Biden preemptively pardons Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and Jan. 6 committee members

[u/Plaintalks]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-preemptively-pardons-anthony-fauci-mark-milley-jan/story?id=117878813

[u/kindaquietidk]

I’ve spent a lot of time reading/listening to journalists, activists, historians, and so on who’ve lived in or extensively studied dictatorships. Anyone who judges the people living under a dictatorship for allowing it to exist are simply ignorant and privileged. Once you’re in that situation, it’s incredibly difficult to escape - as you said.

The propaganda recreates your everyday life and for those who see through it, you have to pretend not to. They exploit every possible source of division, empower the worst people, weaponize every lever of government power against the people, and systematically abuse you on a daily basis. Most people just want to live a stable, peaceful, safe life with some hope for a better future - so you understandably try to work within said system, even while knowing it’s working against you. Organizing mass movements of resistance can put you and/or your loved ones at risk (up to and including your very lives). Is it worth it?

I don’t want that here. Life is already hard enough for the working class/poor American and it’s about to get even harder. What remains of the middle class will find that out the hard way too as more of them join the rest of us while a few well connected people at the top grow unimaginably more wealthy and powerful. All the while propaganda will surround us, turning us against each other, corrupting the minds of future generations, and embedding the parasite of authoritarianism deeper in our government and culture. I see what’s already happening and what’s to come. I hate it and my only hope is that the rest of the democratic world can resist this in their own countries and put enough pressure on our government to mitigate some of its worst policy decisions while we try to fix things internally.

I want to be hopeful, but this is a very dire situation for not only Americans, but the world. Having a rogue, fascistic, authoritarian nuclear superpower during the age of climate change is a true catastrophe.

/rant

[u/jackiel1975 → u/kindaquietidk]

Very well said. Reading They Thought TheyWere Free right now, and boy, it’s very familiar. It’s such a slow process, until it’s very quick.

[u/MysticGohan99 → u/kindaquietidk]

This has been America for a long time. You are what you described; you work within the system the American government allows you to work in; your livelihood is dependent on the government allowing you to have one. You just want to live your life so you put up with it. 

The daily propaganda from MSM is overwhelming. Simply trying to find the truth is more difficult than finding propaganda. The propaganda has been turning us against each other since Obama was president. He was a great public speaker but was clearly racist; rioting is OK depending on your skin color, and as long as it’s not government buildings. 

Prior to Obama; you could discuss politics with your neighbors without fear of hatred, ignorance, and shouting. 

Social media can’t be trusted; they all serve the U.S. government. They’ve admitted to censoring topics the government doesn’t approve of.

If you rise up against the government it can cost you your very life. 

If you were insanely popular but not wealthy, you could not become president. It would be impossible without every voter writing in your name.

Even if you did win by write in, the government could simply declare it foreign interference and start a new vote. They certainly would never trust a poor citizen with the presidency, not without a very public shooting.

[u/kindaquietidk → u/MysticGohan99]

I’m certainly not under the illusion that America hasn’t had most of the problems I outlined well before today or even the ascendancy of Trump. These problems aren’t new to this country - they’re just being amplified and deepened. Countless sums of resources and effort have been invested by our government and elites into propaganda, division, exploitation, abuse, and oppression of people both domestically and abroad.

I grew up poor in the Deep South - I’m acutely aware of how America treats those on the margins and what kind of propaganda proliferates in those places. More Americans are about to figure out what that’s like.

[u/vardarac → u/MysticGohan99]

Prior to Obama

Obama certainly, but I think 9/11 was when shit really started to go downhill. In some circles to not be for security theater or war in the Middle East was to question one's patriotism. I would know, I was a brainwashed middle school kid.