Depends. Are you a rich, white, straight male? You will be fine and can ignore everything. But if you are any shade of brown, an immigrant or belong to any minority group or are female or have loved ones belonging to anyone of these groups, then you should pay attention as they might genuinely be in danger.
I keep hearing this “if you’re a straight, white male, you’ll be fine.” I’m a straight “white passing” male (half Cuban, with no Latin origin names).
When people say this, I ask, “what about my friends? What about my family? What about the people I love?” Does that not affect me? Are we supposed to ignore their plight?
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
If you can get out do so and I hate the idea of more guns on the streets but if at this point everyone that’s at risk or has loved ones at risk needs to be armed as much as possible and have a go bag ready to go. If goon squads are coming for ya don’t go quietly with them.
I don’t see what we can do to combat Trump short of organizing and fighting back. We all know how good the left are at that.
How do you think we got anything good at all, ever?
The left lost its way. BLM and Floyd protests were the closest we’ve gotten to the anger the left displayed for the Vietnam war.
Did you just stop reading after the first sentence?
Also, bullshit. You think climate change doesn’t affect us? The damage to NATO? Threatening Greenland?
I get your point that a lot of hate is directed at immigrants and minority groups, but you don’t need to be dismissive to such a large group of people, many of which are on your side.
Don’t try to make extra enemies. No war but class war.
I think rich, white, straight males should also pay attention due to the power that class holds in driving social norms.
Part of it is a war on information and memory, so it is important to stay aware. With the American Civil War, almost immediately after it was over they began rewriting history (the Lost Cause).
There’s a historical debate about the extent of which German civilians were aware of the Holocaust. I found Hitler’s Willing Executioners convincing myself. I think people knew what was happening in the camps, but allowed themselves an out - plausible deniability. (And again, the war on memory - that the deaths were all typhus, or the numbers were exaggerated)
I’ve already been living as an oppressed minority in a state that had already started implementing Project 2025 before Trump was even elected. The one thing that’s hardest to deal with is the gaslighting. I’ve just wanted to be seen.
I don’t think they’ll put trans people in death camps, but I believe they are planning on weaponizing the mental health system against trans people. Forcible institutionalization for most AFAB at least. Trans women they might declare sex criminals and use the increased powers of capital punishment on - we’ve seen moves towards this in Florida. I think it’d be like Nazi’s and the original eugenics program - some trans people do have families who might protest if a bunch of us disappear.
I do believe they will start killing immigrants. Texas has volunteered land for this purpose, and if they are already placing barbed wire along the Rio Grande, they are willing to kill.
So how does this knowledge help? What is the point of keeping up with the fear and terror?
Perhaps to try to help the lesson stick this time. To keep screaming that this is not normal. To ensure that when it is all over, there won’t be “it was all about states rights!” That we saw this coming, that we kept saying it was coming, but America was too scared of a black woman in power and too obsessed with trans women’s penises to say “no” to Stupid Hitler.
You can stay aware to know where small places of action are - can you print out cards with information on what to do when ICE arrives and leave them in places? You can stock up on mifepristone or estrogen if you have friends who might need it. Find local mutual aid networks and pitch in. Provide emotional support to your queer/immigrant/woman friends. Tell children that this is not normal, this is not the America we grew up in.
Action is how to combat trauma. It’s the feeling of helplessness that “causes” PTSD - a situation where you know that nothing you do has an impact on the outcome. Mental health under fascism is learning what you can do, and focusing on that.
Really minor side note. I don’t think comparisons of Trump to Hitler really help that much, there’s too many differences between the two men. What I think helps much more overall is comparisons of Trump to Benito Mussolini, who he much more closely aligns with, and who predated Hitler in the interwar period as a fascist dictator. The term fascist is originally an Italian word, even.
Mussolini comparisons capture Trump’s smallness and bumbling nature while still highlighting his ability to do great harm much more accurately. Trump is an American Mussolini.
But in the US, the average reading comprehension stopped around 6th grade. I don’t think a good chunk of Americans under 35 have more than a VERY passing knowledge of Mussolini (and they probably confuse half of it with Stalin)
Be connected to your local society. Join a group. Do things. Meet people.
Some people in the near future will start to suffer a lot. They’re going to need caring neighbors they can trust.
I think you pretty much summed up why I am a nurse. Well a traveling nurse
Join your local DSA and tend to local issues. The things that the national level are indeed serious, but spend your time and efforts where you can make the biggest difference.
Donate a few dollars to your local land trust to keep land out of the hands of big business.
Join local housing boards or City Hall meetings, wherever decisions on zoning and housing are decided. Anytime someone tries to blame something on bigger buildings designed for more people, and better public transportation, fight them tooth and nail. Single residence zoning, parking minimums, etc. are one of the reasons homelessness exists.
Show up to protests
Make friends with your neighbors
Please do anything but just vegetate. You are important. But only if you help.
If you don’t turn on to policies, politics will turn on you. - Ralph Nader
Maybe a good balance is to glance at important headlines and save those articles, and designate one day per week to read through those saved articles to update your knowledge of whats happening
So for the remaining 6 days you kinda just stop worrying about it
(but still look out for potential things like “Martial Law Declared” on the headlines, that you need to immediately react to, such as getting the supplies needed to survive whatever happens, since movement would be restricted under Martial Law).
If you haven’t noticed that a lot of things in your life are political, I feel sorry for your lack of grasp on reality. The taxes you pay are political. The laws you have to follow are political. Decisions on how your kids go to school are political. How you work (you payment, your job- and personal safety) - guess what, it’s political. If the CDC will protect you against the next pandemic, if the FDA will protect you against being poisoned - it is all political.
Tune out reality at your own risk. You should have paid attention to this ages ago.
the answer heavily depends.
Do you want to be politically informed and able to make accurate statements about things that are actively happening? Great, better cut some hours at your job and take up a research position for politics in your spare time.
Do you want to be politically uninformed and yet still say shit about things you aren’t familiar with, haven’t researched and do not understand? Great, take more hours at your job, make shit up, listen to what weird internet people who are totally trust worthy and not running a grift at all (trust me bro) are saying online because it makes you feel better about yourself.
Do you want neither of these? Being uninformed is perfectly ok and reasonable, if you approach it with the correct attitude, you cannot hold an opinion on something you are not familiar with, it’s as simple as that. Refer to science and the establishment for most things, because, after all, they haven’t fucking exploded and killed everyone yet, so they must be doing something right.
TL;DR this is my personal opinion, informed by years of consuming political content, and my general interest in sociology and psychology so take this with the correct amount of concern. I would ignore pretty much anything and everything coming from the political right, it’s either bullshit, a lie, or AI generated these days. Very, very rarely do they actually manage to tell the whole truth.
I would also advise distantly observing the far left, as they tend to do nothing more than yelling, screaming, and bemoaning inconveniences. The general left is a bit better about this. But they also have the “we dont really do anything” problem also
Otherwise, be very careful, be extremely critical of the content/media you consume, and be sure to establish your own independent worldview and political beliefs, you don’t have to have identical beliefs to me, or anybody else here, and that’s the beauty of modern western politics. Or maybe find some organizations around you that you can get directly involved in, to make a difference in the lives of people around you.
Yelling at people about things on the internet is one of the least effective ways of doing anything. It’s a great platform for satire, since that’s what satire thrives on, but otherwise, do something else, it’s more productive that way. You need a truly incredible reach to be able to make a difference online.
Excellent response.
I’m trying to limit myself to watching for actual threats to my family. Basically a couple of things. Watching for the same stuff that tipped us off on COVID and watching for camps actually being setup on US soil.
Trying to ignore all the ragebait and most of the news. I think I see manipulation similar to what I saw on the first trump election now targeted left. So, pants on head crazy.
Heads down and try to only pay attention to the important stuff.
I’m trying to limit myself to watching for actual threats to my family. Basically a couple of things. Watching for the same stuff that tipped us off on COVID and watching for camps actually being setup on US soil.
the best thing you can do is to keep the people around you safe, healthy, and happy. Aside from that staying politically informed on the macro level is going to be beneficial as it will guide you through the landscape more clearly. But unfortunately, that’s the harder part these days.
Heads down and try to only pay attention to the important stuff.
This is pretty much the meta for now. You can’t fight if you aren’t physically or mentally capable.
The peons will be some of the most impacted, so it is good to stay in the loop. I wouldn’t obsess over what is going on, but a weekly digest of news is helpful.
Our political situation is currently quite extreme, read up on fascism specifically the “legal stage” of fascism
Tune it out. I went all in last time. It’s not worth it for your mental health
Same. The mental health damage isn’t worth paying attention
This stuff matters and we’re approaching a point where you can no longer safely ignore it. Pay attention and within a month or two you’ll find your newfound political opinions appear obvious in hindsight. Make sure to fact-check stuff when you can to avoid getting tricked by disinformation. Remember to avoid common fallacies, especially that there must always be perfect equality between both sides of an argument-- sometimes one side is unambiguously right, and sometimes it actually is grey. Remember that “always” and “never” are usually incorrect, but that you can still make statements about what’s likely to be true or to happen in the future, and that those statements are still very important. And lastly, make sure that you’re confident in your opinions before arguing about them. Oh, and asking questions may get you downvotes, but it’s great for learning; just remember that people can lie. I know that’s a lot, but it’s better to know it now than later! Mostly I’m just trying to safeguard you against the common pitfalls people make mistakes around.
I’m off the opinion that knowledge is always power. You can always ignore what you’ve learned to stay sane.
Also a great YouTube channel to keep up with the news but is short and puts things in context and if needed what you can do to help is belle of the fifth column.
Also good rule of thumb if the article starts off with X said this vs X did this skip the article. Focus on what people in power do vs what they say as shitty journalists will write an article about a tweet that 9 times out of 10 is a distraction vs real journalism talking about the actions. Propublica is one of the few journalistic outfits that do that.
I wouldn’t take it lightly tbh. One event that you ought to be on the lookout for is the night of the long knives. When Hitler rose to power, there was a night where a ton of his political opponents got murdered. If trump pulls that off then that’s full nazi and the camps will follow shortly after
