Discussion
I'm not deeply concerned for Colbert or Kimmel. They are both seriously wealthy white men. Pretty sure they'll figure something out.
But my country? What it says about my country?
I'm so old I remember being only moderately embarrassed about my country's government.
This goes far beyond moderate, and far beyond embarrassment.
I live in a dictatorship backed by an oligarchy.
@GeePawHill i’m sure it’s also meant to demoralize dissent in the population
@GeePawHill It says that in your country, like everywhere else, free speech proponents are absolutely willing to make exception whenever *they* feel insulted/attacked/etc. So it was never about free speech, it always was about control, about power.
Don't get me wrong: From my eyes and background, a free speech carte blanche makes no sense, especially in times when bad actors can spread lies and hate enhanced and accelerated by technology like LLMs and bot armies.
@GeePawHill
#Graham #Greene allready warned you with the,#uglyAmerican. IOW, what else is new?
HUAC was the model in the 1950's, but now instead of McCarthy we've got Gym Jordan et al.
This will get worse before it gets better, which is going to take more than Edward R. Murrow and Joseph Welch.
"Good night and good luck".
What comes next, is the question I ask myself every single day...
@GeePawHill Just be grateful for those times when you were only moderately embarrassed about your country's government.
@mirjanx Cuz why? What would such gratitude make?
@GeePawHill Just remember, while you're bitching about politics some third world child is dying of a curable disease. At least you have some good times in your memory.
@GeePawHill we have always lived in a oligarchy in the US, now they want a dictatorship version of it.
It just breaks my heart.
You won't believe this, but there was a time when, however fucked up, however particularly its fucked up behavior, we believed that our country was a work-in-progress on a different path than this.
You captured precisely how I feel about this, my friend. Thank you for being you. You regularly remind me that I am not alone. That's good.
I am, swear to God, well aware of the US's many egregiously hateful and harmful behaviors.
I know more American history than most, from the get-go to the present, and it's filled with awful people making awful choices.
But we really never chose dictatorship before.
And, of course, we haven't "chosen" it now.
Not in any direct or straightforward sense.
Rather, we have been played in such a fashion it seems like we have.
Believe me, please, my many friends from around the world, these vicious haters do not in any way represent a majority of the US population.
@GeePawHill Man, I wish I agreed with any of this.
@hsfear Am I too optimistic?
@GeePawHill @hsfear No, you’re a realist.
@GeePawHill Yes, IMO. But, hey, the world needs optimists. Now more than ever. Except for all those times before.
I am a strict pacifist. I do not advocate violence, period, in any way, shape or form.
But pacifist isn't passive-ist, and I will say as clearly as possible: it is time for a revolution.
A terrible time, for a revolution, in which many will suffer and die.
@GeePawHill when were you only moderately embarrassed? When every NFL team segregated Kaepernick & a bunch of other black athletes? When MLK was murdered? This is still the same country where so many call genocide, slavery & apartheid #MAGA
@GeePawHill We’re due for a government restructuring. 1776, 1860, 1945. About every 80 years or so. Most countries are on this cycle.
@GeePawHill I concur.
I don't know if I'm pacifist or not since that's a really hard choice and I'm incapable of making those.
But it seems kinda pointless to try taking up arms anyway and not the way to win.
So best thing I can thing to do right now is to make myself as psychological sound as I can make myself, which isn't much probably.
Because this is actually a form of psychological warfare, what they're doing. Their best weapon is a weak populace. We need to be strong.
@GeePawHill I am also a pacifist and I’m older than you so therefore have less to lose. I have a very small audience, though.
@GeePawHill Exactly! If they can censor Colbert and Kimmel, they can censor any of us. And I've no doubt they will.
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