It’s 2024, tomatoes are 25 dollars a pound and a dozen eggs costs a 15 year mortgage, we are absolutely fucked if this is what mobilizes this country.

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[–] JohnBrownsBussy2@hexbear.net 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The example of white nationalist riots in the UK does have me worried, but the US doesn't have the same urbanized white underclass that the UK has. The US certainly has a lot of reactionaries, but they're either dispersed in rural areas or dispersed in the suburbs. They can't easily be cajoled into spontaneous violence.

[–] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 22 points 1 month ago

The few times proud boys have shown up, they break down pretty quickly when confronted with organized counter protest/regular protest - unless the cops are on their side, but then that's just the cops

[–] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The exurbs surround the cities

[–] JohnBrownsBussy2@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

The reliance on personal transportation to get from A to B changes the class character, and thus actions, of unrest and dissidents in the US. Compare the various actions during 2020, the urban-based George Floyd uprisings, and the right-wing anti-lockdown and Stop-the-Steal movements. Raising the barrier to entry by adding an hour-plus driving time, and more importantly risking your own car getting damaged, limits who's attending demonstrations and limits their tenor. Obviously, you have events like Charlottesville and January 6th, but those were pre-planned events put together by an array of right-wing organizations working in relative concert. There may be a lot of angry racists in the American exurbs, but there's a limited number of far-right ideologues who are going to invest the time and personal risk.