Summary
Itās time to reengage with politics as Trump prepares to take office again.
Unlike 2017, Trump now has a more compliant establishment, streamlined strategies, and influential allies like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos.
Concerns include his administrationās potential for sweeping authoritarian measures, such as Project 2025, and media normalization of his actions.
Vigilance is necessary to counter efforts to dismantle democratic institutions.
Weāre not in opposition to each other, but youāre definitely more optomistic than I am.
āThere are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge (or ammo). Please use in that order.ā
Three of those have already failed.
America canāt exist as a single country anymore. Its too divisive. Sooner or later, yall are gonna have to sort this out.
either a bloodless split like Czechoslovakia, or the other way, like Yugoslavia.
ā¦ Or there wont be a fight. and youāll become a one party state that ratfucks the election system so that it can never lose again, and the country gets carved up by oligarchs, and mobsters until they become the government itself. (you become, basically Russia
I donāt disagree, but building a new parallel system falls squarely outside of the norms leveled in that quote. Soap, ballot, and jury all are actively within the context of the system as it currently exists, itās not building something else outside of it.
Building another system starts with the soap box. Making it official requires the ballot box. Defending it in place needs the jury box. Doing away with it if it becomes corrupted demands the ammo box.
Youāre putting the cart before the horse, my friend.
Those things take time to build in a parallel system.
Convincing other people to align with the foundations of a new system is using the soap box. Unless that new system is wholly undemocratic, the ballot box comes next. The jury box must follow unless the new system is an authoritarian one.
Youāve got to build something at all first to bother to even convince other people to align with it.
Weāre really on the same page, just looking at it differently. I think thereās room for both opinions on this.