Apropos to this, I just finished reading Tom Hartmann’s: The Last American President.
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Apropos to this, I just finished reading Tom Hartmann’s: The Last American President.
One of the most powerful things he ends with is a reminder that, once an autocracy takes hold, it takes years to get rid of it. (Because, as he rightly points out, it took years to manoeuvre into place).
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
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Apropos to this, I just finished reading Tom Hartmann’s: The Last American President.
One of the most powerful things he ends with is a reminder that, once an autocracy takes hold, it takes years to get rid of it. (Because, as he rightly points out, it took years to manoeuvre into place).
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
My deepest concern is that Americans, regardless of political polarity, suffer from a jaw-dropping level of exceptionalism. Even the really bright ones I know feel that the experience of others is of no use to them. They’re special.
There was a chance to have ended this quickly right after Trump’s 2nd inauguration, by a mass movement of refusal, but hey, everyone was too busy looking at each other and saying “Can you believe that?” and shaking their heads instead of getting into good trouble.
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My deepest concern is that Americans, regardless of political polarity, suffer from a jaw-dropping level of exceptionalism. Even the really bright ones I know feel that the experience of others is of no use to them. They’re special.
There was a chance to have ended this quickly right after Trump’s 2nd inauguration, by a mass movement of refusal, but hey, everyone was too busy looking at each other and saying “Can you believe that?” and shaking their heads instead of getting into good trouble.
Hartmann’s book has a really good chapter on how citizens in other countries managed to put the breaks on authoritarian governments in their countries. But it involved concerted, never-let-up public pressure, and people in all walks of life being determinedly non-compliant.
I watch Americans having hissy fights over how bad the Democrats are (which they are - they’re fucking pathetic), but they’re not MAGA, and how there’s no parking space at demonstrations.
So… I just don’t see his optimism.
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Hartmann’s book has a really good chapter on how citizens in other countries managed to put the breaks on authoritarian governments in their countries. But it involved concerted, never-let-up public pressure, and people in all walks of life being determinedly non-compliant.
I watch Americans having hissy fights over how bad the Democrats are (which they are - they’re fucking pathetic), but they’re not MAGA, and how there’s no parking space at demonstrations.
So… I just don’t see his optimism.
And if I’m honest, even he sounded a little hollow and forced about it.
To my mind, the reality is… you have to tax those billionaires into penury. It’s really the only way I can see anyone getting a representative government back.
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And if I’m honest, even he sounded a little hollow and forced about it.
To my mind, the reality is… you have to tax those billionaires into penury. It’s really the only way I can see anyone getting a representative government back.
@Remittancegirl - and, on a more fundamental level, to do things like that you need at least *some* societal solidarity, which is another thing Americans shy away from like the plague. Add that to the exceptionalism you rightly mention & you have a perfect recipe for the population least likely to mount a revolt, no matter what their regime does to them. They'll still have monuments & holidays remembering the rebellion that founded the nation, though, because they also don't get irony very well.
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@Remittancegirl - and, on a more fundamental level, to do things like that you need at least *some* societal solidarity, which is another thing Americans shy away from like the plague. Add that to the exceptionalism you rightly mention & you have a perfect recipe for the population least likely to mount a revolt, no matter what their regime does to them. They'll still have monuments & holidays remembering the rebellion that founded the nation, though, because they also don't get irony very well.
Maybe the problem with monuments is that they’re static. You get to enjoy the pride of that rebellion without having to even contemplate the sacrifices it took to enact it.
Americans are shit at self-sacrifice unless it comes dressed as a financial transaction. They’ve been crucifying themselves on the altar of private healthcare for years. But the majority of them still can’t contemplate universal healthcare. They’re even exceptionalists in their misery.
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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Maybe the problem with monuments is that they’re static. You get to enjoy the pride of that rebellion without having to even contemplate the sacrifices it took to enact it.
Americans are shit at self-sacrifice unless it comes dressed as a financial transaction. They’ve been crucifying themselves on the altar of private healthcare for years. But the majority of them still can’t contemplate universal healthcare. They’re even exceptionalists in their misery.
@Remittancegirl Yeah, "nobody helps anybody unless there's a reward" is the actual American credo & they believe in it even as they're in the middle of it not being true, e.g. Craig T. Nelson's "I was on foodstamps but nobody helped me".
Rowdy Roddy Piper used to live on the street & said "nobody helps anybody there"; even though he owes his fame to a film where people help each other *against the lure of profit* trying to save the world...
It's a cultural delusion, basically.
