DocWatts

Thank you

I make my living as a software developer and graphic designer, and I do some non-commercial writing on the side. I'm not a professional political activist - just someone who tries to be civically engaged, and is encouraging others to do likewise.

The scope and human rights violations of the existing prison system is going to look tame compared to the domestic gulags that are coming. Read about Kilmar Garcia's experience at CECOT if you want a preview of what MAGA is hoping to do to American citizens. If anyone thinks that this will stop at immigrants (regardless of their legal status) then I've got a lucrative pyramid scheme for them to invest in. The intent was always to use immigrants as an onramp for implementing fascism. This process will begin with folks the regime think it can get away with disappearing, but it won't end with them. We need to be loud and uncompromising as humanly possible in standing up and denouncing this. Your family and friends who "don't follow politics" need to be confronted with the ugly reality of this.

Sometimes a picture says it all.

The main takeaway of the MAGA Murder Bill: 17 million Americans are being kicked off from their health insurance and $3.5 trillion is being added to the national debt to a fund a secret police force and a series of domestic concentration camps. There's more, but the rest is just window dressing by comparison. If we wanted to put a dividing line between the United States being a democracy and it being a hybrid regime, this plus the recent SCOTUS decision that killed nation wide injunctions has pushed us over that line. (A hybrid regime is essentially a failed democracy that's in the process of authoritarian consolidation, but isn't a full-on authoritarian state yet). Grieve if you need to. Spend time with friends and loved ones. Make arrangements if you're among the groups being targeted. This is undeniably a dark and disturbing turn, but the fundamentals haven't changed. Trump is an unpopular autocrat, and his Cult of personality is incredibly unlikely to survive him. His regime is going to make life for %80-90 of the country noticably worse than it is now. Americans haven't had to fight for our democracy in generations, and this moment is going to demand more of us than a lot of us were expecting. This regime is NOT all powerful - the only way this is over is if we give up. Don't obey in advance. Don't try to placate or reason with MAGA - they're our version of the Nazis, and need to be socially osctricized. No more humoring folks who want a dictator. We survive this through organization, solidarity, and principled yet uncompromising opposition to this regime and it's enablers.

The only way that any of this becomes a foregone conclusion is if we stop fighting. Between an America that lives up to its professed ideals and a full-on fascist dystopia is a huge spectrum of in-between outcomes that will be determined in large part by the consequential everyday decisions of millions of ordinary people. When you catastrophize a worst-case scenario all you're doing is giving the American fascist movement more power than it actually has. Trump and the billionaire backers behind this auto-coup would like nothing more than for us to despair that their rule is inevitable. Yet in reality Trump's regime is historically weak and unpopular. Six months in, when DJT should be at the height of his popularity, he's underwater on literally every issue, his approval rating is hovering in the upper 30s, and he's struggling to get a budget passed. Millions of people taking to the streets in defiance of this regime at this early stage accomplishes two important things. 1) it shatters the Big Lie that Trump has a mandate from the American people, and that his uncontested Rule is inevitable. His regime has already backtracked on a number of issues (such as the tariffs) and war with Canada due to massive pushback from diverse segments of society. 2) It works the muscles that will be needed to sustain a demographically and ideologically diverse civil resistance movement. As to your question, do wealthy elites have an enormous amount of influence over our elections and institutions? No one who is fighting this regime disputes that - lobbying is effectively a form of legalized bribery, and things have gotten as bad as they have in large part due to a series of disastrous SCOTUS decisions that gave corporations the same legal rights as people. But let's not equivocate - Americans weren't being sent to concentration camps six months or six years ago. Even accepting that pre-Trump America was a highly flawed democracy, we weren't living through this. Elections and civic participation, even a HIGHLY flawed system, matters. If a civil war is coming, then we need to be building those networks of mutual support and solidarity RIGHT NOW - not 5 or 10 years in the future when the bottom is falling out. Americas has had a civil war, and the net result was to end slavery and be the eventual catalyst for a multiracial democracy. Fascist regimes tend to be unstable because they're epistemically closed - their whole worldview is essentially a Reality-denial ploy. This may be an effective way to run a Cult, but it's not a sustainable way to run a country. Even autocracies ultimately depend upon the consent of its civilian population to stay in power - a government that only delivers the goods to %0.1 of the population is self-undermining. The American fascist movement spent half a century quietly building its power on school boards, in local elections, and in the media before it burst into the open in 2016. It would be the height of arrogance to think that we're going to overturn that in one election or one protest - yet it would be folly to conclude just six months that the resistance is doomed and efforts to push back against this vile regime are in vain. The civil rights movement put in more than a decade of disciplined work before Jim Crow finally crumbled. Defeating the Confederacy and ending slavery took years of protracted effort and struggle. We need to have the same mindset as an American GI landing on the beaches of Normandy - we're in this together for the long haul, whatever it takes for however long as it takes.

Totally understandable. Don't hesitate to take a break if you need to. Spend time with friends, read a book, meditate, touch grass - do whatever you need to do to fill yourself up. Don't let this regime rob you of joy - secure your own oxygen mask before you attend to others. The civil rights movement, women's suffrage, the struggle to end Apartheid - these things took years. None of us were expecting this regime to fall because of one protest - it's going to take a massive sustained effort from millions of us to restore democracy. As individuals we can't do much against a fascist regime. When we come together as networks of communities pursuing a broad strategy, we can accomplish a lot - but make no mistake, we're going to be spending years of our lives pushing back against this. What we're doing right now is holding the line and building a sustained civil resistance movement. Americans haven't had to fight for our democracy in a long time. How do you think individuals from previous generations who believed in democracy felt six months into the Civil War or World War 2? That's the sort of mindset we need to have - one of resiliency, solidarity, and mutual support.

The Republican controlled legislature is on the verge of passing one of the worst pieces of domestic legislation in American history. Trump's Big Horrific Bill is essentially Project 2025 in legislative form. Make no mistake, droves of Americans are going to die as a direct result of the MAGA Murder Bill. And the spineless worms who voted to kick 17 million people off from their healthcare know it. In addition to the needless death and suffering for countless Americans, this bill effectively turns ICE into a private military that's at the beck and call of the felon occupying the White House with a 10x budget increase. This essentially gives the dictator his Gestapo on a silver platter. Fuck anyone who voted for this, and who continues to support this criminal regime.

You know that this is the way to use the democratic process to resist authoritarianism because the most vile people in the country are having a collective meltdown over this clean-cut, well-spoken man who also happens to be a POC and Muslim. MAGA is terrified of Mamdani. If Democrats want to win elections -rather than being the controlled opposition - they need an inspiring vision for the country that speaks to people's everyday concerns. They need to speak boldy and unapologetically to the evils of our time - fascism needs to be loudly and boldly rejected, not compromised with. And just to state this clearly - yes, Mamdani is an American citizen. And no, there's zero legal pretext to deport him that doesn't rip the Constitution and Rule Of Law to shreds (not that the Nazis who are calling for this give a damn) https://newrepublic.com/post/197279/maga-depraved-new-plan-democratic-star-zohran-mamdani

THIS is the energy we need from our Democratic politicians - and it worked. There's a reason that current Democratic leadership has a lower approval rating than even Donald Trump, whose own approval ratings are in the toilet. What we want is a party that FIGHTS BACK against Trump's fascist takeover and FIGHTS FOR working people across this country.

This is genuinely a huge deal. The mayor of NYC is one of the most powerful mayor in the entire country, and has a sizeable amount of influence on the national stage. A young principled populist with fresh ideas and an unapologetic rejection of both Trump and the corrupt Democratic gerontocracy is exactly what's needed right now.

Thanks! Above all, we're in this together. That means not just the Left, or even the littl corner of the internet we've cultivated on these Forums, but everyone who doesn't want to live under a tyrannical white supremecist mafia state. The challenge over the upcoming years is to build a broad-tent pro-democracy movement that can close ranks against the American equivalent of the Nazis. The Hands Off and No Kings protests are a promising start - but we need to keep up the momentum and above all draw more people in to the pro-democracy movement.

I can't seem to upload images on either my phone or my laptop to my Forum posts. I've tried this on a few different devices, to no avail. When I attempt to attach an image I get the message. There was a problem processing the uploaded file. Please contact us for assistance.

Seems that the wanna-be dictator is having a narcissistic crash-out over the No Kings protests. Not only did the protests ruin his North-Korean style military parade, he was waiting with baited breath for mass violence in the streets, which the No Kings protests didn't deliver. Mango Mussolini is trying to incite a civil war, but we didn't take the bait. 12 million people came out in defense of the Constitution and the Rule of Law, in peaceful defiance of Trump's fascist regime. And this historic turnout was in spite of violent intimidation by Trump and his MAGA brownshirts. The only violence to speak of was from far-right domestic terrorists.

The point of the protests wasn't to change the hearts and minds of MAGA - most of them are beyond saving. It was to make the pro-democracy movement visible, as part of a sustained public pressure campaign on politicians and institutions that are obeying Trump's criminal regime in advance. Beyond this, the target is ordinary people who have tuned out of politics since the election, and folks who are disturbed by what's going on but don't know what to do about it. Trump wants nothing more than to project an image of strong man. He wants us to think that his reign is inevitable. In actuality, his regime is weak and historically unpopular. No Kings Day was a humiliating optics defeat for a fragile narcissist. While Trump was being the world's saddest birthday boy with his farcical military parade, 12 million people - or 3.5% of the entire population of the United States - was out in the streets saying NO to his authoritarian regime. Time and time again, this regime has shown us that it can't be compromised with. Trump is above all an abusive narcissist and a bully - attempts to appease the wanna-be dictator is only received as an invitation to take more. All of the 'reasonable' MAGAs left after his violent coup attempt - those still with him after close to a decade of escalating authoritarianism are the American version of the Nazis. They need to be boldly and loudly rejected, not compromised with. A large part of how we got to where we are was by normalizing creeping Trump's authoritarianism, criminality, and political violence.

Detroit - and Michigan - showed up!

I had no idea we had an attachment quota! Thanks, you've solved my difficulties

Alt National Parks is estimating that over 11 million people showed up - that's more than twice as many as the Hands Off protests, and over %3 of the entire US population! 🇺🇸

Meanwhile, 11 million people - or over %3 of the entire population of the United States - was out in the streets protesting this disgraceful regime.

The author is me, btw And you're right - what I'm suggesting in that article is a long term strategy, and on its own it's not enough. The epistemic work needs to be done in parallel with civic participation. In addition to the approach of epistemic attunement I outline in that article, we need to be building a broad-based civil resistance movement to hold the line against fascism - which is why I've been encouraging folks to join pro-democracy groups like Indivisible and attend the No Kings protests. We also need to be building the infrastructure for the 2026 midterms right now. Neither assuming that Trump is going to cancel the election (ie obeying in advance), nor assuming that an election that's a year and a half away will save us. Taking the House and Senate will be vital in obstructing Trump's authoritarian takeover, but we need to be acting as citizens right now. That means attending protests, participating in boycotts, calling your elected officials, knocking on doors, raising money for pro-democracy organizations. Even if midterms are a blowout for the Dems, we need to put in the work right now to make sure that happens and some form of democracy survives until then.

Short of getting married or having major surgery, whatever you're doing today is less important than showing up to defend your country from fascism. This is an all hands on deck situation, even if you can only attend briefly it will have an impact. Stay safe, remain peaceful, give 'em hell. (No shade towards folks who genuinely can't make it for one reason or another, but I'm encouraging everyone to make an effort. This is not a drill - fascism IS HERE, and we need to come together to stand against it.)

I'd also recommend 'Nexus' by Yuval Noah Harari, which is a deep dive into human information networks. In it, he goes into why the so-called 'marketplace of ideas' - the notion that the best ideas supposedly win in the end - is dangerously naive.

If you're interested, I wrote an entire Substack article on how 21st century authoritarianism isn't just a political crisis - it's also an epistemic one, rooted in how we respond to uncertainty in a complex world. Substack: How Broken Ways Of Knowing Feed Modern Tyrants The authoritarian bargain - from Nazism to Maoism to MAGA - is the emotional comfort of certainty without the burden of truth-seeking. It’s the epistemic version of having your cake and eating it too. Emotional validation without introspection, certainty without responsibility, belonging without accountability - what’s not to like? Too bad, then, that the cake is poisoned and the person selling it knows it. Even worse, most of the people eating it know it too, but have convinced themselves that the poison is an acceptable trade-off for the intoxicating feelings it provides.

Timothy Snyder - one of the leading experts on fascism who wrote On Tyranny - is sounding the alarm bells that Trump is trying to incite a second Civil War. Below are some quotes from the writeup, but I'd recommend reading the Substack article in full - it's chilling. When people whose job it is to study fascism are telling us that the moment we're living through is a flash point, we should take them seriously. If you've ever wondered what you would have done in Nazi Germany or the US Civil Rights struggle, you're doing it right now. A second civil war and the reforging of the United States into a white supremacist police state isn't a foregone conclusion, but preventing it requires that we be brave and step up to the moment. That means no more equivocating, no more burying our heads in the sand, no more compromising with extremes that need to be rejected. And no more saying that 'this doesn't effect me'. If you're on a conscious politics forum, you should be more willing than the average person to take responsibility for the current moment, and not watch from the sidelines as a petty, inhumane dictator tries to plunge your country into violence and chaos. RESOURCES - How YOU can get involved in the pro-democracy movement: No Kings Day: https://www.nokings.org/ Indivisible: https://indivisible.org/ 50501: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Trump's Civil War - Timothy Snyder https://substack.com/home/post/p-165796793?source=queue "Earlier this week Donald Trump called for a second civil war at a US military base. This scenario can be resisted and prevented, if we have the courage to listen, interpret, and act. And this Saturday we will have the occasion to act. In general, we imagine that the US Army is here to defend us, not to attack us. But summoning soldiers to heckle their fellow Americans is a sign of something quite different. Trump seized the occasion to summon soldiers to join him in mocking the press. Reporters, of course, as the Founders understood, are a critical check on tyranny. They, like protestors, are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Trump was teaching soldiers that society does not matter, and that law does not matter. He "loves" soldiers. He is personally responsible for the pay raises: "I gave you so much money for four years it was crazy." "We're giving you an across-the-board raise" This is the way a dictator speaks to a palace guard, or a fascist to a paramilitary. We are witnessing an attempt at regime change, rife in perversities. It has a historical component: we are to celebrate the oathbreakers and the traitors. It has a fascist component: we are to embrace the present moment as an exception, in which all things are permitted to the Leader. And of course it has an institutional component: soldiers are meant to be the avant-garde of the end of democracy. Instead of treating the army as defenders or freedom, Trump presented soldiers as his personal armed servants, whose job it was to oppress his chosen enemies -- inside the United States. Trump was trying to instruct soldiers that their mission was to crush fellow Americans who dared to exercise their rights, such as the right to protest."