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Zolorp

(1,115 posts)
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 10:37 PM Feb 2020

How Life is Going to Change as America Collapses

Good, and frightening read because we are already well on our way...

How Life is Going to Change as America Collapses

What Will Everyday Life in a Collapsed America Be Like?

Umair Haque
Jul 10, 2018

Indulge me for a moment. Imagine, as I do, that America’s going to go right on collapsing. Who’s going to stop it? After all, in the last week alone, all three branches of government have been captured, at last, by extremists. The judiciary, with the nomination of a justice who’d overturn Roe vs Wade, taking the US back half a century. Congress, whose Senators happily tweeted independence day greetings from…Moscow. And, of course, the executive, in which a demagogue continued his assault on reason, democracy and truth.

All three branches of government captured mean that there are virtually no checks and balances left, save slender hope here or there, and so American collapse is likely to continue unabated. Into what? Into…well, no one knows. Theofascism, maybe. Klepto-authoritarianism, perhaps. Pick your poisons — now shake up the cocktail mixer. Something new, a new form of all the old diseases of the body politic, combined in a strange, novel, lethal way, most probably.

While we can’t say what the final form of American collapse will be yet, we can say life is going to change. Faster, harder, and nastier than you think. Here are five ways life is going to change under authoritarianism — and you’d be quite correct to notice, as you read, that they are ways in which life has already begun to change.

...

https://eand.co/five-ways-life-is-going-to-change-for-americans-under-authoritarianism-f655f0cb89af


Read all five ways at the link
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How Life is Going to Change as America Collapses (Original Post) Zolorp Feb 2020 OP
#VoteBlue2020 nt Karma13612 Feb 2020 #1
That guy writes interesting stuff. Nt lostnfound Feb 2020 #2
Doomers are boring Loki Liesmith Feb 2020 #3
'Okay Doomer' leftstreet Feb 2020 #6
Those could be cautions... Newest Reality Feb 2020 #4
Sorry. Gloom and Doom are not my thing. icymist Feb 2020 #5
Um...look at what 52 Senators did today... Zolorp Feb 2020 #7
And I just said it's not over yet. icymist Feb 2020 #8
+1000 UniteFightBack Feb 2020 #10
I've met a lot of bootlickers. hunter Feb 2020 #20
You are just a little ray of sunshine Hekate Feb 2020 #9
November 3, 2020 Zolorp Feb 2020 #11
All more the reason to dig into the senate races that are up for grabs. Vivienne235729 Feb 2020 #12
We have bdamomma Feb 2020 #13
It's very interesting to think about this as a possibility lunatica Feb 2020 #14
Yeah, well I wonder how many people Nazi Germany raccoon Feb 2020 #16
Stalin's Russia was a country mostly made up lunatica Feb 2020 #17
Note the date caraher Feb 2020 #15
Meh... He isn't treading any new ground here Blue_Tires Feb 2020 #18
How do you spell "relief"? roamer65 Feb 2020 #19

leftstreet

(36,078 posts)
6. 'Okay Doomer'
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 11:25 PM
Feb 2020
(That could actually be a funny take on the other)

America isn't going to "collapse." The working classes will go on working, teaching, nursing, drywalling, caring for the elderly, housekeeping, house building, doctoring, etc

The 3 alleged branches of Government are what's collapsing

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
4. Those could be cautions...
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 11:19 PM
Feb 2020

I would say that those are cautions rather than actual predictions of an outcome.

We really don't want any of that, do we? Perhaps we have come to far to allow things to get that bad again? That's really the question. How far will a Trump-style Fascism continue to overrun and degrade our democracy before we push back hard on it?

While it may slowly go that way, it does not have to. In fact, we have to heed warnings like that and remember that we are democracy and it is always our response that still makes a difference here. It is also possible that we, as the sleeping giant, can tend to ignore the ominous signs that are cropping up, but when it becomes unavoidably clear that it cannot continue that way, that is when we will know how this goes. It is then that we can say if there will be a collective action to resist tyranny or not.

While there is a point, as I understand it, where there is a finality to our democracy, we should start to consider that as a potential now in order to share the gravity of what we are up against and admit that serious vigilance and proactive responses have to be shouldered by those of us who know that the loss may be for keeps if we allow authoritarian tyranny to overshadow our land and despoil this democracy. We ARE democracy and we must keep that in mind. This is going to be about the common will and the common good as brought about and supported by us all, not something abstract out there.

So, let's prevent those scenarios from being made real. We have time to build our courage and support each other and anything that is working to preserve freedom and the will of the people. I value Orwell's 1984 in the same sense because it is an excellent warning of what we can lose. Nihilistic fatalism will only seal the deal. Determination is very important here. We are not defeatists, nor will we be to the very end.

icymist

(15,888 posts)
5. Sorry. Gloom and Doom are not my thing.
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 11:24 PM
Feb 2020

He lost me when he said we would have to lick our masters boots with enthusiasm to live a decent life. Do you really think Americans will bow to this without a fight? I don't. As Yogi Berra once said, "It 'aint over until it's over".

 

Zolorp

(1,115 posts)
7. Um...look at what 52 Senators did today...
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 11:28 PM
Feb 2020

HE isn't suggesting things can't turn around, he's laying out what happens when you don't turn it around.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
20. I've met a lot of bootlickers.
Thu Feb 6, 2020, 04:07 PM
Feb 2020

They know their lives suck in some way they can't quite explain, but they still voted for Trump, and they still celebrate the system that's oppressing them.

Vivienne235729

(3,373 posts)
12. All more the reason to dig into the senate races that are up for grabs.
Wed Feb 5, 2020, 11:42 PM
Feb 2020

My senate race (that I have adopted) is the Martha mcsally seat. She is NOT liked and Mark Kelly has a very good chance of beating her. He is currently up by 4pts and has outpaced her in financing. I am super excited for this race to turn AZ blue. I have been waiting 20 yrs for this. And we are so close.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
14. It's very interesting to think about this as a possibility
Thu Feb 6, 2020, 12:31 AM
Feb 2020

I don’t believe it will happen though, but it’s interesting to think of what might be. I have too much faith in humanity. And I think our country is way too large and diverse for a total dystopia or a dictatorship.

We would simply fall apart as one country with many states. We would become many countries instead, and each one could be very different. No dictator would be able to suppress everyone in this land, even with the military. How do you suppress 350 million people? The land area of the entire United States is 3,531,905 square miles. Especially when each state has it’s own National Guard. What can a wannabe dictator do about that. And why would he want to go to the bother of having to deal with managing a broken country?

The fact is we don’t need the federal government in order to survive. Sure life would change a lot but democracy could easily continue in some of the states, or large cities. It would be harsh, but we would be free of a dictatorship.

It’s interesting to read and think about those things but if we see it happening we can still do things about it.


lunatica

(53,410 posts)
17. Stalin's Russia was a country mostly made up
Thu Feb 6, 2020, 03:08 PM
Feb 2020

of farming peasants, and Russia had never experienced Democracy. Life probably changed very little from having a Czar to having Stalin in power. Stalin basically cut off the head of the intelligentsia and the military and was able to do it out of sight of the general population. The peasants were kept in the dark and ignored. They just followed along.

Although Germany had a Democracy which a Hitler destroyed, after WWI the other nations chose to punish Germany and it went through severe economic troubles. Hitler sold himself as their savior and improved their economy and their self esteem so he was able to unite Germans against the rest of the world for this reason. He also worked in the dark to consolidate power.

At present the world is a completely different place with access to social media where information travels very quickly and which is impossible to control for any wannabe dictators. Americans are also very aware of their Democratically based freedoms. Free speech, legal ownership of weapons, individual rights are all widely practiced. We’ve never known oppression or a different kind of life. We do not accept being ruled.

Sure, there are things that are similar, but there are more things that aren’t and those things are pivotal. It will never be as easy for any dictator to take over. Can one do it? Maybe. I just don’t think it can happen. At least not in the most populated blue states or in large blue Cities.

caraher

(6,276 posts)
15. Note the date
Thu Feb 6, 2020, 01:22 AM
Feb 2020

The collapse of our governmental institutions, at the federal level, has proceeded at a rate consistent with the "gloom and doom" in this article. We've heard it claimed, on the Senate floor, that nothing the President does should be prohibited if he imagines it in the best interest of the nation, and the party clinging to a majority there (through electoral chicanery) dared not even hear evidence in the sham trial of their leader.

Nov. 3, 2020 will indeed be an important date. It could be the point of no return.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
18. Meh... He isn't treading any new ground here
Thu Feb 6, 2020, 03:21 PM
Feb 2020

and I'll wait until we're actually defeated before I go into defeatist mode...

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