Yes. Exactly that. Our federal elections have been corrupt since the 1800s. The Republican effort to curtail the Democratic party and erect an autocratic state started in the 1960s (though there were earlier efforts in the 1920s and 1930s).

I get that it sucks that the US is not at all what we were promised it would be, but letting the Republican party destroy the Democratic party is only going to make things way, way worse for the majority of Americans. And civil war and its aftermath is going to take decades (if not over a century) to resolve.

The French Revolution started in 1789. The Third Republic was founded in 1870, between which the guillotines had to be rolled out several times, and Napoleon had to go to war with the rest of Europe. When the two-state system falls in the US, you can expect chaos and bloodshed for the rest of your life, including kids prostituting themselves on the streets for food (what was seen in post-Soviet eastern bloc states after the USSR fell in the early 1990s). It's going to be grisly for anyone who doesn't flee abroad, and for some who do.

As per Bertrand Russell, war doesn't decide who is right, only who is left. And this includes civil war.

[–] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Very bleak and demotivating, thank you

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I have no interest in motivating revolutionary efforts that will lead to disaster.

The truth of the matter, is we're flying blind when it comes to moving the progress of a society forward: The promise of politicial power is overwhelmingly tempting, like the One Ring. And like the Ring it also lies. Most revolutions that aren't suppressed are followed by a run of short-lived oppressive dictatorships.

Meet the new boss: Same as the old boss.

Let's not do that. The thing is, we dont know how. Our theorists like Marx, Smith and Kropotkin each had only a piece of the elephant, and we don't have enough historical data to show how to prevent those with power from consolidating it into rule by the owning class yet again. Democracies are often formed when everyone in the nation is related to the casualty of a recent war and they're just tired.

I've had fantasies about putting together an ironclad batch of constitutional clauses and guaranteed rights (a thing Napoleon did to rally the people to his imperial claim). But it's difficult to gather a cabal of legal experts, or even create a webclient by which to crowdsource it. I can't even promise that would work.

I can't say I know what the solutions are, but those seeking rallying speeches typically get themselves slaughtered in a doomed revolutionary effort. Suicides and rampage killings continue to rise.

Putting your energy into a mutual aid effort in your neighborhood will make real but local differences. But it takes multiple exponents of such an effort to bring about revolution. Civil war is quicker, easier, more seductive.