Turns out the camera is a very effective anti-fascism tool

[Ilkka Nissila]

2 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

I don't see fundamental changes for good happening without widespread and surgical reforms happening. I'm talking about dismantling the billionaire "news" networks. Enacting some kind of "capitalist equality reforms" putting caps on compensation for corporate owners and leaders. Something like enforceable laws requiring executive leaders never make 30x what their lowest paid worker makes. Abolishing the "two party" system (it's really one party; the rich), educational reform, the list goes on and on.

How it will ever happen? It would require immense upheaval of an entrenched, broken system by the concentrated intentional action of many or of one benevolent dictator.

Anyone that has a MAGA friend or family member knows what I'm talking about. No discussion can happen when they argue in bad faith and change their moral and social goal posts ON A WHIM and on COMMAND. 

 

US allows spectacularly large campaign contributions from companies and billionaires and so their interests are heavily weighed in elections, making the candidates they support (who then later owe them favors, legislative and executive decisions) more visible. The underlying belief that rich people should have political influence proportional to how much money they can spend is astonishing. Additionally, currently there are contributors from foreign countries and domestic entities to Trump's vanity projects such as Trump's Inauguration and the White House Ballroom project which seem to correlate with tariff exceptions to those who donated to Trump. The level of corruption is just mind-boggling.

 

I think US needs to set term limits to Supreme Court justices and somehow change the system so that they cannot make political decisions but have to strictly follow the law. The constitution should be updated so that it's more clear in what is meant. The executive's ability to change the career officials should be limited so that the qualifications and experience are the deciding factors rather than political affiliation or willingness to break the law when the Great Leader says so. 

 

Another thing is that the election districts should be redrawn so that they can only be simple shapes such as squares or rectangles with limited aspect ratios to put an end to gerrymandering. The system's performance should be measured by how well the popular vote matches the actual election results, if there is too much of a discrepancy, then adjustments should be made. Otherwise there is no equal voting rights in effect. 

Politicians should be put out of office if it turns out they lied before electrions about what they were going to do if elected. And possibly prosecuted. 

I don't think there is such a thing as a "benevolent dictator". When given power, people's morality tends to crumble and soon enough they become malignant and won't leave office. 

[Video Hummus]

On 1/29/2026 at 4:45 AM, Ilkka Nissila said:

US allows spectacularly large campaign contributions from companies and billionaires and so their interests are heavily weighed in elections, making the candidates they support (who then later owe them favors, legislative and executive decisions) more visible. The underlying belief that rich people should have political influence proportional to how much money they can spend is astonishing. Additionally, currently there are contributors from foreign countries and domestic entities to Trump's vanity projects such as Trump's Inauguration and the White House Ballroom project which seem to correlate with tariff exceptions to those who donated to Trump. The level of corruption is just mind-boggling.

 

I think US needs to set term limits to Supreme Court justices and somehow change the system so that they cannot make political decisions but have to strictly follow the law. The constitution should be updated so that it's more clear in what is meant. The executive's ability to change the career officials should be limited so that the qualifications and experience are the deciding factors rather than political affiliation or willingness to break the law when the Great Leader says so. 

 

Another thing is that the election districts should be redrawn so that they can only be simple shapes such as squares or rectangles with limited aspect ratios to put an end to gerrymandering. The system's performance should be measured by how well the popular vote matches the actual election results, if there is too much of a discrepancy, then adjustments should be made. Otherwise there is no equal voting rights in effect. 

Politicians should be put out of office if it turns out they lied before electrions about what they were going to do if elected. And possibly prosecuted. 

I don't think there is such a thing as a "benevolent dictator". When given power, people's morality tends to crumble and soon enough they become malignant and won't leave office. 

My main point is none of the reforms will ever happen in the current system. Because the current system is setup to protect a few’s interest and not of the many. I don’t prefer a benevolent dictator but do you honestly think all these people that watch brain rot Fox News lie and be dishonest and disingenuous and not cover “news” but instead sling giant opinion turds around ever going to see that they are oppressed. They are taught to worship their oppressors. But their scam merch. Parrot their lies. It’s all quite fucked. 

[Alt Shoo]

Now they are trying to take away our free press rights. Don Lemon was arrested for doing what journalists are supposed to do.  Show up, document, and report. Not for inciting violence. Not for committing a crime. For pointing a camera and telling the public what was happening.

That is a line you do not cross in a free society. When the state starts treating  the cameras we use and reporters as threats, that is not about public safety, it is about control. This is how authoritarian systems work. You intimidate the press, you criminalize documentation, and you teach people that witnessing power is dangerous. The camera has always been an anti fascism tool. That is exactly why they are trying to silence it now. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/30/don-lemon-minnesota-protest-charges

[Ilkka Nissila]

The US press has not been free in a long time. In 2025, the US were ranked the 57th most free country in the freedom of press index. It seems a small number of very rich people control the press and media in general, and truth-seeking reporting is not considered a high priority to these people. Arresting journalists is just another step towards an autocratic state. 

[Ilkka Nissila]

On 1/30/2026 at 6:05 PM, Video Hummus said:

My main point is none of the reforms will ever happen in the current system. Because the current system is setup to protect a few’s interest and not of the many. I don’t prefer a benevolent dictator but do you honestly think all these people that watch brain rot Fox News lie and be dishonest and disingenuous and not cover “news” but instead sling giant opinion turds around ever going to see that they are oppressed. They are taught to worship their oppressors. But their scam merch. Parrot their lies. It’s all quite fucked. 

Even in the Soviet Union, the ordinary people understood "the state's truth" and truth as understood as what really happens as separate (they had different words for the two in Russian). Pravda means what the state would like people to believe and the people understood that it would be in the interests of the state that the regular people believe it, but they knew it was not really the truth. In private conversations people would talk about a different version of truth which is what actually happens. I would imagine Americans would eventually also learn to read the motives of the makers of the media content and evaluate it in that context. But it seems the desire to believe and follow an authority is deep in some subcultures of America, perhaps coming from religious history or something like that.