Can the apocalypse be local?
Americans rly struggle with not being the world and i think its quite telling tbh
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:10 (three years ago)
let it beatles
― hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:13 (three years ago)
Climate catastrophe is going to be pretty universal IIRC.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:14 (three years ago)
which is v little to do with the point about 1492 is it
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:17 (three years ago)
you can get with dystopia, or you can get with datopia
― hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:19 (three years ago)
just throwing this out there but maybe dystopia fans are blind to dystopias
― let's make lunch and listen to five finger death punch (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:02 (three years ago)
I dunno I think most fans of the crust punk band Dystopia probably would agree that the USA is a dystopia fwiw
― bovarism, Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:19 (three years ago)
let me see, is the US a dystopia.
the republican party is trying to actively KILL a lot of people. let me just see how that plays in the polls
The approval rating among those who voted for [Biden] has dropped from 80% to 69% in the April survey. There have been notable declines among Americans 18-34 and suburban residents, both of whom, in dramatic swings, now register net negative views on the president.As bad as Biden’s number may be, the polling data for Democrats in Congress is far worse.Republicans now sport a historic 10-point advantage when Americans are asked which party they prefer to control Congress, holding a 44%-34% margin over Democrats. That’s up from a 2-point Republican advantage in the October survey.In the past 20 years, CNBC and NBC surveys have never registered a double-digit Republican advantage on congressional preference, with the largest lead ever being 4 pints for the GOP.“If the election were tomorrow, it would be an absolute unmitigated disaster for the Democrats,″ said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research Associates and the Democratic pollster for the survey.
As bad as Biden’s number may be, the polling data for Democrats in Congress is far worse.
Republicans now sport a historic 10-point advantage when Americans are asked which party they prefer to control Congress, holding a 44%-34% margin over Democrats. That’s up from a 2-point Republican advantage in the October survey.
In the past 20 years, CNBC and NBC surveys have never registered a double-digit Republican advantage on congressional preference, with the largest lead ever being 4 pints for the GOP.
“If the election were tomorrow, it would be an absolute unmitigated disaster for the Democrats,″ said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research Associates and the Democratic pollster for the survey.
yes it's a full blown dystopia
― my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:23 (three years ago)
nah but rich people have never had it better tho
― let's make lunch and listen to five finger death punch (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:24 (three years ago)
A 4 pint lead is difficult to overcome tbh. sorry
― bovarism, Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:29 (three years ago)
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Friday, December 10, 2021 8:10 PM (one hour ago)
I was addressing "the apocalypse" that it could be argued helps to confirm the US as a dystopia, the subject of this important poll. So I guess I do think it can be local, idk, why not? Anyway Columbus never even entered future-US territory, it's more of a symbolic hinge year for everything being terrible from then on
― rob, Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:31 (three years ago)
I'd figure most people using the term think in the sense of dystopian science fiction and I kinda think 2021 has quite a few elements that seem like out of such.
― earlnash, Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:35 (three years ago)
There's no utopia that's not someone's dystopia, and vice versa.
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:15 (three years ago)
The notion of local dystopias is an interesting one. Could be that there was an egalitarian paradise unfolding just a continent or two over from Mad Max.
― Rep. Cobra Commander (R-TX) (Old Lunch), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:33 (three years ago)
If the US ticks all the boxes- and there's a case- then clearly plenty of very nice places to live in exist besides so id say thats a clear yes
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, 11 December 2021 19:04 (three years ago)
Have we ever not been? Slave state — apartheid state — Vietnam/Watergate — Corporate state — Fury Road (2016-present)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 11 December 2021 22:25 (three years ago)
the people in the mayfield candle factory that collapsed worked 12-hour shifts that paid $8 an hour. 110 ppl were inside. 40 ppl are still unaccounted for. they haven’t recovered a survivor since 3 am. pic.twitter.com/CsIIfLw3Pc— Tracy Moore (@iusedtobepoor) December 11, 2021
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 December 2021 05:12 (three years ago)
it’s legal in kentucky to fire someone for refusing to work mandatory overtime— Tracy Moore (@iusedtobepoor) December 11, 2021
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 December 2021 05:14 (three years ago)
― coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Sunday, 12 December 2021 11:49 (three years ago)
Zardoz is another one. Although The Eternals are mainly a bunch of insufferable bores and their egalitarian paradise is pretty lame, but you wouldn't complain about it if you were being held captive by Charlotte Rampling.
― calzino, Sunday, 12 December 2021 13:16 (three years ago)
Slave state — apartheid state — Vietnam/Watergate — Corporate state — Fury Road (2016-present)
We didn't start the fire, etc.
― ma dmac's fury road (PBKR), Sunday, 12 December 2021 14:04 (three years ago)
Let's see what all we have...you got this one.
US combined laissez-faire capitalism on it's drug industry and combined with heroin blow-back from the 'war on terror' created the opioid epidemic for fun and profit killing over a million Americans since 1999.
― earlnash, Sunday, 12 December 2021 15:21 (three years ago)
Getting back to the topic at hand, Le Guin wrote a book about a moon. Also was there some Cold War global political framework in her gender-bender book? I don't recall.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:14 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:17 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
It is though (unless I'm misreading). The USA is the biggest historical contributor to the climate crisis. An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis. Same for much of global environmental destruction -- Amazon forest all gone? Thank Ronald McDonald.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 12 December 2021 18:51 (three years ago)
Local teachers in South Dakota “Dash for Cash” to help their classrooms by fighting over $5,000 in $1 bills while the crowd hoots and hollers. pic.twitter.com/azwGJKhaKU— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) December 12, 2021
― mookieproof, Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:29 (three years ago)
they're going to remove that rug at some point
― my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:34 (three years ago)
and then charge them for it!
― calzino, Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:37 (three years ago)
An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis.
Are we talking a world where Europe never came into contact with the Americas?
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 December 2021 10:32 (three years ago)
I can’t live without potatoes
― A Pile of Ants (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 13 December 2021 14:19 (three years ago)
-LL McCooljay
― hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Monday, 13 December 2021 15:46 (three years ago)
It would have happened eventually.
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Monday, 13 December 2021 16:40 (three years ago)
OTM
― When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 13 December 2021 16:56 (three years ago)
Lol, Neanderthal.
― Santa’s Got a Brand New Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 December 2021 17:14 (three years ago)
NEW: Drone startup BRINC, which just pulled a $25 million VC round, says it was inspired by the 2017 Vegas shooting to build non-violent robots. I obtained a video showing their original mission was a border patrol drone system designed to tase migrants https://t.co/TclkWOO3eM— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) December 13, 2021
― mookieproof, Monday, 13 December 2021 17:51 (three years ago)
Right but I'm saying the timeline where America turns the Earth into a toilet wasn't necessarily predetermined.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:46 (three years ago)
Maybe ecocide is the dharma of the human race idk.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:47 (three years ago)
this is all god's fault. god put the oil in the ground, fully formed, 8000 years ago
― my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:49 (three years ago)
it was all predetermined
idk these guys predicted it pretty early
https://i.ibb.co/f4P96K0/index.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/cFmrLPX/index.jpg
― hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:50 (three years ago)
Yeah I never loved the band but those album titles stuck with me.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 19:42 (three years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CczFit6tGhs
― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 December 2021 20:07 (three years ago)
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 00:01 (three years ago)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kentucky-tornado-factory-workers-threatened-firing-left-tornado-employ-rcna8581
― towards fungal computer (harbl), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 01:21 (three years ago)
personally idgi. fresh produce in american supermarkets is quite bad and expensive, every major city in the world has decent markets, etc. i guess it's better if it's brightly lit and you can listen to an instrumental soft jazz version of after the gold rush? https://t.co/g3b5LOgBcD— joolsd (@joolsd) December 14, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 13:59 (three years ago)
which Publix plays that?!? I'm happy if I get early '80 Boz Scaggs.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 14:12 (three years ago)
I regret starting a thread that functions as an invitation to post the most depressing news you can find, but more narrowly the degree to which the US seems to be embracing core elements of the most prominent fictional dystopias is pretty striking! Sadly not cyberpunk this time:
https://pen.org/scope-speed-educational-gag-orders-worsening-across-country/
And it’s getting worse. In the month since the report’s release, state lawmakers introduced 12 new bills, bringing the total to a staggering 66 educational gag orders for the year in 26 states, 12 of which have passed into law.Here’s what’s happening: The recent group of bills includes seven in Missouri and one each in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. All 12 of these bills target K–12 schools, four include provisions that would impact colleges and universities, and four include a focus on state agencies, other state-funded institutions, and “places of learning.” Six of these bills specifically ban “critical race theory,” making a total of 20 state-level bills introduced this year with such explicit prohibitions. Six of these bills contain explicit prohibitions against teaching or using curricular materials from “The 1619 Project,” bringing the total of these to 17 for the year.
Here’s what’s happening:
The recent group of bills includes seven in Missouri and one each in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. All 12 of these bills target K–12 schools, four include provisions that would impact colleges and universities, and four include a focus on state agencies, other state-funded institutions, and “places of learning.” Six of these bills specifically ban “critical race theory,” making a total of 20 state-level bills introduced this year with such explicit prohibitions. Six of these bills contain explicit prohibitions against teaching or using curricular materials from “The 1619 Project,” bringing the total of these to 17 for the year.
― rob, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:04 (three years ago)
xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.
I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.
― DJI, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:29 (three years ago)
we do have abundant food (not everywhere, of course) of mostly mediocre quality. it's ok.
the critical race theory mess is one of the factors in favor of dystopia
― towards fungal computer (harbl), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:46 (three years ago)
to me
xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.
― mardheamac (gyac), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:48 (three years ago)
So was communism.
― DJI, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 18:00 (three years ago)
malls have been closing for a good while now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mall
― brimstead, Friday, 4 July 2025 14:58 (one week ago)
"Some major healthcare systems such as Vanderbilt Health and the University of Rochester (UR) Health have converted several dying malls into new "health malls" or "mall to medicine"."
okay that is pretty dystopian
― brimstead, Friday, 4 July 2025 14:59 (one week ago)
I go to that Vanderbilt health center all the time. it's kinda nice?
― c u (crüt), Friday, 4 July 2025 15:16 (one week ago)
yeah come to think of it, I think the place where my wife gets quarterly migraine treatment is in a repurposed mall or something.
― brimstead, Friday, 4 July 2025 15:18 (one week ago)
My son goes to community college at a campus that is a repurposed mall, the same mall in fact where his mother worked when he was born.
― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Friday, 4 July 2025 15:23 (one week ago)
Are the bones of the mall left intact? If you need a MRI do you walk past a ENT, OB-GYN and pretzel place?
― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Friday, 4 July 2025 15:23 (one week ago)
Dead malls should turn themselves into film locations for post apocalyptic shows
― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Friday, 4 July 2025 15:31 (one week ago)
https://hantasi.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-places
― calstars, Friday, 4 July 2025 15:35 (one week ago)
I've thought forever that dead malls would make great skate parks, but I haven't heard of that happening yet.
― WmC, Friday, 4 July 2025 15:45 (one week ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x61qotePiYQ
― z_tbd, Friday, 4 July 2025 15:57 (one week ago)
LLoyd Center in Portland is a near-dead mall that seems to be perpetually in some state of re-development (something's happening as they are currently demolishing one part of it). It is still open, though mostly empty with the department stores and bigger name-brand stores having gone. Many of the remaining operating storefronts now house smaller businesses / organizations that wouldn't normally occupy a mall of its size. The ice rink still operates. I was there recently to visit an optician (who coincidently are about to vacate) and the whole place definitely has that Dawn of the Dead vibe.
― Kim Kimberly, Friday, 4 July 2025 16:30 (one week ago)
Ford Motor Company leased out the empty Lord & Taylor anchor location in the mall in my hometown, using it as office space (informally it was known as Ford & Taylor.)
― henry s, Friday, 4 July 2025 17:11 (one week ago)
i do love lloyd center. i hope portland is some kind of model for the post-apocalypse. there are people who have jobs and money and most of the people i know just don't. i used to have a job and i couldn't keep it because shit was so fucked up. i'm trying to get a new one, but you know, you gotta put in 100 applications to get so much as an interview. the dream is to get government jobs. most of the people i know who still have jobs, they're government jobs, local, county, state. god knows how much longer those will be around when the federal government stops funding anything, but there's no point in worrying about the future.
refugees are constantly streaming in. a lot of them are less fucked up than most of the people i know are. i feel bad about it but hey i'll take any help i can get. it's hard to not live in crisis when surrounded by crisis. that old rudyard kipling poem, "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you", well, i guess that makes me a Real Man, rudyard.
every four years portland elects another cis white male "leftist" who makes a bunch of promises when he gets into office says "hey i know let's give more money to the cops". we all know the cops are trouble and avoid them as much as we can. i know we hate the cops because the streets are covered with stickers and graffiti talking about how much we hate the cops. because i have friends who work for the government i know that the local, county, and state governments mostly fight over themselves about whose responsibility it is to do things. my friends who work, they're genuinely working, but nothing gets done, not just because of the squabbling but because what can they actually do, really? but it's not like the governmental agencies don't help people, because if it wasn't for them, _none_ of my queer friends would have jobs with benefits.
we make art and we fight about stupid shit and there is a lot of interpersonal drama and all of the chain stores are gone. i try to avoid buying shit from amazon but sometimes i do anyway. people smoke weed to self-medicate because they don't have access to the above-board healthcare system, well, it's better than drinking. there are definitely people who drink - i see them out on the streets screaming and yelling and passersby, particularly when the passersby are queer, which is most of the time because this is portland.
a lot of times people ask for what they need and can't get it because it just isn't there, and we still do what we can for each other. let me know if you're not able to get your meds this week. hey, i haven't seen you in a while, let's go out to coffee, i'll pay. i can't make other people ok, i'm not ok myself, but we get by.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 4 July 2025 17:28 (one week ago)
a lot of churches are also taking over former malls, i wrote about the phenomenon in one of my books
― czech hunter biden's laptop (the table is the table), Friday, 4 July 2025 20:31 (one week ago)
Los Angeles to halt ‘disaster tourism’ buses through Palisades fire zone
Pacific Palisades neighborhoods were closed to the public for months after a January firestorm devastated the community, but since its recent reopening, there have been sightings of a new, disturbing visitor in the neighborhood: disaster tourists. Busloads of them.“My office and others have received numerous reports about commercial tour operators conducting disaster tours in the Pacific Palisades,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park said at a council meeting this week. “They’re looking to profit off of destruction and other people’s losses. It’s really gross and it needs to be stopped.”In a bid to stop the trend from becoming routine whenever disaster strikes the area, the City Council unanimously approved restricting “disaster tourism” buses from the Palisades fire zone and any disaster zone.On Jan. 7, the Palisades fire tore through Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas, destroying more than 6,000 structures, many of them homes, and leaving 12 people dead. Although officials vowed to have a speedy recovery, the rebuilding process for the worst disaster in the city’s history has been challenging — and slow.Park said the tour buses were not only unsettling but also potentially distracting and hazardous for crews continuing to work in the area.“It’s also ... dangerous because we’re still actively clearing fire debris,” she said.As a result of the vote on Park’s motion, the city’s Department of Transportation will restrict tour buses from any area declared part of a natural disaster emergency, and the ban will last through the duration of the emergency response.
“My office and others have received numerous reports about commercial tour operators conducting disaster tours in the Pacific Palisades,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park said at a council meeting this week. “They’re looking to profit off of destruction and other people’s losses. It’s really gross and it needs to be stopped.”
In a bid to stop the trend from becoming routine whenever disaster strikes the area, the City Council unanimously approved restricting “disaster tourism” buses from the Palisades fire zone and any disaster zone.
On Jan. 7, the Palisades fire tore through Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas, destroying more than 6,000 structures, many of them homes, and leaving 12 people dead. Although officials vowed to have a speedy recovery, the rebuilding process for the worst disaster in the city’s history has been challenging — and slow.
Park said the tour buses were not only unsettling but also potentially distracting and hazardous for crews continuing to work in the area.
“It’s also ... dangerous because we’re still actively clearing fire debris,” she said.
As a result of the vote on Park’s motion, the city’s Department of Transportation will restrict tour buses from any area declared part of a natural disaster emergency, and the ban will last through the duration of the emergency response.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 July 2025 23:14 (one week ago)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ufc-fight-white-house-2026-president-trump-1236306531/
Trump Says the UFC Will Host a Championship Fight at the White House
― koogs, Saturday, 5 July 2025 05:18 (one week ago)
“If you take what U2 did and multiply it by a million, that’s where we are,” he said.
—
Boooooooooooooooooooo
― z_tbd, Saturday, 5 July 2025 05:33 (one week ago)
^ sorry, that quote is from some dumb guy, but not that dumb guy
― z_tbd, Saturday, 5 July 2025 05:34 (one week ago)
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/two-days-talking-to-people-looking-for-jobs-at-ice/
Lots of ppl willing to crush others so they can have a nice time. In that sense they aren't merely following orders, it's that much worse.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 11 July 2025 08:03 (three days ago)
I mean, a bet a lot of guys 70 years weren't 'just' following orders
― conspiracitorial theories (stevie), Friday, 11 July 2025 08:44 (three days ago)
I agree with that. I felt that last scene in the piece needed a different interpretation.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 11 July 2025 08:58 (three days ago)
oh yeah, absolutely.
I'm not up on the history, back in the day did "I was just following orders" save any Nazis from the gallows?
― conspiracitorial theories (stevie), Friday, 11 July 2025 09:05 (three days ago)
I just look so damn good in those boots
― je ne sequoia (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 11 July 2025 10:08 (three days ago)
I'm not up on the history, back in the day did "I was just following orders" save any Nazis from the gallows?― conspiracitorial theories (stevie)
― conspiracitorial theories (stevie)
nah. at the same time, though, the people Varoufuckice is interviewing aren't, by and large, the people who wound up on the gallows. As far as I can tell, most of the people who eagerly worked to put the Nazis' policies into action didn't really face meaningful consequences for doing so. honestly, my suspicion is that a lot of these folks would actually have a better life in a post-fascist state than they do now - not that this would make them any less eagerly fascist!
naturally, i suspect i'd have a better life in a post-fascist state. assuming i can live that long. the odds get worse by the day.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 11 July 2025 10:38 (three days ago)
yeah instead they got to staff up West Germany, American science programs (and Soviet, though less cushy as jobs go) and become western intelligence assets
― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Friday, 11 July 2025 11:17 (three days ago)
rest assured that if we ever buck this, we will have the weakest possible demagafication, and democrats will call on us to forgive and forget, to heal, and to embrace bipartisanship
― budo jeru, Friday, 11 July 2025 15:09 (three days ago)
Maybe they'll cut the ICE budget by 5%!
― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Friday, 11 July 2025 15:14 (three days ago)
There would have to be major constitutional changes to prevent this happening again, that’s even less likely.
― Black Sabaoth (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 11 July 2025 15:30 (three days ago)
rest assured that if we ever buck this, we will have the weakest possible demagafication, and democrats will call on us to forgive and forget, to heal, and to embrace bipartisanship― budo jeru
― budo jeru
look real talk, i'm not really on the same page as you here
gonna get into some "doomposting" here. not actually "doomposting", but this stuff is kinda challenging to accept.
i don't keep up with the administration, but apparently they're going to revoke my legally obtained passport with my legal name on it and replace it with one in my deadname
whether or not it's legal for them do to that doesn't actually matter. i know y'all really hoped that the courts would stop the president from doing blatantly unconstitutional things, but they aren't and they won't. the law right now is whatever the president says it is.
when the current president got into office and things got bad, i had a pretty good idea what it meant. i am familiar with the policies implemented by the austrian paperhanger, not just at the _end_ of his rule, but from the very beginning. one of the sources that i rely on most is a collected diary called "i will bear witness" by a guy named victor klemperer. of course the diary everyone knows from that period is anne frank's. there are a number of other really good diaries from that era, though. klemperer was an adult in 1933, a highly educated man working in academia. he survived the war, although if it hadn't been for the bombing of dresden he probably wouldn't have.
in the early years, a lot of people didn't take hitler seriously. jewish people did. a lot of people who could left. klemperer reports a joke making the rounds: a new immigrant arrives in mandatory palestine. the first official he meets asks him "are you here from conviction, or from germany?"
klemperer knew what the potential consequences were if he didn't leave. he chose to not leave. the people who did leave... at first, the nazis were happy to have jews leave germany. their _official_ plan was always to deport the jews - they never publicly admitted what they actually wound up doing. that "honeymoon" period was very brief. soon, it got harder and harder for jewish people to leave germany. there were all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles put in their way. often jews did need to give up everything they owned in order to leave. a lot of people, of course, couldn't get out.
i don't believe for a second that any replacement passport they give me will be valid for very long. i consider any "honeymoon period" i had to get out of america over. i seriously thought about leaving. some friends of mine did leave. i just wasn't able to get out in time. nobody's fault but mine, really. i could have worked harder, could have found a steady source of income, could have gotten the paperwork together and gone to uruguay. it was just... too much for me to do. overwhelming.
in practical terms, that window's closed. for me and for most of us.
the president is also working to strip birthright citizenship from people born in america. i don't doubt for a second that he'll succeed. and i don't believe for a second that he'll stop with citizens born to illegal immigrants. i fully expect to have my citizenship stripped from me, before too long. i don't find the prospect particularly upsetting in and of itself. it's merely formalizing a state of existence that's been in effect since january. i am one who the law binds, but does not protect. the courts won't protect my rights. the congress won't protect my rights. legally, the administration can do anything it wants to me. it can do anything it wants to _anyone_.
varoufuckice talks about someone who asks ICE candidates if they've read "Eichmann in Jerusalem". i have. i think it's a really interesting piece. it was very controversial when it was published, possibly still today. arendt pointed out that eichmann's involvement in the holocaust wasn't actually illegal. i think people today should keep that in mind. the people who are going after immigrants, who are going after minorities, are legally in the right. those of us who oppose them - we're legally in the wrong, at least as far as united states law goes.
the other thing i noted from klemperer's early diaries is the ways in which people treated him differently once hitler got into power. he had lots of friends who stopped talking to him. they were uncomfortable around him. being around him was kind of a downer, honestly. he had colleagues, people he liked, who would make excuses for hitler, say that what he was doing wasn't that bad, that he was blowing things way out of proportion. to his face, his academic colleagues would do this. they weren't nazis. some of them later became nazis, but a lot of them didn't.
honestly, the impression i get is that most people didn't really take hitler seriously until "kristallnacht". even then, there were plenty of people who defended him. hitler had a pretext for it - again, this doesn't really get into the history books. he claimed it was a response to some young jewish kid murdering a minor nazi official. most people didn't accept this. by then, it was honestly too late. hitler had consolidated power. he had proved that he had the ability and the support to rule germany. whether or not people in other countries liked it, they accepted it. what were they going to do, declare war on germany because they were mean to jews? there were a lot of people in those other countries that didn't like jews either - not just people like charles lindbergh who openly supported hitler. just people who didn't think german jews were worth going to war and dying over. even while the war was going on, a lot of people just didn't accept the holocaust was happening. there's a famous anecdote about jan karski, an eyewitness to the holocaust, visiting america in 1942 and telling felix frankfurter what was happening. frankfurter said "i am unable to believe you". when someone else in the room pointed out that karski's testimony was extremely credible, that he wasn't lying, frankfurter clarified "i did not say he was lying. i said i am unable to believe him. there is a difference."
hitler, of course, was responsible for the holocaust. the nazis were responsible for the holocaust. felix frankfurter was not. fdr was not. the Good Germans were not.
hitler was also, though, ignorant. it's a practical limitation, ignorance. it's why he ultimately lost the war, why the nazis could _not_ have won world war ii. hitler didn't listen to his generals. hitler's actions were based on his blind ignorance, his blind hatred, rather than anything resembling reality. he was always destined to lose.
the only reason he got as far as he did, though, was because people who _weren't_ ignorant and _weren't_ incompetent supported him. german industry supported hitler. german religious institutions, by and large, supported hitler - they weren't about to get on board with so-called "positive christianity", but neither were they part of the "confessing church". german moderates, liberals, social democrats - they supported hitler. they didn't like hitler - they found him vulgar - but they saw communism as a bigger threat to germany than fascism.
i do want to make clear that history does NOT repeat itself. i don't think that things are going to go down the same way in america that they went down in germany. too many things are different. having said that, i do also think that we can learn a great deal from studying that situation - studying how people reacted to hitler, and what the results of their action or inaction was.
my takeaway is that i am in a pretty dangerous position, immigrants are in a pretty dangerous position. lots of us are in a pretty dangerous position. my takeaway is that i don't, at this point, have any reason to believe that our current situation will end up _without_ a great many people dying unnecessarily. all of the institutions around me can't or won't support the people being put into danger by this administration. it's not that i'm hopeless, though. if i have faith in anything, it's ordinary people. in spite of everything i still believe that people are really good at heart.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 11 July 2025 20:46 (three days ago)
if i have faith in anything, it's ordinary people. in spite of everything i still believe that people are really good at heart.― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, July 11, 2025 1:46 PM
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, July 11, 2025 1:46 PM
i wanna be clear and unambiguous here - i am _not saying this sarcastically_. if all of the people who are saying and doing all this awful stuff are genuinely terrible human beings, then i don't see any justification for saying that i'm not also a terrible human being. i've said homophobic stuff, transphobic stuff, racist stuff, and anybody has the right to judge me as evil for any of that, because whatever i say and do, i'm _accountable_ for. i'm just not going to judge _myself_ as evil.
i also know that most of the people who are doing this stuff _won't_ be held accountable for what they're doing. not really for any moral reason, but because it's not practical. it's the whole _munich_ thing. there'll maybe be some form of justice meted out against the worst people, the eichmanns and what have you and the rest, well...
well, what does justice _look_ like? i can say that most nazis didn't face any consequences for what they did, and legally? legally, that's true. a lot of the true believers, the people who bought into the propaganda broadcasts until the end, they killed themselves rather than live in a post-nazi world. is that justice? um, no, what hermann goering did is pretty much the exact opposite of justice. to the end, innocent people suffered for his evil. at the same time, this is why it's not a question of "if". because the only thing fascists are capable of doing is destroying, and among the people they destroy are their own children.
when i look at justice, i see, for instance, dan white being acquited of murder for killing milk and moscone, and is that justice? no. and in 1985 he killed himself, and is that justice? also no. and am i glad that dan white killed himself? yes.
for a long time i wanted to kill myself, and now i don't. if that's the closest i get to justice, that's enough.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 11 July 2025 22:08 (three days ago)
no, i didn't think it was sarcastic. i mean, i'm pretty much 100% with you through that whole post. i do think things are likely to get far worse, in ways that people are afraid to admit. i think the other thing that's very upsetting is that for a large number of people, pro-trump and not, who do not belong to the communities targeted by trump, and who don't have sufficient ties to them, a lot of this will be able to play out far off in the periphery, perhaps even out of sight. and, i also think, as bad as things might get, that it's possible that in a period of years (say, somewhere between 3 and 30 years), there will be some kind of swing back into a more "normal" state of affairs. and i assure you that, if that happens, the democrats will be there to minimize and scold the people who feel compelled to tell the truth, and point fingers, about what happened. and like you say, part of that will be a practical consideration. idk. sometimes i get so frustrated when i hear this "we're on the right side of history" lib talk. not because i disagree really, although truthfully i don't give a shit, but i just mean that there's this implied redemption, like jd vance's smug face is going to get shoved in the dirt, and EVERYONE will call him a loser, and there will be justice, finally, in the end. and my point is that i'm going to keep fighting in spite of the overwhelming evidence that there never will be, and maybe that is what hope is, i'm not sure
― budo jeru, Friday, 11 July 2025 22:16 (three days ago)
i get so frustrated when i hear this "we're on the right side of history" lib talk
people who say this aren't talking about history at all, but morality, and all they could possibly mean is "I agree with my own values". the idea that it is possible to project 'history' forward as if it were some kind of legible trend line that can be counted on to supply a desired outcome is pure nonsense, but believing in nonsense because it is comforting or validating is a very human trait that pretty much everyone indulges in to some degree.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 11 July 2025 22:26 (three days ago)