have failed and got kicked out. For the Netherlands I predict the government will fall within a year as it typically tends to do when the leaders fuck up and this guy will likely fuck up soon enough.
Basically, this too shall pass.
Climate change is indeed a big cloud mainly because it will take centuries to fix even if we’re going to fully dedicate ourselves to fixing it, which right now we are not. On the other end I finally hear about actual progress with fusion which, if true, may be the key to solving climate change within a century, solving it to acceptable levels within decades, if the will is there.
Point is: things look bleak, but they always do. Back during the cold war it literally was same shit, different day. Yet, the world moved forward and things slowly improved.
Things will be fine, you will be fine.
Thanks, I guess part of being an adult is just being more and more indifferent to the gradual decline of the world so that the crippling dread does not consume you.
Explains why my parents are still asking for grandkids.
Not at all
- with age comes the perspective of distance. Everything is in cycles but has a backlash to center and beyond. It’s not that bad
- children are the hope for the future. They’re the reason we act to improve things. They’re the ones who will both benefit from a better world as well as help create it in ways we can’t imagine. Children today are better off in so many ways, and future children will be even more so.
future children will be even more so.
doubt.
Well not with that attitude.
We should be more concerned about the attitude of the billionaires and the politicians they own.
Things often get a whole lot worse before they get better. People thought things were on the brink of turning to shit in the 1930s, and then we had a world war for 6 years. Tens of millions of people died, countless more were displaced, cities were leveled, and history was lost.
I admire your optimism, but I can’t ignore that the world and even my country specifically look more and more like a powder keg with every passing day. I’m terrified that we can’t get to “fine” again without first suffering through an extremely dangerous period of time, and there’s no guarantee that any of us will be “fine” during that time.
We haven’t had a world war since WW2. We haven’t got two likely sides now. China owns too much of the West, Russia is no longer credible
No things wont be fine. At least for me and many others anyway.
I’m sorry you can’t see that yet.
There is an underclass of angry, often white, men who are frustrated at their life and instead of directing their rage at the capitalist system, which is responsible for the position they are in, they’ve been told immigrants, socialism, feminism, LGBTQIA+ and brown people are the problem.
They are now organising to make their fictional narrative reality and I will be crushed when this happens along with millions of others, like you, who thought this could never happen again.
The tragedy is that those same men who think they’ll be empowered by fascists will be swept aside the moment they are no longer useful. They are victims to an extent too, just that they will have enacted violence and terror while being wrong.
I will be crushed when this happens along with millions of others, like you, who thought this could never happen again.
Be careful of the slippery slope fallacy.
If they ever secure power my fate is basically sealed. I’ve accepted that.
It’s not slippery slope to be clear eyed about reality.
The most likely way I can see the fall of America is through a breakup of the federation. If you’re in a bad state it could be bad
That’s not certain and them getting absolute power also isn’t.
So to me it sounds a bit like the arguments that they like to use. Like:
if we accept immigrants, they will slowly replace us and destroy the country
Technically maybe that could happen, but there are many other things that could also happen and that you are failing to consider.
If Modi, Trump, La Pen, Orban aren’t elected/reelected perhaps I’d change my view but I don’t have good reasons for thinking those things won’t happen.
If you believe that if those people are elected and it won’t lead to more fascism then I’m not sure what to say.
Anything I have learned from history classes is that this cycle of fascism/dictatorship and democracy has always been going on, people are dumb -> they choose fascists -> fascist gonna fasc -> ppl get fed up -> uprising/protests -> government overthrown after tons of bloodshed -> some sort of constitutional bind on rulers/elections -> some peace -> dumb ppl forget everything and chose fascists again -> repeat
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You need history classes that cover more than the little fart of time known as the 20th century.
Well I only studied the history part which was mandatory in my school, so it was naturally not very in-depth or far back, only standard topics like the World wars, french and russian revolutions etc
It worries me too and I’ve been thinking a lot about margaritas, I’ve been sober for four years so its troubling thoughts of alcohol are creeping back in. I don’t know what else to say. Need a hug?
Need a hug?
Wish I could give one
Are you going to the meetings?
What fucking meetings? For my alcoholism or for my depression about the future?
…If there’s any for the latter can I get a hookup?
I think this is the meeting.
Hi everybody, my name is Zink @programming.dev and I am a democracyholic.
Hi Zink
https://aa-intergroup.org/meetings/
On line AA meetings. 24/7. The only requirement to go to AA is a desire to stay stopped. If you think your depression is going to make you drink, come talk about it.
AA is a Christian support group, if you don’t believe in their God they won’t help you.
If you look at the site I provided, you’ll see that they have plenty of atheist/agnostic meetings [labelled ‘secular.’]
They also have a lot of LGBTQ+ meetings, as well as men only and women only options.
AA suggests people try to find a Higher Power of their own understanding.
These are religious meetings for addicts and alcoholics. The atheist and agnostic meetings are well-meaning but they talk about gods even more than at the non-secular meetings.
I am however delighted it works for you.
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I suggest target practice, that way you won’t get crushed by boots…and you can resist any fascist in your area, and encourage others in your immediate area to do the same.
Start a club, and then you can hold parties, where you show each other new knowledge, and help others to protect themselves…and fight against all the fascist hordes!
This isn’t Red Dawn. People will quickly find out how inadequate they are against a military.
When real conflict begins domestically it will be drones being used by those in power. Guns won’t do much good.
Better learn spark gap jammers then
But odds are it won’t be the military. At least, not at first. It will most likely start with all those right-wing punisher-worshipping nutters who want an excuse to shoot ‘the liburlz’, with local cops either helping out or staying out of the way, and the government conveniently ignoring everything. Or at least, that’s how it’s tended to go in the past.
(See kristallnacht, Tulsa race massacre, Wilmington massacre, Rosewood massacre, Ocoee massacre…)
And those local assholes can be repelled with guns.
John Brown gun club or Socialist Rifle Association are out there… also there are plenty of paramilitary and social fascist groups to protect yourself against. Proud boys, border nutjobs, don’t listen to naysayers about learning to defend yourself. It’s not just military with tanks and planes. It’s your back the blue neighbor you have to worry about…
alright now im really confused. how does the world devolving into fascism bring complete anarchy? aren’t those completely different things?
We’ll see how it shakes out this year, but here are some positive thoughts…
2017 was the high watermark for facism’s popularity in the US. They couldn’t help themselves and went masks off in Charlottesville, and their movement has never recovered.
Facism’s rise is always reactionary to rising socialism. If the rural petite bougausie and the New York Times are pushing for facism then that’s because they are worried workers are gaining power and will come to take what they have. They’re worried we are getting organized and winning victories.
Conservatives are currently extremely demoralized. Go check out their boards and discords. I’ve never seen them this universally depressed. Then don’t think they can win and they aren’t excited at the prospect of trying only to fail.
Hmmmm I also frequent white supremacist sympathising discord and my general take away is that they are more desperate and more willing to take violent action to align reality with their views.
Of course this is only anecdotal so it’s kind of a moot point.
I’d be more confident in your opinion if there wasn’t a prevailing view that America will reelect Trump.
If trump isn’t elected it may not even stop fascism though.
Hitler was jailed before he rose to power, trump could very easily do the same. If I’m going to be optimistic about anything it’s the fact that Trump is very old and may not survive prison or the presidency for an extended period.
We’ll see. I’m not sure I fully believe all the polling. Trump has a real shot at winning but I’d give the advantage to Biden by a large margin.
I hope you’re correct. I just don’t fully believe it.
I live in a red state. The neighbors are practicing more with their rifles. But this state used to be blue and has always been 2nd amendment centered (but not always gun worship, just everyone had them for hunting or home defense), so should be interesting if someone actually commits. Jan 6 kind of tipped their hand on how much of a clusterfuck that would be.
Also, read about the “trial” of Hitler. The judge was sympathetic as hell. So far our judges tell Trump to stfu.
Isn’t your supreme court stacked to the hilt with Conservatives?
True but they were back before the election and those same conservatives he appointed told him to cram his election fraud narrative.
Plus it’s just in favor of conservatives, not stacked completely.
Maybe we can still win against these fascist assholes
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And fascism eats itself, by it’s very nature.
The UK won’t be far behind. Our left leaning party is likely to get in at the next election, but the overton window has shifted faaaar in the past 10-15 years and today’s labour may just be yesterday’s Tories. Who’s to say what tomorrow’s Tories will be…
The only hope is that Labour are enacting a strategy of just getting elected first. Once they’re in they can start moving to the left a bit more.
From listening to people in the know, there is still hope that Labour are in a phase of “underpromising” so that they can’t be accused of irresponsibility. When government stops actively making things worse with its every decision, the economy may start to recover, at which point the government’s economic levers might start to be worth pulling. Right now we just have to stop lurching, and start making friends with Europe again.
We’re been living in an oligarchy since the mid 1970s, we’ve had a surveillance state since 2001 and the US government has been allowed to indefinitely detain people since whatever the year was when Obama signed the NDAA into law.
Our democracy was stolen long ago.
This isn’t even a car crash brother it’s like watching 8 separate trains collide
nice username
I feel you, and with climate change it’s not like we can just escape them and go else where their stupidity will be the death of us all.
The masses are asses.
If only this was that simple. A “Democratic country” doesn’t just wake up one day vote for a bad guy and become fascist. This has been happening all over the world for last few decades. All the past politician created few policies out of fear, out of ignorance, out of greed, and out of malice that edged us towards this. And now most of the people have accepted this blatant abuse of our freedom, our privacy, our democracy as just part of life. There is nothing that anyone can do to stop this. Because we don’t bother reading EULA because we don’t demand the companies the governments to do better we just sign away our rights our freedom because we have better things to do.
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Fear. It’s that simple. An authoritarian mindset is one predicated on fear. After 9/11, Dick Cheney and George H. W. Bush used fear to drive their policies of restrictive freedoms. They pushed these through so they could amass additional powers and push government money towards their friends. Once these freedoms are gone, they almost never come back. The Republican party has been running on a campaign of fear ever since. Quite honestly, they’ve used fear as their driving force since the '80s. Back then it was fear of the Communists, and then it was fear of 'big government" and then it was fear of immigrants, or “the gays”, or restrictions of the second amendment, or caravans of people coming up from South America. Fear is the only thing that they can run on since they have no actual plans to move our country forward.
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Why do it? Money and power.
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Having power over others is certainly not system-unique.
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Human stupidity and malice – they’re an infinite resource that just keeps on taking. We’ve gotten this far despite ourselves, not because
2024 is just 2020 part 5.
2024 is just 2020 4
Ahh the old inclusive vs. exclusive numbering.
2020 would be 2020 part 1, 2021 part 2, 2022 part 3, 2023 part 4, and finally 2024 part 5.
“Twenty-twenty-four is just twenty-twenty four.”
Touche
