The most disheartening thing about America’s descent into fascism has been the abject cowardice of virtually all the people and institutions that could have stood up and refused to comply.
Replies
That's what has been so pernicious about Citizens United. The corrupt money has bought and warped all of those people and institutions into mass parodies of what they were.
jul 26, 2025, 6:39 pm • 19 1 • view
While Citizens United made the situation worse, it wasn’t the root of the problem: US elections are all about, and have always been all about, money. Corruption is built into the system and it will take a huge effort to correct that - odds are, it can’t be fixed.
jul 26, 2025, 7:14 pm • 7 0 • view
Didn’t DOGE dismantle most of our institutions?
jul 26, 2025, 6:23 pm • 1 0 • view
For evil to take over it only requires good people to do nothing
jul 26, 2025, 5:43 pm • 9 1 • view
100%
jul 27, 2025, 12:44 am • 7 0 • view
So true. By refusing to stand against this insanity from a position of power, they have pooped upstream from all the individuals who are having their lives destroyed by this regime.
jul 26, 2025, 11:36 am • 3 0 • view
It just goes to show that as a society we need to do better. Here we sit thinking that those in positions of power got there because of their intelligence (at least some), and yet they seem content to be led into fascism when we know it never ends well.
jul 26, 2025, 5:49 pm • 4 0 • view
How many Democrat supporters sat on their backsides and didnt vote because they couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman of colour?
jul 27, 2025, 4:22 am • 0 0 • view
A reminder that the nature of human nature is universal and the US is no exception. And why stronger international measures with fewer loopholes are needed - like reining in the 136 emergency powers Congress has given presidents, the openness of the “acting” officers, etc.
jul 27, 2025, 4:50 pm • 7 0 • view
“institutional measures” farn that autocorrect and no edit button…
jul 27, 2025, 5:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Liberals will do that.
jul 27, 2025, 10:14 am • 0 0 • view
It's the boiling frog issue. Most would leap to action if they got dropped in right away at rapid boil. Meanwhile, so far, only a few feel it right now, while many won't care till it bites them in the ass.
jul 26, 2025, 5:45 pm • 10 0 • view
Agreed. And I think that’s what a lot of the MAGA/Project 2025 folks have counted on. Sad. Many will suffer.
jul 26, 2025, 6:12 pm • 4 0 • view
And the ringleaders know their own supporters will lynch them once these plots and plans hit them where it counts...... So they're trying to make as much drama and spectacle to distract from the deliberate sabotage by Trump of our nation. Trump is a Russian agent sent to destroy the US.
jul 26, 2025, 9:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Exactly!
jul 26, 2025, 6:10 pm • 0 0 • view
It terrifies me that there are so many guns in the USA and I believe that TACO FOTUS(Felon Of The United States) and the Greedy Oligarch Party are going to call for an insurrection against those of us who oppose the Blatant Barbaric Bill.
jul 27, 2025, 3:46 am • 0 0 • view
It wasn't surprising to me. If facism had come from the left, they would have fought harder. They have lost the ability to fight against the right. They share the same donors. When that bill was being passed, the democrats were attacking a mayoral candidate for their side.
jul 26, 2025, 8:36 pm • 3 0 • view
Almost like the super rich leaders kinda like authoritarianism 🤬
jul 27, 2025, 1:16 am • 2 0 • view
I don't think it's cowardice. I think it's selfishness, distrust and a complete lack of faith in the original system that existed in the first place. I think everybody WANTED this collapse to happen so they can build their own vision of a good country on the ashes.
jul 26, 2025, 7:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Not to mention those who've fully embraced the new regime and signed on as masked secret police. They will love wearing their brown shirts when Noem gets around to budgeting for uniforms.
jul 27, 2025, 8:35 am • 1 0 • view
They all, individuals & corps, and all of congress should be dissolved or deported. The perpetrators & allowers lost their right to enjoy the fruits of America and its people. We have to get this Pandora's Box sealed for eternity.
jul 27, 2025, 3:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Like Vichy, they r fascist collaborators.
jul 26, 2025, 5:49 pm • 0 0 • view
😡
jul 26, 2025, 2:39 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 27, 2025, 3:43 pm • 21 0 • view
It's really hard though. I'm over here in my little local twp fighting for our library. We're a highly educated community and I still can't get people to care enough to vote in a special election. We do have a group of people who care but the lack of overall community support is appalling.
jul 27, 2025, 4:09 pm • 10 0 • view
Amazing isn't it? We thought it could never happen here! Money and power for some are more valuable than a functioning Democratic Republic. JFC!
jul 27, 2025, 3:39 pm • 1 0 • view
I think Native Peoples and African Americans knew it could happen. And women. And LGBTQ people.
jul 28, 2025, 6:21 pm • 1 0 • view
I heartily concur
jul 26, 2025, 8:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Literally no good people must be running them. All corrupt.
jul 26, 2025, 5:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Americans still believe that their corrupt partisan "justice" system will save them from fascism, but their average ignorance won't allow them to understand that never in history any legal system stopped a fascist coup or regime from taking over power anywhere...
jul 26, 2025, 6:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Abject and predictable.
jul 26, 2025, 11:05 am • 1 0 • view
I've heard/read the same from historians who have studied Nazi Germany: That the most astonishing thing is not what happened, but how many people from all social strata went along with it. Even the clergy. We are witnessing it now. It's surreal.
jul 26, 2025, 6:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Truth
jul 27, 2025, 10:59 am • 0 0 • view
Except for Harvard.
jul 26, 2025, 10:21 am • 1 0 • view
It’s not over yet.
jul 26, 2025, 4:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Their place in history is secured and it will not be good. But not one of them cares because they will be dead. All they care about is the here and now and how much $$$ they can jam in their pockets before it all goes bust.
jul 26, 2025, 11:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Im so mad about it I don’t even want to talk to anyone anymore. I’m in a red state, surrounded by assholes.
jul 26, 2025, 6:13 pm • 1 0 • view
All institutions eventually become corrupt, and money is an incredibly effective corrupting influence.
jul 27, 2025, 1:39 pm • 5 0 • view
That's why we need eternal vigilance, and a dynamic rather than steady-state society. Stability can be a weakness rather than a solution.
jul 28, 2025, 6:25 pm • 0 0 • view
White men are cowards It’s white men who have failed They are the only ones who have the power to stop this
jul 27, 2025, 9:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Including all the 2nd amendment people who have been forever screaming “don’t tread on me”. Where are they? Why don’t they see that this is what the 2nd amendment is for, not playing dress up.
jul 26, 2025, 5:49 pm • 1 0 • view
It takes great courage to stand up. Not many have it. Most just want what they have and can see, and fascism lets them have that. Freedom and liberty are not missed untill they try for it and it's gone. Those who lived through fascism are mostly gone.
jul 27, 2025, 5:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Where the fuck has George Bush been?
jul 26, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
I think it's more that we're seeing the weakness of the system. The Legislative and Judicial Branches have no enforcement power. And when one party controls all branches, the Constitution is whatever they decide it is.
jul 26, 2025, 11:05 pm • 5 0 • view
the other 2 branches are willingly giving their power to the executive
jul 27, 2025, 3:18 am • 2 0 • view
I expected more from the institutions.
jul 27, 2025, 10:29 am • 2 0 • view
100 freaking percent. A nation of cowards.
jul 26, 2025, 7:16 pm • 0 0 • view
BuT CapiTaLiSm
jul 26, 2025, 6:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Late-stage capitalism. Always follow the money.
jul 26, 2025, 9:30 pm • 1 0 • view
But … most of them (media, politicians, schools) are active participants! Why would they stand up and resist?
jul 26, 2025, 1:37 pm • 7 0 • view
Agree. Not sure why we should have expected anything more. At some point- hopefully very soon- people are going to stop whining about how disappointed we are with institutions continuing to operating exactly as they have been for decades.
jul 26, 2025, 4:06 pm • 4 0 • view
And so swiftly and with so little pushback. Think about it. He’s only been in office for six months.
jul 26, 2025, 7:44 pm • 0 0 • view
💯🔥👍 the billionaires got their dictator. #ETMFR #guillotines historically just vote doesn’t fix fascism. the democracy has fallen. #andthentheycameforme be anti fascist/anti rascist.we all must fight back! Nothing is more powerful than righteous dissent against tyranny. trump is a dictator.
jul 27, 2025, 12:45 am • 0 0 • view
It’s like everyone has forgotten what happened in the 1930s, they refuse to recognize *so obvious* parallels to today sucks to “know things”, witnessing the descent day after day, looking around with my hands in the air like, “Am I the only one seeing this? WTAF everyone!?!!11”
jul 26, 2025, 5:08 pm • 14 0 • view
It's hard for people if they don't know whether they'll be able to afford the mortgage if they lose everything. I don't have much of a landing pad myself but I fought because, as my VA counselor says, "you don't know how NOT to fight." I get where you're coming from, but I try not to get mad.
jul 26, 2025, 6:30 pm • 7 0 • view
Demand each one you meet adheres to the Constitution. Every level - beat cop or ICE, all the way through the Office of the Presidency - they ALL swore an oath to it. And, remind them of the Nuremberg trials if they claim "just following orders." Resist. youtu.be/hOKMVvp9XGk?...
jul 26, 2025, 7:51 pm • 5 4 • view
But what about the money?!!!! SMH
jul 27, 2025, 7:17 am • 0 0 • view
Number one of all was Biden screwed us silly. Number two the republican congress. And oh yeah Supreme court!
jul 26, 2025, 6:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Jerome Powell - 1 Everyone else - 0
jul 26, 2025, 9:54 am • 18 0 • view
Really no surprise...the same thing happened in 1930s Germany, in Soviet Russia, the Warsaw Pact countries, Putin's Russia, and Orban's Hungary...when someone sues and the case goes up to the "supreme" Frankencourt, odds are they will side with the CONVICTED FELON occupying the "white house"...
jul 27, 2025, 4:16 am • 0 0 • view
I see it less as "refused to stand up" and more as "revealed themselves to be run by fascists all along."
jul 26, 2025, 10:43 am • 13 0 • view
Bureaucrats, actually. They are behaving exactly as the bureaucrats they are.
jul 26, 2025, 11:06 am • 1 0 • view
It's a very good take. German bureaucracy was also easy to corrupt. Overreliance on systems rather than critical thinking does it every time.
jul 27, 2025, 4:21 am • 3 0 • view
Yep. Courage is the first thing bureaucracy kills.
jul 27, 2025, 12:36 pm • 1 0 • view
I mean, by definition, bureaucracy is the opposite of agency. It's useful but is not a substitute for thinking. As in all things in life, we need more Mister Miyagi.
jul 27, 2025, 1:57 pm • 1 0 • view
This exactly is what has hurt so much to watch. When we think that certainly SOMEONE will fight back or stand up, they don’t and haven’t. We’re watching it all get destroyed while those who could stop it just sit on their hands. I will never understand. (I get this is not everyone, but it’s a lot)
jul 26, 2025, 6:14 pm • 88 3 • view
I guess this answers the question about how the Germans could have let it happen.... I also wonder how many of the "opposition" are quietly happy with the change as they think they won't be impacted or may even benefit.
jul 27, 2025, 6:39 am • 10 0 • view
Trump’s Nazi cult followers have no idea what life would really be like for them living in a full fascist state. It’s not just people of color/Jews who are persecuted, fired from their job, lost their home, etc.
jul 27, 2025, 12:39 pm • 3 0 • view
I can imagine some of the MAGAs would fall into an undesirables bucket fairly quickly if the full on fascist state occurs
jul 27, 2025, 3:40 pm • 3 0 • view
If the Dems manage to get rid of Zohran then it'll have all been worth it in their books.
jul 27, 2025, 10:13 am • 0 0 • view
It is left to us- each individual standing up. Congress has capitulated. The majority on the Supreme Court are fully corrupt. The major news outlets have knelt. It really is going to be We The People who work individually & together to save us. Ben Franklin had it right- "If we can keep it.."
jul 27, 2025, 3:42 pm • 4 0 • view
because the people with the power to stop it are the same ones who benefit from allowing it to happen.
jul 26, 2025, 9:28 pm • 3 0 • view
When you consider what the South Koreans did to keep their democracy, it’s mind boggling.
jul 26, 2025, 8:42 pm • 64 3 • view
🎯
jul 26, 2025, 9:22 pm • 7 0 • view
The reality is that big business and the billionaires support fascism. They don't want us peasants raising their taxes.
jul 26, 2025, 6:12 pm • 1 0 • view
And the vast majority of the media are still pretending it's not happening.
jul 27, 2025, 4:34 am • 1 0 • view
Every MAGA Representative, Senator, Cabinet appointee, State Governor, Legislator and the Pedo Prez himself, should all be charged with lying under oath when they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution. Every fucking one of them.
jul 26, 2025, 10:01 pm • 2 1 • view
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
jul 27, 2025, 11:41 am • 1 0 • view
It's that masculinity crisis we keep hearing about
jul 26, 2025, 11:54 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s what fascism needs to take root. I’m sure some Germans will confirm that.
jul 27, 2025, 12:16 pm • 8 0 • view
They were purchased by billionaires. 🤷♂️
jul 26, 2025, 3:32 pm • 1 0 • view
So many American elites are hopelessly greedy and craven and the institutions they control are thus corrupt and amoral. Those elites must be toppled — starting with the Dem institutionalists in Congress because getting rid of them is key to reining in the rest.
jul 26, 2025, 6:16 pm • 28 1 • view
I often wonder why the titans of industry didn’t unify and push back collectively. Airlines Academia Retail Media networks What are they thinking?
jul 26, 2025, 7:47 pm • 2 0 • view
jul 26, 2025, 9:34 pm • 0 0 • view
This is what happened in Germany. Nazis there and Nazis here.
jul 27, 2025, 8:22 am • 0 0 • view
We venerate the ones that stood up to totalitarian regimes in the past. But the stories of their heroism are also the stories of their demise. And it turns out most people would rather be cowardly and getting by than heroic and destitute.
jul 27, 2025, 6:06 am • 3 0 • view
Trump’s not finished with renaming mountains. Watch for a new executive order renaming Mount Rushmore to … Mount Trump.
jul 26, 2025, 8:06 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s not the cowardice, it’s the joyful embrace of it.
jul 27, 2025, 2:35 pm • 3 0 • view
You can't depend on yuppie careerists for anything but atomized self-interest.
jul 26, 2025, 12:21 pm • 8 1 • view
The fact that people I know and love refuse to quit working for the corpos is making me hate them Like really hate them
jul 26, 2025, 12:30 pm • 5 0 • view
Money was more important. Can't serve God and mammon.
jul 26, 2025, 5:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Greed is a feature of capitalism. I am surprised I was surprised by how many caved, until I remembered why: greed. The greed of the ultra-rich is the root of all our ailments, I should've seen that it will also be the reason for our downfall. #TaxTheRich
jul 27, 2025, 2:29 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s truly unbelievable.
jul 27, 2025, 2:01 pm • 0 0 • view
It was always going to be up to us. It was our fellow Americans that brought them into power, it’s going to take a majority of Americans, to rid us of their malevolence.
jul 26, 2025, 6:25 pm • 3 0 • view
Agree but that includes every fkg American. heard every version of "I'm owed/don't own this/can't bc xyz" - the failure of every single American is why the country is falling to fascism. Could just grind the GD country to a halt, but faced w/action Americans got nothing but self interested excuses
jul 27, 2025, 10:46 am • 13 2 • view
The fascists engage in hard core daily action. They make no excuses for attacking Americans/ democracy in every way. They just get up & do it. Every maga bottom to top. But w/exception of brave kids confronting ICE, the rest just sit on social media throwing rocks at others for not saving them
jul 27, 2025, 10:50 am • 15 2 • view
Until Americans confront they are responsible & that each person has a stake, regardless of what still needs fixing, there is no hope of saving it. if they thought a broken, hyper capitalist country was bad...lol. DO something, stop bitching. Mass sustained boycotts,strikes, protests or fascism?
jul 27, 2025, 10:57 am • 11 1 • view
I don't know, man. I dont feel like I have the same level of responsibility as say, Merrick Garland. Throwing a rock at an ICE vehicle is great and all, but how about leveraging the vast and undeniable power of the state against facism? What about that was so impossible?
jul 27, 2025, 12:48 pm • 6 0 • view
You do. you don't have to throw a rock at an ICE. You know what I don't see-people grinding the fkg economy to a halt. They are still shopping & consuming everything non-essential- enriching that system. Still going to work, not refusing to allow the system to run. Still not protesting every day.
jul 27, 2025, 3:10 pm • 2 0 • view
You're right- I should unilaterally quit my job, stop feeding my kods, put my pussy hat on, and march on the Capital. I'll start tomorrow.
jul 27, 2025, 7:36 pm • 1 0 • view
You don't have to do shit. Which was exactly the point. Everyone has an excuse. You don't have to quit your job or stop feeding your kids to stop buying all but essentials and show up at protests every weekend.
jul 28, 2025, 6:14 am • 1 0 • view
Yep I said I am angry and really hate the people who gave us trump, someone said "you're just as bad" and "I hate this admin more than you", no, Trump isn't the start, maga a symptom of a rot deep within, and I still vote to protect people who hate my minority friends, that's not just as bad
jul 27, 2025, 1:38 pm • 2 0 • view
Every American, including Heather Heyer and Willem Van Spronsen?
jul 28, 2025, 6:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Including you and me
jul 29, 2025, 12:24 am • 0 0 • view
Including you? Really? You're making excuses and not meeting your responsibility, just like other Americans? In what ways?
jul 29, 2025, 1:31 am • 0 0 • view
We’ve been living on thin ICE for many years and now the weight of the hypocrisy is finally catching up with US. The disease of White nationalism was never treated or honestly dealt with and it has gained strength through Foreign elements that have overtaken US. Elon Rupert Jan.6 KKK. Civil WR.
jul 27, 2025, 1:01 am • 7 1 • view
Yes I’ve been surprised at how rapidly they rolled over.
jul 27, 2025, 8:30 am • 0 0 • view
It’s not cowardice, apathy and silence over the last 45 years by all of us! Stupid comments that didn’t deserve a response. We got numb. Then cell phones and the internet gave US the option to build our tiny private worlds. We need to talk, in person, ask ??’s, get our civility and humanity back!
jul 27, 2025, 4:59 am • 1 0 • view
Maybe it was foolish or naive but I truly thought someone would try to stop it. I also wouldn’t have predicted that so many citizens would accept it.
jul 26, 2025, 7:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Amen
jul 26, 2025, 6:04 pm • 3 0 • view
If they aren’t against it, they are in favour of it. Politicians and institutions do not get to sit on the fence without explaining why they cannot decide. America is being turned into a complex oligarchy of the rich and vested interests including oil, religious conservatives & white supremacists.
jul 27, 2025, 10:41 am • 0 0 • view
They're owned by the rich, what did you expect?
jul 26, 2025, 8:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Makes you wonder if they really wanted to.
jul 27, 2025, 4:35 pm • 2 0 • view
jul 26, 2025, 11:52 pm • 0 0 • view
the billionaires bought all the institutions and waited for their moment
jul 26, 2025, 12:10 pm • 8 1 • view
Which is why everyone recognizing that they are born invisibly disabled is how we force them to give us the DOD money they're wasting on abusing everyone
jul 26, 2025, 12:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Every American institution failed the American people FBI CIA NSA Congress Courts
jul 26, 2025, 6:19 pm • 2 2 • view
Can’t they still?
jul 26, 2025, 11:52 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 26, 2025, 10:29 am • 7 0 • view
And the participation of so many to get something out of it for just them.
jul 27, 2025, 6:24 am • 0 0 • view
Which is every single #Republican
jul 27, 2025, 9:03 am • 1 0 • view
A lot of it isn't exactly cowardice but that people in these institutions have wanted this for a long time and are finally getting it
jul 26, 2025, 5:11 pm • 11 0 • view
There’s a sickening mixture of both. Plus greed and lust for wealth and power. Lots of that. In Trump they trust.
jul 26, 2025, 5:51 pm • 5 0 • view
Beginning with Biden, Harris and the Democratic Party.
jul 26, 2025, 7:40 pm • 2 0 • view
Aseel is literally falling apart, just say something kind to her please. I shared her post on my page — please don’t ignore it, this is seriously a disaster🙏🥺
jul 26, 2025, 7:54 pm • 0 0 • view
And the EU is doing it today. Shame on them. #EU
jul 27, 2025, 5:35 pm • 0 0 • view
👏social norms of messaging to shame and boycott the foolish fascist enablers👏 this is the handle
jul 26, 2025, 6:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Not cowardice. Hopes for profit.
jul 27, 2025, 7:33 am • 1 0 • view
I want to remain naively optimistic, because it takes a while to turn a giant ship like the US around to get rid of the Lord of Lies and his minions. Maybe the Democratic Party will realize that they should fight and not flee.
jul 26, 2025, 6:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Let’s not forget the 77 million people who voted for exactly this.
jul 26, 2025, 5:57 pm • 0 0 • view
We’re nothing that we thought we were. It was all bullsh*t mythology.
jul 26, 2025, 12:31 pm • 3 0 • view
The mistake is thinking that there’s “institutions.” Institutions are people. It’s not the “Supreme Court,” they are judges. People.
jul 27, 2025, 2:58 am • 38 0 • view
Exactly.
jul 27, 2025, 4:56 am • 0 0 • view
It makes me equally sad and angry. They are all caving. We will remember who bent the knee.
jul 27, 2025, 1:03 am • 0 0 • view
I couldn't agree more.
jul 26, 2025, 1:25 pm • 0 0 • view
When we get steady footing, these cowards should be punished and shamed.
jul 26, 2025, 8:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Agreed. I truly hate it here and would leave if I could. I tell my daughters every day to get job overseas and get the hell out of here. There's nothing here for them anymore.
jul 27, 2025, 2:10 pm • 0 0 • view
People just not caring is making me nuts. Like I still feel like most people think I am insane and paranoid for saying MAGA are a bunch of fucking Nazis.
jul 26, 2025, 1:40 pm • 4 0 • view
jul 27, 2025, 8:01 am • 0 0 • view
Home of the brave they said.
jul 26, 2025, 6:09 pm • 8 1 • view
HA!
jul 26, 2025, 6:12 pm • 3 0 • view
It's all self-interest: organizations that look out for themselves and that's it. No concern about the damage their actions do to the society of a whole. 🤬
jul 26, 2025, 6:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Blogger Jon Schwarz coined The Iron Law of Institutions, “The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within” it.
jul 26, 2025, 6:42 pm • 4 0 • view
Makes 100% sense!
jul 26, 2025, 6:55 pm • 0 0 • view
As a denizen of third world country who used the founding principles of the US as a lodestar in trying to set up a democratic government in the face of increasing authoritarianism- the thing that amazes me most about the US is 1) the cowardice and 2) the ignorance.
jul 27, 2025, 1:03 am • 45 6 • view
Both are shameful and inexcusable
jul 27, 2025, 2:58 am • 12 0 • view
jul 26, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Amerocans need to look to Ukrainians to see how to stand up to invaders & corruption within. They know the long-term cost of not standing up.
jul 27, 2025, 6:53 am • 2 1 • view
They all have their excuses. But someday, “I had a responsibility to our shareholders“, is going to be right up there with “I was only following orders.”
jul 26, 2025, 1:44 pm • 54 10 • view
"I vas just paying ze mortgage."
jul 26, 2025, 3:34 pm • 9 0 • view
I will say that the state university I work for is not entirely capitulating. They are removing a couple of DEI programs (one of which I agree needs to go, having been through it - it had become a huge problem in hiring.) But the national flags of every student that attended there still flying.
jul 26, 2025, 7:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Agree. I'm 70 years old and had (foolishly and incorrectly) beleived for almost all of my life that our government had "a system of checks and balances" so that none of the 3 branches could get too far down the wrong road. Have never been more wrong in my entire life.
jul 26, 2025, 3:35 pm • 25 1 • view
While it hasn’t been perfect, generally, the checks and balances have worked out pretty well. The tax codes and the ability for the uber rich to continue to get more opportunities to not contribute to our social system through these tax codes is at the root of our wealth gap and widening issues.
jul 26, 2025, 5:57 pm • 0 0 • view
It mostly did. What we're seeing today is what happens when the executive simply decides that it will *not* follow the laws until/unless forced to. And it will fight that...
jul 26, 2025, 5:46 pm • 10 0 • view
And it created a high court that has said it can't *ever* be prosecuted for breaking that law. And that it can continue breaking the law while the court cases against it for breaking that law are resolved.
jul 26, 2025, 5:46 pm • 8 0 • view
"Power corrupts...."
jul 26, 2025, 7:32 pm • 3 0 • view
I respectfully disagree. What I see with Orange Krasnov & the Satanic dirtbag RepubliKKKans is that "we the people" elected 45 presidents who were men of integrity. Men who followed the Constitution. Men who had human hearts. We were all just gliding along on their goodness. That's all gone now.
jul 26, 2025, 7:34 pm • 2 0 • view
That's kinda what I meant. That we had checks in the fact there were laws and the executive actually followed the constitution and believed it had to follow laws unless it could legally get them overturned.
jul 27, 2025, 5:06 pm • 0 0 • view
So many of my countrymen and women are such weak spineless sad-sacks. So fearful of stuff they needn't fear, so oblivious to the stuff that they should.
jul 26, 2025, 8:23 pm • 1 0 • view
That’s it right there.
jul 26, 2025, 8:37 pm • 1 0 • view
100% agree. I have been shocked by the capitulation. I would change 'disheartening' to soul-crushing/gut-punching.
jul 27, 2025, 2:59 pm • 7 0 • view
They want to crush your soul. That's what this is all about.
jul 28, 2025, 6:22 pm • 1 0 • view
Including the Democrats.
jul 27, 2025, 10:13 am • 0 0 • view
Including every single US citizen who is standing by and watching. If you're not on the streets, in your town halls or contacting your reps in any way, you are complicit and have allowed fascism.
jul 27, 2025, 11:08 am • 3 0 • view
That's because the US is a supreme capitalist state and money comes before all else. It's always been this way, it's just easier to see now
jul 27, 2025, 12:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Agree. Law firms, universities, media conglomerates, Congress, SCOTUS.
jul 27, 2025, 2:26 am • 2 0 • view
Can add citizens to that list, too. Where are you all?
jul 27, 2025, 11:14 am • 0 0 • view
When education becomes the handmaiden of careerism, what else would you expect?
jul 26, 2025, 3:33 pm • 4 1 • view
“No Child Left Behind” in the race to indoctrinate children into unquestioning worker bees. There’s a strain of indoctrination that goes back to the origins of public schools, but it got worse with the Cold War and the Pledge of Allegiance, and then “critical thinking” was squeezed out altogether.
jul 26, 2025, 6:33 pm • 2 0 • view
The MSM has been especially shameful.
jul 26, 2025, 5:49 pm • 41 0 • view
NYT, CNN, and WaPo practically sponsored Trump's campaign with their sanewashed headlines (even if the articles contained the truth somewhere in the 14th paragraph)
jul 26, 2025, 7:03 pm • 24 0 • view
The day that Elon Musk went into the US Treasury with his DOGE teenagers, and nobody did anything about it. I knew then and there it was complete. In fact, the only reason we know who the DOGE kids are is because of WIRED magazine. No politician from either side told us, no mainstream media outlet.
jul 27, 2025, 1:27 pm • 51 3 • view
The fact that federal civil service protections and unions were just tissue paper was genuinely shocking. Those jobs had become the civilian reward for military service, to the point that it was damaging the civilian culture of the agencies.
jul 27, 2025, 4:01 pm • 13 0 • view
Oh wow, I did not know this! I knew somewhat about preferring veterans but not the knock on cultural effects.
jul 27, 2025, 4:03 pm • 4 0 • view
When I was a contractor, it was a common lament. The agency I was at historically had a heavy discussion/debate culture, and the veterans were quick to anger when questioned and expected obedience to orders not pushback. So, discussion about implementation had to move outside the meetings.
jul 27, 2025, 4:07 pm • 5 0 • view
Interesting. Ages ago, I remember my ex talking about how vets had a hard time adjusting to corporate norms....
jul 27, 2025, 4:09 pm • 3 0 • view
The side that's in power is covering for them.
jul 27, 2025, 2:03 pm • 1 0 • view
The people with all those guns to defend themselves against an authoritarian government.
jul 27, 2025, 6:00 pm • 1 0 • view
maybe we should replace the entirety of congress with Trey Parker and Matt Stone
jul 26, 2025, 6:14 pm • 1 0 • view
So true. Let’s start with blaming the GOP and the Supreme Court. The MAGAs aren’t cowards. They are racist, lawless and hypocritical sycophants.
jul 27, 2025, 4:41 am • 1 0 • view
Yep. All mouth no trousers seems more than apt.
jul 26, 2025, 1:22 pm • 1 0 • view
So similar to Germany in the 1930's....scary...
jul 26, 2025, 7:55 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s because cowardice is unquestionably a virtue for these people.
jul 26, 2025, 7:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Add to that the record number of people who could have reported about the 💩 show, but instead decided to write books.
jul 26, 2025, 8:38 pm • 52 2 • view
I have a special kind of contempt for THEM
jul 27, 2025, 2:57 am • 15 0 • view
it's interesting to me that some of the same ones essentially did, in 2017, and far less progress was made. they came back this time with a plan they've been working toward since then. the papers have different owners now. social media was kneecapped and fractured. silicon valley has converted.
jul 26, 2025, 10:32 am • 21 1 • view
It’s a democracy. People chose to not vote. And a majority of the people who did vote chose this. To fix it, we vote next year years, and again in three years. When we don’t vote, when we let the evil toxicity of social media become reality, this happens.
jul 27, 2025, 3:29 am • 4 2 • view
voting wasnt going to stop this. there was too much corruption on both sides. the only thing that this election did was accelerate us towards fascism. we were already heading there at a pretty high speed
jul 27, 2025, 4:13 am • 3 0 • view
Voting last November definitely would have avoided all of this! It’s incredibly easy to not have this, but social media is more powerful as propaganda- so here we are.
jul 27, 2025, 4:18 am • 11 0 • view
Anyone who would compromise to deliberately kill the largest number of innocent people in the conflict would kill me too,. Democrat's need to run someone who has goals in life beyond just killing us all for jesus
jul 27, 2025, 4:59 am • 0 0 • view
it was extremely unlikely. non voters are not the cause of this, and regardless of if harris won or not, we would still be on the same path. you think that a party that funds a genocide is any different then the republicans? the only differences is that trump is doing to america what we do to others
jul 27, 2025, 4:21 am • 2 0 • view
Non voters are exactly the cause if this.
jul 27, 2025, 6:31 am • 2 0 • view
its very easy to blame this on non voters, especially when you think there were only two options. it was either support a genocide or support a genocide. however there were never only two options. i didnt vote, i knew trump would win because i knew he would cheat and i knew dems wouldnt call it out
jul 28, 2025, 3:52 am • 0 0 • view
It is easy, bc it is true. All that genocide bs is nothing more than a performative stunt. There is no genocide that dems, or Kamala in particular financed or supported. That narrative was always a weapon against the west, relentlessly driven by muslim brotherhood and it's sponsors/accomplices.
jul 28, 2025, 4:33 am • 1 0 • view
ohhhhhhh you poor thing. your brain is all propaganda mush! well i wont upset you anymore with the truth that you support murdering women and children.
jul 28, 2025, 4:45 pm • 0 0 • view
You are a hamas mouthpiece, truth is not your strongest side.
jul 28, 2025, 8:03 pm • 0 0 • view
god you must worship the ground that trump golfs on
jul 28, 2025, 9:59 pm • 0 0 • view
😂
jul 28, 2025, 9:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Oof, that is very dangerous statement to make in a time where a right-wing arm is doing everything to erode the democratic system in the US. That is not what would have happened under Harris. Please keep in mind that the US is in fact so influential that the rest of the Western countries are...
jul 27, 2025, 5:01 am • 3 0 • view
anyone who would kill the innocent hamas would kill me too. You underestimate just exactly how crazy someione has to be to want to kill me
jul 27, 2025, 5:14 am • 0 0 • view
...affected as well. The fascist factions in other countries are looking very closely to what Trump is able to achieve, how courts are ignored, how he muffles critical journalists etc. He and his goons are lowering the bar of what is acceptable not just for the US.
jul 27, 2025, 5:01 am • 2 0 • view
if people dont band together and realize that even with all of the legal power in the US that trump isnt stoppable, then we will never be able to mount the rebellion we need so much. 12 million people protesting means fuck all if its peaceful and law abiding
jul 28, 2025, 3:50 am • 0 0 • view
so we been fighting back this whole time, the entire judicial system has been pushing back with every legal option they have. and it has barely even slowed trump. it has not stopped a single thing. system that would allow a concentration camp to be built is a system that cannot be saved from within
jul 28, 2025, 3:49 am • 0 0 • view
Um, yeah, it would’ve.
jul 27, 2025, 6:46 am • 1 0 • view
got proof? got proof that everything going on right now only started when trump got elected? got proof that this wasnt planned for decades?
jul 28, 2025, 3:54 am • 0 0 • view
It really takes alot for me to not respond to every reply I get, especially when the reply makes me go, “what the fuck is this person even talking about?” but I’m exercising some decent level of self control, here, don’t you think?
jul 28, 2025, 4:02 am • 1 0 • view
didn't even answer my question. any country that would allow a concentration camp to be built, is incapable of actual good change from within. a system that would allow that is not a system you can fix from the inside. voting may perhaps have been a stepping stool to further liberation, but not now
jul 28, 2025, 4:03 am • 0 0 • view
Yes. This could be stopped, but they are more motivated by greed and power than by decency and lawfulness. It’s tragic.
jul 26, 2025, 3:42 pm • 5 2 • view
For what it's worth, we're trying to at least keep a list of them. www.maga-collaborators.net
jul 26, 2025, 10:00 am • 15 4 • view
You should be more upset with the MILLIONS that voted for this shit and the MILLIONS that didn’t bother to vote against it.
jul 26, 2025, 9:46 pm • 5 0 • view
Same players, same script, same outcome. No accountability means to problems eh?
jul 26, 2025, 3:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Fascism really depends on a large base of spectators engaging in smalls acts of cowardice.
jul 26, 2025, 6:25 pm • 56 11 • view
From beyond America's borders and looking in, I'd venture you've defined concisely what's happening.
jul 27, 2025, 3:02 am • 5 0 • view
“Smalls?”
jul 27, 2025, 5:53 am • 1 0 • view
💯
jul 27, 2025, 7:40 am • 0 0 • view
👏
jul 27, 2025, 12:23 am • 0 0 • view
Where’s the NRA?
jul 26, 2025, 7:18 pm • 0 0 • view
and who would not fucking shut up about how they were there to prevent everything that is happening.
jul 27, 2025, 2:14 am • 0 0 • view
The most disheartening thing *so far*.
jul 26, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
SCOTUS especially
jul 26, 2025, 6:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Every single one of them faced a ‘sliding doors’ moment and every single one of them took the cowards exit.
jul 26, 2025, 12:38 pm • 21 1 • view
Oddly no institution has any problems finding their cojones when it’s a left of centre government. Then the billionaires in the media are leading the charge.
jul 26, 2025, 1:04 pm • 10 0 • view
Put your thoughts in writing. Mail some postcards to elected officials. Be vocal. Be visible. Be disruptive. In whatever form.
jul 26, 2025, 11:59 pm • 11 3 • view
GOP: Guard Our Pedophiles Don't give them a moment of peace. You have a right to call anyone in Congress. Here's the senator phone list. There are 53 GOP Senators Call every day. Ok to call off hours and blow up their VM. 202.224.#### Be vocal. Be visible. Be disruptive. Make the calls
jul 26, 2025, 11:59 pm • 2 3 • view
Not the creators of South Park... www.facebook.com/reel/1088789...
jul 26, 2025, 6:41 pm • 0 0 • view
They helped it get this far.
jul 26, 2025, 7:55 pm • 0 0 • view
It is certainly distressing to discover that people you thought were paid to act responsibly simply do not. It's even more disheartening to witness voters in a democracy intentionally install an autocrat. That's the driver of the U.S. descent into self-inflicted oppression.
jul 26, 2025, 12:51 pm • 24 4 • view
👆👆👆Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
jul 26, 2025, 10:30 pm • 0 0 • view
It cost them our respect, and will prevent our willingness to trust them when they need us to.
jul 27, 2025, 3:44 pm • 0 0 • view
Like everything in America, it’s reduced to the dollar. Rather millions and billions of them. If you don’t got enough greenbacks, you don’t matter. If you got plenty of them, nothing else matters.
jul 27, 2025, 12:52 pm • 2 0 • view
Money is America's "Ground of Being."
jul 28, 2025, 6:26 pm • 1 0 • view
That's been the biggest surprise to me. Watching her universities and networks fold has been a shock.
jul 26, 2025, 10:47 pm • 12 1 • view
I agree, like i did not even consider these as events that could happen
jul 27, 2025, 3:07 am • 5 0 • view
Big talk on their part but no action.
jul 26, 2025, 5:49 pm • 0 0 • view
💯
jul 26, 2025, 4:04 pm • 0 0 • view
🎯
jul 27, 2025, 6:43 am • 0 0 • view
Suddenly I am reminded of the HORDES of people who were baying for the blood of Saddam Hussein in 2003 but claimed, “I never supported the war” in 2007.
jul 26, 2025, 6:24 pm • 3 0 • view
Didn’t these folks used to congregate at a site called ‘Little Green… something?’
jul 26, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Like all conservative social media eventually the nazism and grift tore it apart, if memory serves.
jul 26, 2025, 7:13 pm • 0 0 • view
*looks at OP* Oh. I missed the joke. Oh well.
jul 26, 2025, 7:16 pm • 0 0 • view
I had people in my own family call me a terrorist sympathizer for protesting the invasion of Iraq! It was bonkers how in the tank people were for that war.
jul 26, 2025, 6:41 pm • 2 0 • view
🎯
jul 26, 2025, 8:39 pm • 0 0 • view
This was my feeling during Donald 1.0 My current disheartening stems from Americans willingness to go back into the shit hole after the first time. It doesn't help that the GOP has the trifecta in federal government. Institutions would stand taller if there were checks in place.
jul 26, 2025, 7:24 pm • 8 0 • view
If we learn anything about how fascism gets a toe hold, this should be it. Standing by, saying nothing, doing nothing, while everyday and professional fascists impound their innocent victims, is what opens the door to more and more fascistic behaviors and attitudes.
jul 26, 2025, 1:36 pm • 5 0 • view
Cowardice. Fecklessness. Obliviousness. Incompetence. And it didn’t start in January 2025.
jul 26, 2025, 1:30 pm • 6 1 • view
The park rangers seem to be the only ones standing against the fall … which wasn’t on my bingo card, but makes sense
jul 26, 2025, 8:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Not just park rangers, but many civil servants- it’s hard to be a government worker trying to stand up to authoritarianism when it feels like all the institutions around you are giving in
jul 26, 2025, 8:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Without question.
jul 26, 2025, 6:09 pm • 3 0 • view
Power and money: the only thing all of these people and institutions care about. Period.
jul 26, 2025, 6:20 pm • 2 0 • view
jul 27, 2025, 10:13 am • 0 0 • view
But what can I do….. said MILLIONS of people. Lazy, selfish Americans. “But it’s hard to quit Amazon”.
jul 26, 2025, 7:22 pm • 0 0 • view
💯! Has democracy, such as it is now, become transactional? Everybody is in it for their own benefit and cuts their own deal to continue to enjoy the freedoms granted in the Constitution for all?
jul 26, 2025, 6:34 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s all about money; they don’t want to lose it.
jul 26, 2025, 6:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Amen to that Charles!
jul 27, 2025, 12:23 pm • 0 0 • view
Time for us AntiFascists to rise again and teach these scumbags another lesson in losing.
jul 27, 2025, 12:21 pm • 1 0 • view
And the speed with which they complied showed that they had always wanted to be fascists - they only needed permission.
jul 31, 2025, 2:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Lawyers and journalists right behind Big Oil and the banks. We’re on our own people and resistance will not be pretty.
jul 26, 2025, 7:26 pm • 0 0 • view
average americans are complicit too
jul 27, 2025, 1:26 am • 0 0 • view
That would suggest that most of them don’t welcome it. I’m not so sure. I think most of the people in a position to stand up to it don’t actually want to stop it…
jul 26, 2025, 8:43 pm • 1 0 • view
OK. But I find the most disheartening thing is the fact that 77 million citizens voted for the man and the political party that is creating that descent. Even if the descent is somehow stopped, those 77 million will still be there -- with many regretting the end of their dream.
jul 26, 2025, 7:43 pm • 1 0 • view
That would seem to be the *real* problem.
jul 27, 2025, 12:46 am • 0 0 • view
The US is a hollow tree, completely rotted and empty. A good hard push knocked it down
jul 26, 2025, 7:16 pm • 1 0 • view
They saw your compliance with literal genocide and knew this was the time. 16 months under Biden with it continuing with Trump.
jul 26, 2025, 7:50 pm • 0 0 • view
We could be in such a different place... look where we are! It sucks so badly!
jul 26, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Makes you wonder, did those institutions actually want to oppose or do they see some short/long term benefit?
jul 26, 2025, 11:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Made impotent by neoliberalism.
jul 27, 2025, 9:17 am • 3 0 • view
Agreed. We need to step up and do something before it's over.
jul 27, 2025, 4:19 am • 1 0 • view
People tell me it's already over every day. Such capitulation, even if a rhetorical expression, is part of why we're here.
jul 28, 2025, 6:33 pm • 1 0 • view
In a few years, when it’s all over, everyone will claim they were part of the resistance. A lesson from Germany.
jul 27, 2025, 5:34 am • 6 0 • view
Please explain this part to me like I'm in 5th grade!
jul 27, 2025, 1:45 am • 0 0 • view
Also: I believe the propaganda machines are pumping out far more news of the ones who capitulate (or who the WH announces have capitulated -- often turns out not quite true) than of those who resist or challenge. How many outlets had page 1 coverage of last week's Harvard v Trump hearing?
jul 26, 2025, 6:17 pm • 2 0 • view
Fear, because previously the world seemed like it had adults in it. Embarrassment--because it took me this long to realize the Germans weren't an outlier.
jul 26, 2025, 6:24 pm • 1 0 • view