stickly
It’s politics because it’s blatant racism from a public figure but all political events are not created equal. Engaging with toxic (but ultimately shallow) headlines like this is amplifying the Flood of Shit.
Your outrage is a smoke screen keeping the actual dismantling of democracy out of the public eye.
I’d even go so far as to say too much political gravity is conceded to tariffs and other international Trump panic. America loses credibility but tariffs can be rescinded and alliances slowly rebuilt. It’s not so easy to regain control of a government with no opposition after a political purge.
Trump’s last term quietly expanded ICE resources in one forgettable 24 hour news cycle. Now we’re seeing how they use the GOP Gestapo as a federal police force against undesirables. People need to see that, but it won’t get through their (sometimes literal) Trump content filter.
The dirty little secret is that nobody in any government has control without the backing of guys with guns. In the US, that’s the executive branch headed by the president.
If Democrats (and any handful of Republicans secretly hiding their shred of dignity) have any chance, it’s not going to be as a toothless opposition. Best case they’re ignored, worst case they have a terrible accident involving a high window.
Ensuring they have some semblance of support from the military would be priority #1, second would probably be hoping the Supreme Court would lend them legal support by not tearing up the constitution. With the backing of both, the non-treasonous remnants of Congress could pick up the pieces with some semblance of legal continuity.
Without the military, your only choice is to concede to the executive branch. You could stand firm and end up a constitutional martyr to fuel some civil unrest, maybe even form your own government in exile, but not much beyond that.
Nobody’s born a nazi, and in my opinion painting millions of people with a broad brush solves nothing even if feels righteous. There’s a whole spectrum of people ranging from apathetic to ignorant to hateful and inflammatory.
As funny as it is to call someone an idiot for voting based on the price of eggs, it lacks empathy for what that might mean to some people. What if all you’ve been eating is instant ramen with an egg to pay for a medical bill that insurance didn’t cover and now you can’t even afford that.
You might be more inclined to scroll past yet another “Trump says wild shit” headline but engage more with right wing Tik Tok content arguing that the system is broken because of the ((woke-ism)) and ((DEI)). Even if you don’t believe it, now the social media algorithm has your weak spot and can put you in an echo chamber to exploit it…
Are there still people out there waving swastikas and chanting racist shit in red hats? Sure. But screaming at them won’t change anything. If someone can be changed, you’re not going to reach them now with lecturing and scolding. It’s not kiddie gloves, it’s taking a realistic approaches to convince real human beings
Edit: Apparently saying people aren’t born Nazis is controversial in 2025. Let me frame it like this: if 30% of the population are idiotic, racist scum and tweeting about it for 8 years hasn’t changed anything, why keep doing it? Why keep tweeting free content for Libs of TikTok? Why not direct that anger towards the people running the asocial media platforms? The people actively dismantling our government? Why not do it in a non-digital space? Who cares if MAGA-loving Cletus is on your side or not?
That’s the one thing that gives me hope: their views changed radically but only in one generation through concentrated, directed effort. Calling people idiots or sheep misses the point that this is the natural result of exposing people to this shit daily.
Nobody in history ever thought people are inherently rational and considerate, society is held together through a culture that reinforces it. The tools of the information age can rapidly and drastically shape our society however we want it, we just need to pull them out of the hands of those billionaires burning civilisation to the ground for their own benefit.
Surely my message will be seen by the millions of Trump voters on… checks notes …Mastadon
How do people not realize they live in an entirely separate digital space from the right.
Not just separate platforms (YouTube vs Rumble, Mastadon/Bsky vs X/Truth) but perfectly segregated by their personalized algorithms. They keep us separated by design. How many trans influencers are on truth social? Not enough for a user to view them as anything but an “other”…
This post is reaching nobody that needs to see it unless it has a sarcastic title over the screenshot
Fully agree that we can see the obvious fascists at the top and the rot seeps down. But idk that I can call 77 million people who casted one ballot Nazis.
My (maybe optimistic) perspective is that the rot has shallow roots. These days you don’t need thousands of dedicated grunts to print flyers and hang posters. Just get one billionaire with a social media platform and a few dozen managers and you can broadcast anything you want.
Right but this isn’t the conclusion of a world war yet. I don’t doubt that the problem gets worse after people are forced to participate or be complicit while atrocities are committed.
There’s a series of miniscule steps from being ok with a hateful statement to being ok with dangerous people being rounded up to being ok with dangerous political opponents being rounded up to being ok with gas chambers.
Assuming that everyone who ignores the first step is a full fledged Nazi isn’t putting faith in people to change or even resist. Plenty of people stepped out of line in Germany and paid the price.
The real lesson after WW2 is that the Nuremberg Trials were far too lax and narrow in scope. Germany’s populace (while on the cusp of swinging far right) went through the most thorough denazification. It’s still putting up much better resistance than the United States (which had basically no punishment for nazi sympathizers) or Italy (handwaved due to surrender).
This is the political awareness equivalent of telling people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
People are overworked, lack childcare, have poor healthcare, come from underfunded schools, never get exposed to diversity, etc… Just because it’s possible to escape those conditions and doesn’t mean it’s natural or easy.
Saying people are dumb and lazy is a thought terminating cliché, you have to view that as an extension of the problem.