this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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[–] nmhforlife@lemmy.world 92 points 22 hours ago (43 children)

As an American who didn’t vote for him, I understand your anger. I feel it too but there are still genuinely good caring people here who do not agree with this monster. Please don’t hold it against all of us.

[–] fennesz12@feddit.dk 85 points 20 hours ago (6 children)

I'm Danish and I refuse to make this about nationality. I've had an immeasurable amount of American friends over the years. I've loved your music, your company, your viewpoints, your stories - and I've had nothing but respect for you. I've been on American social media with you for decades. I've laughed at the same jokes as you. I speak your language, I sing your songs, I share an incredible amount of your culture. We learned to celebrate Halloween from you. We wear your clothes. We are your friends.

This is where you'd expect to see a "but", but there is no "but". I just wanted to say this, because I refuse to be divided by national borders. The America I see now, is not the America I grew up with. And now I'm fucking crying. It feels like losing a good friend, to some sort of neurological illness. We will always share your values. Not MAGA values, but OUR values.

[–] theilleists@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

Fuck, now I'm crying too. I've lost friends and family to this mental illness. There is much to mourn. The values that you and I share are not the values of the Americans who wield national power right now, nor their cult. Many of us are fighting for our values over here. And your unconditional message of friendship means so much. Thank you. I feel the same way. Fuck the imaginary lines on the map. I pledge allegiance to YOU, and to any other individual, wherever they are, who believes in basic human decency: honesty, respect, compassion, non-aggression... against the psychopaths who don't.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 15 hours ago

Your friends are still here, but they're not in charge. Violent, armed bullies have taken over and are driving this country - with the rest of us in it - off a cliff. They aren't just invading Greenland, they're invading us. Our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our courts, all invaded. The authorities we armed and entrusted to uphold the law have seen their opportunity to go mask-off and support fascism. Your friends here are outclassed, outgunned, and oppressed.

Remember that America isn't a monolith. If you were to put a bullet in the head of every US soldier to set foot on Greenland, we will celebrate your victory. Because we care about humanity, and our armed forces have given theirs up to fulfill a hateful dream. They've made their decision and deserve whatever's coming to them.

[–] TheMadCodger@piefed.social 32 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you. Borders are stupid, we are all humans and we only have one floating rock. Also, I love the Danes I've met.

[–] fennesz12@feddit.dk 9 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks.

And reading the stories of ICE is absolutely terrifying to us too. We are reaching a point where democrats may be forced to consider their 2nd amendment rights.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 7 points 15 hours ago

Democrats would have to effectively organize and train in a large enough group to not just be instantly wiped out or imprisoned as “insurrectionists”. Technically it would be an insurrection, but with some outside help or military backing it could turn into a coup.

Does the rest of the world want a destabilized civil warring nuclear state? It’s not likely to stay contained even in the western hemisphere.

The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic."[134]

History rhyming again I guess.

[–] zd9@lemmy.world 14 points 18 hours ago

Take that feeling like losing a good friend, and now imagine it's your own mind you're losing. Everything you held close and understood is upside down. It's disorienting, because they (fascist regime) intended it to be disorienting to paralyze any organized effective response.

[–] Nebraska_Huskers@lemmy.world 14 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

I miss the America I grew up in. 80s were amazing. Like 1996-2010 felt so hopeful, bush years were bad an helped enable alot of what is happening now but I'd gladly take him over what we have now

[–] FE80@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

bush years were bad an helped enable alot of what is happening now but I’d gladly take him over what we have now

Bush is a blood drenched monster responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and the immiseration of millions. You are essentially pining for chaos abroad instead of domestic chaos.

[–] deifyed@lemmy.wtf 9 points 19 hours ago

Agreed. It definitely feels like we're losing a good friend. Signed Norwegian dude

[–] Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world 108 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

In any war there are soldiers who don't wanna be there. Good, honest people, forced to march on because their masters will it.

If they come for my country I will have to shoot them nonetheless.

Take this motherfucker down by any political means necessary and if you can't, then form your "well regulated militia" that your all too precious 2nd amendment affords you and take back your own country instead of others

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 40 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

As an American, l say that any soldiers that willingly take part in this invasion, even in a support role, are NOT "good honest people". They are traitors following illegal orders. I fully support you defending your country with lethal force if it comes to that.

I wish that I had more power to stop this, but I don't. Do what you have to do, and don't feel guilty about it. Give us the hell we deserve.

[–] msage@programming.dev 2 points 7 hours ago

Isn't every invasion like that?

Propaganda machine tells you the enemy is the worst ever, so children pick up the guns and march into death.

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 48 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (4 children)

Your government is threatening to invade its allies! Our countrymen died fighting side by side with your military in your misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We don’t have the patience and time to distinguish between good and evil Americans anymore. As long as your country keeps acting like this you’re all guilty!

Please read up about collective German guilt a term coined by the US when your country was still on the right side of history.

[–] robocall@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Our countrymen died fighting side by side with your military in your misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I really wish NATO nations would have criticized those wars, instead of knowingly sending their troops to die in wars based on lies.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 36 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Americans spout all about needing their guns to stop a tyrannical government and then a tyrannical governmnet comes along and they don't take their guns into the streets to stop it.

[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 37 points 21 hours ago

The venn diagram of Americans who think they need guns to stop a tyrannical government and Americans who support Trump is a circle.

(All kidding aside, while this is still painfully close to true, there are signs it's changing, such as the recent resurgence of the Black Panthers. However by and large the people who are horrified over the pain and suffering inflicted by the Trump administration are also anti-gun on account of all the pain and suffering they cause. The peaceful, anti-violence, anti-war types are not exactly well equipped--literally or figuratively--to stage an uprising against the government, certainly not one with a military budget the size of Mt Everest)

[–] Nebraska_Huskers@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

Because the people afraid of a tyrannical government started supporting the tyrannical. Not to say I hate or am against guns but to think a yokel was going to make a difference in a country this big is absurd. The police are a military force themselves.

I often wonder if the Oklahoma City bombing would happen today by Tim Mcveigh. I mean this is literally the government they feared it's just that they are targeting the people they hate so they don't care. If it was the other way around it def would. And Oklahoma has embraced his ideas hell they might have shut down the FBI office in the last few years.

What am I or we supposed to do? The majority of us are broke. I don't have money to travel to a blue state right now to help resist.

I have a family I very much love and a daughter I want to watch grow up. I know others are losing their ability to be with their families but I'm not putting that at risk unless I absolutely have to and if it was going to make a difference

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 24 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The sane Americans here are saying, "Hey, we're your allies in this, we are trying to help," and you're literally saying, "No, you're the enemy." This is basically moral reasoning on the level of "my daughter crashed the car so I'm going to hit my son with a baseball bat." It's too much work on your part to distinguish between innocent and guilty? That's some very firm moral high ground you're lobbing spears from.

Not only is that nonsensical from a moral standpoint, but it's terrible strategic thinking. You just prefer it if we're all to be enemies? You're asking both you (who is allegedly so infuriated because you are demanding a solution) and us (the people best positioned to try to help solve this) to waste our time fighting amongst each other. Great idea.

But to be clear, I understand when you spew hatred like this, you're not thinking. You're lashing out emotionally because you're upset. Now the question is, will you acknowledge this, or will you respond by increasing the volume and digging in deeper?

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 18 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Every time I see this argument I'm reminded of Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. If "trying to help" is limited to thoughts and prayers online, it isn't help, it's just masturbation.

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

I understand it may remind you of that, but it's not an apt comparison.

I've been advocating direct non-violent action here like MLK was doing (and, reminder, I assume non-violent protest won't satisfy the angry non-Americans here who are telling us to "arm up"). I don't think anyone is advocating for "wait[ing] for a more convenient season" - we know fascism is here, but the question is what is the move that (a) doesn't cause it to dig in deeper like a tick, and (b) maximizes the good that we pay for with the risk to ourselves and others.

And yes, we're all talking online, that's what Lemmy is. I have called what I am doing "therapy" which I would suggest it in fact is, rather than "masturbation." Living in the US and not being MAGA right now feels like being a battered family member, but usually participating here at least reminds me of sanity. (Though maybe not when we're being told we're awful because our abuser made a mess while they were abusing us.) I come here to vent and commiserate - that's not mutually exclusive from taking action.

I wake up and go to sleep (very poorly) fighting learned helplessness and awful emotions because I see the same headlines we all do here, and whatever the world feels seeing it, it's happening here to us first.

I'm not asking to be a victim, not that anyone is offering any empathy to non-Trump Americans in this thread. I'm just saying, hey, maybe those of us in the US who are doing what we rationally can to stop Trump don't need another abuser? I guess that's my message for comrade_twisty and others gleefully (but definitely not masturbatorily!) piling on the "all Americans can fuck themselves" bandwagon.

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 8 points 19 hours ago (20 children)

Not to dogpile you too much here - I understand this is difficult - but part of the problem is framing this as a Trump issue. It really isn't. Even with all this insanity, he still enjoys a 40% approval rating! This doesn't end only by cutting off MAGA's head, ahtough that would help - it also means salting the earth where it grows by finally eradicating the christofascist, patriarchal, racist current in the population that has been there since the country's founding and before. That fight is just as important as going to DC and [REDACTED].

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[–] dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de 24 points 21 hours ago

And now you understand what we Germans feel when Americans ask what our ancestors did during the 1930s and 40s.

[–] ideonek@piefed.social 21 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (3 children)

Than maybe its time to take some good and caring actions? It's not enought to see it and be bothered by it.

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[–] Photonic@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

[–] gigachad@piefed.social 15 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Just wanted to say - no idea what's going on in the comments, don't take it too hard. People are angry. Just as I would not condemn every Russian because Putin is a giant asshole, I wouldn't condemn every US american. Especially not those in the fediverse - it's likely you suffer as well under your dictator.

[–] jjpamsterdam@feddit.org 17 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

It's hard to make that distinction. Even in Germany under the jackboot of National Socialism there were still good people, some even dared to take action while others dragged their feet as much as possible without endangering themselves and their loved ones. This is where the difference between guilt and responsibility arises. In my opinion not all US Americans are guilty, just like not all Germans were, yet all US Americans share a responsibility to rid themselves of their political polarisation and the hatred at its root, just like the good people of Germany managed to do in the decades after the war.

[–] gigachad@piefed.social 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I agree. However one can address this responsibility in many ways, depending on ones skills and situation in life. Telling people to just go out on the streets and overthrow the government or get rid of their leaders is an easy appeal, but not everybody is able to translate that into action. Caring for yourself, for your family, your neighbors and your community is what most people care for in the first place. In hindsight it's always easy to say you would have joined the resistance. Many young Germans today would claim they would have prevented the rise of the Nazis, but I doubt very many of them would have done so.

[–] jjpamsterdam@feddit.org 1 points 8 hours ago

I'm absolutely with you on that point. The primary concern for the vast majority of people will always be for themselves and their loved ones. It's the reason fatalistic compliance is so common in dictatorships. I'm convinced that in most countries, including modern day Germany and the modern day United States, people can be led into fatalistic compliance. In France on the other hand I wouldn't be so certain. Imagine a scenario in which Marine or one of her stooges wins the presidential elections and tries to pull off the same march into fascism as we're currently seeing from the party formerly known as the Republicans, there would be a general strike and major upheaval in no time.

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[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 10 points 20 hours ago

I understand that there are a lot of Americans who did not vote for him or support his actions. But he's your monster. You need to deal with him.

If you do nothing and stand back while he invades other countries and force them to fight the battles you won't, then you are neither a good nor caring person.

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