You know, I’ve developed a twitch in my left eye the last week or so, and I feel like every day, I see more reasons why that might be.

A very large breakfast burrito, maybe.

I think the “with a massive arsenal” is a big part of the problem for a lot of people. I am absolutely certain Trump, and most of his administration, wouldn’t think twice about using that arsenal against Americans. He would love that shit, frankly, and the vast majority of Republicans would cheer it on. Shit, they’re threatening to send people to El Salvador for misdemeanors because it’s hurting Elon’s fee-fees. How do you get people motivated to fight what feels like a completely futile battle when the danger isn’t really hypothetical and the odds of success are far from guaranteed?

Plenty of countries in similar states don’t rise up for many years because it takes that long for desperation to kick in, or there’s an initial fight that’s brutally put down and then those that are left put their heads down and focus on survival. Our first civil war happened on relatively even ground. This one would be so one-sided that it’s not even funny.

I don’t say this to discourage people or suggest we shouldn’t at least try to make a difference. But it is the reality and it’s something I’m struggling with. I don’t know how willing I am to die for a country I’m only sometimes welcome in.

That’s the thing - this is only barely not normal. It’s definitely more in your face, and a lot tackier, but the US has never been great, at least not for anyone straight, white, male, and relatively well off. Our history started with theft and genocide and continued on in that vein. While there have obviously been improvements over the last few hundred years, large portions of the population have had to be dragged kicking and screaming toward every bit of it. Even most of our best presidents have been responsible for atrocities, and then the pendulum always seems to swing back toward the worst of us for a while.

Now we have a population that has been systematically under- or uneducated and fed a steady diet of propaganda about how incredible this country is without any critical thought, and they blame anyone not just like them for any of their problems instead of ever paying attention to the wealthy ransacking the place. The vast majority of them cannot be reasoned with, because Republicans have spent decades making sure they don’t have the skills or desire to look at new evidence and change their minds.

It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that at least a third of my fellow Americans don’t think I should exist as a queer person, and another third don’t give enough of a fuck to bother taking any kind of stand. It’s hard to watch every institution we’ve been assured would provide some kind of checks and balances fail as soon as someone decides they’re no longer going to abide by any norms. Any meaningful action is likely to end up in a lot of death and if I thought this was a bizarre one off instead of something way too many people are rooting for, it would be a lot easier to think that sacrifice was worth it. It feels pretty hopeless at this point. My only real motivation is trying to use the little bit of privilege I have to try to help my community, but I know it’s not enough.

My friend just moved back to the US after living in Red Deer for several years. I’ve heard all about it. I thought she was crazy to give up permanent residency, but if that was her whole experience with Canada (plus her cheating scumbag ex husband), I kind of get it.

But, much like Texas, there are also a lot of decent people in Alberta who deserve better, so hopefully things work out alright.

I’m not Canadian, but everything I’ve seen about this woman makes me think she’s a stupid, hateful bitch. It seems like her bs, and PP’s, is backfiring in light of how horrifyingly dumb and awful the Trump administration is, so I’ll keep crossing my fingers that the election goes well.

Any restaurant that doesn’t let me let in the quokkas probably isn’t even a place I want to eat. They can’t ban me, I ban myself!

I’m gonna. They can’t stop me.

I don’t speak to any of my extended family, but I’m hoping the fact that there’s been so much shitty behavior that none of them would want to expose any more of it via DNA. My mom already has 8 siblings she knows of, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there were a couple more out there, and pretty much all of my uncles are the type to have affairs.

If we didn’t have however many billions it is now of people, I’d be all about returning to that hunter gatherer life. Would it be really fucking hard? For sure. Would people die of dumb stuff? Ok maybe we keep like, antibiotics. But I bet cavemen never sat around like, “why am I even continuing to exist in this neverending capitalist nightmare?” They probably didn’t wake up at 3 am every night for weeks because the dread overcame their exhaustion. I will join you in the bog.

Wait, that’s amazing. I want to do that now, but I’m 40 and I only have like 5 friends. I’m so hungry.

amount of solidarity Canadians have against the US right now

Except a weirdly large portion of Alberta. It’s actually a little alarming how many of them love Trump. I vote we trade the US west coast (and eastern OR can join their nazi buddies in Idaho like they want to anyway) for Alberta.

My dad drove an 86 Nissan 720 when I was a kid that looked exactly like the second small truck and I would kill for a modern version. I usually stick stuff in the back of my RAV4 and that mostly works, but there are times I need an open bed and have to rent a pickup. Give the people what they want! Baby trucks!

What I love is how many of them talk about, “he’s just trolling,” and it’s like, even if he was, is that seriously what you want in a president? Now it’s, “even if he is just trolling, this is a bad idea,” as if there’s ever a time that the fucking president treating international relations like a shitpost would be a good idea. These people are so, so stupid.

Same. Like, damn, I’m a queer leftist woman who takes an SSRI. This administration wants me in a camp for sure and I would happily change nationalities if it were possible. I’m rooting for the Canadians (and the rest of the world that isn’t insane), except PP and his ilk.

Even if there was a real run on Teslas, the numbers they claim to have sold are impossible. This is some sloppy ass fraud. The only way they could have “sold” that many was as fleets and if they did, I’d bet everything I own that it was money laundering.

Fuckin Spongebob. She’s going to cheat on him, too, and hopefully he realizes he fumbled a beautiful doctor who, for some unknown reason, actually loved him.

I would love for there to be a decent pop culture community on Lemmy to break me out of non-stop doomscrolling. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants to make it happen.

Probably, but due to my complete inability to remember anything that’s not in my phone calendar, we’ll never meet. Tragic.

I had tickets to a fancy gala to support one of the museums and I forgot to go, so I don’t see that happening for me.