Clinicallydepressedpoochie inspired this one...

I agree that apathy is really fucking shitty, but you guys abroad have to realize that there are groups of people who genuinely are trying to get things to change.
By pissing on these people who are celebrating protests, you're weakening the will of the people to fight back. People aren't going to want to change when they don't feel like it'll do anything.
If you want a fire to grow, the best thing you can do is throw some lighter fluid on it instead of water
- I tried to go to the recent protest but my job made it impossible. Sadge.

I mean, I'm American and if I had to pick one, we're definitely that latter. It's just that I grew up here, so it's more readily apparent to me that the conservatives who screamed about muh guns muh constitution were always operating in bad faith. Kinda like how the conservatives you guys are about to elect are operating in bad faith when they talk about how very worried they are about immigration.
- 100%
  The gun-totin, "don't tread on me," larping persona crowd have always been first in line to bend the knee and lick the boot of the weakest strongman.
  Uvalde's tragedy is a complete example: 400 armed, "trained," professionals, all too cowardly and incompetent and deficient in character to actual do the job they thump their chests over.
  Every Conservative boast about strength and power is performative nonsense to mask their deep and unabiding fears and insecurities.

Just a slight edit.
- I like it. I don’t get it, but I like it.
  
  The bottom is John Walker, the replacement Captain America from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, who went crazy on off-brand super soldier serum and decapitated a man with Cap's shield.

I see my name, I upvote
- See, now i have this rule also. I see your name, i upvote.
  
  I upvoted it too.

The "average" American, much like the average human, is driven by "feels" rather than facts.
They will rail against "socialized medicine" because they live paycheck to paycheck, don't manage their finances in any meaningful way, and have no idea how much their healthcare is actually costing them. Spoiler: it's A LOT.
They will demonize immigrants because it's easier to blame random brown people for "stealing our jobs" than it is to hold giant corporations accountable for closing the plant and moving jobs somewhere cheaper.
They will gladly feed women's rights into a wood chipper over the idea of "saving babies", until that baby starts to make demands (on day one of it's life). Then it's an "entitled taker."
They will brag about America being the "greatest country in the world" and in the same breath, complain that we need to "make America great again", while completely missing the irony.
They will happily drink up as much propaganda as possible because it gives them someone to blame for their problems and allows them to believe that constant manufactured outrage is a solution, even though it's really just a distraction.
They spent so much of their time believing and repeating the lie that the United States is comprised of "rugged individuals" and that if things have gone poorly for you, that is somehow entirely and unquestionably your own fault. Upon finding that things have gone poorly for them, they can't reconcile this incorrect belief with the fact thar they didn't necessarily do anything wrong. This is incredibly and understandably demoralizing.
I'm painting with a broad brush here. Not every American thinks this way but a lot of them do. I don't really know what it's going to take to get us back on the right path but I think a good place to start is by taking notes from John Donne, the English preacher and poet who wrote, "No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent. A part of the main."
I don't and will never sympathize with Nazis and fascists. I do understand some of the things they're frustrated about. The only way forward is for them to accept that in order for things to get better, it has to get better for all of us. Shooting holes in the someone else's corner of the ship only makes their corner sink a little faster than yours. I just hope they figure that out before we're all completely under water.
- You described MAGAts not Americans.
  
  One of those is reeeeally making the other look bad. I grew up in the time before Germany really started leading the free world, when holo tropes had them in a really negative light. It's like mistakes made by Germans 2 generations ago hurt their image still.
  I worry magats have created a shitty image that all yanks will get to wear for 40+ years. And people I know in America who are really great people who don't deserve that.

Lack of job protection
Lack of healthcare protection
Inability to miss or reduce even a single paycheck due to cost of living
It's winter, and most major cities North of Texas have had below freezing temps with brutal wind chill for the past several weeks
The recognition that no protest in the last 20 years has accomplished anything in the US.
Put that all together, and is it any surprise people aren't protesting?
- And being 4 times the distance from Washington DC as London is from Berlin.
  If I were to protest at my governors office, he'd just be agreeing with me in my blue state. And even my governors office is over 600km away.
  
  I agree with your point but as another blue state resident I will be protesting in hopes that the blue states will collectively secede
- We had what I call the Derek Chavin moment. Cities burned. We haven’t seen another one of those. Go ahead and research that — we shutdown several cities and we stopped that shit!
  
  Stopped what shit? At the end of the day, what did it accomplish? Cops still kill black people, and most face very little repercussions.

Jokes aside. I realy don't get why there is so litte backlash against trump. This guy is doing some insane shit and everybodys like: hmm yea that sucks. Thats the same people that allways said that other people in autocratic countries should "just" revolt and that they would have fixed everything allready. Currently you still have the right to protest, but still nothing realy happens. Sure there are a few demonstrations, but nothing that will actually change anything.
- It's fundamentally understood that the republic is dead, and neither peaceful protest nor normal legislative or judicial processes will work on the Trump administration. It doesn't help that pushing the opposition party to do anything has led them to bitch and whinge about how they're being bullied by their constituents. All that's left to us now is submission, balkanization, and/or violence. Most people are still trying to get a read of the room and aren't ready to throw down their lives yet. For my part, I'm supporting a California Secession initiative.
- Too many are still trapped in the "it can't happen here" denial that they've been in for the last several decades. Some are waking up to the fact that many of us have been shouting that this isn't "just making it through four years" but, it's really looking to be too little too late.
- Think about the 9 months of turmoil we created after Derek Chavin murdered George Floyd. We are not so gutless.
  I believe we are all waiting for the gloves to come off and then… it’s cities on flame.
  500000 demonstrated on so called Presidents may. Maybe a million. Press didn’t cover it. In my small city of 300K there were 5k demonstrating.
  This is a far cry from actual revolt and resistance. We also have the recent example from patriot Luigi Angioni. Things can happen.
- WWII veterans died out and the next generation decided they want to be the Nazis for WWIII and are sieg heiling to their hearts content gearing the population for military special operations to begin.
- We all have AC, refrigerators, and TVs. As long as that keeps up, everyone, including me, won’t choose combat.
  Fixing this is going to take blood. We won’t do that while we are fed.
  
  Yep. The majority of folks are still far too comfortable to care. I hear a lot of talk about resistance but see 0 action.
  Have to acknowledge my own position too. I really want to do something but I just had a kid and bad as it gets, my top priority is caring for him.
  
  Dude the feeling of the water boiling isint a hot tub

Well actually, the americans see themselves correctly
Relevant video, Defenders of the Status quo
https://youtu.be/LpitmEnaYeU

Massive protests are happening here across all 50 states. Unity is happening. Momentum is building.
- I was at one that I wouldn’t call massive but yes— it is hard to let our non-American friends know what’s happening because the President day protests went almost ignored in the media.

We must be waiting for the avengers.
- The avengers are bootlickers. They’d do nothing you want them to do
- Be the avenger you want to see in the world! The difficulty with stochastic terrorists is that mostly only kinda dumb people are up for it. I do admire Luigi, but let's be real he's a himbo. The fatal flaw here is that dumb people tend to be more conservative.
  So, I guess I'm saying don't wait for the Avengers. They've all got Punisher stickers on their cars.

Half the country actively wants this. It wouldnt be a revolt, it would be a civil war. And Im not even sure the sane people would win this time.
- Next time I see an american in Europe...
  This line of thinking is how we got here in the first place you idiot. Stop making generalizations and dehumanizing people, it just makes it easier to slaughter them. There are Americans standing up and fighting. They are human beings who deserve life just as much as you do
  
  this is funny because before ww2, germans at the same relative stage of the nazis take over basically said the same things you just did. "We can protest, we can not pay taxes.... and strikes..." hitler didn't rise to power uncontested. His brownshirts showed up to the protests and ended them. violently.

Are they going to tell people they are free all through this presidency?
- They'll say they have more freedom than other countries while their president is banning pronouns in emails and the police are going door to door checking papers.
- Yes and probably will tell people they’re the best country on earth the whole time too.

I think most people there who are against this are just too tired to care at this point and are saving their energy for the next election. I don't know if I agree with this sentiment. On one hand there isn't much you can do to change anything but on the other hand, speaking up and protesting will set the stage for the next election. But hey idk I'm not even American but I'm in the EU and they are basically copying them, along with the G7
- Seems like of Europeans should be in the streets about Putin? Pressuring your leaders to send tanks and rockets? Sorry that our American idiot has withdrawn military support there. If Ukraine falls all of Europe is next?
  
  Oh right... That's horrible. If that's the case then when election time rolls around I can see protests happening. I hope so anyway.
  
  Also, imo most Europeans at least the people around me and on socials don't feel connected to what's happening between Ukraine and Putin at all. Unfortunately if nothing is happening in their backyard, it's just another news report.
- the next election.
  ...The Federal Elections Commission is in the process of being dismantled. The US is not going to have free elections again at this rate.
  
  fun fact. it's the states that have elections.

Is the gopnik-looking guy in the red tracksuit meant to be a Russian troll farm operative?
- Yeah, that’s how other countries see Americans? This meme is confusing. In the US, most of us don’t usually wear track suits.
  
  I think if you just replaced "see" with "thinks of" it would have been fine

How dumbasses see Americans, 1 & 2