I think this is the last chance for the people in power to stop messing around before US, the people with knowledge, get pissed off and take them down with force, using the technology WE make for THEM.
They already know words are meaningless and don't count for anything. Democrats have been trying to use words to get their way or even compromise and republicans fully understand they don't have to pay attention to them at all. Threats are laughable. If democrats had any power they would have used it. Their inaction is proof of their impotence.
Words don't matter, only actions matter. "upvotes don't count."
A street presence can barely be mustered.
Also if you start learning about history, you'll learn that "intellectuals" are the first people totalitarians crack down in precisely because of this threat you just made. So by the time you realize you need to make good on your threat, chances are it will be too late. Don't read about the Khmer Rouge killing fields or the Indonesian "communist" purge if you want to have a good day. American exceptionalism is fueling a "can't happen here" attitude that's fueling people's denial about our many potential futures. Inaction means that we aren't influencing what that future is. We are at someone else's whims. History doesn't tell you what will happen, but it tells you what can happen.
You're saying right now you're speaking softly, but carrying a big stick, so they better listen. I don't think you're carrying one, and the republicans purging the old guard and replacing them with loyalists don't think you are either. You're just speaking softly. We all seem to be.
to paraphrase another person: if you're posting it online on a public social media channel, it doesn't matter.
the stuff that's going to change the government, for the better or worse, is going to get the FBI and Secret Service on you, and you're not saying on that on the front page of reddit.
every twitter meme that makes the rounds, every sneering HN post is a sign of impotence. if there was real opposition DOGE would be afraid to go to offices. the best the US Dems can do is spray painting a few Tesla offices (save for one in Oregon that had some bullet holes, done well after closing).
The Jan 6th rioters were fascist rubes, but at least they had the balls to go.
It drives me crazy that none of the people targeted by DOGE have locked themselves in their office and called WaPo and CNN. If you want to keep your job, the image of jackbooted thugs dragging you out can't be better for raising alarms and drawing sympathy. Everyone is complying in advance.
Someone made the comparison between SK politicians shoving their way past guards to impeach their corrupt president, and Congressional Dems who let themselves get turned away. It's either theater or they're completely feckless (or both). How has there been not one Profile in Courage, with everything going on?
I don't know why people still think yelling and waiving signs around is going to do a single shred of good. Protesting means "doing nothing, loudly." You're not going to change anything, you're just doing performance art.
> It drives me crazy that none of the people targeted by DOGE have locked themselves in their office and called WaPo and CNN.
Nobody who is capable of opposing DOGE is willing to even lift a finger. As a flaming liberal, the most infuriating thing I've seen in the news all year was: Democrats sitting there impotently waving their stupid little signs during the President's address to Congress. Yea, your little sign saying "Save Medicaid" is doing next to nothing. Thank you, my elected representative, for being totally useless.
