As is typical for the US, 1/3 are deeply aware, 1/3 are in full "patriotic" support, and 1/3 are too distracted by the latest TikTok dance to notice.

I see a lot of people starting gardens or looking to getting chickens to be as self sufficient as they can. Many are holding off on large purchases to save in case "something happens". People around me who were never interested in firearms and in fact were generally opposed to them are starting to arm themselves at a rapid pace.

Imagine reading some fiction book, like fantasy or something like that.

You see a state that was created by genocide, which was continued until there was barely anyone left to kill, which state then became world hegemon, took control over nearly entire planet economy and proceeded to find new targets for genocide, ecocide, invasion, looting and murdering every political opponent.

You would think it's caricaturally evil, worse than Mordor.

And here you ask "they are now definitely a rogue state"? Now?

Roughly half of the population has absolutely no clue what's going on. Kids, old people, non-news-readers/viewers, etc.

A third of the population is vaguely aware that some shit is going down based on vibes but can't identify the problem.

Half the remaining sixth can identify the problem as political but misattribute the cause. Leaving just a 12th of the population actually aware of our situation.

The fascists own all the media organizations. The population has been taught systematically since birth to have unyielding blind faith in the institutions of the state and capital. Many won't understand that anything unusual is happening until they're hungry and cold, burying empty caskets for their drafted children sent to die in fascist wars of conquest.

There was never a point in US history that it was not a rogue state. If you believe there’s a period it wasn’t, you simply do not know enough history about the time period you’re referring to.

Or more likely, you believe white lives to be more valuable, and you take offense now that the US is directing their usual behavior towards white Europeans.

Most of us are either completely deluded or utterly crushed by the collapse of our entire system of government. We know this is corrupt, and we want to organize to bring it to an end. But we have so many checks and balances that even if we all marched today with pitchforks and torches it wouldn't effect any real change without burning down every police station, city hall, state house, and the federal buildings. All while hoping the military doesn't show up and now us down with their weaponry. All the whole knowing that there has been a sharp rise in the popularity of police using violence and death as a deterrent.

In short, we know, and we can't see any way out of this mess. It wasn't supposed to be possible, and looking back we all saw it coming. But we were just dismissed as alarmists every time we spoke up and we are surrounded by morons who think this is the best thing that has ever happened to this national.

Based on the pro Trump people in my life, I've seen two classes:

• Those in denial and ignorant in general (don't really follow the news), who don't believe for example that Trump is deporting people without due process, and blatantly violating the law and constitution.

• Those who are so sucked into the MAGA own-the-libs circle-jerk that even when presented with the facts and proof of Trump doing something blatantly illegal, will usually retort with something like "oh so when the Democrats do it it's okay, but now the Trump is doing it it's wrong??? You fucking communist!"

Both I believe are the result of being fed far right propaganda by YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc. It's the only explanation I have. These aren't random people I don't know. These are people I love and have known my whole life.

It hurts to see, and I don't see a way to help them that doesn't involve ruining those relationships. I avoid talking about politics around them because I know it's going to make me resent them, and I don't want that.

Americans for the most part are only dimly aware there's an outside world in the first place. The amount of covering up that needs to be done is minimal.

The average American voter is hilariously unengaged. Many of them read at an 8th grade level at best. We're suffering the consequences of an education system that has been tragically underfunded for generations, and our media institutions are thoroughly compromised. Because of this, media literacy may as well be non-existent. The worst actors in our public institutions know this and have chosen to capitalize on it. Foreign interests recognize the obvious weakness in our social fabric, and they have been taking advantage of it to great success.

We are completely lacking the most crucial part of any functional democracy - an informed electorate. We have the least qualified people making the most important decisions.

The United States is effectively a failed state. Many of us recognize this, but our options for addressing the problem are limited. We not only have to dislodge the largest defense structure the world has ever seen, but we have to somehow fix the plague of weaponized stupidity that is conservative culture in order to ensure the worst humans don't end up in powerful positions.

If you have any suggestions on how to start fixing that, I'm all ears.

Oh, we fucking know.

The West Coast is well aware. I really can't see anyone in the US not being aware of our country's wannabe fascist status, even though some will plead ignorance. I'm kind of hoping maybe Oregon, Washington and California will get together and ask Canada if we can join them... with a probationary period of course. No one in their right mind can trust us outright at this point.

Kinda on topic, but imma give you some perspective into what it's like to be a liberal leaning person in a deeply red county. Half my friends are independent or republican, all my coworkers and my boss are republicans, and even my dad is straight up MAGA. I've always voted third party because I hated that Democrats never get anything done, but I did vote heavily democrat this past election because I knew how fucked everything would be.

I would say 99% of people do not care or don't think it's a big deal. The ravenous Trump supporters you see on the internet and in videos are more of a minority than the norm. There are definitely some hardcore MAGA here but most everyone is just regular everyday people that are just carrying on like nothing is different. Most of them don't spend much time on the internet and they hardly watch the news. I was talking about the tariff situation to a cashier at a gas station just this morning and it was the first time they were hearing it. And with the news not even covering half the shit that's going on they probably never will. My roommate works downtown and he didn't even know about the protests at the Capitol until I mentioned it to him 3 days later.

I guess my point is that the average person isn't even informed. Not everyone spends a lot of time on the internet so they don't even see what's going on. They decide to vote specifically because the candidate says "Republican" and that's the furthest thought that goes into it. Everyone talks about "this is what they voted for" as if any more thought went into their vote for Romney or McCain than their vote for Trump. And I don't blame them for it because as far as they know, this was just like any other election. They've been bamboozled by local news to think everything is still exactly the same as they slowly pushed the Trump agenda onto them. The hardcore MAGA are definitely fascists in every sense of the word, but these regular everyday people are not fascists. They were just voting for the party they always voted for and were just expecting the same kinda shit from Trump's first term, and the local news didn't tell them anything different.

I hope that people outside the US are aware of how quickly the rhetoric is shifting within the US. The right wing machine is rapidly spinning up a normalization of the ideas that: the US doesn’t need allies at all, the US has zero obligation to abide by international treaties, and the rest of the world is available for us to take. By ‘take’ I mean utter economic dominion and/or military conquest and/or territorial annexation.

The speed at which things are deteriorating here is shocking. An imperial US is a terrifying prospect. This deranged, entitled joke of a country has both an effectively endless supply of armaments and a depraved indifference to the suffering of people abroad and here at home.

The world has a metastasizing US problem.

Trump supporters are full on gung ho! My parents fully are into ripping this nation apart. They are morbidly obese people that rely on medications to live. Who would die from these issues if medication gets cut off.

The USA was a rogue terrorist state already for decades in it's meaning for foreign policy and illegal wars. They did a worse thing than Russia did with Ukraine when they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan with flimsy excuses, except it was not a country on their doorstep but on the other side of the world.

Nobody is "aware" of this. People continue talking about US doing this or helping that as if they were not a rogue state.

So far Trump hasn't done anything irreversible "rogue state" in regards to international relations. He constantly sprays shit everywhere to get people to loose their minds. Yeah he's threatening to invade any nation where they could plunder, but he's only saying the quite part out loud. The US has been doing that for decades.

I also don't believe (hope) that Trump actually will start a war. It's not his stage. It's a long complicated affair where he isn't in the spotlight and doesn't get to shine and control the narrative with chaos and then hop onto the next thing the next week. He might bomb this or that as long as it's quick to do, but he only wants to appear as the big man. Obviously this is just speculation.

If you mean "failed state" or no longer a democracy, I don't think people think that already. They assume they can vote again for another obama / biden type in 4 years.

I see the American media as softballing fascism, or they're just outright complicit.

No one will call shit what it is, and every fucking thing in the news needs to be both-sides-ed.

This doesn't help with the less educated grasping these basic concepts, nor does the massive stigmatization of intelligence and critical thinking, nor does the attacks on institutional education.

There's laws constantly being passed in the form of 'vouchers' to drain public school funds and funnel American kids into Christian indoctrination, and our public schools are now dramatically underfunded.

So I guess I understand why more than half the population just straight up ignores politics. because reality here is really depressing.

Most Americans don't think about other countries enough to really grasp what you mean by rogue state

Midwesterner here. Surveys show Trump's approval rating between 40% and 50%, and here on the ground, I believe it. A lot of people are seriously misled. Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax are considered legitimate news sources, so a lot of people truly believe that Trump is improving things.

It will take decades to deprogram all the people who fell for the alt-right's tricks.

The average person is not deeply aware of this stuff. All y’all don’t have any fucking clue what the average American is like.

Most people are just trying to get through the day. They want to pay their bills and make sure the kids are fed and Sally needs to get to dance class and Bobby has been having problems at school and now the boss wants to get that foundation poured tomorrow so you’re gonna have to stay late, but your wife can’t leave work early to pick up the kids so now you have to deal with that and oh, eggs cost double what they did a year ago and you haven’t gotten a real raise since 2021.

They don’t have time to spend on Lemmy, figure out how to use Linux, learn what a tariff is, or debate the difference between gender and sex, or read about what the Heritage Foudnation does. I do, but I’m not most people and the more y’all keep acting like those people aren’t like you people the more problems you’re gonna keep making for yourself.

Grow the fuck up

Half are aware, the other half is happy about how things are going. Apparently we have hundreds of millions of racist dumbfucks here.

Lots and lots of people, actually. Many identify with the tough-talkin' images being projected, believing it's just what the world needs and that the magic sorting hat will assign them to the privileged class when the dust settles.

I’ve been saying this is inevitable since at least 2004. I’ve been called every name you can pretty much call someone.

I hate being right it fucking sucks.

In the Los Angeles Mexican community no one is fucking aware. In the Chicago black community no one is fucking aware. I'm sick of the people in this shit hole. They are happy as long as they have their bread and circus, no matter what.

Now? USA has been supporting a genocidal nuclear regime in palestine for decades. They've been threatening and attacking every state in the region. Total rogue.

Are people in the us aware... No!

It's been a rogue state for decades, they call it 'American Exceptionalism', and the 'patriotic Americans' are happy about it.

Shithole Country, Failed State. These are understating just how fucked up the US is right now.

The amount of harm Trump has done and will do to this country (in the name of trying to harm the entire rest of the world) is going to last for decades. And when he's done, he's so dumb that he will think he won bigly and his supporters will continue to repeat idiotic statements about how much better off the US is, and most of them will believe it.

This country is fucked.

Those of us who pay attention know.

However, the media ecosystem is INCREDIBLY conservative and pumps out the rah-rah jingoism whenever it can. Those of who just stick to the mainstream echochambers think the US is a bastion of freedom and peace.