And I don’t know why so many people still think they can’t.
Need the whole thing for this one:
It’s hard to shift from a mindset of following the law to realizing the laws no longer matter.
If they’re going to be used as a weapon, why would we ever comply?
I don’t get that. It just was not hard for me at all. Even if you were absolutely convinced Trump would lose, you’ve had months of him and all of his people just outright admitting they don’t care about the law both before and after the election. It was a foregone conclusion to me the first Wednesday in November.
Think of it as a mask. All your life you’ve had it on because you were taught to believe it. It’s how society functions, right?
Now you realize you could take it off, but it’s very hard to. What kind of world is it then? We will find out, of course.
There’s a Jules Pfeiffer (rip) play/movie called Little Murders that kind of deals with this. Be forewarned, it’s a very bleak and dark comedy.
Not an American, but I can totally relate with that. Some politicians in my country have taken a page from Trump’s playbook since 2016 and have started telling blatant lies on TV, the kind that are supposed to be easily refuted by any one with half a brain, and not getting any serious pushback. It took me a long time to get past the “Wait, they can’t do that, that’s not how it works!” phase
A lifetime of reading and watching dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction prepared me for this.
But I see where you’re coming from. There’s a really interesting film called It Happened Here (interesting both in the subject matter and how it was filmed). It’s about an alternate history where Britain has been taken over by a puppet Nazi government. Everyone just kind of moves on with their life and accepts it like nothing has changed. I guess it’s kind of like that.
They still matter to some extent. Most people in the US have an expectation that the government will follow the law. We can use their lawless actions rhetorically to erode their political capital and empower the resistance movement.
But I agree with what I think your main point is—we can’t assume a court ruling against an action means it will stop anymore. I was listening to Bernie talk yesterday and even he didn’t seem to understand. He was talking about the court ordering a reversal to the spending freeze as a victory, apparently unaware that they are brazenly ignoring this restraining order.
They will not follow the law voluntarily, that much is true, but we can still rally around it and force them to, or at minimum make it costly to break.
We can use their lawless actions rhetorically to erode their political capital and empower the resistance movement.
Possibly, but it’s important to make sure you also actually build a resistance movement, or this just amounts to speaking concerned words.
Very true. I need to up my own involvement in this as much as anyone.
“Do you honestly think a piece of paper covered in the scribbles of long-dead men will protect you, when you refuse to bend the knee to your new king?”
Take action now, while you still can. It may soon be too late.
And america is just rolling over…
We also asked the Leopard very politely to not eat our faces. What else is there to do?
You could consider pointing out that the leopard promised not to eat your face, and is therefore being at best inconsistent and at worst downright dishonest by eating your face as you speak.
Im just sitting here on the sidelines in disbelief and am very afraid for the future of my own country. Someone else already said it, you wanna walk through the streets whacking people over the head with a history book.
“Hahaha, you’re all gonna die, and you voted for that guy!” - Circle Jerks
