The implicit demand is to stop supporting fascists.

The Supreme Court also desperately wants to uphold the make-believe idea that they are legitimate. Which means they might occasionally rule against Trump just to support that pretext.

Resist. Be noisy. Throw sand in the gears. There are only so many hours in the day, so even just slowing down the Trump administration’s agenda means they break fewer things / grift fewer grifts between now and the midterms.

Maybe from a game theory / trolley problem perspective, sure. But I guess my point is that a “presidential approval rating,” as in the current support for the president, is not one to one with how the electorate voted (or didn’t vote) four months ago. Especially as we get further from that event over time.

I disagree. There’s no “mandate” when so many voters are so disaffected with politics that they’d rather stay home than express themselves at the polls.

I was originally replying to the post above that said: “50% of the country loves their strongman president more than freedom or common sense.” And I was specifically disputing the 50% figure in regards to “loving” Trump. So you’re arguing something else entirely.

It’s an important distinction because falsely claiming that half the country loves Trump legitimizes his authoritarian rule.

So you’re saying those who didn’t vote love him? How does that make sense?

Less than a third of eligible voters voted for Trump.

Saying the emperor has no clothes (or his clothes are made in Moscow) is the first step in doing something about it. If we all keep quiet and just go along with authoritarianism, then the fight will be over before it starts.

Sounds on brand for him, because Snow Crash has a rail gun named Reason.

🤡 👍

I guess we’ll both stay tuned and see whose prognosticating is right here.

Let them prepare! Effective organized protest and resistance isn’t something that happens overnight. It can sometimes take months or even years of concerted effort.

You say placate, I say practice. People who have never protested a day in their lives aren’t going to start out with a multi-month blackout. They need to get used to protesting by starting small.

The organization that organized the economic blackout has longer-term boycotts planned in the coming weeks. This is just the opening salvo. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I mean, yeah. Part of the low pay inherent in U.S. government jobs is the baked-in assumption that it’s one of the most stable jobs around. Once that assumption goes out the window, the government will have to pay more to make up for the loss of that major perk.

Get that defeatism out of here. They’re only above the law if we let them be. To date, the Trump administration has backed off when a judge rules against them. Sure, they then try to come up with new, illegal shit to do. But the courts definitely still have a place in putting the brakes on it.

Same! Okay, not without problems, because running a mailserver isn’t maintenance-free. But Mailu has been generally solid and it works with Docker. (And Podman, unofficially.)

As much as direct action is fun, this is just a lie. Lawsuits have already changed the Trump administration’s behaviour. Sure, they are still doing tons of illegal shit to see if they get called on it. But federal judges’ rulings have called them on it and even served as effective push back in many cases.

The word “legitimate” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that quote…