“it’s gotten very political” says someone who had to be sentient through the covid pandemic. i just can’t anymore y’all.
Politics is life.
You might as well ask to avoid gravity.
Life is political. Don’t bury your head in the sand.
Our political situation is currently quite extreme, read up on fascism specifically the “legal stage” of fascism
Your mental health comes first but always remember that pretending it doesn’t exist is different from protecting your sanity. It’s a tougher needle to thread than you think!
Pretending it doesn’t exist hurts the most vulnerable.
Very succinctly put
I’m genuinely worried it’s yet another deliberate denial of service against our ability to detect evil. I work extra hard to only pay attention to what is actually done that seems like it could stick.
Mostly I trust that good people in positions of trust (e.g. ACLU or EFF) will call out when there’s an opportunity for mass mobilization to make a real difference.
Didn’t ACLU support Citizens United?
Technically yes. They are basically constitutional fundamentalists and have decided giving money to a political cause counts as free speech and are against any limitation of free speech.
Yes, but what-abouting them right now goes against the greater good. And since they realize their mistake and hopefully won’t repeat it, we shouldn’t give up on them.
I’m not what abouting ACLU. They have done great work. Your article points out that AU has not changed their stance, but former leaders of ACLU believe their Citizens United stance is now wrong.
All I’m saying is, EFF has CONSISTENTLY done good work. ACLU has shown that you have to take their work with a grain of salt. Most of the time they get it right, but some of the time they get it really really wrong
This is a great point. If we only have bandwidth to listen to a single news source, we could all do worse than choosing the ACLU or the Electronic Frontier Foundation!
If you “don’t do politics”, politics will do you. You don’t need to be the one to single-handedly fix everything, but please do what you can. We need everyone.
If you don’t plan to help at all then yes, might as well stick your head in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you pay attention or not if you don’t offer any form of resistance. Indifference is the default response for a significant portion of Americans and it’s a huge part of the problem.
The deck is stacked against us, no doubt. But we can look to historical examples of what happens if you don’t fight Nazis coming into power, and I refuse to be one of those examples.
There really are only two pragmatic options at this point. Fight or leave. Anything else is a waste.
You hurt your own cause by being so willing to make everything black and white.
I want people who fight for good by cooking meals to do that and understand they are having an impact.
I want teachers who will not lie to their students.
I want religious leaders who will point out the hypocrisy of those using religion to divide.
None of those things are “fighting.” All of them, and many more, are important.
If you feel like violent resistance is what you are good at and what is needed, I encourage you to think about all the other forms of resistance necessary for any violent campaign to produce long-lasting positive results and perhaps reconsider how quick you are to dismiss others and if that is truly helpful for your cause.
I encourage you to not be so black and white by your definition of “fighting”. I consider most* forms of resistance as fighting, not just violent ones. We’ll take whatever we can get as far as that is concerned, but you can’t deny that it will ultimately take physical resistance as well. Some have the capacity for both.
Perhaps it is worth considering why your comment got my response, then. Perhaps you aren’t conveying your meaning as well as you could.
Absolutely and agreed. We need people much more adept than me at conveying this information to the people that need to hear it.
Tune it out. I went all in last time. It’s not worth it for your mental health
Same. The mental health damage isn’t worth paying attention
It’s okay. We can take turns bring vigilant, as each of our mental health allows. Our billionaire overlords are incredibly powerful, but there’s a shit ton more of the rest of us, than there are of them, even counting their many paid cronies.
The billionaires are also the ones pushing the around the clock burn out news cycle, to wear us down.
Take time for your mental health, and trust random folks like me to be vigilant while you rest.
They want us to forget that we’re in this together.
Tune it out. Nothing ever changes by a change in political leaders alone. People are just going crazy because the terminally online lost the election.
That’s a wild take. Everything is subject to change when you change political leaders. A single person, the president, can’t do THAT much on their own. But when they have a large portion of the government in their pocket and a huge number or rabid fans, then yes. Everything can change.
Well some things might change but I’m just saying people overestimate how much will change.
That is not a stupid question. It’s no good to cause yourself crippling anxiety, you are less useful to yourself and to others then. And yes the news will always be presented in a way designed to cause outrage and fear, to keep you coming back.
That is not to say there is no reason to worry. But good to put a "budget " for news consumption and work on what you can personally change, rather than worrying about all the stuff you can’t. Being happy and helpful and not a bigot is a form of resistance too, and is a general thing you can do regardless of your current event knowledge.
Depends. Are you a rich, white, straight male? You will be fine and can ignore everything. But if you are any shade of brown, an immigrant or belong to any minority group or are female or have loved ones belonging to anyone of these groups, then you should pay attention as they might genuinely be in danger.
Are you a rich, white, straight male?
Good list. Need to add “healthy” to it, too.
Before they started killing Jews it was the disabled
Eh, if you are rich you can travel and get socialized medical care in a real country
If the US keeps its current direction of antagonizing any place that isn’t a dictatorial shithole, the OP’s freedom to travel can get restricted very soon.
Somewhat redundant. He already said “rich.”
A terrible diagnosis can deplete savings rapidly in this shitty country.
I’m not so sure I’d call someone that would have to dip into savings for healthcare all that rich. Well off, maybe.
You could also Steve Jobs yourself with a treatable but deadly disease
This is probably my fav comment here because he absolutely could have been saved. What a shame.
I’m not riding his dick. I just think Apple was less awful under his leadership than under Tim Apple. I know the software would be in better shape.
upvoted and downvoted.
Rich white dudes have great health insurance.
Rich, white, straight, christian male. Given recent events, that second-to-last part is especially important :/
Also, bullshit. You think climate change doesn’t affect us? The damage to NATO? Threatening Greenland?
I get your point that a lot of hate is directed at immigrants and minority groups, but you don’t need to be dismissive to such a large group of people, many of which are on your side.
Don’t try to make extra enemies. No war but class war.
I think rich, white, straight males should also pay attention due to the power that class holds in driving social norms.
I keep hearing this “if you’re a straight, white male, you’ll be fine.” I’m a straight “white passing” male (half Cuban, with no Latin origin names).
When people say this, I ask, “what about my friends? What about my family? What about the people I love?” Does that not affect me? Are we supposed to ignore their plight?
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
Did you just stop reading after the first sentence?
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
How do you think we got anything good at all, ever?
The left lost its way. BLM and Floyd protests were the closest we’ve gotten to the anger the left displayed for the Vietnam war.
If you can get out do so and I hate the idea of more guns on the streets but if at this point everyone that’s at risk or has loved ones at risk needs to be armed as much as possible and have a go bag ready to go. If goon squads are coming for ya don’t go quietly with them.
If you don’t turn on to policies, politics will turn on you. - Ralph Nader
Personally, I’m tunning it out. The only time I dive into it is around elections so I can make an informed vote. But, after that it seems like I’m utterly powerless to change anything.
I used to think being informed would come in handy to change people’s minds, but that never happens. People have to change their own minds.
See also: https://lemmy.today/post/22524765
Part of it is a war on information and memory, so it is important to stay aware. With the American Civil War, almost immediately after it was over they began rewriting history (the Lost Cause).
There’s a historical debate about the extent of which German civilians were aware of the Holocaust. I found Hitler’s Willing Executioners convincing myself. I think people knew what was happening in the camps, but allowed themselves an out - plausible deniability. (And again, the war on memory - that the deaths were all typhus, or the numbers were exaggerated)
I’ve already been living as an oppressed minority in a state that had already started implementing Project 2025 before Trump was even elected. The one thing that’s hardest to deal with is the gaslighting. I’ve just wanted to be seen.
I don’t think they’ll put trans people in death camps, but I believe they are planning on weaponizing the mental health system against trans people. Forcible institutionalization for most AFAB at least. Trans women they might declare sex criminals and use the increased powers of capital punishment on - we’ve seen moves towards this in Florida. I think it’d be like Nazi’s and the original eugenics program - some trans people do have families who might protest if a bunch of us disappear.
I do believe they will start killing immigrants. Texas has volunteered land for this purpose, and if they are already placing barbed wire along the Rio Grande, they are willing to kill.
So how does this knowledge help? What is the point of keeping up with the fear and terror?
Perhaps to try to help the lesson stick this time. To keep screaming that this is not normal. To ensure that when it is all over, there won’t be “it was all about states rights!” That we saw this coming, that we kept saying it was coming, but America was too scared of a black woman in power and too obsessed with trans women’s penises to say “no” to Stupid Hitler.
You can stay aware to know where small places of action are - can you print out cards with information on what to do when ICE arrives and leave them in places? You can stock up on mifepristone or estrogen if you have friends who might need it. Find local mutual aid networks and pitch in. Provide emotional support to your queer/immigrant/woman friends. Tell children that this is not normal, this is not the America we grew up in.
Action is how to combat trauma. It’s the feeling of helplessness that “causes” PTSD - a situation where you know that nothing you do has an impact on the outcome. Mental health under fascism is learning what you can do, and focusing on that.
Really minor side note. I don’t think comparisons of Trump to Hitler really help that much, there’s too many differences between the two men. What I think helps much more overall is comparisons of Trump to Benito Mussolini, who he much more closely aligns with, and who predated Hitler in the interwar period as a fascist dictator. The term fascist is originally an Italian word, even.
Mussolini comparisons capture Trump’s smallness and bumbling nature while still highlighting his ability to do great harm much more accurately. Trump is an American Mussolini.
But in the US, the average reading comprehension stopped around 6th grade. I don’t think a good chunk of Americans under 35 have more than a VERY passing knowledge of Mussolini (and they probably confuse half of it with Stalin)
