America doesn't have a fascism problem, Americans just like to see themselves as some sorts of victims. Russia, China and Iran do have a real fascism problem though.
The republican/right wing party attempted to overthrow an election. And they are unabashed about that. And somehow they still have a 3rd of the country still supporting them.
Is that not enough for us to qualify as having a real fascism problem?
Only once they've taken over. But once there's more than the unavoidable fringe of them around and they start having a real shot at power, you have a problem, even if they can't yet stop people from criticizing them
When I cleared out my grandma's attic there were her ww2 correspondence letters with soldiers on the front.
I was not prepared for the amount of american soldiers writing about how wonderful Hitler was and we shouldn't be at war in Europe because the real enemy were the Reds.
"Heil Hitler and Fuck the Reds!" is a line from one.
It really put the inevitability of the Cold War into perspective.
That’s significantly different from putting boots on the ground in Europe which was going awful for America until Stalingrad and the point I was trying to make about Pearl Harbor was that the Japanese command knew it couldn’t beat America outright and was trying to establish the territories that would constitute the Japanese empire after the war ended.
The pacific theater was Japan trying to get America to say “you know what? Fine! Have some little shitty islands!”
This isn't that complicated. Imagine what would have happened in Iraq or Afghanistan if the president was an intelligence asset they had cultivated for decades. Not to mention tons of senators, represntatives, and influential NGOs like the NRA. Also all those social media psyops that are disappointingly effective at sowing division in the US.
Russia has an incredible amount of influence in the US and is still getting wolloped, although not nearly as much or as quickly as they should/could be.
The only thing I remember is a bunch of restaurant owners changed french fries to freedom fries. I also was living in a fairly rural (redneck) area at the time. Depending on how long they stayed "Freedom Fries" really spoke volumes about the type, and quality, of the food that was served.
Up for a short amount of time: Food is probably fine. Restaurant owner was bandwagoning and probably didn't want to alienate his clientele.
Up for several months to a year: More likely to be greasy spoon type place. The food is probably okay with only a smallish (5-10%) chance of explosive diarrhea after eating there.
Up for 1-2 years: Literally every menu item has gravy on it somehow. You could probably order a piece if dry white bread it would come pre-soaked in gravy. You have about a 50/50 chance of shitting your brains out after eating here
Still "Freedom Frying" 2-3 years on: These places serve rat meat. It's the only explanation for how they are in business. Expect everything to have a weird taste like stale Marlboros. The people that own/work in the restaurant couldn't collectively come up with a full set of teeth combined. Food poisoning is part of the experience.
"Fredum Frys" in 2024: This is front. You should not ever eat here. You will most likely get food poisoning from walking in the front door. Those french fries are actually surplus from the Iraq invasion. They make meth in the back and their cook has a loaded pistol sitting on the counter.
Story time: I went to an Iraq War protest back in the day. Some people wandered out of the protest zone and (to be completely fair, I didn't see what started the altercation) got their asses beat by the cops. One brave kid stood out from the crowd and said, "Come on, guys! We have to help them!" We all looked at each other and were like, "Uh... no." The brave lad then charged in and promptly got his ass beat by the cops. The war still happened.
Holy shit Americans are lame. No wonder your country sucks so much. In the civilised world that would've been a full on brawl, and they'd have burnt down the police station later for good measure.
I mean the French are constantly protesting/rioting but their police still brutalize protesters, rioters and innocent bystanders like it's a sport for them.
(I get* that it's a joke but what worries me is that it's actually said candidly, and worse, sometimes I myself think stuff like that. It might be just or moral (debatable), but it sure as fuck isn't civilized)
Behold the native Internet Tough Guy in his comfortable habitat. From his keyboard, he is a great warrior. His hypothetical contributions to the history of war are legendary.
That's not really a relevant criticism, I'm not talking about anything out of the ordinary. Plenty of not very tough people (like me) go to protests, but people are tougher when they are united. The idea that a protest would stick to some zone, or that people wouldn't try to help each other against the cops, is super sad. It makes you think they don't really believe in the thing they are protesting for at all.
Honestly, if you don't look out for each other it seems to defeat the whole point of an organized protest. I can spread the word on my own in a safe space without fear of organized retaliatory violence.
Yeah, I mean the Vietnam war wasn't without protest, and nor was the Gulf.
Always hard to know which side of history they're going to be on though. Some wars are justified. You don't want to be the guy holding the Hitler Did Nothing Wrong sign when the guy from down the road is sifting for teeth in a pile of ash.
"Forty years ago Germany proclaimed the slogan: “Germany above everything. Germany for the Germans, first, last and always. We want peace; therefore we must prepare for war. Only a well armed and thoroughly prepared nation can maintain peace, can command respect, can be sure of its national integrity.” And Germany continued to prepare, thereby forcing the other nations to do the same. The terrible European war is only the culminating fruition of the hydra-headed gospel, military preparedness. "
She's absolutely right. And she identifies the core problem too. It only takes one country. So we're trapped by the prisoner's dilemma. There is a multiverse slice out there somewhere where Democracy solved these issues because proponents of military build ups were voted out everywhere. But it's not our universe. As long as there's a state building hard power to fuck with other countries we're all trapped.
Democracy governing with good sense and moral integrity? That sounds a lot like entropy reversing itself. Possible in theory, but requires access to an infinite number of random universes to actually witness.
Eh, military unpreparedness, to compare, leads to becoming a victim.
And (some) democracy, (relative) equality and all that (including trade and peaceful life being perceived as something more honorable than conquest) in Europe were historically spearheaded by United Provinces, Hanseatic cities and all those guys who were militarily prepared.
Because Germany, as well as any other european state at that time, was a genocidal maniac who shouldn't be trusted with guns. However the Germany of today is far removed from those times and rivalries. And we're not even talking about Germany, but the EU as a whole. We are talking about Europe, was a community of states, providing the protection themselves that they enjoyed by the US in the past.
To be fair, I always thought that the USA is more willing to do the latter rather than the former. And those protests existed in both cases, so a meme of an opposite meaning could probably be made. Or is it just that I don't get the deepness of the joke?
Not sure how much attention OP has been paying, but American's trust in military/government leadership has been severely eroded by the wars in the middle east.
That is only very selectively true though, considering that the party responsible for starting those wars is the one playing pacifist now. And if there is one thing we know about GOP it is that they are definitely not pacifist
It is just a very poor excuse by disingenous liars.
The parties only exist to disguise the fact that the entire thing is being run by the exact same oligarchs no matter who is in charge. Who gets elected doesn't change the meat of what gets done, but only the flavour.
If you want to go down that rabbit hole, I'd point out a few things: He was considered to lean democrat in the 90s when there was speculation he might run, and he has faced significant scorn from many established republicans as well. He's hardly an example of a typical candidate no matter what else you think of him.
Sure. Does not change that there are significant differences in policies that affect people's life dependingvon the party and as you say yourself even more in the personality of the president.
Yea, they focus on things that affect you on a personal and emotional level, not things that affect their own bottom line or the continuing function of their control systems, so you're too busy fighting the "other team," worrying about issues which are inconsequential to them, to mount any real resistance to their plans. That's deliberate by design.
Again, the important point is that neither of those issues actually affect the continuing function of their control systems, such as monetary policy. You're being trapped by your emotions so you can't see the bigger picture. Those issues are deliberately selected because they fill people with fear and anger.
Like how your wages are tied to how submissive you are to their other control systems, so that everyone who doesn't sell out completely is just barely getting by, spending all their time and energy just trying to survive rather than being capable of building any sort of momentum which might represent real competition for them. That's why wages have stagnated while actual productivity skyrockets.
The point is that those broader topics about the fundamental functions of society do actually affect everyone significantly, but they're so all encompassing that it's harder for people to wrap their heads around, especially when harassed about things which elicit an immediate and intense emotional reaction. Everyone imagines nefarious conspiracies where their enemies hide in the darkness plotting their demise, while the best way to hide things is to just make them as dry and boring as possible, such as the legal system and monetary policy, so people who are addicted to the sensational and salacious don't even look at them in any detail.
Of course those issues aren't meaningless to you. They wouldn't be capable of occupying your time and energy otherwise. It's an issue which doesn't threaten those in power though, which is why they dangle it in front of you.
Put the military aren't getting involved. The point the US doesn't actually have to send soldiers to fight an enemy of the United States and yet people are against it.
