Shit feels terrible. I live in the Imperial Core, and of course, I always hear about the news all the time after Election Day. As a high-schooler, I feel particularly helpless and stuck.
Yeah, I know, I know - the Dems are just as bad as Trump but man, is it fucking disheartening to the point where it goes full cycle and ends up being straight up comical (I mean Amerikkkan bs has always been comical but this time its reaching some crazy fucking levels of face-off comical clownery shit), to see Trump appoint the absolute WORST and most irredeemable pieces of shit to office. Like fucking hell, of course Chris Wright, a Big Oil mogul is the leader of the Department of Energy, and RFK - Mr. Brain Worms himself as the Health Department leader, not to mention the whole Elon Musk DOGE and the abolishing the Department of Education bullshit Trump is also doing.
I mean, the billionaires and the corporate fascist oligarchs were always destined to win in the Empire no matter what but fuck damn - the speed and magnitude of this shitstorm is taking even me by surprise (although admittedly, I very well shouldn’t be surprised). Everything is fucked in the first place - the climate, the people, everything that actually matters is fucked. I knew this from the start but shit, does it still hurt.
I apologize if this sound a bit too US-defaultist but I just want to kinda vent from my own perspective and ask for advice. Thanks comrades.
Hey there, first off I wanna say that you being a highschooler having found this place and being interested in communism at all is fucking fantastic. I was an ignorant jerk in highschool so you’re miles ahead of where I was. That said, being more politically inclined makes it so much harder to cope sometimes, I feel.
My only advice is to try and become invested in your own community. There is so little we can do individually to effect change on a large scale. Being constantly bombarded with the news and fear mongering makes me want to hide in a cave. I do also get anxious about Trump. I know ultimately the machine will grind people down the same, Democrat or republican…but the reality of it right now just feels horrible. BUT, we do have the ability to make a difference in our own communities and that can make things feel a little less bleak when you’re around people who care.
Are there any opportunities in your community to volunteer? Feeding or handing out cold weather gear to the homeless, trash pick up, communist reading groups, even a punk community? Often in punk communities there is a political element. May lean more anarchist but you might find comrades; a lot of all ages shows are thrown around my town and there are often benefit shows and people who do cool things for the larger community.
It’s terrifying right now, I know, but you’ll figure out what you need to do. Love & solidarity
You have time to learn Chinese and go to China
Lol I was literally born there and is fluent in the language. I ended up in the US in the first place because my parents are the type of Asians to unironically think that China is literally worse than Nazi Germany and the US is the best country in the world
Dude i am so jealous if i had Chineae citizenship id be on the next one way flight to Chongqing. Get out of the US while u can is my advice.
Especially as a Chinese person. Chinese-Americans and other East Asian demographics are gonna have a seriously bad time this decade in America. They are in a similar social position as Jews were when the Nazis were gearing up for war against the USSR.
Not that every other marginalized group isn’t also in peril in the US. Of course they are. But I don’t think anyone is prepared for what the bipartisan US ruling class consensus against China will lead to.
America already did internment(concentration) camps for asians once. I see no reason they wouldn’t do it again. GTFO ASAP. That’s the acronym every non white American should live by right now.
i saw this somewhere else on lemmy and i think it applies here: people lived rich and fulfilling lives despite the roman empire actively collapsing all around them.
we’re getting more farcical for a myriad of reasons, but chief among them are the cool aide drinking and the willful ignorance against learning why things are fucked.
it takes time and effort to read and understand something like theory and that guarantees that the people who don’t bother will vastly outnumber everyone else, so asshatery like you’re seeing is a part of life (for now). the stuff that they wrote down over 100 years is still 100% relevant and also still helps identify what’s going to roll down the hill next.
trying to understand why things are fucked has helped me immensely in coping with all the asshatery; it seems like you’ve already started your own work by posting here so maybe it’ll help you too.
You have time, the most important and valuable resource any person can have. At your age my politics were entirely incoherent and it would take me about 20 years to figure things out. While I (hope to) have a lot more time left on earth, now that I’m in the 40s time does feel more dear to me. I have this feeling that I don’t have enough time. How much organizing will I actually be able to do? How much theory reading and understanding (which I genuinely enjoy) will I get to do?
I don’t have a specific answer for how to stay optimistic. But I can point out that you have your whole life ahead of you to be able to figure it out, and that’s something I think many here would love to have. I have found in my life that developing gratitude helps clear a lot of things up, fwiw.
