Our Best Option for Defending Ourselves From Trump’s Second Term Is Each Other
Our Best Option for Defending Ourselves From Trump’s Second Term Is Each Other
Policy solutions, tech fixes or billionaires won’t save us. We must commit to the work of mutual aid and direct action.
The article discusses the response of liberal organizations like the ACLU to Trump's election in 2016, and how their messaging was ineffective at mobilizing people to take meaningful action. It criticizes Democratic politicians in Washington state for making symbolic declarations against "hate" while simultaneously enacting policies that harm marginalized communities. The piece argues that the U.S. government, under either party, is fundamentally committed to projects of empire, militarism, and oppression, and that voting or working within the system cannot address the urgent global crises we face. Instead, the author advocates for direct action, mutual aid, and other grassroots efforts to support and defend vulnerable communities, rather than relying on policy solutions or the courts to save us. The article emphasizes the need to divest from trying to reform U.S. institutions, and instead focus on caring for each other and attacking the infrastructures of violence and extraction. It acknowledges the risks of increased repression, but argues that resistance and bold action at the local level is our best hope for creating material change. Ultimately, the text concludes that we must let go of the fantasy that the U.S. government can be made to care for us, and instead devote ourselves to the unglamorous but vital work of supporting each other and building alternative forms of collective resilience and resistance. The stakes are high, but the author believes this is the only viable path forward.
I think this kind of work is necessary regardless of what happens. Join an organization and start building alternative systems and structures and try to advocate for policy changes that will support these alternatives. Here are some links to leftist organizations doing some of that work. You can also look into starting or joining cooperatives and/or land trusts in your area as some ideas to get started.
https://www.iww.org/ https://frso.org/about/ https://pslweb.org/program/ https://www.dsausa.org/ https://www.cpusa.org/
Yes. And they know this and they are actively dividing us and driving us apart and to each other’s throats. Until people realize the whole system is stacked against them we will be stuck like this. As long as we consume their media and stay zombies, it’s only going to get worse and more vitriolic.
My easy to understand guide.
- Wait for the GOP to fuck up, again. And for discontent to rise in the swing voters
- Recruit swing voters to ground level activism
- Flip the political monopoly board, aggressively.
The enemy is the billionaire financial backers of both parties.
The whole article is about how working within the system like that has been a complete failure.
- Cope with the cruelest, most corrupt supreme court ever, for the next 50 years.
I was thinking today we're not far from having a new Fugitive Slave Act, only with migrants. At this point, I don't think we can really say anything is off the table. I don't know any check or balance that isn't currently compromised or 1 executive order from elimination.
Pack it with more Judges.
That's part of step 4-infinity of potentially fixing this shit. Impeachment of corrupt federal judges top down (I wish for imprisonment as well but I know better) or at least packing in judges who follow basic legal precedent and reasonable constitutional interpretations.
It's cute that you think elections will still be a thing in four years.
I think voting might've been the best option, but that's a bit too late now
Yeah... I'm not convinced. After this election, I think the answer is less "it takes everyone" or "it takes all kinds" and more "here's evidence there are quite a lot of people we could do without".
Edit: and a lot of the people we can do without are ostensibly lefties. You want to call maga folks stupid for being single issue voters, then you can't be a single issue "conscious objector". I hope if you didn't vote for Harris you get the rough side of the next two years for being a magnum toolbag.
Edit 2: all you .ml shitbirds can also lick an outlet as far as I'm concerned
An article about how we all need to come together opens with a salvo against all of their allies. Beyond parody
When those "allies" have replicated Republican border policies, Republican homelessness policies, Republican oil policies, and Republican Middle East policies, how "allied" are they?
Or leaving.
All you have to do is upend your entire life.
Yep. And if not now, when?
Leaving, unfortunately, just gives you less power. The US plays in a global sandbox.
Disagree. If my life is worth anything, it's making money for other assholes, and I refuse to contribute to what these assholes happen to be doing.
Fuck everything about that if I have choice.
Anyone else out there on the fence and wondering what to do, just leave.
Ignore all these people telling you to fight. This is a stone cold done deal unless there is military intervention.
But most of us voted for him.