(Disclaimer: I voted against Trump and anyone who supported him in my state.)
You must log in or register to comment.
Before, his power was checked by legislature…but now GOP has full control over the gov, and the supreme Court has 5 members nominated by Trump, soon to be 7.
Hand maidens tale seems possible. Destruction of the middle class through tariffs, union busting, tear down of heath coverage, teardown public schools, force colleges to abandon certain studies or no federal money…
Add in non stop fossil fuel promotion with drill baby drill attitudes, tear down NOAA and the nhc because strong hurricane news reinforces climate change.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor
That would require the narcissist to not think he’s still young and vibrant and will never die. He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
He could postpone the election if America is at war.
“We have always been at war with Eastasia”
That’s funny, I could have sworn it was Eurasia last year. I must be mistaken.
WE FOUND A GOLDSTEIN SYMPATHIZER!!
I’m most certainly not. Oh look, time for The Two Minutes of Hate already. 📺
Here’s a horrifying thought: JD’s Silicon Valley puppetmasters wait until Trump has served just over 2 years into his term, then invoke the 25th and install JD. In the meantime, the MAGA types work the system to ensure they can guarantee a Vance victory through whatever means necessary for the next 2 cycles (since his first abbreviated session won’t count as an official term), or a total of 10 years, before most Americans even realize we have sleepwalked into a Vance dictatorship funded by and primarily benefiting oligarchs like Musk and Thiel
He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
I’m quite sure that this is already the case.
tear down NOAA
Fuuuccckkkk… Add to the list of things I forgot… The AccuWeather guy is about to become even more wealthy…
The billionaire class are the only winners of this election, but then again when aren’t they the winner? Money is literally power.
Trump had a Republican majority in the House and Senate when he entered office in 2017. They were incompetent, and it took them a while to get anything done.
They didn’t have a Project 2025 game plan going in like they do now.
They did, and most of it was implemented then as well.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
No. He will not name a successor, he will remain president. Either he will eliminate elections or he will do like his idol, Putin. Arrest and murder anyone who dares oppose him.
He is an extreme narcissist and egotist. Like extreme extreme. He cannot see a future where he’s not on the throne.
Wanna bet he’ll put up one of his kids (hell perhaps even Barron?) and bend the whole sycophantic side of the GOP into endlesdly propping them up?
In 4 years, you may simply get Trump III. I want to say this notion seems absurd, except that it absolutely isn’t.
Bush SR, JR and Jeb.
Jeb doesen’t count. Please clap.
Lmao fair enough…
Goddamnitalltohell. I forgot we’re going to have to subscribe to private disaster warning systems. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Perfectly describes everything they want to do.
I have spent all day crying and drafting escape plans since my life is now in extreme danger. I’m a Latina immigrant, trans, and drag-adjacent performer
Good luck and I wish you the safest journey to somewhere safe as possible.
If you’re in a blue state you will be much safer. If you’re not, see if you can relocate to one even if that means you sleep on someone’s couch for a while. I wish you the best.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are desperate for people to move there… And the Canadian border is right there just in case
Canadian Immigration is pretty full up at the moment, might take a while to process unless the person heads there and claims asylum once in.
keep in mind this opinion also promises that it can’t be fixed, as the more blue voters that leave the red leaning states the more power those red leaning states have. Moving to a blue leaning state only removes the blue votes from the red leaning state in favor of increasing the power of an already blue state.
Of course if he somehow manages to find a way to do away with the election process this would be true, but currently the best bet overall is going to be stay in your state, honestly if you can lower solid blue districts in favor of saturating red districts that’s the best option but that’s a difficult task.
Our system does not operate under popular vote. It runs off the electoral college, its the main reason red states want to gerrymander the district lines to make all black areas be their own district, its less damage if every opponent is in the same district as it allows only one district to be in opposition instead of multiple.
That’s all well and good, but are you really suggesting that trans people who are fearing for their lives should stay put to help the electoral college issues four years from now?
that’s a sticky question, there’s no perfect answer sadly.
the solution of moving to a blue state is a good short term fix. However it won’t survive a long-term exposure. Eventually the federal level laws will outlaw the state level laws regarding it and their protections in the blue state won’t help them anymore. When that happens the only outcome is all red laws. We are already seeing that with him claiming that he’s going to outlaw abortion period on the federal level, which will overrule state level, an act that currently I believe would make it through the proper channels to actually get implemented as the red party currently holds half (if not all) the legislative, the entire executive, and despite it not being supposed to be possible, the judicial branches.
In a perfect world, due to everyone dispersing into the red districts, it would saturate the polls in those districts, requiring district remaps via gerrymandering to win. Unless there truly is more red voters then blue, in which case there is no solution to this problem while remaining in the US, the only valid option is either a second civil war, or moving to another country and hoping that it doesn’t spread. Neither options are ideal.
that’s a sticky question,
No, the banshee-wailing fuck it isn’t!
If someone truly believes they are in fucking danger, they need to remove themselves from the danger first and foremost, before any consideration of “but what about next election?”
Are you for real trying to ivory tower armchair general a person who now fears for their life due to the overt threats of the candidate who just won the fucking presidency? Hold on- let me get you a ladder so you can try to climb down out of your own asshole.
no, I’m not sure where everyone is getting that ideology. Obviously if there is physical threat move. I’m just saying that moving to a blue state isn’t a permanent solution and it’s just going to fuck them twice over later when the barely red states become fully red states and electoral college allows for a constant 270 for a side that is very very against the concept of it.
Blue states aren’t even that much better either. I know from first hand experience that Maine, a state that hasent gone red since 1988, still very much has population that is hostile to the same lifestyles, It’s not as bad obviously but, it’s not like the problem disappears by moving. I just personally think deciding to leave the state is cementing the issue to being a permanent one.
Personally, if moving is a must, instead of going to a blue state you are likely better off leaving the country. At least then your impact will be mitigated when the full red federal laws go into effect.
More than half of Americans are OK with fascism. No fixing this.
I wish you luck and safety.
I hate that i’m saying this, but Canada or somewhere in the EU are probably your best bets. If Project 2025 goes according to plan we’re going to see a great upheaval come Q1 2025 that probably clusterfucks everything.
Long term with christian school mandates via defunding education and funding vouchers will further create a hostile nation for anyone who does not conform to a heterosexual white nationalist christian identity.
What does your escape plan look like?
Edit: lmao people LARPing
Maybe not a great idea for some individuals to advertise their escape plans in open channels online?
Honestly, the internet doesn’t feel “safe” anymore, in general. I’ve already stopped myself saying certain things a few times in the last 24 hours.
“Great Firewall of China” style internet incoming.
Put on your pirate hat and get while the gettings good. Sneakernets makin a comeback.
Tbh I haven’t pirated much in years. Mind PMing me any decent trackers?
Sure, advertising your secret plans in public might not be the best idea, regardles of the medium.
From the technical standpoint, internet has never been more secure and private. The amount of plaintext shit that was literally flying over the air just a decade ago was terrifying.
If it’s a good escape plan you might help someone. I mean as long as it doesn’t require concealment to succeed. And I guess a lot of plans like “find a job abroad” don’t really need to be kept secret.
If push comes to shove, I sincerely invite you to look at Mexico as an alternative as a trans Latina. Sure, your life won’t be a luxury, but you’ll be happy and free. You’d be surprised at how well we’re doing now, how accepting the Mexican population is regarding important LGBT+ issues and what a bright future we have ahead of us.
Is that you Iniko?
You have my axe, for what it’s worth. Godspeed.
Pretty fucked, but not as fucked as Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, or Taiwan.
NATO will be fucked for a while if the US withdraws, but other NATO countries may ramp up military spending over time.
This situation is a worldwide danger. The US is/was a world power, it has/had the largest national economy in the world, it has the largest military in the world.
Previously, we could be concerned that democratic countries (including the US) weren’t putting enough pressure on authoritarian countries (like Russia, China, and North Korea) to improve. Now we have to worry that the US will actually become a fully authoritarian country, like Russia or China.
On the bright side… the rest of the world is realizing that being reliant on one country for military power and maintaining stability was a terrible idea. The UN and NATO only have power if the countries are willing to enforce those decisions, and if the US doesn’t, there isn’t really a comparable backup option. The US military was always the elephant in the room keeping things generally less extreme just by its existence and not reacting impulsively.
Just to add, it was always the US strategy to have the western world dependent on it for defence, it gave them a lot of soft and hard power and allowed for unopposed imperialism in “less important” (with a lot of irony) parts of the world.
If NATO fades into oblivion, that would be a great opportunity for European countries to make a news defense organization where a single country like Hungary or Turkey can’t play their political games.
Technically the EU already is an defence organisation (Lisbon accords), even with a stronger mutual assistance clause than NATO. What is different is that there is no integrated command structure. But that is currently rapidly changing, Germany and the Netherlands already are fully integrated (more than NATO standards are), the Baltics are making great progress.
There is at least a chance
Huh, that’s fascinating. I wasn’t aware, but that’s cool to hear, despite how frustrating and depressing the motivation for it may be
I expect that the EU is going to have to claim defence competencies to continue the Union’s defense. There are way too many small countries in NATO that can’t contribute meaningfully to a military beyond some basic battalions and the EU needs something more robust than France and Poland.
Extremely, tarrifs will erase the middle class. All regulations will be repealed allowing even more corporate power and influence. We’re about to experience the Gilded Age on crack mixed with the burning hells of our mother Earth scorned.
They’re done with the middle class here. They don’t want to raise the poverty level worldwide, they want to bring us down to match the rest of the world. It’s strip-mining time, we’re too expensive for the international rich’s tastes.
Time to stock up on the automatic rifles they want us all to have so much, and learn carpentry to build some guillotines.
Maybe the French will help us again, they’ve got some experience with this.
Why do you need to learn carpentry? Isn’t it a slot with a big metal blade? Add a rope so you can pull it up, and let it go to make it work…
You don’t want it to fall apart after one use, see? Need to make sure it can stand up to the job. We don’t want to build to Harbor Freight standards here. Take pride in our work.
Look, I’m no guillotine-ologist, but I think if I was going to construct one I would forgo my usual method of measure once and cut 5 to 10 times until I have to go get another board because I’ve destroyed the last one.
We dont need guillotines. We need to heal our culture and unify Americans by ending the two party system that thrives off our division. We are so big we should be lead by a coalition of factions. Not whatever the fuck this is.
Ah yes, the same rhetoric that got us into this mess. Do nothing that actually makes a difference, but try to “fix” it from within. Meanwhile everything is being stolen with intentional legal loopholes.
How do you propose removing the two party system, which the two parties comprising the entirety of the government have every incentive to keep because it’s the only reason they have the power they do? The only way, as designed an within the existing system is to get enough representation in to force that change, which means replacing 2/3 of Congress essentially at the same time to force super majorities on both sides.
Do I need to remind everyone that the French Revolution eventually fed their own into the guillotines? No? We’re just keen on repeating every bit of history until we’re baked off this rock? Okay. Let’s do that instead of trying to ratify citizen petitions, getting collective action, and actually building a unified ideal over time. Nah, thats much too hard. Buy some wood, meet up with the three other willing people, and go stand outside some politicians house with a guillotine while he calls his donners all scared and they write up more protest laws.
Let’s do that instead of trying to ratify citizen petitions, getting collective action, and actually building a unified ideal over time.
Those work on a local level, not federal. Citizens have no control of anything Federal. The Federal government doesn’t have to listen to the citizens at all. The only consequence for them is during re-election. There they’ll just gerrymander the districts to force a win either way overall.
The federal government relies on each branch overseeing each other. And the Republicans have a stacked blatantly partisan Supreme Court that gave the office of the President total immunity. And a Republican majority in both sides of Congress completely willing to let Trump do what he wants as far of the plan.
Fixing this at a federal level will require getting to the exact opposite point we’re at now since we’ve allowed it to get to this point.
Then local it is. We gotta do something or die my guy.
the French forgot about when to use guillotines decades ago
Tariffs will not only erase the middle class but also erase our topsoil like it’s 1924 all over again if farmers aren’t subsidized and everything is left to go fallow. In terms of dollars we’re pretty even in terms of agricultural imports and exports, but in terms of acreage… We push a shitload of soy, corn, and wheat. We’re more than a little fucked in lots of ways if we’re hit with retaliatory tariffs, but the biggest one is if farmers don’t have any reason to plant crops and don’t have any money to do it, we’re doomed for dustbowl days.
Don’t even get me started on water, fluoride is one thing but if they start removing a lot of other stuff like phosphate and permanganate the entire country’s municipal water supply will be as bad as Flint MI.
I’m hoping Trump doesn’t pull off 95% of the stuff he talked about due to unbridled incompetence because if he still manages to pull off 80% of it we’re gonna be fucked
No they’ll keep things like the farm subsidies, may even expand them. The tariffs will leave those out. That’s the socialism their base is 100% reliant on. They won’t risk turning on the rural farmers until the end when it they’re not a threat. They’ve already shown a complete willingness to ignore absolutely everything else until this point.
I’m hoping. Last trade war, Trump basically rolled out of bed one morning and decided to try it on China as some temporary transient thing in order to convey that the US has a lot of leverage (and it blew up in our faces), which is an entirely different beast than unilateral tariffs as part of fiscal policy. I have no clue how much it’d cost to just subsidize everything in perpetuity but I hope it isn’t some ridiculous sum.
He’ll probably do something like allowing us to sell semiconductors to foreign nations in exchange for dropping tariffs on agricultural exports which is also really fucking boneheaded. The art of the deal, giving away the only shit that has lots of value for us. China outpacing the US in tech is something Europe wouldn’t want, but if we cut ties with Europe they’d probably warm up to China and we’d become a really big insular nation that can’t even sustain its economy as is
If he manages to pull off even 25% we will be fucked until the last soul melts on the 200 degree pavement. Its never the time for regressionism, but now is especially a bad time.
We’re already net exporter of petroleum but they’re intending to carve up our parks and stuff, even though we won’t be able to sell it for more than the cost of producing it. Everyone will slam us with tariffs and go to other countries for their fix, and it’ll be cheaper than bottled water for us.
The idiots who don’t understand what a pronoun is and are terrified of their kids learning about them in English class will have cheap gas, but their kids will endure a literal hell for it.
And they’ll think Trump’s doing a good job for all of it, blame some totally unrelated shit for our interest rate being at 25%
I’m over it. Be fucking stupid. Sell shit out for cheap. Stain the future with the blood of our children. We are out of time on the climate. The Earth will swallow us as our madness consumes us. Its a triple pronged rape of humanity’s future.
Ending farming and allowing nature to return would prevent a dust bowl. Allowing a field to go fallow means that a whole lot of plants start growing.
It might do that in some fields but it’d take ages in those spots where all you see is corn as far as the eye can see. Might be switchgrass growing in a drainage ditch but it’d just creep in like capillary action on a paper towel. You’d need to have people out there casting seed at least
That’s because it is soil that has been destroyed through decades of mismanagement. That is what caused the previous dust bowl.
Let me put it this way: we will see the true beginning of WW3 in the Baltics. Trump will predictably not act upon that and the response will be 100% up to Europe itself.
That response better be an armed one, and quick too, or we all better start practicing cyrillic here in W-europe.
Regardless if we are lucky, “only” tens of thousands will die. More likely it will be millions.
So yeah, Trump kinda bedazzled us there, no way around it. Won’t be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they’ll finally realize they’ve been conned. But too little too late.
Won’t be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they’ll finally realize they’ve been conned. But too little too late.
Cute that you think they won’t just blame Mexicans when they do start hurting.
As long as they have a group to scapegoat
Oh he’d act. He’d assist Russia and be the other Axis power.
Germany’s fatal mistake in WW2 was not being America instead.
Who, exactly, is to take its place along with the British Empire and USSR in holding back fascism?
Some people are going to die-- mostly women. More people are going to have their lives turned upside-down, especially immigrants and ethnic and sexual minorities. Many immigrants, even legal ones, are going to be expelled. Corporations are going to run wild as regulation is abandoned. People are going to be bankrupted by predatory healthcare firms at a much higher rate than now. Every form of corporate pollution, adulteration, cheating and chicanery will be tolerated. The judiciary will be further corrupted. The US will not only withdraw from NATO, but will try to shut it down. Ukraine will be handed to Putin on a platter. Taiwan, the Baltics, Moldova and Poland will be left to fend for themselves. The ethnic cleansing in Gaza will transition even further to a full-scale genocide. Every aspect of government will be handed to corrupt, incompetent fanatics: kakistocracy all the way down. The impartiality of the civil service will be destroyed and the 19th-century spoils system reinstated. Social Security will be privatized and gutted. Obamacare will be eliminated. Congress will hold show trials of Trump’s perceived enemies. Terrorist acts and sabotage of critical infrastructure will massively increase, and the clampdowns that follow will be used to further degrade what few rights we still have.
But at least you won’t have Kamala’s pantsuit to complain about.
All that, and you may have left out the most damaging of all… Trump will likely pull the US out of Copenhagen, leaving no chance of limiting temps below 2C let alone getting anywhere near 1.5C. The excess deaths from this will likely dwarf COVID.
Honestly, I can’t be bothered to worry about the climate 100 years from now when we’re going to be attacking (many more) Americans 100 days from now
I can’t be bothered to worry about the climate 100 years from now
I can because I care about my kids and potential grandchildren.
we’re going to be attacking (many more) Americans 100 days from now
I also have family members who will be impacted directly by that.
I can be concerned about stopping both of those negative outcomes. (And would be even if it didn’t directly impact my family)
I’m sorry, just my anxiety speaking there. Of course you’re right, but if Trump death squads purge the undesirables, nobody will be left to defend the environment, and this is on a shorter time table.
Of all the bullshit that Trump yelled about, I think actual death squads is relatively low on the list of things he would actually be able to accomplish.
For the first year or so he will be too focused on trying to punish the justice system that was so “unfair” to him.
Don’t get me wrong, Drumph’s second term will be bad for everyone. But the climate issue is going to be truly catastrophic on a scale even he and his cronies can’t match. There should be plenty of worry to go around.
100 years from now? Ha, you wish. With Trump in the White House we will speed run through all the tipping points that remain
I apologize for my candor. I’m spiraling a bit.
bro, i know all that stuff is bad, but have you heard her laugh? we made a solid choice.
(i hope i don’t need the /s, but Poe’s Law says i probably do)
Probably less than he killed during the pandemic. Unless he uses nukes
One of the biggest things is that the “deep state”, an innocuous thing turned into a convenient boogeyman by trump, will be quietly destroyed. This is the thing that actually keep your mail arriving, your food edible and your children’s toys not coated in lead. The “deep state”, meaning actual subject matter experts doing their jobs throughout entire government for years, regardless of current administration, are all going to be replaced by kid rock and vaping young republicans fresh from dropping out of their second semester in at The University of Southern Alabama State.
That’s who’s going to be the dude inspecting your meat for e.coli and signing off on the clinical trials for your perception meds - Gunner, Hunter and Ryder.
Really don’t think anyone is considering the reality of how deeply fucked we’re going to be as we’re all fixed fully on the front door for obvious signs of trouble (immediate societal decay), while these broken cartoon villains fill the crawlspace with fertilizer and gasoline and kick in the backdoor with flamethrowers in hand.
We’re fucked, and we’re going to be focused on monitoring the wrong indicators of how fucked, until it is just beyond any repair within any of our lifetimes. For example, you’re going to have FIVE fundamentally broken people on the Supreme Court for the rest of your life. It’s over.
There is alot of things the government does for you that most people likely have never thought about. Take invasive species for instance; There are huge efforts to contain and eradicate a variety of invasive species. You’ve probably never heard about these efforts. But they are needed to maintain and protect both farmland and the ecology of the United States. If those efforts are defunded and those species are allowed to run rampant it’ll be almost impossible to put that genie back in the bottle.
This is literally how we’ll get to “but brawndo gots what plants crave?”
Your understanding of the deep state is incorrect. Look up Edward Snowden if you’d like to know more.
anywhere from not really, to literally world war 3.
trump is a loose cannon.
We do not win here.
Some of you people didn’t pay attention to the Congressional results and it shows.
What do you mean ? (The house is on track to be won by the gop. The senate is won by the gop. I just want to understand your point.)
“Not really” isn’t an option.
The question isn’t how fucked America is, that answer is some shade of “very.”
The question is who is going down with us.
Ha gotcha, thank you
Between 2017 and 2021, things got pretty bad. Riots, wars, a plague, economic crash, and it ended with a mob breaking into the nation’s capital and trashing the place.
Can’t imagine a repeat will be better.
That was with moderates and non-partisan civil servants playing interference on his worst ideas.
You remember everything that came out about how people would ignore his orders until he forgot?
None of those people will be there
At some point he needs to be able to physically enact proposals. Like, it’s one thing to say “Build a wall” and it’s another to get the land rights, hire the contractors, do the work, maintain it on competition, etc, etc.
You can go down to the border now and you’ll find this rink a dink bullshit that’s falling over in a light breeze. Then you’ve got spools full of razor wire tossed into the steadily shallower Rip Grande. People got paid tens of millions to put that garbage in the ground. And that was under an ostensibly competent administration.
I agree we’re going to get a ton of shit policy. Police violence under Trump is going to skyrocket. Vigilantee violence is going to jump. Border guard violence is going through the roof. But, like, is he going to build anything that can last? Or is he going to get the Americanized version of Neom? A bunch of scammers delivering invisible clothes to prance around in.
I guess we’ll find out.
We can hope not to repeat the plague, but with Trump empowering anti-vaxxers, even that can’t be taken for granted.
Oh yeah, we’re absolutely getting a fucking measles epidemic before the end of his term.
The US will continue ticking. Money keeps flowing, and greed will continue running rampant.
As someone making bank and based on the projections, the Trump tax changes are going to pay well. Anyone making less than $100k, or living off of social security or retirement are going to really suffer.
The Trump tax breaks are going to fund a future international trip. And poor folks will starve.
Btw I voted for Kamala. And America voted for a old dude who struggles to form sentences.
The truth is it’s unlikely anything historically big is going to happen in the US. We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable. The fear isn’t that it’s likely, but that it’s far from a non-zero chance, and there’s very little we can do about it. That uncertainty is scary when we’ve had a relatively good time in recent decades.
Will we see a sudden shift toward a state where you can get jailed or murdered for being a dissident? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see an escalation of the wars involving Israel, such that we see a WWIII and/or the first nuclear strike since WWII? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see economic collapse causing widespread hunger and homelessness that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression? Maybe, but probably not.
The only thing that’s really a guarantee is that we’re another four years away from dealing with climate change, and while that’s massive for humanity down the line, individuals currently living in the US are probably going to be mostly fine. Not to say nobody will be affected - hurricanes, floods, fires, and so on - but it won’t cause catastrophic failure of society in the near future.
We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable.
Except putting people in cages at the border and separating children from families. Many families still have not been reunited.
Except the million people that died from Covid-19 due to the government putting the economy over human lives.
Except the stuffing of judicial positions, including the supreme court, that same court that basically made him a king and free from any consequences from all the laws he broke.
Except for our air, land, food and water becoming more toxic and polluted due to Trump’s rollback of EPA protections.
Except all the pregnant women who are dying or forced to carry their rapist’s baby due to that packed court overturning roe v wade.
Except the people of color who rebelled and rioted during the george floyd protests but then the government showed up in unmarked vans and took people away, while the police shot more innocent people and busted heads, and almost nothing changed for the better regarding police violence.
Except the trans people who are now illegal in the state of Florida for having a driver’s license that matches their gender identity, or the bounty on trans people in a town in Texas, or the governor of Texas trying to get lists of trans people to hunt down and prosecute. Or insurance companies refusing to cover trans-related healthcare. Or trans people being shunned by their peers and excluded from sports. Or the violence against LGBTQ people that’s doubled in the last year. All enabled and emboldened by Trump and Trumpism.
I haven’t recovered from any of this shit.
With or without Trump, the new normal is fascism in America. Every american needs to fight every bad policy, every bad law, every bad decision, every threat – every day – until there are no more fascists in power.
Let me be clear here. If we have a global nuclear war, that’s not recoverable, because every human on earth will be dead. If we enter a fascist dictatorship with today’s technology, that may not be recoverable, because we may see the permanent end of anything resembling a democracy.
I’m not saying there weren’t horrific atrocities committed during Trump’s reign. What I’m saying is that so far, there’s a chance future generations can live better lives.
Counterpoint (and please, I am literally begging you to talk me off this cliff): Trump didn’t know anything about being President the first time. I believe that he thought Presidents could do whatever they wanted. The team he had around him, while you can call them assholes and pieces of shit and every other name in the book, understood how the government and the Presidency worked and were able to reign him in.
All of those people are now gone and he will be surrounded by purely yes-men. He will promote the Generals who will be loyal to him, not the country or the Constitution. Couple that with the newfound Presidential immunity, and Trump has all but free reign to do whatever he wants. He will also appoint judges, like Aileen Cannon, who are loyal to him. Those judges, thanks to the Supreme Court overturning the Chevron deference, will now be the “experts” instead of federal agencies.
I do agree that there probably won’t be a sudden shift, but there will be a shift and we will feel it in almost every aspect of our life. He supposedly promised to put RFK Jr in charge of numerous health agencies and campaigned on getting rid of the Department of Education. And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you’ll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who’s going to stop him?
It is worse.
Trump started with either incompetent yes men who didn’t know how to govern or competent yes men who tried controlling the damage that the President caused.
You now have a group of coordinated people who see Trump as willing to agree with whatever as long as he looks good enough.
On top of what you just mentioned, rather than Trump surrounding himself with incompetent toadies and yes-men, I think a lot of smarter, more powerful, and more dangerous people have taken the last 4 years to worm their way into his ranks.
He’s established himself as a useful idiot. During his first 4 years we saw the idiot part glaringly. It was scary and embarrassing, but we scraped by and experienced a few years of relatively boring politics. My big worry is that we’ll see the useful part exploited much more effectively this time around.
And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you’ll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who’s going to stop him?
That’s why I said it’s possible, I just don’t think it’s probable. People are loyal to Trump until they’re not. Nobody’s loyal to him because they like him or they think he’s a good guy, or because they think he’ll bring the country prosperity. They’re loyal because they think they can get something out of it. Most people aren’t in a position where they’re willing to give up literally everything to help this particular asshole become a dictator. Those that are are typically incompetent - see anything and everything related to stealing the 2020 election. They tried a LOT of things, but nothing came even close to working.
So they’ll try again, and I don’t think anybody’s doubting that. And I don’t think our institutions are particularly strong, but they’re probably strong enough to stop that kind of incompetence from leading to a dictatorship.
Finally a level-headed take. The world isn’t ending overnight, it’ll just get shittier
Multiple regulatory bodies are going to get disbanded. The EPA is unlikely to survive, whole departments of the FDA are about to get gutted. Anything involving industrial safety is going to get its funding cut. Unconstitutional crackdowns on free and independent media is almost certain. Large scale damage to the functions of many government institutions can be expected. Massive economic damage due to reckless deregulation ( that’s even before they start putting tariffs on everything and wind up in multiple simultaneous trade wars). Funding for education and infrastructure maintenance will be reduced to allow tax cuts for the already wealthy. Massive loss of global influence and a massive gain in influence by hostile autocratic nations is also something you can expect.
I could go on and on but even if you were to assume they weren’t serious about project 2025 (if you haven’t read that you should) it’s real bad.
call me hopelessly naiive but just… why? the why is what i can never wrap my head around? why do they want to destroy the country? do they hate it? and like… why would people want to get rid of social security? do they just want people after 65 years old to… die? why?? i’m so sad…
Dictators only care about one thing: absolute power. They will destroy the country they take over to get that power and to keep it for as long as possible
Yes. America has always been two countries. I hate the America they love and they hate the America we love. And the problem is that these Americas have always existed together. We’re the Union to their confederacy. We’re the premature anti fascists to their silver shirts.
Many believe they are saving the country by voting for Trump. Everyone sees that America is going downhill. Everything is more expensive, more uncertain, more precarious. Leftists blame corporations and corporate capture of government agencies. Right wingers think that more corporate power is good and if left unchecked, the “free market” (aka government rules that favor unchecked corporate malfeasance) will be better for America.
People vote for their economic interests, as best as they can understand them. Most on the right think that their economic interests are served by corporate deregulation and scapegoating of immigrants. However, within that context, this is also why removing social security is not realistic. That’s a direct attack on people’s benefits, which they are not in favor of. Right wing corporate types want to cut social security so they don’t have to pay taxes, or there will be more money in the government coffers to give back to the corporations. But the majority of right wing people that the corporate types rely on for votes will never vote to repeal social security.
Weirdly, it depends on how honest Trump is.
If he forgets about everything he talked at any part of the campaign, and just decide to maximize his tranquility during his term, not as bad as if he decides to keep his promises.
I’m hoping he just focuses on enriching himself. Clearing his convictions and then lining his pockets with more NFTs and corruption. That’ll keep him sufficiently occupied to not fuck too much with the lives of everyday people.
Yeah, but everyone else around him does have clear goals and plans that they do want to accomplish. And they’re prepared this time, whereas they were kinda caught by surprise in 2016.
The more golf he plays the less damage he can do
Every nation should be inviting him for state dinners, banquets, golf tournaments, the works. Collectively keep his ego constantly jerked off and away from any advisors. Keep that going for four years and we might just distract the child enough.
I’m more scared of the JD Vance than Trump. He’s much worse
I’m worried about this too. It wouldn’t be surprising if Trump dies in the next four years. Vance is not qualified for the job. He’s smarter than Trump though so scheming would be much worse.
Vance himself is irrelevant, the problem is he’s an errand boy for the would-be technocracy.
The world is on the precipice of an unbreakable tyranny, and he wants to give the keys of power to the ones making the drone armies.
This is why I’ve argued that technology, in terms of actual benefit for people, peaked many years ago. I won’t try to pinpoint a date, but we have past peak technology from this perspective.
After that peak, advancements in technology have mostly just served as means to control the population or extract more from us (see enshittification) and have not been of benefit to the average person.
Technology allows for actual hard power to be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer. I don’t mean like a dictator with an army behind them, but a dictator and small group with enough tech to control everything. You are right, and it’s extremely concerning.
Fucked regardless but how fucked remains to be seen. Just as before, Trump will spend his presidency golfing, what really matters are his cabinet picks. Best case scenario is that just like 2016-2020 in-fighting and general incompetence make the administration a revolving door and keep the Christian Nationalist from realizing their darkest ambitions. Worst Case is that the Fascist have learned from their mistakes. I also think Trump either dying or being forced to step down (with a pardon of course) is a possibility that is on the table. Vance is a much more competent Fascist and this is definitely a worst case scenario.
Regardless, I think there are a few things that are guaranteed to happen:
- The dismantling of much of the Federal Government. Starve the Beast will finally come to fuition. The Department of Eduction, the FDA, The EPA, ect will become toothless if not entirely abolished. De-regulation will bring us back to early 20th century levels of consumer protection and quality control. Read “The Jungle” to get an idea. Public Health is going to tank dramatically.
- The little safety net Americans have will be pulled out from under them. Workers will be entirely beholden to their employers. The price of most consumer goods will surge, bankruptcy from healthcare cost will skyrocket, and homelessness will become even more common. Homelessness will become completely criminalized and the % of the American population imprisoned will make today’s prison population look small.
- The police and surveillance state will be expanded dramatically with the intent of targeting undesirables. Immigrants will be deported, while Trans people and political dissidents will be labeled as sexual criminals and will be eliminated. As time marches on more groups will be targets for the state. People around you will simply disappear sometimes, victims of secret police.
- An increase in media censorship by morality police. Pornography will be banned, and using that vague label media critical of the regime or expressing ideas against the regimes interest will be censored.
- The US will pull out of NATO and pursue a policy of isolation. Authoritarian and expansionist regimes around the world will be allowed to pursue their interests unchecked.
- A general brain-drain as educated people with the means to do so flee to Canada or Europe. As time passes it is likely that emigration from America will be made more difficult by the state, effectively stranding people here who didn’t get out soon enough.
- We will completely miss the window to do anything to avoid the worst-case scenarios for climate change. So it’s not just America that’s fucked here.
Smoke em while you got em, it’s about to get rough for everyone. We are in the death throes of the Neo-Liberal world order. Buy a firearm and get a vpn. Keep your vehicle as fueled as you can, and if you are able keep a sizable amount of cash stored somewhere safe. There’s never been a better time to go vegan and get in shape. Do what you can for the people you care about.
