As an outsider (I live in Belgium) it feels very weird and dystopian to see everything happening in American politics with Trump and Musk.
On one side, it’s very interesting and almost entertaining; on the other side, it’s scary. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in the USA.
Americans, how do you cope? What’s your take on the situation?
A lot of it depends on if your independently housed. If so you worry about losing it, if not you worry about ever having it.
I agree with your assessment: I find it both fascinating (who would have thought each new thing was actually possible, what insane bad idea will be launched today?) and horrifying.
Still working out the coping aspect, as what’s going on directly affects me and some of my family, but mostly switch between paying very close attention and trying to game out what the agenda is, and then taking a day to not pay attention and live in calm denial.
American here. Terrified about what’s happening and even more terrified how unaware people like my parents are. The department of education going away is, to my mom, something that won’t happen but if it does, they had good intentions. This is from someone who has always claimed “both sides are bad”. But suddenly now the most nakedly evil people in the history of the country have taken over, it’s out of our hands and just stop worrying.
Same. My parents tell me to just stop reading the news so I’ll feel better. I can’t look away from the train crash that is our country, how can you guys?
Exactly. I would feel this way, even if I didn’t know people affected and I may be as well, but I do and I might be, so that doesn’t help. I was told I stress too much. Fucking absurd dismissive bullshit. This is how we got here. People thinking the American way is to only give a damn about yourself and the people right in front of (assuming your uninformed political beliefs don’t conflict with caring about those people). Maybe it is the American way but it didn’t have to be.
Someone told me recently “People don’t want to think. They want to be ruled.”
Shit’s pretty fucked right now, and yeah, it’s scary, distressing, and absolutely disturbing.
I live in a small, rural ex-urb. Plenty of people here definitely voted for this. I don’t interact with my neighbors and keep to myself. I live below my means and am financially sound, at least.
I can’t do much about any of this. I donate to my local food bank monthly because hungry people are angry people, and folks gotta eat, regardless is political leanings. And I donate to Wikipedia because I value information.
None of this helps with the insanity and the politics, but hopefully it helps somebody.
and folks gotta eat, regardless is political leanings
Nah. Fuck the filthy fascist supporting magats. They deserve to starve for their extreme stupidity.
So… we war with each other forever and that’s the end of the country? Just head straight for civil war? Your attitude does nothing to make things better. I understand the anger, it’s righteous indignation because this shit is just absolutely wrong and completely fucked up. But the problem is class warfare and kleptocracy, and you’re feeding right into it, picking the wrong enemy.
Powerless people in bad situations make bad choices. They’re idiots, sure, but many voted on kitchen table issues, which Trump addressed, while Harris did not. Granted, once elected Trump promptly fucked off on that because he’s a grifter and that’s what he does.
I can’t stand the Trump cult, and yeah people are idiots for falling for it again. As another idiot leader once said, “fool me once, sh…uh, c-can’t fool me again.” But as I noted previously, hungry, desperate people aren’t rational actors.
I don’t pick who my donations go to, I just make sure I donate so food is available to those who need it.
I agree somewhat with your last 2 sentences, but their kids don’t deserve knowing hunger. Hungry kids don’t / can’t pay attention in school. And I know the future of our education system is circling the drain, but kids don’t deserve to be condemned for what their parents have done.
From above:
A large portion of Americans only have 2 brain cells and they’re both busy fighting for 3rd place.
And here we have a case in point: an American who can’t read history.
Try living it. As an American citizen, I have never lived with such a high level of stress and anxiety in my entire life. I am a lifelong student of history (I have a degree in a branch of history), and I KNOW where the kind of government we have now leads, and there are NO positive outcomes for the majority of Americans. Frankly, I don’t think the potential outcomes will be good for the Sociopathic Oligarchs either, but they are too blinded by their sick obsession with greed and money to see it.
I don’t see us getting out of this without a lot violence, destruction, and death.
I smoke a lot of pot. Probably the strangest part is how…I still have to live? I still have to go into work tomorrow, I’ve still got bills to pay. People just go about their day like nothing is happening. You sit in the office and joke about the ongoing hostile government takeover. Meanwhile, federal employees are getting fucked, trans people are getting erased, they’re building fuckin camps down in Guantanamo, people are fuckin starving outside shuttered USAID depots, and I still got work tomorrow. It’s like I’m just sitting here waiting for somebody to put a gun in my hands and tell me “the revolution starts now.” My local organizations are very focused on making sure people survive right now, which is a very good and noble focus to have, but I haven’t really heard of anyone planning something serious to fight back.
I’m from Russia, and I totally get your experience. When the war started, I had to go to the work. There is the whole ass war, the government invades other countries under the most batshit pretense possible, people are being conscripted to go die in a ditch, the future just got canceled, and I need to care about my stupid little job, and stupid little rent, and stupid little groceries.
The only thing that helped me getting by head back in place (slightly) was getting the fuck out of there, but even that helped only a bit.
My reaction is to get to work. The far-right is trying to take over much of the world, and it’s going to many of us to push back to it. Don’t wait for someone else to step up - everyone else is waiting too. Be the person who steps up. The people have power if we use it
There’s groups like Indivisible doing directed pressure of those in government that need more people to contact their house representatives and senators. With that pressure for instance, they’ve started to get Democrats to use procedural tools to slow down senate confirmation of Trump’s picks
There’s movements like the 50501 protests in many cities in all 50 states yesterday, on Feb 5th, and there will be future protests
For anyone else reading this, don’t think this can’t happen wherever you are in the world, join the fight back locally. People in the US thought it couldn’t happen to them too until it did. People in the UK thought Brexit wouldn’t happen until it did. It can happen to you. Take what’s happened in the US as a warning for you too to get involved in the push back
I don’t have a take on the situation; I’m just making sure I stay informed about the news through reputable sources and nonprofit news networks local to me and other places. And I try to combat the situation by boycotting mega corporations every single day by voting with my wallet. By prioritizing mom and pop shops and Etsy stores, we can hurt Donald Trump and his greedy pals.
Well a lot of it is just rage bait. Our journalists aren’t very honest.
For example, USAID was giving money to ridiculous things, like a musical in Ireland. There’s no reason for it. You start digging into it, we were paying billions of dollars to even more nonsense.
Yet people are defending it because some people are now getting fired over it.
It’s simply just stupid tribal fighting
USAID is a know corruption hot spot.
It was jobs for people of certain backgrpund, contracts awarded to certain companies, then there is classic over charging…
To be fiat this normal in all government contracting but US AID is specifically bad at it.
Most of the money is so that some people can have good jobs and live their best lives.
Surviving.
Right now, it feels like all I can do. Keep going, keep reaching out to other members of the local LGBT community to help be a wall to lean on, keep telling my partners that I love them. Keep sheltering whatever tiny spark is left.
And making sure that spark is fed, in whatever little ways I can. Letting myself be more open, letting my colors flash a bit more. Trying to smile in the face of hate.
As to my take on the situation, it’s fucked. There’s no nuance to it. We’re watching our siblings and ourselves being actively erased, waking up wondering when our actual existence will be a crime. Even if we make it through, things somehow get better, there’s so much trust that has been completely broken.
Our government has pissed on lines that, even with a total change of leadership, will take time to repair. Both within the country and on a global scale. Many people within the country have done the same, there will be no taking back things said and done while they thought it was “okay”. There’s no forgetting the hate that has been exposed.
this coming off an europe union country citizen is amusing
what do you mean?
that your house ain’t clean either.
I’d like to understand what you’re saying, but you’re not saying much at the moment
You’ll find that happens a lot when Americans comment on things abroad. Victims if their own educational system that they are, they really don’t know anything about the world outside of their borders so they just make vague pronouncements and nod as if they’ve said something wise instead of having just shit their own pants for all to see.
Americans, how do you cope? What’s your take on the situation?
Trying not to think about it. It very well may lead to my death, but so does every avenue radical enough to avert it by my personal intervention.
I think the hardest part considering it is how okay people are with everything that’s going on. Despite the high levels of copium from liberals and leftists about how there’s TOTALLY a grassroots movement ready to rise up, the fact is… there isn’t. The protests are smaller this time 'round than they were last time. Public opinion is more in favor of Trump than it was at the start of his last administration.
Many of us noted that this country isn’t as left as many of the “Trump will make the moderates SEE that fascism is BAD!” types wanted to believe it was. We were ignored.
People live in a bubble, where what they want to believe is true, and goddamn reality.
Anyway. I’m fucked, and just trying to stay alive until I can’t avoid dusting off my old suicide plans.
The way I see it, even if our lives are basically worthless anyway, we ought to at least give them in glorious revolution. Better to die on your feet for what you believe in surrounded by comrades than by your own hand alone. I’ll go on living until that happens, and you should try to survive too.
As Americans, we’re really good at airing out our political dirty laundry on the world stage, as well as taking every item in the news to its most extreme conclusion (especially in online circles that are too homogeneous in their political leanings).
I just try to cut through all the noise and keep perspective.
This is the most positive take I’ve read on this topic so far. I hope it’s true and it’s all more circus than it seems, but it’s scary tho
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of decisions being made that I strongly disapprove of, but I just want to caution that we have a tendency to overwhelm online conversations and completely lose perspective.
Real life in the US is very different than it is presented online.
For anyone feeling small: Take a stand, join us. Masters are merely men.
The no spending/not buying from amazon is hilarious. Not only will people in general not do it, even if they see a dip in profits, they’ll have record profits the next day.
I wonder if ya’ll read this before you post. Its a display of unity. Its a warning.
As a Canadian, I and many others have been boycotting Amazon for over a month.
I don’t understand why people just can’t stop buying shit form Amazon. At some point a few years back, I had had enough. I stopped buying stuff from Amazon. I…didn’t think it was that hard. If anything, I’ll browse Amazon for something vague I’m looking for, find it, search the company names and buy it direct.
Amazon is just straight up bad. I have to be super desperate to buy something from there. Even when it was “good” i mainly used it to find something and compare it, and read reviews. If you do that now, you’re an insane person. Amazon video or what it’s called is really really bad. They show a lot of shows that you have to click on, to tell you that it’s not available in your region. It would be hilarious to just stop using amazon and see Jeffrey losing his shit. But not gonna happen.
Americans, how do you cope?
Alcohol
What’s your take on the situation?
I’m leaving the country. My friends are stockpiling and getting sterilized.
Move to Belgium! We have lots of quality beers and delicious fries!
I can vouch for that, Belgian fries are by far the superior kind. In a way I’m glad I don’t live there or I’d have the circumference of a small planet by now.
You get used to it when you live here, trust me. Only once a week, as is tradition!
I can’t leave. They just made my gender illegal to put on a passport.
They just made my gender illegal to put on a passport
So TECHNICALLY they can’t do you harm either… No passport no way of punishing you (I know they can, but I’m just trying to lighten the mood a little bit. Humor as coping mechanism and all that)
Sounds tasty! What’s the job market like?
