748
At work: "I hate mondays" (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] hansolo@sh.itjust.works 69 points 1 week ago

Whether or not the average person will go to a protest is heavily studied in Game Theory.

Unsurprisingly, the consistent finding is that either the person needs to have no risk from attending (lol, facial recognition and Palintir), have no costs to attending, or things have to be otherwise be bad enough that they genuinely think that things can't get worse for them if they attend and change might actually happen if they attend.

See you at work on Monday I guess.

[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 35 points 1 week ago

the person needs to have no risk from attending

The government deals in violence and knows how to handle groups of protestors, whether they originate as peaceful or violent. Don’t play to their strengths by engaging them on that level and giving them a confrontation that they can escalate.

Non-participation, boycotts, malicious compliance, quiet quitting, anticonsumption, and birthstriking are more my style. It’s not glamorous or quick, but governments are notoriously inept at dealing with situations that they can’t just beat or shoot at. They don’t know what to do when a hammer is an ineffective tool for the job.

These sorts of actions may be inconvenient or cause you to forgo certain things that you want. However it doesn't put you in any actual risk, whether it be physical, legal, or financial. The non-risk aspect of it means that it has a much lower barrier to entry, and thus a lower threshold for how bad things need to get before people take action.

[-] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

or things have to be otherwise be bad enough that they genuinely think that things can't get worse for them if they attend and change might actually happen if they attend.

Usually, the main reason for protests and revolutions to grow immensely is if the means of livelihood is affected. No food to eat? Blame the government. No jobs? Blame the government. No housing? Blame the government. They're cutting pensions? Blame the government. Speaking of which, the planned pension reform by Putin, years ago, was the only time his leadership was seriously threatened by the public. Otherwise, Russian people don't care if Kremlin bombs the Georgians or Ukrainians, or dissidents keep flying off the window, so long as their means of living are not touched. In that sense, individuals are selfish and don't mind authoritarianism as long as they themselves are not severely affected.

Humans are complex and are not naturally predisposed to crave for democracy, contrary to what many Westerners believe. Ultimately, it is a question of liberty versus security. Some prefer security so long as standards of living is well kept by the ruling elites, and certain degree of freedom is allowed to the public. That's why, unfortunately, some authoritarian leaderships persists for so long. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy for as long as anyone can remember, and Francisco Franco's fascist regime survived long, in spite of the fall of fascism after World War 2.

[-] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

“A protest” is literally nothing

[-] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago

Protests aren't nothing. That's why the government spends so much energy dispersing them. Riots would be more effective, but that doesn't make protesters nothing.

[-] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

That reminds me of something I hear awhile ago. It went something like "if voting didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so hard to stop you"

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 55 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Learning a foreign language and runing the fuck out of US is also an option. You don't need risk everything just to better a country where 60% of population hates you and rest is barely neutral.

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

Need ideas for countries. What's a good place I could move to that has decent public transit infrastructure, free healthcare and good welfare/retirement benefits, cheap gigabit internet, and legal cannabis concentrates?

(Last one is most important because I literally cannot sleep without weed; prescription sleeping pills are awful and do not work effectively for me. Also flower is a non-option cause the wife hates the smell and I want to be considerate.)

[-] mranachi@aussie.zone 8 points 1 week ago
[-] Hubi@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago

Germany, The Netherlands or Czech Republic.

[-] lowleekun@ani.social 10 points 1 week ago

Lets just wait what we Germans vote in 2029. Not sure CDU will kill off the AfD (i actually believe they will team up).

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

2029 may be too late. If things don't turn around after the midterms, I'm leaving the country.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Baggie@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 weeks ago

Or even just still using English. Most countries use it in some capacity.

[-] lauha@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

You can get by with English in many countries but it doesn't work as a long term plan to just rely on English if you plan to move there.

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah it's being able to communicate somewhat vs being able to integrate language wise, right?

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

It's more like 30% of the population

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

If you have an university degree or job that's in high demand even learning a foreign language can be done after you got out. (source: I have a shitload of America friends that came to Europe without speaking anything but English)

[-] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

We don’t need the Americans who are too cowardly to fix their own country, thanks.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Lemming6969@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

This is how you concentrate evil, and doing so in a huge area with the most power and resources is a bad idea.
The better idea is to organize, spread the good out, beat gerrymandering, beat FPTP, regulate campaign funding and special interest lobbying, change the laws, bring back evidence based policy making expert council, and crush the enemy.... Or be crushed and or ousted yourself.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 50 points 2 weeks ago

This is making a good point, but I still have to be here for my kids. I'll donate, vote, and argue, but I'm not fighting anyone off because my kids need me.

Leaving the country is also an option we're looking into, but my wife thinks we should stay here and continue to do what little we can.

[-] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 27 points 1 week ago

Their kids need them too. The point of solidarity is accepting the same risks as them because they don't get to make that choice.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That's beautiful. Incidentally, do you have kids yourself?

[-] MummysLittleBloodSlut 9 points 1 week ago

Does being a parent make you care less about other people's kids?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Meh, its ok, its really just a truth of the universe at this point. No changing it. If there was the sentiment from everyone would be, "right, let's do something right now."

Im also not infallible so maybe the sentiment changes.

[-] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

If only there was something we could do anonymously like some machine that lets us all communicate and shape culture and awareness that was free and could be done in our own homes with massive effects

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I argue this shit online all the time, too. That's why I listed "argue" in the things I'm able to do.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[-] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago
[-] scoobford@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago

I hate that term. Eichmann very notably revelled in his role and tried to play up how many people they killed.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

I hadn't come across it or heard of Eichmann until just now. It's shitty that it doesn't use a better namesake to represent what it's trying to describe; but that description is one that's absolutely happening. Hence OP's meme.

The vast majority of us, self included, are stuck in that trap; and having a label for that trap is an important step to challenging it.

So... I can 100% understand the opposition to it, but what do you recommend in its stead?

[-] belastend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago

"Mitläufer". A German Term for people who don't revel in their role, don't actively contribute to the suffering, but just "let it run its course".

[-] doublebatterypack@piefed.social 30 points 2 weeks ago

"Everyone but me should be rising up and fighting the Trump administration" - Progressives of Lemmy

[-] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 weeks ago
[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

Tbf I think a lot of us are just taking notes from LA

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 weeks ago

"I'll complain no one is actually doing anything" Then when I ask what it is you're doing to help, you get defensive. You're part of the problem. Im protesting, Im running for my local office, no I wont tell you which one. Im knocking on doors to get people out and vote whole it still might matter.

[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 weeks ago

Ill ignore the fact I'm not the person you responded to but this whole angle is wrong. We dont need to accuse each other we need to encourage each other. So like, maybe the response should have been, "this is what Im doing and you can totally do something too."

For the record, me personally, im getting involved in my community and remaining vigilant. If the tide turns Ill be on the streets with everyone else.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] ameancow@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I will type this again:

This kind of reply effectively kills any momentum that COULD be achieved from sharing the collective frustrations and feelings. It's a thought-stopper.

Every movement and uprising against tyranny has started from enough people reaching a breaking-point and realizing that they all have to do something “right now” and this kind of “What are you doing” and “You go first” bullshit is just your own way of saying “I’m scared so you should be too.”

You are literally serving the interests of powerful and wealthy who want to keep our population subservient and scared.

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Individuals acting individually results in nothing except the death of a comrade. Action happens through coordination, intelligence gathering and collective action.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

If the country goes whaere it looks like it is going

Eventually we each are going to have to decide

When a resistance group is formed ..

Will you join?

And what are you willing to do?

[-] uriel238 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Curiously I'm having to deal with this very conflict. I want to join the resistance, but I'm (literally) allergic to sunlight (which precludes street demonstrations) and I'm a goblin when it comes to in-person social development, such as organizing.

The mutual aid groups in Sacramento are scarce, so it's difficult to ask them.

Do I make useful memes and infographics? Not sure.

Curiously, the nearest ICE hq is in San Francisco, and there are resistence movements there interfering with ICE action.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] OceanSoap@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

No one seriously thinks these are anything like concentration camps, and that's why most people won't protest them.

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

One of the more dangerous assumptions is that Nazis were overtly and objectively evil from the start. It conveniently looked perpetually different than what we're currently seeing.

I mean, the photos we're being presented - they're not even in black and white!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ameancow@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

While not wrong, I don't think this is necessarily the whole story.

It's more that our collective narrative has been atomized, and people have been given their permission slips to stay comfortable, to only consume the news and stories and narratives that preserves their comfort. (Note that comfort is not the same as happiness, this conflation is absolutely wrecking our entire society, learn they are different things and you will make great progress in your life.)

Our addiction to comfort comes from survival impulses, and capital has learned how to exploit this, to give us food and drugs and products to buy and shows to watch and video games to escape into and podcasters and streamers who take care of the mental work for us. None of which makes us feel satisfied or complete, but placates our survival urges and makes us not seek change or new ideas.

The internet and related algorithms has shoved a wedge deeply between our shared realities. We are no longer forced to listen to the uncomfortable perspectives of others. We are no longer required to adjust, to compromise, to adjust our views. As individuals you may think you're very self-reliant and self-actualized, but we're talking populations. Populations are like liquids, they seek certain lowest levels. Our levels are now manufactured. This means you can live in willful obliviousness to uncomfortable truths without ANY consequence.

So even if someone "knows" that there is something like a concentration camp being built, there is no chance in their world for it to intrude on their comfort so the incentive to DO SOMETHING about it is not there, so it just becomes an uncomfortable presence which we tend to unconsciously avoid. We then create stories in our heads to rationalize and validate these feelings. Cognitive dissonance is not some mental fallacy that only "stupid" people fall into, it's hard-wired into each of us as a survival tool to avoid creating problems in our predictable lives.

edit: reminder people, there was massive pushback about the US getting involved with Europe and Germany before and during WW2 even as evidence of genocide was coming to light. This isn't new. What is new is that we don't have social pressure anymore to do the right thing. There is absolutely no incentivization to change stances.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
748 points (100.0% liked)

Political Memes

8991 readers
2247 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

No AI generated content.Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS