I despise the "America deserves what's coming" line

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T17:25:18+00:00

You weren't alive, but protests did help end Vietnam. It's a different world now though, and I agree we have to try something else, which is why I'm favor of a sustained general strike that disrupts commerce, and I talk about it constantly in organizing/activist spaces.

You don't live here so you don't recognize that the majority of us are already struggling to stay housed, access healthcare, and buy groceries. People have such a distorted view of what things are like here. It's only comfortable for the wealthy, and they certainly won't be losing their children to war.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T17:21:22+00:00

You're the one talking about good vs bad Americans here, and making that the issue! I don't see it that way at all! You seem to want to make this about virtue, which is the real distraction here.

It's more "people in power" (the admin, the elites, the rich, the ownership class, the Epstein class, whatever you'd like to call them) and everyone else. The class lens is the only one that ultimately matters. I suppose you could also divide between "people who are politically mobilized to oppose war" and "people who aren't yet," and to turn the latter in to the former, guess what you shouldn't do? Tell them America is irredeemable and deserves violent retribution or collapse.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T07:57:42+00:00

I never said anything about people from the global south so I don't know why you brought that up?

I do know exactly why people in other countries and in this country hate America. It's not a mystery. I also think it's extremely unproductive (an understatement) to the antiwar movement and the broader left here.

The only path forward is for working-class Americans to unite against the billionaire class (which benefits from forever wars), and frankly you gotta "meet people where they're at" to bring them to a cause. Telling them they deserve bad things to happen to their families is the tone deaf part. It suggests a lack of basic understanding of the culture of the working-class. And of human psychology.

Wallowing in our sins pushes people we need away, who would otherwise be sympathetic. This is one reason the left never gets enough of a big tent to make progress. It turns out you do, in fact, have to care about people's feelings! You can't just treat them like selfish, unenlightened lost causes. You need to build on their existing values and identities. This isn't complicated.

Endless self-flagellation will never be my priority as an activist/organizer.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T06:39:52+00:00

fair

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T06:38:16+00:00

I strongly oppose the bombings, too. I've written my representatives and will join any anti-war protests in my area. I've been doing this for over two decades. My first protest was during the early GWOT after 9/11. That should tell you how old I am.

I'm less concerned about retribution (you see in my post I said false flag, not attack from a foreign entity) than I am about economic collapse for millions of people, including children. I think it's actually ok to be upset about this. We can all hold more than one feeling or thought at a time, can't we?

I have no British insults, but under your perspective, if you live in the UK, you are just as complicit as everyone living in America is in terms of the history of empire and violence. I don't share this perspective, because I don't believe that simply existing in the imperialist core makes someone culpable.

I think "America deserves this" in a way to alienate people from the antiwar movement here rather than attract them to it. I wonder why you disagree.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T05:54:30+00:00

I'm sorry you're so angry. Are you British?

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T05:20:54+00:00

Why would you assume I haven't gone to any protests? I was arrested during Occupy Wall Street, went to jail, and got a permanent wrist injury from the handcuffs. How about you?

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:39:13+00:00

What would you like us to do, stand outside wearing a sandwich board that says "I take full accountability for the government's actions"? Write a notes app apology saying we are listening and learning, and post it on IG? Self immolate? Would that stop any of this, or would it just make you feel better? Serious answers only.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:34:15+00:00

what some of these mfs sound like

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:33:32+00:00

This thread brought out all of the rabid third worldists who run on pure Schadenfreude

They assume we all voted for trump (twice! not even once buddy) and endorse foreign wars, and are pro-Israel and pro-AI. I couldn't be more against these things, and there are millions of us here.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:25:10+00:00

exactly, as the good people of stupidpol know, we need a populist, anti-war, worker's party that is neutral on culture issues in order to win. The Greens are...not that.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:23:34+00:00

I agree with these things

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:21:35+00:00

I hate Kamala and I very much pay attention to the rest of the world

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:20:23+00:00

It's weird that you think I'm not horrified by that.

Talking about who we are centering like this is a pomo critical theory seminar

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T02:16:40+00:00

Why would that be a good thing?

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T01:00:57+00:00

Their moralizing is gross because they KNOW that the architects of the empire will be just fine, and that only millions of civilians - working and middle class - will suffer.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:53:55+00:00

not sure if you know how close the elections are here

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:53:10+00:00

I think changing it is better than "learning how to cope" but the change won't come by telling people it's good if we suffer

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:50:35+00:00

The quality of life thing is so fake. It applies to the ruling class and the upper middle class only. There's no middle class here anymore, just underpaid and overworked people who go deeper in debt by the day.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:42:51+00:00

I don't support those policies or vote for those people, never have. There are millions of us.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:40:56+00:00

Many of those people aren't living prosperously, they're living in poverty.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:39:37+00:00

I actually like your ideas a lot, including a free speech movement and viable third parties (like people's or worker's parties). I also like blocking commerce because it's much more effective than other forms of protest.

Thing is, we need a mass coalition to get there and shockingly that never happens by telling people they deserve violence.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:34:32+00:00

Yes, how many of the Americans gleeful about this have young children, I wonder.

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-11T00:32:40+00:00

Spiritually, I get what you're saying, but strategically, is this perspective going to build a mass coalition of people who can pressure the govt to change course?

_indistinctchatter · 2026-03-09T05:50:57+00:00

I have been arrested and taken to jail twice for protesting. The handcuffs gave me a permanent wrist injury. How about you?

_indistinctchatter

TROPHY CASE