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That’s by design. Friends across the pond talk about mass protest as a solution, but not only is the US akin to a bunch of countries loosely allied together (300M people), but we do not have the job/civil rights protections necessary such that everyone can protest safely. If you get injured during a protest (or worse), you have to pay a lot of money to get treatment. If you “say something the wealthy don’t like,” you can lose your job, get smeared all over social media, and be blacklisted from future employment. If you snicker at a public event or sit quietly on a campus, you could wind up in jail or in front of a judge who will be more than happy to take cops’ words for it that you are a public nuisance or were resisting. Our “right” to protest is functionally a guideline, in practice.

With all due respect (and apologies for the overly polemical statement), but freedom is a complex thing and it is scary and painful. What you've outlined (I believe you're exaggerating a little bit) is modest stuff compared to what you experience in other countries for protesting.

I will speculate that if 60-70 million Americans start daily nationwide protest while partially undermining government authority (taking over parts of major urban areas) and showing the country they will not back down no matter what, the issues you outline will become less relevant. You will have people donating to protest camps, field hospital with doctors and medical personnel who are joining the protest. Camps and living quarters.

This is not a fantasy (I recognize how this might have sound if I was saying this while I was living in the US), this is real historical action taken by people from different continents of the world. Look at the global history of protest movement (particularly the successful ones).

The real problem is that unfortunately as things stand today, American society is fundamentally disconnected from an understanding of freedom (beyond comical, childish polemics about freedom of this and freedom of that, "I am free speech absolutist").

I have some bad news. We’re already there. This is already a Mafia State, and although the lower courts still seem to be on the side of the people, the Supreme Court has been handing the Executive Branch more and more power when asked.

I would disagree that the US is fully a mafia state (or a fascist state). With respect to global comparisons and history, it's currently a proto-fascist oligarch state that nevertheless still has a modicum of independent institutions (although this seems to be rapidly changing).

You should reconsider those friendships, because they are the reason we are here at all. They are the problem, and befriending the American far right is just befriending fascists. If you care about the future of global society and democracy, you cannot also hold space for the far right.

I have more to lose from Trump than the vast majority Americans (I am Ukrainian). they are not fully aligned with Trump and they will come about. Beating fascism is also about converting people to your side and understanding their mode of thinking.