an exchange i had in a tiktok comment section earlier this week:
random non-American online: the US is now beyond saving.
me: that's not true. millions of us are still protesting and resisting nationwide. we're not giving up.
random non-American: that's nice but it's not working and you should just give up now
This particular exchange was with a Canadian but I've seen comments similar to this posted everywhere by non-Americans, almost all exclusively from other western countries. Each and every time I see it, it makes me want to scream.
Like, I'm sorry but if I fucking live here and am not giving in to despair and doomerism, then you sure as shit shouldn't be either!!
Yes, terrible things are happening. Yes, fascism is absolutely on the rise. Yes, Trump and the alt-right are an existential threat. Yes, there are a lot of legitimate and valid reasons to be scared right now.
But it is still so, SO far from being over!! People are still fighting!! It will not be over until we stop resisting!!
So stop telling us to just give up!!
Honestly, I have to wonder if comments like these are being made in bad faith and that the people who say this shit have more nefarious reasons for it.
Like, what exactly do you want us to do, just lay down and die?? Because when you say shit like this, it sure seems like that's exactly what you want.
I have been organizing with a non-violent resistance group in my community since the beginning of this year. Each week that passes, more and more people join our cause and get involved. Each week that passes, we have more people reaching out, wanting to know how they can help support what we're doing. People whom have never participated in politics before are now waking up and starting to care. Everyone from former Republicans to my local DSA chapter, working together to resist in whatever ways we can.
We're doing everything from escorting migrants in our community to their immigration court hearings to protect them from getting kidnapped by ICE, to creating a pop-up soup kitchen whose entire mission is to feed the folks now homeless from Trump fucking up the economy. And we're just one of thousands (if not millions) of grassroots groups doing this. I know of dozens of other groups in just the surrounding counties in my state, all doing the exact same work that we are.
And y'all who don't live in the U.S. are not seeing this stuff, because nearly all of it is extremely local.
Trump may control the national narrative, but the US is a federal system, and each state and city and even our rural counties have some autonomy in how they respond to federal mandates. That makes us extremely difficult for a would-be authoritarian to seize control of. That's why you see so many blue states like California and Illinois essentially beginning a soft secession from the US. That's why you see cities like L.A. protesting for over a month straight.
stormborns
germansingergirl
