I’m just still baffled at how so many people seem to think the same old counter-strategies are going to work in the context of “we’re turning into a fascist/kakistocratic state”. Remember: MLK only succeeded because Malcom X was the alternative, and the powers that be recognized that.
until he started speaking out about poverty and the war dead on both sides of the color spectrum.
then MLK got assasinated.
My point is that nonviolent protest movements tend to be more successful when there’s an “or else…”, implicit or otherwise.
Anger is more useful than despair – by Terminator
And when anger begins to wane, replace it with hope.
Thoughts and prayers.
I’ve had a chance to watch it now. Even he understands the spirit of the sentiment. Despair (hopelessness) leads to inaction, anger spurs it on.
We can be hopeful once we’re free.
I agree, I think anger can be a motivating force toward positive action, and I don’t begrudge anyone who uses it as fuel. But as he says, I think eventually it can burn out, in which case, hope and love become powerful long term fuels to push on.
“Organize” and do what?
Form militias I guess? That’s what the 2A yokels told us to do right? Use the amendment to prevent a tyrannical government.
I don’t understand how people think this is going to go any other way. It’s that or fascism.
Not a bad idea. Ive been saying this for years, if the left embraced the 2nd amendment they would win every election. Its contradictory to vote for legislation and politicians that only benefit the rich and powerful while espousing for the proletariat. A government that does not fear its people will always become tyrannical, fascist, you name it.
Doesn’t seem likely, considering we’ve had two half-assed attempts in the eight years since he was elected.
MLK and Civil Rights Movement v2
Ah, you mean the Poor People’s Campaign.
(Fun fact: MLK was begrudgingly tolerated as a black rights activist for several years, but then he pivoted to working class solidarity, and – bam! – assassinated. Funny, that.)
MLK was a real one. The more I learn about him, the more I respect him and the more I understand that he would be widely hated today
Hated is an understatement. He was about as far left as any figure with popular support has ever been in the US, which is why he so deeply scared the elites who opposed him.
Basically the moment he died people began softening his views to make them more palatable to the other side. This helped get civil rights legislations passed, but something of the man himself was lost in the process. Kids today learn he was for equal rights but very little about his actual beliefs.
Some More News has an excellent video about how little MLK Jr’s modern image resembles the actual man, to the point that right-wing news stations invoke his words to support Republican policies without any sign of irony.
He was widely hated* then.
Indeed!
I’m very on board with this, but it needs to come with slightly more threat of violence
Educate more.
Education never stops.
Please, the time for education has long passed. It is action within 30 days or it is a lost cause. “Educate” is “thoughts and prayers.”
You cannot educate the unwilling
Then educate the willing. Don’t focus on the cultists, focus on the people who voted out of desperation and fear.
They aren’t all gone, many of them continue to wish for a brighter pleasant future in the same vein that we do. They just don’t see it being delivered and have lost hope.
Organise local communities via education. Explain the current problems we’re facing, and advocate on behalf of the community for what we need.
Collectively bring those concerns to local politicians and push for those changes. Get the candidates representing those changes elected locally.
Get this to snowball and we can get state representatives that advocate for these changes.
Further snowballs and it can get to the national level. Eventually, the federal level.
These changes will take decades. What we do now won’t help us. But we will help our future children’s children. We may be able to save democracy and the collapse of the U.S.
If we can’t organise, the U.S. is doomed. Don’t despair. Grieve for your country, then get radicalised and angry. Use that anger to fight the system. But we need representatives, perhaps even politicians, to instruct the general population how to fight back by organising rather than leaving hopeless and disenfranchised people to give into rage and respond with violence.
Tl;dr - Get involved with local political communities to advocate for progressive policies. Community brings concerns to local politicians. Local politicians platform for these changes and we fight to get them elected. Continue this process of snowballing to get district elections, state elections, and eventually federal elections. The only way we can get there is with progressive policies that focus on the problems of the working class, and working hard to unite the working class because the owner class will exert all their resources to divide and disenfranchise us. They need us more than we need them.
When you put it that way it sounds… Unpossible
Even if voters did everything they could during this Trump term. It still falls on people in power not wanting to fight and being spineless, or being bought and paid for. It is such an uneven battlefield that incrementalism won’t work anymore as well.
Education is not going to solve our immediate problems, but it is essential to solving our long-term problems. For the short-term, organizing means finding ways that large number of people can apply pressure. Shifting our spending habits may be the most effective. The super wealthy and their corporations still rely on all of us handing over our money to them in exchange for good or services. Working to change local and state-level voting patterns is also viable, since a lot of the enablers are politicians who want to keep their jobs.
Nothing we do right now is going to stop Trump from hurting a lot of people, although we may be able to limit the damage. The early stage of most fascist takeovers counts on broad public support. There are already enough of us to make that harder for them. And there will be a lot more of us fairly soon, once Trump’s supporters begin to suffer directly because of his policies.
Even when there is nothing immediate to do, we need to keep looking for opportunities. There will be some. And the better advantage we take of them, the less damage will be done. And the sooner we can remove the oligarchs from power.
Yes Bernie… We all know the problems (thanks to you, seriously), but now we need a PLAN… Give us the strategy. Tell us where and when and how you know? Let’s strategically start replacing establishment Dems with progressive. Let’s strategically start ballot initiatives. Let’s strategically start winning local elections with anti establishment candidates. Let’s have a plan!
