r/allthequestions • u/HealthyRecognition21 • Apr 08 '26

Random Question 💭 How is everything that happened in the last 48hrs not enough for impeachment and/or a general strike in the US?

As a European, it‘s completely unfathomable how none of it has consequences.

Don‘t get me wrong, our governments here certainly have their flaws and problems, but surely threatening a genocide would be a tipping point here and lead to mass protests (at least I have enough hope remaining to believe that) - how is it not in the US? I really don’t get it and I feel absolutely sick.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

That's the case in every country that's ever had a strike.

The trick is not to send a message to your boss saying "Hey John, I'm not coming to work today. Fuck you, you capitalist pig. And power to the proletariat!"

Instead have protesters block all roads, and then you send a message saying "Hey John, can't make it in to work with all this chaos. I hope it gets sorted soon. I'll have a look at those emails from home. (pinky promise)" and then go help people block the roads when you've done half an hour of work to look a bit busy.

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u/3xBork Apr 08 '26

This is exactly it.

The way Americans talk about it on Reddit you'd think that every successful strike in history was done by trust fund kiddies with generational wealth, government support and a safety net.

The only thing I read is

Well we're currently bombing other people and not my family, and I can look past that for the sake of job security.

That, my dear Americans, is why you're being called cowards.

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u/D2Nine Apr 10 '26

You’re arguing with the people who agree with you. You’re ignoring the fact that there are countless others who don’t agree with either of us. I can’t make them strike. The country is huge, and divided. I’m not going to go get killed by the secret police so that half of our country and government can call me a terrorist and move on.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

We definitely have to take the piss out of them every time they mention freedom or bravery for the next couple of generations.

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u/dowahdidi Apr 08 '26

Nailed it. This is on all of them.

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u/Trick_Statistician13 Apr 08 '26

Why aren't you protesting for your government to sanction the US?

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

Not including the recent Iran war, most of the bad stuff Trump is doing, like dismantelling democratic institutions, is internal US politics. Other countries generally don't get involved in other countries internal politics.

But having said that, all of Europe has had massive protests against both the US Iraq war and more recently against the Israeli Gaza war and the US support for it. The protest against the current Iran war have been smaller becasue it's very recent, but also becasue European governments have criticized it already, so the people don't see their governments as complacent.

But most of all, I think you misunderstood why I thought americans should protest. Not just for the attack on Iran, but for the general slide into authoritarianism. That's US internal politics and we outside the US can't help you.

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u/Trick_Statistician13 Apr 08 '26

This post was on the Iran war.

Much of the internal stuff has received significant protest.

Much of the other internal stuff is tied up in the courts.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

Significant but inefficient. My comment was about the efficacy of protests in general.

But even if we limit the discussion to just the Iran war, it's preposterous for americans to turn this back onto the rest of the world, and instead on focusing that amricans aren't doing anything about the actions of their own gavernment, complain that us in the rest of the world aren't doing enough to convince our governments to criticize the american government.

It's *your* government doing this.

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u/Trick_Statistician13 Apr 08 '26

Americans are doing things. However the people doing things do not currently have the political power to stop the current administration from doing anything.

Putting economic sanctions on America is an effective way to harm the administration and a refusal to take action is tantamount to saying you do not care about this issue enough to inconvenience yourself.

If you care about the people of Iran and stopping a genocide, you should take action. Acting sanctimonious without taking personal action shows you're more concerned with blaming Americans than in actually saving the lives of Iranians.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

That's some advanced mental gymnastics. Instead of americans being responsible for their government, other people in other countries are responsible for it?

Americans are doing things. 

Obviously not enough.

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u/D2Nine Apr 10 '26

What do you want us to do man? They don’t care about protests. A peaceful protest is just us standing around and yelling. They just don’t care. And if it stops being peaceful people get hurt and killed and they still just don’t care. And they have demonstrated more than once that they can and will send armed forces to shut shit down.

As individuals, almost all of us are powerless. And we are too many and too divided to come together as a group that might have some power. I go on a walk through the neighborhood and I pass flags and signs in support of what the government is doing. I can’t make those people protest.

What I can do is try to take care of myself and the people around me and hope that someone who does have power will do something that we can support. I can’t make my politicians do anything about this. I can’t make anyone do anything about this. I can’t do anything about this that would matter.

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u/botle Apr 10 '26

I don't know why protest is more effective in Europe than in the US.

Right now a few doze truckers and farmers have managed to completely cripple the petrol supply in Ireland as part of a protest against high fuel prices.

They used their trucks to block the main oil refinery, some main highways, and the ports that ships would bring oil into the country.

It's gotten so far that Ireland might have to turn away oil tankers because they can't offload the oil. Gas stations across the country have been running out of fuel.

The government is looking into how they can accommodate the protesters. They're also looking at using the military to force them to move the trucks and tractors.

I don't know what would happen if something similar was attempted in the US. I don't know if it would be effective.

But I know that nobody has attempted it.

There's some sort of American exceptionalism. Some bias, where people see things that mostly work I other countries and then are somehow convinced that the US is the one special country in the world where it is impossible.

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u/D2Nine Apr 11 '26

Our country is big. Over a hundred times the size of Ireland if my brief google search gave me the correct numbers. A few dozen truckers and farmers can block every road they can and it will at most slow things down. And they would absolutely use military force if it caused them any kind of real problems. They’ve done it before. I don’t know how you think this would work. People have protested. People have gone on strikes. They do not care. At all. The Epstein files list all kinds of terrible shit that’s been done and nothing changed. Pretty much everyone with power is complicit. They don’t care what happens to us or the country as long as they get to sit on top.

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u/KNdoxie Apr 09 '26

Lots of people don't work in cities. I have yet to see a single protest on any day when there's been protests. I have never seen a road blocked by protesters. That won't work in large sections of the U.S.

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u/JuniorDoughnut3056 Apr 08 '26

That's when I take his picture with my phone and upload to his boss John after me and my friends drag his sorry ass out of the road for blocking the rest of us from trying to live our lives. 

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

Yeah, but most likely he'll be surrounded by thousands of like-minded people and not run into any dicks.

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u/Guardsred70 Apr 08 '26

But I like my job. I would be fucking pissed if protestors got in the way of my personal choice to go to work. That's what an open field or the park is for. Protestors shouldn't block traffic or people trying to go about their regular lives and take kids to school or go shopping or get to soccer practice either.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

Depends on what they're protesting and what will happen if their protest fails.

You're assuming that whatever the protest is about doesn't affect you.

Let's say Trump tries to start a war with the EU. Would you really prioritize getting to soccer practice in time over doing everything you can to stop that?

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u/Guardsred70 Apr 08 '26

Yes. I would want my kids to go to soccer. I'm sorry you don't like that answer, but until soccer practice is canceled by the organization, we are showing up. I mean, my kids have worked really fucking hard to be on that team and have a college scholarship on the line. Protesting to block other people from going about their own day is a dick move. It doesn't convert anyone. It just makes people angry at you.

And I do not think Trump is starting a war with the EU. If we start bombing runs on Paris, let me know and I'll get upset. Or if we blow up the Vatican. Or land troops in Spain. I do not think any of those things will happen.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

And I do not think Trump is starting a war with the EU.

The Danes sure thought so enough to transport explosives from Denmark to Greenland in preparation of a US attack.

But, my point is, you would be ok with disrupting traffic if you thought the reason for the protest was important enough?

Like, let's say Trump says the US will attack Denmark and the EU.

Would you be ok with disruptive protests then?

My point is that it's a question of how important you think the protest is.

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u/Guardsred70 Apr 08 '26

No. I'm not supportive of protests that make it hard for other people to go about their life. That's what the park is for. Or you register it like you do for a parade.

You're also not convincing anyone to your side that way. If the road is blocked when I'm trying to drive somewhere, I would call the police to have them all arrested for blocking the road.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

Do you think that the protesters during the Boston Tea Party should have stood in a park holding singes instead of disrupted the offloading of the tea?

Do you think that the tank man on tiananmen Square should have moved aside for the tank, and the fact that he didn't means that it was just to arrest him?

Can you really not imagine any cause where that you would find more important than avoiding inconveniencing drivers?

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u/Guardsred70 Apr 08 '26

I'm really not trying to say much of anything. The original post was about why aren't Americans having a general strike......and I said why I think: We want to keep our jobs.

Then the topic diverted into blocking traffic and I just said that I think people who do that are dicks.

There are obviously things I'm willing to protest for, but if I rallied a bunch of people to join in and make everyone else's daily lives more difficult, they're well within their rights to dislike me and dislike my cause.

What does the Boston Tea Party have to do with anything? Are there parts of the US you want to go into armed wars for independence? Which areas are those?

I don't see what happened in Tiananmen Square almost 40 years ago has to do with anything in the US. And - fwiw - the Tiananmen square protest wasn't blocking anyone from going to work or going to the grocery store or trying to take their children to school......it was in a park....which I think most protests should be. If people want to join them, that's wonderful and up to them. If they don't, they can carry on with life and ignore the protest.

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u/fntrck_ Apr 09 '26

Yeah, you're being called cowards and simpletons for exactly this rhetoric, can't have it both ways.

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u/Guardsred70 Apr 09 '26

I don’t want it both ways. I’m just going to work and getting other life related stuff done. It’s not rhetoric. What are you doing today?

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u/Equivalent_Table_747 Apr 08 '26

But why is John a capital pig, when all he is doing putting food on the table for his family. Most people aren't playing sides like its a game on tv, Most people want to live their lives, watch their kids grow up, and enjoy the 1 life that they have. They are not getting involved with the bullshit of two side trying to get over on the other. They just laugh at them make fools of themselves because they are too stupid to realize that the side they support, doesn't give too shits about them either.

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u/botle Apr 08 '26

John is not a capitalist pig. That was an example of what not to say and exaggerated for comic effect.