We obviously differ in our understanding of the situation. A lot of this is inevitably a matter of subjective judgement and interpretation rather than simple proof. This is just my take on it; I’m no less fallible than anyone else.
But to present my alternative perspective…
That was last year’s fight; we lost.
Fascist America isn’t a potential thing, it’s an actual thing. They aren’t at full intensity yet, but they’re working up to it. The process is likely to rapidly accelerate after the midterms, and/or when another war begins.
- Resistance in Washington.
Yes, it should happen, although the numbers mean that any such action is usually symbolic. Unfortunately, the Establishment Dems are barely resisting at all.
- Elections in 2018.
There are several problems with that.
Firstly, a thousand Puerto Ricans are already dead, and they are still dying. The civil society of Puerto Rico is being actively dismantled. The island will never recover if this process is allowed to continue.
Secondly, poor and Black Americans are still being routinely murdered by police, with no chance of justice.
Third, millions of poor and Black Americans are functionally enslaved in a brutally biased carceral state.
Fourth, one child is being killed every ten minutes by the US-backed Saudi attack on the people of Yemen.
Fifth, the US war machine is straining at the leash. Trump will launch a war. US Presidents always do.
Sixth, and most importantly: fascists are counting the votes. The Trumpists are bastards, but they aren’t all idiots. They know that they would be deposed if a real election were to be held. That is why they are actively, obviously and successfully working to prevent that possibility.
- Stand up to fascist thugs.
Damn right; with you 100% on that.
The folks doing that could use some help, though. Protest is expensive, and BLM and Antifa are working class. They don’t have a lot of resources to spare.
There’s also the “if you don’t want us to fight, show up with us and we won’t have to” angle. There have been some good demonstrations, but where are the millions of middle class people who showed up for the centrist-organised demos that happened in the first days of Trump?
- Support immigrants.
See this thread:
They ain’t doing too well. Trump is arresting undocumented Americans even faster than Obama did, and they are deliberately targeting the most vulnerable amongst them.
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I could keep going, but you get the idea. Obviously, I do not think that this is a situation that calls for gradual, incremental reform or purely defensive resistance.
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I do not ignore the role of Russia; I was one of the first here to point it out, and one of the only people mentioning the implications of military alliance. They provide valuable hacking and propaganda support to their Trumpist allies.
Most of what the Russians are doing on social media appears to be focused on two areas. Firstly, they use botnets to manipulate the trending algorithms of Twitter/Facebook. You can see what they’re doing on a daily basis via sites like this:
In non-bot social media, they mostly appear to be limited to fairly crude and obvious driving trollies. However, for every Russian trolley, there are thousands of American shitposters doing the same thing, often much more skilfully.
