Nowhere GirlJan 6

Most Americans consume either no news, state propaganda (e.g., Fox, CBS), elite propaganda (e.g., WaPo, NYT), or junk news (most online sources) and thus have a poor grasp of what is happening and almost zero context for why.

There basically aren't any trustworthy mainstream news sources anymore and the indifference of the political establishment means most people have given up. That's why local organizing about things people can see is so extremely important.

Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
Both parties, the Israel lobby, and the oligarchs all came down like a hammer on TikTok because a silly video sharing app did a better job of informing people than "prestige" news sources.
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
If you're politically aware and keep up with the news on a daily basis, even if you don't read any deep analysis, congratulations, you're in the 90th percentile of Americans. If you have even a basic grasp of US history such as Jim Crow, Reconstruction, etc., you're even higher than that. There is a reason they attacked journalism and education first.
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
Most people in other countries have a better understanding of what's wrong with the US than Americans do.
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6

And yet for all that, when Americans are forced to confront reality, they are repulsed by the shamelessness and greed of the people in charge, the xenophobia and racist fearmongering, the jingoism, the out-of-touch liberal patronizing, and the sheer indifference to anyone who isn't white and wealthy.

If there is a silver lining to the Trump era, it's how none of these people, in either party, even bother to hide it anymore and how much disgust that provokes.

Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6

So it's funny when people who think they're politically astute are constantly blindsided by what's happening because they believe more in the US, in the system, and in a political party like the Democrats than they do in a paradigm of human rights and dignity.

People who get their talking points and marching orders from the Democratic Party are, on the whole, useless. Because the Democrats have a vested interest in protecting the GOP and themselves, their wealth and their power.

Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
Like, the attempted Democratic rehabilitation of GW Bush and Dick Cheney is truly bizarre in a world where Trump represents the apotheosis of their politics and the GOP as a whole. Just utter lawless imperialism, racism, and cruelty. And it makes sense once you understand that this Democratic Party is full of former cheerleaders for Bush, Cheney, the War on Terror, and the surveillance and privacy nightmare they collectively unleashed. They like this stuff. They think it's a "win."
Show threadNowhere Girl
Everything is exactly as bad if not worse than those "radical" leftists have been saying for decades and some people are still like, "Huh? How could this happen?"
Jan 6 at 7:05pmWeb
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
The corruption, the bipartisan complicity, the imperialist greed, the bigotry and xenophobia. The massive inequality that lets the wealthy own everything. The hollowing out of journalism and education. The surveillance, the lack of privacy. Oil companies in charge of foreign policy. Out of control cops and police budgets. Fucking genocide. Pogroms against vulnerable people. There was a literal pedophilia and sex trafficking ring connected to people at the highest levels of power!
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 6
People hate this shit! But their politicians and wealthy patrons love it.
Show thread✨buff dog himbo✨Jan 7
@gwynnion i have this Cassandra complex constantly where I keep seeing the same fuckin people be blindsided & dumbfounded by particular developments & i always hear someone else say, "nobody likes an 'i told you so.'" But like... How are people going to figure out who actually DOES see this stuff coming & possibly pivot to a better worldview? If they don't know who maybe DID see this coming?
Show thread✨buff dog himbo✨Jan 7
@gwynnion i mean yeah people can lie to seem infallible in hindsight, or act too jaded to be surprised. But if you hear the message & actually investigate, & see the evidence at "oh, actually these people, these people, & THESE people HAVE actually been talking about this for the last 10, 20, 40 years," you might have a fighting chance. It was the countless black folks online & protesting, saying "we told you" thru the 2010s that helped me pivot from left-liberalism to anarchism/communism.
Show threadNowhere GirlJan 7

@itsmeholland I try really hard not to get jaded about this stuff because it doesn't help anybody, you have to believe things can get better, but that means yelling over and over again at the people in charge who won't learn and refuse to change. Which is disheartening, to say the least.

And I don't think I'm always right! Like you said, some people have been in this fight a lot longer and have a much clearer view of the problems.