One of the major issues in this case is that Obama set a precedent when he assassinated 16 year old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki without a trial.
The reality is that the Democrats go low, and Republicans use that as a new standard to go even lower.
I would start with MLK, collected essays, no one writes about protest more eloquently.
A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn gives a great broad overview.
Death in the Haymarket by James Green is a great history of the first decades of the labor movement.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times goes in depth on LBJ and the civil rights movement.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau for the classic philosopher’s take.
We’ve Got People by Ryan Grim details the successes and failures of the movement in the last decade.
You should educate yourself on the history of protest. The media has always been a serious impediment. There was never an “entire population” uniting or a “simple goal that others could get behind”. It was always extremely difficult. It often looked hopeless. Many people were killed in the streets, and others were brave enough to replace them.
Overall I think feeling helpless in the face of monumental challenges is normal. But closing your eyes and telling yourself “nothing can ever change, so why bother” is self-soothing and pathetic.
Things can change, and you can be a part of that positive change if you put in real effort.
What are we gonna do, vote?
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” - Emma Goldman
In the last 100 years, protest movements have given us women’s suffrage, workers rights including the weekend and overtime pay, gay rights, civil rights, etc. History shows us that we can have positive change, but it’s not as easy as just voting.
We can see right now how protest movements are moderating the Democrat’s support of Israeli war crimes.
But don’t you feel a responsibility to the rest of the world?
Say if, for example, your tax dollars were funding an ongoing genocide and starvation campaign, wouldnt you feel a bit responsible to change that?
Imagine the returns if that wealth was invested in education and healthcare instead of yachts and empty luxury housing.
If every pro-GameStop post on r/WSB and r/Superstonk was actually a joke then they have achieved levels of sarcasm far beyond what I thought possible.
Everything you mentioned is an NRA talking point.
The NRA started out as a well respected advocacy group for hunters rights and environmental protection. Then they were captured by the arms manufacturing industry, so now their only goal is to sell more guns.
And after every major mass shooting there is a significant uptick in sales of guns and ammo, so the arms industry is financially motivated to contribute to the culture of gun rampage.
The plan was to close the horrific, abusive insane asylums and replace them with community mental health centers.
Then neoliberals got into power and said “nah, I dont think so” to that second part.
So now our most mentally unwell people live their lives in prison and on the streets.
I think you are right, at the start they had noble intentions hidden behind a get rich quick scheme.
But then they all became GME holders, they had a vested interest. So now they act like the shitty video game store in the mall is actually cool and innovative and soon some management changes and NFT nonsense will turn the company around.
In some small way, they became what they sought to destroy.
The gateway drug to heroine is most often prescription opioids, not weed.
One translation I read suggested a probable explanation.
Rasputin’s phone advice was the same as many modern quacks: keep the patient away from modern medicine and doctors.
So the hemophiliac prince was no longer given his normal cocktail of drugs, which probably included a new medicine for the time: aspirin.
Stop giving a blood thinner to a hemophiliac and his condition (temporarily) improved. The best explanation for the people at the time was “magic”.