this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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I don't care what history has to say about us to high schoolers in 2060, I'm living in a country that will eventually hang me for posting this. The world needs to get it's shit together and stop this train.
If you live in the US Empire, you can be a part of the movement to end it. Especially with the Empire's recent aggression against Venezuela, now is a good time to get active! Join an org like the PSL! They're already organizing anti-war protests, and even had one on Saturday.
I dont mean to detract from your point at all here... In fact, PSL is my favorite org in recent memory, but I have yet to join out of fear.
I hope this comment doesn't come across as FUD because I certainly don't want to steer people away from organizing, but.... do you ever fear that getting your name on paperwork in one of these orgs could jeopardize your safety? Shit is happening so fast in America right now that I am straight up afraid of organizing. Im thinking of a scenario where PSL headquarters gets raided, and everyone who shows up on an active members list gets shipped to El Salvador.
Kind of a disjointed reply, but I guess all I really wanted to say is that shit is getting really scary right now, and I'm not even part of a vulnerable group. I'm afraid.
Maybe the answer is that, yes, joining a leftist organization during fascist descent does incur massive risks, but that is the necessary burden that American leftists must take for the sake of the people we are oppressing? Maybe now is the time to be brave?
I get your point and share your worries, but I ended up concluding that I will regret more aiding the descent to fascism than being a casualty of it.
Think of all the people that survived Nazi Germany while being a collaborator and seeing all the horrors their cowardice helped occur.
I don't think those people would have happy lives after that, I know I wouldn't.
Furthermore, I believe that if I don't act now when is somewhat safe, I will act latter down the line and would definitely get killed.
It's your choice.
Your fears are 100% valid. PSL has a strong public-facing presense as its own shield, it's the honesty and integrity of PSL that keeps the public more on its side. However, there's also the Action Network, an informal, secondary level of membership with minimal requirements that means you just volunteer when the opportunity arises, and aren't a disciplined cadre. This is also a valid form of organizing, both the mass organization and the dedicated cadre are necessary!
there's a STRONG trend of black and brown social media influencers warning people not to get involved if they have too much melanin for american standards and learning about the black panthers and the night of the long knives (coupled with my anecdotal experiences with white-passing family members) makes me think that they're right.
some small part of me hopes that my contributions to the greens and psl are so long ago that that i'm no longer on their rosters.
I mean, the Black Panthers murdered by the state are heroes in my eyes, ya know? That seems like a strange argument. As bleak as it is to mention, I feel I must point out that having only the fear of future violence while others must face violence presently is a privilege. The good thing is that getting involved in organizing is also a privilege, the other side of the coin I guess you could say. Way I think about it, you're gonna live with the fear of state violence already, so the fear from organizing is marginal, possibly negligible.
I’d rather be alive than be your hero. Black and brown people in the US already face violence without voluntarily painting targets on their backs. If people want to stick their necks out, good for them. But it’s kinda ballsy to try to shame black and brown people in the current USA for avoiding violence from some “place of privilege “
Alright. Privilege is still relative. Being defensive is not going to change that.
The fear of "sticking your neck out" is still very individualistic thinking. The goal is to learn and organize so WE can stick our necks out together. My lionizing of former martyrs is not an attempt to shame you. I still think that "don't be like the people who actually induced change because they were martyred" is a terrible take.
I'm sorry you have experienced that, comrade. I can only say that the goal is such a society where this kind of bullshit will be a thing of the past.
thanks, but don't be; i'm convinced that i would be yet another liberal doomscrolling my life away, embittering myself further by the day because of the deep ignorance from the western propaganda like it is for some of my siblings/cousins/nephews/neices who turn to alcohol, drugs and other self destructive coping mechanisms.
i'm convinced that my dark skin; my queerness; and my nuero-divergence have forced me to develop tools that have proven themselves useful in thwarting the asshattery that life in this late stage capitalist world throws at me.
That's the indomitable human spirit at work, we develop the tools we need. We may not live in a just world, but we live in one where we can and will win.
Not the indomitable spirit; simply A LOT of ass artificially bouying my spirits. Lol
Both can be true!
If that day comes, do you really think that the absence of your name on a roster is going to stop them? Obedience in advance only teaches authority what it can get away with. The capabilities of authority generally are much less far-reaching than what they lead us to believe. Oppression breeds resistance and struggle, whereas the state would have us believe in the fantasy of unilateral control and suppression of dissent.
You owe it to yourself to study revolutionary history beyond just the most shocking events that scare you away from organizing. In the words of the late assata shakur; It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
This is the sole thing that keeps me down. My spouse is a first generation American with brown skin in a Republican state. If any attention is drawn to us, her, her parents, her autistic brother, the lady that cuts my hair, the grocery we visit down the road, half the parents in our neighborhood, I'm the only person in my community that isn't currently represented in the ICE victim pool. If I rock the boat every single person I care about gets a plane trip to a foreign prison.
Every day it gets worse. Eventually, it won't be plane rides, it will be ditches. Even if I don't attract the attention of the government, it's cultists yell racial slurs in as they drive lifted trucks past my community. They gnaw at the bit for a chance to cut loose and remove this stain from their white city.
I've seen the local protests, 10 people with signs on a busy intersection a mile from the courthouse. The police point and laugh as commuters throw drinks at them from their cars for thinking that human rights belong in a red state.
What the fuck do I do? What can I, standing here, actually do to change anything? There isn't a single action that I can take that does not threaten to burn down my community and leave my child an orphan, and even still I'm here asking how I can solve this problem.
Organizing is the only way to protect them. If you do nothing, and it continues on this path, you will not be safe, regardless of your actions. If we can all join together and stop this NOW we can prevent that.
My wife is here on a green card. My employers are as well. Because they are fellow humans, I will die to defend them. I will fight tooth and nail. I will not be cowed by a fat orange blob who diddle kids. I will not be frightened by a mob of egomaniacal imbeciles. Their attempts to emulate fascists of the past is sloppy and will fail if put to any sort of test.
Help me to break them.
This is great, this is what I like to here, but where is the how? What do I actually do to make a difference? That's the part everyone stops at and I'm beating every bush in this county to try to shake loose the one persone with a clue.
I am going to be volunteering and trying to network. Find like minded people. I really don't have answers beyond burn down town hall.im sorry.
You're represented even if you don't look brown. I can't find the story in the deluge of other similar stories, but they arrested a San Diego cop's/sheriff's British wife, and deported her. They were basically done getting her citizenship, and had been working on it for years at that point. Of course the idiot voted for Trump, not that it matters in CA.
I say I'm not represented because my family has been getting kicked about in these parts since the 1800s. As far as I've seen in the news they haven't arrested the straight, white, male, American, partners of all the people they pick up.
Not to say I'm safe, they'll make their way to traitors like me eventually, but right now I don't get the luxury of getting black bagged with my wife in a traffic stop, I just get to sit at home while the life we built falls apart.
You bring up my first intuition on the matter. If the federal government wanted to destabilize counter movements, they most certainly would take three approaches: (1) propagandize the organizations leading those movements, (2) attack the organizations leading those movements, and (3) attack the members of the organizations leading those movements. Look no further than the history between the US and their workers unions.
However, this perspective is unfair. It doesn’t quite justify the alternative, because the alternative seems to be: “don’t join the organization, alleviate the risk from yourself.” That’s just inaccurate positing from the fears mentioned here. The truth is, doing nothing has risks that you can’t predict. Though, you can approximate your risks by asking yourself: “what if I was on a green card right now?” Doing that, at least, lets you view the problem as though it’s already at your doorstep — and this gives justice to the inherent risk we all face during a fascist takeover. Fascists only start with minorities, as they develop the infrastructure necessary to target anyone they please.
That's objectively bad messaging. 'End the US Empire' is so trivial to paint as purely anti-American. Not only will fail to win over more than a tiny fraction of people, but anyone part of it will be easily discredited
How would 'end the US Empire' ever be a popular idea in America? Even assuming it is a moral platform, it can only ever be a fringe idea in America
It isn't objectively bad messaging. The millitary budget is through the roof while social services are gutted. War in Venezuela and the genocide in Palestine are very unpopular. The faith in a system dominated by late-stage imperialism is declining, and correct identification of rising cost of living with stagnant wages makes sense when connected to the US Empire's decay. Shifting from an imperialist economy to one where humanity is the master of capital, win-win cooperation is the basis of international diplomacy and trade, and a brighter future based on common humanity is deeply appealing to the average Statesian. Maybe not 40 years ago, but conditions are rapidly changing.
Being anti-american is good and people are gonna need to rip off that bandaid
I'm going to predict the future exactly as it will happen: either the US empire is ended and humanity survives it's inevitable fall or the empire drags us all down with it in a nuclear fireball. Pick one.
I'm with your prediction if you are willing to include the nuclear fireball being a hail mary to stop climate change via nuclear winter (ik the concept is debated but I don't know the physics)
Any socialist organizing will be painted as anti american. Who gives a shit? The fascists call the neolibs radical, marxist, far left, anti american, you name it, despite the fact that they're two sides of the same shitty capitalist coin.
Your comment rhymes with telling a child not to stand up to their bully because the bully will call them names. Even a child would answer with, "but they do that already!"
No. Americans need to get their shit together and stop this train. Fix your own fucking problems.
The same is true of the US Empire's vassals, like Canada. The sooner the west transitions to socialism and away from late-stage imperialism, the sooner the world can heal.
America has it's shit together, that's why we're able to build a concentration camp over night, why we have a pedophile in charge and why we can just casually kidnap a head of state without anyone batting an eye. This isn't morons blundering around, this is winning a chess tournament by clubbing the rest of the competition to death. It won't get better if no one tells us to stop.
Meanwhile, I get reminded every day that it's my fault personally for letting a nation I had no choice in being part of turn into something so disgusting. As if I need only to get off my couch and blast my way through these blundering Nazis like an 80's action film. I'm told to protest and participate as if my lack of presence was the sole thing that held back the marches and my congressman hadn't blocked my phone number for calling to complain.
As mentioned below, my spouse is a first generation American with brown skin in a Republican state. If any attention is drawn to us, her, her parents, her autistic brother, the lady that cuts my hair, the grocery we visit down the road, half the parents in our neighborhood, I'm the only person in my community that isn't currently represented in the ICE victim pool. If I rock the boat every single person I care about gets a plane trip to a foreign prison.
Every day it gets worse. Eventually, it won't be plane rides, it will be ditches. Even if I don't attract the attention of the government, it's cultists yell racial slurs as they drive lifted trucks past my community. They gnaw at the bit for a chance to cut loose and remove this stain from their white city. They look at me with contempt in the stores for betraying the white race to love a brown woman.
I've seen the local protests, 10 people with signs on a busy intersection a mile from the courthouse. The police point and laugh as commuters throw drinks at them from their cars for thinking that human rights belong in a red state.
What the fuck do I do? What can I, standing here, actually do to change anything? There isn't a single action that I can take that does not threaten to burn down my community and leave my child an orphan, and even still I'm here asking how I can solve this problem.
You can't solve the problem on your own and that's the point. Instead of just driving past those protesters go join them. Invite others to go with you. Start a new organization of some kind in your community or volunteer with an existing one. Do whatever is in your power to do.
Victory over fascism is not something that can be bought from Amazon. It requires active participation. The action is less important than the participation. Just pick something and do that until you find something better.
That something better is what I'm begging for. I've stood and chanted, signed petitions, called representatives, stood in the rain to vote, taken every person I know to the polls, and the fascists still sit in office. I don't need a prettier protest sign, I need someone to put a wrench in my hand and tell me the bolts that need tightened. I need someone with a plan that isn't just "tell them we disaprove."
I get that you also don't have a better answer, that's ok. This isn't so much an argument about how as it is an extended scream into the void. I'm here, I'm willing, someone please fucking radicalize me already!
Not to lash out at you specifically but why are USians so stubbornly focused on the interacting with politics along the corporate party approved pathways? Even as others tell y'all it's always back to voting, polling, petitions, campaign rallys.
Join an actual worker's party or volunteer that time towards community outreach orgs rather than the popularity contests of millionaires funded by billionaires. Again, not to go off on you specifically but I've seen this aimless despair all over Lemmy, like everything you could possibly do is useless and, like, yeah, but only if you stay within that framework. That's what the framework was built to do.
I can't speak for all of us but in my area there aren't any of those in my area. There are 4 community outreach groups in my area, two of them are churches and the other two are "non-denominational" shelters that are run out of churches. Try as I might, I've never found a worker's party, I don't think those are a thing here in the us. Outside of that, there's a ton of volunteer options in my area if I want to help the homeless, stray cats, even the elderly. I love those, they're great work, they don't fix this.
I already do what I can for local politics, it isn't making a difference, but maybe in 10 years we can get a mayor that isn't going to raise tax on poor neighborhoods. I do wish I'd gotten into this 20 years ago, it's on me and those like me for letting it get this bad, but guilt is about as useful as the few things I can volunteer for.
The only answer is that there is no action you can take that will assure you of that. If you do nothing, it is certain to happen should they succeed. If you do something it is possible that will happen and we succeed in stopping them. Or that we all die in the fires together.
Or we could stop them and you will all live. That's is the best case, but not guaranteed. What do you want to work for? Your family is in danger now. Currently.
This is a beautiful sentiment that I've already passed. I want better, I want to be part of making better, but I do not know how to do that and apparently no one else does either because every time it comes up I get this this same answer. Where is our MLK, where is our Malcolm X, where is the map I need to be more than scared and alone?
Join an org like PSL and build the mass movement.
I reached out to see if there's any active members in my area. I'm already another warm body on a stat list for so many things, I don't have faith in that going far.
I don't need a slogan to chant, I need a general to follow.
Nobody is coming to save you, you must save yourself. Nobody is ever going to be more interested in your liberation than you are.
That's the point of getting organized!
Well as you’ve explained at length, there’s nothing that can be done and you (and those who think like you) are consumed with fear. To you, there is no hope so why bother. I don’t have anything else to say to say on this so have a good day.
And what you expect other people to do? What am I supposed to do from the other side of the world? Nothing I do will make any change to your paedophile regime. In fact, why should any other country help you? What if your warmongering country attack my country? Why the fuck should others clean your own country's mess?
Should/could the US population do more to get their batshit crazy government in line? Abso-fucking-loutly!
Should the sane countries of the world do more to push back on us and check our power grabs? Also Abso-fucking-loutly!
Why is any consumer anywhere outside of the US purchasing any of our shit? I recently saw a graph on the global sales of US liquor and most countries had like a 10-20% drop in sales and only Canada went hard with a 60-80% drop (apologies, I’m pulling this from memory so it’s pretty vague).
If you have given up on trying to fix where you live (which may be totally reasonable), then move to somewhere with likeminded people. Once you're in a safer place, then you can speak out and fight for what you believe in.
If other countries stood up to his tariffs last year maybe our house and Congress would have stood up to him sooner before it was too late. The whole world bent a knee to him.
US: [taxes its own people]
ThePantser: “Why does the whole world allow this?”
Ah so it’s everyone else’s fault that Americans are gutless? That makes a lot of sense to me that you would think that. Countries enacted counter tariffs, which is standing up to tariffs.
The whole world? LMAO
The whole WESTERN world bent their knee, a lot of countries refused that shit.