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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> US century is already over

Maybe, maybe not. We're currently the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Gerontocratic. Sclerotic. Hyped up on a new mythology. And economically uncompetitive on several levels, with the future (then computers, now elecrification) sweeping past us to our applause.

Unlike the Soviets, however, we can see it happening and debate it. If '26 and '28 change course, the damage will still be done. But the America Empire is still young. And Trump's stupidest policies–the tariffs, fighting the Fed, Greenland and raising a Gestapo–don't have the support of most Americans. That leaves hope for reform through electoral pressure.

It will take work. But it's as incorrect to assume indefinite American hegemony as it is to preëmptively concede the game.

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> Unlike the Soviets, however, we can see it happening and debate it.

I think you’re severely underestimating how much public discourse has already been chilled. There are a lot of things leaders across business or government won’t say any more for fear of being targeted. And let’s be honest the people who rise to the top in America aren’t the selfless kind.

How do you suppose we change the minds of the third of Americans who like having a Gestapo

Most people aren’t empathetic enough to learn from other people’s mistakes. So the answer is, you don’t. Hard luck. At least you had it good for a while.

> How do you suppose we change the minds of the third of Americans who like having a Gestapo

You don't. You work around it.

10 to 20% of Americans will agree with just about any stupid proposal. It's idiosyncratic, however, so even if you shut off that position, they still find representation on other issues. (Unless they're single issue. In that case they're either incredibly powerful, but only when it comes to that issue, or worthless.)

My outsider's POV: the fact that there's a Gestapo-analogue in place already tells me that an electoral solution alone is almost certainly no longer sufficient (or at least, unlikely to be effective) at this point.

The Democrats have also had very weak messaging ahead of the midterms. Like, pathetically weak in the current context.

This is to say nothing of the hypothetical where the US makes moves against allies' territories before the midterms.

> the fact that there's a Gestapo-analogue in place already tells me that an electoral solution alone is almost certainly no longer sufficient (or at least, unlikely to be effective) at this point

Read up on the American Whig Party and President Andrew Jackson. Or, more recently, Poland. This is absolutely still in a reversible field.

> Democrats have also had very weak messaging ahead of the midterms

Utterly leaderless. In part because a lot of the party is compromised in having covered up Biden.

The Whigs would be new ground for me, but I'm quite familiar with modern Poland. The closest they've come was probably under the living Kaczynski's tenure as premier, or during Duda's early days as president, and neither have come close to what's going on with the police state in the US as it is today.

I'll read up on the Whig party, though if you have ledes that'd be good to start with, I'd love some links.

> raising a Gestapo

If they were really Gestapo you wouldn't see people tailgate them in a Subaru or scream in their faces

> If they were really Gestapo you wouldn't see people tailgate them in a Subaru or scream in their faces

Fine. Brown shirts [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

I'd agree with most of what you said, but there is no "raising a Gestapo". ICE has existed for 25 years. And the laws that give it permission to act haven't changed. It has gradually grown over the decades but what it fundamentally does has not.

What's new is finally the federal government pushing back against locales that refuse to allow local police to cooperate with federal law enforcement by means of massive influxes of federal officers to offset the lack of local support.

Also ICE has widespread support for what they are actually doing. Only when you ask manipulative questions that presume something is happening that isn't, do you get poll results that support a widespread dislike for ICE.

> ICE has widespread support for what they are actually doing

Minnesota would like to have a chat with you.

https://www.kttc.com/2026/01/20/americas-pulse-current-ice-a...

About 40-50% are in support, so the parent's accurate. That roughly matches the political divide across the states.

The first sentence says that that's a national poll, not a Minnesota poll

I mean yes conservatives like gestapo mistreating their political opponents. It does not make it not gestapo or not lawless.

It makes conservatives who they are - fascist party.

ICE has not been disappearing people to meet quotas for 25 years.

"Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They're allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they're robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone."

I'm not sure what you're quoting but that is fan fiction of some sort divorced from reality.

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