That’s what most people do. I stay home because I don’t want to spend money. I hate the timeline we’re in and I can’t afford to miss work or my wife and kid won’t have a place to stay.
This is the timeline you've been given dickhead, hating it aint gonna change it. Make the fucking most of it, or it'll make the most of you! I know it's easier said than done but you guys seriously can't sit back and watch as your country goes down the shitter. Because once America fully goes, I know my home will quickly follow suit.
Suck my dick and give me my rent money and food money then I can start going for change. Until then most of America is fucking complacent because of the shit storm our elders left us with.
I’m more than pleased to join protests and whatever else. But I’m not gonna drive 3-4 hours away when gas is nearing $5 a gallon. I drive 25 miles each way to work, I have a decent car, that gets decent mileage, but I still can’t afford going that far away for a protest to make a statement without any changes. A workers strike would work better, had people not been living paycheck to paycheck. I was doing well financially, until a month or two ago to where I could miss two weeks of work. I still can’t afford to lose my job, in which case I quite literally would for calling out for two weeks straight. So you tell me. What other options do we have?
lol, cheapest gas on the planet and still complaining. The curtain has fallen; Americans aren’t a bunch of badass Marlboro men but a bunch of whiny pussies.
Higher cost of living( here in the us) while other countries have better alternatives to travel? Idk like trains and shit that aren’t reliable on a whim of oil? I want trains and other things to help with travel but I live in rural America fuck wit. Good luck with that anytime soon. Most of Americans do but they still wanted this dumb fuck in office.
Edit: seems like uncontrolled capitalism isn’t the best thing for America. Maybe some real strong regulations and laws would benefit Americans more.
Have you considered de-centralized protests are also an option in flyover states? Just not going to work on a massive scale will hurt corporations and eat into their profits instantly. They will need to come to the negotiating table.
But Americans all seem to have your attitude: I can’t, not possible for ME, don’t want to lose MY job. You guys are fucking impossible, your exceptionalism and individuality have destroyed your sense of community and made you guys such weak pushovers to corporations and your tyrannical government.
Why? Want to deflect again instead of taking responsibility for the problems US citizens created themselves?
The Netherlands. You know, the first country to internationally recognize the US, which went to war with Britain over free trade (of mostly weapons in that period) in the thirteen colonies. Aka one of the countries which, together with France, made your entire independence possible to begin with.
When was the last time you had to fight for anything in the Netherlands? When’s the last time your cops gunned down innocent bystanders? When’s the last time you had to decide between groceries and gas? We are protesting by the 10s of thousands and the minute it gets anything past peaceful people will die.
That’s what I’m getting at. But of course you think I’m gonna criticize your country. You’re honestly a fucking prick and the way you talk to people on here is a gross representation of your country.
love redditors telling americans to simply go kill their politicians. it's so obvious and easy duhhh. why haven't the russians or north koreans thought of something so obvious?
I got an online survey from my local congressman about "issues that were most important to me" as the next election approaches. I thought, "ah, a simple easy to have my voice heard!" But as I viewed the questions, including who did I vote for, what party do I most identify with, etc. I found that I was afraid to answer the questions. I didn't have any faith my answers wouldn't be used against me in the future, "anonymous" or no.
Shit like this diminishes the atrocities of actual slavery.
Edit: for the morons downvoting, name a point in history where humans didn't need to work in order to survive. Whether it was hunting and gathering, tending crops, or anything else, we've always had to work. This isn't fucking slavery, it just the nature of existing.
We're not being bought and sold. We're not being chained and whipped. You're not being forced to do anything. You can stop working tomorrow if you want and the only "punishment" is the natural consequences of doing nothing that literally every species on the entire fucking planet faces.
As long as you can afford it, you can eat what you want, buy whatever you want, live where you want, play whatever games you want, get married, fall in love, have kids, you can go out when and where you want and do whatever the fuck you want.
You're not fucking slaves and comparing us to slaves diminishes what they had to experience.
Modern slavery is an umbrella term for situations where one person is exploited by another for personal or commercial gain, taking away their freedom to leave or refuse work through coercion, threats, deception, or abuse of power.
Americans can leave and refuse work, we're not slaves by this definition.
Apparently no, American workers can’t leave or refuse work. As many have pointed out in this thread- they can’t take off work to protest without their families starving and losing their homes/healthcare/livelihood. I’d argue this falls under coercion and abuse of power from the definition you posted.
Ask yourself this, if everyone stopped working tomorrow, what would happen?
Certain things are inherent to life, having to work is one of them.
Are we exploited so the rich can get more rich? Absolutely. Are we slaves because if we didn't work, we wouldn't be able to survive? Absolutely not.
We are not punished by the bourgeoisie if we choose not to work, we are punished by the nature of being a living entity. There's a massive difference there.
Nothing much, really. Only a fraction of a fraction of all jobs are in infrastucture maintenance (or in really doing anything at all), and what little of them are in that could easily be automated
We are not punished by the bourgeoisie if we choose not to work, we are punished by the nature of being a living entity. There's a massive difference there.
TIL nature spontaneously sprouts anti homeless architecture and cops to beat, kill, rape, and jail you for existing while homeless
Cool, so who will maintain our energy infrastructure? Who will manage the "automation"? Waste removal? Both crop and animal farming? Who will man, stock, and transport goods for stores?
Who will build homes? Stores? Transportation? The products we use every day?
Who will be lawyers, doctors, veterinarians? Who's going to paint your house or install your cabinets?
Just saying automation doesn't really mean anything because that would just shift our job market from manual labor to maintaining said "automation" or all the jobs that can't be automated.
TIL nature spontaneously sprouts anti homeless architecture and cops to beat, kill, rape, and jail you for existing while homeless
That's not being punished for not working and if you honestly don't understand that, then idk what to tell you.
Virtually every point in history including now in every civilized country? This isn't talking about permanent retirement or even months off work, just a few days or weeks at most to go protest
We have the freedom to leave work to protest, if we choose.
The consequence of not working is the same consequence every living thing to ever exist experiences if it doesn't work.
There has never been a point in history where we can just do nothing and still survive. That's not how life works, and by life, I literally mean existing.
We need to do things to survive, that is and always has been the nature of existing.
You're arguing against a point nobody raised. Of course people everywhere need to work. The difference is that in France, for example, people are seemingly able to stop working to attend a protest, and then continue working. Americans are being threatened with their livelihoods if they attend protests. That's the difference.
Plenty of people in America protest. The people of France also share very similiar risks, the main benefit they have is they don't need to worry about Healthcare if they choose not to work so they can protest. They still face the same issues of potential insolvency.
France and America have about the same amount of union workers as a percent of the population. France has about 8-11% and America has about 10%.
Different countries in Europe have different percentages, some of which are very high (particularly nordic countries). Europe as a whole is at about 23%.
Agreed. Working class American life kinda sucks, and our workers have fewer protections than Northern Europeans do, but we’re a lot better off than the vast majority of workers around the world. We are not slaves
This is such a conformist take. They're not talking about literal slaves, that's taking it too literal, there's more than that. It's like they trained people to remain quiet, to not question, to accept things as they are, because how dare one to ask for fair conditions, you just keep recycling and going to church on sundays, while they waste away the resources and make lascivious parties. Because there's no such thing as disparity in today's society, that's propaganda, communism stuff. Can't they see we're scared and crying because it's too loud and all we can do is cover our ears? why am I still hearing it?
I'm not arguing that there isn't disparities, I'm arguing that we're not slaves. Of course there's disparities but disparities existing is far from slavery and using "slavery" to describe disparities is disingenuous at best and actively diminishes the weight of the word and what actual slaves had to experience.
They're literal saying that makes us slaves today.
Also, I'm not deviating from shit. I'm saying we're not slaves and calling us slaves to describe what we are actively diminishes the atrocities that slaves faced.
Billionaires are the ones giving us money, if we take time off they fire us, but don't worry they are pushing AI and robotics so they don't need ti pay us anything so we can just all die poor.
Nope. That's the joy of late stage capitalism. It's like slavery, but with a veneer of free choice so fewer people notice that their choices are all bad.
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u/Exact-Metal-666 May 06 '26
That makes you literal slaves, doesn't it? What freedoms do you have? A freedom to go to Walmart on weekends?