It's so insane it doesn't feel real

The word is coup. An unelected centa-billionare is re-shaping the federal government to suit his whims. No amount of Executive Orders actually allow this. The Supreme Court has been clear that the only means we have to stop this is impeachment which no one sees as a option because the Republican Party has been captured by the same special interests that led to this.

The way Musk took an ancillary office and weaponised it to seize control of the government is an almost carbon copy of how Stalin took power.

I guess we're finding out how it feels to be helpless to another coup. The legacy of our elected officials doesn't seem to matter to them.

People aren't helpless. They are just not doing anything, because of fear that they might lose what they have now, or because of apathy.
- What do you propose that people could do?

It's so insane it doesn't feel real

What's wild is it never gets better. Four years from now we'll still be like "holy fuck".

Early trump news that was alarming in 2017 felt hardly newsworthy in 2019. I expect similar escalations for this term unfortunately.
- By 2027 I doubt anything will matter at all

Well he is South African, so I assume he will be deported any time now...

And trump wouldn’t stop talking about Obama being African

I believe the correct term is Fascism, flat out.

It feels strange seeing this kind of talk in Lemmy and Reddit, while the mainstream media of my country (not-usa) speaks surprizingly little about it. It's not that I believe them to be MAGA-minded, maybe they are just not sure what to make of it. This just makes me wonder how real it is, when I don't see anyone "reputable" speaking of it.

The fear of having your press pass removed is real. We saw this last time.

FWIW: the BBC are reporting it and they are usually reserved about reporting foreign news until there's confirmation
I think people outside the bubble of the two "parties" can more clearly recognize that this is not a major break but rather a continuation of an already evil empire that is largely supported.

What's insane is having any faith in a 200+ year old pact between slavemasters. That garbage has always been a crisis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion#American_Revolution

we’re so unfunny unformatted quotes get upvoted on politicalmemes now… please fellow fedi users we need more content we have to grow our supply

An even bigger deal than Musk being able to choose who gets paid, is Musk access to SS numbers and government data. If AI is good at anything yet, it is as a super query language able to crosslink data. Voter manipulation/suppression that is much more targetted than the records in recent election is one application. Sicking the gestapo on opponents is maybe not AI related, but still/more disturbing.