Cory Doctorow: "America is not great.

@ZDL @logicalmoody @dangillmor Exactly. We had MLK and JFK and RFK who were assassinated and then Gov George Wallace who was shot, mass protests over Vietnam, Nixon with Watergate, etc. Those times without internet spreading every crazy thing happening were just as tumultuous. Not to mention serial killers like Ted Bundy working in politics. I compare it with this generation to learn from past and deal better with today.

@x41h @logicalmoody @dangillmor I think it was just less visible to most white folk in the '60s and '70s (and '80s and '90s) so to them this is the first time EVAR that corrupt government victimized American citizens.

@ZDL @logicalmoody @dangillmor My thoughts as well. World has always been crazy.

@x41h @logicalmoody @dangillmor I guess that does technically make these exceptional times, now that I think on it.

This time the government is coming for white folk, not just the dusky folk.

@ZDL @logicalmoody @dangillmor Yea we are all fucked regardless. Keep calm and carry on.....

@dangillmor

Once again, @@pluralistic hits with nothing but net

#EpsteinClass

@dangillmor
America was always and always will be the land of killing and taking...

@dangillmor yeah this slave nation built on stolen land sucks.

@dangillmor America was never great…it’s an ugly shithole nation founded on white supremacy. Trump isn’t the problem, he’s merely a symptom. The actual problem is that 77 million Americans knowingly voted for a treasonous criminal piece of shit, and are proud of it. #USpol

@dangillmor

Cory has had it up to here.

You should, too.

This nonsense with the billionaire class, and how fucking "genius" they are, has got to fucking stop.

No trillionaire is worth this, and no trillion-dollar capitalism is worth this sacrifice.

We are a nation of human and civil rights, written into the civil and governmental promise that these rights are inviolable.

Privacy, due process, safety, versus uncertainty and terror, every second of every day, we are watching these rights be enshittified. Before our own eyes.

What the fuck has happened, here?

Take our humanity back. Wrestle it away from the abusers of the power they have wrestled, from us, instead of being freely given, with the consent of the governed.

This is a deep, profound moment, in which we, collectively, find ourselves.

Be smarter than the rich assholes, and drive this country, and all of the other free nations of the world, forward, for all of our species.

#humanism

@dangillmor

And do we still use their products?

@dangillmor Respectfully, the Epstein class haven't gutted a once-great America. In my eyes America has only ever been great if you were/are a white, wealthy, male land owner. If you were/are anything else, America has only ever been a failure to live up to the ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence.

@dangillmor @cjmoorehead

That's not quite true, at least about a portion of that number.
There are definitely people who regret voting for him and more still who just didn't believe he would do what's in that Project 2025 playbook.
There was solid polling about it before the election. If they thought he would they would not have voted for him.
Michael Podhorzer and Anat Shenker-Osorio talked about this dynamic just a few days ago - https://www.weekendreading.net/p/the-maga-reconstruction-of-the-north

@dangillmor It's becoming less great by the minute, too. Really stinking up the joint.

@dangillmor

And that needs to change…

@dangillmor Beyond that racists and fascists has taken over the tech industri. https://mastodon.world/@rebeccasear.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy/115985641904520812
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214229728

@AnnieBuddy @ZDL @logicalmoody @x41h @dangillmor

Not like the 60s or 70s, no. The rich had not regained the outrageous wealth of the 1920s yet by the 60s and 70s. We forgot and let them get control again.

@AnnieBuddy @ZDL @logicalmoody @x41h @dangillmor

and it's worse now than the gilded age ever was.

@darwinwoodka @AnnieBuddy @ZDL @logicalmoody @dangillmor not really.... Nixon tried to cap gas at a max price and then the oil tycoons began running a shortage on whole country with gas prices reaching $6 a frigging gallon. This is back in 70s when a brand new vehicle only cost $6k.

So what has changed? Those who own commodities still control the wealth and fuck us whenever they can while distracting us with politics. Nothing has changed except more technology.

Unabomber was right with his intentions.

@x41h @darwinwoodka @ZDL @logicalmoody @dangillmor

I'll have to disagree and say no, it is not the same. The scale and reality are actually well into the point of no return. In the past, enough people believed in the system to keep it going. Now, with the undermining of every institution and the rampant pillaging of what little remains in the middle class, the advancements that have been made in the last 200 years are being taken down.

America was considered great because it sold hope and opportunity, but that is rapidly being destroyed by those who think a warlord fortress world is a goal to aspire to. For most that vision is the opposite of hope and opportunity, it is decay and endless fighting.

And Nixon was stopped, if you recall. Who is going to stop Trump?