This is so completely fucked. I always worry about sounding hyperbolic, but I really do wonder these days if we’re living through the last days of the American republic.
Censorship is now widespread, banking and communications are now under total and constant surveillance.
Dissent groups are immediately infiltrated and quickly disbanded or redirected by the state (Tea Party, Occupy, Wikileaks, and presumably soon BLM).
All new vehicles and telephones come with surveillance and tracking technology (for the phones, by law) that the state has declared authority to bulk wiretap and store forever.
The US is in the longest war of its history, and support for these large-scale mass murder efforts, as well as the ubiquitous surveillance both domestically and abroad, is widespread and bipartisan.
Finally, and perhaps most depressingly, the US is now running a set of concentration camps in the south. Several of them are holding children by the hundreds.
There is no way out, as I see it. All of the meaningful methods of dissent have been outlawed or will result in violence being immediately deployed against you.
As far as I can tell, the only peaceful method of coping with it is to immediately move to another country.
> There is no way out, as I see it. All of the meaningful methods of dissent have been outlawed or will result in violence being immediately deployed against you.
As far as I can tell, the only peaceful method of coping with it is to immediately move to another country.
I’ve often had similar thoughts. It seems that either authoritarianism or complete anarchy are the only solutions being presented. In that case, I reject both. Some ideas are worth dying for. Particularly life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I'm not interested in perpetrating violence against others (even in self-defense), nor having violence deployed against me for my simple belief in human rights.
You're not advancing a cause by getting killed by feds or rotting/dying in prison. The only way you can make real, meaningful, effective progress (and not little teensy incremental baby steps that take 500 years to mean anything) is to be happy, healthy, and prosperous outside of an oppressive system, and to amass huge resources that can be deployed against the damage.
PS: Don't knock "complete anarchy". Most human beings are kind and considerate, and certainly much nicer than those in the current government who would be happy to rule you at the point of a police officer's machine gun or tear gas grenade launcher.
> You're not advancing a cause by getting killed by feds or rotting/dying in prison
My grandfather and his brothers would disagree. They believed so strongly in the independence of their country, they were willing to go to jail for it. And they did spend much time there, though not as much as the leaders they followed. Civil disobedience works. So does violent disobedience. It all depends on what you believe in. And how strongly you believe in it.
Because every other country in the world has a vested interest in keeping the USD stable as a currency, which would mean that they'd help keep the country up if needed (whether it's good or not that a civil revolt is extremely difficult here is up to you).
The entire world's economy, as well as many countries political configurations, rely on the United States existing. I doubt it's going anywhere, but hopefully reform might actually happen this time.
>>> This is so completely fucked. I always worry about sounding hyperbolic, but I really do wonder these days if we’re living through the last days of the American republic.
>> I feel the same way a lot recently and I would love for someone to tell me why I'm wrong.
> Because every other country in the world has a vested interest in keeping the USD stable as a currency, which would mean that they'd help keep the country up if needed
You're answering the wrong question. The American republic isn't primarily an economic system, it's a political and social one. It can become completely fucked in so many ways without disrupting the currency too badly too quickly.
I know it will be little consolation to me to have the currency remain stable while things descend into pseudo-democratic authoritarianism.
Yes. Now imagine my frustration at having been warning people about this authoritarian creep (as in political trend, not an individual person) since ~2010.
Yeah. I remember being so angry about the over-reach of executive power by Bush 2, and hoping that Obama would fix some of it (him being a constitutional lawyer and what not). He didn't, Trump replaced him and here we are.
Even if by some miracle Biden gets elected in November, he probably won't change it either. Sad.
The best thing for Americans and for the rest of the world would be for USA to be broken up into about ten pieces. It would really suck for armaments manufacturers, though, so it ain't gonna happen.
