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this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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Here in Chile, when one President declared war on their people, we trashed the country until his governance was all but surrendered, and we even got the chance of making a new Constitution out of it (the idiots blew it, but that's for Season 2 of the series). He got lucky to make it out of the Presidential building in one piece (we historically don't like it when armed conflict touches the place).
What are the so-called American citizens doing?
America definitely needs to get a sense of urgency in change, but USA is a much larger, and spread out country than Chile; and it also has the largest & most well funded intelligence agencies helping the oligarchs maintain power.
Is the US even that long?
Yes actually. Chile is 2,653 miles long. The longest longitudinal distance in the continental US is 2,802 miles.
You have cars, yes?
I used longitudinal distance because I wasn't 100% certain if the measurement for Chile is measuring a line between its two furthest points or just the distance between it's northernmost and southernmost latitudes. If it's the latter then it's a fair comparison, and if it's the former then Chile gets an unfair advantage but it doesn't change the result.
We have many vastly different regions, so yes. The commonwealth, the South, the Midwest , the West, the Pacific Northwest, all very far apart and with different immediate concerns.
Yes. Chile is 2653 miles long/tall. The distance from San Diego to Portland (Maine) is 3100 miles. Just Alaska is 2145 miles wide when counting all the Aleutian Islands.
The difference is, our police are armed more heavily than some nations military. And our military is more heavily armed than nearly every other nation combined..... And that's forgetting that we've allowed technocrats to install nationwide government surveillance, tracking and recording. Both online and in public places.
It's not so easy as just "revolt".
Um... Our people are also heavily armed and have built personas around fighting for our freedom. The real truth is people don't want to give up their comforts.
It is absolutely easy to revolt.
yea? it's easy? So, you've done it, right? You personally? Care to describe your personal experience, what you faced and how easy it was?
Lol you think I'm presenting myself as above the rest of you? Your emotionally driven, predictable response is, well, predictable.
you irl:
Lol hardly. I know who I am and what I'm about. Some butthurt people on a niche social media platform downvoting and insulting me is as meaningful as holding up a sign at a scheduled protest.
Our people are heavily armed... compared to people in other countries. They are not heavily armed compared to even the police, let alone the military. Any violent revolt would be put down in days.
Guess we'll just do nothing!
Seems like you have a head start there.
What they have is organization. What we have is numbers.
Kind of like Russia has a numbers advantage in Ukraine.
Honestly? The average and median American still has I think the highest disposable income in the world even after accounting for cost of living short of places like Luxembourg. While they're complaining, rightly, about their lot being worse compared to years past, most of them aren't feeling a sort of financial squeeze that's usually needed for that kind of revolutionary action yet.
The US has made a sort of deal with devil that's still mostly paying off for the average citizen. Until the middle class specifically really feel the squeeze, and not just compared to themselves historically, I don't see any revolutionary action happening.
This is what fascism is though. What you're describing is being complicit in fascism.
Apart from those without healthcare eh?
Yeah, but crucially, the ones who are in a position to feel that need keenly enough are sick.
They often have more immediate concerns.
But that number is "only" ~25 million out of over 340 million, or about 7% give or take (double checked my numbers; slightly off, but still under 10%). And they're likely in the worst position to do anything politically because they're too busy surviving. There is a crisis of under insured, but most people don't feel that pressure until it becomes a real problem, then they're in the group that is too busy surviving to enact change. For most Americans, that disposable income number includes healthcare. There's just a stupid amount of money in that country. And while there's a huge gap and most goes to the top, enough goes to the middle class to keep them pacified.
I'm definitely not endorsing the US system; it's a system of haves and have nots and embraces a wealth divide and can be pretty bleak. But most Americans just aren't feeling as much of a financial punch as the complaints might let on.
(This isn't to invalidate Americans who are struggling... been there, been homeless, it's awful. But middle class America, even by European standards, is pretty ridiculously wealthy.)
The whole idea that you have no job you have no healthcare. Dreadful.
Ghettos everywhere. USA could be africa
Eh, that's overstating it. It still is a stupidly rich country and professional working Americans tend to make more money than their European counterparts, even considering healthcare.
But yes, tying healthcare to employment comes with all sorts of problems and lets too many people not "poor enough" for Medicare to slip through the cracks. In my experience with a state Medicare system that gets good funding, the public system actually holds up quite well when looking at many of the European systems, at least here in central Europe where I live now... simply extending that to everyone would basically fix the problem. I've had good dental work, a fantastic pre natal and birth experience along with mending broken bones and such under a public system with no cost to me and honestly my experience was great.
Difference is in Europe we beleive society needs the lower earners and they deserve respect.
Lower earners do get pretty good care in states like California with MediCal. The problem is a) it isn't federal, so some states they don't invest get worse care and b) you can fall onto a band of making too much for public health care and too little for real insurance.
Nothing I've written should be taken as an endorsement. Medicare should be extended to all. With no means testing.
The braves from the land of the free are either:
cowering in fear
playing victim
pretending ThInGs ArE nOt tHaT bAd
all of the above
And you get downvoted for being right and calling it out. This is how it is.
They get downvoted because they attempt to mock instead of acknowledging reality of having the obstacles of the most powerful, and well funded 3 letter agencies subverting any attempt to enact real change in favor of the working class.
It’s just going to be harder than a smaller country that doesn’t have so many radically different regions.
I’ll take the unpopular point that I think is more relevant: it really isn't that bad for me and likely a lot of other people
My costs are up but I can absorb it, and materially my life isn’t that different. America should 100% buck these fascists, and I think we’re fucked as a country given the bald faced corruption + bigotry, but if my experience holds true for most of the others then it’s still not bad enough to risk what we have.
People have to lose a lot more for things to change.
"Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters."
Naomi Shulman
And that's why it took so long for WWII to happen. We haven't even had a Reichstag fire yet.
We kind of did on Jan 6. It's just that Trump suspended all of the consequences until his next term after Biden left office.
So because I don't go around murdering people who vote Republican, I'm a Nazi?
That's a viewpoint that will really win a debate. Also, I'm guessing that makes you a Nazi, seeing as you live in the US and don't seem to be in prison right now.
In the US, we can vote for politicians and we can go to protests and speak out against things we don't like. We can boycott companies and events. Anything more than that risks more than just "making waves." People are being killed for protesting ICE.
The point the person you are calling a Nazi is trying to make is that things aren't bad enough yet that normal people who are just trying to keep their families safe would be willing to commit violent acts. Are you out there doing more than just typing on a keyboard or holding up signs at a protest?
Yeah, things are degrading in the U.S. for everyone, but some faster than others. It’s easy to see the headlines that amplify the worst parts of America and think that’s life for everyone right now.
It probably will be soon enough, but not enough people are experiencing that quite yet, so that’s why there’s no urgency / mass outrage at the moment.
Nothing. And I get poo-pooed when I suggest this sort of thing. Fucking tired of this place, so much so that I've been looking to leave. It's difficult. I just don't think it's worth fighting for anymore.
The fun ("fun") thing is evaluating where to leave to. Other places that used to be cool, aren't anymore.
My biggest concern is getting close to my aging parents without actually living in my home state of Florida. Fuck. I hate the idea of moving back.
For a much more people oriented answer: I'm trying to survive. I'm trying to make sure my dad takes his medication right so he doesn't die. I'm trying to figure out how to pay bills when the local government I work for gave everyone a 2% cost of living raise, then raised taxes 3% and gave the city manager a $26,000 raise even though he was already being paid close to $200k. The only other person I know that doesn't think trump and all his cronies are the bees knees is elderly, has no retirement and is desperately trying to keep working despite health issues because her husband has cancer and she needs to keep working to pay his bills. Even if I made a ton of money and had help with my dad, I still wouldn't be able to do anything because of my health, either (I am 100% that friend who would get eaten by the zombies first) I'm not young anymore, either.
I think the internet makes it seem like a lot more people hate what's going on than there actually is. In my experience, i see a small number of crazy Trump fanatics, a small number of concerned and scared people, and then the vast majority just don't care. At least for now. That'll change when they started being affected. By then it'll be too late.
To sum up: more people don't give a shit than do. We haven't reached the part of the poem where "Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me. "
You know what's funny? The USA installed Pinochet !
Yeah, as well as some other guys.
From here, that doesn't look anywhere as funny I assure you :p
Part of it is scale. The usa has several individual states that are a larger population than Chile.
Which means more of an amount of people who should be able to do something.