I’m trying to figure out a way of explaining it, but it’s multiple factors. These aren’t excuses perse but fall into what I would consider “death by a thousand papercuts”
Overall life is still “good” for a lot of people. Does the suck continue to increase? Yes. You notice prices getting higher, so you tighten your belt a little more, but it’s not catastrophic (to you)
The masses still have their bread and circuses. There is still entertainment to keep people distracted
They’re scared of losing their jobs and being out on the street (this is a big one IMO). The US has no functional safety net, unlike other countries. You lose your job, you lose your medical insurance, you might be able to apply for unemployment but that’s only a fraction of what you made. The job market is so bad it may be a year or more before you find something. Couple that with lack of savings due to high prices and it’s an extremely powerful incentive to keep your head down
“It doesn’t affect me” mentality. This is something I see of the American ethos in general and it explains most republican voters. The idea of “rugged individualism” is so ingrained in the American psyche, they don’t understand empathy and don’t care until it happens to them. The US has never gone through a massive attack that affected the whole country (Great Depression is too far gone, and 9/11 was isolated to only part of the county, whereas something like WW2 in Europe affected almost everyone)
ICE (the ghestsopo) is started to disappear even US citizens. Get targeted for speaking out and end up in a concentration camp. Another reason to keep your head down.
The country is huge. Somewhere like France is only a small fraction of the size of US. So it’s easier to congregate and protest. But the distance from Los Angeles to Washington DC is over 3,600 km away. Trying to figure out how to get that far to protest (especially with items 3 and 5) make logistics hard. There were protests across the country for No Kings, but it was so spread out it was diluted.
I could go on with more reasons but I guess what I’m trying to get it is that it’s a perfect storm of being just comfortable enough, coupled with fear of your own wellbeing that keeps people in line.
Those points are exactly it. Midwestern American here, living in a red state and also just lost my job a few weeks ago, so i barely get any benefits after COBRA takes it’s share to keep my health insurance going.
What exactly am I meant to do? I can use my imagination to extrapolate the tankies messages, but i don’t own a weapon. So, that would cost my unemployed ass $500 just for a starter pistol that could barely hit center mass 10 yards away, and would most likely be a survivable wound.
Alright so let’s help my odds, and just like that it’s $1500+ just to get some distance and some stopping power. But i also need ammo and additional training and probably some accessories to increase my chances of success and cool I’m looking easily at a final cost of $2500.
So that took over half of my total unemployment benefits for a singular purpose, and now I’m desperately needing change and now the time comes to make a “martyr” of myself and someone else for what exactly? Freedom? I currently have that, albeit as a frog in warming water that organizing with the other frogs to better our situation vs losing everything with life in prison.
So, I get maybe one shot and I don’t think there’s a single target in the whole world that could instantly improve the country’s outlook drastically overnight. Seriously. Any one target anyone can think of has a backlog of equally shitty humans behind them ITCHING to step in with a new purpose and a fresh martyr and trillions of dollars in backing just waiting for someone stupid enough to even do much as try.
The whole system is rotted through and through and would take a serious overhaul to fix. This isn’t chess where removing a single piece off the board wins. We have to also go after those that are forcing us to play their games and rigging the rules against us.
And right now we still have organizing, voting, and boycotting. We need to build our own economy, separated from this currently rigged one by shopping local, and electing local officials that can incentivise businesses to do better for our communities, and regulating home ownership to lower costs, and then incentivise citizens to cut our own emissions with greener energy, which then liberates us from oil.
Once we have our local economies established, that sets up a baseline to tie in with other communities to take back a state or two or 5.
It’s hard, but very possible to do without the initial violence. Then they can be tried for their crimes against humanity.
I’m trying to figure out a way of explaining it, but it’s multiple factors. These aren’t excuses perse but fall into what I would consider “death by a thousand papercuts”
I could go on with more reasons but I guess what I’m trying to get it is that it’s a perfect storm of being just comfortable enough, coupled with fear of your own wellbeing that keeps people in line.
Those points are exactly it. Midwestern American here, living in a red state and also just lost my job a few weeks ago, so i barely get any benefits after COBRA takes it’s share to keep my health insurance going.
What exactly am I meant to do? I can use my imagination to extrapolate the tankies messages, but i don’t own a weapon. So, that would cost my unemployed ass $500 just for a starter pistol that could barely hit center mass 10 yards away, and would most likely be a survivable wound.
Alright so let’s help my odds, and just like that it’s $1500+ just to get some distance and some stopping power. But i also need ammo and additional training and probably some accessories to increase my chances of success and cool I’m looking easily at a final cost of $2500.
So that took over half of my total unemployment benefits for a singular purpose, and now I’m desperately needing change and now the time comes to make a “martyr” of myself and someone else for what exactly? Freedom? I currently have that, albeit as a frog in warming water that organizing with the other frogs to better our situation vs losing everything with life in prison.
So, I get maybe one shot and I don’t think there’s a single target in the whole world that could instantly improve the country’s outlook drastically overnight. Seriously. Any one target anyone can think of has a backlog of equally shitty humans behind them ITCHING to step in with a new purpose and a fresh martyr and trillions of dollars in backing just waiting for someone stupid enough to even do much as try.
The whole system is rotted through and through and would take a serious overhaul to fix. This isn’t chess where removing a single piece off the board wins. We have to also go after those that are forcing us to play their games and rigging the rules against us.
And right now we still have organizing, voting, and boycotting. We need to build our own economy, separated from this currently rigged one by shopping local, and electing local officials that can incentivise businesses to do better for our communities, and regulating home ownership to lower costs, and then incentivise citizens to cut our own emissions with greener energy, which then liberates us from oil.
Once we have our local economies established, that sets up a baseline to tie in with other communities to take back a state or two or 5.
It’s hard, but very possible to do without the initial violence. Then they can be tried for their crimes against humanity.