No Stupid Questions

Life is political. Don't bury your head in the sand.

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.

Our political situation is currently quite extreme, read up on fascism specifically the "legal stage" of fascism

Politics is life.

You might as well ask to avoid gravity.

honestly, regardless of what you do, vote in the midterms. It's the only way to mitigate somewhat what's been done. it's November next year and every seat is up for grabs in the house, and 33 seats are up for grabs in the senate.

As a "peon" there isn't much you can do until then about it. So really it all depends on if you wanna be blindsided by the changes or live in blissful ignorance.

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.

Depends on what you can realistically influence.

Might be worth it to tune to protest news, and also changes in your local area, if there are any.

Doomscrolling the feed will just make you continuously more obsessed with what ultimately screws your mental health to no benefit.

Your mental health comes first but always remember that pretending it doesn’t exist is different from protecting your sanity. It’s a tougher needle to thread than you think!

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.

don't tune it out. there are people being deported, people afraid for their rights and their lives. people not paying attention is how we got the Holocaust

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.

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've literally seeing the rights of myself and other get taken away in the last week. I'm moving cross country to get out of the state I'm currently in because it does not recognize who I am.

They want to open up people like me to descrimination and hate crimes. I'm wondering what will happen with my job if this stuff keeps happening.

There are real world consequences to politics and people sticking their heads in the sand is the reason literal fascism is on the rise.

If you are privileged enough to feel you don't have to worry about politics that generally means you aren't the current target.

You get used to a specific tone, and if you hear that tone, based on previous experience, you recognize it is probably bullshit. Then you start to tune out the bullshit, sometimes you might still miss something important, but that happens anyways. Check out what people are saying, if it's actually true, you can decide if it actually should be a concern to you as an individual. Don't believe "immigrants are destroying the country" without working with some as equals at a job. Same with other rage bait.

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.

Pay attention to "events that actually happen" and "things that people in power say." Pay far less attention to "kvetching and predicting."

If you stop paying attention entirely, you're going to end up with a whole lot of Shocked Pikachu Face in your future.

I'm almost certain that the US is about to Balkanize. The federal government has done a terrible job of responding to people's actual needs for a long time now, and often even runs directly counter to those needs. They're starting to fuck with blocks of states and we're seeing more and more states that are aligning with each other against the federal government on issues. Dumbass is stuffing all of the departments that could do anything about it (the alphabet boys, the DOD, etc) with incompetent stooges and firing the actual competent people that believe in the national mythology and had the connections to foster what interagency cooperation there was. I expect that we haven't seen the last of these folks. It's a complicated thing we can talk more about, but generally, I think US balkanization is probably a good thing for everyone but the billionaires, so I hope they enjoy their footguns.

As such, I wouldn't recommend paying too much attention to federal stuff; skim the headlines and make sure you and yours aren't in danger, but it's clear enough there's not much we can do to affect federal policy unless we're billionaires. Instead, start meeting other people and working on making the world you want to see locally. City council meetings are a great place to start networking towards that goal. Get to know your neighbors and (crucially) owe them a favor or gift them stuff (eggs from backyard chickens, cookies you baked, whatever). People are hardwired to form bonds to those whom owe us or we owe, and it's very, very common in many non-capitalist society to consider an equal payment to be offensive (because you're saying "I want nothing else to do with you"). Got a garage sale coming up? Plan with your neighbors to do a big sale together and get more people to show up. See someone working on something? Ask them "how can I help?" instead of "can I help?". One of the biggest problems with the US is the lack of community bonds and (therefore) networking, and it's easier than you think to change it. It's very cheap and takes less time than you think. I'm begging you to just give it a try, and if you really hate it, then you're off the proverbial hook.

Worth noting that iirc the lorax doesn't actually do anything except speak up for those who needed help and protection. He didn't win immediately but his efforts weren't in vain. The lorax (or at least the movie?) shows you many ways you can be a part of changing the world. You dont have to be Ted, you don't have to be the Lorax, you don't have to be granny norma, or Ted's love interest, or the people who spoke up first when Ted planted the tree. All of these people made the world better with their own contribution. You should consider it, though.

People tuning out is why we are here. Pay attention as much as you can; it's important to be educated and to participate in the process.

The very situation we are in now was greatly enabled because lots of people did what you are doing. Dont lose sleep and sacrifice your health (edit not help), but if you were ever an undecided candidate while Trump was running, or you don't know what an oligarchy or nepotism is or why they're relevant, or can't recount what happened on Jan 6 2021, you NEED to pay more attention.

I mean, your government is rounding up people without warrants or just cause to try and find illegals to deport them, it's almost about as bad as it can get

If you ain't doing politics, politics is gonna do you.

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.

Plenty of good responses. I assume you are foreigner and I will give you one suggestion. Make sure your passport is valid just in case you need to flee the incoming disaster.

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.

You'll pay attention when they come for your loved ones.

If you "don't do politics", politics will do you. You don't need to be the one to single-handedly fix everything, but please do what you can. We need everyone.

I’m genuinely worried it’s yet another deliberate denial of service against our ability to detect evil. I work extra hard to only pay attention to what is actually done that seems like it could stick.

Mostly I trust that good people in positions of trust (e.g. ACLU or EFF) will call out when there’s an opportunity for mass mobilization to make a real difference.

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).

Removing news from your regular feeds or taking a break from them for a week is chill, everyone should do that here and there. But don't bury your head in the sand, you should keep an eye on it even if that is only browsing a dedicated news feed every week or two. Ignorance and complacency is how we got Trump 2024 with people actively voting against themselves.