In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.
. . .
This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.
But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.
I actually do.
We’re entirely fucked.
We’re going to spend the rest of our lives witnessing the enshitification of this nation. Even if we completely turn this crash and burn around, we’ll then spend the rest of our lives watching things being slowly rebuilt as traitorous Republicans continue to obstruct.
I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.
I don’t think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.
This! Methods that lower general intelligence:
Content Streaming - its starts with Bluey
Gaming - iPads have replaced paper in schools, in car trips colourful gems pop instead of engagement with the world. Adults game the night away, streaming live. Kids aspire to be them.
Social media - Algorithms, echo-chambers, bots, keyboard warriors, content cencorship and manipulation, advertising, yuck.
Dating Apps
AI - We’ll become dependent and lower general critical thinking skills.
Legalisation of marijuana. - Its political support should be a concern. While it may be seemingly harmless at an individual level, there seems to be issues with mass use. How many users abstained from voting?
Underfunded, cookie cutter lower education. There is no flexibility for the diversity of people and development potentials. Teaching children non-denominational meditation and concentration, or helping them observe but reconcile simple contradictory expressions of duality in existence, would strengthen their conciousness significantly.
Over emphasis on technical STEM in higher-education without equally supporting the arts and philosophy.
Cultural over-emphasis towards individual monetary wealth over knowledge, spirituality or even concern for the wealth of those around them. Prevents empathy.
All of these focus on separating the individual from other individuals. The darkness does not want connected families or communities. It wants you to feel alone, helpless and willing to hand over your power.
We have all seen the US police force’s brutality under democratic law. How much worse could it be under authoritarian rule? My advice would be to immediately set up public meetings with local law enforcement at the officer level, start a collaborative dialogue and get to know each other, fast.
As someone currently living in Canada, the US is badly fucking up a lot of it’s international relations too. I’ve heard several people here say that even if if the US unfucks itself right away (which it won’t), it’s still going to be a long time before things will be right again.
You don’t go around threatening neighbours and allies like this and then expect to be able to just walk it back overnight.
USAID was, more than anything, a means of positive international relations. It was a 2 prong approach of foreign aid and foreign good will. The mid 1900s US made a lot of fucking enemies, and USAID was one very solid method of trying to overcome the damage wrought by our government.
And now TB supplies – that were already paid for – are rotting in warehouses (among many other issues). Not only will that harm people, it will harm our reputation, AND increase antibiotic resistant TB, which will in turn affect the rest of the world including the US itself.
And that’s only one piece of the very large clusterfuck.
Oh I know. I hate it because a) I love yall, Canadians, Danes, Germans opposed to the afd, etc. You’re our friends and neighbors and I’m horrified seeing people not treat you as such, but also b) we had a real good thing going and we’re never getting it back.
a purge could fix it all tomorrow.
As much as I agree, it will take things getting a lot worse before people do anything like that. A lot of the most heavily armed are the ones who voted for this. The pickup full of hillbillies are still in the denial phase. They still think things won’t affect them, or that it’ll be temporary. They are all for “those people” taking the brunt of the actions right now. They’ve convinced themselves that only the “removeds” are affected, and they aren’t.
It’s going to take a deep hit to their way of life for anything more than peaceful protests and voting advocacy (which definitely fucking vote) happens.
We entirely are. Our lifetimes in this country will never see another good day of it.