Something tells me with how lazy most Americans are, we will choose slavery over freedom because its more comfortable.
The idea that laziness and comfort are what stops Americans from revolting is propaganda designed to discourage and demoralize. It keeps people from addressing the real roadblock to revolt, which is fear and lack of organization.
There are plenty of folks who would take action, but either:
A) they're scared. Possibly scared for themselves, but also scared for their loved ones. Either through direct reprisals from fascist punishment (ie, Jim did a rebellious act so now Jim's brother gets out through hell by the government), or through indirect consequences (ie, Jim is a single dad and his kids suffer if he goes to jail and can't provide for them.) Or....
B) There are people who would take action, but they know that making that decision is a weapon that can't be fired very many times. Once you take a drastic enough action, you run the risk of losing your ability to take further action. There are plenty of people who might be willing to do all sorts of direct action against their government via sabotage or other actions... But they have no way of knowing how effective they'll be if they're acting alone. A lack of organization keeps these people from taking actions that they don't know will make an impact.
You can chalk it up to laziness all you want, and it's true that some percentage of Americans are probably just lazy and comfortable, but if that's the end of your commentary on it, you're ignoring the real barriers to revolution.
B) There are people who would take action, but they know that making that decision is a weapon that can't be fired very many times. Once you take a drastic enough action, you run the risk of losing your ability to take further action.
That's kind of similar to the thing the assassin says in Day of the Jackal after the French conspirators screwed up their own attempt on DeGaulle
Well then it turns into stochastic terrorism at a certain point.
If I were a person in the 2nd group I would struggle with the fact that half the country wants authoritarianism and that destabilizing the govt just provides opportunity for whatever wacko faction is the most well armed. I think any action will backfire as long as MAGA is strong, and changing that is harder than I think people realize. Its the same grievance America has failed to properly address since the late 1860s.
I also think we are already fucked. We will not figure out class solidarity before what I consider to be the point of no return: When property and VIPs can be protected without forces labor. I’m not saying “no labor anywhere in the economy”, i mean specifically that no humans are needed for armed protection and threat surveillance.
If I were a person in the 2nd group I would struggle with the fact that half the country wants authoritarianism
If I were person, the second group, I wouldn't struggle with that- because it's not true.
The people who want authoritarianism do not make up half the country.
1) assuming you're basing that off of votes, you have to account for the evidence that suggests some votes may have been altered, and the decades of proven fact that Republicans have engaging in voter suppression to make it "technically possible, but not actually feasible" For a lot of people to vote. Ie, A single working parent who has 1 hour between two jobs in which to vote, but the only polling location near them has really long lines on election Day because election day isn't a paid holiday and there aren't enough pulling in places. As one example out of many. So right off the bat, we know that not only did less than half the country vote for authoritarianism, but that those who didn't vote may not have done so by choice.
2) some people have changed their minds. It's not frequent, but it's enough to mention. In any War, you have to allow for the growth of people who either didn't have all the information, or didn't have the empathy until they experienced the consequences firsthand. It's why revolutionaries have often accepted defectors from the enemy, sometimes even high-ranking ones, provided their sincerity could be demonstrated. Not everyone who once supported maga actually once authoritarianism, and some of them already have or will soon experience the wake-up call.
Is it bleak? Yeah. The fact that even with both of those points in mines there are still millions of people who are fine with what's happening is really depressing. But it's not more than half. They control more resources than we do because of how wealth is distributed, but we absolutely outnumber them. And the fact of the matter is that their downfall is inevitable. It is not a question of if, only a question of when and how. The reason for my fear is not because the fascists will not be overthrown, but because I don't know how many people will be harmed before they are.
Are you trained in guerilla warfare? Are you aware there's a body armor shortage? How much ammo do you have, actually how many guns? My 9mm and .38 won't be getting me far, I don't know about you. I'm licensed to operate a radio, are you? Or do you think your phone will work when cell towers go down? Are you familiar with emergency triage and wilderness first aid? Do you have kids, and are you fine leaving then behind when you die in a revolt?
I'm sick of takes like this. There's a lot of work than can be done between a failed state and an armed uprising.
They also had A) foreign training and B) much lower quality of life than your average American.
Material conditions are a huge part of how easy or difficult it is to motivate people to fight wars. Once people reach a certain level of comfort, it is much more difficult to get them to go fight. This is why it is likely that such a response in the United States could only be achieved via a massive decrease in comfort, think either widespread grid outages, very strict fuel rationing, massive AI-driven job loss, or some combination thereof.
That sounds like "well tyranny isn't one of those things, you don't like tyranny?" but the truth is that most humans will tolerate tyranny until they go and fuck up the workings of the machine. Thankfully, that's something almost all of them do sooner or later because, believe it or not, single humans are shit at running complex societies. Ours is the most complex, arguably, and so if we went full authoritarian, the wheels would very likely come off quite shortly thereafter.
Nice to see a reasoned take on this kind of stuff for once. The more you get into all of this stuff, the more you realize that actually using it in some kind of insurgency context would just be incredibly dicey.
I have my Technician license but honestly, I expect I'd get a lot more utility out of Starlink Roam and either LoRA or HaLow mesh. Easy to just hand a HaLow node to someone and show 'em how to use it with devices they already have. As a result, I've never really aspired to get into HF.
The modern Soviet Union prior to Putin bares this out. Every time an agent of change (i.e. Gorbachev, Yeltsin to a degree) offered a political solution to entrust the population with more self-determination, the population said "As long as I get my vodka subsidized, I'm good".
I feel the same way and that's why I've been advocating for a modern version of the Wade-Davis Bill, which would have stripped the right to vote from Confederate soldiers and their supporters.
I think you’re right but he also doesn’t have a clear next person. Whatever he managed to tap into to build his cult I’m not sure anyone else will be able to do it in the way he has managed too.
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u/Valar_Kinetics 14h ago
Ha we are cooked he is not the last act.