The Arab Spring was kicked off by a Libyan street vendor who was so tired of paying bribes, fees, and ‘fines’ he set himself on fire instead of choosing another day at life. And enough of his countrymen saw that and said “Agreed. There’s no future anymore, let’s burn it all down and get a new government”.

The US has been in trouble for a long while - you have to wonder how long until the body politic is picked clean by capitalism and people are done with this project we call America. When all the political oxygen is consumed by the loudest fringe voices who achieve nothing of substance, while entrenching their power and prestige. There’s only two ‘viable’ parties, and they want it that way, all while we pretend with the illusion of choice.

But please, tell me how I need not give up, that all I have to do is get involved more local politics, or ‘play the game’ and throw campaign elections at my problems. Gerrymandering, dark money, DNC/RNC funding choking out 3rd party candidates, etc etc. the fix is in, and you and I aren’t in on it.

I don't see it turning around otherwise at this point.

The last 20 years have made clear these people ~~can't~~ can get away with literal murder, have it in the news, and nothing happens. From JFK, to Ruby Ridge, the "suicides" of Jeffrey Epstein, et al.

Blatant violation of law by those in office without repercussions.

I'm not saying it happening tomorrow, but we only have to look at things like the French Revolution to recognize a line has been crossed, and these criminals have no fear of the law, as it's been captured right along with so many regulatory agencies.

It's headed in that direction, but we're not quite there yet.

There are two ways to fight the autocratic takeover. One is opportunistic: The US is immense and has a lot of interlocking and often conflicting systems in place, which makes for a lot of chaotic complexity. So the way that dinosaur clones were able to breed, escape Isla Nublar and survive despite a lysine addiction (all contrived to contain them) we need to find opportunities to impede their takeover or creatively disobey.

The other is in creating local mutual aid organizations. Make sure that your marginalized and outcast locals are getting fed, keeping warm and otherwise having needs met, and the police will find it harder to push them out. Whatever you can do to allow strikes and protests to last longer will tax the goons of the plutocrats, and tax them until either they retreat and rally elsewhere or ratchet up the violence so that it becomes too atrocious for the neoliberal public to ignore.

My point was bread and circuses