USAmericans have shown a complete inability to rise up against their government. This is not surprising given our crushing economic system, the fragility of our lives, and cultural landscape of the USA. At this point I believe Resistance has to come from outside the USA. This is unlikely due to the USA’s extensive nuclear arsenal.

I foresee the USA going the way of China and Russia, steadily oppressing its people, enriching its oligarchs, and occasionally creating problems for the world. Greenland may very well be the USA’s version of China constantly threatening to seize Taiwan.

That’s the entire reason these people get paid so much. They’re the representatives of the corporation. They’re the ones who get subpoenaed and jailed if the company fucks up!!

I remember seeing a report about that, too. IIRC it was a school survey. That aside, Gen Alpha is absolutely going to be worse off than Gen Z. (In the USE) They’re growing up through the same violence that caused Gen Z’s stress/compassion fatigue/anxiety… PLUS they were raised by iPads with short-form content, and are living through the rise of fascism. Gen Z grew up doing “school shooting drills”; Gen Alpha is watching ICE agents grab people from their towns, schools, and daycares… and then they’re told the terrorists are the “good guys”.

If Gen Z is struggling as adults (and we are) Gen Alpha is fucked.

yeah to be honest that was and is my situation, exactly, too "^^

People say Republicans/MAGA will “look the other way” on the bigotry and hate; but you highlighted the unspoken. They’d pay, their own time and money, for the chance to feel powerful by depriving the needy.

When I think of the MAGA base I always envision a disgruntled working-class white man who is certain there will never be a better future, and just wants to beat down marginalized populations. Maybe he does it so there’s more for him; maybe because he’s misdirected and hate hurts less than disappointment.

Forgive me for not believing that there will be some ground-breaking reaction to this reminder that Trump and the powerful elites are actually self-serving predators. They were voted in to be ruthless predators. DOGE was about destroying the government employees. ICE is about terrorizing brown and black people, and the “libs” that back them. Sure, some of Epstein’s victims were white girls… some of the “woke feminists” MAGA mocks incessantly are white women. The attacks on SNAP and criminalization of the homeless are going to destroy all skin tones alike. Banning abortion sure screwed white women (and that one happened pre-reelection).

These people don’t vote MAGA to protect kids ; most vote MAGA because they want to feel like KKKlansmen tyrants with as little effort as it takes to cast a ballot; and the rest are just plain gullible.

I didn’t know anything about the pink sauce lady except her pink sauce product, and I’m not going to click that link. I’ll stay a low-information commenter, thank you very much <3

The “67” or “skibidi” stuff isn’t even bad. It’s just silly content and Gen Z/Millenials had their own versions growing up.

I’m wondering more about the trad-life/anti-women/alt-right propaganda; and the violence/gore/extreme porn/fetish content (you mentioned over-eating content. I think that’s called ‘mukbang’?)

Imagine being a 75-year-old Amazon camp survivor and getting snark from 15-year old edgelords arguing that there were “only 1488” total deaths and the CECOT footage was faked with AI by the “Hispanic drug cartels that run the world”…

Seeing the reels that get shared since the summer, nearly all of them are AI or extreme (not political, moreso like extreme overeating, extreme overpriced buying/unboxing videos or people fighting past what mma/ufc would allow type content). This seems to have led a few to being scared of the outside while a few others consider outside to be too boring now.

I think everyone’s glancing past this point. That’s the extreme internet content screwing with your friends’ brains – especially the fighting videos. That’s undoubtedly a factor in their withdrawal from IRL socialization. If you look to the Gen Z and Gen Alpha folks, that’s exactly what those generations are going through.

it’s not personal, it’s business

This mentality is such an ingrained part of corporate culture, and our culture has been centered around corporate life since around when Reagan came into office. The top suggestions for how to survive in this USA culture is to cut off empathy. What’s worse is I think a lot of people have. There’s an air of cruelty to every aspect of this society, from politics to police to medical to social media. Everyone wants a break from the reality of their shitty life, and many are willing to step on others for the hope of an opportunity.

Don’t feel too bad for me haha. I was 100% bought into Kamala Harris’ campaign and the 2024 blue wave; 100% ignorant about the reality of racism and criminality and brutality of this nation. It’s only this last year I’ve come to my senses about the reality of the USA.

The intensity of the Epstein scandal can. not. be overstated. It’s the world most prolific child sex trafficking ring, occupied by top figures across Western nations. USA. Canada. UK. Top celebrities. Top oligarchs. Top politicians. Trump’s connections were known. A story on Prince Andrew’s involvement was suppressed by the ABC news. And… USAmericans just ignore it… All of it. Well, Trump’s opponents cling to it, of course; but it wasn’t enough to stop Trump’s victories in 2016 and 2024, and again, Biden barrrely won in 2020 with an active pandemic brought about by Trump’s incompetency.

Nixon’s Watergate cover-up wasn’t enough. W. Bush’s lies that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of USA soldiers wasn’t enough. Nothing ever sticks to the people actually in power. Politicians are getting in squabbles while Silicon Valley and big finance are just cruiiiisin’ right along. It’s insanity, and yet the people bend to it.

I really believe we missed our chance to “act now”. I watched it trickle out of our hands in the first months of this administration. Big tech got the spynet cameras and AI networks set up; MAGA got its ICE secret police; The financial stresses got worse; And most damning: people are burnt out.

The ICE kidnappings weren’t enough. That was the base threshold in my mind. If masked agents grabbing people from your neighborhood isn’t enough to get people rioting, then nothing will. As it stands people are “fighting back” in some areas but that mainly amounts to taking to the streets and herding the agents away… then going back to whatever they were doing before.

People older than me would have said prosecuting/rioting against George W. Bush was the last chance off. Folks older than them would point to Nixon. Folks older than that may point to how we let the Confederate insurrectionist states off wayyy too lightly after the war.

Nothing’s going to be “enough” because USAmericans don’t have the energy in them to fight back. Nothing will make them say “enough” because there is no bite to give. The oligarchs know this. The main politicians who aren’t shunned from all the in-groups (so not the progressives or Q folks) – they all know this.

We are sick and terrified, bound to our lives through a mix of tragic optimism and fear of losing what little we have. The once-middle class cling to their ever-harder lives because they’re afraid of drowning in debt; The poor tread water through debt because they’re afraid of homelessness; The homeless persevere for fear of jail and death and being disappeared to camps.

We’re being played. Every day we push forward to be herded like cattle – worse than cattle, because the system doesn’t care about our health. We keep holding steady pushing through it all and trying to cling to hope of a better future that is clearly never coming. Every two years those on the left been promised a “blue wave” while Dems won’t even stop us getting prosecuted for Marijuana; and those on the right are promised a resurgence to some Great America that only ever existed for most straight white men, and which was created through the suppression of the same businesses that are selling them this lie.

This is all Gloom and Doom because I don’t see a way out of this. They’ve got us in a bind that I don’t think we can escape, even with the full cooperation of all the working class (which itself is just inconceivable). There’s some fundamental weakness of human nature and strength in our systems that got us here, and keep us here.

Trump couldn’t do it, but Stephen Miller can!

and let’s not forget how those same outlets predicted that Kamala Harris was going to win in 2024… and Hillary Clinton in 2016… and that Joe Biden would sweep in 2020… and all the “Blue Waves”…

I’m so tired. This nation is filled with morons.

Just 38 bills were passed into law by Congress this year, the lowest legislative output for a first-year presidency in decades

I feel the need to point out that quote (from the article) is a bit misleading when one of those bills was the “Big Beautiful Bill” which Trump and Republicans in Congress both declared was “all he needed”. Just saying…

I feel you. It’s been a year of hearing reports of “Bombshell!” and “Trump ruined!” and “Republicans scramble!”

No it wasn’t; No he wasn’t; No they didn’t. Yeah they’ve got idiots screwing some things up, but they’re doing so much that they’re creating immense damage. I wish people could get that in their head. I laughed at MAGA in 2023 and 2024; but look what happened in 2025.

I also don’t watch TV or movies – only Twitch streams. I’ve been this way even when not beaten down by capitalism and fascism though. Even when I’m taking a break from working on creative projects, it’s still nice to be able to turn my brain off and get the experience of seeing the game. Maybe my unmedicated ADHD makes me that way.

A Minecraft and Roblox streamer tried that a year ago, primarily as a pitch to investors to make a service for other streamers to make AI-generated content. His name is Kwebbelkop. This guy managed to make the laziest brand of content I have ever even heard suggested as an idea: An AI avatar reading an AI reaction to an AI-generated image. And I thought reaction videos were bad…

I’m tired of all this…

I was laughing along until you said “watching a stream (even without commentary)”. Yeah I’ve done that one. Sometimes I want to see what’s next in the game without spending 100 hours to get there ><. Also watching lets me mentally unwind, playing takes a mental toll.

None if you don’t get caught. They’re not going to do a full investigation if you don’t try to murder the guy. Also, look how badly the current FBI fumbled the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s killer? into Brian Thompson’s killer?