I was reading about the French Revolution yesterday and the thing that really got things started was mass starvation. Something like 90% of French citizens were actively starving.
There will need to be a singular suffering affecting 90+% of people before we’ll all take to the streets and put heads on pikes. I’m guessing climate change might get us there.
Tbh with the sheer scale of America I doubt even mass starvation will work. The government could probably just keep the states immediately around the capitol sated and leave the rest of the country to die and most people won’t be able to afford travel to the capitol to riot. I bring this up in every thread but to travel from the west coast to Maryland to start a riot is the same distance as traveling from Ireland to Moscow to riot. And we have barely functional trains.
I mean. “The Hunger Games” is a real book and series that kind of thoroughly shows just how fucked the United States of America is.
It even matches your point. They lavish food and gifts on the first two districts (District 1 producing luxery goods, and District 2 producing police/armed forces). Then tie the rest into fighting amongst themselves over measly leftovers.
Still didn’t last terribly long or peacefully, but multiple generations is still a gut punch.
I mean… it literally can. Only ~20 states have their own State Defense Force and the federal government can turn any state’s national guard on its own people. The national guard has been actively leveraged to help ICE brutalize and disappear immigrants and American citizens already.
Also if we were to consume Gavin Newsom, for example, that does not help us get a functional federal government back.
We don’t need his supporters on our side. It would be nice, but once the rest of us are starving too there’s more of us.
Hopefully though, we can finally get through to them that it’s the ~2000 billionaires or so actively waking up each morning and deciding not to end world hunger that are the actual issue.
I was reading about the French Revolution yesterday and the thing that really got things started was mass starvation. Something like 90% of French citizens were actively starving.
There will need to be a singular suffering affecting 90+% of people before we’ll all take to the streets and put heads on pikes. I’m guessing climate change might get us there.
indeed
John Galbraith’s book The Culture of Contentment helps underscore that point
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691171654/the-culture-of-contentment
Tbh with the sheer scale of America I doubt even mass starvation will work. The government could probably just keep the states immediately around the capitol sated and leave the rest of the country to die and most people won’t be able to afford travel to the capitol to riot. I bring this up in every thread but to travel from the west coast to Maryland to start a riot is the same distance as traveling from Ireland to Moscow to riot. And we have barely functional trains.
I mean. “The Hunger Games” is a real book and series that kind of thoroughly shows just how fucked the United States of America is.
It even matches your point. They lavish food and gifts on the first two districts (District 1 producing luxery goods, and District 2 producing police/armed forces). Then tie the rest into fighting amongst themselves over measly leftovers.
Still didn’t last terribly long or peacefully, but multiple generations is still a gut punch.
Well there are local governments. The federal government can’t exert it’s control by itself.
I mean… it literally can. Only ~20 states have their own State Defense Force and the federal government can turn any state’s national guard on its own people. The national guard has been actively leveraged to help ICE brutalize and disappear immigrants and American citizens already.
Also if we were to consume Gavin Newsom, for example, that does not help us get a functional federal government back.
so the asumption here is that the US military will just roll into fascism and against the people no questions asked?
Is there any kind of indication that they won’t?
That starvation thing does seem to be looming. Or easily preventable disease.
No we already confirmed 6 years ago that wasnt enough.
I don’t think starving will stop his supporters as long as “the libs” are starving, too.
We don’t need his supporters on our side. It would be nice, but once the rest of us are starving too there’s more of us.
Hopefully though, we can finally get through to them that it’s the ~2000 billionaires or so actively waking up each morning and deciding not to end world hunger that are the actual issue.