I’m envious of the way the French protest their government. They’re literally setting things on fire because their schools aren’t adequate. Because the government tried to raise the retirement age. Because their politicians are shitbags.
I think the biggest obstacle to organizing in the US is the sheer distance. It takes 40 solid hours of driving to get from one side to the other. That’s not counting any breaks. France takes about 14 hours. Doable in a day or so if you push it.
Anyway, I’d sign up for a Revolution if there was a serious contender.
Eh, I have to disagree on density. The United States may be big, but the population is ‘clumpy.’ Almost 1/3 of the land area has essentially nobody living there, while the Northeastern states are very dense. Thomas Jefferson had a vision of a new nation of yeoman farmers, but even in the 1790’s, the nation was quite urban. Now, about 94% of Americans live in cities and towns. (A lot of “country people” are engaged in what CityNerd calls “rural cosplay” .)
But 110% about the centrist and left-wing leaders having an inability to tap into emotional response. I hear variations on this comment all the time (on Lemmy and IRL): “I just don’t understand what his voters see in him!” It’s simple. Right-wing populists talk to the so-called lizard brain; centrists and left-wing leaders talk to the frontal lobes. Seriously, I saw a Lemmy commenter tout, back in 2024, that Kamala Harris would “address systemic inequalities in the medical system that predominantly impact African American men.”
How do I feel about it? I dunno, WTF does that even mean?!
The amygdala (lizard brain) overrides the frontal lobes every time. We say it all the time that, “you can’t logic somebody out of a position that they didn’t logic themselves into,” but then proceed to analyze their choices as if they were based on factual information. I have a lot more thoughts about it, but yeah, the opponents of right-wing populism need to realize how it operates, and adapt to speak emotional language, too.