• RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I think the real answer is that we end up kind of like the UK – going from the worlds ultra-dominant superpower to a sort of slow regression to the mean, as China, India and others take the spotlight.

    When you look at what China is doing with their Belt and Road Initiative, and their move to dominate the transportation infrastructure of developing nations – the US isn’t anywhere near equipped to counter that. We’re still in a cold war mentality thinking that we will dominate as the world’s police force.

    Meanwhile, all the actual economies will be run by Chinese companies operating with state support.

  • Atlas_@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It’s going to be a really shit 4 years. There could be a point of no return anytime along that based on a variety of issues, but IMO the most likely point of no return is if/when Trump moves to take a third term in '28. If that happens it’s clearly dead no hope.

    • Snapz@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      Just feels life another goal post moved… He literally worked to overthrow the American government and have his VP killed on live TV and was then clinched of dozens of felonies. . There can’t always be a *“yeah, but if THIS next thing happens…”*I

      • thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        He failed to overthrow the American government and have his VP killed. And the reason he wanted his VP killed was because he wouldn’t help him overthrow the American government.

        It’s undeniable that some very powerful people want US democracy dead, but from that to the actual death of US democracy is a long way

  • theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Don’t believe there really is an absolute point of no return without the plot of Genesis of the Daleks happening. The future is long, and we don’t know how the next four to eight years will play out, but dictatorships have risen and fallen before. Spain was a fascist dictatorship for decades, now it isn’t. Also, lots of people died in the meantime and not all vestiges of the dictatorship are gone.

  • thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So i agree that the second Trump administration is going to suck in most every way possible, like the first one but worse because they’re prepared this time.

    BUT

    I think people overrate a government’s ability to influence the conditions in a given country. I think a country is made what it is by history, geography, technology, sociology, ideology, economics, and the accumulation of small decisions over centuries.

    If the Trump administration wants to end democracy in the US, or if a hypothetical based administration were to attempt a switch to ranked choice voting, both ideals would be impossible to implement because our ideals are limited by practical reality. Both would fail regardless of being good or bad changes, because radical change is really hard when the conditions aren’t met for it, especially when it’s opposed by the rest of the country. If the country just isn’t ready to transition to fascism right now, there’s not much that Trump can do to make it.

    We talk a lot about how powerful people changed the world, but i think far more often they’re just the embodiment of a societal trend, and they couldn’t change the world if they weren’t. Change isn’t done by powerful people but deeper movements in humanity, with powerful people riding them like a wave.

    As to where the deeper movements in humanity are leading us right now, i refuse to guess, trying to predict the future is the best way to look like an idiot

    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      or if a hypothetical based administration were to attempt a switch to ranked choice voting

      There are states that have already passed electoral reform. Voting is controlled at the state level, so waiting for miraculous federal reform is unnecessary.

  • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Sure the US may be past it’s glory days. Hell even the Rand Corporation (who write a bunch of stuff for govt leaders and other high ups) says it’s been trending downhill since some point in the early 2000s. They didn’t mention 9/11 but it seems like a good historical milestone.

    Essentially the paper says the last 200 years have been an anomaly and we’re slowly sliding back to historical norms. They call it the neomedieval era and it’s not just the US.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      3 months ago

      Neo Feudalism is upon us, the frog got to comfortable in this warm water… Now it is too late.

      The trend is set and reversal is not on the menu.

      Best you can do is quit being poor, otherwise you gonna get progressively more fucked each year.

  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I was as surprised and disappointed as anyone, and I think we WILL take a few more steps backwards over the next few years, but I don’t expect an unstoppable fall into fascism.

    Most of the votes for Trump weren’t actually FOR Trump. They were against the current situation they are in. They see him as the revolution. The anti-politician that will bring real change. They think all his court battles are the “Man” trying to hold him down and keep him from disrupting a system that gave up on its people long ago.

    Of course that’s all bullshit, but, assuming that all “normal” people can see through his lies and that only evil, woman hating racists would support him, is a big part of why he was elected.

    Trump denied Project 2025 because he knew most people wouldn’t want it. (Honestly, I would be surprised if he even knew what was in it) If he lets the Christian nationalists push that whole agenda on day one, he’ll become the oppressive government that is taking away their freedoms. And nothing is more important to Trump than making Trump look good.

    • 7fb2adfb45bafcc01c80@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m way more concerned with Vance. Like you say, Trump does what’s best for Trump. If Vance becomes VP for whatever reason then ideology takes center stage.

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Progress isn’t a straight line, and sometimes there are setbacks on the way. I’m disappointed, of course, but I’m optimistic that we’ll manage.

        • USSMojave@startrek.website
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          3 months ago

          Soldiers knocking down doors to arrest millions of illegal aliens and everyone who looks like an illegal alien and shoving them into camps, what could go wrong?

          • Today@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I don’t think we will see that, but i do think we will see ice raids on businesses that tend to hire immigrants and fake crackdowns on paperwork that dramatically increases the time and hassle for everything, and weird pushes for all paperwork to be in English.

              • Today@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Yeah, but so was build a wall. I really think/hope that there’s too much infighting and shitslinging for them to follow through on much. They’re good at blocking thanks, but not super great at passing things. Concepts of plans and all…

        • Tanis Nikana@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Women. Queer people. Non-white people. Hell, even white straight cis evangelical Christian rich men who die from being sick.

          There will be so much death.

          It will be unending.

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              3 months ago

              How about the fact drill baby drill means seeing a 3 degree Celsius increase by 2100. That’s the lifetime of many of the people in this earth. That kind of change will kill many ecosystems and make deserts out of a lot where we live and grow food. We know we can’t stop going past 1.5 degrees now do to our slow changes. Instead we are hitting the gas pedal according to Trump. The oceans, plantlife on land, everything that consumes it is in jeopardy. Estimates are around 60% of animal populations since the 70s. At some point you break the link in the food “chain” if you will, and larger masses die off, until it is unrecoverable.

              “We can farm fish”. <- We farm fish in the U.S. ship it to China to package and then ship it back to put it on our shelves. That’s how wasteful we are.

              • Kairos@lemmy.today
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                3 months ago

                It doesn’t clarify anything because so far I’ve been told

                1. People are going to die (I asked why)
                2. Those people are minorities (which doesn’t say why they would die)
        • Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de
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          3 months ago

          I think that the us perspective on politics is surprising self-centered. If millions will die remains to be seen, but an unpredictable us leadership will certainly shift power dynamics on an international scale. The trump administration might randomly decide to side with land grabbing dictators, might embolden Israel, or switch to Doge Coin as the main currency. Those things might not directly cause death, but will disrupt the world stage to a degree which might overpower currently stable institutions. Which in turn might lead to death and suffering as a consequence. I’m not trying to say that everything should remain as is. Things are awful in a lot of places, but one of the biggest and most powerful nations with a “leader” that might throw a world ending tantrum over a Twitter thread is nothing anybody, but the most nihilistic acclerationists want. Also Trump’s plans to withdraw from climate change mitigation will certainly add to the pile of dead bodies which we will inherit in the next 50 year as a consequence of our actions today.

        • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I love how you have downvotes for asking for clarification. As if asking for it is an argument deserving of downvotes.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      And progress without testing it’s resiliency against malicious actors will not last. As much as we hate Trump being elected and staffing clowns in each position, it will test what has been made so far. Row v. Wade, as we now know, should have been stronger. The Voting Rights Act too. The states that required the law to be fair have pulled back the law and reveal little has changed.

      No one likes getting burned but fire is useful for showing us what burns easily and what withstands the heat. We will rebuild stronger and know what works.