Binx85

Your take on genuine democracy is fair, especially if we’re referring to the US (as per my assumption). According to this Wikipedia article on The Economist Democracy Index:

In 2016, the United States was downgraded from a full democracy to a flawed democracy; its score, which had been declining for some years, crossed the threshold from 8.05 in 2015 to 7.98 in 2016. The report stated that this was caused by myriad factors dating back to at least the late 1960s which have eroded Americans' trust in governmental institutions.

The question we’re facing is, if we make it through Trump’s term(s?) with a functional federal gov’t, how can we begin to return to a full democracy, and is that even possible given the trajectory of our economic system.

Think about it this way, why would funding campaigns matter if the vote wasn’t real? There is no correct answer, because each culture has it’s own power structure, but look at the history of each political system, starting with your own to see how the rules started and each incremental change and shift between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.

It might help to watch Adam Curtis’ The Century of the Self as a starting point (better yet, Hypernormalization-> Bitter Lake -> Century of the self if you want to go from today to 1920s. Reverse that if you prefer to start earlier).

It would also hell to understand economics as globalization, which is a huge part of the current political climate, is an economic tide (See Thomas Friedman). Milton Friedman (different than Thomas) is really important to current political events, too. I personally like Niall Ferguson and Joel Mokyr as scholars of economic history, but to each their own.

Violence as a last resort, as it has always only been appropriate for.

This is why it’s important to provide a counter narrative to the romanticized version of revolution. The reality is nothing like the story.

For something like you’re recommending to succeed, you need allies and justification. As of now, violence isn’t being meted out, so foreign allies would not see justification in these actions. As offended as they are, no one of significance in Canada, Greenland, or France are advocating for violent rebellion. Democracy must be exhausted through all of its platforms before violence is a legitimate option. As of now, there is still a functioning judiciary, and a very slow but gradual shift in attitudes from the people whose support he needs. Try to encourage that divide more, become clever enough to frame the current events as opposing the interests of the people whose support they rely on. Create the image of a justified resistance in the eye of foreign nations. Be present at events as a defense in places where people are at risk. Slow the machine down, disrupt it with civil disobedience. If violence is done by dictators, then violence becomes a legitimate language in this conflict (and we’d all better pray to whatever sense of hope we have that that never happens); that is not currently the case and, more importantly, would quickly extinguish any opportunity to finding allies in the opposition and building a coalition of force that has an actual chance of resistance.

Read real history about what happens during actual violent revolutions. There is a reason the Hong Kong protestors never engaged in what you’re advocating.

I think a detante (the word the article uses) is a more appropriate word. Though given that they were on the defense, a detante looks better for them than it does for the aggressor.

The fact that you’re advocating for violent insurrection without taking into account the mass casualty event that will follow reveals how delusional you are about this kind of resistance in the US.

Immediately after the first flashpoint, the already-militarized police force will begin a campaign of violence to suffocate any obvious resistance. Martial law will be declared to support them. Just having a cellphone makes everyone an easy target. We have no healthcare without a job, and likely workplaces will see retaliation if they maintain employment of anyone deemed an enemy of the state thereby preventing you from ever being able to see a doctor.

What you are advocating is what a high school student advocates for after watching the film adaptation of Les Miserables.

If you’re referencing Reedy Creek, it looks like Disney ultimately won after Desantis capitulated on who became charged with running the CTFOD

DeSantis extended what Disney likely perceived as a peace offering when he tapped CFTOD’s former administrator to head elections at Orange County. That opened up the job for Stephanie Kopelousos, the governor’s former legislative affairs director who was confirmed Wednesday and has a track record with helping Disney. In 2021, she wrote a carve-out to a social media law that exempted Disney. The olive branch was solidified with the appointment of Craig Mateer, founder of hospitality service CCM Capital Group and a longtime Disney contractor, to the board.

I’m betting they’re more likely to see this through. If you aren’t already familiar, check out the dispute between Disney and Desantis.

I don’t think my comment history merits a mass edit. Anything particularly self identifying I had already scrubbed a while ago and much of my comment history has advocated for non-violent resistance.

I was shadowbanned because I said Trump was in poor health and more likely to die in office than be a dictator for the next decade. Offensive, sure, but not to the level I’d be afraid of becoming a political target.

It looks like this is the ex-redditor handshake thread. Did anyone start here without coming from Reddit? I heard about Lemme during the IPO fallout but didn’t pursue it until the mass shadow ban rollout.

I’m also still jumping back and forth, but that’s only because the big content creators for hobby stuff are still on Reddit. Once they migrate, I’ll likely delete my account.

And here all I said to earn a ban was that he was so unhealthy that he likely wouldn’t live long enough to reign like Putin.