1942
Flag flown upside down as sign of distress outside of US State Department building today
(lemmy.world)
I mean the US is certainly in distress
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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Definitely. Do we know if the people who wanted a criminal moron in charge are still cheering him on, or are they starting to catch on to the fact that his plan always was to thoroughly fuck everyone over? Well, everyone but his clique.
They're still cheering. No other awareness to be had
As long as the right people get hurt they're happy.
Republicans would shit their own pants just to make us smell it.
They're gonna be a lot less happy when they try putting armed citizens in camps and they get fucking shot.
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They're completely caught in the misinfo and still cheering him on. Anyone getting hurt must have deserved it and if they're getting hurt it just shows how important it is to hurt the others back.
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That seems like a very bad sign. Someone wanted a message to get out to the public, but I'm not entirely sure what can be effectively done about it. Credit to the person with the balls to send out the warning, though.
I'm not entirely sure what can be effectively done about it.
History offers no control groups; there is no "right" way to proceed. What's certain is that "nothing" is not the answer.
Maybe we should double down on capitalism again.
It's the only move the US has used in living memory.
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Kudos to the person who is sending the correct message. Everyone who believes in protecting the US Constitution should fly the US flag upside down.
I think we need to do more than that. The flag is a distress signal. We have to help the people who are distressed
I don't understand what it's going to take for someone to do something. Protests are not going to work when they're holding all our money, services, rights, data, etc hostage, and threatening all our public servants. We already had a hard time protesting before this, because health care is tied to employment. It's not a coincidence that they're going after Medicare and Medicaid. They want an entire nation of indentured servants. Unable to own anything, including our own freedom. When we can't work anymore we can just go die in the wilderness like animals I guess. Hmm where have we heard that before?
Everyone is terrified and exhausted. It seems pretty evident that the election was outright stolen, and I have a hard time believing nobody in power suspected something that many of us immediately called, not with the mountains of evidence that's been stacking up for months, years even. So why didn't they do anything? Why did they wait until Trump was sworn in to even talk about it?
I see Canadians online talking about Americans like we chose this. But we didn't, it was forced upon us, and we're begging for help! Who can we turn to if not our allies? What is going on???
Edit: To those claiming that I'm just as bad as the J6ers, that the election was not tampered with and Harris just ran a terrible campaign; whether unwittingly or not, you are part of the problem. You're falling for the suppression and misinformation tactics, or you're facilitating them. I'm editing my comment to compile some links, but let me be clear, I fully expect that you're going to deny these facts as well, and move the goalposts again. My refusal to engage is not a concession, it's me protecting what little emotional energy I have left.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections
Some great information about voter suppression from a trusted journalist: https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/
This guy's compilation is great
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conservative-activists-purge-voter-rolls/
https://www.youtube.com/live/284VFHrO8Nc?si=F-fk-rB6dH2_taWv
https://sos.ga.gov/news/georgias-2024-statewide-risk-limiting-audit-confirms-voting-system-accuracy ~ please note the date (November 20th) and how soon after the election this was, in business days. This link should be taken into consideration with a few more facts, including what we know about their flawed 2020 audit and Trump's famous phone call. Here is a good examination of the audit showing two very important oddities that should be further examined: https://goudanachos.github.io/pages/georgia-rla-discrepancy-analysis-2024/
https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-voting-machines-trump-investigation-2018890
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-01-06/musk-and-putins-dual-interference-in-europe.html ~ an article about just some of the countries where there are suspected or substantiated instances of election interference.
Yes, this is what NATO is for. It is an alliance meant to prevent fascism from taking hold. Just because it's only ever been used in non member countries doesn't mean it can't be used on us, especially if Trump continues to threaten allies. Talking about this leading to WWIII is a strawman argument. You don't know that will happen and it is not a good reason to not be asking for help from our allies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO
To those who think comparisons to Hitler and Nazi Germany are hyperbole:
I fully expect that some of the bad actors from reddit are here as well. For anyone else reading this: Question their motives. If they're trying to deny what we can see with our own eyes, their intentions are not good.
I will continue to add links as I'm able.
Watch this if you haven't already: https://youtu.be/CVgNJf6CsBA?si=_SBBLf_yuNVuif7y
People keep saying this, but WHO?
Who are you talking about?
Who is this "somebody" you keep talking about showing up to save us?
Look, nobody is coming to save us, and asking somebody else to risk harm on your behalf is selfish.
If we object, it isn't on somebody else to show up and save us, it's on us.
If you aren't willing to make the moves yourself, who the fuck are you to ask somebody else to.
Nobody is coming to save us, folks. It's either us, me and you, or it's nobody.
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It wasn't stolen and it wasn't forced on you. Depressingly enough, turkeys, it seems, do sometimes vote for Christmas. I totally agree with you about the awfulness of the situation but - he told you how he was going to govern, he told you what he was going to do and then he won the election that enables him to do it. You did, as a nation, choose this.
I don't know how any nation state can really intervene on that basis. Its not like Hitler steam rolling Poland or Putin annexing the Crimea - this isn't an invasion or a hostile takeover, it's an elected President carrying out the will of the people that voted for him.
I'm not going to argue with you, I get enough of that on reddit. But there is a literal mountain of evidence, including their own statements and sketchy behavior, hard data, unsecured voting machines, various voter suppression tactics, ballots that were tossed, code that was published online months (possibly more than a year) before the election, and one of the twerps currently taking over the treasury wrote code that can falsify ballots while he was an intern for Musk.
Also, it is like Hitler, they're using the same exact playbook, and while there are some key differences there is no arguing that this is the exact reason NATO exists. Justin Trudeau could invoke article 4 for threats of invasion. Someone from our government should still be able to invoke article 5. These international agreements exist because when the highest power in the nation is compromised, we need outside help.
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You did choose this through decades of inaction, apathy, laziness, fecklessness. The world kept telling you that something was wrong in your "democracy" and the canned response was, "Haha, not in America - land of the free, home of the brave!" Then one day, with your rights stripped away you all finally say, "Not my fault!" It was, it is, and it will be solely Americans fault. And the longer it takes you to own it and fix-your-shit the more costly it's going to be. As always. Imagine how much easier it would have been had you just mass protested after Citizen's United, for example.
No one is coming to save you. The people who have been standing up to fix it couldn't motivate the rest of you to get off the couch. My suggestion is to stop parroting excuses like, "We are too exhausted to do it", and do it. Look to history for examples on how, and for what real exhaustion looks like. The first steps are usually meeting with organizations already doing something and ask what you need to do.
"But I'll lose my job!" If 50% of the country loses there job then there will be a lot of job opportunities. "But my family!" Ok, then sit there and let your fear keep you from action. Keep waiting for someone to save you. Watch how bad it gets as Americas military falls under the control of a facist regime. Watch as your educational system becomes even more of an indoctrination engine. I wonder which, if any, heinous act by your government finally motivates you enough. The kids-in-cages wasn't enough, I wonder what could be? Possibly nothing.
"Home of the brave". Fucking ha ha ha. "Land of the free". Sure. I have no sympathy for people just waking up now. Where the fuck have you been?
This take is lazy and offensive to everyone who truly didn’t have a choice. I’ve been in school this entire time because growing up everyone told me I could be whatever I wanted if I worked hard. Now that I’ve done that and I’m almost graduated, I’m looking around at a world that is completely unrecognizable from before and hope for everyone my age is at an all-time low. Please enlighten me, as someone who has only been a member of the civic process for less than half a decade, how the fuck is this my fault?
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The decades of inaction should be largely heaped at the feet of Baby Boomers, who have sucked up and hollowed out the vast majority of American prosperity.
Everyone else has been carried along in the wake of their outsized cohort's rampage.
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In 2016, people thought that Trump was the problem. That if Trump left, we could have civility restored to the electoral process. Defeating Trump won't solve the problem because he isn't it - it is the electorate. The voters need to SEE what will happen when this or that occur.
Deport all the immigrants, see the damage that brings, then bring them back with legal protections this time.
Cancel all the science, see how far behind we get, then bring it back with all the funding to make the next moonshot.
Get rid of all fogien aid, watch as our global power dimishes, the vote to bring it back with a clear and true purpose other than empire building.
The people don't know WHY these things are important, and are unwilling to listen or learn. Thus, the only teacher is to experience. But to quote Trump: "There will be some pain" when doing it.
I don't disagree with you and I would love it if people had to experience the consequences of their poor decisions and learn hard lessons that they've been evading for years. The problem is that millions of innocents are and will be caught in the crosshairs. This is a matter of life or death for many people who did not vote for him and it is unconscionable to allow all those people to die just so a bunch of loud racist hillbillies with lead poisoning can learn a lesson.
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Imagine being the person running this up the pole at the fucking state department.
The gravity well produced from the balls of this person (all genders included) is pulling me from miles away.
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Is this real? Nobody is reporting on it.
Which of the conservative media in the US do you expect to report it?
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people need to start seriously protesting
Yeah but we need to stop occupying sidewalks and start occupying gated communities. The fact that protest organizers won't do this says everything you need to know about them - they prefer passive action that does nothing but maintain the status quo. I've been to over 100 protests everything from workers strikes to BLM to Occupy Wall St, and i've learned that occupying a sidewalk that the oligarchs don't walk on does nothing but make the cause look pathetic. We need to protest where the oligarchs will be afraid, anything less is just playing into their hands.
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Is that the State Department flag or is it a flag near the State Department?
It looks like this is the end.
The house has been burning and smoking for hours and people are still thinking that the fire just started
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Here's something we could fix:
We have no recall option! WTF! We should have such a mechanism. We should ask Congress to enact a law where we the people can recall the president via votes if we can collect enough signatures just like we are able to do for other things.
We do. It's the 2nd amendment. Literally what it was written for, the forceful reclamation of democratic freedom should it be taken by a tyrannical leadership. Too bad everyone that actually gives a damn about that option is on red team, and blue team thinks the 2nd amendment is for killing children and nothing else.
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The State is in distress. Who will answer the call? Who will come it's aid? We have all been summoned.
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It's funny to think that any of these comments are relevant. Are you new to the internet maybe?. The best I can do is hope to influence. The best an American can do is contact people already working to correct this and ask them what needs doing. This leads me to wonder how all the Americans are posting in this thread, being that they are all so exhausted. Why not go to sleep? Then wake up later and get in touch and involved.
It's almost like Americans are here trying to convince themselves there is nothing they can do.
How brave of you. What a testament to your freedoms. What a fine demonstration of what it truly means to be American: A blame shifting, feckless inheritor of a once great country. All hype. No substance, apart from the folds of blubber around their mid sections. What a legacy. All your talk of freedom backed by nothing. FREEDOM!
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Wasn't the upside down us flag thing used by j6'ers? Are the line workers taking it back as the symbol of a stolen country for themselves, or is this Musk and crew indicating we're fucked?
It's a sign of distress.
They were distressed, but it's only because they're sore losers and couldn't cope with Trump losing.
This is actual distress, it's appropriate this time.
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Its nothing exclusive to J6. Its an international sign that an insurrection or coup has occurred or is occurring.
Not quite, it's an international sign that a vessel is in distress.
Then mostly right wing lunatics co-opted it to mean that our country is in distress.
Which they co-opted from protesters in the 60's, rallying against the Vietnam war, which they co-opted from the Revolutionary war, where (allegedly, much harder to source), the revolutionaries also flew the Union Jack inverted. Its history to mean insurrection in the US is as old as the US.
Its been used in many other instances internationally, and yes, also at sea with a much deeper history to signal distress. Regardless, the pedantry is both technically and figuratively misplaced.
which they co-opted from the Revolutionary war, where (allegedly, much harder to source), the revolutionaries also flew the Union Jack inverted.
If they did, I assume a half dozen vexillology enthusiasts with good eyesight got very concerned.
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Performative resistance from inside the machine. Cute gesture, but distress signals only work when someone's actually coming to help. Meanwhile, career diplomats keep writing memos and processing visas while posting their quiet protests on social.
Remember when we thought these symbols meant something would change? Now it's just content for the outrage cycle. Tomorrow there'll be a strongly worded letter, maybe some resigned LinkedIn posts from mid-level FSOs.
The machinery keeps grinding, upside down flag or not. Though I suppose watching institutional despair go viral is peak 2025.
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