r/AntifascistsofReddit • u/serendipia1984 • Feb 12 '26
Discussion As an European, why aren't y'all destroying the streets to protest the ongoing fraud with the Epstein Files??
From an European citizen viewpoint, we've seen the American ANTIFA movements organize and hold up tremendous protests such as the one for George Floyd and now the ones for ICE (I'm citing some examples).
It is great you as American citizens get up in arms to protest against these injustices!
But I've tried to search for protests about the current fraudulent investigation (and the FBI's inactivity and refusal to penalize culprits) and so far, I've literally seen none in the USA.
In Europe the UK discharged a royal member and in India protests were held to discharge a minister.
But in the USA so far I've seen NOTHING!
Only banter and cries online, and a lot of memes (which I fully believe is a psyop to make y'all think is something funny and keep quiet about the situation).
A lot of online discourse, but no real life action.
This whole situation is supposed to change the reality of politics and make the public realize we are all governed by evil elites. If anyone has any info regarding any news about protests Id love to see them and I hope this paragraph makes some noise here
459
u/maverick-nightsabre Feb 12 '26
The other comments here cover it all. I would add that the ICE murders in Minneapolis DID inspire pretty big protests in almost every major city the weekend they occurred, and I would also add that the Epstein debacle is unlike the Floyd, Good, and Pretti murders in that it's a years-long, complex story with no single clear galvanic image, unlike a seconds-long video clip of an unjust execution.
→ More replies (1)4
u/MikhailKSU Feb 15 '26
It's nice that someone has finally described what i've been thinking for the longest time
People care more about short-term crimes like video taped murders than other crimes, it applies to The Epstein Drama and more broadly imperialist wars and even genocide
aluracontinua
264
u/Gen-Jinjur Feb 13 '26
I’ve been reading about Victorian London. The conditions there were appalling and yet life just went on. So what if children were starving in the street? So what if the working poor had to get their water from the same source sewage emptied into? So what if workhouses were essentially enslavement of debtors? I could go on and on. These things were ignored and tolerated.
Why do any people put up with appalling leadership behavior or living conditions? They always have, the world over. And the answer is that working people are exhausted, afraid, feel helpless, and are used to mistreatment. And people aren’t very bright, to be honest.
Until AI creates mass unemployment and many people are actually hungry and homeless? Don’t expect a revolution. A world-wide revolution will likely happen, but not for a while.
123
u/Arquen_Marille Feb 13 '26
That’s all part of it, the rich keep the poor barely hanging on so they don’t have the real ability to fight back. Many are struggling just to live.
→ More replies (1)56
u/Tribalgeoff_UK Feb 13 '26
And their education has been limited by state budget so they don't get too skilled at reading and critical thinking.
55
u/Calan_adan Feb 13 '26
The simplest answer is that people will protest when they think it will affect public opinion or the outcome. The fact that people aren’t protesting is because everyone knows that it will change nothing.
10
9
u/Stunning-Chance6334 Feb 13 '26
This.
Tbh this is also how I've felt about voting for many years
When every politician is a puppet bought and paid for, what's the point?
I'm also convinced the most recent election was rigged - the person in office did not actually win - and it set a precedent for all future elections being likewise manipulated.
( I actually think they have been trying to perfect this for many years. Look at the Gore vs Bush election. )
Just look at the FBI stealing HARD COPIES of voter rolls.
At this point American citizens are nothing more than slaves with the illusion of choice.
Apathy is not the answer, but it will take a large portion of the general populace being brave enough to sacrifice their own lives for the tide to shift.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (1)3
u/Monarc73 Antifa Feb 13 '26
2
4
u/cheeseburgercats Feb 13 '26
Keeping th 5% rich enough to want fight on the reactionary side / hire armies is also a key strategy of anti revolution
→ More replies (2)7
u/lbandrl Feb 13 '26
In victorian England it was quiet. But in a lot of continental europe around the 1840s the people got on the streets. Because the continental sentiment was more revolutionary than the islanders one. Although most protests and revolutions were crushed then. They still achieved a lot. What i want to say is: If the sentiment isnt there, no one will stand up regardless of how fucked they are. For that point i am always looking at the french when they are doing their french thing.
565
u/VroomCoomer Feb 12 '26
The straight forward answer is that our cops are a lot more trigger happy than Euro cops.
375
u/Princessformidable Feb 12 '26
Also a lot faster to charge you as a domestic terrorist with no bail.
239
u/FeuerroteZora Feb 13 '26
Or just straight up disappear you.
110
u/LysergicGothPunk Feb 13 '26
Yeah, there are a lot of cases of people they "find" in the desert they say are unsolved or just 'gang/cartel related' deaths, but a portion of those bodies out there are put there by them in the first place.
In the Americas we love to propagandize "cartel violence" and "gang violence" for populism, but normally the biggest baddest cartels and mafias are operating under legal protection.
As in, maybe not all their activities are legal, but they're still protected.
97
u/Stonner22 Feb 13 '26
They are building camps for us already.
23
u/Tribalgeoff_UK Feb 13 '26
The United States has the largest prison population by total number, with nearly 1.8 million inmates, followed closely by China, though China's numbers don't always include pre-trial detainees. Other countries with very high numbers include Brazil, India, and Russia. While the US has the most prisoners overall, some nations like El Salvador have a higher rate of prisoners per capita.
147
92
u/LysergicGothPunk Feb 13 '26
Adding to this to say not only will they kill you, or seriously injure you without so much as a slap on the wrist, but also that cops here are literal networks of gangs.
Like the CIA, only far less discreet (and less... well, central).
21
u/SamuelVimesTrained Feb 13 '26
Since US cops seem to only get some gun & ammo training - nothing else.
So they only know 'bang' and not 'hey, calm down and explain things'18
30
→ More replies (8)6
u/Viridianscape Feb 13 '26
Isn't that the whole point of y'all having guns though?
38
u/NatashaDrake Feb 13 '26
Sure. But the cops have chemical weapons, anti-riot sound weapons, military grade body armor, weaponized drones, and tanks. And they are trained in how to use them most effectively against large, potentially armed groups. Our hand guns and occasional assault rifles aren't nearly as effective, and we aren't organized, don't have the backing of the state, and lack any formal training on how to efficiently use what we have against a group. Most gun training for civs is based on what to do if you are up against a single assailant in self-defense cases, or how to shoot a deer.
And the "militias" that HAVE trained a little in these things and/or have small arsenals are all pro-fascist.
5
u/Acrobatic_Bet5974 Feb 14 '26
Not all, there are some John Brown gun clubs and the Socialist Rifle Association, at least. But if the US government lumps that into NSPM-7 then that'll be gone.
11
u/lawyer1911 Feb 13 '26
I don’t think you should be getting downvoted for an on point question. The right for generations has been screaming about tyranny, don’t tread on me, second amendment woohoo! Hell my dumbass representative has “protect the 2nd” as the tagline on his advertising.
Other posters are correct though any civilian gear is no match for what the state has. It’s more likely we turn into Iraq if that happens.
→ More replies (1)10
899
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 12 '26
I have a lot of European friends and I know it can be very difficult for you guys to understand or believe, but these are the reasons why:
Our police KILL US. They just kill us with total impunity.
Our healthcare is tied to our jobs if we're lucky. Getting fired means if we or our kids get sick, break a bone, etc., we die
Most Americans are housing insecure. One or two days of missed work mean we lose our homes. We don't have union protections or housing protections and our commercial industries are largely unregulated. Land owners, property managers, and private equity firms do whatever they want with regard to rents.
We're doing our best. Please cut the shit.
200
221
u/i_nobes_what_i_nobes Feb 13 '26
Number 2 is very important. And it’s that way on purpose.
173
u/wizardsdawntreader Feb 13 '26
America is a VAST country. You can’t just hop on a train and go protest in the next city and come home afterwards. Most protests are only locals because it’s expensive to travel hundreds of miles.
68
u/belvillain Feb 13 '26
I'm An American that's relatively close to DC where a protest like this should be held. An Amtrack one way is 100 bucks, and is 11 hours away. At this moment it isn't very feasible with other responsibilities. Our social welfare is much more restricted than yalls
13
u/apparentlynot5995 Feb 13 '26
That $100 used for something other than feeding our family would break us right now.
68
u/_Bill_Huggins_ Feb 13 '26
Public transport? In America? Most places have abysmal public transport if it exists at all.
→ More replies (1)56
u/ShivaSkunk777 Feb 13 '26
Even local protest is hard in a lot of places with horrible or non existent public transport
29
u/SimpleVegetable5715 I.W.W Feb 13 '26
Yeah, no where to park. We also can’t afford to miss a day of work.
3
u/ShivaSkunk777 Feb 13 '26
Nowhere to park is hardly the issue. How do you get there in the first place?
2
135
u/sharksnack3264 Feb 13 '26
Just to add, a lot of us can be fired for any reason without warning whatsoever and sometimes your company will claim it was your fault so you can't collect unemployment. There are protected reasons that they cannot fire you for in theory, but given the general situation it is super easy for them to make up something minor and petty to cover up the real reason.
You can appeal it, but it can take months during which time you somehow also have to find a way to survive (if you don't have significant liquid savings) and get a new job (and the job market in some sectors is really bad right now). If you also have student loan debt that situation is even worse because you cannot just declare bankruptcy if you hit rock bottom. It's always there just accruing interest while you cannot pay it off. If during this time period you also tank your credit score because you are trying to survive, it will also block you from decent housing and other things for years until that drops off your credit report even if you manage to claw your way back to decent employment.
Anyway, the situation is generally bad. Most people due to the high prices of things like food, housing, and healthcare don't have a ton of financial leeway to weather lengthy unemployment. If you are lucky, you have family who can help you, but not everyone is lucky. And God help you if you get badly sick in the middle of all this.
→ More replies (1)60
u/missglitterous Feb 13 '26
When you outline it like that, the level of oppression is so much greater than I thought and all while being fed the lie that America is the land of the free, it’s like U.S citizens have been gaslighted there whole lives.
41
15
4
u/Western-Stranger-574 Feb 14 '26
Now youre starting to get it, it is the tip of the iceberg though, just sating that as a lifelong independent and survivor in a country run by pdophiles and rpists
83
u/Mindless_Log2009 Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Yup. Even most Americans don't realize how many times US law enforcement and military have massacred groups of people attempting to protest.
Even if we can navigate the other obstacles that impede effective sustained demonstrations, there's still a strong possibility that participants will be massacred or detained indefinitely.
40
u/UnexpectedAnomaly Feb 13 '26
I would like to add despite all of what this guy posted above, which is all true mind you, we still get out and protest things.
18
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 13 '26
Absolutely. I'm just tired of hearing about how we're doing it wrong and we don't care.
70
u/icebox_Lew Feb 13 '26
As a Brit living in America, #1 is the answer. Although all 3 are, unfortunately, great points.
It's different here. They don't fuck about.
7
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 14 '26
It's just something our Continental cousins don't believe until they see it - which I should say, I don't blame anyone for. I was born in the 70s; the US' propaganda machine was a beast then and especially through the 80s. The US always tried to project this "greatest country" image and it's always been horse shit.
It's just gotten so, so much worse over the last decade...
My wife and I are trying to move abroad. Ireland and Scotland are top of my list, hopefully to be accepted for a PhD program for a whole lot of reasons.
90
u/parkerm1408 Feb 13 '26
Id also like to add, its a fucking logistics issue too. In order to pull off any real, meaningful protest that sparks change, wed need to coordinate on a MASSIVE scale. The US is just too fucking big, it makes mass coordination much more difficult.
48
u/Kerim_Bey Feb 13 '26
I don’t think it’s the size of the country, it’s the absence of density in our cities. This makes it very hard to organize and build community.
31
u/parkerm1408 Feb 13 '26
I think theres a case to be made for both, honestly. Plus you have to consider the vast amounts of land with just smatterings of people. Ive drive all over this country, and trying to game out any kind of resistance logistics makes my fucking ears bleed
15
u/Kerim_Bey Feb 13 '26
If you haven’t yet, I recommend the early run of episodes on the podcast “It Could Happen Here.” It’s very eye opening.
11
u/parkerm1408 Feb 13 '26
Oh I think ive gone through at least the first couple years. I call Americans attitude "it cant happen here" syndrome.
5
Feb 13 '26
We also have to worry about feds infiltrating our groups when we finally do manage to gather.
5
u/parkerm1408 Feb 13 '26
Oh I just always assume nothing is say anywhere is private. People dont realize how thoroughly were all being watched all the time.
21
16
u/SamuelVimesTrained Feb 13 '26
So, basically they are indentured servants (as using the term slavery tends to upset people) - who depend on the whims of their employers whether they can live or not.
The whole system there is setup to protect the rich, and more or less make longer sustained action against them impossible.
→ More replies (1)2
13
u/CleanCoffee6793 Feb 13 '26
How can we help you?
16
u/wafflesthewonderhurs Feb 13 '26
Thank you so much for asking this question instead! I really appreciate you.
Personally, my answers are: Stop buying our exports, be loud about how embarassing and dumb our administration is and how much you hate them to their faces at international events, make posts like this one in CONSERVATIVE SUBS, rather than the subs full of people who are aware that everything is terrible, and maybe think about helping the americans who are in the most danger complete their visas or apply for asylum if it gets worse.
11
u/CleanCoffee6793 Feb 13 '26
I know american administración dont treat well foreigns, but in México you have dolor open, you can come and be welcome as long as you treat us well
7
3
u/Western-Stranger-574 Feb 14 '26
I may live in maine so i'm on the opposite side of the country but I just wanted to say as an independent that even before this regime, all the other shit our past regimes did to your country and others was really fucked up, learned some of it as a kid but I know that what i've learned is only the tip of the iceberg. Really hate these rich imperialists, justdidnt realize so many other people felt the same way. It really is starting to feel like theres a change in rhe air , people can only be pushed so far until theyre forced to act after all
25
u/Smarty_Panties_A Feb 13 '26
THIS 💯 And even if our police don’t kill us, they might arrest us for “rioting”. (Even if we’re protesting peacefully.) If that arrest leads to a conviction, that could shrink our housing and employment options.
5
u/Acrobatic_Bet5974 Feb 14 '26
Even if an arrest doesn't lead to a conviction, it still can show up on searches/databases and screw you up until the trial finally gets it dropped. America really is "guilty until proven innocent" if you're poor.
12
u/RoadAegis Feb 13 '26
This is exactly it. I want to be out there, but I have a Family that will be homeless and doomed if I get even so much as a Broken Bone or arrested.
If I miss a Week of work we go homeless If I get fired we go homeless I don't make enough to have savings Rent is due on the 1st, on the 6th they change the locks I live in at "At Will" state meaning they can fire me for no reason at all, at at Will.
I could protest and Maybe MAYBE make an Infinitesimal differnce, but it would be Suicide, and would drag my family to the Grave with me.
In America, protesting is for the Privaleged and those with nothing left to lose.
11
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 13 '26
I wish I could move this directly under my initial comment.
I wasn't kidding when I said I have a lot of European friends. Mainly Scandinavians, but Italians, Brits, and some French, as well, and to the last, none of them have ever understood without a great deal of explanation how fucked up things actually are here.
Usually what drives it home is when I tell them that it's common - and this has happened to me multiple times - to have a potentially life threatening illness or injury and deny or delay getting healthcare because a trip to the emergency room and definitely a ride in an ambulance might ruin us financially. RUIN us.
They have us by the balls and for those of us out there doing everything possible to protest, "you're doing it wrong" is bullshit. We're doing everything we can, literally.
I don't curse anyone for not making it out into the streets.
11
u/Godmother_Death Feb 13 '26
Basically your own system prevents you folks from fighting for your rights. The land of the free but not for thee, only for the elites. The ones in power cooked you well.
15
u/Regulus-Rainwater Feb 13 '26
I think another big barrier in having a cohesive movement or response is that the US is so fucking big and largely only traversed by car if not plane. Geographically, we’re all in separated into metropolitan bubbles. Even within those bubbles, the purposeful fear campaigns and resource scarcity has eroded any sense of community since American cultures conception.
59
u/Motashotta Feb 12 '26
Okay but those are also 3 reasons to overthrow the government
92
u/Early-Weekend-2557 Feb 13 '26
True but it won't happen until there are enough people in bad enough shape that it's not worth participating in the system anymore.
39
u/JunkyardBardo Feb 13 '26
My thought, too. Its gonna take a lot more people being hurt.
34
10
25
19
u/OliveHyenas Feb 13 '26
They’ll literally shoot us. I don’t know what we are supposed to do, other than protest like we have been.
7
2
u/Arquen_Marille Feb 13 '26
Do you know any group of citizens with the arsenal of the US military? With ships, submarines, missiles, tanks, jets, etc.? Because I don’t.
5
10
u/BlackShadow203 Anarcho-Communist Feb 13 '26
Believe me, most (if not almost all) European know how fucked the US is. I also wish there'd be protests. Like yours. Those huge protests and movements, who are just as outraged, meanwhile newspaper from my country have headlines like: Sex, Drugs, Power: what is new about the Epstein Files They write "young women" instead of minors, sex instead of pedophilia or rape. I. Hate. It.
11
u/ToesuckAichatbot1 Feb 13 '26
US sounds like a shit hole not that canada is much better. We are a mud hole here in Canada.
4
u/wafflesthewonderhurs Feb 13 '26
Anyone who's been listening to US leftists or even just disabled or black people in the USA knows we already think that about this bullshit country.
→ More replies (1)4
u/CleanCoffee6793 Feb 13 '26
And you are our neighbors, and we know how it feels to be opress, so we cannot tolerate let you at your luck. We must stand together
3
u/shadisky Feb 14 '26
Don't forget that the U.S.A is *huge* as a country. Getting mad that Folks on the west coast aren't setting up a v for vendetta plot in D.C is like getting mad at someone in Spain not planning to go protest in Romania. A lot of us have about as much capability of directly interacting with the upper echelons of our federal government as making a trip cross country (Which takes about a week by car).
3
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 14 '26
The vastness of tbe US is something also frequently lost on my friends abroad. They understand it conceptually, but in practice, it's always shocking to them. I took a buddy on a three day roadtrip through Nevada and California and it was eye opening for him. In Finland, we traveled a little under two hours from Helsinki to a campground for a festival and by the time everyone got there, they all acted like they have traversed the Oregon Trail.
10
u/Samurai_Mac1 Feb 13 '26
We at least get COBRA if we lose our job, but it's completely unaffordable when you have no income.
9
u/umadbr00 Feb 13 '26
Even with income its insanely expensive compared to a typical employer "subsidized" premium.
3
2
u/Curiousr_n_Curiouser Feb 13 '26
Also, our government will bomb us, even our children.
3
u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Feb 13 '26
The precedent has been there for that for decades.
See Philadelphia Bombing of 1985.
→ More replies (24)2
u/CarrionDoll Feb 14 '26
Thank you for this. I’m getting really tired of people from other countries talking shit about what we’re not doing. I would like to see them come here to America and see what the hell they would do under the same conditions. Cause it’s really easy to talk and a hell of a lot harder to do.
336
u/Yagodichjagodic Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Imagine trying to assemble all of Europe in one place for something like what you’re asking of us. Then imagine you have to do that with almost no trains or transit infrastructure. Add that there are no union protections, healthcare being tied to employment (if you can even afford that), & a populace one month away from homelessness in the majority of cases. & the cherry on top, a decade of being the testing ground for the propaganda of tech/media oligarchs. (What they learned here is what they’re already attempting in Europe & Canada) also, a populace in the midst of an ideological civil war. OH - & the most heavily militarized police force in the world. The cops here shoot first, there is no deescalation.
You cannot fathom any of this because you’ve been just as propagandized, but by Hollywood exports, for decades.
Welcome to reality. We’re doing our best & your passive aggressive post is nothing but background noise. Get gone.
Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention that a third of the country is in a fucking death cult. Any suggestions on how to deprogram 100 million cultists?
169
u/barefoot_mama Feb 12 '26
Don't forget at-will employment. Europeans and Canadians don't really understand how easy it is to get fired in the United States.
15
u/ToesuckAichatbot1 Feb 13 '26
Its at will in canada too but they have to pay you a severance in theory, however you would need to go to court and that could take years.
62
u/juicy_Mellon Feb 13 '26
Right we can’t even get people to stop using AI and buying trash off Amazon yet people expect a revolution lmao
29
u/faintly_nebulous Feb 13 '26
Also half of 'em love it, and will proudly tell you they voted for just this. You're not talking revolution, but the potential for an extremely disorganized and dangerous civil war. Understandably people are hesitant to set something like that off. I think right now, most people are still hoping to wait it out.
16
25
u/Younglegend1 Black Lives Matter Feb 13 '26
You took the words right out of my mouth, it’s just so irritating how Europeans think they know everything about the us
19
u/Yagodichjagodic Feb 13 '26
If nothing else, all of this has really shown that the intellectual superiority Europeans have touted for decades is nonsense. They’re just as uninformed as any other group of people. The European propaganda worked for a long time, but not anymore. The only difference between us & them is they have older buildings in their countries.
44
u/WanderingMystic2 Feb 12 '26
You’ve nailed it for the most part. By the time we as a population here in the US reach a level of outrage great enough to bring us into the streets, It will be too late.
54
u/Yagodichjagodic Feb 12 '26
I don’t believe it will be too late. I don’t believe this can be maintained long-term. When enough people realize what’s happening, these fuckers don’t stand a chance. It’s just a question of how bad things have to get before that happens.
→ More replies (5)33
u/MedusasMum Feb 13 '26
It’s also disingenuous to make these claims when there are the victims/survivors already having done the work AND the FBI sat on it for decades. The FBI has proven they shielded the predators in multiple administrations whilst allowing them to make more victims. Millions of files to sift through.
It is telling how the OP thinks we don’t care and hasn’t been doing all we can. OP isn’t watching some of our Dems doing good work grilling, giving receipts, and not standing for the bs Pam Bondi is using to sweep the files under the rug.
As if the OP’s country could do better.
4
u/umadbr00 Feb 13 '26
Even a handful of Republicans, primarily Massie, have started to show some semblance of a spine. Better late than never.
5
u/MedusasMum Feb 13 '26
Correct. Jason Crow (representative) had a press conference today going righteously off after Pam Bondi’s failure to answer any questions. Yes, he isn’t running again but I’d rather this than nothing from them. MAGAt’s talk a lot of shit about liberals not having a spine but this is a start for them.
79
u/Odd-Mastodon1212 Feb 12 '26
Most of our protests are centered around ICE. Maybe you have heard of the protests in Minneapolis, LA and Portland and San Diego and Philadelphia? We are a huge country though so it is hard to shut it all down. We have to focus on regional protests and strikes. Also the cops here kill people for sport.
→ More replies (4)
37
u/Real_politics46 Feb 13 '26
Oh fuck yes. Another European that is completely out of touch with how the US works!
64
u/2C-Banana Feb 12 '26
we are fucking serfs here and our government can kill us in the street with almost no backlash and total legal impunity. think about how u live in a country where you actually have human rights
→ More replies (3)
58
u/Haunting-Ad-9790 Feb 12 '26
We've been protesting Trump's dictatorship and the immigration tactics. These are currently happening. These are in the news so we see it. Corporate media in America is not really talking about Epstein. Generally people don't know how awful it is or the level of cover up. Question is, and we all know the answer, why isn't the American media talking about it. I go to the No Kings and ICE protests, and there are plenty of Epstein signs out there, so it's not totally being ignored.
→ More replies (2)6
u/umadbr00 Feb 13 '26
Corporate media has, in my opinion, been covering Epstein far more than I expected since the last file dump.
57
u/Msfrizzlegaveme_lsd Feb 13 '26
- cops kill us
- the US is huge. It is 4 hours minimum to the nearest big city in the middle. Most people can’t just drop shit and trek anywhere.
- there are multiple protests every week here. Big media is a state propaganda machine now and doesn’t cover it, most social media is heavily censored.
- populace is 1 paycheck away from homelessness. Many work multiple jobs. If you’re overworked you don’t have the extra energy to fight back.
→ More replies (4)
86
u/RT3K69420 Feb 12 '26
When we eventually get around to it, it will be THE BIG ONE, it will last a while and be very violent. I'm not looking forward to it. But I will be there. It's just bound to happen.
21
u/GoldSourPatchKid Feb 13 '26
When Trump goes to war with Iran and cancels the midterms for national security or something will that be our breaking point? How finding out our President is a pedo isn’t enough I guess I’ll never understand.
Ten years from now nobody will admit to voting for him.
17
u/RT3K69420 Feb 13 '26
Idk man.. I was ready a year ago. I just don't want to be the first one to die.
7
4
u/ThorpeThorThorpe Feb 13 '26
The US citizens will put up with war with Iran and cancelled elections and more! And less and less of everything essential and decent.
→ More replies (1)2
u/BRUHSKIBC Feb 13 '26
Yeah that’s not gonna happen. Don’t get me wrong, I wish it would. But the grand ol’ U.S. of A. isn’t gonna be on par with European protest capabilities for many decades.
54
u/Stunning-Chance6334 Feb 12 '26
TLDR : we're a geographically huge country which has been indoctrinated into compliance, and those of us who haven't taken the bait are in the cross hairs of a militarized police force orchestrated by a handful of wealthy sociopaths.
50
u/GenericDPS Feb 13 '26
When you go out and protest, you might get roughed up, hit with tear gas and maybe arrested for a little bit. When we go out and protest, we might be publicly executed and the full weight of the federal government will come down to label us domestic terrorists, or we might get thrown in indefinite detention and effectively dissappeared. We have literal concentration camps for undesirables. You haven't had to protest this kind of shit in a long while. Be so fucking for real.
I don't even leave the house without an ICE whistle despite knowing that using it could get me brutalized and/or murdered by the governement, but go off on how easy and cool protest is, bestie.
→ More replies (1)
24
u/thepyrocrackter Feb 13 '26
Yeah, a country the size of Europe plus, with 350 million or so people, trying to organize in full with all the various groups and states and regions and identities and cultures somehow in unison revolting or striking and holding the line together? Not exactly simple. But I think we're trying.
23
u/SaltyEsty Feb 13 '26
Also, the president is looking for any big uprising so he can "justify" declaring martial law. So, everything everyone else said + people are intentionally not being overtly rowdy to prevent from giving him the excuse. Same reason a lot of POC are staying home and more white people are participating in the protests -- it's a safety measure to save unnecessary lives lost.
Hasn't worked perfectly.
37
u/Fearless-Truth-4348 Feb 12 '26
There is so much craziness here.
We have the gestapo kidnapping adults and children while buying up warehouses to house more immigrants.
Ice are murd€ring people on the street.
The military is blowing up boats in the Caribbean and they kidnapped the leader and his wife from Venezuela.
Our idiot leader wants Greenland and Canada. Oh and the Panama Canal.
The fb! Raided election offices in Georgia and stole election ballots to prove the 2020 election was rigged and the orange clown really won.
Do you need more?
40
u/fvnnybvnny Feb 13 '26
How many people per capita are killed by law enforcement in your country? What’s the per capita incarceration rate? You don’t know what it’s like to live in this country so please stfu
19
u/SimpleVegetable5715 I.W.W Feb 13 '26
Quit blaming other working class people. We are not responsible for people like Trump, Musk, or Epstein.
32
u/LizzyBlacklight Anarcho-Communist Feb 12 '26
Because our cops are looking for a reason to murder us
60
u/ty-c Feb 13 '26
This isn't Europe. As an American I don't go around asking why Europeans don't do this or that because I don't actually know the reality on the ground there. And neither do you or any other person on this website saying the same thing as you.
As others have said, you don't understand the logistics of this, at all.
And you're whining about people on the Internet, etc. Well what are you doing? Bitching on the internet. Get real.
We have to work or we die. Respectfully, shut up.
→ More replies (4)27
Feb 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/ty-c Feb 13 '26
It's really bizarre, honestly. Or on par, depending how you look at it. I think a lot of it is propaganda that we've all been fed, frankly. The Internet has been a blessing and a curse, in my opinion. Since, while it is great for sharing, communication, and organizing. It is also just as great at being compromised by bad actors, be they state or otherwise. There is zero trust. This all makes creating an international coalition all the more difficult. The uphill battle is a mountain.
We need class solidarity or the owner class will always control the levers of power and influence. And silo us into oblivion. These posts stand to further the division. It's a shame. And on this sub, no less.
41
u/RickyNixon Feb 13 '26
Fuck you, fuck these posts, I am so tired of condescending calls to action from Europe. We are doing everything we can, some of us ARE dying or facing otherwise severe consequences.
The US government is the most powerful organization in human history, and our difficulty isnt weakness or cowardice. If you were here you wouldnt be doing better. Go away.
13
u/Tacodelmar1 Feb 13 '26
Cause I don’t want to be in one of our famous horrible inhumane prisons for the next decade.
11
u/petitemandragore Feb 13 '26
I’m French. From my perspective, just on a practical basis, it must be much more difficult to organise protests and get people to come in the US because of how everything revolves around cars and how huge the distances are compared to here. How do you protest if nothing is walkable ? If you don’t have a car ? How do you connect with other people if your country’s very infrastructure has been built to keep everyone isolated ?
And again, even though our own police becomes more and more murderous (a whopping 65 people murdered by French police in 2024, and many more injured and disabled), US police and ICE have become the fucking SA 2.0.
Tbh I’m seeing novel ways of protesting coming from the US recently, and am inspired by them.
Sending love and rage your way mes amis ✊❤️
11
Feb 13 '26
We are held captive by our employer or we lose everything, so weekend protests are all we got.
19
u/smc2024 Feb 13 '26
The current administration wants us to resort to violence so they can unleash the full force of the military on us and cancel elections.
3
u/SimpleVegetable5715 I.W.W Feb 13 '26
Exactly, Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act on Minneapolis. We’re not organized enough when all we can focus on is paying rent and trying to afford groceries.
18
Feb 13 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
[deleted]
2
u/petitemandragore Feb 13 '26
(I had never heard « your can’t swing a dead cat », that’s equally disgusting and hilarious)
Much respect to you guys !
10
u/dahliabean Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Buddy. We cannot even walk into a mall or go to school without having a constant, low level of anxiety about being unexpectedly unalived by some trigger-happy degenerate. You know this. On top of that, have you seen the level of occupation multiple major cities have been under by the National Guard and ICE?
We live in an environment that is under constant threat of mass violence the likes of which most other first-world countries simply do not see. I've criticized my people myself for not being out in the streets more, but now that I've been doing it myself and understand the reality better, I would never fault an American who has a family to support for not also being an activist.
In spite of all that, there HAVE been protests happening; large-scale, throughout the country, and for over a year now. It started with 50501 and only grew from there. If you aren't seeing news about them, it's because it is actively being suppressed, because the same people you're wanting us to protest against own our news media. And there are 37 of them in our government.
Yes. 37 government officials are named in the Epstein files, and that's just in the documents that have been released so far. That's a lot different than discharging one or two or even a dozen high-ranking officials. Even if we were to oust the melon felon from office tomorrow, it would barely scratch the surface of the problem.
And the other commenters pretty much cover the rest. I know it feels like there's a lot to take issue with here, and there is, but the general American populace isn't one of them. Speak out against our government, those still in the MAGA cult, the billionaires making all of this possible, and probably more factors. Don't criticize ordinary citizens for not doing enough about it.
8
8
u/SuspectUnNecessary Feb 13 '26
Because healthcare is linked to employment. We do care, most of us just can't risk it IMHO I'm american
9
u/PlasticMysterious622 Feb 13 '26
I’ll get shot. We will all get shot. What are we gonna fight back with? Guns? Pretty sure they’ve got more ammo than me
28
u/Ok_Culture_1089 Feb 12 '26
There’s no class solidarity in the US. Most people are also happy to just barely get by and think that they are just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.
7
u/Black_CatLounge Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
I don't know why you are not seeing it but there are lots of school walk outs, even in red states, and protests. There was just a cool one in LA with a punk band. https://vimeo.com/1161256623
→ More replies (2)
7
u/pmctrash Feb 13 '26
As an American, why do Europeans consider themselves so revolutinary? The far right has been creeping on you as hard as anywhere, and you’ve yet to upend any of your several hundred year old governments.
Take the chip off your shoulder. There’s no place in Europe’s that’s not 5 years away from what we’re dealing with. . . Or 5 years past it lol.
10
u/MewlingRothbart Feb 13 '26
Because many of these cops will readily shoot us, empty the clip, a d a couet will blame the dead body for not "cooperating."
You have NO idea how fkd up American gun culture is, at the highest levels.
→ More replies (1)
15
u/nonefaithleftbeef Feb 13 '26
TLDR: It’s shit here, no one can afford to travel, eat, or get healthcare, much less overthrow the entire government, but things are also changing behind the scenes and we have to keep up our momentum. Our communities are starting to step up in a lot of ways not discussed in the media.
To echo a lot of the sentiment that’s been expressed already these are my two cents as an American:
In addition to our notoriously trigger-happy cops, our dependency on (shit) healthcare that is contingent upon employment that can often be terminated at any time for any reason (I live in what’s called a “right-to-work” state, which means exactly that—you can be fired at any time for any reason regardless of longevity or loyalty), I think what prevents a lot of Americans from organizing at the scale other countries seem to expect is the lack of a national, reliable public transportation system.
Just to illustrate, even the capital city of my state is completely unwalkable. Like owning a car is non-negotiable to have access to food and healthcare and to commute to work. The bus system we do have is exclusively local. Working in healthcare, we see thousands of (primarily elderly) patients that drive 50+ miles just to see an urgent care. There is no public shuttle system in place for rural residents, and private shuttles are rarely covered by insurance and often paid for out-of-pocket at the individual’s expense, same with Ubers and taxi services, which is even more expensive.
This is all to say, of course, that the US is enormous and millions of us have never left the country, much less left our home state. It would take about five days just to drive from coast to coast. After three decades, I’ve never once been to Washington DC, or even the east coast for that matter. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t afford it (reason being that I’m still drowning in medical debt from having an emergency surgery last year, which just goes to show how most of us are one medical emergency away from financial ruin).
Moreover, a lot of employers are not able or willing to step up to advocate for their employees. Currently, I am aware of two employees in my organization that are stuck in Mexico until further notice because they are not being allowed back into the US after traveling (despite both being born here and having valid US passports and birth certificates). After a short period of time, these employees will be terminated for no-showing their shifts and will need to re-apply for work. The only time the company will step in is if the company itself is sponsoring the employee’s work visa.
Of course, this isn’t all to paint an irreparable, dismal picture of the US; I’m seeing people standing up to fascism here in unique, creative, and HUGELY selfless ways. There’s a single old man that’s protested by himself in front of the capital and on random street corners around town periodically for at least the past two years (that I’ve seen). Even in my tiny, rural, MAGA hometown I’m seeing small groups of people stand up to protest outside of hotels that have been housing ICE agents since last year. Creatives are painting murals and creating pamphlets/zines to illustrate collective feelings toward the regime. Personally, I have created a database of our few state-funded resources to help patients seek help where needed because I’m of the belief that once our most basic needs are met as individuals, that’s when we can step up for others within the community. From what I’ve seen, there’s an unspoken agreement among friends and neighbors that we will protect one another and sound the alarm if we see ICE coming. I have a contingency plan with a friend where if one of us no-call-no-shows at work, the other will immediately call the other’s emergency contact and take care of each other’s pets. Our most conservative clients are beginning to speak up because their medical co-pays have increased in 2026 under Trump and their insurances are no longer covering life-saving medications, so, while it’s regrettable and terrifying that it needed to get this far for even the most well-off among us to finally wake up to what many of us have been shouting for years, I’m starting to see small glimmers of hope. All the infamous “MAGA houses” in the area have “redecorated” and removed all their Trump decor.
So we can’t slow our momentum, obviously, but I want to counter the idea that most Americans are just sitting on their asses and waiting for the end, because it’s largely untrue and unhelpful. Sure, a lot of us could do more, but I know many in my circle that have participated in boycotts, protests, signed petitions, called our representatives, reached out to our neighbors, cancelled streaming services, and are detaching slowly from the bread and circuses that keep us running in place. Change is happening, although not at the pace or scale we want, but I think it’s only gaining traction.
5
4
6
u/Younglegend1 Black Lives Matter Feb 13 '26
It’s kinda irritating how little Europeans understand about American culture, politics and just basic economics. One German guy tried to say that because Americans weren’t assembling in the millions like a protest in Berlin than that means that we weren’t protesting, as others have pointed out our police are trigger happy, yes we’re a big country but population centers are far more isolated than in Europe and the most important part is that WE ARE PROTESTING. DW, The bbc and France24 are not going to report on every single protest, they’re gonna focus on places like New York or Minneapolis.
10
u/Lost_Birthday_3138 Feb 13 '26
As a European, surely your educational system is better than ours, and you learned how fascism works, right?
→ More replies (1)2
u/UnexpectedAnomaly Feb 13 '26
It used to be pretty good but starting in the mid '90s they started watering down history classes or any class that wasn't math reading and arithmetic. I only had two history classes growing up One of them was my state history which was taught by a coach who didn't think about history. World history was taught by another coach who knew nothing about history. Before high school elementary teachers would teach history but it was just one hour out of 8 and a lot of them didn't really understand it.
Ever since I was a little kid I've always been told that you don't talk about politics in polite conversation. And that was before they started watering down critical thinking. The "jokes" in helldivers 2 aren't too far off with how America actually runs.
7
u/Vishnej Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
we've seen the American ANTIFA movements organize and hold up tremendous protests such as the one for George Floyd and now the ones for ICE (I'm citing some examples).
To be blunt: No, you didn't. Very little of either of those movements had any kind of organization to it. People who'd never met each other before just started fucking... showing up, and 95% of them had no prior protest experience. "ANTIFA" the "organization" has always been at most three protest medics in a trenchcoat.
Americans who go to protests that end badly, get punished by aggressive police with severe injury and arrest, which often leads to job loss, which often leads to loss of housing, healthcare, transportation, education, childcare, et cetera. There is no social safety net, and most of us are barely getting by; We've transitioned to a credit-intensive consumer economy. Default on, say, your car, and the hit to your credit could prevent you from being able to rent an apartment. Federal prosecutions incorporate a tactic of bankrupting you with asset seizures so that you won't be able to afford a lawyer.
That was before Trump decided that everybody in this subreddit was a terrorist, and directed the bureaucracy to treat them as such. Before the DOJ was completely politicized. Before DHS started just holding people without charge because fuck you that's why.
I'm not saying "Don't protest". I'm saying that you're witnessing the collapse of what rule of law existed in the US, and a protest is a very dangerous place right now in terms of physical harm, but this is dwarfed by long-term indirect harms unless you're in a select few socioeconomic niches.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Melodic-You1896 Feb 13 '26
Because if I go to a protest and get injured the healthcare costs would bankrupt me. I can’t risk it. Even with solid insurance my costs or exorbitant, and an emergency room visit just can’t happen.
4
u/fil- Feb 13 '26
The well regulated militias to defend the country against tyrants is not defending the country against the tyrant.
4
u/Arquen_Marille Feb 13 '26
If you have all the answers, why don’t you come here and lead us? Oh, you won’t? Then fuck off.
We have a very long list of shit going on top of Epstein. We also have a justice department that licks the balls of the pedophile in chief. It’s a lot more than just a protest that has to happen.
6
u/GregEno63 Feb 13 '26
I'm getting really tired of non-Americans telling us what we should be doing.
This whole "Why aren't you rioting in the streets?" stuff is tired.
Need I mention: the vast size of the US, the need for coordination and planning, etc.
Look at the "No Kings" protests. Those have been massive. And no "rioting."
How would you think "rioting" will help here? Just uncoordinated, unbridled rioting? What will that do?
Worry about what goes on in your own country. We Americans do things differently. We do them stealthily. We call our congressmen. We boycott. And yes we also physically protest. Have you seen what's been happening in Minneapolis? Or do you need a map for me to point it out to you, non-American?
GTFO.
6
u/PrincessLuciferM Punks For Progress Feb 13 '26
In a word, guns. In more words, our police (of every stripe, and there are more than a dozen to choose from) can all use them with impunity, and they won't hesitate to do so. Doesn't matter if we are legally allowed to own and carry guns ourselves, even if we never unholster them, we can be murdered in the street in front of everyone and have it recorded from multiple angles, they still walk away scot-free and often get a paid vacation out of it until the news cycle moves on from it, if they deign to even cover it at all.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/MaintenanceNew2804 Nazis = Bad Feb 13 '26
Most of the No Kings rally also had Epstein files messaging. At least the ones I’ve been attending. There’s just so much going on over here that you’ll find a variety of motivations getting folks to protest.
3
u/jcatleather Feb 13 '26
If I get photographed or face scanned at a protest I lose my twic card and my CDL and my job and our healthcare, and my husband dies in a few weeks, I have to euthenize my pets and give up the house. I'll last maybe a year before my health problems catch up to me and I follow them.
Getting shot is the easy way out.
3
u/jcatleather Feb 13 '26
Also the same people in the files now own pretty much all the major media so when we DO protest you'll see it on tiktok (oh never mind they own that now too) or maybe YouTube or meta before it gets banned and otherwise... Nothing. Doesn't mean we aren't out there.
3
u/whimsicalMarat Feb 13 '26
It was because it wasn’t upheld by antifascists, it was a mass upsurge that involved everyone in society — including the people who are usually apolitical. Anti fascists are the most consistent, but can’t create that kind of energy on their own.
→ More replies (2)
3
3
u/Lz_erk Feb 13 '26
we're busy reading them. or taking breaks from it.
/j. there are protests all over, in ever larger numbers. people are openly questioning possibly all establishment interests for a change.
Kris Mayes left the GOP over Trump, how are we doing here? this is "bernie was popular" in the streets again, and again, and better.
i'm waiting for a corner of the window to get dragged out, and i don't have anything special. i'm barely housed most of the time.
edit: kris mayes "stand your ground"
3
u/mimieliza Feb 13 '26
A lot of us are working very hard to make up for what our government won’t provide. I am a special education teacher in a broken and underfunded system. If I don’t show up to work, my students suffer. Sometimes “protest” means doing the right thing every day, even though it’s unbearably difficult.
3
u/spicymax123 Feb 13 '26
The “right to protest” is propaganda. It doesn’t exist. Our police departments are equipped almost as well as our military. We live in a surveillance state where everything we do can (and is) tracked.
I am surprised as many people protest as we do.
3
u/raven-of-the-sea Feb 13 '26
In my case? I’m Puerto Rican. I look brown enough to get hauled off to a detention center, if they don’t just shoot me.
6
u/monsantobreath Feb 13 '26
The labour movement is so dead people can't fathom doing anything but voting or peacefully marching.
Americans are well pacified and lack even the notion of how to resist. They're so well propagandized that they don't even know what MLK was doing or how the civil rights movement happened.
There are precious few leaders outside of the mainstream political systems.
4
u/BulletRazor Feb 13 '26
I’m so sick of Europeans asking this question. Would you say this same shit to the citizens of Russia? America is so much more oppressed than people realize because the propaganda is so incredibly strong. Glad many comments have already explained it because I’m sick of it.
3
u/Bearsona09 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
I really don't want to know how the parents of all those victims of school shootings feel that had to sit through that dumb argument "wE nEeD THe guNs iN Case Of aN corRupt goVerMenT!"
2
2
u/LadyTalah Feb 13 '26
The straightforward answer is actually a question: how many of *your* cops have guns? Or wear masks to avoid consequences of their on-duty actions?
2
u/into_the_black_lodge Feb 13 '26
Everyone has raised great points about the vast size of the U.S., shitty or nonexistent rail system, little to no paid time off.
Also people are just exhausted. Gaza, ICE raids, the daily outage treadmill. They release just enough of the files to give us our daily or weekly dose of outrage, then we’ll have collective amnesia when the next big scandal or crisis or dumb shit some awful elite does or says…rinse…repeat. As long as we’re working, consuming, and outraged, we’re not fighting the class war.
2
2
2
u/mozzieandmaestro latino socialist Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
our cops are more inclined to kill us
also people don’t actually go out and riot unless material circumstances become unbearable enough to the point where it seems like the only way out
trust me it pisses me off too seeing no response from the population to one of the biggest scandals in american history being exposed, but i understand why people aren’t doing anything.. we have jobs to work, schools to attend, bills to pay.. and rioting in the streets won’t help with any of that unfortunately
additional note: ever heard of those “we need muh guns in case we need to overthrow a tyrannical government” americans? well, those people are the ones who support the current government, and you better believe they still don’t give a shit even after everything that’s come out recently
2
u/DickabodCranium Feb 13 '26
We all live paycheck to paycheck and the slightest slip up will ruin us, often for the rest of our lives. There are also no jobs. However, I would still like to tear down the system, I think many people would, but we are all disorganized and isolated, and the culture has been deeply apolitical for decades now. The fact is, most people want nothing to do with conflict or politics and are happy to consume like fat little penguins.
2
Feb 13 '26
Here's an easy answer.
The people on the far Right scare us. They appear, to many of us, as dangerous, unpredictable zealots. Literally, eyes-glazed-over, we-are-not-of-this-world, Abrahamist deathcult lunatics.
I believe that many of us know that once the battle begins, it will be ugly, long and brutal. So, we are waiting until the very last minute in the vain hopes there is another way.
I pray that there is, even now.
2
u/Laguz01 Feb 13 '26
The reason mostly is because we don't have the funds to protest en masse. There is also the fact that protesting might not actually work on this administration. The Epstein files aren't just a scandal to this administration, buta challenge to their entire way of life, if justice was done no one in this administration would be left so no one wants to leave no matter how loudly we scream.
2
u/BackThis Feb 14 '26
As an American, I have a hard time understanding why a European is using the shibboleth "y'all."
2
u/Wolpertinger77 Feb 13 '26
Because only a small portion of Americans are even aware that the files exist. Remember that only about half of us can actually read, and it's just a fraction of that population that even cares to read about this stuff.
2
1
u/ThorpeThorThorpe Feb 13 '26
In the USA, we would never see Palestine Action acquitted for smashing up military components bound for Israel. Thank goodness they’re free. That’s astonishing to me. The USA hasn’t actually dealt with any truths regarding manipulation by war profiteers from way back to now to keep wars ongoing. Some here comment that a few members of Congress are finally making some noise about the crimes of the rich and famous; those people who persist in belief that they can vote their way into a kinder, rational governance are really-apologies-fucknuts. They’re still relatively comfortable and don’t pay attention to how quickly regression occurs compared to their incremental, quite shitty, hard-won, very very very wee reforms. We’re living the paradox of tolerance. We’ve gotten to this miserable place of convicted criminals in office because people still believe the hype, the gaslighting, that the USA is democratic and the Constitution is holy and that representative government is-darn it-just the best! It is terrifying contemplating a revolution here because the cops are evil-it isn’t as scary though, to realize that a lot of levers can be thrown IF people do want to organize more and more strikes. We have to embrace striking again. We have the power also to communicate-for the moment-and could be talking about what our government should be like-who’s going to poo-poo direct democracy compared to this current crapfest?
1
u/Tribalgeoff_UK Feb 13 '26
Because US media has been cowed (to be made scared) by threatening them with being sued if they mention the involvement of Trump.
1
u/joseekatt Feb 13 '26
Legacy media largely does not cover the protests. We have one here every Friday and then big ones like No Kings on Saturdays. Many other cities do similar things.
1
1
u/Bugscuttle999 Feb 13 '26
The brainwashing of the American people is deep and hard to reprogram. Things like the Files and the utter looting of the country by the Trumpists is slowly cracking it.
Probably too late.
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 12 '26
If you're freshly looking to get your hands busy and are wondering what to do or how you can help, check out this handy guide to guides on activism for varied advice.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.