I can't be the only one who feels just weird about the current political climate this year. Anyways like I said I'm excited because there seems to be more potential for revolution, but especially after 2016 which was both a shit year for me and the entire world everything just feels off for me. I don't really know how to describe the feeling other than just deep uncertainty and worry about the future specifically because it was already looked down upon to be a leftist, but things have seemed to have gotten worse and I'm very worried since I've realized as nice as it feels to romanticize the working class that there is a very big population of the working class that wants people like me dead. Hell even my mother half way "joked" about running over anti Trump protesters after the election was over. Everything is just so uncertain I just don't know anymore.
Carson Reed
Idk where the fuck you are but here so many liberals are radicalizing to the left that all the socialist organizations in the area are suddenly having trouble booking big enough spaces to hold all of them
John Miller
If its of any comfort to you, the communities around me are having huge socialist movements.
Ryder Diaz
I'm in Maine specifically in the outskirts of a small town and in more rural/small town areas there tend to be much more conservative minded people than in the big cities.
Noah Murphy
radicalization is going in both directions, but I'm seeing it more to the left than right. Any gains towards the right I believe are very much short-term and post-orgasm from Trump's win, once his and the GOP's policies start assfucking everyone who isn't rich, I guarantee there will be a massive shift to the left.
Ryan Peterson
Oh that sucks, unfortunately nothing can really stop small town or rural areas from breeding the right-wing ideologies since that's the sort of culture inherent to those areas plus the general disdain for city culture.
Best bet is to make sure you throw Obama/Clinton under the bus in all your discussions early on to signal to them you're not trying to maintain status quo that they hate so much
But yeah if it's any consolation in the cities and particularly in the minority neighborhoods the atmosphere is indescribably radical in a left leaning direction these days. Accelerationism here we go
Aiden Wood
but difference is Dems are imploding (losing power in every institution of the gov) while praising idpol idiots like that "shut other white people down" lady Repubs are taking over the entire government. Theres "genuine counterculture" developing against idpol that happens to have prominent "thought leaders" - rightwingers. Oh and they got president in power.
Fuck me.
Jeremiah Gonzalez
There's a major problem emerging though with Trump's policies that will prevent the overton window shifting to the left: he's actually sticking to his campaign promises. If he does invest in rebuilding the infrastructure, bringing all the shitty manufacturing jobs from Mexico to America, and builds that wall, the impact on the cultural consciousness in America will ensure his predecessor retains power. This is omitting the impact the media will have on de-legitimatizing his presidency, but if even one of his primary campaign policy reforms are implemented, but especially the wall, expect rightists to maintain power for at least a decade.
Juan Miller
This. If that fucking wall is built it'll signal the death of the Republic and the rise of the Empire with Trump's kids next in line for Presidency, probably Ivanka.
Chase Gutierrez
What about the scenario in which he sticks to his promises and it tanks the economy? Or are we operating under the assumptions that his unrealistic trade protectionism and enormous tariffs won't leave his voterbase with vastly lower buying power?
Nicholas Long
most of the things he talks about will end up increasing the contradictions of capital extremely and probably lead to another financial crisis in a few years, but if he pushes for that big infrastructure bill he wants (which is really just huge tax cuts for the construction industry) and stuff is actually done, it could be a big temporary stimulus for the economy
Lincoln Smith
you guys are forgetting that people are hurting right now, automation is ramping up, jobs are getting shittier and wages aren't matching inflation or cost of living despite some state increases. Also Obamacare might get repealed, and they want medicare/medicaid repealed too. Trump is lying out his ass and congress isn't going to do anything to help mitigate the disaster, I highly doubt the AutReich is going to happen simply because of these factors.
Joseph Jackson
Do you mean purchasing power? It's obvious Yellen has set up the derivatives bubble to pop within the next four years by raising interest rates, but the possibility is there for deferment if Trump manages to convince his congress to invest in a structural reform bill which not only scraps thousands of positions in bureaucracy, but also establishes a fund for this infrastructure revitalization agenda. Couple this with the shale deposits found in TX and the Mid-West, and America can shift it's economy fairly quickly towards an exports-driven marketplace. The tariffs will be nullified based on the installment of a manufacturing base and taking such manufacturers from Mexico and Canada.
Unfortunately, this "unrealistic trade protectionism" you mention will work given U.S. hegemony and the massive disparity which spans from developed countries to developing countries or core to peripheral economies. If Trump maintained support from his base he could potentially convince Americans to get involved in another police action. I doubt this would happen, but don't put it past rightists, just look at how both Bush Sr. and Jr. maintained the deficit while convincing Americans to die in the oil wars. Also, keep in mind that the U.S. is still the largest donor to the U.N., that power alone gives it room to manipulate the actions of other nation-states.
I'm in the automation industry, software industry specifically, and I can tell you right now intelligent agents aren't cheap and automating factories isn't either. One of the A.I.'s we developed took 6 months for our entire team to complete and it only acts as a managerial agent for 500 workers. Even if you're convinced by techno-evangelists that this innovation is exponential, you won't be seeing complete automation of even middle-level managerial workers for quite some time.
This is a naive understanding of the current state of affairs and likely biased by your emotions. The point I was making is that Trump so far, doesn't appear to be "lying out of his ass". In fact, the image he's giving to the world is that he's stringently following his directives and maintaining support from his base by doing so. The alt-right has no political power as of current, and won't any time soon. It's a forced movement seeking to encapsulate radicals that was designed to be a political dead-end.
Nathan Taylor
That's always been there but it was just less blatant then with the Western media. Before they know just how virulently ant-leftist the Western media is and they undermined their audiences by giving radicals who were shut out of the media a voice. Now their becoming more anti-communist after the election of Trump? Made me contemplate.
Wyatt Brown
Thom Hartmann and Lee Camp are both with RT and very much leftist. Max Keiser is still a leftist right? I would be shocked if he became right-wing
Hudson Gray
I watch RT regularly. Usually Thom Hartmann's The Big Picture and Lee Camp's Redacted Tonight. I haven't watched much of the other stuff on RT lately
Michael Williams
Yes, thanks for the correction. Interesting that you bring up the U.N. when there's been so much talk form his admin about potentially leaving the U.N. Is this, as well as the bellyaching on NATO, a lot of hot air blowing or would he actually follow through on this? If he does, doesn't this decrease the leverage to manipulate other nation states?
Also, with the scenarios illustrated above, do countries like Canada and Mexico have any retaliatory actions (economically speaking) at their disposal? Would it be worthwhile for them to do so? I'm honestly having trouble imagining a successful and smooth transfer of all relevant manufacturing bases to the US with no increase in pricing on average consumer goods but I admit I may be ignorant on this topic.
Carter Long
I just had a look at RT America's recent youtube videos. They still seem far left to the Democrat Party to me. lol. Maybe RT is different. Since they have closer ties to Russia and Trump sucks Putin's cock
Josiah Hughes
This, basically.
I think said oil war is basically Trump's ticket. His policies aren't popular enough that he could get re-elected by sticking to them, especially since anyone who paid more attention to those than his tweets can see that they actually do amount to a continued ramping up of authoritarian US policy (endorsement of stop-and-frisk, renewing expired Patriot Act provisions, the much-discussed wall and Saudi-exempt "Muslim ban," Net Neutrality opposition, etc.) with a lot of additional spending. He needs a war to get people on his side, and even that might not work given he has the charisma of George Costanza's dad and is already seen as a pathological liar even by supporters.
Jack Jenkins
mainers are ridiculously nativist. and you and i know their courtship of nativist right wing populists started before with the defending of dumb shit paul lepage
stay safe. this is precisely why i moved away
Jack Murphy
The media will do its utmost to make people understand that the majority of illegal immigrants are just legal immigrants who overstayed their visa and that the wall won't do shit. That alone will undermine Trump a great deal.
Mexico could declare an embargo. It would be practically suicidal, but they hate Trump enough that they might do it anyway. Or they could just collapse into total anarchy, in which case trade with the US would still stop. Canada on the other hand is full of liberal cucks, so even if they could do something they won't.
No way he can do this without losing a huge chunk of support. Part of the reason he got elected is because Clinton was perceived as a warmonger. America has endured a decade and a half of useless wars now. Americans are tired of it and they won't sign up to fight foreign wars for Trump or anyone else.