"America is Dying."

[AmBlue]

We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.
We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.

umair haque
Aug 29

Right about now, something terrible is happening in America. Society is one tiny step away from the final collapse of democracy, at the hands of a true authoritarian, and his fanatics. Meanwhile, America’s silent majority is still slumbering at the depth and gravity of the threat.

I know that strikes many of you as somehow wrong. So let me challenge you for a moment. How much experience do you really have with authoritarianism? Any? If you’re a “real” American, you have precisely none.

Take it from us survivors and scholars of authoritarianism. This is exactly how it happens. The situation could not — could not — be any worse. The odds are now very much against American democracy surviving.

We survivors of authoritarianism have a terrible, terrible foreboding, because we are experiencing something we should never do: deja vu. Our parents fled from collapsing societies to America. And here, now, in a grim and eerie repeat of history, we see the scenes of our childhoods played out all over again. Only now, in the land that we came to. We see the stories our parents recounted to us happening before our eyes, only this time, in the place they brought us to, to escape from all those horrors, abuses, and depredations.

We survivors are experiencing this terrible feeling of deja vu right now as a group, as a class. We talk about it, how eerie and grim this sense of deja vu is. It’s happening all over again! Do you remember this part of your childhood? When the armed men roamed the streets? When the secret police disappeared opponents? When the fascist masses united — and that was enough to destroy democracy for good? We talk about it, believe me — but you don’t hear it because we have no real voice. America’s pundits are named Chris and Jake and Tucker. They are not named Eduardo and Ravi and Xiao and Umair. But Chris and Jake and Tucker can’t help you now. They don’t know what the hell they’re dealing with. They literally have no idea because they have no experience whatsoever.

The only people who do right now in America are us survivors. Let me remind you, by the way, what happens we speak out: we lose whatever credibility and status we have. The moment I began to warn of this, I lost my column in HBR, my cable news appearances, and so forth. Don’t cry for me. Understand me, my friend, know me. If we had a voice, we survivors, we would be warning you as loudly and strongly as we possibly could.

All of us. We would say:

This is not a joke. This is not a drill.

Much more at the link:
https://eand.co/we-dont-know-how-to-warn-you-any-harder-america-is-dying-26ff80912391

***
PLEASE share far and wide. America needs to SNAP OUT OF IT!!!

[secondwind]

1. K&R for visibility.

[Celerity]

3. GMTA, lol

[Celerity]

2. K & R for visibility

[Jim__]

4. I don't have the experience they have, but I absolutely agree with what they're saying.

I fear that it's time for pro-democracy Americans to arm themselves as a preparation for the ultimate defense of democracy.

[appalachiablue]

13. +1 Most dangerous time since the Civil War as one noted

expert on the right just stated.

Consider the colonists bravery and risks during Rev. War against the British Empire as well.

K/R

[calimary]

5. I wish warnings like this were just "blowin' smoke"...

[AmBlue]

6. Indeed.

I couldn't agree more, calimary. But they have brainwashed many of our fellow Americans, and those folks are armed to the teeth and beginning their call to arms now. One of my husband's longtime friends (brainwashed) is sending out the craziest, dangerous stuff I have ever seen in mass emails to goodness-knows-who.

I'm not personally advocating we do that, but right now we all need to be waking people up with the harsh truth of where we are. We also have to make sure November is a landslide for our side by winning the Senate back as well as sending that thing in our White House packing.

PLEASE SHARE THIS IMPORTANT WARNING EVERYWHERE.... before it's too late.

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. Well...

as the saying goes: If 'wishes' and 'buts' were sugar and nuts, oh what a sweet world we would have! The precise problem is that too many people see it as just that... smoke...

[AlexSFCA]

7. even on this very forum, majority are blinded by optimism citing polling

polling never stopped any authoritarian. What many seem to miss is that trump has much more power to get re-‘elected’ in 2020 than he could even dream of in 2016. The next two months could be the longest two months we ever experienced. Think of everything legal or not that trump can do to ‘win’ the election, because he’ll do it. We need to figure out quick how to get ahead of his actions.

[aggiesal]

9. Unfortunately, the WH always hides behind the veil of "SECRECY" ...

They'll just say that due to "National Security" this will be done Secretly.
They've created this secret Army out of DHS officers under this umbrella.

It will hard to get ahead of his actions.

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. Forgive me...

but it is not 'think of everything that trump can do', but 'think of everything the rethugs will do'. It ain't just that blowhard in the Oval office.

[DownriverDem]

16. So

what do we do then?

[AlexSFCA]

20. that's what I'd like to hear from people smarter than I am

it can’t be just a continuing denial of reality. Why are democratic institutions failing?

[AmBlue]

21. We are failing because....

Last edited Mon Aug 31, 2020, 05:12 PM - Edit history (1)

...the missing ingredient is US. Democracy, as imagined in our Constitution, is PARTICIPATORY, but Americans in great numbers are naive, gullible, and don't vote like their LIVES depend on it. Every. Single. Time. We take for granted living in a free democracy because we've never known anything else. We just assume it will always be there, like the air we breathe. Most notably, Americans have no experience in history equivalent to this dangerous time we are living in.

We need to be making phone calls to voters, knocking on doors, writing postcards to voters, helping people to vote, making as much noise on social networks as we can, and, in the words of John Lewis, making "good trouble."

Do we have on DU somewhere a list of worthy efforts, besides the Biden campaign of course, like Moveon.org, Indivisible.org, that we can get involved with?

There is much work to do and EVERYTHING matters.

[OldBaldy1701E]

24. We have experience...

it was called The Revolutionary War. What we don't have is a collective memory. Americans are so easily convinced that things are okay because they are so desperate to believe it. This has always been a trait of Americans but in the past 60+ years, the powers that sleeze have waged a massive reprogramming of the culture and it worked. Most Americans do not want to know anything but their own little rose colored bubble. (The fact that only those above a certain income level can even attempt this bubble is another story).

You are right. We need to be active, and not just those who find pleasure in the political landscape. (I find it all revolting, but that's yet another story). However, stop playing their game. Doing anything on 'social media' plays into their game of anonymous bellowing. It is impossible to hold anything said on social media as reality because so many use it to try and warp reality as much as possible. Make noise in public. Make noise when some MAGA hat says something stupid. (I prefer to start laughing out loud and then acting like I am unable to even speak because I am laughing so hard. Don't argue, just show them just how completely idiotic their ideals are). It is the idea that we try to effect change from the shadows that has stymied the Democratic efforts so far. Stop playing their game. Be loud. Be obvious. Be the one who laughs when these idiots try to act like they are patriots. (PLEASE laugh especially hard if you re ever in that conversation. These idiots do not know what the word means).

[OldBaldy1701E]

23. Okay...

Here is a good start. Google Stetson Kennedy and 'frown power'. Basically, back during the extreme KKK times of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, this man suggested that, as a population, we needed to show public displeasure when we see or hear something that is not kosher, like racism. His suggestion was that, if everyone who saw such behavior would pointedly frown at the person, making sure that the offender sees this displeasure. And, that everyone keep on frowning at this person whenever someone sees him. Now, I am not suggesting that we frown at the rethugs (although we should anyway), but the concept is the one to use. We need to make sure that we refute every single thing these greedy vultures and weasels every say or do. We need to shine a very large and bright light on all of them, from the slimy town council member that wants the Ten Commandments posted on every government building while sleeping with half the town board, to the Speaker of the House who has shown himself to be one of the most anti-American (except the rich, he never seems to displease them for some reason) shysters I have ever seen. We need to publicly denounce the extreme right when they act like spoiled little children. (As far as I am concerned, Hammurabi had it right and that junior wannabe nazi should have to endure the same thing he fostered on those he attacked). We need to constantly, and I mean constantly, point out the complete fantasy that is right wing politics. We need to be ever alert for those who want to stay out of the focus but sit at home typing lies and rhetoric to enrage other small mined idiots. But mostly, we need to understand that this may not be fixable by... 'proper channels'. 244 years ago, our ancestors stood up and fought to have the country we wanted. We need to remember that now. No more half measures. No more 'well, we should take the upper road' bullshit. The time has come to decide which direction this nation is going to go. Stop sitting on the sidelines.

[mountain grammy]

11. K & R

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. K & R

[matt819]

14. Read this.

Read this now.

Bookmark and read it later.

Print it out and read it.

Print it out and read it every day.

This kind of writing needs to show up in the MSM. Every day. Op-ed pieces. News stories.

It's no longer hyperbole or paranoia. It's happening. And the authors of this article must not be ignored.

[AmBlue]

17. YES!!! AND SHARE EVERYWHERE PLEASE

We need to be emailing this to every single friend and family member, putting it on FB, Reddit, Twitter... every online forum we can think of. This article is a clarion call to EVERY American to DO SOMETHING. NOW.

[cp]

15. Entire piece excellent - MUST READ!

We need to emerge from our denial. Painful but essential.

VOTE in the November 3 election as though your life depends on it.
And our democracy's.

[llashram]

18. finally, this, big time

keyword "slumbering" in American naivety at the true danger of generational creeping fascism that has culminated in the orange potus

[Roc2020]

19. America is dying in almost every category

economically. morally. democratically. civility. institutionally. etc. Militarism is all we have left. The number one ability to destroy.

[AlexSFCA]

22. we are the end, not the beginning of the end, of our democracy

do not let this be unnoticed. At this point, it will take nothing short of millions across entire country to come out to the streets. It will be too late after November, 3.
The beginning of the end was November 8, 2016.