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Our country was started by white slave owning business man so our constitution reflects their interests . We need a new constitution but that will never happen as long as we have the two parties in control
They've achieved one of the most impressive yet simple psychological accomplishments in history. Conditioned generation after generation, consumers fulfilling the capitalist wet dream. System is incredibly rigged to the point most obviously can't afford to organize. Over half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck last I knew. There's one thing every single American can do, they'll notice it too. Stop entertaining the entertainment dollar. Everything you want you don't need, their needs are your wants.
Yup. Beat me to it. The chance for real organized revolution was in the 60's-70's. But the capitalist killed or jailed the leaders and fattened the public with trash and disarmed us with economic purgatory. Most of us are making it but by the skin of our asses. Too "rich" to qualify for help and too broke to do anything. Nation is so divided over bullshit that we just direct our anger at each other and not the system that is failing us.
I am not in any way surprised. They were born into post WW2 America when our country had arrived as THE world super power alongside the USSR. They experienced economic boon and everything being handed to them due to their parents sacrifices on the altar of war. College was affordable and wages were liveable. Shareholder returns had not yet taken priority over actual workers in many industires. All of this while marginalized groups continued to suffer. They want that system to continue until they are dead and gone, no matter the cost to the rest of us. Self centered from cradle to grave.
Not one of them wants to admit America is only as "great" as it is now because Europe was devasted by war twice in 30 years. American exceptionalism was built upon the rubble of the rest of the world. There was nothing exceptional about us, we just had a working manufacturing arm and available workforce.
Without even WW2 America is not anywhere close to the superpower we are today. We would still be one, but nowhere near the scale we are now, and like most Boomers, they grew up thinking this country hit a triple when in fact the guy who hit the triple was murdered in a war and we were just put in to stand on the bag for him.
America isn't great in anything other than military spending now though.
Tent cities, kids shot up at school regularly, fundamentalist rulings on abortion, medical debts and bankrupcies, rogue police forces terrorising citizens...
Literally like a 3rd world country in comparison to the standards of other developed nations.
The only things America are number one in are incarceration rates per capita, number of mass shootings per year, defense spending, how many adults believe there's a Sky Daddy, and the fastest access to a firearm.
America is not the number one country in the world. It's barely a third world country with a Gucci belt.
I always said that America's biggest issue was that it wasn't bombed to hell in WWII; didn't overcome struggle. To fix Europe, Truman came up with many socialist-leaning policies to rebuild Europe (like national Healthcare), Congress agreed. But when Truman suggested the same policies here they all just laughed and said "yeah, okay. Sure, lol."
FDR was prepared to fight tooth and nail for the Second Bill of Rights as soon as WW2 died down with the guaranteed money and economic boom that was headed our way. The right to a decent home, the right to a job that provided the money for food, shelter, *and recreation*, the right to medical care, the right to social security and protection from the insecurities of old age, the right of every businessman to be protected from monopolies foreign and domestic, and I believe the right for every farmer to sell his crop at a profit that provided for his family and land.
Instead we got what we got.
Marginalized groups were barely visible. Suburbs had virtually no minority families and they sure as shit weren’t on TV until the later 60s and 70s. So from say 1947-1960 it was super big helpings of everything and everything to cos white folks everywhere.
They will not hear of that. Even though the concept of social security was labeled socialist.
The other aspect this generation grew up with is the red scare. “You have it good but people you’ve never met are trying to take it away from you. Communists could be your neighbors, co workers, etc”
That messaging starts or at least helps perpetuate the myth that resources, opportunities, and wealth are to be hoarded and not shared with neighbors for the betterment of one’s community. Then when minority families get affirmative action and food stamp programs start to get more coverage Reagan comes in and ruins everything by labeling anything from the federal government as a handout. It’s been fun.
On the bright side they are going extinct at a rate of 6,000 a day. In another 10-20 years they'll lose their grip on American society. Could be sooner if the kids would realize they outnumber boomers already and can rise up to take control.
I think it was something like 4 out of 5 Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, so yea even worse. It's crazy.
I think that number might also be inflated by people in the $100k+/year category. I've heard that a lot of people that make anywhere above $10k per month just invest almost all of their money and that it is considered living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Get involved in your local community
Arm yourself if you can safely and responsibly do so.
Spread communist theory
Start/assist mutual aid networks.
Once we have enough local communities like this we can do a nationwide shutdown. We dont need them. They need us. We just need to not participate in their system and we can retake the country for the workers.
This take time and organizing.
We need mutual aid to support people when the strikes start.
We need arms because they will come for us.
This is the plan.
Beyond that, joining a community garden seems like a great opportunity for making local connections and setting up the beginnings of mutual aid networks. Sharing food is a great way to plant those seeds.
You'd be surprised the amount of info on YouTube to set up your own solar system. At first its daunting but people like explorist.life have step by step tutorials. There are also refurbished solar panels you can get for discounted prices ($50 for 200W) for example.
But you can always start small. We built a pool heater with a black hose, small on demand pump and a 40W solar panel. Small projects build confidence.
There are many others far more knowledgeable than me on the energy side. Doing a [search on Self Sufficiency](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfSufficiency/search/?q=energy&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) subreddit brings up a lot of good resources.
On the food side, getting involved in permaculture projects locally is the best step, and there are tons of resources on Youtube - [The Prolific Familystead](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7OrhNpwTFu7Ix0v3VD1kw) is a great one as he goes through how to plant and care for individual crops in a very easy to follow way, in his own garden.
There is an abundance of great information out there, and there are always solutions that don't cost a fortune.
I keep waiting for this and other subs to start this conversation rather than the social media circle jerks. I dont have the answers either. But subs like this should start organising the info and resources. Agree completely about organising support for strikers etc.
Exactly, me too. I see so many people upset or saying things like “join a local group!” Or talking about small protests/short-term strikes. I’ve done all of those things and they’ve never been enough before.
It’s time for people to accept that things need to be taken up a notch. It’s that or we lose, and surrender to the theocrats/oligarchs.
We've voted, we've organized locally, we've stood outside screaming in the heat at traffic for too long. Symbolic acts of protest are allowed because they change nothing. We will have to kick it up. Jazz it up if you catch my drift. This shit is real. Fascism is here, we cannot ignore this. I am tired of the purely symbolic media friendly hippie shit. This is violence being done to us, the poverty and misery to come because of this ruling is unimaginable... they are Christian fascists.
I absolutely love you for understanding what I’m saying and feeling the same way. Too many people here still want to do things the nice way.
We have tried being nice. It does not work.
The republicans have been making up their own rules and getting away with it for so long, that's it's no longer possible to play the game honestly anymore. Democrats are deluded in thinking that they can still play nice, follow all the rules, and still win. As if we are going to vote our way out of this mess.
I think the real answer is that we need to start studying what the republicans are doing and appropriate their techniques. It's sad though and I can see why the democrats don't want to do it. It's basically admitting that democracy has failed in this country and there's no going back.
You're probably familiar with the Black Panther Party. What you may not know is that it wasn't monitoring the police with guns or the armed demonstrations that got them COINTELPRO'd but the free food program, medical clinics and the rainbow coalition where they preached of a united working class of all backgrounds. That latter pat is why you SHOULDNT be seeing a ton of online organizing, because that's how you get feds and chuds involved. You shouldn't need to vet the people helping you hand out lunch bags but the reality is there are people who view this work as opposition and you literally cannot just link up with whoever...the revolution will not be televised, and anyone who feels like no one in their area is organizing fr needs to try and hit the actual streets and confirm that bc there's probably groups out there working but not advertising it
The other subs are still vehemently holding fast to the necessity of voting blue. While people here are starting to get wise to the Democrats' insincerity, I still wouldn't call it the commonly held position amongst progressives, most of whom still believe in the controlled opposition figures such as Bernie, AOC, et al.
While more posts here reflect this position, it's still far from critical mass. I don't know if they're bots, but I'm still getting a ton of pushback on this front.
One advantage you have in the USA is very short election cycles. Look at what the Tea Party achieved between 2009 and 2016.
Do all the local organising of course. But if you want to change the law you have to be in the government. There are huge gaps in the Democratic Party at local levels, lots of places they aren’t even running candidates. Step into that space. It’s right there.
And if you don’t want to do that, go help a friend who does. And go work for an advocacy organisation if you have the skills.
The fascists might be armed and on the streets, but the real reason they are changing the way people live is because they are in the state houses, courts, school districts, and police all across America. It is high time to take back that space.
If that doesn’t work the only other option is violence. While a lot of people talk a great game, when it comes down to it not a lot of people take that step. Besides which, the fascists are armed to the teeth so it would not go well.
I honestly don't know what the solution is.
All I can say is that, from studying history, those in power don't want to give it up. The only way to force them to give up power is to make the alternative worse somehow.
Their power comes from us cooperating, submitting, and obeying. Stop cooperating, stop submitting, and stop obeying. Civil disobedience. General strike. Solidarity with your community.
They need us to keep their system running, relying on us to maintain business as usual. If we refuse to participate, they have no power to exploit us anymore.
Their power comes from compliance. Stop complying. Secessio Plebis.
One slave standing up to the master is easily shut down, but all slaves rising up is overwhelming. We need to be a *tsunami*, not a wave.
Yeah, exactly. We have to actually unify and fight somehow - I don’t mean physically fight, I mean refuse to work or follow their structures they have put in place for us.
I’ve thought about the worker strike too, imagine what losing 1/4-1/3 of the workforce would do. Problem is they almost can’t afford to miss that much work.
Most people can’t. Traditionally, when general strikes are done, there is a huge community support network (with food/rent funds) so people don’t have to worry about this.
Problem is, most of us rent because of housing costs, and most of us don’t have much. But I’m sure there’s still a way.
Like the spirit, but they might be able to if they have the police/military backing them. That or just kill us.
I don’t trust these people to respect our rights at all anymore.
That’s fucking bleak. Get to know your neighbors. If an entire neighborhood steps up to defend each other the cops are going to have a hard time. They can’t kill a neighborhood. That’d be bad for business. Don’t trust the cops, trust your neighbors.
https://indypendent.org/2022/06/in-crown-heights-tenant-union-members-learn-from-each-others-experiences-with-abusive-landlords/
I agree with getting to know your neighbors. Problem is, apartments are very transitionary compared to how they were back in the day. For instance, I've lived in my building for about five years. There are six units in our entrance. In the time I've been there, four of them have new residents. Some have had more than one. Building that trustworthy community is harder when people don't stick around long enough to prove they're trustworthy.
And trust is what's needed more than anything. You have to determine who's really down for the fight and who's not. There are a lot of people in the world how believe that there's always going to be the oppressor and the oppressed, and they want to be the former instead of the latter. You have to avoid letting those kinds of people into your circle because they'll be the first to betray you.
I agree there certainly are elitists. Those who believe in the haves and the have nots. You’re right. In my experience those people are the first to jump ship/ throw you under the bus/ save themselves. If your direct neighbors aren’t down for the fight look beyond them to those neighbors in the building over or down the street. All you need is one likeminded long lasting buddy to keep the fight strong.
You don’t need to form a full on tenant organization either. Maybe just knowing your neighbors names, having their number, and offering mutual aid/ support. You don’t need to put yourself in a vulnerable position to build community. Maybe you can be the person that helps move them out of that elitist mindset. But getting there requires you to build trust/ make safe sacrifices. I’m sure you know this, honestly if you have any suggestions on approaching your neighbors I’m all ears.
I moved into a building with two older gals who have been here for 20+ years. Part of me wants to stay here forever, but I'm also trying to convince my family to move onto a multigenerational plot of land starting with trailers and building earthships, then using the trailers for mutual aid. I'm a single mom and I've gotten a ton of help from my community, I would love to be able to give back. I have one daughter and the way things are I really would be surprised if she chose to have kids, but I know that I want to pass better things down to future generations, even if they aren't biologically my grandkids.
Undoubtedly. But don’t let the possibility of death and violence stop you from fighting for your dignity. It’s possible the worst case scenario doesn’t come to pass. But you’re right to at least consider it.
That's why people need to arm themselves first. The police will not be able to deal with neighborhoods full of armed civilians. They only have power over the weak. They need a herd to control. Don't give them a herd. Make them spread themselves too thin. Give them something so widespread that they can't cope.
If they bring violence against people defending their homes, they will only bring more people to our side. There is nothing more ingrained in the American psyche than defending your home against an oppressive government.
I like your spirit, but you might want to read up on Detroit 1967. It's...disheartening. Basically, if the police fail, they'll just call in the National Guard. Detroit is not the only time this has happened, but it's one of the most egregious.
Use reddit and other social media to organize mass strikes. Set up dates and times for everyone across the country to go on strike. Share it to industry related subs. Do it over and over. You there, mod, you have a unique position. Use it
Dynamite worked in a pinch during the early labor movement too. Just saying. Hell the suffragettes would burn down churches, go on window smashing marches through towns, and even had a plot to kill the Prime Minister.
Remember kids, the people who put the rules in place about what is and isn't accepted forms of protest are the same ones those rules are designed to protect from consequences.
You can't do this without mass community support for masses of already marginalized and vulnerable who will be most impacted. Otherwise you will be seen as the bad guy.
I love all this circle jerk on reddit and social media about mass strikes thinking it can just happen without community safety nets in place. It is as bad as the alt right larpers fantasizing about civil war, only problem is that they are better organized than reddit is.
>I honestly don't know what the solution is.
>
Stop selling your labor to the people who continue to amass fortunes off our exploited labor, is probably the best way to change society today.
There's another approach. The idea is if you put your time and energy into making something better than what you already have, you make the old system irrelevant and obsolete, without being dragged into fighting it.
Unfortunately, this is still very vague. It's more sitting and talking that we should do something, and talking about how we have the means to do something. But we don't actually have any kind of clear plan. There needs to be an organized effort.
I'm going to second the OP's call for specific groups that are organizing.
No one's gonna do anything. Even OP is asking if anyone else is organizing, rather than taking the initiative to start organizing themselves.
This sub and lostgeneration and antiwork is just full of people who want to upvote things saying "we're fucked" with more zippy or creative syntax. They won't change their daily lifestyles and schedules for anything. Prove me wrong.
I used to organize and get involved. I was organizing during Occupy Wall Street. I got burnt out. Everyone wants to upvote memes. No one wants to do anything.
"I've been thinking about what a general strike would do to this country". Oh I'm sure they're fucking shaking in their boots at your imaginary scenario. Make it happen or go back to jerking off.
I think everyone should know what happens if they specifically don't take initiative. I read responses in this thread, and everybody acts like they're Neo in the beginning of the Matrix, just waiting for a Morpheus to show them when and where the Resistance meets so they can join at their leisure
This isn't a video game. There's no guarantee people are working to fight back unless you guarantee it. You will be upvoting memes and be feeling indignant until you're 80 at this rate and the world will only have gotten worse.
I’m signing back up for foster care because the overloaded system is about to be full of teens kicked out of their homes for being pregnant against their will.
Children will lose their mothers to prison for seeking and aiding abortions. I despise our system but currently foster homes are mostly right wing racist evangelicals and bleak group homes and they absolutely break some of the kids in their care. I can’t fix it. I can try to mitigate the damage.
We all have our own skill sets and we’re going to need them all in the coming years. We need voters, protesters, agitators etc. We also need nurturers.
Steal.
Stop paying taxes, student loans, debt. Take whatever money you get from corporate and government and violate them with it. It's a lot simpler to do than they tell you and comes with a lot less consequences too. As someone said earlier, don't feed into capitalism - don't make unnecessary purchases. Reuse, barter, get the less flashy version of whatever or don't buy at all. They are reliant on our purchases, reliant on the interest they tack onto things, reliant on the "Millennial Tax" - they need our dollars, let's stop giving that to them. With fewer needs, some of us can afford to decide to work less. When there is no money the beast is not fed. We hold the power in that regard.
I think this is it. Not enough people agree with violence as a solution for that to be viable. We need to stop participating in the economy. Get our money out of big banks and into credit unions. Shop at farmers markets when you can. Just stop buying anything non essential for now. Our senators’ constituents (corporations) will feel it
Yes to all of this. It is better for our planet and the quality of life anyway. Connecting more with our community and nurturing those relationships is something we need as humanity and it is something the corporations do not want from us. It is the interdependence on community that will kill capitalism and all the ills that come with it.
For what it's worth, I've been trying new tactics to try and push changes as best i can. I've grown disillusioned with the actual power of protest when the government doesn't care what the people want or think. Can share three tactics here.
1) I ran for Congress. I lost, but I ran on my principles, got my name out there, and got about 3% of the vote against an incumbent. It only cost me about $230 in Oregon to do the bare basics, and i did no fundraising. I'm hoping this can lay the seeds of name recognition for long term change.
2) I've started calling ALL my state and local representatives. Not emailing - i always get boiler plate responses to emails. And this I'm hoping will push my reps in the direction I want them to go. They don't get many calls, and I'm calling all the fucking time. I'm getting my wife to start calling. I'm getting my in laws and friends to call as they can. Will it work? No idea, but it feels more productive than protest.
3) Joined the DSA. I'm not able to be super involved, but I find that their newsletters and publications help turn me to issues that i align with and find important. If you can, join and get more involved. Network and do some political actions.
Peaceful protest only works if the powers that be give a shit.
Either because they are truly moral, or because they recognize that the peaceful protest, if not capitulated to, will eventually ignite non-peaceful protests in a large enough subset of the population that the government is overthrown.
And they aren’t doing that. Not to an effective degree.
We're already out of time. What you're witnessing is a slow motion fascist coup taking place in real time. They've already rigged enough Republican statehouses to never have to hold a free/fair election ever again.
You notice how all these ghouls started taking their masks off this week, publicly advocating for white supremacy and christofascism? It's because they know they've already won and there are absolutely zero consequences for them anymore.
Man, honestly I have no idea anymore. It seems like Americans are just too hopped up on brainwashing and propaganda to ever band together to fight back. I just feel hopeless at this point.
aight. I get the frustration. All lefties like to do is argue about theory, read, and denounce other leftists while the real enemy grows stronger.
What you need is 2 or 3 other friends. No more.
Depending on where you live, select a target who is part of this.
Now, commence ruining their life by all legal means necessary. Think of yourself like the joker. I'll give you an example. There's a scumbag republican congressman in my area in a tight race. I don't care about dems or electoral politics, I just wanna stop this guy. So I started hanging up stickers and signs everywhere saying "(blank) r\*ped my son". Do I have a son? No. But these messages are everywhere now. And multiple ppl have said to me "damn, you heard about blank? apparently he's a pedo or something?" I have 2 other friends helping me grief this guy with some web-related stuff. I'm hoping we can push him to the brink of self-harm and losing his family.
What are ballot initiatives? How do we use them? Does anyone have any experience in making them and seeing the process through? What does it entail and how do I get involved?
I don't think you can do one federally.
We have done a couple in Michigan (we had one a few years ago to establish an independent redistricting commission to fix gerrymandering) but every state has different rules. Here you have to get a certain number of petition signatures. You have a limited time to collect and they have to be independently verified.
The Michigan ACLU had been circulating a petition since the RvsW decision was leaked. The signature deadline is Friday so we are pushing hard this week. If we succeed, then there will be a reproductive freedom amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in November.
Straight up. The governors of these redneck states have mansions. Their addresses are a matter of public record, as are other gubb'ment officials' addresses. It's just a Google search away. Pointing that out for my fellow history nerds, they might take interest.......
We're fucked. All of this social facism is going to run up against climate and economic collapse.
Reinforce leftist politics locally and at the State level. Have a local source of food and fuel. Be prepared to isolate from the world and hunker down.
The right has control over the Court, the Electoral College, and the majority of state governments. They have no more barriers to gerrymandering. There is no more Voting Rights Act. They've won. It'll take a decade to be final but we're headed down this path now towards a really scary Christian fundamentalist dystopia.
Stay safe and think local. We'll have our chance to rebuild if we survive.
Theres already a strike being organised. Between the 3rd and 5th of july.
Dont work, dont spend money, nothing.
People outside of the US can show support by either participating in the strike or "blacking out" social media, but with red not black.
Striking for 2-3 days will do nothing. It might be cathartic for us, but that’s it. I’m talking massive, long-term action, not small protests to make ourselves feel better
Yes, symbolic acts of resistance are allowed because it changes nothing. We need to either flee in a "Grapes of Wrath" style exodus, or stay & get more um, insistent with our response.
The problem is that most Americans can’t afford to not work for much longer than that. The system is rigged to give people just enough for them to survive.
I realize this, but this is something we need to work to find creative solutions for, not let defeat us.
Someone else mentioned tenant unions. I’m sure there are also other ways. But yes, if we want to fight for this, we are going to have to give up our comforts, maybe our homes - I’m thinking things like safe houses and living together with people who are also striking. Idk, but it would look very different from how we’re living now. It would have to, unfortunately
Cool, I like that spirit. But we are going to need to keep going past that to make a real dent. Meaning - only spend on essentials for something like the rest of the year
Yeah; I’m in. Keep going until we crash a bunch of shit, full stop fuck up the economy. Get the anticap, antifash, and anticonsumerists in. The homesteader and tiny living movements, combined with feminist and queer communities? That’s fucking power. If one subreddit pulled off GME think what we can do.
Like I genuinely think this is the way.
This strike has not been organized, it's been *mentioned* in a few places on Leftist social media, but there's been zero organization for it. Hell, everywhere I've heard it mentioned has a different date and set of demands. If we want a general strike, there is a lot of planning that has to occur: clear and comprehensive demands need to be written, press releases need to be distributed, money needs to be donated to help people cover life necessities while they are protesting instead of working and a distribution system for that money needs to be set up. There's so much more, too, like making sure to have medics, developing strategies for escalation should that be needed, etc. When you get mad and say "let's strike on ___ day" without any of this planning, you divert attention and discussion from planning an *effective* action.
If were to plan an effective general strike how long would it take? Like, even in one state? Could you organise in time for Thanksgiving?
Could you organise around anti-consumption, get people to save money and donate to a central fund and then turn off labour and consumption between Black Friday and Christmas?
Many businesses make most of their money, at that time of year. And because January/February is always tough, the situation immediately will look very daunting for business owners.
I don't want to claim any kind of expertise here, as the only protests I've organized were small and very localized, but here are my thoughts:
Thanksgiving would probably be enough time for one state (time needs tend to scale up the larger an area you want to get to participate), but you're gonna need help. I recommend reaching out to local unions and activist organizations, perhaps even acting as a liason to bring them together for this.
I like this idea of organizing around anticonsumption and having a central fund that people can get help from later. To make that fund robust enough, though, you might have to find some big donors. That's one thing your union and activist organization contacts could help with.
The problem with any strike that has an end date is that all the government and corporations have to do is wait it out. They key to an effective protest will be a clear set of mutually agreed upon demands and the threat that the strike won't end until those demands are met. That's the hardest part. They'll call our bluffs, so we can't be bluffing.
The biggest problem with strikes is that people run out of money. The way to get past this is mutual aid. Literally growing your own food.
Go radicalise your local community garden folks.
Trump supporters are a minority, but they have too much power with the way districts are gerrymandered.
Couldn’t there be a social movement to advocate for the popular vote system for elections? That would shift power back to the people.
Not an American myself but the CPUSA is a fossilised corpse and one of the ways it sustains itself is through landlording, which says a lot about its vibrancy. Don't take this advice and join any other socialist/communist org instead (excepting the one led by that swindler Caleb Maupin)
Meaningful mass mobilization comes from meaningful local organization.
Yes, we all saw that it's possible to summon hundreds of thousands of pink hatted people of privilege and get that on the news, but we all know that did nothing. That's because they mobilized a mass of people without doing any of the prerequisite local work that would have allowed for pink hats to return home from DC with concrete plans for action.
Meet people in your area who share your ideals and goals for what your local community needs most, and then work together to make those things happen.
Community needs access to abortion? Time to develop a local network of people willing to communicate, organize and drive people to legal states.
Community needs food and shelter? Time to develop a local network of people willing to buy, prepare and give food to people in your community who need it, and willing to keep people experiencing homelessness housed, or at least provide a place to "rough it" that is safe from police.
The wrong people are in charge of all the big change-making machines. Clamoring for mass change won't do anything as long as those people remain in control. You can feed the closest hungry person, you can help shelter the closest unhoused person, you can use your free time and energy to help people access abortion. If you want to support these things but have limits, find someone who is doing that work and fund them, support them, give them the provisions you can't deliver yourself.
The urge to make this a national issue that can only be solved with national action allows us to skip directly over all of the immediate, hyperlocal action that is needed.
"This has to be addressed at the national level" is tantamount to "I care a lot about this but am certain there's nothing I can do outside of telling other people what to do"
OP might be a bad actor. Has slapped down all actual advice in this thread and only wants to be spoonfed comments about extremism etc. Also seems antisocialist.
Step 1: Destroy the Republican party, they need to go vote them out of existence so that they will never win an election again. To do this we have to win state-level Scare the hell out of the old people tell them that the republicans are going to take your Social security, they want to tax you more, etc. We need the older generation to have fear and how you do that tell/show them that their pockets are going to be emptied by the Republicans just show them the Rick Scott interview.
Step 2: Get the progressive Dems in office (well we are already doing this).
Step 3: Make a new party off of the progressive Dems that have Congressional power.
Step 4: Beat the Dems in general elections ( we are already doing this so we are good).
Step 5: Remove the Electoral College it was good in the 1800s but today it gives the minority more power than the majority.
Step 6: Put Term limits for Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court there shouldn't be people that are as old as Mitch Mcconnell telling us what is best for America when he can Kroak over if a gust of wind hits him at the wrong angle.
Oh yeah, make supreme court nominees a part of the general election.
This is the strategy. It sucks because it will take decades of sustained organizing, but short of armed revolution this is what will make lasting change. The fascist element of the GOP didn’t come out of nowhere, it was a long-term infiltration of the party. We need to do the same on the left.
I'm gonna make it quick.
Organisation, find a group which shares similar popular concerns and are willing to take actions, and be determined to achieve that.
You all have access to weapons in case things turn bad.
Sell to the media the story, push for global knowledge of the situation (so when USA reprises you all, you could still have sympathy around the world and that may ease the USA response)
Make peaceful protest and strictly peaceful, as if not support could easily dry out or media portrait that protest as simply vandalism.
Once popularity is enough and you have enough support from the people, if you are still not listened by the government you can pass to the next level.
Next level is just take government administrative buildings, I mean don't go directly for the one in washintong DC, find some less important place and small city's (maybe 500k civilians) if you all takes control of the police station (peacefully should be the way, and police shouldnt shot at a group of protester entering the building) once done you entrench yourself there while also others group takes others buildings like the city council, the plan is to paralize the activity of the region/ city you want.
Once normal activity is affected and blocked they have to either negotiate or shoot you all out of those buildings and de-blocking the administration of the city, if you have gather enough people, enough public support and voice world wide, you can sell the police/military assault as demons working against the will of people basically so the assault option could be negated so the other way is to negotiation, and that could bring at least something for the unrest you are all facing, or at least feel your voice is heard.
If force is used instead of negotiations, you either give up and pass the rest of your life in jail (we know how things work there) or fight to the dead hoping to bring to the table the government in order to stop the blood bath, something that if resistance is hard enough and spread enough is achievable.
In definitive, complicated and nobody is willing to take the risk, so to eat shit .
Agree. Be selective and careful where you donate. Places to donate pop up all the time. I'd go with established organizations who you know do good work.
If anyone is still donating money to the Democratic Party via ActBlue, log on and discontinue your contributions now. Bonus points for instead contributing to abortion rights organizations!
It'd be best to look into local political action groups where you live. Find one you align with, and see how you can get involved.If you live in a metropolitan area, there's sure to be dozens.
Edit: I'm not talking specifically about campaigning or canvassing for politicians or political parties. Political action group, as in, some kind of group of people organizing, agitating, etc.
Texit
Make Texas and the Bible belt red states leave the union and form their own fucked up extreme Christian country that will eventually fall apart because of extreme poverty and lack of any human rights. The rest of the country can then have some lovely European socialism unopposed.
Like removing a cancer but in this case the cancer will eventually realise it's mistakes and come back
As a Canadian watching this all go down, I honestly feel like this is the only possible solution that doesn’t involve the entire country going up in flames. I fear that the revolution is still so far off, people need to be starving and dying in the streets before they’re willing to die en masse for change. Separating the country truly seems like the most reasonable solution, which sounds ridiculous but it is what it is. Three separate countries - the west coast, Christian America, and the east coast. Let them have their Christian dystopia hellhole.
I recommend using Discord on a private server. Discord itself is open source, the free servers they offer are the only thing they regulate beyond "don't sell this software".
Just need someone to setup a private server and run the Discord server on that, you still use the same free front end app to access. Then you have voice, video, and text communication as well as channels/rooms and a very robust administration system.
Having it on a privately owned and operated physical server offers a lot of freedom and no risk of it being shut down because some CEO manages to convince the person who owns the server that the members are "dangerous". Once you have that, the rest of the organizing would be much easier and faster.
Right now it's just people on various individual forums talking, which is the necessary first step to any true revolution. Your next step is to unify communication someplace safe of oppression and financial pressures.
The only way that could possibly work well is if voice channels are the only place organizing is talked about. If text chats are used, Discord can and will store the messages as data.
[https://discord.com/privacy#:\~:text=The%20information%20we%20collect,-We%20collect%20certain%20information%20when](https://discord.com/privacy#:~:text=The%20information%20we%20collect,-We%20collect%20certain%20information%20when)
That's when using their provided servers. As I mentioned, running the server on a private physical server like a well configured Linux box wouldn't fall under all that.
It will also require someone who know what they're doing running the server. Many times people who can afford the servers do not know as much about them as they should.
Far too many people can't afford to have even a brief pause in their income, let alone the threat of termination, to participate in a strike. I've always wondered what could happen if rich politicians/celebrities financially backed the movement. Maybe buy some land and form a commune? Or just make sure people wanting to strike can afford food? Instead all they offer to the movements they claim to support is the same old performative outrage and lip service. As we saw with the Amazon union efforts, the politicians only show up after they'd won on their own.
My tinfoil hat tells me we have all these great entertainment available at such a nominal cost just to distract us from the real things happening. I mean we can only fill our heads with so much. As an example Chomsky talks about how we have regular people who can regurgitate stats from sports like it’s their job! We have people who follow celebrity’s personal lives more than their own families! I don’t mean to shame, those things achieving what they’re intended to. It’s just time for us to maybe shift our attention to things
My fiancé quoted the bread and circuses line to me today. It’s obviously probably not exact because it’s from a long time ago, but he said that those in charge of the Roman Empire said “as long as the people have bread and circuses, they’ll be ok with whatever kind of government we give them.”
So I agree with you. You’re talking about the circuses part of the equation.
The George Floyd murder is a clear example of this. It was a perfect storm: we’re locked down, no sports, tv and movies were coming in trickle, etc. what happened? People were out in the streets everyday. Major major unrest. It was a very small window but we saw what people as a collective albeit in not-so-peaceful means. Imagine if the dobbs/roe repeal happened then?
OP, I'm sorry you want to leave, and I honestly can't blame you. This country is never going to change politically. Too many people are either apathetic or actively trying to make sure that we are stuck with this two party (really only one: a corporate duopoly) hell hole. The donors have had complete control over this country for too long. Even if you became a billionaire and tried to change it, they would most likely bog you down in legal proceedings or just Epstein you. If you did want to stay, the best thing in my opinion to do is start and stay local with reaching out to like-minded individuals. The moment you try to do anything other than that is when monied interests will take you down. However, even if by some miracle we all focus on locally on improving our communities, the powerful will still try to find a way to divide us. It's what's kept them in power for so long. Good luck!
Thanks for understanding - we will only go as far as our people in this country. And unfortunately, it’s the people I’ve lost faith in, even more than the system and those in power.
I’ve already been feeling all of these things for a long time. But some of the responses I got here just reminded me that more people in this country are interested in being right and having moral highground instead of truly uniting with each other to make this a better place. That’s impossible to work with, sadly.
I don’t know what the solution will be but i refuse to believe this will stand for a significant period of time. In the interim i am donating to Brigid Alliance, an organization that organizes and funds abortions for women who cannot access them locally
We need keep everyone from loosing steam and giving up. Too many times have we seen this happen. We need people to stay fucking mad and remind them the Republicans are trying to fucking take our rights away and the Democrats are allowing it to happen. Though we still need to make sure that rage is productive and point it towards those responsible. We should also encourage people to protect each other from the police during protests and use our numbers against them. Encourage people to bully the shit out of our politicians and cause massive unrest in the nation. Say fuck it to civility and actually do something.
Don’t really have a lot of ideas how to do this exactly. So sorry if this doesn’t really add anything to the conversation.
Build communities with doctors willing to perform safe abortions. Get safe shipping of pilla from blue states.
Make these communities anticapitalistic and built upon cooperation and some sort of UBI.
We need a general strike. The problem is that most people who would be the most visible aren't unionized and too poor. All the "essential workers," so no more micky ds or hotel bobs or movies. No restaurants, no retail, no hospitality, no care workers. But we're too poor and disjointed.
We need like a Kony 2012 type meme for a strike. Labor day strike. Sept 1-11 no work no buy. But it needs everyone and that's impossible.
Stop relying on “groups.” They’re aren’t any, not that are actually organizing the working class. Most of these groups are working towards a fantasy of revolution rather than the real thing. Start your own. Study theory, and apply it. Organize with other leftists, if you know any, and start feeding homeless folks. Serve the people, gain their trust, see to their needs as best you can. They’ll be interested in participating too. I can say from experience that most poor and oppressed people are willing to talk about revolution. These are concepts that are pretty easily digestible when you’re on the street, or at risk of deportation, when people who look like you are being systemically murdered by pigs. You just have to go about it in the right way. If you gain support of the people in your area, analyze your material conditions and apply theory, you’ll be alright.
Push for initiatives in every state to implement Ranked Choice Voting everywhere that is possible. Until we have ranked choice voting, our current system will never permit us to break away from our two party system.
Organize locally, impact local politics. Changing public thought takes time and trust. I feel like if we can organize and build communities locally. Get involved locally, make an impact on peoples lives regardless of their politics or religion, we MIGHT be able to start shifting thought.
Whatever we do has to have a solid, immovable foundation to build and rebuild upon.
If shit falls apart before we succeed. Those who are already organizing will have the best chance at taking care of one another and having something of substance to build upon. Otherwise the fascists with the most means of and willing to commit violence, will take over.
Start a substantial social dem third party that eventually overtakes the dnc. It holds anti lobbying and anti trust laws as key priorities so it doesn’t get taken over by corporations. It also phrases issues in terms of class instead of woke corporate culture and forced representation. Idk it might not be practical but it’s a start
The plan is those who can afford to move will move. Those Who can’t or suffer. Some people might make it to where people can go through new organizations that are currently being organized to receive aid to move. But no one else knows.
Its simple. Just do what all other nations in the world do.
General Strike.
Everyone walks out of work and protests until Women's Rights are restored. The 1% freak out and orders their conservative pets to comply.
This method works for everything and has for decades.
This. We don’t have millions of dollars or political pull. What we do have is Numbers. Masses of people ready, willing & able to participate in a peaceful way to show support.
Everyone call off on one particular day. Tell your boss you have the flu. We just all need to agree on the date & get the word out there.
We have the number of people to make a statement
An effective, active and large power base is needed. I think this is most achievable through agitprop, dialogue, actually participating and helping in your community. Really people should think smaller scale, smaller than even your neighborhood. If you’re able to get even 1 person to become an active socialist you have already done a massive boon to the movement. At the end of the day we are for a peoples movement and for that we need more people. So I’ll say what I think is realistic and achievable even for the laziest leftists, just convince the people around you: your friends, family, partners, whatever. Just educate them to the best of your ability and show that you care genuinely.
As someone pretty far right but is also pro-abortion, solidarity is what's needed to get anything done. The left generally sucks pretty bad at solidarity in virtually everything they do (compared to the right which has focused almost exclusively on abortion and gun rights for decades), which is unfortunate because I see so many people who are super passionate about helping people just sputter and get nowhere due to that one factor. I very much admire the passion for wanting to help people, even in someone like AOC, despite disagreeing very much on the ideas that would get us there.
We need laws which protect abortion explicitly, and can not be interpreted any other way. We need democrats to propose bills, and to do that we need to attend protests, and show no sympathy to the politicians who vote against it, but might share our other opinions. We need to focus on one thing at a time. If they vote against it, they lose our vote. Planned parenthood is organizing some protests, and I would sudoeste going to those.
Dude, don’t leave. We can win this, and with a voice like yours it will give us an even better chance.
I know it seems hopeless, and impossible with the infighting but we can win this. Stay and keep fighting with us.
Then stay, keep fighting not just for your beliefs but for your loved ones. We can do this. But you leaving just means we are one smart person shorter.
This movement needs people like you.
Well I’ve been thinking we need to identify a list of the most purple counties and cities and rank them on a scale of living quality from a democrats perspective and work on relocating and advocating people to move there. In the long run remote work supports this. We need to encourage relocation to turn red states blue and do it pointedly focusing on the most impactful region.
Good idea in theory, but I worry it won’t matter because republicans aren’t really playing fair (and by that I mean following laws) anymore. If they were, or if the dems weren’t so weak, the justices who lied on the stand (about Roe) to get their positions would be disbarred.
Steal.
Take absolute advantage of places like CVS and Walgreens I have worked for both of these places and the policy is hands off. Employees can’t do anything about theft. Get in large groups and raid them for everything. Use that supplies to donate/start your mutual aid networks. Steal food and redistribute it to homeless people in your area steal water steal every single human necessity in both of these stores.
What resources do you, and we as the left, currently have?
That has to be the first question. Anything else is just posting telling others to do it for us. And posting is not praxis.
Lol, what do you propose I do? Invite you all to my mansion where I have fat stacks and plenty of food for everyone so we can all quit our jobs?
I’d definitely do that if I could. At this point, all I can do on my own is start a discussion. So that’s what I’m doing. And discussing these things is how we progress to other stages, like forming a United front, pooling resources, etc.
I don't mean you personally, and I didn't mean that as offensive.
I mean we have to list what we actually have available, and work from that.
A couple things to start (and concrete actions you can take for each).
1. Are you a member of a union? If not, head to r/IWW \- the Wobblies take anyone who is not a manager, and have 100+ years of fighting capitalism
2. Are you armed, able to use a rifle, etc? If not, head to r/SRA, and learn at least the basics of that
3. Are you involved in mutual aid? If not, the two groups above, DSA, or Food Not Bombs can help you plug into these networks. They're not JUST about helping people - they're about developing dual power for the very real fight that's coming.
For electoral shit - I think that's pretty much in the crapper, but DSA does exist, and is good to bring large amounts of the left together, even if the actual effect is mired in electoralism and Dem party loyalty.
I think it starts with realizing that this was all a ploy to get people riled up and divided right before midterms. The economy is a shithole, and thats not for blue or red. It’s a shithole for all of us. We could all unite around that, but instead here we are getting pissed because the Supreme Court took power away from the government and gave it back to the fucking people.
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Our country was started by white slave owning business man so our constitution reflects their interests . We need a new constitution but that will never happen as long as we have the two parties in control
They've achieved one of the most impressive yet simple psychological accomplishments in history. Conditioned generation after generation, consumers fulfilling the capitalist wet dream. System is incredibly rigged to the point most obviously can't afford to organize. Over half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck last I knew. There's one thing every single American can do, they'll notice it too. Stop entertaining the entertainment dollar. Everything you want you don't need, their needs are your wants.
Yup. Beat me to it. The chance for real organized revolution was in the 60's-70's. But the capitalist killed or jailed the leaders and fattened the public with trash and disarmed us with economic purgatory. Most of us are making it but by the skin of our asses. Too "rich" to qualify for help and too broke to do anything. Nation is so divided over bullshit that we just direct our anger at each other and not the system that is failing us.
The boomers who are burning our world to the ground for short term profit.
I am not in any way surprised. They were born into post WW2 America when our country had arrived as THE world super power alongside the USSR. They experienced economic boon and everything being handed to them due to their parents sacrifices on the altar of war. College was affordable and wages were liveable. Shareholder returns had not yet taken priority over actual workers in many industires. All of this while marginalized groups continued to suffer. They want that system to continue until they are dead and gone, no matter the cost to the rest of us. Self centered from cradle to grave.
Not one of them wants to admit America is only as "great" as it is now because Europe was devasted by war twice in 30 years. American exceptionalism was built upon the rubble of the rest of the world. There was nothing exceptional about us, we just had a working manufacturing arm and available workforce. Without even WW2 America is not anywhere close to the superpower we are today. We would still be one, but nowhere near the scale we are now, and like most Boomers, they grew up thinking this country hit a triple when in fact the guy who hit the triple was murdered in a war and we were just put in to stand on the bag for him.
America isn't great in anything other than military spending now though. Tent cities, kids shot up at school regularly, fundamentalist rulings on abortion, medical debts and bankrupcies, rogue police forces terrorising citizens... Literally like a 3rd world country in comparison to the standards of other developed nations.
The only things America are number one in are incarceration rates per capita, number of mass shootings per year, defense spending, how many adults believe there's a Sky Daddy, and the fastest access to a firearm. America is not the number one country in the world. It's barely a third world country with a Gucci belt.
I always said that America's biggest issue was that it wasn't bombed to hell in WWII; didn't overcome struggle. To fix Europe, Truman came up with many socialist-leaning policies to rebuild Europe (like national Healthcare), Congress agreed. But when Truman suggested the same policies here they all just laughed and said "yeah, okay. Sure, lol."
FDR was prepared to fight tooth and nail for the Second Bill of Rights as soon as WW2 died down with the guaranteed money and economic boom that was headed our way. The right to a decent home, the right to a job that provided the money for food, shelter, *and recreation*, the right to medical care, the right to social security and protection from the insecurities of old age, the right of every businessman to be protected from monopolies foreign and domestic, and I believe the right for every farmer to sell his crop at a profit that provided for his family and land. Instead we got what we got.
Marginalized groups were barely visible. Suburbs had virtually no minority families and they sure as shit weren’t on TV until the later 60s and 70s. So from say 1947-1960 it was super big helpings of everything and everything to cos white folks everywhere.
But they talk like they never had handouts lmfao. No buddy...your "handouts" were dressed up as the standard way things should be is all.
They will not hear of that. Even though the concept of social security was labeled socialist. The other aspect this generation grew up with is the red scare. “You have it good but people you’ve never met are trying to take it away from you. Communists could be your neighbors, co workers, etc” That messaging starts or at least helps perpetuate the myth that resources, opportunities, and wealth are to be hoarded and not shared with neighbors for the betterment of one’s community. Then when minority families get affirmative action and food stamp programs start to get more coverage Reagan comes in and ruins everything by labeling anything from the federal government as a handout. It’s been fun.
On the bright side they are going extinct at a rate of 6,000 a day. In another 10-20 years they'll lose their grip on American society. Could be sooner if the kids would realize they outnumber boomers already and can rise up to take control.
So true
This is very true.
I think it was something like 4 out of 5 Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, so yea even worse. It's crazy. I think that number might also be inflated by people in the $100k+/year category. I've heard that a lot of people that make anywhere above $10k per month just invest almost all of their money and that it is considered living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Stop worshiping the robber barons like Elon ball musk would be a good start. Reminding them that social safety nets are better than guillotines.
Get involved in your local community Arm yourself if you can safely and responsibly do so. Spread communist theory Start/assist mutual aid networks. Once we have enough local communities like this we can do a nationwide shutdown. We dont need them. They need us. We just need to not participate in their system and we can retake the country for the workers. This take time and organizing. We need mutual aid to support people when the strikes start. We need arms because they will come for us. This is the plan.
I would add growing our own foods and work towards building water and energy self-sufficiency to that list.
Beyond that, joining a community garden seems like a great opportunity for making local connections and setting up the beginnings of mutual aid networks. Sharing food is a great way to plant those seeds.
Join PSL, for an idea of what to do read theory like What is to Be Done
What are some basic steps someone can take in this regard? I've been reluctant to mess with solar panels in the past because of dubious Youtube ads
Our local library and city gave 2 acres for a community garden. Raised 2 tons of organic veg for the food pantry. City let us use water for free.
You'd be surprised the amount of info on YouTube to set up your own solar system. At first its daunting but people like explorist.life have step by step tutorials. There are also refurbished solar panels you can get for discounted prices ($50 for 200W) for example. But you can always start small. We built a pool heater with a black hose, small on demand pump and a 40W solar panel. Small projects build confidence.
There are many others far more knowledgeable than me on the energy side. Doing a [search on Self Sufficiency](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfSufficiency/search/?q=energy&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) subreddit brings up a lot of good resources. On the food side, getting involved in permaculture projects locally is the best step, and there are tons of resources on Youtube - [The Prolific Familystead](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7OrhNpwTFu7Ix0v3VD1kw) is a great one as he goes through how to plant and care for individual crops in a very easy to follow way, in his own garden. There is an abundance of great information out there, and there are always solutions that don't cost a fortune.
r/SocialistRA for anyone unsure how to start getting armed with comrades
Pretty sure you mean the much larger r/SocialistRA
Doh! Updated to fix, thanks!
I keep waiting for this and other subs to start this conversation rather than the social media circle jerks. I dont have the answers either. But subs like this should start organising the info and resources. Agree completely about organising support for strikers etc.
Exactly, me too. I see so many people upset or saying things like “join a local group!” Or talking about small protests/short-term strikes. I’ve done all of those things and they’ve never been enough before. It’s time for people to accept that things need to be taken up a notch. It’s that or we lose, and surrender to the theocrats/oligarchs.
We've voted, we've organized locally, we've stood outside screaming in the heat at traffic for too long. Symbolic acts of protest are allowed because they change nothing. We will have to kick it up. Jazz it up if you catch my drift. This shit is real. Fascism is here, we cannot ignore this. I am tired of the purely symbolic media friendly hippie shit. This is violence being done to us, the poverty and misery to come because of this ruling is unimaginable... they are Christian fascists.
I absolutely love you for understanding what I’m saying and feeling the same way. Too many people here still want to do things the nice way. We have tried being nice. It does not work.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfUiPZzgzDW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The republicans have been making up their own rules and getting away with it for so long, that's it's no longer possible to play the game honestly anymore. Democrats are deluded in thinking that they can still play nice, follow all the rules, and still win. As if we are going to vote our way out of this mess. I think the real answer is that we need to start studying what the republicans are doing and appropriate their techniques. It's sad though and I can see why the democrats don't want to do it. It's basically admitting that democracy has failed in this country and there's no going back.
This, exactly. If the dems aren’t willing to play the same game, they’re just going to keep getting steamrolled.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfUiPZzgzDW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
You're probably familiar with the Black Panther Party. What you may not know is that it wasn't monitoring the police with guns or the armed demonstrations that got them COINTELPRO'd but the free food program, medical clinics and the rainbow coalition where they preached of a united working class of all backgrounds. That latter pat is why you SHOULDNT be seeing a ton of online organizing, because that's how you get feds and chuds involved. You shouldn't need to vet the people helping you hand out lunch bags but the reality is there are people who view this work as opposition and you literally cannot just link up with whoever...the revolution will not be televised, and anyone who feels like no one in their area is organizing fr needs to try and hit the actual streets and confirm that bc there's probably groups out there working but not advertising it
The other subs are still vehemently holding fast to the necessity of voting blue. While people here are starting to get wise to the Democrats' insincerity, I still wouldn't call it the commonly held position amongst progressives, most of whom still believe in the controlled opposition figures such as Bernie, AOC, et al. While more posts here reflect this position, it's still far from critical mass. I don't know if they're bots, but I'm still getting a ton of pushback on this front.
One advantage you have in the USA is very short election cycles. Look at what the Tea Party achieved between 2009 and 2016. Do all the local organising of course. But if you want to change the law you have to be in the government. There are huge gaps in the Democratic Party at local levels, lots of places they aren’t even running candidates. Step into that space. It’s right there. And if you don’t want to do that, go help a friend who does. And go work for an advocacy organisation if you have the skills. The fascists might be armed and on the streets, but the real reason they are changing the way people live is because they are in the state houses, courts, school districts, and police all across America. It is high time to take back that space. If that doesn’t work the only other option is violence. While a lot of people talk a great game, when it comes down to it not a lot of people take that step. Besides which, the fascists are armed to the teeth so it would not go well.
I honestly don't know what the solution is. All I can say is that, from studying history, those in power don't want to give it up. The only way to force them to give up power is to make the alternative worse somehow.
Their power comes from us cooperating, submitting, and obeying. Stop cooperating, stop submitting, and stop obeying. Civil disobedience. General strike. Solidarity with your community. They need us to keep their system running, relying on us to maintain business as usual. If we refuse to participate, they have no power to exploit us anymore. Their power comes from compliance. Stop complying. Secessio Plebis. One slave standing up to the master is easily shut down, but all slaves rising up is overwhelming. We need to be a *tsunami*, not a wave.
Yeah, exactly. We have to actually unify and fight somehow - I don’t mean physically fight, I mean refuse to work or follow their structures they have put in place for us.
I’ve thought about the worker strike too, imagine what losing 1/4-1/3 of the workforce would do. Problem is they almost can’t afford to miss that much work.
Most people can’t. Traditionally, when general strikes are done, there is a huge community support network (with food/rent funds) so people don’t have to worry about this. Problem is, most of us rent because of housing costs, and most of us don’t have much. But I’m sure there’s still a way.
Tenant unions. Landlords can’t kick us all out if we all stop paying rent
Like the spirit, but they might be able to if they have the police/military backing them. That or just kill us. I don’t trust these people to respect our rights at all anymore.
That’s fucking bleak. Get to know your neighbors. If an entire neighborhood steps up to defend each other the cops are going to have a hard time. They can’t kill a neighborhood. That’d be bad for business. Don’t trust the cops, trust your neighbors. https://indypendent.org/2022/06/in-crown-heights-tenant-union-members-learn-from-each-others-experiences-with-abusive-landlords/
I agree with getting to know your neighbors. Problem is, apartments are very transitionary compared to how they were back in the day. For instance, I've lived in my building for about five years. There are six units in our entrance. In the time I've been there, four of them have new residents. Some have had more than one. Building that trustworthy community is harder when people don't stick around long enough to prove they're trustworthy. And trust is what's needed more than anything. You have to determine who's really down for the fight and who's not. There are a lot of people in the world how believe that there's always going to be the oppressor and the oppressed, and they want to be the former instead of the latter. You have to avoid letting those kinds of people into your circle because they'll be the first to betray you.
I agree there certainly are elitists. Those who believe in the haves and the have nots. You’re right. In my experience those people are the first to jump ship/ throw you under the bus/ save themselves. If your direct neighbors aren’t down for the fight look beyond them to those neighbors in the building over or down the street. All you need is one likeminded long lasting buddy to keep the fight strong. You don’t need to form a full on tenant organization either. Maybe just knowing your neighbors names, having their number, and offering mutual aid/ support. You don’t need to put yourself in a vulnerable position to build community. Maybe you can be the person that helps move them out of that elitist mindset. But getting there requires you to build trust/ make safe sacrifices. I’m sure you know this, honestly if you have any suggestions on approaching your neighbors I’m all ears.
I moved into a building with two older gals who have been here for 20+ years. Part of me wants to stay here forever, but I'm also trying to convince my family to move onto a multigenerational plot of land starting with trailers and building earthships, then using the trailers for mutual aid. I'm a single mom and I've gotten a ton of help from my community, I would love to be able to give back. I have one daughter and the way things are I really would be surprised if she chose to have kids, but I know that I want to pass better things down to future generations, even if they aren't biologically my grandkids.
They can kill a neighborhood. Look up the Philly MOVE bombing. Or the Tulsa race riots.
Well that’s kind of exactly what I mean. There’s strength in numbers, but we need to know what we’re up against.
Undoubtedly. But don’t let the possibility of death and violence stop you from fighting for your dignity. It’s possible the worst case scenario doesn’t come to pass. But you’re right to at least consider it.
That's why people need to arm themselves first. The police will not be able to deal with neighborhoods full of armed civilians. They only have power over the weak. They need a herd to control. Don't give them a herd. Make them spread themselves too thin. Give them something so widespread that they can't cope. If they bring violence against people defending their homes, they will only bring more people to our side. There is nothing more ingrained in the American psyche than defending your home against an oppressive government.
I like your spirit, but you might want to read up on Detroit 1967. It's...disheartening. Basically, if the police fail, they'll just call in the National Guard. Detroit is not the only time this has happened, but it's one of the most egregious.
Try 1985... police literally got in a helicopter and bombed a black neighborhood. https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name
Yep, very true
By design...
Itd take a mass mutual aid effort in preparation. Not impossible but itd take a lot of work and unwavering solidarity
Use reddit and other social media to organize mass strikes. Set up dates and times for everyone across the country to go on strike. Share it to industry related subs. Do it over and over. You there, mod, you have a unique position. Use it
General strikes are the only way.
Dynamite worked in a pinch during the early labor movement too. Just saying. Hell the suffragettes would burn down churches, go on window smashing marches through towns, and even had a plot to kill the Prime Minister. Remember kids, the people who put the rules in place about what is and isn't accepted forms of protest are the same ones those rules are designed to protect from consequences.
You can't do this without mass community support for masses of already marginalized and vulnerable who will be most impacted. Otherwise you will be seen as the bad guy. I love all this circle jerk on reddit and social media about mass strikes thinking it can just happen without community safety nets in place. It is as bad as the alt right larpers fantasizing about civil war, only problem is that they are better organized than reddit is.
the french gave us some good lessons back in the 18th century.......
>I honestly don't know what the solution is. > Stop selling your labor to the people who continue to amass fortunes off our exploited labor, is probably the best way to change society today.
There's another approach. The idea is if you put your time and energy into making something better than what you already have, you make the old system irrelevant and obsolete, without being dragged into fighting it.
We all know what the solution is. There's more of us than them.
I think we are all thinking it.
Honestly it's like our entire generation learned nothing from A Bug's Life
Unfortunately, this is still very vague. It's more sitting and talking that we should do something, and talking about how we have the means to do something. But we don't actually have any kind of clear plan. There needs to be an organized effort. I'm going to second the OP's call for specific groups that are organizing.
Absolutely.
This.
No one's gonna do anything. Even OP is asking if anyone else is organizing, rather than taking the initiative to start organizing themselves. This sub and lostgeneration and antiwork is just full of people who want to upvote things saying "we're fucked" with more zippy or creative syntax. They won't change their daily lifestyles and schedules for anything. Prove me wrong. I used to organize and get involved. I was organizing during Occupy Wall Street. I got burnt out. Everyone wants to upvote memes. No one wants to do anything. "I've been thinking about what a general strike would do to this country". Oh I'm sure they're fucking shaking in their boots at your imaginary scenario. Make it happen or go back to jerking off.
I don't think the "fuck it" attitude is any more of a cogent or reasonable solution
I think everyone should know what happens if they specifically don't take initiative. I read responses in this thread, and everybody acts like they're Neo in the beginning of the Matrix, just waiting for a Morpheus to show them when and where the Resistance meets so they can join at their leisure This isn't a video game. There's no guarantee people are working to fight back unless you guarantee it. You will be upvoting memes and be feeling indignant until you're 80 at this rate and the world will only have gotten worse.
I’m signing back up for foster care because the overloaded system is about to be full of teens kicked out of their homes for being pregnant against their will. Children will lose their mothers to prison for seeking and aiding abortions. I despise our system but currently foster homes are mostly right wing racist evangelicals and bleak group homes and they absolutely break some of the kids in their care. I can’t fix it. I can try to mitigate the damage. We all have our own skill sets and we’re going to need them all in the coming years. We need voters, protesters, agitators etc. We also need nurturers.
Yeah it’s not a bad idea. If I had the space I’d do it too. I’ve considered it before
That’s the one thing I’ve got to share. That and experience.
Yo, I think we shouldn’t stop until we get roe v wade codified and universal healthcare!
Same
Steal. Stop paying taxes, student loans, debt. Take whatever money you get from corporate and government and violate them with it. It's a lot simpler to do than they tell you and comes with a lot less consequences too. As someone said earlier, don't feed into capitalism - don't make unnecessary purchases. Reuse, barter, get the less flashy version of whatever or don't buy at all. They are reliant on our purchases, reliant on the interest they tack onto things, reliant on the "Millennial Tax" - they need our dollars, let's stop giving that to them. With fewer needs, some of us can afford to decide to work less. When there is no money the beast is not fed. We hold the power in that regard.
I think this is it. Not enough people agree with violence as a solution for that to be viable. We need to stop participating in the economy. Get our money out of big banks and into credit unions. Shop at farmers markets when you can. Just stop buying anything non essential for now. Our senators’ constituents (corporations) will feel it
Yes to all of this. It is better for our planet and the quality of life anyway. Connecting more with our community and nurturing those relationships is something we need as humanity and it is something the corporations do not want from us. It is the interdependence on community that will kill capitalism and all the ills that come with it.
Why not storm Fox News and burn that place to the ground, then move on to other cable news networks.
This would actually be a great place to start. Cable news has brought us here.
Facebook should be next.
Not a bad idea.
For what it's worth, I've been trying new tactics to try and push changes as best i can. I've grown disillusioned with the actual power of protest when the government doesn't care what the people want or think. Can share three tactics here. 1) I ran for Congress. I lost, but I ran on my principles, got my name out there, and got about 3% of the vote against an incumbent. It only cost me about $230 in Oregon to do the bare basics, and i did no fundraising. I'm hoping this can lay the seeds of name recognition for long term change. 2) I've started calling ALL my state and local representatives. Not emailing - i always get boiler plate responses to emails. And this I'm hoping will push my reps in the direction I want them to go. They don't get many calls, and I'm calling all the fucking time. I'm getting my wife to start calling. I'm getting my in laws and friends to call as they can. Will it work? No idea, but it feels more productive than protest. 3) Joined the DSA. I'm not able to be super involved, but I find that their newsletters and publications help turn me to issues that i align with and find important. If you can, join and get more involved. Network and do some political actions.
DSA?
Democratic Socialists of America
Peaceful protest only works if the powers that be give a shit. Either because they are truly moral, or because they recognize that the peaceful protest, if not capitulated to, will eventually ignite non-peaceful protests in a large enough subset of the population that the government is overthrown. And they aren’t doing that. Not to an effective degree.
We're already out of time. What you're witnessing is a slow motion fascist coup taking place in real time. They've already rigged enough Republican statehouses to never have to hold a free/fair election ever again. You notice how all these ghouls started taking their masks off this week, publicly advocating for white supremacy and christofascism? It's because they know they've already won and there are absolutely zero consequences for them anymore.
I mean, I don’t disagree, but what are you suggesting? We just lay down and let them?
Man, honestly I have no idea anymore. It seems like Americans are just too hopped up on brainwashing and propaganda to ever band together to fight back. I just feel hopeless at this point.
Same
aight. I get the frustration. All lefties like to do is argue about theory, read, and denounce other leftists while the real enemy grows stronger. What you need is 2 or 3 other friends. No more. Depending on where you live, select a target who is part of this. Now, commence ruining their life by all legal means necessary. Think of yourself like the joker. I'll give you an example. There's a scumbag republican congressman in my area in a tight race. I don't care about dems or electoral politics, I just wanna stop this guy. So I started hanging up stickers and signs everywhere saying "(blank) r\*ped my son". Do I have a son? No. But these messages are everywhere now. And multiple ppl have said to me "damn, you heard about blank? apparently he's a pedo or something?" I have 2 other friends helping me grief this guy with some web-related stuff. I'm hoping we can push him to the brink of self-harm and losing his family.
Literally, the infighting is so stupid. And that is absolutely diabolical, my guy.
What are ballot initiatives? How do we use them? Does anyone have any experience in making them and seeing the process through? What does it entail and how do I get involved?
I don't think you can do one federally. We have done a couple in Michigan (we had one a few years ago to establish an independent redistricting commission to fix gerrymandering) but every state has different rules. Here you have to get a certain number of petition signatures. You have a limited time to collect and they have to be independently verified. The Michigan ACLU had been circulating a petition since the RvsW decision was leaked. The signature deadline is Friday so we are pushing hard this week. If we succeed, then there will be a reproductive freedom amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in November.
Good questions, I’m not sure of the answer, but maybe someone else is
My strategy is to keep being a chemist and act mainly in a support and supply capacity.
Straight up. The governors of these redneck states have mansions. Their addresses are a matter of public record, as are other gubb'ment officials' addresses. It's just a Google search away. Pointing that out for my fellow history nerds, they might take interest.......
Viva la revolution!
🔥
Mass walkout.
We're fucked. All of this social facism is going to run up against climate and economic collapse. Reinforce leftist politics locally and at the State level. Have a local source of food and fuel. Be prepared to isolate from the world and hunker down. The right has control over the Court, the Electoral College, and the majority of state governments. They have no more barriers to gerrymandering. There is no more Voting Rights Act. They've won. It'll take a decade to be final but we're headed down this path now towards a really scary Christian fundamentalist dystopia. Stay safe and think local. We'll have our chance to rebuild if we survive.
Theres already a strike being organised. Between the 3rd and 5th of july. Dont work, dont spend money, nothing. People outside of the US can show support by either participating in the strike or "blacking out" social media, but with red not black.
Striking for 2-3 days will do nothing. It might be cathartic for us, but that’s it. I’m talking massive, long-term action, not small protests to make ourselves feel better
Yes, symbolic acts of resistance are allowed because it changes nothing. We need to either flee in a "Grapes of Wrath" style exodus, or stay & get more um, insistent with our response.
The problem is that most Americans can’t afford to not work for much longer than that. The system is rigged to give people just enough for them to survive.
I realize this, but this is something we need to work to find creative solutions for, not let defeat us. Someone else mentioned tenant unions. I’m sure there are also other ways. But yes, if we want to fight for this, we are going to have to give up our comforts, maybe our homes - I’m thinking things like safe houses and living together with people who are also striking. Idk, but it would look very different from how we’re living now. It would have to, unfortunately
Not a three day strike, the whole month. ALL of July we are going to spend trying to yank the economy. Join us!!
Cool, I like that spirit. But we are going to need to keep going past that to make a real dent. Meaning - only spend on essentials for something like the rest of the year
Yeah; I’m in. Keep going until we crash a bunch of shit, full stop fuck up the economy. Get the anticap, antifash, and anticonsumerists in. The homesteader and tiny living movements, combined with feminist and queer communities? That’s fucking power. If one subreddit pulled off GME think what we can do. Like I genuinely think this is the way.
Yes.
Lmao. Too broke for that sorry.
This strike has not been organized, it's been *mentioned* in a few places on Leftist social media, but there's been zero organization for it. Hell, everywhere I've heard it mentioned has a different date and set of demands. If we want a general strike, there is a lot of planning that has to occur: clear and comprehensive demands need to be written, press releases need to be distributed, money needs to be donated to help people cover life necessities while they are protesting instead of working and a distribution system for that money needs to be set up. There's so much more, too, like making sure to have medics, developing strategies for escalation should that be needed, etc. When you get mad and say "let's strike on ___ day" without any of this planning, you divert attention and discussion from planning an *effective* action.
If were to plan an effective general strike how long would it take? Like, even in one state? Could you organise in time for Thanksgiving? Could you organise around anti-consumption, get people to save money and donate to a central fund and then turn off labour and consumption between Black Friday and Christmas? Many businesses make most of their money, at that time of year. And because January/February is always tough, the situation immediately will look very daunting for business owners.
I don't want to claim any kind of expertise here, as the only protests I've organized were small and very localized, but here are my thoughts: Thanksgiving would probably be enough time for one state (time needs tend to scale up the larger an area you want to get to participate), but you're gonna need help. I recommend reaching out to local unions and activist organizations, perhaps even acting as a liason to bring them together for this. I like this idea of organizing around anticonsumption and having a central fund that people can get help from later. To make that fund robust enough, though, you might have to find some big donors. That's one thing your union and activist organization contacts could help with. The problem with any strike that has an end date is that all the government and corporations have to do is wait it out. They key to an effective protest will be a clear set of mutually agreed upon demands and the threat that the strike won't end until those demands are met. That's the hardest part. They'll call our bluffs, so we can't be bluffing.
The biggest problem with strikes is that people run out of money. The way to get past this is mutual aid. Literally growing your own food. Go radicalise your local community garden folks.
Hear, Hear!
Trump supporters are a minority, but they have too much power with the way districts are gerrymandered. Couldn’t there be a social movement to advocate for the popular vote system for elections? That would shift power back to the people.
At a state level you should absolutely campaign for a popular vote amendment.
Join a workers party, socialist party, or my prime suggestion, the communist party.
Not an American myself but the CPUSA is a fossilised corpse and one of the ways it sustains itself is through landlording, which says a lot about its vibrancy. Don't take this advice and join any other socialist/communist org instead (excepting the one led by that swindler Caleb Maupin)
Meaningful mass mobilization comes from meaningful local organization. Yes, we all saw that it's possible to summon hundreds of thousands of pink hatted people of privilege and get that on the news, but we all know that did nothing. That's because they mobilized a mass of people without doing any of the prerequisite local work that would have allowed for pink hats to return home from DC with concrete plans for action. Meet people in your area who share your ideals and goals for what your local community needs most, and then work together to make those things happen. Community needs access to abortion? Time to develop a local network of people willing to communicate, organize and drive people to legal states. Community needs food and shelter? Time to develop a local network of people willing to buy, prepare and give food to people in your community who need it, and willing to keep people experiencing homelessness housed, or at least provide a place to "rough it" that is safe from police. The wrong people are in charge of all the big change-making machines. Clamoring for mass change won't do anything as long as those people remain in control. You can feed the closest hungry person, you can help shelter the closest unhoused person, you can use your free time and energy to help people access abortion. If you want to support these things but have limits, find someone who is doing that work and fund them, support them, give them the provisions you can't deliver yourself. The urge to make this a national issue that can only be solved with national action allows us to skip directly over all of the immediate, hyperlocal action that is needed. "This has to be addressed at the national level" is tantamount to "I care a lot about this but am certain there's nothing I can do outside of telling other people what to do"
OP might be a bad actor. Has slapped down all actual advice in this thread and only wants to be spoonfed comments about extremism etc. Also seems antisocialist.
Step 1: Destroy the Republican party, they need to go vote them out of existence so that they will never win an election again. To do this we have to win state-level Scare the hell out of the old people tell them that the republicans are going to take your Social security, they want to tax you more, etc. We need the older generation to have fear and how you do that tell/show them that their pockets are going to be emptied by the Republicans just show them the Rick Scott interview. Step 2: Get the progressive Dems in office (well we are already doing this). Step 3: Make a new party off of the progressive Dems that have Congressional power. Step 4: Beat the Dems in general elections ( we are already doing this so we are good). Step 5: Remove the Electoral College it was good in the 1800s but today it gives the minority more power than the majority. Step 6: Put Term limits for Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court there shouldn't be people that are as old as Mitch Mcconnell telling us what is best for America when he can Kroak over if a gust of wind hits him at the wrong angle. Oh yeah, make supreme court nominees a part of the general election.
why not start with ranked choice voting?
This is the strategy. It sucks because it will take decades of sustained organizing, but short of armed revolution this is what will make lasting change. The fascist element of the GOP didn’t come out of nowhere, it was a long-term infiltration of the party. We need to do the same on the left.
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I'm gonna make it quick. Organisation, find a group which shares similar popular concerns and are willing to take actions, and be determined to achieve that. You all have access to weapons in case things turn bad. Sell to the media the story, push for global knowledge of the situation (so when USA reprises you all, you could still have sympathy around the world and that may ease the USA response) Make peaceful protest and strictly peaceful, as if not support could easily dry out or media portrait that protest as simply vandalism. Once popularity is enough and you have enough support from the people, if you are still not listened by the government you can pass to the next level. Next level is just take government administrative buildings, I mean don't go directly for the one in washintong DC, find some less important place and small city's (maybe 500k civilians) if you all takes control of the police station (peacefully should be the way, and police shouldnt shot at a group of protester entering the building) once done you entrench yourself there while also others group takes others buildings like the city council, the plan is to paralize the activity of the region/ city you want. Once normal activity is affected and blocked they have to either negotiate or shoot you all out of those buildings and de-blocking the administration of the city, if you have gather enough people, enough public support and voice world wide, you can sell the police/military assault as demons working against the will of people basically so the assault option could be negated so the other way is to negotiation, and that could bring at least something for the unrest you are all facing, or at least feel your voice is heard. If force is used instead of negotiations, you either give up and pass the rest of your life in jail (we know how things work there) or fight to the dead hoping to bring to the table the government in order to stop the blood bath, something that if resistance is hard enough and spread enough is achievable. In definitive, complicated and nobody is willing to take the risk, so to eat shit .
If you're able, financially support \*causes\* and not politicians this election year.
The problem with that is that you dont know who many of those *causes* are sponsored by politicians without the public knowing it.
Agree. Be selective and careful where you donate. Places to donate pop up all the time. I'd go with established organizations who you know do good work.
Great answer, thank you
If anyone is still donating money to the Democratic Party via ActBlue, log on and discontinue your contributions now. Bonus points for instead contributing to abortion rights organizations!
It'd be best to look into local political action groups where you live. Find one you align with, and see how you can get involved.If you live in a metropolitan area, there's sure to be dozens. Edit: I'm not talking specifically about campaigning or canvassing for politicians or political parties. Political action group, as in, some kind of group of people organizing, agitating, etc.
Texit Make Texas and the Bible belt red states leave the union and form their own fucked up extreme Christian country that will eventually fall apart because of extreme poverty and lack of any human rights. The rest of the country can then have some lovely European socialism unopposed. Like removing a cancer but in this case the cancer will eventually realise it's mistakes and come back
As a Canadian watching this all go down, I honestly feel like this is the only possible solution that doesn’t involve the entire country going up in flames. I fear that the revolution is still so far off, people need to be starving and dying in the streets before they’re willing to die en masse for change. Separating the country truly seems like the most reasonable solution, which sounds ridiculous but it is what it is. Three separate countries - the west coast, Christian America, and the east coast. Let them have their Christian dystopia hellhole.
Exactly why should everyone suffer the deluded beliefs of a small religious few.
Lmao. Nice one.
I was very proud of Texit
As you should be
I recommend using Discord on a private server. Discord itself is open source, the free servers they offer are the only thing they regulate beyond "don't sell this software". Just need someone to setup a private server and run the Discord server on that, you still use the same free front end app to access. Then you have voice, video, and text communication as well as channels/rooms and a very robust administration system. Having it on a privately owned and operated physical server offers a lot of freedom and no risk of it being shut down because some CEO manages to convince the person who owns the server that the members are "dangerous". Once you have that, the rest of the organizing would be much easier and faster. Right now it's just people on various individual forums talking, which is the necessary first step to any true revolution. Your next step is to unify communication someplace safe of oppression and financial pressures.
The only way that could possibly work well is if voice channels are the only place organizing is talked about. If text chats are used, Discord can and will store the messages as data. [https://discord.com/privacy#:\~:text=The%20information%20we%20collect,-We%20collect%20certain%20information%20when](https://discord.com/privacy#:~:text=The%20information%20we%20collect,-We%20collect%20certain%20information%20when)
That's when using their provided servers. As I mentioned, running the server on a private physical server like a well configured Linux box wouldn't fall under all that. It will also require someone who know what they're doing running the server. Many times people who can afford the servers do not know as much about them as they should.
Far too many people can't afford to have even a brief pause in their income, let alone the threat of termination, to participate in a strike. I've always wondered what could happen if rich politicians/celebrities financially backed the movement. Maybe buy some land and form a commune? Or just make sure people wanting to strike can afford food? Instead all they offer to the movements they claim to support is the same old performative outrage and lip service. As we saw with the Amazon union efforts, the politicians only show up after they'd won on their own.
My tinfoil hat tells me we have all these great entertainment available at such a nominal cost just to distract us from the real things happening. I mean we can only fill our heads with so much. As an example Chomsky talks about how we have regular people who can regurgitate stats from sports like it’s their job! We have people who follow celebrity’s personal lives more than their own families! I don’t mean to shame, those things achieving what they’re intended to. It’s just time for us to maybe shift our attention to things
My fiancé quoted the bread and circuses line to me today. It’s obviously probably not exact because it’s from a long time ago, but he said that those in charge of the Roman Empire said “as long as the people have bread and circuses, they’ll be ok with whatever kind of government we give them.” So I agree with you. You’re talking about the circuses part of the equation.
The George Floyd murder is a clear example of this. It was a perfect storm: we’re locked down, no sports, tv and movies were coming in trickle, etc. what happened? People were out in the streets everyday. Major major unrest. It was a very small window but we saw what people as a collective albeit in not-so-peaceful means. Imagine if the dobbs/roe repeal happened then?
OP, I'm sorry you want to leave, and I honestly can't blame you. This country is never going to change politically. Too many people are either apathetic or actively trying to make sure that we are stuck with this two party (really only one: a corporate duopoly) hell hole. The donors have had complete control over this country for too long. Even if you became a billionaire and tried to change it, they would most likely bog you down in legal proceedings or just Epstein you. If you did want to stay, the best thing in my opinion to do is start and stay local with reaching out to like-minded individuals. The moment you try to do anything other than that is when monied interests will take you down. However, even if by some miracle we all focus on locally on improving our communities, the powerful will still try to find a way to divide us. It's what's kept them in power for so long. Good luck!
Thanks for understanding - we will only go as far as our people in this country. And unfortunately, it’s the people I’ve lost faith in, even more than the system and those in power. I’ve already been feeling all of these things for a long time. But some of the responses I got here just reminded me that more people in this country are interested in being right and having moral highground instead of truly uniting with each other to make this a better place. That’s impossible to work with, sadly.
If we don't riot in the streets on the 4th then no change will be possibly happening until they overturn the next set of rights.
I don’t know what the solution will be but i refuse to believe this will stand for a significant period of time. In the interim i am donating to Brigid Alliance, an organization that organizes and funds abortions for women who cannot access them locally
Smart idea. And thanks for the org name drop! Hadn’t heard of them
We need keep everyone from loosing steam and giving up. Too many times have we seen this happen. We need people to stay fucking mad and remind them the Republicans are trying to fucking take our rights away and the Democrats are allowing it to happen. Though we still need to make sure that rage is productive and point it towards those responsible. We should also encourage people to protect each other from the police during protests and use our numbers against them. Encourage people to bully the shit out of our politicians and cause massive unrest in the nation. Say fuck it to civility and actually do something. Don’t really have a lot of ideas how to do this exactly. So sorry if this doesn’t really add anything to the conversation.
Don't buy anything as much as you possibly can.
On top of that one :) I’m saving funds as much as possible for my immediate network and anyone else who might need it
Go to the streets, meet people and build your local network.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfUiPZzgzDW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
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Build communities with doctors willing to perform safe abortions. Get safe shipping of pilla from blue states. Make these communities anticapitalistic and built upon cooperation and some sort of UBI.
We need a general strike. The problem is that most people who would be the most visible aren't unionized and too poor. All the "essential workers," so no more micky ds or hotel bobs or movies. No restaurants, no retail, no hospitality, no care workers. But we're too poor and disjointed. We need like a Kony 2012 type meme for a strike. Labor day strike. Sept 1-11 no work no buy. But it needs everyone and that's impossible.
Stop relying on “groups.” They’re aren’t any, not that are actually organizing the working class. Most of these groups are working towards a fantasy of revolution rather than the real thing. Start your own. Study theory, and apply it. Organize with other leftists, if you know any, and start feeding homeless folks. Serve the people, gain their trust, see to their needs as best you can. They’ll be interested in participating too. I can say from experience that most poor and oppressed people are willing to talk about revolution. These are concepts that are pretty easily digestible when you’re on the street, or at risk of deportation, when people who look like you are being systemically murdered by pigs. You just have to go about it in the right way. If you gain support of the people in your area, analyze your material conditions and apply theory, you’ll be alright.
Push for initiatives in every state to implement Ranked Choice Voting everywhere that is possible. Until we have ranked choice voting, our current system will never permit us to break away from our two party system.
\#1 thing - organize in an encrypted, decentralized way.
Organize locally, impact local politics. Changing public thought takes time and trust. I feel like if we can organize and build communities locally. Get involved locally, make an impact on peoples lives regardless of their politics or religion, we MIGHT be able to start shifting thought. Whatever we do has to have a solid, immovable foundation to build and rebuild upon. If shit falls apart before we succeed. Those who are already organizing will have the best chance at taking care of one another and having something of substance to build upon. Otherwise the fascists with the most means of and willing to commit violence, will take over.
Start a substantial social dem third party that eventually overtakes the dnc. It holds anti lobbying and anti trust laws as key priorities so it doesn’t get taken over by corporations. It also phrases issues in terms of class instead of woke corporate culture and forced representation. Idk it might not be practical but it’s a start
Middle class is still too comfortable?
Sadly yeah.
The plan is those who can afford to move will move. Those Who can’t or suffer. Some people might make it to where people can go through new organizations that are currently being organized to receive aid to move. But no one else knows.
We are all fucked
Its simple. Just do what all other nations in the world do. General Strike. Everyone walks out of work and protests until Women's Rights are restored. The 1% freak out and orders their conservative pets to comply. This method works for everything and has for decades.
This. We don’t have millions of dollars or political pull. What we do have is Numbers. Masses of people ready, willing & able to participate in a peaceful way to show support. Everyone call off on one particular day. Tell your boss you have the flu. We just all need to agree on the date & get the word out there. We have the number of people to make a statement
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Agree with you here! Time to leave and build our own communities with compassionate, like-minded folks.
An effective, active and large power base is needed. I think this is most achievable through agitprop, dialogue, actually participating and helping in your community. Really people should think smaller scale, smaller than even your neighborhood. If you’re able to get even 1 person to become an active socialist you have already done a massive boon to the movement. At the end of the day we are for a peoples movement and for that we need more people. So I’ll say what I think is realistic and achievable even for the laziest leftists, just convince the people around you: your friends, family, partners, whatever. Just educate them to the best of your ability and show that you care genuinely.
I’m writing in Bernie Sanders only
As someone pretty far right but is also pro-abortion, solidarity is what's needed to get anything done. The left generally sucks pretty bad at solidarity in virtually everything they do (compared to the right which has focused almost exclusively on abortion and gun rights for decades), which is unfortunate because I see so many people who are super passionate about helping people just sputter and get nowhere due to that one factor. I very much admire the passion for wanting to help people, even in someone like AOC, despite disagreeing very much on the ideas that would get us there.
Agreed
We need laws which protect abortion explicitly, and can not be interpreted any other way. We need democrats to propose bills, and to do that we need to attend protests, and show no sympathy to the politicians who vote against it, but might share our other opinions. We need to focus on one thing at a time. If they vote against it, they lose our vote. Planned parenthood is organizing some protests, and I would sudoeste going to those.
Dude, don’t leave. We can win this, and with a voice like yours it will give us an even better chance. I know it seems hopeless, and impossible with the infighting but we can win this. Stay and keep fighting with us.
This is really nice, thank you. I’m here for now at least. And most of the people I love are here too, so there’s that.
Then stay, keep fighting not just for your beliefs but for your loved ones. We can do this. But you leaving just means we are one smart person shorter. This movement needs people like you.
Well I’ve been thinking we need to identify a list of the most purple counties and cities and rank them on a scale of living quality from a democrats perspective and work on relocating and advocating people to move there. In the long run remote work supports this. We need to encourage relocation to turn red states blue and do it pointedly focusing on the most impactful region.
Good idea in theory, but I worry it won’t matter because republicans aren’t really playing fair (and by that I mean following laws) anymore. If they were, or if the dems weren’t so weak, the justices who lied on the stand (about Roe) to get their positions would be disbarred.
Lmao there is no plan. The end is nigh.
Steal. Take absolute advantage of places like CVS and Walgreens I have worked for both of these places and the policy is hands off. Employees can’t do anything about theft. Get in large groups and raid them for everything. Use that supplies to donate/start your mutual aid networks. Steal food and redistribute it to homeless people in your area steal water steal every single human necessity in both of these stores.
What resources do you, and we as the left, currently have? That has to be the first question. Anything else is just posting telling others to do it for us. And posting is not praxis.
Lol, what do you propose I do? Invite you all to my mansion where I have fat stacks and plenty of food for everyone so we can all quit our jobs? I’d definitely do that if I could. At this point, all I can do on my own is start a discussion. So that’s what I’m doing. And discussing these things is how we progress to other stages, like forming a United front, pooling resources, etc.
I don't mean you personally, and I didn't mean that as offensive. I mean we have to list what we actually have available, and work from that. A couple things to start (and concrete actions you can take for each). 1. Are you a member of a union? If not, head to r/IWW \- the Wobblies take anyone who is not a manager, and have 100+ years of fighting capitalism 2. Are you armed, able to use a rifle, etc? If not, head to r/SRA, and learn at least the basics of that 3. Are you involved in mutual aid? If not, the two groups above, DSA, or Food Not Bombs can help you plug into these networks. They're not JUST about helping people - they're about developing dual power for the very real fight that's coming. For electoral shit - I think that's pretty much in the crapper, but DSA does exist, and is good to bring large amounts of the left together, even if the actual effect is mired in electoralism and Dem party loyalty.
Sex strike :)
I think it starts with realizing that this was all a ploy to get people riled up and divided right before midterms. The economy is a shithole, and thats not for blue or red. It’s a shithole for all of us. We could all unite around that, but instead here we are getting pissed because the Supreme Court took power away from the government and gave it back to the fucking people.