~2M voters (the margin of victory for the last presidential election) 55+ age out every year, ~5k per day. Rural America is rapidly evaporating with farmers (75-80% of whom voted for this) in extreme financial distress from the self inflicted trade war (China is zeroing out US ag imports as a show of counterforce, and they can outlast this admin). Rural hospitals are similarly at a breaking point with ~700 hospitals expected to close soon (~300 imminently) due to Medicaid cuts from the OBBB. And of course, he is beyond male life expectancy while having symptoms of late stage congestive heart disease and failure. "Hold fast." Embrace the suck while progress occurs one funeral at a time (Planck's principle).
I wouldn't say it's ONLY tech that is talked about here, I do see a lot of cross-over with Tech and the political climate in the United States as both are very much intertwined. I have seen people recognise that things are becoming a lot more autocratic.
Though for your sanity, I recommend trying to pull away from the news and social media much as possible. These places greatly amplify the issues and no doubt make people more anxious and nervous, because they want your attention on their platform all the time to advertise and make revenue.
It's important to stay aware of events, but you gotta make sure you take care of yourself too. Take a break if it's becoming too much.
As for what to do about the US... I can only hope your constitution and those who truly uphold its values will continue to fight the attack against it.
Shows of support show not everyone agrees. Break the illusion of absolute authority.
When I was in a bad place, I had a black friend who would always tell me 'I see you <deadfred>' and 'keep your head up'. Do that. Anywhere where you can be a feedback loop to give others a little support, a little strength, a feeling they aren't alone is huge.
Don't post negative if possible, that adds to their maximal pressure on society to look like they are winning, that supports them and their narrative. Post about your grandparents overcoming this stuff. Post america rejected it before. Post a small act of defiance you did, instead of conforming in advance. They will mock you, because all they have is mockery and pressure to conform to give the illusion that everyone has given in, that they have won. Their mockery is weakness. Is admitting they don't have control.
These people only win when we give up. It's why the have maximal pressure everywhere. In the hopes it overwhelms us and makes us think they have already won.
The primary key to democracy is that it allows voters to vote out unpopular autocratic politicians. Politicians don't want to give up power, but must be forced to (as seen in previous US election).
The usual narritive about democracy is that voters get to vote for policies they want: however I haven't seen that occur in my personal experience in New Zealand. However parties can lose an election for unwanted policy or because their leaders are not desired.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-man-gets-5-year...
That's the sort of future you're heading to if you don't stand up and do something about it.
I’m nowhere close to having kids, but if I do, there’s no way I’d educate them in a country where PragerU is considered a legitimate educational resource and school shootings happen every few weeks.
You do not drive on your bootstraps. Your food is not grown from your bootstraps. Your electrical grid is not wired with your bootstraps.
That said, perhaps those who ended up voting for Trump found Harris too articulate, too endowed with a post-fifth-grade-playground vocabulary, and were unable to understand her at the level and register with which she spoke — and thus, to them, it sounded like word salad.
The Feyman Technique, which I learned in college, says to simplify your speech so you and others can easily learn it. Public Speaking taught me to keep my words simple so a 5 year-old can understand me. It doesn't seem like Harris learned that, and her giggles and stutter made things worse. She failed to reach the people who are in the lower half of the IQ curve, and also insulted half the nation using hate speech on them when she should have used love.
I think people voting for Trump did it as a "F you" to Harris and the Democrats.
Did you know 8 million voters for Biden refused to vote at all? They would have voted for Harris if they did.
Trump received fewer votes but got the electoral college state points.
But a good point that people voted for Harris because they didn't like Trump. I am sure there are other factors as well.
PS this site is filled with people who downvote and flag any post that makes Trump look bad so good luck with yours.
Germans were 'simply' worried about their jobs and dealing with the 'violent left', homeless, and rounding up people that they viewed as invaders poisoning their way of life.
They were even largely quite happy with Hitler. He didn't take Germany against its will (technically he did, but the people fell in line and reported liking him after it happened, except for those "communists and antifa"), he was the manifest will of those who felt scorned by how society had changed around them. It wasn't until the fallout of the aftermath of their desires and evidence of the evils that they were perpetrating did they start to realize they were played and even then the sunk cost fallacy was too strong and many Germans went to their graves believing Hitler was right.
Best thing to do is not watch the news as much, it's designed to make you worry about things that are out of your control.
The U.S. is a huge country, so experience varies by region. But in populous regions, shopping centers and restaurants and clubs are filled with folks doing their normal thing. Businesses are doing their normal thing 9-5 every week, and local and state governments are running their ship as best as they can while navigating a different type of presidency. Property prices are up, and unemployment is relatively low.
There are concerns, but that’s normal for every country. It’s better for concerned citizens to reach out to their representatives to talk about specific issues than to let possible nation state actors rile you up into extremism. Democracy is alive and well in America, but yeah it’s tougher for liberals and globalists to push anything that’s not America First.
There aren't many "snowflakes" around here, as far as I can tell, but just in case you're looking for one, those are some helpful tips for your search.
Part of living in a democracy is not always liking the current administration. The administrations, good or bad, are temporary.
George W Bush once said: “We're here in the Oval Office, and by the way, the office is bigger than the person. And so when you work for democracy and freedom in your country, make sure you put institutions in place that are bigger than the individuals.” [0]
The office is bigger than one man. And if you think Trump is ruling as if it’s not, then you should be happy, because any rule he makes that way can be undone just as easily if it doesn’t make sense.
[0] https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/results/leadersh...
It appears the supreme court is, as well.
They keep hinting at wanting to use those above two factors to get rid of term limits.
The important question to ask, is why the Democrats have had such a hard time winning at the polls? Clearly the message of “we’re not Trump” isn’t enough for voters, and voters also don’t like candidates being chosen for them (even Bernie agreed that the Democrats haven’t had an honest primary since 2008). The party is broken, and it’s easy to point the finger at the right, but the Democrats have been hemorrhaging voters and still seem unable to get their act together enough to win people back. There is a growing center that feels both parties have left them behind, and it would be great if the Democrats could wake up, see that, and move forward with an ounce of common sense to win them back.
Balance won’t be restored by demonizing the right, it will be restored by the Democrats getting their own house in order, before they claim to have the answers for the country.
At this point, both parties might be too far gone. I’d be happy to see them both implode and new parties emerge without all the baggage of the past.
But that would probably confuse the hell out of most zombie Americans and half would end up so confused, mental hospitals would be overflowing with patients. Cant have that…
Where was i again? Oh yeah. I think it's just a transient phenomena. America needs a lot of fixing and Trump doesn't have a lot of time. He certainly doesn't want to waste it clarifying the legal limits of his authority. But no. The US is fundamentally too strong to fall like that.
Earlier today [1] in response to a comment of mine and in all seriousness someone bemoaned the fact that America was so terribly authoritarian that Trump has the House, Judiciary and most of the voters on his side! Yeah democracy can be inconvenient like that sometimes.
My opinion is that Trump is the hero america needs not the one it deserves. I'm not coming to trivialise anyones concerns but i don't think he's the antichrist people make him out to be. He's been doing a truly absurd amount of winning from his perspective at least and if anything is a great example of how much a truly powerful Western leader can achieve. The only question that remains is if his policies are correct or not which is a matter of rigorous debate, not all of which is conducted in good faith.
[1]I'll post the relevant part here for convenience >>What's interesting is that the gaps in our political system that allow him to do so many illegal and distasteful things have always been there. The framers of the constitution never anticipated all three branches of government colluding together in alignment and bad faith, with the vociferous support of roughly half the voting population.
Legally, in the US, once a POTUS makes such an emergency order Congress must vote on it's continuance within 30 (? short fixed time period that I don't recall ATM) "congressional days".
Legally (and this is very weird, I don't exactly know how this is being accounted for on the books) exactly zero "congressional days" have passed since then.
Legally, Congress has had no clock run out on any required vote, legally there has been nothing amiss to appeal against and for Courts to rule on.
Yes, this sounds crazy, bizarre, abnormal, made up. Yes, it's true.
Reference: HN 6 months past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343