Thanks Gail - it's been a rough few days. I think the key is supporting each other and ourselves to recover as quickly as possible and take a positive step forward. Fall down, get back up - over and over. It's the only way. 💜
The truth is - maga has the senate, there are 38 undetermined seats in the house, and they’re 12 away from both. If they win the house, america Will become an unrecognizable neofascist country for a generation, at least.
Leave the country or get to a blue state.
I have no optimism, nor any naive hope. The citizens who voted for trump, knew who he was, and they chose this path. Do not come to the usa, this is a land of lies and death.
Yes, fortunately, I do. Thank you Troy. I’ve been very fortunate to have accepting/supportive people close to me, I’m more fortunate than many people in the lgbtq+ community.
If we believe the exit polls, more americans care more about money than anything, including civil rights or even civility.
I’ve heard some people say that they’re less shocked now than they were in 2016, because they experienced 2016, but personally? I’m more repulsed by this.
I’m nauseated by how willingly americans gave into their fear, because THAT IS what happened. I’m just wholly nauseated.
I think I might be a little more radical (I'm a socialist) than a lot of the others here-- but my main strategy at the moment is the following, which I shared in a note:
1) Accept what you cannot change: Over half of America wanted this. Let’s take a moment to understand the origins of 45/47.
2) Rest, grieve and pour into your emergency/comfort/coping mechanisms.
3) Find a grassroots organization that aligns with your interests and participate in actionable movements.
4) Continue to resist!
5) Meet people who voted for 45/47 and try to have a conversation with them about their fears and why they voted for him. I find this to be one of the most difficult steps but sometimes it does work to find common ground.
Thank you Christa, this is all really helpful advice. There was a project that specifically attempted to pair up people from opposite sides of the political spectrum for conversations - I'll see if I can dig it up...
Thanks, Troy! I often forget, as I isolate myself in my trusted communities and loved ones, that part of being in a bubble means that listening to other people falls to the wayside. It's hard because so much of the political is personal-- especially for bodies that do not appear to be cis, het AND white-- but I've found trying to meet people where they're at, while also challenging them to step outside of their comfort zone, seems to be a sweet spot.
I am not confident I - or we - will survive what's coming next. I'm old, disabled, and have 4 (or 5? Whatev... who's counting?) other targets on my back, as well. My wife works for the doj, so will probably lose her job. Most of the people I cherish are queer, immigrants, or both. Hopefully this will be limited to the next 4 years, but I doubt i will make it long enough to find out.
It is very disheartening, LC, and I'm sorry to hear you and your wife are facing job loss on top of everything else. I am hoping our worst fears don't come to pass - at least half the country is still firmly behind democracy, and some quite serious additional guard rails would have to fall for the nightmare to extend beyond 2028. We can hope.
Disheartened and sad. Inclined to go inward, but will fight that urge and work to be in, build, and grow community. Honored to be in orbit of this space. Thank you for building and fostering it, Troy. It’s important and moves the needle. I hope we all take inspiration from your work, and attempt to be a similar light in each of our little corners of the world.
Thanks Lindsey - it's been my honor to create Qstack for this community, and to hold this space open today - it feels like the first real test since we've all been together.
If Trump wins, there are too many different people to worry about...but I guess my mind immediately goes to LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. SCOTUS wants to end legal marriage for same sex couples. The right certainly wants to harm transgender people. But there's so many others--anyone who is in the US without documentation. Families will be broken up. A lot of people who have lived here their whole lives may be deported. It's not clear what rights people will have. I don't know what happens to their houses or whatever. I worry about women because one major goal of the Christian right is to destroy all of their rights, and to knock them back economically so they will produce more white babies. So do we lose no-fault divorce? Do we lose birth control? Will they face discrimination in the workplace so that they are poorer? Will women forget the joy of being free and independent? What about disabled people? What about kids?
I worry about anyone who is a minority of any kind in America right now. Americans have an intense desire to take vengeance on other people. I keep meaning to write about my substack about that, this very strange vindictiveness and how Trump has made himself the agent of it. How deep does it go? How extensive is it? How much will people's morality erode, assuming they have normal morality right now? Our society is extremely cruel. The thought of it being crueler is going to make me unable to sleep...possibly for tonight, possibly for longer.
The cruelty is very hard to stomach. We have seen the US government be shockingly indifferent to the cruelty inflicted upon the people of Gaza. All the time I was watching this, I felt like --we have been thrust into a new horrifying era--and it seems to get worse and worse.
Then in my own life I worry about my children and the children that I know. I want a different world for them SO badly. I want a good world for all children.
The main thought I have, many times though all that has happened in the last 8 years is--life is very short. This is another reason I don't understand why someone would inflict horrible cruelty on someone just for--what? It is so pointless. We are all going to die. What are you getting? Some sense of power? Superiority? Some flash of that? It is gone almost as soon as it starts! I simply don't want to live my life in fear, or constant distress. For as long as I am here on Earth, which is simply a little blip of time, I have to figure out a way to refuse in every possible way to let these cruel people destroy what joy and beauty there is. This doesn't mean being callous but somehow not letting the witnessing of something grotesque spoil everything which is of value. There are going to be good things that cannot be destroyed by greedy or sadistic or bigoted actions--there's going to be art, nature, love, humor, and all those things. There will still be good people that we can admire. There will still be many wonderful humans and many other creatures, and these will have to be our focus.
I saw a young Puerto Rican woman who said she was voting for Trump - she didn't like what was said at Madison Square Garden, but "like, whatever," she was OK with him and liked his policies. And I just thought, I hope you don't need an abortion, sweetie, because thanks to him and his agenda, there are women already dying as a result of his SCOTUS picks. There's that intellectual vacuum you were referring to before...
WHAT policies? I assume it is the deportation policy. These people seem to believe that all the workers they compete with will be deported. Then their wages will naturally rise, and also their apartments will be very inexpensive. There will be all these vacancies, you see. Deporting millions of people is the equivalent of building millions of apartments in their eyes. Also, people often work with others they suspect are not documented and those workers work hard and they feel competitive with them. They think 'if they get rid of everyone else, nothing is in my way.' But everything will be cratered out. Chances of healthcare, chances of holding the government accountable through votes, any sort of tax revenue from the rich, public education, etc., etc. It will be an absolute catastrophe for anyone working class.
But if you are a simple-minded person, you think 'this person is telling me I have something someone else doesn't have and I can leverage that power to take from this other person.' And this is a con artist telling you that. Who is in fact going to take all your power. This is what I mean by the social reasoning. She doesn't realize she is in a class of people that are seen as only important insofar as they can be exploited, and somebody is looking to put HER in the underclass as soon as they can so that there is another group of people to exploit further. None of the people who are working class are aware of what happens when you remove the bottom rung--that THEY go to the bottom now.
So glad you're here right now, Troy (along with so many other great folx in this community). I'm not sleeping tonight. This is a huge blow at a time when my country really needed unity. And now I think things are going to get a lot darker for a very long time.
Personally it's hard not to panic. I'm an out and visible trans man with a trans kid, and we feel like targets. I keep trying to convince myself that's anxiety talking, but there is also a lot of evidence to the contrary. My wife holds dual citizenship here and in Ireland, but there isn't a clear path out for all of us right now, and I'm not sure leaving is even the right choice.
My oldest kid is so happy right now. My kid is finally having such a great life! I felt afraid for him sometimes but also so happy for him and hopeful for him. He has this amazing community, he is so deeply invested in his education, and he has found true love. It's like my DREAM. I never felt like I doing things exactly right as a mom, and I was one of those neurotic mothers who worries, and somehow my kid is so confident and cool? Did I really luck out like that? I kept pinching myself like--is it really going THIS WELL? Yes, life can change, circumstances can change. I can't accept that something so random can be allowed to derail everything, all these many lives--that this wonderful young man, my hilarious brilliant son, and his hilarious and brilliant and kind and talented friends and his boyfriend--just some random strangers can ruin everything for him? Some old bitter billionaires and hate-filled religious extremists and a bunch of wacko bigoted freaks? Also, the idiots who believe their propaganda? Why should they get to f*** up people's lives for no goddamn reason.
I'm very afraid and also struck by how this is too stupid to be real. I know this is what people always think when extremists take over. It's too stupid. That doesn't protect us in the moment but over time people do tend to realize how stupid extremists are. In the meantime, we will do everything we can to make sure you and your kid and all the families and all the kids can have good lives.
Thanks, Ro. I know we are not alone in this. And nobody knows the landscape of tomorrow or next week or next year just yet. I'm trying not to let fear be the only thing I feel, but it's relevant right now.
It is extremely sobering, Robin, and I absolutely feel for you and everyone facing the possibility of rampaging hatred. I will say that anyone who has the possibility of moving to someplace where they feel safe, I completely support that as a real option. We just don't know what's going to happen. This may be a generational realignment; it may be the beginning of a tragedy of historic proportions. It may only be 4 more years of nonsense and vitriol. I think the article I embedded in the post does propose a real way forward for those who have the stomach. Love to you, my friend.
Erin Reed said something similar tonight, that generations before us paved the way for what we have now, and we will do the same for those who come after us. I'm not giving up on the progress we've achieved so far, but I also won't be surprised when we lose much of it.
I am too, Reda - I'm all the way past nervous and on to quite fearful. What's a single positive thing we could do today? Pray? Meditate? Turn off the news and go for a long walk with someone we love? Yes. 💜🙏
I'm not American, but watching the results roll in this morning from across the pond makes me feel sick to my stomach. I would say I don't understand America, but I've seen people over here vote in lying men with dangerous policies before, too.
I'm worried about what this means for the global economy. I work with a lot of US-based clients who have been shy about investing in the high-end work I do as the election approached. I don't imagine that the kind of clients I like working with will be enthused about investing for the next four years now, either. I hope it's only four. During the last Trump term, the only thing that saved my bacon in terms of the exchange rate was the moments when our politicians did something monumentally stupid and made the £ plunge, so I could convert my $ at a favourable rate. It's hard to root for that to happen so I can get paid.
It's also extremely weird and messed up that the election happening in a different country with ostensibly no impact on my life should make me worry for the future of my business, but here we find ourselves!
It's impossible to understand America. One crucial thing to know is that Americans are some of the most propagandized people in the world, and they seem much less able to form clear and sensible views that some people in other countries are. It's not clear to me why that is. Lately, I've been thinking it's our individualism. Most things about society and even about individuals should be explained by social factors. But Americans don't seem able to understand things this way. They really struggle even with the idea.
A couple other factors are the history of racism and genocide, and the role of religion, as well as the types of religions we have here. These seem to create a type of reasoning where the person blocks out a lot of facts and projects a lot of delusions onto the world. It gets hard to piece through things if you do this, and figure out what is happening. Americans usually don't know what is happening.
Another factor might be that we are big and powerful and so there's not as much incentive to be 'well-armed' intellectually and understand the rest of the world. There's a real isolation in some places where Americans live in their state and don't even travel to other states.
Right now, I have never seen Americans as ill-informed though. It happened sort of fast (by my lights but I might operate on a different timescale as I am old).
The global economy is going to become wildly unpredictable because Trump is extremely corrupt. So there will be a lot of ponzi schemes and other graft happening in the US economy. Plus, tariffs, and other wildcards.
Trump is also getting dementia, doesn't understand the economy and is highly manipulable. Possibly manipulable via Russia though maybe he is not beholden to them as he once was. It is in Russia's interest to undermine the dollar. So that could certainly happen. If it does, Americans will suddenly find out how much of our wealth depends on the dollar.
Ro, I love your phrase "well-armed intellectually" because Americans are shielded (you could almost say coddled) by our global power and wealth, and taught from a young age to worship grift, money and self rather than education, community and compassion. You could call it "trickle down" power, in a weird way. You make a lot of great points.
Totally weird and yes, messed up, but that's the world we live in. A European said to me last night It doesn't really affect me, and I said, it does, actually - we live in a global community, and when one state is plunged into chaos, and its aid and allies and agreements on a global scale also destabilized, it affects everyone. Thanks for weighing in, Rhiannon.
I've been incredibly anxious for awhile now, and especially in the last day, I was supposed to be writing and I've been doing everything but - and I thought, What the hell is wrong with me? Oh...
Frankly, I'm terrified of what the next four years (and beyond) may bring - and I say this from Spain with no particular inclination of ever moving back to the U.S. Since my husband is an Italian citizen, we can live in the EU, and if we weren't here already, we'd def be eyeing the exits. I know that's not an option for most.
Anyway, I'll be around all day to read/reply to all Comments in this discussion.
(For some reason, Discussion Threads are no longer available to me?)
We move on with dignity and poise. Hugs.
Sending love to all Qstack readers and especially to Troy for offering us this forum. We will need love and energy for what's to come.
Thanks Gail - it's been a rough few days. I think the key is supporting each other and ourselves to recover as quickly as possible and take a positive step forward. Fall down, get back up - over and over. It's the only way. 💜
The truth is - maga has the senate, there are 38 undetermined seats in the house, and they’re 12 away from both. If they win the house, america Will become an unrecognizable neofascist country for a generation, at least.
Leave the country or get to a blue state.
I have no optimism, nor any naive hope. The citizens who voted for trump, knew who he was, and they chose this path. Do not come to the usa, this is a land of lies and death.
It's a dark time, for sure. Do you have good emotional support near to you, Sydney? Sending love. 💜
Yes, fortunately, I do. Thank you Troy. I’ve been very fortunate to have accepting/supportive people close to me, I’m more fortunate than many people in the lgbtq+ community.
If we believe the exit polls, more americans care more about money than anything, including civil rights or even civility.
I’ve heard some people say that they’re less shocked now than they were in 2016, because they experienced 2016, but personally? I’m more repulsed by this.
I’m nauseated by how willingly americans gave into their fear, because THAT IS what happened. I’m just wholly nauseated.
Thank you my friend.
I think I might be a little more radical (I'm a socialist) than a lot of the others here-- but my main strategy at the moment is the following, which I shared in a note:
1) Accept what you cannot change: Over half of America wanted this. Let’s take a moment to understand the origins of 45/47.
2) Rest, grieve and pour into your emergency/comfort/coping mechanisms.
3) Find a grassroots organization that aligns with your interests and participate in actionable movements.
4) Continue to resist!
5) Meet people who voted for 45/47 and try to have a conversation with them about their fears and why they voted for him. I find this to be one of the most difficult steps but sometimes it does work to find common ground.
Hi Christa - here's the link to One Small Step, the org I was telling you about:
https://storycorps.org/discover/onesmallstep/one-small-step-connect/
Thank you Christa, this is all really helpful advice. There was a project that specifically attempted to pair up people from opposite sides of the political spectrum for conversations - I'll see if I can dig it up...
Thanks, Troy! I often forget, as I isolate myself in my trusted communities and loved ones, that part of being in a bubble means that listening to other people falls to the wayside. It's hard because so much of the political is personal-- especially for bodies that do not appear to be cis, het AND white-- but I've found trying to meet people where they're at, while also challenging them to step outside of their comfort zone, seems to be a sweet spot.
Dropping in to send hugs to all. You are beautiful and precious. This is so heartbreaking.
Thank you so much, Kim - and to you. 💜
I am not confident I - or we - will survive what's coming next. I'm old, disabled, and have 4 (or 5? Whatev... who's counting?) other targets on my back, as well. My wife works for the doj, so will probably lose her job. Most of the people I cherish are queer, immigrants, or both. Hopefully this will be limited to the next 4 years, but I doubt i will make it long enough to find out.
It is very disheartening, LC, and I'm sorry to hear you and your wife are facing job loss on top of everything else. I am hoping our worst fears don't come to pass - at least half the country is still firmly behind democracy, and some quite serious additional guard rails would have to fall for the nightmare to extend beyond 2028. We can hope.
I hope you are right. Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm glad you got yourself out in time.
Disheartened and sad. Inclined to go inward, but will fight that urge and work to be in, build, and grow community. Honored to be in orbit of this space. Thank you for building and fostering it, Troy. It’s important and moves the needle. I hope we all take inspiration from your work, and attempt to be a similar light in each of our little corners of the world.
Thanks Lindsey - it's been my honor to create Qstack for this community, and to hold this space open today - it feels like the first real test since we've all been together.
If Trump wins, there are too many different people to worry about...but I guess my mind immediately goes to LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. SCOTUS wants to end legal marriage for same sex couples. The right certainly wants to harm transgender people. But there's so many others--anyone who is in the US without documentation. Families will be broken up. A lot of people who have lived here their whole lives may be deported. It's not clear what rights people will have. I don't know what happens to their houses or whatever. I worry about women because one major goal of the Christian right is to destroy all of their rights, and to knock them back economically so they will produce more white babies. So do we lose no-fault divorce? Do we lose birth control? Will they face discrimination in the workplace so that they are poorer? Will women forget the joy of being free and independent? What about disabled people? What about kids?
I worry about anyone who is a minority of any kind in America right now. Americans have an intense desire to take vengeance on other people. I keep meaning to write about my substack about that, this very strange vindictiveness and how Trump has made himself the agent of it. How deep does it go? How extensive is it? How much will people's morality erode, assuming they have normal morality right now? Our society is extremely cruel. The thought of it being crueler is going to make me unable to sleep...possibly for tonight, possibly for longer.
The cruelty is very hard to stomach. We have seen the US government be shockingly indifferent to the cruelty inflicted upon the people of Gaza. All the time I was watching this, I felt like --we have been thrust into a new horrifying era--and it seems to get worse and worse.
Then in my own life I worry about my children and the children that I know. I want a different world for them SO badly. I want a good world for all children.
The main thought I have, many times though all that has happened in the last 8 years is--life is very short. This is another reason I don't understand why someone would inflict horrible cruelty on someone just for--what? It is so pointless. We are all going to die. What are you getting? Some sense of power? Superiority? Some flash of that? It is gone almost as soon as it starts! I simply don't want to live my life in fear, or constant distress. For as long as I am here on Earth, which is simply a little blip of time, I have to figure out a way to refuse in every possible way to let these cruel people destroy what joy and beauty there is. This doesn't mean being callous but somehow not letting the witnessing of something grotesque spoil everything which is of value. There are going to be good things that cannot be destroyed by greedy or sadistic or bigoted actions--there's going to be art, nature, love, humor, and all those things. There will still be good people that we can admire. There will still be many wonderful humans and many other creatures, and these will have to be our focus.
I saw a young Puerto Rican woman who said she was voting for Trump - she didn't like what was said at Madison Square Garden, but "like, whatever," she was OK with him and liked his policies. And I just thought, I hope you don't need an abortion, sweetie, because thanks to him and his agenda, there are women already dying as a result of his SCOTUS picks. There's that intellectual vacuum you were referring to before...
WHAT policies? I assume it is the deportation policy. These people seem to believe that all the workers they compete with will be deported. Then their wages will naturally rise, and also their apartments will be very inexpensive. There will be all these vacancies, you see. Deporting millions of people is the equivalent of building millions of apartments in their eyes. Also, people often work with others they suspect are not documented and those workers work hard and they feel competitive with them. They think 'if they get rid of everyone else, nothing is in my way.' But everything will be cratered out. Chances of healthcare, chances of holding the government accountable through votes, any sort of tax revenue from the rich, public education, etc., etc. It will be an absolute catastrophe for anyone working class.
But if you are a simple-minded person, you think 'this person is telling me I have something someone else doesn't have and I can leverage that power to take from this other person.' And this is a con artist telling you that. Who is in fact going to take all your power. This is what I mean by the social reasoning. She doesn't realize she is in a class of people that are seen as only important insofar as they can be exploited, and somebody is looking to put HER in the underclass as soon as they can so that there is another group of people to exploit further. None of the people who are working class are aware of what happens when you remove the bottom rung--that THEY go to the bottom now.
I just can't even right now.
Yes, it's overwhelming. Do you have support nearby, Kim? 💜
Husband and our Feline Overlords.
Seriously I'll be ok. I'm just beyond furious that the media handed him this election.
And that there's enough ijits who still cream in their panties over him.
OK, good. And we're breathing, and we're breathing... ;)
Just waking up over here in Portugal and processing this. I feel too stunned to function this morning on seeing the news.
I'm the same, JD - took the dog for a long walk, it helped, but I think the day is shot. 💜
So glad you're here right now, Troy (along with so many other great folx in this community). I'm not sleeping tonight. This is a huge blow at a time when my country really needed unity. And now I think things are going to get a lot darker for a very long time.
Personally it's hard not to panic. I'm an out and visible trans man with a trans kid, and we feel like targets. I keep trying to convince myself that's anxiety talking, but there is also a lot of evidence to the contrary. My wife holds dual citizenship here and in Ireland, but there isn't a clear path out for all of us right now, and I'm not sure leaving is even the right choice.
Oh God Robin. I'm so sorry.
My oldest kid is so happy right now. My kid is finally having such a great life! I felt afraid for him sometimes but also so happy for him and hopeful for him. He has this amazing community, he is so deeply invested in his education, and he has found true love. It's like my DREAM. I never felt like I doing things exactly right as a mom, and I was one of those neurotic mothers who worries, and somehow my kid is so confident and cool? Did I really luck out like that? I kept pinching myself like--is it really going THIS WELL? Yes, life can change, circumstances can change. I can't accept that something so random can be allowed to derail everything, all these many lives--that this wonderful young man, my hilarious brilliant son, and his hilarious and brilliant and kind and talented friends and his boyfriend--just some random strangers can ruin everything for him? Some old bitter billionaires and hate-filled religious extremists and a bunch of wacko bigoted freaks? Also, the idiots who believe their propaganda? Why should they get to f*** up people's lives for no goddamn reason.
I'm very afraid and also struck by how this is too stupid to be real. I know this is what people always think when extremists take over. It's too stupid. That doesn't protect us in the moment but over time people do tend to realize how stupid extremists are. In the meantime, we will do everything we can to make sure you and your kid and all the families and all the kids can have good lives.
But like you, I do feel very afraid.
Thanks, Ro. I know we are not alone in this. And nobody knows the landscape of tomorrow or next week or next year just yet. I'm trying not to let fear be the only thing I feel, but it's relevant right now.
Oh, hell yeah— it sure is.
It is extremely sobering, Robin, and I absolutely feel for you and everyone facing the possibility of rampaging hatred. I will say that anyone who has the possibility of moving to someplace where they feel safe, I completely support that as a real option. We just don't know what's going to happen. This may be a generational realignment; it may be the beginning of a tragedy of historic proportions. It may only be 4 more years of nonsense and vitriol. I think the article I embedded in the post does propose a real way forward for those who have the stomach. Love to you, my friend.
Erin Reed said something similar tonight, that generations before us paved the way for what we have now, and we will do the same for those who come after us. I'm not giving up on the progress we've achieved so far, but I also won't be surprised when we lose much of it.
I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure that’s the right choice, either. I’m speechless and nervous for our country.
I am too, Reda - I'm all the way past nervous and on to quite fearful. What's a single positive thing we could do today? Pray? Meditate? Turn off the news and go for a long walk with someone we love? Yes. 💜🙏
Maybe in this moment we can at least take comfort in knowing who our real friends are.
I'm not American, but watching the results roll in this morning from across the pond makes me feel sick to my stomach. I would say I don't understand America, but I've seen people over here vote in lying men with dangerous policies before, too.
I'm worried about what this means for the global economy. I work with a lot of US-based clients who have been shy about investing in the high-end work I do as the election approached. I don't imagine that the kind of clients I like working with will be enthused about investing for the next four years now, either. I hope it's only four. During the last Trump term, the only thing that saved my bacon in terms of the exchange rate was the moments when our politicians did something monumentally stupid and made the £ plunge, so I could convert my $ at a favourable rate. It's hard to root for that to happen so I can get paid.
It's also extremely weird and messed up that the election happening in a different country with ostensibly no impact on my life should make me worry for the future of my business, but here we find ourselves!
It's impossible to understand America. One crucial thing to know is that Americans are some of the most propagandized people in the world, and they seem much less able to form clear and sensible views that some people in other countries are. It's not clear to me why that is. Lately, I've been thinking it's our individualism. Most things about society and even about individuals should be explained by social factors. But Americans don't seem able to understand things this way. They really struggle even with the idea.
A couple other factors are the history of racism and genocide, and the role of religion, as well as the types of religions we have here. These seem to create a type of reasoning where the person blocks out a lot of facts and projects a lot of delusions onto the world. It gets hard to piece through things if you do this, and figure out what is happening. Americans usually don't know what is happening.
Another factor might be that we are big and powerful and so there's not as much incentive to be 'well-armed' intellectually and understand the rest of the world. There's a real isolation in some places where Americans live in their state and don't even travel to other states.
Right now, I have never seen Americans as ill-informed though. It happened sort of fast (by my lights but I might operate on a different timescale as I am old).
The global economy is going to become wildly unpredictable because Trump is extremely corrupt. So there will be a lot of ponzi schemes and other graft happening in the US economy. Plus, tariffs, and other wildcards.
Trump is also getting dementia, doesn't understand the economy and is highly manipulable. Possibly manipulable via Russia though maybe he is not beholden to them as he once was. It is in Russia's interest to undermine the dollar. So that could certainly happen. If it does, Americans will suddenly find out how much of our wealth depends on the dollar.
Ro, I love your phrase "well-armed intellectually" because Americans are shielded (you could almost say coddled) by our global power and wealth, and taught from a young age to worship grift, money and self rather than education, community and compassion. You could call it "trickle down" power, in a weird way. You make a lot of great points.
Totally weird and yes, messed up, but that's the world we live in. A European said to me last night It doesn't really affect me, and I said, it does, actually - we live in a global community, and when one state is plunged into chaos, and its aid and allies and agreements on a global scale also destabilized, it affects everyone. Thanks for weighing in, Rhiannon.
I've been incredibly anxious for awhile now, and especially in the last day, I was supposed to be writing and I've been doing everything but - and I thought, What the hell is wrong with me? Oh...
Frankly, I'm terrified of what the next four years (and beyond) may bring - and I say this from Spain with no particular inclination of ever moving back to the U.S. Since my husband is an Italian citizen, we can live in the EU, and if we weren't here already, we'd def be eyeing the exits. I know that's not an option for most.
Anyway, I'll be around all day to read/reply to all Comments in this discussion.
(For some reason, Discussion Threads are no longer available to me?)