I mean in America but also possibly worldwide with all the bullshit lately
We’ll probably see a massive push of identity politics or some other distraction from the media again, like happened after occupy wall street.
American uniparty propaganda already has people believing Trump is a freedom fighter who’s going to dismantle the deep state or a fascist who will make himself dictator for life. It’s effectiveness is truly amazing.
I hope I’m wrong though.
I’ve put to rest any hopes that I’ve ever had about Americans ever staging a revolution for the righteousness of the people. It’s clear as day, as to how many millions of Americans that are out there, that openly endorsed fascism to reign supreme. That, the opposition would have more of an uphill battle on their hands than they thought.
I was hopeful in 2004, but nothing happened. I was hopeful when Occupy Wallstreet was a thing, but nothing happened. I was hopeful in 2020 when retail stores left and right were exploiting their workers and price gouging, but nothing happened. I was hopeful when the Israel-Gaza conflict started, but nothing happened. I was hopeful with January 6th 2021, but nothing happened. I was hopeful a month ago, but nothing happened. There’s many more examples but those were off the top of my head.
I am fucking tired of it and I’m done hoping.
If you hear David Graeber talk about it, the IMF and the World Bank’s power was shattered after occupy, countries weren’t willing to accept their terms anymore because the word was out that leaders who did that were selling out their own people. Things changed, but there are powerful hegemonic forces at work to stop us from hearing about it. They want us to believe we are powerless.
Just because you didn’t storm the bastille yet doesn’t mean nothing is being done. Most direct action is on the ground and invisible. That’s why it looks like decades pass with nothing happening, then overnight everything changes.
Revolutions are a gamble.
You could end up worse than before.
If you are already a dictatorship, then you have nothing to lose so you might as well.
But if you still live in a democracy, even a very flawed one, its still better to try to vote in new politicians, rather than a violent revolt.
You can overthrow a flawed democracy only to end up with a fascist dictator taking totalitarian control. Not a good gamble.
Only when there’s evidence that elections are no longer legitimate (like not just biased, but totally made up results), then you use violence as a last resort.
So then, the obvious followup question:
Do we live in an actual democracy, or an oligarchy with the trappings of a democracy?
With the largest-ever electoral studies from Princeton and others concluding that “90% of the population has essentially no impact on government” and “Public opinion has near-zero impact on US law”, I believe it is the latter.
Tl;dr: do your civic duty and murder an oligarch
The US is an flawed democracy.
I personally rate it at 5/10 in the democracy scale (ranging from -10 to 10 where -10 is a totalitarian regime and 10 is a flawless democracy)
One of the major flaws is First Past The Post voting system, this results in 2 major parties, one of which is obviously worse than the other. The major parties are heavily influenced by rich people. Primary votes are still legit for most races, but money can buy propaganda that sways votes, but ultimately its still the voters choice. Voters are just easily manipulated, unfortunately. In terms of presidential primaries, those are very very flawed since there are superdelegates. After 2016 Democratic National Convention, the convention rules are changed to remove superdelegates from the first round of voting, making it much less flawed, but still, money can buy propaganda.
That said, AOC ran against a status quo democrat and won the primary and went on winning the election. Other progressives could do it too. In the presidential primary, its harder, but as long as the democrats don’t change the rules again, its possible. In non-presidential primaries, they are governed by state laws, so its even harder for a party to unilaterally change the rules. Currently, all non-presidential primaries are all decided by First Past The Post who ever wins most vote become the party’s nominee. Money can sway minds, but with enough support, the propaganda can be overcome, as AOC did.
The US was way worse in terms of democracy in the early days. I’d rate it at 1/10 democracy in the early days, where only white male landowners could vote. Eventually all white male could vote, then Black men could vote, then women. Americans have more rights today than in the country’s beginning. A revolution could risk all those progress made.
Right now I see a path to fix the issues:
Replace First Past The Post with Ranked Choice Voting
Eliminate the Electoral College, replace with Ranked Choice Popular Vote
Abolish the Senate and give its powers to the House
Make the House use Proportional Representation
Overturn Citizens United decision
Overhaul money spending in politics
Your post ignores all of the flaws pointed out in the Princeton study that I mentioned. If you take more flaws into account I think the score will be far lower than 5/10.
But I am more curious about how your “path to fix the issues” will actually get implemented. I agree with your solutions, but they have no chance of being passed by Democrats or Republicans.
I think you are doing the meme of “How to draw an owl. Step 1: Draw the owl.”
