Your fear is understandable and valid, this is a dark timeline and a really bad outcome.
But being afraid and panicking cannot possibly help anybody, least of all yourself.
Take a few days if you can to reset mentally as much as possible.
Then, get to work building resistance, it’s more critical now than ever. Find a leftist org near you and get involved. DSA, a local anarchist group, a worker co-op that needs volunteers, a democratic socialist org, anything leftist that is doing real work locally.
If you can’t donate your time, donate your money. If you can’t donate either of those, then help them spread the word on your social media. Post all their links and use your social media to advertise their events and meetups, help make people aware.
On the personal side, protect your health. The conservatives largely want to demolish healthcare, especially for underprivileged folks. Your health is so critical, especially now.
Quit your vices or at least, reduce them:
- Quit smoking/vaping.
- Stop drinking, at least heavily if you do.
- Stop eating junk food/candy.
- Get in shape, hike, calisthenics, walk, bike, etc.
It will not only help protect you from an administration that wants you to have less coverage if you’re sick/injured, it will help your mental health and save you money, sometimes tons of money.
Final advice for money, save it as much as you can. Practice frugality, get together with friends to cook and share meals. Get involved socially with people, learn about your community, build solidarity.
We will get through this, I believe in you, and I believe in the human drive for true freedom, equality, and community. Don’t let that flame burn out, we’re in this together, and only together can we come out victorious. ✊
It will be strikingly similar to the last 4 years but the partisan narratives will simply flip in various ways, as will those of allied media. The bad things that the Trump admin did in his first term that became suddenly tolerable, ir even “good” under Biden? They will be back to being good again. Dem politicians will be back to calling themselves “the resistance” despite losing another layup because they could not do more than campaign on “at least we aren’t them” while presiding over a genocide and economic decline for the average person, both with intentional policies. Remember that they are all PR and cynicism and are lying to you about what they will do, as they are not beholden to a disorganized public in any way.
To be clear, bad things will be happening. It is only reasonable to feel some despair for them, but if you can allow that to motivate you to substantive action you can escape merely being a witness to suffering and can begin to work materially against it. Much of that suffering was going to happen anyways or a different form of suffering may have happened under a Harris regime. It’s not like Democrats did much with their power, they tend to pretend they have no party discipline or power even when thry have the presidency and Congress, so they allowed the major shifts at state levels to occur largely unheeded and served a right wing agenda at the national level. So it is important yo ask the question of what action you can take that does not depend on expecting Democrats to save you. They won’t. What we need are other organizations, ones that organize independently of ans often in opposition to the Democrats, Dems who otherwise suck up all political energy demanding improvements to people’s lives and turn it into more cops and wars.
So, the two ingredients to effective organizations are political education and organization building. The former is just an organized form of reading and teaching, and it is essential because we have all internalized false ideas of how politics functions. They are taught to us by the ruling interests that keep us disempowered *because * this keep them in power. The latter is about growing and improving an organization so that it can have greater and greater leverage and develop strategies for gaining and wielding power (and power is not things like letter writing campaigns to already-elected ghouls, it is making demands that must be met or else).
You can enjoin this kind of project in many ways. You don’t need to jump deeply into a hardcore organization straightaway; it can be useful to join one that is only oushing yourself moderately at first. Maybe a mutual aid organization or a single issue or single community group. The important thing is that it is of the left and therefore not of thr Democratic party. You can also engage in your own political education independently if you’d like, which can keep the pressure down when you are first starting out with irl left work.
And of course please do rely on whatever community you already may have, including here. I am happy to chat here or via DMs if you’d like and can answer basically any question you might have. I’m also happy to recommend readings that you may find useful or helpful.
Get active. The absolute worst thing you can do is “nothing”. You will feel so much better getting out there and doing good work with your neighbors. Looking for local mutual aid orgs in your area is a good start. If you can’t find any, start one yourself! Another commenter here goes into greater detail, but you can start very small! Or arrange some meetups around skill-sharing. You probably have a useful skill or knowledge that others could benefit from, and I’m sure there’s things you’d like to learn as well. Doing things like this builds community bonds, and strengthens us all. Don’t wallow, get involved!
You just gotta fight back and live your life. Sounds simple, but in my country, we lived through “the perfect dictatorship”. We know this shit.
Yeah, the election results were a horrible thing to wake up to. I had really hoped for a better outcome, but this is the direction America decided to go.
The biggest thing to remember right now is that the progressive cause will always have work to do, and challenges to face. Even if we had won, either partially or by a landslide in the House, Senate, and Executive branch, that would still hold true. The American Right may very well unleash new horrors that make life intolerable for absolutely everyone, and may take up policies that get people killed. Now, more than ever, it is on us to build bridges and networks of support. All we have to do is outlive these bastards, and oppose their worst tendencies at every turn. Vote early, vote often, and vote locally.
In the coming days and weeks, pundits will likely try to highlight all the possible reasons that the Harris campaign failed, because they love sounding like informed geniuses who take a result, work backwards, and highlight what should have been done. Try not to lean into the tendency to blame people on the left, and try to avoid infighting. It’s going to happen.
Some possibilities that might cheer you up:
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Trump is obviously in declining physical and mental health that might force him to step down. Of course, this just gives us shitbird #2, but at least he might be smart enough to not tank the economy.
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Maybe the Republicans will do something about him. We’ve seen some Republicans publicly come out against him, and there are probably a lot more who oppose him privately. Republicans are cowardly bastards, but they’re also greedy bastards, so they might invoke the 25th before Trump crashes the economy with tariffs.
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Maybe Judge Juan Merchan will sentence him. I’m not sure how this works legally, and this is so unprecedented that I don’t think anybody really does, but maybe, just maybe, Merchan will say “fuck it” and give the Republicans a little constitutional crisis to go along with their election victory.
That’s truly naive. The problem isn’t the man but that all the judiciary systems are in hand of people who clearly want to dismantle the democratic system
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One thing I know I’m going to be doing is reading “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)” by Dean Spade. From the first two paragraphs of the first chapter:
Mutual aid projects expose the reality that people do not have what they need and propose that we can address this injustice together. The most famous example in the United States is the Black Panther Party’s survival programs, which ran throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including a free breakfast program, free ambulance program, free medical clinics, a service offering rides to elderly people doing errands, and a school aimed at providing a rigorous liberation curriculum to children. The Black Panther programs welcomed people into the liberation struggle by creating spaces where they could meet basic needs and build a shared analysis about the conditions they were facing. Instead of feeling ashamed about not being able to feed their kids in a culture that blames poor people, especially poor Black people, for their poverty, people attending the Panthers’ free breakfast program got food and a chance to build shared analysis about Black poverty. It broke stigma and isolation, met material needs, and got people fired up to work together for change.
Recognizing the program’s success, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously wrote in a 1969 memo sent to all field offices that “the BCP [Breakfast for Children Program] represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP [Black Panther Party] and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for.” The night before the Chicago program was supposed to open, police broke into the church that was hosting it and urinated on all of the food. The government’s attacks on the Black Panther Party are evidence of mutual aid’s power, as is the government’s co-optation of the program: in the early 1970s the US Department of Agriculture expanded its federal free breakfast program—built on a charity, not a liberation, model—that still feeds millions of children today. The Black Panthers provided a striking vision of liberation, asserting that Black people had to defend themselves against a violent and racist government, and that they could organize to give each other what a racist society withheld.
People in your community already need help. You and your friends can start building a mutual aid network today, one that can help queer people, black people, and women in need. You can decide what kind of aid you can provide. Maybe you’re offering rides to airports to women who need to travel out of state for medical care. Perhaps you’re providing safe places and spaces for the Trans population in your area. Whatever it is, you’ll feel more connected and more in control of your community, and put out a positive influence within it.
Along the way, you should also try and educate yourself so that you can educate others.
If you think this is just for the next 4 years, you’re fooling yourself.
Is now a good time to think about a third party? Actual left one. Not 1995 Republicans left.
Absolutely. It always has been, to be clear, but it is always a good time to start. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.
To be clear, electoralism cannot and will not save us, Revolution is necessary. Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution and Lenin’s The State and Revolution have remained correct to this day, and are only further proven correct with the passage of time and the accumulation of confirming evidence.
A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds.
I meant even just a bit left of center, just something sane not totally sold to corporate.
Why? The Greens haven’t seen widespread success, to me it seems like we need to look more critically at the failures of electoralism.
Disclosure, an not American. I don’t know much about the greens , I got distributed to get a few weeks ago just for mentioning that whether Stein was legit or not, some of her supporters made good points. USA seems to be locked into a mindset that everything is black or white. If you can’t win the presidency is not worth it. Have Sanders quit the Democrats tomorrow, and recruit a few star player to go with. That would be a real kick in the ass for the Establishment to care about peopl. Think Tea party for the left.
That’s a bit of a misanalysis of the electoral situation. The Greens are that party, and failed to get a dent. PSL is a revolutionary party, but they are still picking up steam. Electoralism will not destabilize the Democrat/Republican duopoly.
It’s time to push for ranked choice voting, which will in turn enable third parties.
Arm yourself. If they get violent, I’m returning the favor.
My wife and I both came to the same realization on our own. We need a firearm with stopping power when the Criminal in Chief’s jackbooted thugs come for this liberal poisoning the blood of our nation.
I used to be a firearm salesman. If you have any questions, I’m available.
I’ve been thinking about a Henry, due to not just living the style but also reliability, ease of repair, availability of ammunition, stopping power. However I know practically jack shit about guns, so I would appreciate any advice as to whether any of that is true or practical.
The nice thing about lever guns is that a lot of them can share cartridges with revolvers, such as a 357 mag, 44 mag, 45 colt, etc.
But they’re not actually as reliable compared to a modern semi-auto as people think, and when they do jam, they jam BAD.
Unlike a semi-auto, user error is also likely to cause a malfunction. If you change directions on that lever at the exact wrong time, you can end up having a double-feed that requires you to dismantle the receiver to clear it.
That being said, I do love them. I would probably look at a Winchester or one of the newer Marlins, though. Marlin (among others) was terrible for a while when they were bought out by a investment group that made awful guns, but they went into bankruptcy and more Ruger is taking over Marlin, and Ruger has an excellent reputation for affordable quality.
But if you’re looking for the shared pistol/long gun commination, I’m actually a bigger fan of a modern pistol caliber carbine like a Ruger PC Charger, Sig MPX, Kel Tec Sub2000, or CZ Scorpion Evo.
There’s also the newer Henry Homesteader, which has a more traditional look but is a semi-auto 9mm.
For repairability, nothing beats the AR platform. They can also be a fun project. You can buy a lower receiver (the frame that is legally the gun) through a firearms dealer, and get the rest of the parts online and build yourself a reliable, affordable custom firearm set up evacuate how you want it in whatever caliber you’d like fairly easily. There’s only a few tools needed, like punches, screwdrivers, and pliers. A castle nut wrench is helpful but not entirely necessary.
And then you’d know exactly how to fix everything.
To go that route, I’d recommend starting by buying a pre-made upper receiver from Palmetto State Armory in whatever caliber, style, and barrel length you want. Longer is typically more powerful and accurate with a longer sight radius if you aren’t using optics, but it is heavier and harder to maneuver in a tight space. Then, get a matching lower (different ranges of calibers use different-sized lowers) from a dealer and a Lower Parts Kit (trigger, assembly pins, etc, all bundled together), bolt, and stock. It takes about 30 minutes to assemble for a beginner if you watch a YouTube video first.
Don’t go under 16 inches, though, unless you really understand the laws regarding the differences between hand braces and stocks as well as the difference between an AR pistol and a Short-barreled rifle. A short-barreled rifle (designed to fire from the shoulder with a barrel under 16 inches) a controlled weapon like a machine gun, silencer, or grenade and requires special permitting that takes like a year to get as well as a $200 tax stamp, and unless you buy it under a special trust only you can have posession of it.
Anyway, I’m rambling. In short, for an effective firearm for defense from 2-legged threats, I don’t recommend a lever gun. They’re super fun, and I love all of mine, but they aren’t what I keep in my quick-access safes in the bedroom or the hidden sage in my car.
My personal defensive guns are a pump shotgun for the house, and automatic pistols (a little pocket-carry 380 for concealed carry when I can’t hide a hoslter and a 9mm for when I can) and a braced AR pistol in a hidden safe in my van for if things go really south. Braced pisyltols are in a legal limbo right now since they were essentially banned by the Biden administration, but the Courts have frozen the rule, so I don’t super recommend building one right now.
I have more guns (like 60 of them, lol) in the home safe, but most of them are range toys or hunting guns. My precision rifle that’ll take off a gnat’s wings at 300 yards is fun, but a $7,000, 20lb bolt-action rifle with a $3500 scope (the industry used to give me a bunch of freebies - do not ever spend that kind of money on a single gun) isn’t a practical weapon.
Finally - whatever you go with, you need to shoot it. A lot. If you have a $1,000 budget for the whole thing, buy a $200 pistol and $800 of ammo to train with. You can train with cheap shit, but make sure to buy defensive ammo to keep for emergency use. Defensive ammo is really, really expensive (often several dollars a round), but you want the bullet to do it’s job, and (more importantly) stop moving when it hits something. If you have to use a gun defensively, you don’t want to shoot through 4 walls and kill the neighbor.
That’s super helpful information, thank you very much!
What rifle and in what caliber do you most recommend for home defense and cheap, relatively plentiful ammo that is shortage-resistant?
I am considering a cheap Palmetto State Armory AR kit chambered for 5.56 NATO rounds so I could also fire .223s. Is brand particularly important, or are most ARs on the market good enough for practice and emergency use?
For anything but super-precision shooting a PSA will work fine.
I’m also a huge fan of red-dot sights for people who don’t want to spend 5 grand on ammo perfecting their shot. If you have a trigger pull that consistently makes you miss low and left, you can just adjust the dot to compensate instead of training for a better trigger pull. It’s not what I’d recommend for someone to take up shooting as a hobby, but for quick results with less training and money (ammo adds up faster than the cost of the optic FAST), it’s a good shortcut.
But go with a quality red dot like an Aimpoint or Holosun that won’t require you to take 20 seconds getting the dot up and running if you need it. An aimpoint can run for a year+ turned on, so you just leave it on and change the battery on your birthday, whereas others like a holosun are motion-activated, so it automatically turns on when you pick up the gun and turns off after a few hours without movement. Same thing - change the battery once a year.
The cheaper bushnell, vortex, swampfox, etc optics are fun for the range, but you can easily leave them tuned on and have a dead battery in a week, or you may have to turn them on and set the brightness every time you pull the gun out, which takes time.
5.56 is plentiful and relatively cheap, though it does tend to be the first to disappear from shelves when there’s a scare. From 2020-2022 it was hard to buy. It’s also a little faster with higher penetrati9n than I’d like for indoor use. I like 300 blackout in a short-barreled rifle or AR pistol a lot for up close since it’s less likely to kill the neighbor, and all you really need is a different barrel for it to work in an AR - it even uses the same mags. It’s also amazing with a suppressor, as the cartidge was developed by a supressor company specifically to be supressed. But the ammo is also expensive and less-plentiful.
Thank you so much for the reply! That is extremely helpful.
I’ve decided to start going back to the range and practicing with my pistol again. Considering getting a concealed carry permit just in case things get bad enough where I feel I’ll need to defend myself while out and about. I don’t think things will get that bad, but better safe than sorry, right?
One of my best friends is a martial arts instructor and she said she’ll give me free self defense classes. I’m small and weak, so I need every advantage I can get.
It’s precisely what the 4th amendment is for. Defending ourselves from tyranny.
The federal gov has been nuked, act as if only your state legislature exist, organize unaligned party.
in the short term: do something that helps you cope with our reality.
in the long term: reach out the people who both love and respect you and tell them how you feel. mutual aid is how we survived every time there’s been a hostile government and it’ll work again. we’ve been here before, we’ve survived, and we will do it again.
No point in hiding for 4 years, shits not going to be the same when you come out. The only thing we can do is get the fuck out or stay and fight. Shit’s gone get real bad if we all just hide. Pretty much what caused the issue since I feel like we all have been since Covid.
We need you in the fight. Buy a gun. Learn how to use it.
That’s not the wisest course of action here Drag. Having a gun makes you a target for more than just bigots. It’s a death sentence in some areas - people will pull on you just to steal it, or cops will notice it and gun you down without warning or reason. There are far more effective and safe things we can do to protect ourselves/dragself.
Then use it before all that happens.
Advocating for violence, really?
Just get on with your life.
