“But why don’t Americans protest? All they do is sit back and take it up the ass!” I hear every European crying as they ignore this right alongside all the other protests.
The problem is that protests are to promote awareness. That does nothing, Trump thrives on bad PR as long as it can serve as misdirection for the latest tragedy. The general strike did start to do something. The biggest problem is that the Supreme Court is fully corrupt, the Executive Branch and all federal agencies are now fully corrupt, and congress is the weakest branch of government that works slow and will get hampered by the Supreme Court even if you manage to have fair elections for midterms.
Gavin Newsom is about the only state leader that is doing something effective, and Tim Walz should have been there with him during the World Economic Forum. The fact is, your federal government is corrupt down right to the core and it got this bad when things were way better. The people controlling the media, controlling the social networks that influence people, now have more say and wealth to hinder and twist the barebones democratic elements that the US had, to put dissenters like you into ineffective bubbles while they radicalize, enable, and pardon the vitriol that serves them.
The problem is that keeping you country together prevented slavery, but never defeated the confederates turned “MAGA” neoconfederates that run your federal government today, and a country that was founded and dissolved several times until it became the United States has now been indoctrinated that there are no circumstances where seeking independence is valid, even when the federal government that rules the states isn’t following its own constitution. You cannot have a democracy without a shared reality, and you cannot have a shared reality where for some the constitution is a legal foundation for the country and for others it is simply just another bible from which to read excerpts off while ignoring the rest of it.
Europe shouldn’t tell you what to do, but why would we ever deal the same way we have before with a country that proven itself to be psychotically bipolar? Do you realize that our governments cannot orbit around yours because we have our own politicians to deal with? That’s not the case with a number of states in the US, yet they are forced to now submit to a dictatorship even though they are the economic motors for the country that other states’ politicians basically live off of. Anyway, you guys do you, the US as it is now has lost a lot of standing in the world - except with dictatorships, where standing is basically just optics anyway. I understand people are doing what they can, it would (and likely will) be difficult to do the same thing here, there’s too much money going into manipulating governments and corruption could not have denied oversight at a worse time.
The core problem is one where billionaires have gone Cambridge Analytica and have destroyed and attacked our share reality - the reason why they are also ardent AI proponents, and they are operating everywhere. Honestly, I don’t have a solution, just observations. But understand that from our point of view, was it better to deal with the USSR, or was it better to deal with each of its members like Ukraine and Russia individually?
First, its not just a protest, its a general strike, countless businesses have had to close because of it.
Secondly, you say that as if Iran isn’t working. Why is it that whenever there’s a protest in the US people try to minimize it?
“But why don’t Americans protest? All they do is sit back and take it up the ass!” I hear every European crying as they ignore this right alongside all the other protests.
Direct quote. How is me saying protests wont work a non-sequitor exactly. Please do explain.
People from around the world from countries who have gone through this exact kind of thing, some of whom have personally experinced them firsthand, are telling you peaceful protests are not enough. This is coming from experience, not idle talk.
And instead of listening, you’re getting mad and calling people big meanies.
I dont know if its because Americans are so used to people tiptoing around them or stroking their egos or whatever. But if you dont get your collective heads out of your asses you are going to end up a victim of history and your country will be unrecognizable.
You need to grow up and listen, not lash out when people levy criticism.
I mean, on the flipside Americans (edit: and russian trolls especially)constantly mock European politicians with the “they’re gonna send a strongly worded letter” which is the single most retarded thing I have heard and keep hearing from that camp.
Personally, I have respect for the Americans who go protest, while I have a lot less respect for the politicians in America who do have the power to push back against trump, yet all they seem to do is nothing while blaming Europe for trump acting like a toddler.
Meanwhile we here in Europe do what every adult with self respect does to a screaming child at the store - we tell them no. Calmly and without escalation. If we start behaving like trump, there is no adults left to help calm things down. In america, however, it seems that every politician is either enabling trump or acting like him: attacking the wrong people because it is easier to slap around your friends than standing up to your true enemy. Gavin Newsom. I see you, bitch.
But yeah, I have respect for the common folk who are protesting in america. I have had respect for the tons of protests they have done since january of last year. It is historical but it kinda drowns in the piles of shit trump poops out daily to keep all of us disoriented and angry at all kinds of different things.
He is destroying America from the inside and he’s destroying America’s relationship with their allies from the outside. I genuinely feel so fucking bad for you guys, because you and your children and your childrens children will be the ones to pay the ultimate price of trumps second presidency. Whatever allies you’ll have left when his time is over will be significantly less than what they used to be and meanwhile your country will be in massive economic trouble which will only get worse once the effect of de-americanization in Europe starts to be felt in your country.
I have heard Americans talk about him in very negative terms before, but never really new the details as I usually try to stay as far away from news and politics as possible. However, with his recent Trumpish tactic of calling Europe pathetic and the laughing stock of the world and accusing us of giving Trump the Nobel Peace Prize (I didn’t know Venezuela was a European country, nor that Machado was part of the Nobel Peace Prize committee), it really cemented to me that he was that kind of cunt and not just unpopular among some voters for his politics.
I could 100% agree with all of his politics and still think he’s a cunt for using those kinds of tactics instead of being a fucking adult and treating his voters, his state and his position as politician and governor like a joke. I will never respect him, he will always be a joke to me and the Democrats will be a joke if they elect him to represent him during the next presidential election. I’m a much bigger fan of AOC. Everytime she opens her mouth, as far as I’m aware, she’s been spitting facts. America needs someone with the dignity, intelligence and warmth she has displayed towards the American people. That’s what I think, but take it with a grain of salt as I genuinely try to stay out of politics as much as possible and am ignorant to most things.
I’m confused by this. The only people I’ve read complaining about the “strongly worded letter” tendencies have been criticising the us democratic party for its dereliction of duty and utterly feckless disregard of their constitutional oaths in the face of this fascist xenocidal administration. Where are you seeing the imprecations against Europe?
EDIT: You know what, I just read the rest of the thread OP’s comments, and I rescind my point. They spew enough anti-european angst to fill a couple of comment sections.
To answer your prior question: all over the internet. They are especially prevalent on youtube. I usually chalk them up to being Russian trolls, but I have also seen examples of real Americans holding these opinions towards Europe. Some of them were youtubers I was subscribed to for years, who became radicalized trump lovers and while I generally do not unsub from creators whose political opinions I disagree with, I just had enough of the aggressive anti-European rhetoric, that 9 time out of 10 was based upon lies or ignorance. I have even heard shit like “Europe has no freedom of speech” and then they use Britain’s strict speech laws to paint all of Europe with that same brush. Be like me saying that all of America is anti abortion and that no place allows for women to have an abortion just because some states have either outlawed it or narrowed the rules around legal abortion.
The narrative that Europe is weak and “sends strongly worded letters” has more or less been used for mockery and killing our spirit since Putin sent missiles toward Kiyv in 2022.
Europe is not an innocent Saint who cannot be criticized and we definitely have been way too trusting and naive, but we are not stupid and we are not weak. The only people who repeat this sentiment over and over and over are our enemies who want to destabilize, divide and destroy us so that Putin and Trump can fight over who gets what piece of Europe in the end.
That is very clear to me and I fucking refuse to fall for that shit.
Ps, no hard feelings about you asking btw. It is valid to ask when you are in doubt of something. I do that all the time.
Fair enough. I only interact with Lemmy, nebula and dropout, so I don’t really see that side of things (the few YouTube things I can’t get on nebula are science-related, so they’re fairly unlikely to join the Turd Reich)
You’re wiser than me, then. I left most of social media as well and before I left, there was a lot of toxic shit going on on those sites too. Lemmy isn’t much better in that regard, but I prefer this open source setup over big silicon Valley sites that surveil everything you do. Youtube is the only big American social media platform I have yet to find the backbone to leave entirely behind. Mostly because there are a few podcasts on there, that I love and follow and I can only get the video recordings on youtube, so eh.
I hope I’ll be able to detach as much as you someday, my friend. I think it is better for the soul and nervous system in the long run!
TBF, news outlets have been utterly ignoring þe country-wide protests which have been consistently happening practically since Trump took office. Almost none of þe enormous 50502 protests have been covered. If we’re not seeing it on American media, even fewer international people are going to see it.
Sadly, I have seen news coverage, but it seems reliably right-wing and describes the events as things like “a mob” or “instigators” and other charged language.
Covering the story is one thing, but who does it and how they spin it can really change the perception.
Imagine if there were mediums . . . Like something social in nature. . . Hmmm, what to call it? Oh, I know! Social media!
Now, imagine if citizens could, you know, post stuff on said social media, like en masse. Because lots of ‘enormous’protests that are ‘consistently happening’ would get attention, right?
I mean, network media doesn’t gatekeep what the populace posts, right?
other than on the fediverse it absolutely does. but a lot of us aren’t taking our phones to protests because the NSA/FBI uses the data of crowds pinging off cell towers to break our movements. plus they’ve been deploying mobile cell towers to exactly pinpoint our locations and apply force to us.
in otherwords:
no. social media is not an option. we’re less interested in you seeing us do this work than we are in making sure the work gets done. we know this lets the right wing skew the messaging their way, but it’s better than not being out at all because you’re scared to go out and be beaten, or because you’re spending 9+ months in a detention center.
i’ve been at this for 21 years. most people i talk to strongly recommend against bringing phones to protests, and recommend not posting any photographs taken with a basic camera if you can see anyone in the picture’s face.
if you have good techniques for defeating NSA/FBI tactics that would let us get our imagery in front of more people, i’d love to know them. for now i’m gonna keep not bringing my phone and keep any photos i take off the internet because they put people at risk of intensive harm from our oppressive police state
They’re charging headlong into teargas and lobbing it back. They’re stubbornly taking whatever opening they can get a foothold in and erecting barricades.
I’d say this is pretty damn opposite of “apathetic.” Maybe it’ll give you some hope. In the meanwhile, please support the helpers.
My recommendation: let it go. Too many people on lemmy demand The People here do things differently. More and more I’m finding that people are more interested in the entertainment of watching protests somewhere else from them than in getting involved in their local communities. I have no interest in performing for the internet the role of protestor, and am much more interested in being involved where I am in making changes. If lemmy wants to be a cesspit of obnoxious keyboard warriors telling eachother to do something and prove they’re doing something, that’s fine, it doesn’t need us. If it’s just going to be an energy sink, it’s going to exist in a place of making us less, not more, effective as mobilized participants in social good.
I get it. But also we are occupied by ice right now. We are spending a majority of our time resisting at the community level. Helping our neighbors from being abducted, monitoring ice, protesting.
If you hurt yourself and hurt a friend, your friend may understand the first few times it happens, but after a while the “I’m hurting myself too!” excuse may not be enough for them to remain your friend.
Sorry if I’d like ANY response to the attacks on trans people across Europe, the UK, Canada, and plenty of other places.
I want people out there like the Black Panthers, too. I want Europe to divest themselves from the American military industrial complex. I want to watch American companies who support and enable these fascists see their profits shrivel up as the economy collapses. I want to watch Google and Facebook and Twitter burn.
But all I hear from Europeans on here is how all Americans are fascists for not being in open war with the regime while fascism tightens its grip on your own right-wing parties, and I’m sick of it. If you’re not proactive, you’ll be in the same boat as us. Italy had fascist gangs attacking people in the streets a few years back. We used to say “it could never happen here” when reading about Nazi Germany and wondering just how they could let it happen. And then it did happen here. Now you’re the ones saying it.
Sorry if I’d like ANY response to the attacks on trans people across Europe, the UK, Canada, and plenty of other places.
Italy’s current governing party is declaredly fascist. It still hasn’t done anything as bad as the US government had been doing before Trump, never mind after. Nonetheless, there’s been multiple general strikes during their mandate, protests, and so on. Our ports were blocked in protest of the Gaza war, something we have WAY less influence on than you guys do, and those protests in my city drew the biggest crowd I’d ever seen at such an event.
Are we perfect? No. Should we do more? Yes. But please don’t put us on the same level. All I hear from Americans is “oh no, I’ll lose my job and starve on the street”, but I live in a country where the average salary is half that of the US, with electricity two times as expensive and fuel almost three times as expensive compared to the US, so well, sorry if I don’t fully empathise.
If you’re not proactive, you’ll be in the same boat as us. Italy had fascist gangs attacking people in the streets a few years back.
Italy INVENTED fascism, we’ve been fighting it for a century, it was born out of opposition to communism, and it wasn’t eradicated at the end of WWII because our new overlords, the US, were just as afraid of communism as our previous ones, so yeah, we know, we’re working on it, we’ve been for a long time.
I live in a country where the average salary is half that of the US, with electricity two times as expensive and fuel almost three times as expensive compared to the US
Ok, I guess, even though you’re the one making the claim lol
Housing in Italy is projected to cost $1,070 per month on average, for a total of $1,970 per month on average for overall cost of living.
For some reason that site doesn’t have figures for all of the USA, but on average, costs are higher in the USA both for housing and overall cost of living.
What pressure has this put on Trump’s administration to stop? This wasn’t a strike because no demands were made for a return to work. Everybody is back to work today.
ICE will be back at it again today too.
The protesters were herded into an arena to listen to some campaigning. Then everyone went home.
You seem to be hating on Europeans. I would practice some self enquiry.
Being this soft to literal fascism and fascists is not a good look. They are literally kidnapping children. Killing people. Blinding people. They are waging wars. Calling them literal nazis is appropriate. They are removing your healthcare or making it prohibitively expensive. They are stealing from you. Not only your health but also your money. Pump and dump schemes, etc. Last, but definitely not least, they are protecting each other. Each one of them is evil beyond comprehension and they are all playing together, protecting eachother. Your president is a pedophile. He is not only part but also probably one of the main people, of a ring of pedophiles.
Your hate towards Europeans is misplaced. All we want is justice and a good society.
I am hating on Europeans. Because Europeans have been hating on me and mine for almost a year now, regardless of what people do here.
Fascist gangs were roaming the streets of Italy a few years ago. Your fascist parties have been waging war against trans people like me for over a decade. Where is your resistance to them? Your solidarity with the weakest amongst you?
European hate is misplaced. All we want is justice and a good society, but we have to fight against 70 years of work to destroy our ability to fight as well as the ignorant and hateful minority of the populace who support these fuckers, and they’re the ones the most willing to commit acts of terrorism. The people protesting are the average person who balks at the thought of fist-fighting in the street.
Because just standing outside is not how a protest achieves anything. True protests must be disruptive and last. The Yellow jackets burned down the avenue des champs Elysées every Saturday for multiple months. The protests following Nahel’s murder (very similar to that of Renee good in some aspects) burned down multiple police stations.
Standing protests like this a regular occurrence in France, but those are not the ones you hear about. Their only role is so build momentum and make people feel united.
Real change happens only through either much stronger protests or through actions like the whistles and following ice around making them feel unwelcome 24/7.
Seeing this many people out in weather that I frankly can’t comprehend sends a strong signal that disapproval of ICE is a normal, acceptable position. Humans are social creatures and I think these protests are massively influential at the polling booth - one of the few places that substantial change can be made.
Not that there is anything wrong with the whistles etc.
Voting is much easier than standing in -30C outside.
Anyone who put that effort will definitively vote.
But this is about showing people that they are not alone with it, it is also showing politicians, judges, governors and other public servants that they should not give up.
Most importantly it is showing traitors that are helping this administration that there might be consequences.
I love how it’s a bajillion degrees below zero and they are all outside protesting, flipping shit. Yeah, Americans don’t do anything. Fuck y’all that say it.
The protests last year were some of the largest in US history. There have been smaller protests popping up constantly since the first few months of the regime.
Otherwise fascism was perfectly acceptable, as long as it didn’t affect you - the white Americans.
This is the crux of the entire liberal “if Holocaust Harris won, we’d be out to brunch!” crowd of privileged liberals. You’re totally correct.
And there are a ton of them on Lemmy surprisingly, so your downvote ratio on this comment is no surprise. They’ll never offer a coherent response except, “Well if we had voted for genocide, at least things would be moderately less bad for us… yeah terrible about all those Palestinian children, but like, I have to show up for city-approved protests all the time now…”
The protests last year were some of the largest in US history, up there with and possibly larger than during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement.
But go ahead and ignore those. Keep proving my original post right.
It took a decade for the Civil Rights protests to get any real change to happen, and that was only after the murder of MLK caused the black community to burn down entire city districts and cause billions of dollars worth of property damage. Your average person - even in Europe - won’t go that far unless pushed.
Europeans were perfectly fine with Nazi fascism right up until it was knocking down their door. They’ve been perfectly fine with allowing their right-wing parties to fall further and further into fascism right alongside the US. Italy had fascist gangs roaming the streets attacking people a few years back. You’ve been perfectly content to watch as European politicians target people like me almost as badly as Republicans have. Where are your protests in support of trans people? I guess it doesn’t affect you, so you don’t care.
So go ahead and keep acting like you’re so much better than Americans. All of you are just proving my point and showing the exact reason that I’ve had enough of Europe and Canada. Pot, meet kettle.
I’ve been in full support of anything Europe and Canada are doing to hurt America and fix their own issues, but the constant vitriol against the people who actually want to fight the fight has made me sick of the armchair generals all over Lemmy.
The protests last year were some of the largest in US history
Yeah, I dunno if marching dressed as inflatable Pokémons did anything. In fact, I know it had an absolute zero effect, things only got worse, way worse. What was the point of that?
“B-b-buT tHeY wErE bIgGeSt eVeR”.
Sure, pat yourself on the back, but your country is still run by a pedophile war criminal.
It still blows my mind, what kind of fucked up people elect such a person as a President… Fyi, Germans never elected Hitler, but you did! And now the world, suffering at the hands of your elected “President” are supposed to feel sorry for you?
“B-b-buT i DiDnT vOtE fOr HiM” is what your gonna tell me, aren’t you?
It took a decade for the Civil Rights protests to get any real change to happen
Isn’t that just proof that your “protests” are useless?
As recently as September 2025, Nepalese people overthrew their corrupt government in just 48 hours.
Your average person - even in Europe - won’t go that far unless pushed.
Bulgaria (Europe) changed their government in December 2025, because they were corrupt fucks, and people didn’t need to be pushed nowhere near as far, no one got abducted or shot dead in the face. This happened just over a month ago. Get your facts straight. I guess you didn’t know about that, because it doesn’t get nowhere near as fucked up as in your shithole, because we don’t let it.
You see, in Europe, we learned about how fucked up Nazis were and how fucked up fascism is and we have way more checks and balances in place to keep the government from doing whatever the fuck they want.
There isn’t a single country in the EU where a president or prime minister would have the power on their own to just decide and bomb fishermen, or abduct a leader of another country, or fuck children and get away with this. What is happening in the USA is beyond fucked up, and your response so far was to dress up as inflatable Pokémons.
It took a white American citizen getting shot in the face, for people to start taking this seriously…
Over 60% of history taught in the USA is American history, yet the country is not even 250 years old. In the USA, all you learn is your propaganda called “America the greatest”.
No wonder fascists had such an easy way to rise to power.
Sure, it’s not perfect in the EU, but what is happening in the USA is whole magnitudes worse.
But you keep patting yourself on the back for marching in Pokémon costumes, that surely made the government think twice. That is, think twice whether to make a video of Trump pissing or shitting on the protesters.
Seriously, I have no words how fucked up the USA is, and you clearly can’t the forest for the trees.
Europeans were perfectly fine with Nazi fascism right up until it was knocking down their door.
“B-b-buT wHaT aBoUt EU nAZiS.”
GTFO with your aboutism.
Go ahead, keep acting like the USA is the greatest of all. That’s what got you fucked in the first place.
As recently as September 2025, Nepalese people overthrew their corrupt government in just 48 hours.
Pretending that Nepalese youth didn’t spend years organizing which culminated in that 48-hour successful revolution diminishes the otherwise-valid points you’re making here.
Well we had a decent start going until COINTELPRO.
But anyway that’s not really my point. Americans should be doing more, I agree with you there. My point is that it’s disingenuous to present the Nepalese revolution as just suddenly happening within 48 hours because people got fed up.
That’s not the electorate we have. We need good candidates to beat bad candidates. Second worst isn’t good enough to win. Scream at voters all you want and it won’t change a thing. We need better candidates.
“But why don’t Americans protest? All they do is sit back and take it up the ass!” I hear every European crying as they ignore this right alongside all the other protests.
The problem is that protests are to promote awareness. That does nothing, Trump thrives on bad PR as long as it can serve as misdirection for the latest tragedy. The general strike did start to do something. The biggest problem is that the Supreme Court is fully corrupt, the Executive Branch and all federal agencies are now fully corrupt, and congress is the weakest branch of government that works slow and will get hampered by the Supreme Court even if you manage to have fair elections for midterms.
Gavin Newsom is about the only state leader that is doing something effective, and Tim Walz should have been there with him during the World Economic Forum. The fact is, your federal government is corrupt down right to the core and it got this bad when things were way better. The people controlling the media, controlling the social networks that influence people, now have more say and wealth to hinder and twist the barebones democratic elements that the US had, to put dissenters like you into ineffective bubbles while they radicalize, enable, and pardon the vitriol that serves them.
The problem is that keeping you country together prevented slavery, but never defeated the confederates turned “MAGA” neoconfederates that run your federal government today, and a country that was founded and dissolved several times until it became the United States has now been indoctrinated that there are no circumstances where seeking independence is valid, even when the federal government that rules the states isn’t following its own constitution. You cannot have a democracy without a shared reality, and you cannot have a shared reality where for some the constitution is a legal foundation for the country and for others it is simply just another bible from which to read excerpts off while ignoring the rest of it.
Europe shouldn’t tell you what to do, but why would we ever deal the same way we have before with a country that proven itself to be psychotically bipolar? Do you realize that our governments cannot orbit around yours because we have our own politicians to deal with? That’s not the case with a number of states in the US, yet they are forced to now submit to a dictatorship even though they are the economic motors for the country that other states’ politicians basically live off of. Anyway, you guys do you, the US as it is now has lost a lot of standing in the world - except with dictatorships, where standing is basically just optics anyway. I understand people are doing what they can, it would (and likely will) be difficult to do the same thing here, there’s too much money going into manipulating governments and corruption could not have denied oversight at a worse time.
The core problem is one where billionaires have gone Cambridge Analytica and have destroyed and attacked our share reality - the reason why they are also ardent AI proponents, and they are operating everywhere. Honestly, I don’t have a solution, just observations. But understand that from our point of view, was it better to deal with the USSR, or was it better to deal with each of its members like Ukraine and Russia individually?
To be fair, I think it’s a really low number of Europeans doing this. A very loud, but low, minority of idiots.
We know all about minorities of idiots here in the US, so we should see this for what it is.
If you think protests are enough to fix this you’re dreaming.
First, its not just a protest, its a general strike, countless businesses have had to close because of it. Secondly, you say that as if Iran isn’t working. Why is it that whenever there’s a protest in the US people try to minimize it?
They literally didn’t say that. Stop making things up to get mad at.
Not my country. Im just stating a fact.
It’s a non sequitur response and rude for no reason. That’s the only fact I see here.
Direct quote. How is me saying protests wont work a non-sequitor exactly. Please do explain.
Honestly you just seem like an ass, is my take
Solid deflection.
Let me be crystal clear here.
People from around the world from countries who have gone through this exact kind of thing, some of whom have personally experinced them firsthand, are telling you peaceful protests are not enough. This is coming from experience, not idle talk.
And instead of listening, you’re getting mad and calling people big meanies.
I dont know if its because Americans are so used to people tiptoing around them or stroking their egos or whatever. But if you dont get your collective heads out of your asses you are going to end up a victim of history and your country will be unrecognizable.
You need to grow up and listen, not lash out when people levy criticism.
I mean, on the flipside Americans (edit: and russian trolls especially)constantly mock European politicians with the “they’re gonna send a strongly worded letter” which is the single most retarded thing I have heard and keep hearing from that camp. Personally, I have respect for the Americans who go protest, while I have a lot less respect for the politicians in America who do have the power to push back against trump, yet all they seem to do is nothing while blaming Europe for trump acting like a toddler. Meanwhile we here in Europe do what every adult with self respect does to a screaming child at the store - we tell them no. Calmly and without escalation. If we start behaving like trump, there is no adults left to help calm things down. In america, however, it seems that every politician is either enabling trump or acting like him: attacking the wrong people because it is easier to slap around your friends than standing up to your true enemy. Gavin Newsom. I see you, bitch.
But yeah, I have respect for the common folk who are protesting in america. I have had respect for the tons of protests they have done since january of last year. It is historical but it kinda drowns in the piles of shit trump poops out daily to keep all of us disoriented and angry at all kinds of different things.
He is destroying America from the inside and he’s destroying America’s relationship with their allies from the outside. I genuinely feel so fucking bad for you guys, because you and your children and your childrens children will be the ones to pay the ultimate price of trumps second presidency. Whatever allies you’ll have left when his time is over will be significantly less than what they used to be and meanwhile your country will be in massive economic trouble which will only get worse once the effect of de-americanization in Europe starts to be felt in your country.
It comforts me to know people in entirely different countries also think Gavin Newsom is a little bitch.
Thanks, from California (* not a Republican)
I have heard Americans talk about him in very negative terms before, but never really new the details as I usually try to stay as far away from news and politics as possible. However, with his recent Trumpish tactic of calling Europe pathetic and the laughing stock of the world and accusing us of giving Trump the Nobel Peace Prize (I didn’t know Venezuela was a European country, nor that Machado was part of the Nobel Peace Prize committee), it really cemented to me that he was that kind of cunt and not just unpopular among some voters for his politics.
I could 100% agree with all of his politics and still think he’s a cunt for using those kinds of tactics instead of being a fucking adult and treating his voters, his state and his position as politician and governor like a joke. I will never respect him, he will always be a joke to me and the Democrats will be a joke if they elect him to represent him during the next presidential election. I’m a much bigger fan of AOC. Everytime she opens her mouth, as far as I’m aware, she’s been spitting facts. America needs someone with the dignity, intelligence and warmth she has displayed towards the American people. That’s what I think, but take it with a grain of salt as I genuinely try to stay out of politics as much as possible and am ignorant to most things.
I’m confused by this. The only people I’ve read complaining about the “strongly worded letter” tendencies have been criticising the us democratic party for its dereliction of duty and utterly feckless disregard of their constitutional oaths in the face of this fascist xenocidal administration. Where are you seeing the imprecations against Europe?
EDIT: You know what, I just read the rest of the thread OP’s comments, and I rescind my point. They spew enough anti-european angst to fill a couple of comment sections.
To answer your prior question: all over the internet. They are especially prevalent on youtube. I usually chalk them up to being Russian trolls, but I have also seen examples of real Americans holding these opinions towards Europe. Some of them were youtubers I was subscribed to for years, who became radicalized trump lovers and while I generally do not unsub from creators whose political opinions I disagree with, I just had enough of the aggressive anti-European rhetoric, that 9 time out of 10 was based upon lies or ignorance. I have even heard shit like “Europe has no freedom of speech” and then they use Britain’s strict speech laws to paint all of Europe with that same brush. Be like me saying that all of America is anti abortion and that no place allows for women to have an abortion just because some states have either outlawed it or narrowed the rules around legal abortion.
The narrative that Europe is weak and “sends strongly worded letters” has more or less been used for mockery and killing our spirit since Putin sent missiles toward Kiyv in 2022.
Europe is not an innocent Saint who cannot be criticized and we definitely have been way too trusting and naive, but we are not stupid and we are not weak. The only people who repeat this sentiment over and over and over are our enemies who want to destabilize, divide and destroy us so that Putin and Trump can fight over who gets what piece of Europe in the end.
That is very clear to me and I fucking refuse to fall for that shit.
Ps, no hard feelings about you asking btw. It is valid to ask when you are in doubt of something. I do that all the time.
Fair enough. I only interact with Lemmy, nebula and dropout, so I don’t really see that side of things (the few YouTube things I can’t get on nebula are science-related, so they’re fairly unlikely to join the Turd Reich)
You’re wiser than me, then. I left most of social media as well and before I left, there was a lot of toxic shit going on on those sites too. Lemmy isn’t much better in that regard, but I prefer this open source setup over big silicon Valley sites that surveil everything you do. Youtube is the only big American social media platform I have yet to find the backbone to leave entirely behind. Mostly because there are a few podcasts on there, that I love and follow and I can only get the video recordings on youtube, so eh.
I hope I’ll be able to detach as much as you someday, my friend. I think it is better for the soul and nervous system in the long run!
TBF, news outlets have been utterly ignoring þe country-wide protests which have been consistently happening practically since Trump took office. Almost none of þe enormous 50502 protests have been covered. If we’re not seeing it on American media, even fewer international people are going to see it.
Sadly, I have seen news coverage, but it seems reliably right-wing and describes the events as things like “a mob” or “instigators” and other charged language.
Covering the story is one thing, but who does it and how they spin it can really change the perception.
Imagine if there were mediums . . . Like something social in nature. . . Hmmm, what to call it? Oh, I know! Social media! Now, imagine if citizens could, you know, post stuff on said social media, like en masse. Because lots of ‘enormous’protests that are ‘consistently happening’ would get attention, right? I mean, network media doesn’t gatekeep what the populace posts, right?
other than on the fediverse it absolutely does. but a lot of us aren’t taking our phones to protests because the NSA/FBI uses the data of crowds pinging off cell towers to break our movements. plus they’ve been deploying mobile cell towers to exactly pinpoint our locations and apply force to us.
in otherwords:
no. social media is not an option. we’re less interested in you seeing us do this work than we are in making sure the work gets done. we know this lets the right wing skew the messaging their way, but it’s better than not being out at all because you’re scared to go out and be beaten, or because you’re spending 9+ months in a detention center.
Oh, ffs, like there aren’t a thousand work arounds on that. Grow up.
i’ve been at this for 21 years. most people i talk to strongly recommend against bringing phones to protests, and recommend not posting any photographs taken with a basic camera if you can see anyone in the picture’s face.
if you have good techniques for defeating NSA/FBI tactics that would let us get our imagery in front of more people, i’d love to know them. for now i’m gonna keep not bringing my phone and keep any photos i take off the internet because they put people at risk of intensive harm from our oppressive police state
Come show us how it’s done then, we beseech you.
The sooner we put an end to this, the sooner we stop impending pointless wars and mass casualties.
If none of you know how to upload a video, you’re already beyond fucked.
The reality is that this isn’t about whether or not it’s being covered. It’s about the fact that what little you are doing is apathetic as fuck.
They currently have law enforcement tucking tail and making a tactical retreat.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ASr1zVuQlX4
They’re charging headlong into teargas and lobbing it back. They’re stubbornly taking whatever opening they can get a foothold in and erecting barricades.
I’d say this is pretty damn opposite of “apathetic.” Maybe it’ll give you some hope. In the meanwhile, please support the helpers.
My recommendation: let it go. Too many people on lemmy demand The People here do things differently. More and more I’m finding that people are more interested in the entertainment of watching protests somewhere else from them than in getting involved in their local communities. I have no interest in performing for the internet the role of protestor, and am much more interested in being involved where I am in making changes. If lemmy wants to be a cesspit of obnoxious keyboard warriors telling eachother to do something and prove they’re doing something, that’s fine, it doesn’t need us. If it’s just going to be an energy sink, it’s going to exist in a place of making us less, not more, effective as mobilized participants in social good.
@[email protected] is frequently posting good comments like this one about how to get active.
Sorry if we’d like some firmer response to your country attacking our economy and threatening invasion
I get it. But also we are occupied by ice right now. We are spending a majority of our time resisting at the community level. Helping our neighbors from being abducted, monitoring ice, protesting.
Apologies that it’s not meeting your standards.
He’s attacking our economy too. I know we could be protesting harder, but we’re also trying to survive.
If you hurt yourself and hurt a friend, your friend may understand the first few times it happens, but after a while the “I’m hurting myself too!” excuse may not be enough for them to remain your friend.
Fair enough.
Isn’t that even more reason though?
Sorry if I’d like ANY response to the attacks on trans people across Europe, the UK, Canada, and plenty of other places.
I want people out there like the Black Panthers, too. I want Europe to divest themselves from the American military industrial complex. I want to watch American companies who support and enable these fascists see their profits shrivel up as the economy collapses. I want to watch Google and Facebook and Twitter burn.
But all I hear from Europeans on here is how all Americans are fascists for not being in open war with the regime while fascism tightens its grip on your own right-wing parties, and I’m sick of it. If you’re not proactive, you’ll be in the same boat as us. Italy had fascist gangs attacking people in the streets a few years back. We used to say “it could never happen here” when reading about Nazi Germany and wondering just how they could let it happen. And then it did happen here. Now you’re the ones saying it.
Italy’s current governing party is declaredly fascist. It still hasn’t done anything as bad as the US government had been doing before Trump, never mind after. Nonetheless, there’s been multiple general strikes during their mandate, protests, and so on. Our ports were blocked in protest of the Gaza war, something we have WAY less influence on than you guys do, and those protests in my city drew the biggest crowd I’d ever seen at such an event.
Are we perfect? No. Should we do more? Yes. But please don’t put us on the same level. All I hear from Americans is “oh no, I’ll lose my job and starve on the street”, but I live in a country where the average salary is half that of the US, with electricity two times as expensive and fuel almost three times as expensive compared to the US, so well, sorry if I don’t fully empathise.
Italy INVENTED fascism, we’ve been fighting it for a century, it was born out of opposition to communism, and it wasn’t eradicated at the end of WWII because our new overlords, the US, were just as afraid of communism as our previous ones, so yeah, we know, we’re working on it, we’ve been for a long time.
ok now do housing
You first
Ok, I guess, even though you’re the one making the claim lol
Housing in Italy is projected to cost $1,070 per month on average, for a total of $1,970 per month on average for overall cost of living.
For some reason that site doesn’t have figures for all of the USA, but on average, costs are higher in the USA both for housing and overall cost of living.
I asked for yours, not ours. I know ours. Btw you just cited a monthly cost of living that’s higher than the average monthly salary.
Well, you got both. You’re welcome.
And yeah, join the club lol
Which port do you want us to block dipshit?
No, this is great, as an European I’m proud of the Minnesotans that protested. I hope that more will follow.
What pressure has this put on Trump’s administration to stop? This wasn’t a strike because no demands were made for a return to work. Everybody is back to work today. ICE will be back at it again today too.
The protesters were herded into an arena to listen to some campaigning. Then everyone went home.
When’s the next demonstration? In four months?
Yeah well the media is not exactly sponsoring the resistance. We just want to make sure that memes are not the only thing you’re doing.
This is really nice to see, keep it up.
You seem to be hating on Europeans. I would practice some self enquiry.
Being this soft to literal fascism and fascists is not a good look. They are literally kidnapping children. Killing people. Blinding people. They are waging wars. Calling them literal nazis is appropriate. They are removing your healthcare or making it prohibitively expensive. They are stealing from you. Not only your health but also your money. Pump and dump schemes, etc. Last, but definitely not least, they are protecting each other. Each one of them is evil beyond comprehension and they are all playing together, protecting eachother. Your president is a pedophile. He is not only part but also probably one of the main people, of a ring of pedophiles.
Your hate towards Europeans is misplaced. All we want is justice and a good society.
I am hating on Europeans. Because Europeans have been hating on me and mine for almost a year now, regardless of what people do here.
Fascist gangs were roaming the streets of Italy a few years ago. Your fascist parties have been waging war against trans people like me for over a decade. Where is your resistance to them? Your solidarity with the weakest amongst you?
European hate is misplaced. All we want is justice and a good society, but we have to fight against 70 years of work to destroy our ability to fight as well as the ignorant and hateful minority of the populace who support these fuckers, and they’re the ones the most willing to commit acts of terrorism. The people protesting are the average person who balks at the thought of fist-fighting in the street.
It might have something to do with the US bombing and bullying other countries for decades.
Because just standing outside is not how a protest achieves anything. True protests must be disruptive and last. The Yellow jackets burned down the avenue des champs Elysées every Saturday for multiple months. The protests following Nahel’s murder (very similar to that of Renee good in some aspects) burned down multiple police stations.
Standing protests like this a regular occurrence in France, but those are not the ones you hear about. Their only role is so build momentum and make people feel united.
Real change happens only through either much stronger protests or through actions like the whistles and following ice around making them feel unwelcome 24/7.
Seeing this many people out in weather that I frankly can’t comprehend sends a strong signal that disapproval of ICE is a normal, acceptable position. Humans are social creatures and I think these protests are massively influential at the polling booth - one of the few places that substantial change can be made.
Not that there is anything wrong with the whistles etc.
How would this convince anybody to go vote? Every one that sees this in a good light is already voting against Trump…
Voting is much easier than standing in -30C outside.
Anyone who put that effort will definitively vote.
But this is about showing people that they are not alone with it, it is also showing politicians, judges, governors and other public servants that they should not give up.
Most importantly it is showing traitors that are helping this administration that there might be consequences.
Anybody?
Guess I’m less cynical than you.
I love how it’s a bajillion degrees below zero and they are all outside protesting, flipping shit. Yeah, Americans don’t do anything. Fuck y’all that say it.
We have a significant population of people who think vaccines are bad. You think they’ll do anything for society?
They were brainwashed, they can be unbrainwashed
It was true when I said it and I’m proud of everyone for what they’ve achieved since then.
The protests last year were some of the largest in US history. There have been smaller protests popping up constantly since the first few months of the regime.
“EuRoPeAnS sAy wE dOnT pRoTeSt”.
LOL, one year too late.
“B-b-buT hOw aBoUt mY jOb, I caNt jUsT gO pRoTeST”
Only started protesting when a white American citizen got shot in the face.
Otherwise fascism was perfectly acceptable, as long as it didn’t affect you - the white Americans.
But okay I guess, better late than never.
Sure go pat yourself on the back, even though this protest hasn’t even achieved any results yet.
This is the crux of the entire liberal “if Holocaust Harris won, we’d be out to brunch!” crowd of privileged liberals. You’re totally correct.
And there are a ton of them on Lemmy surprisingly, so your downvote ratio on this comment is no surprise. They’ll never offer a coherent response except, “Well if we had voted for genocide, at least things would be moderately less bad for us… yeah terrible about all those Palestinian children, but like, I have to show up for city-approved protests all the time now…”
The protests last year were some of the largest in US history, up there with and possibly larger than during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement.
But go ahead and ignore those. Keep proving my original post right.
It took a decade for the Civil Rights protests to get any real change to happen, and that was only after the murder of MLK caused the black community to burn down entire city districts and cause billions of dollars worth of property damage. Your average person - even in Europe - won’t go that far unless pushed.
Europeans were perfectly fine with Nazi fascism right up until it was knocking down their door. They’ve been perfectly fine with allowing their right-wing parties to fall further and further into fascism right alongside the US. Italy had fascist gangs roaming the streets attacking people a few years back. You’ve been perfectly content to watch as European politicians target people like me almost as badly as Republicans have. Where are your protests in support of trans people? I guess it doesn’t affect you, so you don’t care.
So go ahead and keep acting like you’re so much better than Americans. All of you are just proving my point and showing the exact reason that I’ve had enough of Europe and Canada. Pot, meet kettle.
I’ve been in full support of anything Europe and Canada are doing to hurt America and fix their own issues, but the constant vitriol against the people who actually want to fight the fight has made me sick of the armchair generals all over Lemmy.
Yeah, I dunno if marching dressed as inflatable Pokémons did anything. In fact, I know it had an absolute zero effect, things only got worse, way worse. What was the point of that?
“B-b-buT tHeY wErE bIgGeSt eVeR”.
Sure, pat yourself on the back, but your country is still run by a pedophile war criminal.
It still blows my mind, what kind of fucked up people elect such a person as a President… Fyi, Germans never elected Hitler, but you did! And now the world, suffering at the hands of your elected “President” are supposed to feel sorry for you?
“B-b-buT i DiDnT vOtE fOr HiM” is what your gonna tell me, aren’t you?
Isn’t that just proof that your “protests” are useless?
As recently as September 2025, Nepalese people overthrew their corrupt government in just 48 hours.
Bulgaria (Europe) changed their government in December 2025, because they were corrupt fucks, and people didn’t need to be pushed nowhere near as far, no one got abducted or shot dead in the face. This happened just over a month ago. Get your facts straight. I guess you didn’t know about that, because it doesn’t get nowhere near as fucked up as in your shithole, because we don’t let it.
You see, in Europe, we learned about how fucked up Nazis were and how fucked up fascism is and we have way more checks and balances in place to keep the government from doing whatever the fuck they want.
There isn’t a single country in the EU where a president or prime minister would have the power on their own to just decide and bomb fishermen, or abduct a leader of another country, or fuck children and get away with this. What is happening in the USA is beyond fucked up, and your response so far was to dress up as inflatable Pokémons.
It took a white American citizen getting shot in the face, for people to start taking this seriously…
Over 60% of history taught in the USA is American history, yet the country is not even 250 years old. In the USA, all you learn is your propaganda called “America the greatest”.
No wonder fascists had such an easy way to rise to power.
Sure, it’s not perfect in the EU, but what is happening in the USA is whole magnitudes worse.
But you keep patting yourself on the back for marching in Pokémon costumes, that surely made the government think twice. That is, think twice whether to make a video of Trump pissing or shitting on the protesters.
Seriously, I have no words how fucked up the USA is, and you clearly can’t the forest for the trees.
“B-b-buT wHaT aBoUt EU nAZiS.”
GTFO with your aboutism.
Go ahead, keep acting like the USA is the greatest of all. That’s what got you fucked in the first place.
Pretending that Nepalese youth didn’t spend years organizing which culminated in that 48-hour successful revolution diminishes the otherwise-valid points you’re making here.
How many years did Americunts had to prepare? Haven’t they been preparing their whole lives to overthrow a tyrannical government?
Well we had a decent start going until COINTELPRO.
But anyway that’s not really my point. Americans should be doing more, I agree with you there. My point is that it’s disingenuous to present the Nepalese revolution as just suddenly happening within 48 hours because people got fed up.
“We have the biggest guns, we have the biggest cars and we have the biggest protests”!
“All hail the great Fascist States of America!”
You also have the biggest fascists, so I guess congrats?
Maybe replace “protest” with “vote” and one day the assraping might stop
What are you gonna do the other 364 days of the year?
Jack off to hentai.
yes, obviously, but what kind of henai? youre not one of those perverts are you?
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/10537472
Risky click of the day.
Based
That’s not the electorate we have. We need good candidates to beat bad candidates. Second worst isn’t good enough to win. Scream at voters all you want and it won’t change a thing. We need better candidates.
We will never get better candidates under a party defined by Citizens United. (So that goes for both DNC and GOP.)
You are expecting legalized corruption to produce viable candidates to serve the people. That’s not how corruption works.