Ask Lemmy

A particularly insidious strain of Christianity trained me to resign myself to a premature death when I was still a teenager. Hasn't happened yet, and I'm in no hurry, because I care deeply for others. I'm afraid for the fate of humanity so much more than myself.

Well, my folks and I will stay in that night. We're in a heavy Trump area, and I'm more concerned about if he loses than wins. I honestly never thought we'd have to deal with Trump after his horrible presidency, so I've been on high alert since he was confirmed their canidate. My mom has all of us renewing our passports as well.

I know this is dramatic, but I may actually stay home "sick" if Trump wins. To reconcile with the fact that people would vote this absolute embarrassment in again would make me so terribly disappointed in my countrymen. And this was the campaign I really put my money where my mouth is: I volunteered, donated (when I could) , even protested. It's not so much that I like Harris, but the future that Trump and his cohorts has painted has been horrific. I would need some time to "grieve" so to speak.

Election night, I plan to have good weed when it's all said and done, because good God. Even if Harris makes it, this whole thing had been exhausting. And it won't stop. If Harris makes it, we still have so much fucking work to do, and just thinking of that wears me out.

As shameful as it may be, I’m reducing my stress by reminding myself that I, personally, will be fine regardless.

But I fear for many friends, loved ones, and strangers who may not fare as well.

Bottled water and prepping the generator. I fully expect the racist fucks out here to cause real problems, regardless of outcome. We already have daily parades of giant lifted trucks covered in Trump flags doing burnouts and screaming the n-word at people. In 2020 we had some protesting high school kids get attacked and beaten by adult Trump supporters, cops looked the other way. My town has a giant painting of a Nazi on its largest building, which is a Mason hall. I hate this place.

Until the election happens I'm going about my life as normal, because I'm not about to self destruct while she still has a chance. If she wins I'm going to celebrate that I can keep living as I am.

In the meantime, I'm also making my exit plans in case Trump wins. I'm an openly leftist, transgender, neurodivergent, latina immigrant and performance artist. I'm going to be in the first wave of people rounded up.

You gotta get to the point where you worry about the things you can control, and let go of the things that you can’t.

Shit, man, I dunno. I already voted. I fly my blue-team flag in a red town. I hope that most of the people voting for him are just insensitive clods who aren't as personally hateful as the jokes they'll laugh at, or that they're somehow stupid enough to have been genuinely convinced that our creaky business-friendly center-left coalition is some sort of economy-dooming experiment in socialism. So yeah, I'm reduced to hoping that a large percentage of my fellow citizens are idiots and/or assholes, rather than actual fascists.

It's too close to know who will win, so things could turn out kinda okay if the Democrats pull it off. If Trump wins, maybe they don't manage the Senate and little of longstanding legislative harm gets passed. Sotomayor should be okay for the next four years, so for SCOTUS itself the damage is likely already done. Finally, I still mostly think that Trump will be content to line his pockets for four years and then pardon himself on the way out. He's too old to inspire any energy to repeal the 22nd amendment, and I don't see anyone behind him ready to slot in as an heir apparent, so maybe the less intensely awful republicans will reclaim some measure of control, or a gaggle of pretenders fragments their base and they can't really get organized to win nationally. A second Trump term is going to fucking suck, though, and a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt all across the world, many more than in a Harris administration, IMHO.

Shit's grim, and the Christian Nationalists see this as their time, possibly their last good chance in their current form, to really seize the reins of power.

I’m going to go drop off my ballot and sit back and wait for the results. There is nothing more I can do so there’s no sense in worrying about it. Focus on things you can actually change.

Alcohol, cannabis, and limiting my exposure to news/politics. It's working wonders, TBH.

Honestly, other than voting and trying to get those around me to actually give a shit, I'm not. Like in the past two elections, I'm having trouble grasping the fact that half of the (voting) country wants to elect a fascist. My mother told me over the phone that one of her neighbors is voting for Trump because "his wife is absolutely gorgeous". Like, how do you even respond to that, especially in any calm way?

Oh, and someone here reminded me: cannabis. Lots and lots of it.

I figured out who to vote for and mostly lost faith in the American people. I deeply understand that the system is broken but electing a fascist is not the way to fix it unless you want it completely broken. Honestly pretty depressed about the whole thing because prospects are grim and I have little hope for the future after the past 10 years.

I've been writing postcards and letters to voters. It's a little too late to jump on the postcard wagon but letters can be written until 10/29. It's super easy, you're provided templates, instructions and addresses, you just need paper, envelopes and stamps.

https://votefwd.org/

I wrote a ton of both and it did wonders to distract me and give me something of purpose to do at the same time.

I'm pretty sure text banking and phone banking is still going on too.

People outside of US have the right to worry about this election as well imo. It's one of many currently on-going battles of autocracy vs democracy and this election will heavily shape the battlefield.

I wish all of the luck to my American friends and really that's all non-americans can do so I'll just grab a joint and catch up on the new season of What We Do In The Shadows until this blows over.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that a) my candidates of choice likely won't win, and b) the results will be contested with complaints, nit-picking, tantrums, and probably violence across at least several states, and a final decision won't be known for a few weeks.

I'm trying to avoid political topics and articles a bit more than usual. I also have a lot of things going on in my personal life (not necessarily bad things, but lots of responsibilities) that are keeping me busy right now.

I had also saved up a couple of TV shows that I've been wanting to watch, to fill in some of the little free time I have right now.

Edit: fixed a word.

I’ve made my peace with either result. If Harris wins, I’ll assume it’ll be relative status quo and a continuation of the last four years, a slow-motion decline. If Trump wins, our deaths are assured and everything falls to shit that much sooner. There may be some personal benefits and opportunities I can try to take advantage of before we all die, but none of it will really matter in the end. My personal romantic life is in such a shitty spot right now that I honestly don’t really care anymore.

I've already voted. I don't have the ability to volunteer for anything, so I'm working on removing all the doomer posting and adding blocks on my feeds. No point in stressing about something I have no more ability to help with.

Doomscrolling, exercise, and looking up firing ranges near me. Been a few decades since last I went

I'm just going to do what I've always done in all the other elections I've partaken in.

I'm going to mark my choices, I'm gonna submit the ballot, I'm going to resume life as normal. Then when election day comes, I'm just going to go to sleep. I don't want to be up to see the polls.

If Harris wins, then great, because that just means that we're not going to have another nightmare circus for 4 more years.

If Trump somehow wins, then I will mute myself from the world almost like I did for the 4 years we had with him. It was just a blur.

Simply ignore the media. Nearly all of them are owned my synclar entertainment and are designed to keep you mad and engaged for more money.

Cut off the corporation news helped me considerably with my mental health. Also cutting out fascist pro Trump people in my life helped a lot.

Remember the media is designed for keep you mad sad and fucked up so they get more and more views and clicks. Do not engage, and your life will be considerably better.

There is really nothing you can do about it besides wait and see. Just surround yourself self with things/people you love. Ignore political anything sense it's nothing really going to change anything doom scrolling it.

Get informed, vote, try to change things in your small circles and just live your life and cut out the things/people who actively are trying to enrage and anger you.

"Loosen your shoes
Don't listen to news
That keeps you up at night."

• Chris Smither

https://youtu.be/djzR7594I1U