School is indoctrination. I’m surprised so many of my peers don’t realize it.
When I was in China (country of birth), they did national anthem like either weekly or daily. I think it was every week, they would also do a flag raising ceremony. They then did a weird ceremony where first graders did wore little red scarfs, which I as an adult looked it up and its apparantly called the Young Pioneers program where they attempt to brainwash children into their “communist” ideology. (“communist” in quotes because it wasn’t even real communism). So yea I always get weirded out by these weird rituals.
Then when I immigrated to the US, they do the “pledge of allegience” and the national anthem of the US, of course, being a foreign national at the time, I didn’t do the pledge, but just stood up to sort of fit in, but I remained silent. I thought these rituals, national anthem, pledge of allegience, making kids wear red scarfs, was normal, just part of every country.
Then I grew older and went online and apparantly Europeans tell me the flah of allegience wasn’t considered normal.
I eventually got US citizenship derived from my mother’s naturalization. I did eventually get attached to the concept of the constitution and rule of law, checks and balances (I did NOT have any attachments to the US administrations or congress btw, that’s a whole differe t thing). But there was always something very uncanny about the way they teach things.
They keep saying “freedom” “freedom” all over everything they teach, and when they teach civics, teachers say that “police cannot do X if they don’t have probable cause” “you have rights” “innocent until proven guilty”, but we know for a fact that these things do happen, but of course, they are brushed off as “mistakes”, and yet cops don’t seem to get held accountable.
So again, I slowly see the same pattern all over again, different country, similar indoctrination.
And to top it all off, while the US (pre 2025) was considered “democratic”, schools are anything but. Schools admin and teachers always have a lot of draconian rules and some doesn’t even make sense.
Like wtf is school uniform, teaching conformity and just “obey” the rules, no questions asked? Also, you aren’t allowed to wear any outerwear even if its winter and you’re cold unless you purchase the school’s sweaters, wtf? This is a liberal city btw. So much for freedom. Freedom to get a fucking cold.
Security cameras everywhere in school, they had fucking security patrolling inside the school, like wtf its K-12.
The fucking police the bathrooms so much. They sometimes LOCK THE FUCKING BATHROOM because “drugs”. LOL FUCK YOU. I’M GONNA PISS ON THE FUCKING FLOOR. (sry for caps).
Its just, when you’ve seen so much shit from schools in 2 different nationalistic countries, and also have to deal with your abusive parents’ bullshit, you quickly develop the pattern recognition to recognize authoritarianism.
Public school is indoctrination. (And private school would be much worse, especially religious ones). Sad that people don’t recognize this.
School uniforms are absolutely NOT the norm in usa cities for the record
You ever read any Foucault? He famously called schools prisons
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One misconception I had about civil disobedience from what I’d learned in school is that it’s a reliable means of drawing attention to your cause: your willingness to expose yourself to legal consequences will communicate to the public how critical you consider the issue to be.
What I learned from witnessing it first-hand is that officials and the media will invent their own narratives about your actions out of whole cloth, and the statement the public thinks you’re making may bear no relation to your intentions.
Sounds about right.
When it comes to the media the well is poisoned. We need to teach an entire population how to consume new media and we cant do it fast enough.
Eventually, though, that will stabilize. Then there will be cultural revolutions in that space.
What is this “new media” for you? Because for many it means sources that tell an alternative truth. Usually written in Sankt-Peterburg.
And there use to be these things call tabloids, what is your point?
And there use to be these things call tabloids, what is your point?
Asking you what you mean with “new media”.
I don’t really think you define it as “anything that isn’t a tabloid”, because tabloids have the same content as what I understand under “new media”. And because my understanding of “New Media” is basically “alternative facts, just like in tabloids”, and I don’t think you necessary understand it the same way, I am asking.
That’s what Im asking. Not all new media is tabloid hogwashery. So, impasse?
An impasse only if you decide not to tell what you mean with new media. But if you do, then obviously yes, then it’s an impasse, as I obviously cannot force you to answer a question.
I was taught that the founding fathers’ did not take into account a two-party political system when they designed the system of checks and balances.
They did take it into account and George Washington himself said it was a terrible idea because it would lead to exactly where we are now.
There was actually a pretty good comment here once about how MLK and Gandhi only really succeeded with progress when a visible and difficult threat to the system was perceived.
Civil rights stagnated until the ramp up with the march to Washington and widespread riots from groups like the black panthers were damaging public society.
Similarly, Gandhi had trouble convincing the British to even consider independence until widespread communal violence swept the nation in the aftermath of WWII.
Both figures were touted as succeeding in history books due to their non violent movements, but in reality they simply became the center of attention for media at the time which solidified them as icons of their respective movements.
Ironically, both were assassinated which means their opposition definitely viewed them as a a powerful political threat, and not just some supporters for peace.
They enshrined the 2nd amendment for a reason. but for now its enough to do simple things like:
- boycott / disrupt any local companies that aid and abed ICE/national guard/armed forces. grocery stores/hotels/restaurants. etc.
- disrupt these peoples ability to sleep.
- repeat the above for any federal agents in your state who are carrying out trumps agenda.
Oh for fuck’s sake, if you want to start a revolt then fucking start it already. Fascism is here right now, so you need to fight it right now. You’re doing no good by sitting around and saying “I would have totally joined the Revolution if one had spontaneously formed around me.”
If a violent resistance isn’t feasible in the here-and-now (and it isn’t) then you need to find other ways to resist.
Bruh, it sounds like you and OP are both on the same side. Like the point of this post is to kind of -nudge nudge- that “disobedient” thought that’s teetering on the edge of realization, without making a direct call for action. You call for it one way, they call for it another way, but both of you seem to be attempting to conjure the same idea.
Why in the world waste time complaining that your teammate isn’t using the same tactics as you? We have to stop letting arbitrary shit divide us. If we all have the same goal, we should be aiming toward it together.
The OP isn’t suggesting any tactics at all. They’re just saying “we should do anything” and expecting kudos for that. If you want to do something then do something. The time for hypotheticals is over.
They’re also not trying to suggest any tactics
But thety are indeed using tactics, and you’re complaining that they are wrong because they aren’t the same you are using.
Ok I go do a revolution now, thanks for the pep talk.
We will join if we hear about it
I’ve been out here being revolting for almost 2 hours now. Not much progress. Let me know if you hear something.
lemme know where and I’ll come join you. I’ll bring a 6 pack and some chips.
yep, I need to polish my rifle before I go out, wouldn’t want it to jam when its hero time. Will be right behind you. Actually I need to buy that rifle then polish it. Actually I need to decide which rifle. AR15 right? I heard they are heavy though? and probably do some mandatory classes and paperwork, license fees. Practice at the range. Etc. The point is, I am right behind you… We all are.
seriously though, why are we all so sedate about fascism and losing our rights? I think its because we dont imagine ourselves to be in imminent danger yet? Its all still very abstract. And yes, I am white and male, and have enough resources to be OK on a day to day basis. the price of eggs being higher and the news sucking every day, and our country’s participating in war crimes are each unbearable, but on a day to day basis, its still mostly just expensive eggs. I can always worry about the rest… later.
We are getting to a point of no return… or at least a return that would be very, very difficult to achieve. But it’s all done in a very calculated way to make you feel like everything is going fine if you’re not directly affected. It’s fine if the Supreme Court approves of these power grabs, right? And, how can I pay attention when there’s so much going on, right? But Trump is demonizing groups of people as enemies, defying constitutional rights, and making power grabs never before seen from the executive branch in this country. It’s only been a few months and it keeps getting worse.
We’re in very deep shit. Sign a strike card! https://generalstrikeus.com/
Its sad because if we were smart we would act now before a single bit of blood is shed… and all you would have to do is not go to work.
“Checks and balances” in the context of US federal government just means that each branch has the ability to check the growth of power of the others. It’s not “a lie” because it’s still true. Right now congress could, if they wanted to, impeach the president or pass laws preventing him from doing the things he wants. The SCOTUS could stop him too if they wanted to actually take up cases on the law instead of using the shadow docket to avoid making rulings.
Trump partisans hold a trifecta in government right now so they are not going to use their checks they have available to them. But one branch refusing to check another because its members were elected from the same stock of partisan lunatics is not the same as checks and balances not existing.
The executive is exceeding its power. Whether the other branches are just ok with it doesnt matter, they fail their obligation to the constitution. The executive does not have the power to rewrite the constitution. The executive does not have the power to write law. The executive does not have the power to deploy the military. The executive does not have the power to tariff. These are all things that are going unchecked.
The legislature doesnt even have some of these powers without a super majority. They are only stalling the process to prevent the checks from occuring.
The checks still exist to correct those abuses of power. Just because congress or SCOTUS is unwilling to use them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
A law that can be ignored is not a law.
That’s a nice bromide but framing the current constitutional crises as the result of a “lie” about checks and balances fundamentally mischaracterizes the issues at hand. For one it diminishes the compliance of the other branches which is clearly critical for enabling the abuse that we see. And it also overlooks the general issue that about half the national actively enables the naked corruption and ascendant facism of the current government.
The problem of the present moment is not the structure of the government it’s the tolerance of the population.
The constitution never intended the general populace to govern. Look at things like the electoral college, the make up of the senate, gerrymandering, voting rights. Liberals believe in majority rule. I wouldn’t go as far as to say populism but we are seeing the results of populism from the GOP. The founders (not my fucking fathers) looked at governments like Athens and said, no way.
The people do have power, but after they express that power they need to establish government. Our constitution is basically toilet paper to the people in charge because it doesnt grant them what they really want. Authoritarian rule. Today, checks and balances are not preventing them from imposing it.
The point I was making was that the people who are in power are in power because about half of all voters are fine with them being in power and about a third actively want facist rule. Ultimately thisis not a failure of government structure. It’s a failure of citizens. Maybe that will change as those who supported trump from ignorance experience the consequences of their decisions. Maybe not. But trump won the popular vote last election cycle and has always enjoyed a fairly substantial base. A base that penalizes conservatives who worked against him by removing them from power. You cannot ignore the role that the people played in bringing about the current state of affairs. We are getting what people voted for.
Btw the checks do still work. They work in lower courts as they apply the law without regard to partisanship. They, surprisingly, work in grand juries. And they work for non MAGA states to the extent that our federalized system gives more influence to local governments. Where they have failed is where maga politicians enjoy wide support.
The point Im making is that checks and balances were not intended to hinge on the will of the people. They were supose to protect the structure of government themselves.
Someone has had an incentive to teach you pretty much everything you know. You hope much of it was benevolent, but maybe the teachers were taught to use benevolence that way (by pedagogical teachers before them)… Then there’s this whole thing called “The Hidden Curriculum” which is the accidental lessons burried in the structures and systems of how we learn (for instance showing up, but avoiding detention and homework are part of the Hidden Curricula of the school system, unintended lessons that we absorbed without being told to)… And then there’s Labour History, which is like this secret history of workers rights that most schools won’t teach, and it soon becomes obvious that teaching can have ideological and systemic purposes attached, and even hidden or subconscious back flows and subconscious effects.
It’s all a bit much.
The internet is like a kaleidoscope. You feed it a bit of information, because of human nature, it fractures into many different pieces.
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Jan 6 rioters got hired to run DOJ https://www.npr.org/2025/08/07/nx-s1-5493197/doj-trump-jan-6-defendant-jared-wise-capitol-riot
You can read the constitution of the united states for free. You can also read the constitution of every US state for free (except probably some red states; but I’m just assuming that. ((You can also find that out for yourself for free…)))
Checks and balances are real, they have just been exploited from time immemorial. Go ahead and civil disobedience as much as you want you sweet summer child / foreign agent!
