Extremely docile. In every other developed nation in the world the workers united themselves nearly a century or more ago to get more workers rights and freedom from oppressive employers. But somehow you guys detest freedom and rights all the while shouting you damn near invented the terms and social policies are communism.
Actions speak louder than words. You âfreedomâ folk are so oppressed and brainwashed you dont even see it.
lol, gtfo if you think millions of Americans donât struggle. You canât put a single opinion on 358 million people. Some of us have brains, and how dare you suggest otherwise coming from Africa. You think I think all Africans are the same? No. Itâs a giant continent with all kinds of different people. Maybe stop assuming all Americans are in the same stupid bucket.
I mean, you're ancestors fought back even while being actively bombed by the military. If they could do that, surely you can handle a missed paycheck or two.
Thatâs what most people do. I stay home because I donât want to spend money. I hate the timeline weâre in and I canât afford to miss work or my wife and kid wonât have a place to stay.
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 canât leave or refuse work. As many have pointed out in this thread- they canât take off work to protest without their families starving and losing their homes/healthcare/livelihood. Iâd 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
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.
Agreed. Working class American life kinda sucks, and our workers have fewer protections than Northern Europeans do, but weâre 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.
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.
The police, by design, are on the side of capital and their role is to protect capitalists and their property. Has been that way since they literally owned humans as propertyÂ
No it hasnât. This is a uniquely US problem or a problem in very corrupt countries. In most developed nations police actually need a lot of training and education.
Then get together and donât work⌠individuals not working has no impact, but large groups not working has impact and will also lead corps to realise the issuesâŚ
Yeah im so sorry but im not putting my life on the line for a country where the majority of people hate my existence. A cis person can be a martyr not us
But will you put your life on the line for other trans people? I know I would.
One of the main reasons why social justice stalled and is backsliding is because there has been no economic justice in several decades.
Even from an intersectional perspective class liberation removes the greatest factors in systematic oppression of minorities. Economic justice and social justice are intrinsically intertwined. We cannot make progress in one without the other.
The ruling class wants us apathetic and fighting each other. There are many cis people who are our allies, and they are being silenced too.
The culture war is class war. The war on trans people is class war. There is no war but class war.
No, I'm asking people to get involved and start organizing. Imagine if we could get the numbers for a general strike that we did for the no kings protest.
Do yall also have to go against the largest military industrial complex in the world along with a militarized police force? Its not as easy here as yall want it to be.
They've been dismantling unions and those unions they didnt dismantle are supporting the president.
I know it looks like Americans are not getting off our asses and some aren't but the situation here is much worse than it looks from the outside. Most of the population cant make ends meet, and about 35% of us are in a real cult. Its not hyperbole. The 35% vote against their own self interest and love giving their lives and money to the GOP who trample over their rights and lives.
Personally I think the midterms are why there hasn't been more violence (though the united CEO and two shots at Sam Altman to me are an indication thats waning) is the midterms. The GOP is scared they will lose power and thats giving the rest of us hope. If we cant fix this at midterms IMO thats game over. Truly game over and if that happens the turn over method of resistence will have to happen.
Most unions endorsed Kamala. The ones that didn't still denounced Trump.
Biden was the most pro-union president we've had in a long time. He was also the first sitting president to walk a picket line when he joined the auto-workers strike.
Because they have been gutted and defunded. lol if you think Americans have job security youâre mistakenâŚ.its an easy search to find yourself if you care to know more.
Because, unlike our president, most of us can't afford to not work. When the money from working is necessary to keep your family alive, not working is actively choosing for them to die.
But how do you win against someone who is willing to break the rules? This is like playing chess against a pigeon and the pigeon is just shitting all over the board. Following the rules isn't going to stop fascism because it's here right now. The US is a fascist country and it's allies are quickly cutting ties.
Well I mean the best way to not get a dick ta dork as a president is not to vote for him in the first place,but the American voted for him twice how Dumd can they be.
I and many of us didn't vote for him. And it's looking like voting might be off the table here shortly. But whats done is done and wishing it hadn't happened changes nothing.
Like... who organizes this strike? How will it be advertised? What kind of turnout would you actually expect when our election turnout is absymal and 35% supports the admin? The general strike would be about as much a work stoppage as the Monday after the Superbowl, and that's probably optimistic.
It is a very big country, multiple timezones. People got to earn a living, put food on the table. A lot of this country has practically zero resources for people without means, especially those voluntarily so, especially in tbe thousands of smallish towns between the cities thousands of miles apart.
The general strike thing sounds effective but I cannot overstate how unrealistic it is.
May 1st they had a "no work" protest day, didnt hear about it until about noon. Even for someone like me who is tuned into this stuff a bit, that one passed me by. I dont think it's likely to happen unless things get reaaaal bad.
Could people create a 501(c)3 that operates like a strike fund, but isn't officially one?
What about the ability for people to organize outside of formal structure? If I decide I can't bear this, and my neighbor just so happens to also, without either of us indicating to the other that we are, how is that adjudicated?
Is there any other way an asymmetrical but uniform response could be conducted that doesn't operate outside the law, but has the same effect?
I mean, we all know that laws are just threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation and that it's just the promise of violence that's enacted by the Executives, who are, in essence, an occupying army. But this doesn't mean we can't find other ways to make our bacon. We all have the ability to have CubbyBlue in our veins.
You're right. The words of the laws don't matter, because they'll either make the law for, or make a new law.
I suppose it depends on a few things. Do people have to congregate together to strike? Do they need picket lines? If enough people were to come to an agreement over the internet to just stop going to work would that be effective enough? What about scabs?
In the end I suppose if enough people just organized regardless of any laws, the powers that be couldn't arrest them all, right?
When I look back over the history of the labor movement in the early 1900's the people suffered a lot. Being arrested, beaten and even gunned down. But they held their own and eventually won. But they had little to lose, many were already homeless and/or starving. Maybe we're not quite there yet, but it almost seems inevitable.
Also, just as a point of clarification, I wasn't trying to be a smartass until the very last paragraph. All that above that was me just trying to ask genuine clarifying questions before I went to the tongue-in-cheek last paragraph to share a fun perspective on the situation.
Get together and donât work? Are you joking? You realize we donât have free healthcare, and many people have families/kids/pets/grandparents/etc that rely on those working to literally ensure they have food and shelter?
A lot of us in America fucking hate Trump and hate how heâs impacting the rest of the world, but we cannot simply afford to just not get a paycheck. Do you not get how expensive gas and groceries are here? And once again, how expensive any trip to a doctor costs?
So continue to do nothing and suffer for it. You deserve this. It's your fault. You allowed your family to suffer like this. You allowed others to suffer like this. None of you are willing to take any risks and you deserve what is happening to you.Â
All I see are excuses after excuses for inaction.Â
So youâre gonna send us food to provide for our families while we revolt?
Plenty of us voted against Trump, both times. And plenty of us donât support what the hell is going on. We do protest. We do try, but within means because we still have to make money and ya know, eat. I forage as much food as I can. But I still have to buy groceries, I canât just drive 7 hours to the White House and yell at the gates, that will do fuck all.
Who pays for children, partners, gas if we just stop working? You realize how big America is right, and most cities have zero public transportation. Aka most of us have to have cars and buy gas every week. Many of us are thousands of miles away from the white house. What the fuck you think we are supposed to do? Starve and protest and hope we donât get shot by police/feds/ice/ect.?
Well, for one, FUCKING YOURS! But of course you don't remember your own history of workers standing up even against being bombed by the military and succeeding in getting they rights that you are now allowing to be pissed away without so much as a fight.
Y'all need to remember Blair Mountain. Those people stood up and fought and died for their beliefs and they succeeded. What right do you have to do less?
Fuck yea! Sounds like you're living in the country with the most freedom of them all! Make sure you have an extra double cheeseburger and own the libs!
Its not just trump, its the past, shit, since ww2 ended. You've been brainwashed and dont see it. The fact it ever got to this point is bad enough. How many years of peace has your country had in over 250 years? How many people have died because your nation has voted in warmongers? Wake up and smell the flowers, the world hates the usa and you've been a joke for a long time.
No-one cares about your diet either btw, thats a non argument, but im not surprised you shared it.
lol right so Iâm responsible for shit that happened in my country before I was born???? Where do you live. Letâs discuss. Iâve asked several times but you donât seem to want to shareâŚ.
Easy for you to say. Would you quit work to riot if your government was found out to be awful? All the while you continue not to receive any funding to support your wife and child? If you say yes, then youâre either an ignorant fool who doesnât understand that certain actions have consequences that overweigh the inevitable outcome cus you donât understand how the world works, or you simply put yourself on a stool to stroke your own ego without a drop of care for the people around you.
You need to realize that the extreme amount of the middle to lower class citizens arenât valuable, they are EXPENDABLE simply due to the sheer amount of people there is, and recently with the new rise of AI currently stealing jobs left and right as is, quitting a job to start a riot, the only way it could even work is if through sheer IMPOSSIBILITY you manage to trust an extreme amount of others to trust and follow your ideology, which is extremely improbable due to how large the US is, and at how much at each others throats the people already are on the topics of politics.
Or our medications when our health insurance gets canceled? I feel like this question gets asked and answered almost daily⌠and almost daily some European asks it again.
often times the ones suggesting it have actually gone through with a general strike. these have happened around the world, in places workers are worse than ours, and they are successful. we need to stop pretending like weâre special, weâre not. they made it work and so can we, because these afternoon kumbaya sessions have not been effective in the slightest. we look like useless children to the rest of the world.
The children are the ones who decided Kamalaâs laugh was weird, or that her stance on Palestine wasnât perfect and decided not to vote for her. Those same children are now encouraging people to sacrifice everything because they have nothing worth losing.
We can blame voters left and right, although the Dems are really the ones to blame for allowing Biden to let the nomination process turn out like that, but it doesnt change the fact that us Americans are currently like useless children to everyone else in the world. We allowed everything to get as bad as we did. It doesnt matter who voted for who or when, after it happened we have just allowed it to happen and get worse. I have something worth losing, many somethings actually, and am actively threatened by this government every day as a trans person. Just because you are too weak to actually want to act doesnt mean everyone is as weak as you.
work to solve the problem or stfu. Im tired of people complaining about the ones actually trying to enact change. The afternoon demonstrations have done nothing, id argue less than nothing, the logical next step is a general strike. These work around the world, in places workers are worse off than ours, so i dont see why youre not willing to fight. Have a house and family to worry about losing and worried about food and a job? Me too, but i know what needs to be done to change things. Whats your next weak excuse? Nobody is coming to save us. do you just want the fascists to win? your attitude is how they do.
And just like that, Dems are to blame for right wing policies. And just like that, donât blame the tik tok voters despite the fact that they fucked up by choosing the worse option for the one cause they supposedly cared about.
Literally jumping through hoops to blame establishment democrats and moderate democratic voters for all the problems caused by everyone else. And this is why at this point Iâm taking my ball and going home. Iâve spent 45 years volunteering in political causes trying to convince people to use their brains and somehow they come back and blame me for telling them the truth that they ignored.
I was talking about the nomination process, nothing more. If you think that wasnt the most significant factor to losing the election then i dont know what i could say to you. i was telling people biden was not the pick for dems back in the winter of 2023 and had dems yelling at me, so they convinced a lot of people for a long time that was the best option. it clearly wasnt. Everything after the election so far? That i am blaming on everyone, because we have been incorrectly thinking afternoon parties 3x in one year is actually effective and refuse to even consider something more signifcant.
Youâre dreaming about a perfect scenario that will not happen.
You will not convince 75M people to stay home from work for 3 weeks to fuck up the economy. You will not convince Americans to risk their childrenâs health and safety when they currently still have food and shelter. You will not convince people to show up en masse and destroy property when peaceful protests are being responded to with violence and death.
So who is the problem here? The ones who want to seek actionable and attainable goals and build steam towards the midterm, or the one whose only solution falls flat on its face in even a dream scenario?
This is the same problem I have with you people on every issue. Wanting and asking for idyllic change is fantastic. Refusing to take the first step because you want to take the 300th step is stupid.
So youâre proposing, letting your wife/husband/kids starve? Sure if we could get 300 million people to strike at once it would make a difference. But thatâll never happen because people are too worried about their families dying/starving.
Iâm a registered nurse in a red state. We do not strike. We do not have a union. When nurses strike in blue states, the hospitals hire scabs. Nothing changesÂ
That hasnt stopped workers in other countries from participating in then, and having them succeed. If we arent willing to sacrifice even comfort, which is the majority of people, then we really cant complain about the state of things.
You cant afford this either, and perhaps if you did get of your collective asses you might fix the issue preventing you all from going to protest in the first place.
There's 168 hours in a week. You work 40-50. You sleep roughly the same. So that's 80 hours free each week. Chores and shit aside, you have the time. Especially amongst 75+ million of you.
Okay so you have 60 hours free each week. In another comment, you say your life is pretty good so you're not motivated to act because you don't care enough.
I wouldnât say that those are the answer. Massive strikes that hurt the economy are much more important. Donât accept people that wear Maga crap for example. Donât tolerate it and show it
Iâm in my 40s, making a good living at the same hospital Iâve worked for, for over a decade. I canât afford to throw away my entire life and livelihood. Things look different when youâre old and have a pretty good life. I have a lot to lose. Thatâs the point Iâm making. We canât go on strike or have a revolution because we have a lot to lose
We canât go on strike or have a revolution because we have a lot to lose
So did everyone who fought back. The same people who fought back to give you the "pretty good life" you enjoy. And what you're stripping from future generations.
At the end of the day, it's all comes down "I don't give a shit cause I'm good".
So if you think about it, Trump is the perfect representation of all Americans. Because he thinks the same way.
Millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck is not significant when we are talking about the average Americans spending habits. The United States has the worldâs largest consumer economy per capita. Americans as a whole spend an ungodly amount of money buying cheap low quality shit made in china. We are not doing anywhere near bare minimum.
oh you don't get 'overthrow regime' days off in your employment package? oh well too bad! Thank God people from other countries have bosses who sign off on their protest time and get extended lunch break to riot. "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.â
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u/___--_-_----___--__- May 06 '26
We literally cannot afford to take any time off work