Honestly this is insane to me given the Trump crowd skews much older.
Literally the generation growing up in the Cold War, having evil Soviets ingrained in them from childhood, and now Russia being happy with our policies doesn't raise a red flag for them? Our President being pals with the ex-KGB Putin doesn't mean anything to them? Hello??
Let me tell you what I learned living around rednecks my entire life. They are the exact same as deer. They are dumb, they have no ability to have foresight, to think ahead or to plan. They just exist. My wife calls them NPCs. They go to work, breed constantly without thinking about money, drink beer, buy a truck and hate strangers. That's all they know how to do so anything that any republican says, is blindly followed. They also mostly believe they are good Christians regardless of their deeds as long as they go to church. Religious people are the most easily manipulated of us so this is right up their alley. They are taught to follow and not question. I'm very much sure that a large majority of them don't have inner voices or a concept of critical thinking. Just like deer, they just BE.
Maybe a controversial take on Lemmy to defend religious people but here goes. I don't think it's fair to place the blame on these people. I think for the most part, they are doing the best they can with the skills and capacity they have. None of these people, who you are denigrating by comparing them to literal animals, are born terrible people.
So ask yourself, who is to blame. Is it the fearful, working class person to the left of you in the store? Is it your neighbor who is fearful of transgender people because they don't understand them? Or perhaps the family down the road struggling to make ends meet and don't have the capacity understand the real cause of their struggle.
Or is it the media culture that constantly instills fear and hate into them. And the church that no longer preaches godly values, but is instead filled with grifters and charlatans. The rednecks are not the cause of the US turmoil, they are not your enemy. What is the difference between a redneck and someone with a successful career? Opportunity. Care. Support. Anyone can be successful with support.
It is the capital class that seeks to sow fear, hatred, and division because thats the only way they can retain power. A united working class is an existential threat to their existence. The "dumb rednecks" are vulnerable and hurting and they have been exploited. Place your hate where it is deserved, the ultra wealthy, who for decades have been allowed outsized influence to manipulate the people of the US.
So, funny story. I like to joke that I'm prescient.
In 3rd Grade, about the year 2000, I heard a news story about Vladimir Putin. This was long before I understood fuck and all about Jack and shit. I told my mom "that guy is pure evil." I remembered her telling me "Gotta give Russia a chance." I'm fairly certain she meant a "chance to remove him" now, but at the time I was like "ok, but he's clearly evil."
25 years later I remember that as my second premonition. I'm sure I heard something from someone about how he was behind the apartment bombing false flag and that's what connected it.
The first premonition was when I grabbed a pillow in the car and squeezed it about 20 seconds before my dad hit an ice patch in our car and spun out into a bridge wall. Again, I'm sure I just got frightened by the cold weather and being on the road for about an hour.
Unfortunately, none of it has been terribly useful. Although one time I had a dream where they had rib sandwiches as school, and if I went with the burger I would be disappointed because my friends were all talking about this crazy good sandwich they served at school. So I got the rib sandwich and it was amazing and they were right.
It is our fucken duty to sabotage anything that tries to free the noose around Moscow's neck. If they want to lift the sanctions we should lift their necks from their shoulders. Fucking kidding me? Remember McCarthyism? This is fucking batshit insane.
With Zelenskyy saying the end of the war may be very far off, it looks like Ukraine is preparing to go ahead without US aid, rather than be pressured to give in to Russian ultimatums.
We'll see if he can hold out if/when we lift our sanctions on Russia and start allowing the transfer of everything they need to rebuild their military hardware. Or even worse, selling them our own weapons.
EDIT: And now around three hours after I posted this, White House announces directive to drop sanctions. gg
I mean, whats the alternative? Unconditional surrender?
As I see it, here's the 3 options:
Bend the knee to trump, give up your resources, and keep your country with no security guarantee worth a damn, just to lose your country later. And not just the lack of credible security guarantees, but specifically agreeing to never join the one alliance that would give such a guarantee.
Bend the knee to Putin, and just let Russia annex Ukraine fully, therefore avoiding a war in the unspecified future.
Go at it with or without US support.
If you were the leader of your country, how much of your land and resources would you give away in the pursuit of temporary peace, knowing that it is only temporary?
You know the saying, be the change and all that. If you think it's a good idea you should go for it. I don't know much about fundraising or web design but I would be willing to offer some kind of support, be it some time and energy or helpful resources/tools I am able to find for example. Maybe you can help in ways other than financially as well. We are the ones who need to do the things. The number of those willing to act and speak out against oppression and regression and the cults of ignorance and capitalism has been going down as a result of a concerted effort by very well funded groups and individuals. The sooner we act to pull folks out of the pipelines siloing them off into hateful ideologies (alt-right pipeline comes to mind for example) the sooner we can start the work, individually and interpersonally and otherwise, to end the cyclical perpetuation of harm forced upon us by the systems that we live under. Please feel free to reach out if you want support and resources for taking steps to make changes, and that offer is for anyone who is reading this and doesn't know where to start and is acting in good faith.
The ultimatums putin, erm I mean trump suggests is essentially completely surrendering to Russia (maybe with a brief ceasefire, to let Russian soldiers to regroup)
Well placed memes? There has been a massive, concerted effort to disrupt US politicsl perception since the 2000s, and only succeeded because tech billionaires were willing to play ball.