Good point. But at the same time the states control a lot of bureaucracy around day-to-day civilian operations and vital records.

If the state doesn’t send birth and death certificates to the IRS, taxing gets a lot harder. They control the registration of corporate entities, and while I’m not an expert on corporate law, I assume they could cause problems restricting access to those.

There’s probably some creative, outside the box economic resistance as well that I don’t know enough to guess at. For example, taxes/tolls/fines targeting government vehicles? Cutting or up-charging state power/utilities to customs offices?

You wrote up a bunch about technicalities of pardons and push back on over reach but it’s actually really simple. If he wants something illegal done, he signs a paper that says to do it and another absolving them for carrying out the order.

Nobody will care about over reach because every functional position in the government is now a political position. If your loyalty wavers for even a second, you’re fired (or worse). Federal oversight is replaced by state surveillance, you can be sure that rogue chef or secret service agent would have eyes watching their every move.

Even if the SC sets themselves up as the final arbiters on legality, that doesn’t protect them from illegal orders targeting them. For example: tough to oppose a president from a jail cell or if all of your assets are seized for the Sovereign Wealth fund.

Your point on state opposition is one that I’ll grant, that’s probably the storybook (legal) ending to this if there was one. The best case scenario would turn into a cold civil war, with states finding ways to oppose the federal government while coordinating some measure of support for each other.

The most likely ending isn’t that or a rogue assassin, but a palace coup. Popular unrest allows the military to step in and overthrow the head of state. The power remains centralized and unconstitutional; you’re now at the whim of the heads of military.

But at least the military industrial complex isn’t beholden to the whims of every foreign government with a blank check. They already have way more power and influence than any random elected politician, and maintaining the US hegemony is their main goal.

On the other hand, Trump is already flaunting his ability to choke state resistance by withholding federal funding.

Outrageously unconstitutional but he already isn’t following the courts anyway. I wonder if there’s any way for states to work around that, since most blue states are net negative on federal funds.

Just stop paying up because he won’t comply with the freeze? Then use those funds to paper over the deficit?

My assumptions were built off your original comment, in which you said it was recent and driven by XHS:

The realization came with TikTok ban. Soon as I heard that TikTok could be banned, I started looking for alternatives […] I stumbled upon XHS […] about a month before everyone else. I was absolutely fucking blown away by China

I don’t know your life story and it didn’t seem like a leap to think “He uses TikTok” and “It doesn’t sound like he’s been to China from his reaction”. I could be wrong about those assumptions, but it wasn’t unreasonable. It’s pretty wild that you’re trying to walk it back even though it’s right there, verbatim.

Again, my intention wasn’t a personal attack, I’m just trying to provide a counterpoint to the sentiment I often see; that China is a bastion of progress and everything I’ve been told is western propaganda. My anecdotal explanation is to show this isn’t coming from what I read on CNN or second hand but my lived experiences in the country.

And if you want to think I’m a douche: go for it, more power to you. I just wanted to voice my thoughts on the matter.

Pretty weird that you were “blown away by China” then… No need to get mad 🤷‍♀️

My anecdotal experience is different than yours, but everything I’ve said is nothing but facts. China is a country of 1.4 billion people and 3.7 million sq mi, so obviously sentiment will vary. But I based my opinion on what I’ve personally seen and people I’ve talked to across half a dozen cities, so I feel pretty confident in my pessimism.

So you’ve been in the last few months since you learned these great things? Or was it before Covid, when people were physically caged into their apartments?

Was it only to the sterilized foreigner hotels on business trips? Or did you ever stay with locals who had to register your passport with the local police?

Were you able to spend physical currency or was everything already hooked up to official biometric identification (payments tied to socials tied to state id)?

I’m not asking to be confrontational, but the shiny foreigner facing China of yesteryear is nothing like the domestic atmosphere of China today. Their international digital presence is as carefully managed as their local platforms.

The locals I’ve met definitely have a positive view of the US, but things have gotten very dark very quickly under Xi. Think about why they could have started their emigration at any time but are choosing now.

Have you uh… actually been to China? Or talked to anyone from China (in real life)? I do both, quite often. Without fail, anyone with the means is actively trying to leave. And not in a “grass is greener” way. Those emigrating to America are fully aware of the political turmoil, they’d just rather be out before it’s not physically possible to leave.

It’s unlike we’ve been told in almost all respects…

Based on testimony from a demonstrably censored platform?

I’m not arguing for American superiority or that the vacuum won’t be easily filled by other countries. But that change isn’t automatically an upgrade.

Guess who those thinly populated areas voted for…

Also, “just topple the state governments” as if most US states aren’t larger + more dispersed than many European countries. And state (and sometimes local) police have access to second hand military equipment.

Then even putting that aside, the US interstate system was quite literally designed to expedite military logistics. The Federal government could have tanks rolling down the streets of any major city in single-digit hours.

However, the size of the country is a double edged sword. Locking down areas outside of populated cities would take a lot of sustained resources. Combine that with the sheer volume of firearms in the hands of private citizens and you have a recipe for festering unrest. Actual violent resistance in the US would be a different beast from what you see in other countries.

I won’t lie, I don’t think we’ll ever totally agree. I’m getting the gist that we fundamentally have a different understanding of the human race.

You’re holding people to your own standards, which is admirable because you clearly have your head on straight. I just view people as generally more base and malleable. Animals that react to the stimulus they’re given and environment they’re put in.

It’s why propaganda can work with simple repetition; it’s why ancient cultures and atrocities feel so alien; it’s why there’s a natural evolutionary drift toward tribalism.

From that: this is a generation being left behind educationally, economically, and socially. They know their quality of life is regressing but don’t know why. They’re an audience searching for clear answers.

They’re also the only humans in history to spend more of their formative adolescence on screen time than on other traditional activities.

So they’re starting on the back foot and getting unprecedented exposure to privately operated, centralized media sources. It follows that whoever owns those platforms (or pays enough) can selectively amplify any narrative they want to great effect.

It would have been just as feasible to push their politics to the left as right. If you look at who operates these platforms you’ll find, unsurprisingly, its right wing media moguls. The capitalists with the capital and mechanisms to spread their gospel have done so.

So at the end of the day I think it is reasonable to scold a person who you know should have better media literacy. I just don’t think it makes any sense to extend that to an entire voting block. Its more productive to direct that effort toward the root of the problem, the people pushing the content.

No, they’re making a conscious choice to use the platform. The content itself is whatever pops up and looks entertaining.

If the algorthim shows you 2 center-right videos, 3 hard-right videos, and one nazi rant then are you choosing to be a nazi by watching the center right ones?

Its never actually 3 hours of nazi things. Its an otherwise entertaining video making some off color jokes. It’s a streamer going on one politically dubious rant in a 6 hour stream. It’s a weekly podcast talking to “interesting” people; some benign, some funny, some actual problems… It’s about normalizing the conversation and the ideas. Nobody is getting handed a knife.

Yeah, there are some people take the red pill and actively go down the conspiracy rabbit hole and watch nazi shit. But I’m not gonna go out of my way to crucify people who have shitty ideas in their head at some point, there are lots of people that have stories of escaping the funnel.

Because at the end of the day a vote is just voicing an opinion to most people.

“I was told tariffs aren’t a bad idea”… “Musk has points that there might be wasteful spending”… “Well Rogan endorsed him haha”…

If they were told they’re getting drafted to invade Greenland before they voted, they look at you the same way as the knife guy.

Nothing positive is happening until it happens, we have yet to see Trump comply with a judicial ruling (let alone an emergency injunction). And it’ll get argued up to the SCOTUS before he’d even theoretically stop.

Don’t fall for Lucy pulling the football for the 9th year in a row. Plan and act as if he’s not facing any consequences within the limits of our government, because his record shows he won’t.

Doing only that would just give them more fodder to complain about a deficit. Mass violent resistance is just an excuse for crackdowns and martial law.

One interesting and simple idea I’ve seen is just opting out of the consumer economy. Americans in any socioeconomic strata can just stop buying anything but the bare minimum.

General strikes are effective but hard to coordinate and maintain, most people can’t risk skipping a paycheck. But anyone can switch to beans and rice, cancel subscriptions, learn to repair their own clothes, buy a phone second hand, etc… Since a massive portion of our economy is driven by that spending (68% of our GDP) it would definitely hurt, but they couldn’t ignore it.

It’s easy to do and doesn’t have an outsized impact on poor or at risk groups, and it’s not all or nothing so any way you can cut helps. I wonder how they’d react to 200 million people on an economic hunger strike…

Hey at least that means the nukes might not work?

So is it the interest that’s the problem? Or the not working?

You could be unable to work on disability with an inherited house and get pretty much to that poverty line. Why isn’t that the same?

What if there wasn’t interest but I got $5m in the lottery and just decided to spend $1m buying a house in a good neighborhood and paying off debts. Then I just take out 50k out from my mattress per year until I die.

If you’re a certain age and don’t care about your estate you could do the same thing with a line of credit. Now I have negative net worth but I’m choosing not to work while maintaining a decent life.

There is a real, tangible difference between any of these scenarios (yours or mine) and having enough money to shape legislation or buy yourself into the fucking Whitehouse. That just happens to be roughly the difference between ~1 million (living comfortably) and 1+ billion (buying lobbyists)

When is rich to you? Is it $100k? $500k? Or just when you have to start adding “-illion” to the number? Is a 25 year old who worked for 5 years with 100k as rich as someone who worked for 50 years to get 10x that?

The gap does matter, it’s not our fault you can’t comprehend the magnitude of these gaps

$18,000 is only $3k above the federal poverty level, and well below for a family of 2. This sounds like one of those out of touch McDonald’s PR budgets.

Better hope your home never needs a new roof, that’ll be at LEAST 6 months of your passive income gone. Car breaks down? Well you need to fix that because you live in BFE, that’s another month gone.

Not to mention I don’t know what scooter you’re parking in your one room shack to keep taxes and insurance and utilities under $600. Are you fitting health insurance in that too or just offing yourself when you get medical debt? Hope you never have any dependants either, that’s when things get really pricey.

His motivation is pretty clear if you actually look at his political career. You may agree or disagree with him but the way you’re trying to tear into him just shows you don’t have a grasp of the actual problem he presents.

You can go read his tax returns yourself. His income most years is his salary, boosted several times by the release of his books after his popularity. This in total has netted him a few million. You can argue his books should have been published for free, but it’s not some shady stock manipulation.

This site is a good visualization. I’m not sure if it’s up to date but the top end has only gotten bigger. You’re arguing about something on the first screen scroll. By the end of the decade we’re likely to see our first TRILLIONAIRE…

They made a hologram of Tupac, I’m sure they could figure something out

The Federal Election Commission has determined that your state had a fraudulent election. Please remain calm while our jackboots personally conduct a recount…

You really don’t have to consciously consume it. You can literally leave auto-play on YouTube and it will steadily pull you down the rabbit hole. These people aren’t logging in to nazi.com and ravenously looking for content (at least most aren’t).

It’s served directly to them in mainstream platforms, prepared exactly how they like it. And they’re the first generation to be bombarded by this algorithmic targeting for their entire lives.

Should adults still be responsible for what they consume and analyzing it critically? Of course. But given we’re in unprecedented territory and this is (at most) their second time voting in a presidential cycle, I’ll give them a mulligan.