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Last worries that we might now be in a transition to authoritarianism of the kind Russia went through in the 1990s, but I visited Russia often in those days, and much of the Russian democratic implosion was driven by genuinely brutal economic conditions and the rapid collapse of basic public services. Americans have done this to themselves during a time of peace, prosperity, and astonishingly high living standards. An affluent society that thinks it is living in a hellscape is ripe for gulling by dictators who are willing to play along with such delusions.
This is the problem. Americans are not living “affluent” lives. They may have iphones and Netflix, but they are struggling to make rent and buy groceries. Their credit cards are getting maxed out. And their wages are staying flat, certainly relative to the sharp increase in the price of everything.
Americans are hurting economically right now. I wouldn’t compare the situation to Russia, but seeing your bank account disappear, your debt grow, and no solution in sight is a recipe for desperation.
It was the economy, stupid.
This is the problem. Americans are not living “affluent” lives. They may have iphones and Netflix, but they are struggling to make rent and buy groceries. Their credit cards are getting maxed out. And their wages are staying flat, certainly relative to the sharp increase in the price of everything.
See that line? That’s some fine affluence. Even if the line is going up a bit.
What you’re simply marking as “groceries” is actually a lot of luxuries, from lots of animal products to out of season fruits and vegetables. And don’t get me started on eating at restaurants.
Here’s the EU in 2021:
I’m from the “winner” country of that chart. Send help. I’m vegan, so I don’t waste my money on luxury animal products. I do waste some money on fair trade coffee and dark chocolate.
Your imperial mode of living (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuFQfSRZH_o) is ending, one way or another. Trump is 100% not going to help the masses. If you want a preview of Trump’s regime in terms of economics, look at Argentina and Milei.
Argentina’s poverty rate this year up until March:
September: The poverty rate in Argentina reached 52.9% during the first six months of Javier Milei’s government, the national statistics agency reported on Thursday https://www.dw.com/en/argentinas-poverty-rate-soars-past-50-under-javier-milei/a-70341471
Argentina’s food situation:
Two Full-Time Jobs and Nothing to Eat: Argentine Families Adapt to Skyrocketing Food Prices
edit: some nice illustrations from the last link:
This is your future under austerity policies, on average. And that’s what Trump’s going to bring.
Most Americans aren’t even familiar with the idea that vegetables can be out of season. They have a handful of things that they know how to cook and they cook the same things regardless of season, barbecues and that sort notwithstanding.
At least they know about pumpkin season. Honestly, I was shocked to learn that pumpkin spice doesn’t contain pumpkin.
Nice to get some perspective on things. “Bidenomics” and “Bidenflation” was/is…not that.
But the “economy” on paper is indeed fine, there is just itty detail that it doesn’t trickle down to most voters, who will then seek shelter from these madmen with the other idiot they find selling an even worse alternative…
It’s just inflexible that the american system only enables two parties.
The trickle down thing was obviously wrong many decades ago. Now it’s only said ironically.
Not only do the ‘spoils’ at the stock market not trickle down, but Trump is probably going to give a huge tax cut to rich people in his first week as president in 2025. The only way it can trickle down realistically is by high taxes on the rich paired with UBI or federal jobs programs, which isn’t something that Republicans would do. The Private Public Partnership model also favors the rich as the private company owners and executives take most of the gains while paying terrible wages to everyone else. Hence, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.
The stock market is fine. It’s just often confused for the economy.
Self inflicted oppression.
Can we stop the whole SJW shit now, this is what it did.
No, a combination of white supremacists, self-serving billionaires, religious extremists, and useful idiots did this.
All of them united by sjws calling everyone they don’t agree with Nazis and being a General bürden on society.
Not saying that the other people did the right thing, just saying that this was expectable.
Yep, I understood your point the first time. It’s just an incredibly stupid one.
That’s just an argument that democracy cant work. Because voyers are too feeble minded to discern the wheat from the chaff.
I’d give this some credence if it was a “fool me once” but that’s not what this is.
If voters are gullible fools that we can be easily misled then that does explain why we’re here and why it can never be anything else.
As Orwell opined in an essay in 1937, democracies always tend to fascism if times are tough. Even relatively tough, with the poorest American being better off then the poorest 50% of the planet.
When “Israel shouldn’t commit genocide” is how you define “social justice warriors” (stuck in 2014?), nobody here will take you seriously. (Before you answer that, by the way, understand this community has zero tolerance for genocide denial.)
The irony that many low income idiots who rely upon the very safety nets that the Republicans are targeting to limit or destroy is palpable.
They will lose that support and some how do the mental gymnastics to blame the Democrats for it sadly
These movements are sometimes led by fantastically wealthy faux populists who hoodwink gullible voters by promising to solve a litany of problems that always seem to involve money, immigrants, and minorities. The appeals from these charlatans resonate most not among the very poor, but among a bored, relatively well-off middle class, usually those who are deeply uncomfortable with racial and demographic changes in their own countries.
Well it sure worked
That’s not how Republicans do. They’ll love every second of their own oppression so long as women/queer/colored/etc people are being oppressed too.
Like crabs in a bucket
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken
We should start using leopards instead of elephants referring to the GOP until they adopt it instead
