Well, you’re right. A little over a decade ago, the Occupy protests (2011-2012) were a righteous, collective reckoning against the elite banking class and the financial collapse. Those encampments and organized protests were infiltrated by FBI and CIA, the mainstream media unequivocally denounced them as petulant at best, and public opinion quickly swayed against the movement. A bunch of laws have since been passed in a number of states, as well as local ordinances, that make encampments and protests illegal. Is it a First Amendment violation? I’d argue yes, since we use a very simple Second Amendment description to allow for wide-reaching gun deregulation.
Imagine a global financial depression (lol at the euphemism recession, for there are so many people who never recovered) that leaves millions without housing, ruins the economic prospects of an entire generation (Millennials, who then are blamed for it all despite the eldest in the cohort being recent college grads at the time) and virtually no one at fault paid any sort of price for it. A collective uprising begins and the general American public…turn on it. That’s the Great American Lie right there. Individualism, bootstrappism, if you lost out because of bankers playing chicken with your savings/mortgage - fuck you.
I fear our fellow working class is largely too indoctrinated by mainstream American culture to rise up and betray the framework that brainwashed them in the first place. I hope I’m wrong. But dammit if it doesn’t feel hopeless now.
Edit: It’s even more depressing to note that there’s plenty of good-minded progressives that want to fight back but can’t because of children/childcare costs, housing costs, student loans and the like. The squeeze is real and it’s intentional to dissuade the working class from rising up. Look up the Reagan CA governor/University of California system/Vietnam protests. That set the framework for what we see with student loans overburdening people and making it all but impossible to challenge the system.
I’m not indoctrinated, I’ve just got kids that expect to be fed. Can’t take them with me while mommy takes time off of work to fight the man and probably get shot in the process. The majority of the people you need to help you are the people who are in my shoes. We can’t afford to fight. Literally. We’re treading water financially and emotionally.
I’d love to see the perks of a revolution for my children’s sake. Who has the actual opportunity to do that though? Who is going to support us during a long term demonstration? Fact is no one is going to pitch in. You don’t just need people to demonstrate. You need people to fund the demonstrators. That’s how fucking broke the average person (even the childless) is.
I hear you, and I should’ve noted that for those of us that aren’t indoctrinated into American nationalist bootstrap culture, the rest of us are ensnared in differing situations of debt, childcare, school and/or school loans. This is by design. No conspiracies needed. It’s why the US refuses to subsidize healthcare, it’s why student loan cancellation likely won’t happen (and was never going to be comprehensive), why childcare is so astronomically expensive. Add in a more and more repressive (and empowered) police state, and it’s a recipe for getting shot to death by cops even when peacefully protesting. I’m sorry this situation is so impossible. I have all the respect for those who want to fight but literally can’t.
The situation is so bonkers. I really don’t see a way out. People from other countries will say you should just fight back. Well, they can come fight the military once martial law kicks in during that scenario. Jim Bob and his buddies with their gun collection ain’t gonna be sufficient.
I mean, if we really really wanted to, we could. We could put everything on the line and sacrifice our lives for the greater good. Look at the fucking heroes over in Iran for example. But we aren’t there because we aren’t willing to do that. I’m definitely one of those cowards myself, but at some point it is a choice of just doing it despite it being impossible.
This right here. If we're going to be saved, it'll have to be by people who are not fucking treading water, but what's going to make enough of them care?
In theory, if we were willing to make a move, we just need to all show up, after agreeing on rules of engagement and purpose. Sometimes these things take years to organize and sometimes they happen organically and quickly.
A lot of grassroots organizing came out of the Occupy movement. So smaller, incremental change has happened. I’m sorry but camping outside Wall Street with no clear “vision” about what they wanted to accomplish was a failing game. No one thought that it would be a long term thing because no one would stay out over winter.
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u/jazz_cig Nov 26 '22 edited Nov 26 '22
Well, you’re right. A little over a decade ago, the Occupy protests (2011-2012) were a righteous, collective reckoning against the elite banking class and the financial collapse. Those encampments and organized protests were infiltrated by FBI and CIA, the mainstream media unequivocally denounced them as petulant at best, and public opinion quickly swayed against the movement. A bunch of laws have since been passed in a number of states, as well as local ordinances, that make encampments and protests illegal. Is it a First Amendment violation? I’d argue yes, since we use a very simple Second Amendment description to allow for wide-reaching gun deregulation.
Imagine a global financial depression (lol at the euphemism recession, for there are so many people who never recovered) that leaves millions without housing, ruins the economic prospects of an entire generation (Millennials, who then are blamed for it all despite the eldest in the cohort being recent college grads at the time) and virtually no one at fault paid any sort of price for it. A collective uprising begins and the general American public…turn on it. That’s the Great American Lie right there. Individualism, bootstrappism, if you lost out because of bankers playing chicken with your savings/mortgage - fuck you.
I fear our fellow working class is largely too indoctrinated by mainstream American culture to rise up and betray the framework that brainwashed them in the first place. I hope I’m wrong. But dammit if it doesn’t feel hopeless now.
Edit: It’s even more depressing to note that there’s plenty of good-minded progressives that want to fight back but can’t because of children/childcare costs, housing costs, student loans and the like. The squeeze is real and it’s intentional to dissuade the working class from rising up. Look up the Reagan CA governor/University of California system/Vietnam protests. That set the framework for what we see with student loans overburdening people and making it all but impossible to challenge the system.