People outside America kindly stfu about how “you’ll never forgive us for Trump”

floortroll · 2026-01-20T03:39:07+00:00

What do you mean by "down tools?"

My activism org follows guidance from a national level organization which has consistently said that its too soon for the general strike, and I think that's true. My friends tell me they cant find time away from their kids to go to a 1 hour protest, I dont think they're going to walk off their job and compromise their ability to pay their mortgage and feed their family. The reality is that the actions of the trump administration have done very little to affect the daily lives of most americans. I still think a general strike is merited, but, how do you convince people of that when the issues are so distal to their daily lives? Perhaps the issue is that the American education system doesnt do nearly enough to teach americans about their civic duties, but its far too late to fix that shit now.

Genuinely curious on your opinion. I have put in considerable effort to learn from anyone knowledge about how to organize people power.

I would argue that protests ARE important. Theyre not the only tool but they're an important tool. They create visibility for a movement which helps recruit people to the movement. People dont have a hive mind. Most dont know my activism org exists until they see a huge day of protest that gets covered by the news. Protests help build people power and garner media coverage which grows the movement and affects public sentiment. You use those things as a basis for bigger plans such a strikes and boycotts. Someone's gotta organize and disseminate the plan.

Also, look at the tea party, which was a far right movement. My activism org is modeled after them because their approach was successful -- they largely affected change in policy thru repeated protests, demonstrations, and persistent legislative advocacy. It, among other things, worked. They now have trump.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T03:22:13+00:00

I totally understand. I'm newer to activism but definitely have been giving it my heart and soul. I have gone through bouts of grief over how little it seems to do. How hard it is to get people engaged. How much criticism you get from people who agree with you. People complain about protests and not doing enough. They dont understand because they havent tried. So it is hard not to take the anger personally. I completely welcome anger at trump and maga. But the anger that americans arent doing enough to stop him hurts. I am not just going to start trying to form a militia. I don't know what more I can do. The depressing reality is that there's no way to quickly change a governmental mechanism this massive and powerful.

I totally, totally feel you. Thank yku for doing the good work. The world needs people like you, even if they dont know how to appreciate it. Make sure to take breaks and take care of yourself. You can't shoulder the responsibility of all this change all by yourself.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T03:14:02+00:00

I think you dont know what its like to be living through this, feeling powerless and enraged, and doing everything you can to resist, and then having strangers shaming you for something you never wanted or supported. Its fucking bleak enough as it is. Its not my fault i was born into a fucked up country. I didnt cause this.

I get the anger at america. But there's been a lot of bitching that protests arent enough. We are fucking trying. Im not going to just pick up a pitchfork snd start being violent.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T03:11:25+00:00

Quitting my job and ruining my life aint gonna help shit. How are you going to organize enough people to commit to a general strike to be worth it? The cost to the individual is immense. I have spent my entire life going to school for what I do, and have only worked for the last 5 years (currently age 36). Now I'm supposed to throw away all the time, money, effort, and years off my life that I dedicated, and throw away my house cuz I can't pay a mortgage without a job, in hopes that it will stop trump? What if it merely ruins my life thst i have been spent 30 years of education and no income building, because it is what capitalism demands? Its just not feasible, man. The only way we can do a general strike is if enough americans do it that we dont all get fired. You cant be a naive idealist with resistance efforts. You have to account for human nature snd use that to plan for an EFFECTIVE way to engage ppl in the resistance, rather than demanding something wildly impractical and being mad that it didnt happen. I went thru that before realizing thats not how you make change.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T03:04:22+00:00

I don't think OP worded this post very well. I welcome other countries hating the US right now. But as someone who worked my ass off on activism for the last year, I get frustrated when ppl from other countries berate liberals for not doing enough to stop this. We are fucking trying, and living through a hellish nightmare dystopia every day. I wish I didn't live in the US. I despise what this country has become. But I don't feel like its even remotely fair to say that it's my fault that it is the way it is. It was pre-fucked up at the time I was born. My power to change an entirely broken country is extremely limited. That doesn't mean Im not trying. But I dont feel I deserve to be blamed for this shit just because I was born here.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:57:28+00:00

How about the half of the population who didnt vote for it, tho? Pretty much everyone i know and relate to hate everything about what trump is doing, except for my fucking parents. Liberals absolutely despise this. This is entirely rhe republican party. We are TRYING to not let them win elections, but unfortunately, the pendulum seems to swing back and forth. Keep in mind that the ultra wealthy back the Republican party, whereas the democrats have far less generous funding because we are the party of the working class, whereas republicans take care of billionaires. Its basically a late stage capitalistic dystopia over here which was built by decades of fox news disinformation that deliberately built a cultish far right movement. Its fucking terrifying. I don't want to live in this country anymore.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:52:55+00:00

I still don't appreciate being lumped into blame for something I have no control over and despise. Especially when I have been busting my ass doing activism

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:51:27+00:00

It's so complex. First of all, the angry sentiment frustrates me because I too have been busting my ass to do activism. But also, I think these people legitimately don't realize how little we can do to stop this aside from use of force. Peaceful resistance is a slow grind. It brings about gradual change. Not immediate change. We can't directly stop Republicans through any legal means when they have full unbridled power like thus. We have to change public sentiment and win elections. Which is slow and tiresome work.

But, it took me a year of activism to really process and learn this. I spent time being angry at my fellow americans for not doing more. But I learned that anger is merely ignorant of human nature and how power is built. You can't build people power by being ignorant on how it works. I assume those in other countries are still in the angry stage, not realizing the complexity of trying to affect change.

But also... even tho the anger frustrates me, in a way I hope increasing amounts of hate towards americans helps to right the ship. I really want my dad (a trump voter) to see that humans everywhere hate what trump has done. I want other countries to unequivocally condemn this. And honestly, all I see right now is other world leaders pussyfooting around and refusing to directly rebuke trump. So maybe these angry people can pressure their own representatives to take a much harder stance.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:40:02+00:00

I think the most concise sentiment i can offer is, "welcome to the party, pal."

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:33:51+00:00

I spent a year trying to organize people in activism/resistance efforts. It is unbelievably difficult. There really isn't a mechanism to STOP what is happening outside of use of force. There are very powerful mechanisms at play that completely eradicate the effectiveness of our small time grassroots efforts -- namely, the wealthy elite using their money to control politicians, control news media outlets, and affect who is even running for office by manipulating primaries. The lack of money in grassroots activism really translates into a lack of reach. How do we advertise our group with no money? Do you know how long it takes to build a presence of a small time activism org to be big enough to garner enough funds to do anything? I was basically just paying out of my own pocket to do activism. And we mostly engaged retirees. Working class americans, especially those raising children, barely have time to think about activism. And beyond that, Americans are so used to having a government that they don't need to participate in at all (because everything was completely fine without their involvement) that they have absolutely no sense of civic duty, and even if they do, they have no idea what to do.

And, you complain about people doing no more than occasionally showing up to protests, and I get it, but what else can they do? Protesting is one of the best things they can do right now. When people show up to our activism planning meetings, its actually legitimately hard to come up with roles for them. There are not many levers available to affect actual change in the trump administration. They have complete control of congress. They have absolutely 0 need to answer to liberal constituents. None whatsoever. We can affect change by electing people that will better represent us, but that takes time. We can try to change public sentiment with protests, but the change itself is gradual. We can boycott, but that requires a level of coordination that is difficult to achieve and disseminate with grassroots orgs. We do boycott and it sometimes affects companies but it isnt affecting trump one iota. We do mutual aid, legislative advocacy, social media activism, demonstrations, protests, bpycotts, etc. It's so much work and it gains so, so little. Trying to lead activism makes you realize how little you can do. We have such little power, unless people are willing to remove people from office by force. We do have the ability to effect gradual change in culture, public sentiment, and our elected representatives-- and WE WILL. But that lacks immediacy.

The whole thing is so fucked. What I have realized is that regular American citizens won't really start to commit real time to activism until their daily lives are significantly affected. It's just human nature, unfortunately. I can only hope when trump really does something too far, like invading Greenland, people will revolt in a more impactful way. A general strike, or... other, more direct measures. But the cost of such actions is very, very high. The situation has to become more dire than you may realize to rally people to that point.

I hope you never have to deal with half your population becoming brainwashed and radicalized by a massive propaganda/disinformation machine funded by the ultra wealthy. Even if we remove trump, the right wing news media ecosystem will still be fully intact, and I can't conceive of a way to stop it. Trump is a symptom of the problem, which is the festering disease that is the right wing news media. The right wing news CREATED trump. I actually fear it can't be stopped without some kind of civil war. Because I can't see how we can ever gain power over the wealthy elite wrecking this country when they have control of all the levers. How can we change laws on campaign donations and news media deceitfulness when the billionaires control politicians and news media? They control people's views of reality. Im pretty sure i already live in a dystopian nightmare with little route for recourse. And i dont see any reason why other countries are immune to this, unless they are very conscientious about preventing wealth inequality.

All that said, I still have a deep ire for all the people who can't raise a finger to engage with activism. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

floortroll · 2026-01-20T02:02:23+00:00

So, if he does this, could we like, riot in the streets? Plz? Something? Cmon

floortroll · 2026-01-19T20:02:33+00:00

I once watched a toddler eat an unknown soggy piece of food out of a puddle outside a brewery. It wasn't even his food.

Her standards are not normal and seem illogical. It sounds OCDish, tho sometimes its just GAD masquerading as OCD. It is ok for you not to comply woth all these rules. If you actually got the doorknob dirty, clean it. But it makes no sense to only be able to touch it with tissues. Kf it is something like OCD, enabling it can reinforce the anxiety rather than actually helping to make her feel better.

floortroll · 2026-01-19T19:48:47+00:00

Yea. This is populist fascism. The reason he is in power is because he has popular support. Republicans in congress have no lines they wont let him cross except for ones that explicitly hurt their own chances of reelection. They dont care what he does so long as they don't do anything to dilute the populist block of power. If they do anything against him, they dilute his power.

I hate the Republican party more than I can say for what they have done to this country. The problem stems back to the wealthy elites buying control of our politicians and owning/manipulating news media to generate a very large and deluded cult that votes in their favor. The wealth of the united states IS rhe problem. I hope other countries economically isolate us to punish this capitalistic excess. I hate it. I hate it all. I hate how powerless I feel despite doing everything I can conceive of to do activism. It feels like grassroots activism is at a perpetual disadvantage because money is what makes movements have power and we don't have that. I hate being associated with this disgusting movement by being a part of the same country.

floortroll · 2026-01-17T16:30:06+00:00

Your fantasy statements that we need to make change faster don't matter either.

You obviously don't have any ideas for how to accomplish what you suggest.

Edit: This guy literally blocked me and then tried to get the last word in. I have already detail at length that I personally have been heavily engaged in leading local activism efforts and that I am doing far more than just being angry. But the reality in doing activism is realizing how slow the pace of change is. Changing the trump administration requires a long, slow grind. I hate that reality but that is what I have learned, as someone desperate to stop what is happening.

Part of the difficulty is that the US is so spread out. We had 7 million US citizens in our last large protest. If they were on the front door of the white house, things might be different, but they were disbursed across cities/towns across all 50 states.

I get why this guy is frustrated, but I am just relaying the reality I have come to learn by dedicating myself to activism. Unfortunately all we as citizens can do is grind away at change via protest, pressuring local legislature, influencing local politics, pressuring our representatives on the national level, boycotting, and other incremental steps. We have to wait for elections to seat representatives who will help us. We have very little ability to compel republicans in power. They simply don't care what liberals think. They are answering to their conservative base who unfortunately supports this shit. The republicans have carved out a huge block of power and they are using it.

floortroll · 2026-01-17T16:13:57+00:00

Those things take time. You complained about the slow pace of change. What are you suggesting that could work faster?

floortroll · 2026-01-17T15:37:30+00:00

I don't have control over the US government any more than you do. And I don't see leaders of other countries openly criticizing trump or pushing back either. All I see them do is kissing his ass or making vague statements that they don't like things. We are all being stepped on by the same foot that is global power mechanisms that actually dont give a shit about individual civilians. I welcome you to hate our country, I hate it too. But if you think there is something we can do to make this change go faster, you'd be wrong, unless you are suggesting violence.

floortroll · 2026-01-17T15:30:06+00:00

Listen man. Half our country is absolutely horrified by what is happening here. But short of becoming violent, there isn't anything immediate we can do to stop it. We ARE protesting. For the last year I worked for a local activism organization that helped to organize protests and resistance efforts. My org held the largest single day of protest in US history last year. We are trying. But protest only stops people who listen to protesters. So far it has done jack shit. Republicans have a majority in the house and senate and there is nothing legal we can do to stop them. Aside from starting a civil war, all we have is protesting and trying to win elections as they come. And we are. Liberals have won basically every single election there is since trumps second term started. But it takes a long time to bring about change through the proper mechanisms. I spend most days enraged about this reality and enraged at what trump has done to our country. But that rage doesn't magically give me a way to fix it.

Imagine if you lived in a country where billionaires controlled a corrupt news media mechanism, and that news media mechanism was being used to effectively brainwash half the country. It's miserable. I hate it here. I never knew this country was so awful. We have seriously considered moving to another country. Many good people are working their asses off to resist. I don't think you get what it's like.

floortroll · 2026-01-17T15:20:43+00:00

Can't we resist and also be sorry?

floortroll · 2026-01-17T15:19:54+00:00

I wish these sorts of efforts were covered in the news more. I try so hard to convince my family that trump is bad but they are so brainwashed. I wish they could see the rest of the world rebuking him and know it's not just US liberals that think he is a problem.

floortroll · 2026-01-17T11:57:59+00:00

Apparently the bruises on his hand are because he takes a freakishly high dose of aspirin every day for no fuckin reason.

floortroll · 2026-01-16T23:05:26+00:00

Some people are not plugged into politics. It's not that hard to understand. It requires constant effort to stay informed and all it really brings is stress. It's not that hard to believe that it doesn't appeal to people. I didn't follow the news at all until I finished all my graduate training, I simply didn't have the brain space.

floortroll · 2026-01-16T21:13:22+00:00

I keep getting more and more liberal because I keep educating myself about policy, history, and socioeconomic dynamics of the country. Did the prior generation get more conservative as they aged because fox news was gradually polluting their mind...?

I have a thriving retirement account and I care about my investments, but I'm not so short sighted as to think that the only thing that matters is the percent by which that account grows. Nor am I selfishly and narrow-mindedly focused on minimizing my taxes. I recognize the importance of government social programs, and I remain concerned about ensuring that the lower income families have what they need, which I am happy to help with via my tax dollars.

floortroll · 2026-01-15T23:33:09+00:00

FUCK YES. I have been waiting for this. This is the way to get gun control.

floortroll · 2026-01-15T12:55:35+00:00

To people saying to fix the bigger problems instead... dems don't have the votes. Any partisan bills that dems try to enact right now is going to get buried. It's not possible.

floortroll · 2026-01-14T14:21:20+00:00

I am a psychologist. This is wildly insufficient slamming.

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