tbh i feel almost exactly the same way (though i'm probably not enby).

she/her feels dangerous, because if i act or am treated as femme then the transphobes in my life might start to suspect me. they/them just feels totally wrong, it's not who i am. he/him at least feels safe, because it won't raise any suspicions...

AND just like you, gender is probably gonna be the least painful part of the next decade for me lol

Really, I do it because some snowflakes are too fragile to share their pronouns, and I enjoy annoying them until they do.

hello from a snowflake who is stuck in the closet, and too fragile to share my pronouns because it forces me to misgender myself and reminds me of how far i am from a life that feels like mine

i don't disagree with the they/them-by-default policy (principle of least harm etc), but if you ever find people being less than enthusiastic about it or reluctant to state their pronouns, please consider that there could be other reasons

i am, and always have been, both pictures simultaneously

"propa~~gand~~a"?

Those of us who survive this hell will show this to our children, when they're old enough.

There are massive protests all over the US. AOC/Bernie drawing huge crowds. Republicans chanting "tax the rich".

Corporate media won't give it the coverage it deserves, and mainstream social media will bury it with their algorithms. Because they're all owned by the billionaires bowing to Trump.

They want you to feel like nobody's doing anything. Remember that.

While I'm still raining on your parade:

https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too

Fun fact: the doctor in question was opposed to the death penalty, and proposed the guillotine thinking he could at least make it more humane. He deeply regretted this action and spent the rest of his life campaigning against it. His family was so ashamed that they changed their surname.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph-Ignace_Guillotin

Pretty sure you still need a phone number for an account, though - the usernames are just for sharing your contact with other people.

Most peoples' phone numbers are easily linked to their identity. Which means the government knows who's using Signal.

Usernames are definitely an improvement, but this is a fundamental limitation in Signal's design.

Consider Briar.

Uses Tor. Works directly over Bluetooth/WiFi if the internet is censored or shut down. Decentralized, no accounts. No phone number required.

Of all the options available, I feel like this one is the best suited to current threats (oppressive governments with all-encompassing surveillance, and the willingness to destroy critical institutions and infrastructure).

The app is super barebones right now - feels like SMS - but it works. Main downside is that both participants have to be online at the same time (maybe group chats can work around this?), since there's no servers.

I don't think we're so far gone that we must lose hope.

First: maybe you're right, and this is the end of everything we've ever held dear, the end of all hope forever. But if that's true, then everything is futile, which gets you nowhere. Plus, nobody can predict the future, so however compelling this idea is, it's still ultimately a theory. What's the point of believing a theory that only makes you feel like shit?

Remember that despair only serves the enemy. Moreover, despair is a coping mechanism, an escape - if it's all hopeless, you don't have to fight back, so you don't have to face the possibility of loss and defeat. Whatever happens to you, is this how you want to live?

Lemmy sure loves doomerism, but I'm going to post the facts that currently give me hope anyway:

The Nazis stayed popular because they actually fixed Germany's economy, at least in the short term. Trump and his cabal of idiots have conclusively shown that they are neither capable of nor interested in this.

They are already massively unpopular. Even in the kinds of business circles that supported Hitler then and would support him today - the fucking Wall Street Journal is criticizing Trump. Bezos' mouthpiece. Also, y'know, there's massive rallies and grassroots organizing. Republicans chanting "tax the rich" at their representatives.

We've seen stronger, worse governments fall. Argentina's military junta waged a Dirty War for nearly a decade, using horrific mass torture to totally destroy their political opponents. They succeeded in wiping out all opposition. They even had majority support in the beginning (neither the Nazis nor Trump did). But the junta fell anyway - because they utterly destroyed their economy. Trump probably won't take a decade to do that.

In summary: hold on to hope, and fight back. You get to choose what that looks like for you. For me, it looks like: stopping my current doomscrolling, doing some chores so I can feel less shitty about how little I've done today, then doing some tonglen to deal with my own fear and grief and despair. It won't end fascism, but maybe it'll help me become functional enough to organize and build one day.

Good luck, and I hope that if I'm ever strong enough to join those who resist, I'll meet you among them.