USA Political Discussion

I said in the news post that I was dedicated to keeping the site as a safe space for LGBTQ+ folks.

I am genuinely terrified about how hard that fight may be in the coming years.

We have an international community on the site, BUT our server is based in the US, and I as the owner am subject to US law. So some special treatment has to be given to US issues in how our rules are set and moderation is done. Therefore, US issues impact all users of the site whether they're aware of it or not.

The party that just came into power in the US has promised a pretty sweeping crack down on "woke" social media sites, and through their experimentations in several red states, as well as their published plans and promises, have shown us that a big part of what they mean by that is allowing LGBTQ people to be visible at all.

That party was just voted into total federal control. They took the senate, (probably) the house, the white house and have the supreme court. That means there are essentially no guard rails, nothing stopping them from rewriting federal policy as they see fit.

For anyone paying close attention, they have likely already gleaned that this could have HUGE repurcussions for how the RPR is run, or whether it can exist at all. Federal law generally supersedes state law, so my and the server being in a blue state may not be the protection we'd hope.

I am genuinely looking around at moving myself and the server elsewhere so that I can continue our general moderation policies as they are.

I could be mistaken but I do believe that's not entirely true about federal laws superseding state laws. An example would be recreational and medicinal cannabis use. Still a federal crime but not at the state level. And the Fed isn't prosecuting those who partake in the states which have the allowance of it. So there's hope there perhaps.

Also federal law can't activate the Supermacy clause if it's protected by the constitution. RPR is a website for communication and so should fall under the protection of the First Ammendment.

Again I could be wrong. I am not a lawyer and this not legal advice.

This is the key. The federal government has to make a positive decision to not prosecute. If they are bringing in the new laws they promise against woke media and social media, I can't imagine them passing it and then instantly deciding they aren't going to enforce it.

We also have a supreme court that is openly twisting their rulings to "interpret" the first - and any other amendment - any way they want so long as it results in a conservative outcome. I have no faith in those protections holding in the coming years.

I also wanted to add that simply choosing not to enforce a law isn't enough to prevent consequences. Recreational marijuana dispensaries are a great example of that: many of them have extremely limited banking options because most banks still must comport with federal law regardless of how strictly those laws are being enforced. So most of the dispensaries in my area have to operate as fully cash only businesses, and can't take credit or most debit cards. This has made them a huge target for crime because people know they have big amounts of cash in there at the end of the day.

The RPR can't function as a cash only business. It's just not even an option we could explore.

Well said, and sobering. The fact is when a convicted felon is elected president, that in itself says that the 'rule of-law' no longer applies. Also, the restraint that something may be unconstitutional no longer exists.

I hope it doesn't come to this, but the little bit of restraint many Republicans had during Trump 1.0 is now clearly gone. We're in uncharted territory now.

I try to soothe myself by thinking that it is unlikely a small site that isn't likely to attract such unwanted attention. After all, this isn't a site that parades the LGBTQ movement nor are we a social media site. We are a rping site and it isn't like they have said banning and destroying all forms of stuff forms like books, films, tv shows etc. Just hoping that rpr will fly under the radar.

Now am i perhaps being naive? I painfully recognize that this may be the case, but what is the alternative really? I have to hold onto what small hopes I still can.

That being said if the worst does come to pass Kim, would you at least give us forewarning so we can gathering our character data, find other ways to keep in touch with our friends off the site?

Lastly for what it is worth, this isn't the first time there was a trifecta under trump as that did also occur back in 2017 so this isn't entirely uncharted waters...again...my meager hopes.

Actually I am wrong, I do have more more thing to say, would it not be wise to mention this in the news? Otherwise the people that don't look in here may erroneously believe the site is safe. Or is to keep those people in the dark the point?

I believe the goal was stated in the news post: to keep RPR in general as a place where people can try to relax and forget about problems. For those seeking to know more, this group was mentioned, and Kim additionally posted a comment encouraging people to contact her if they want to know more about why she felt it was important to share that news post in the first place, I'm guessing after some folks had complained.

I figured that was probably the reason, I was just wondering on the age old question of is blissful ignorance better than bitter truth? I tend to lean more towards bitter truth as you can probably guess, but I can understand and respect the blissful ignorance side as well.

I'm afraid it is entirely uncharted waters.

In 2016 when he had a majority, he didn't -- there were still Never Trump republicans in the house and senate. They have now been almost entirely driven out of the party and replaced with cult loyalists like Marjorie Taylor Green. There's much less to stand in his way there.

In 2016 we had a Supreme Court that wasn't stacked with Trump loyal justices. This is no longer true, and likely to get worse. VASTLY less to stand in his way there.

In 2016 he did not know what he was doing, and started out by hiring more mainstream bureaucrats who knew how government was supposed to work, and did their best to control his most heinous impulses. He is not doing any of that this time. He has nothing but loyalists and fanatics. Nothing to stand in his way there, and indeed, only people who will speed his worst impulses up.

In 2016 he did not prepare in any way to become President. They didn't even have a real transition team. This time, they've been preparing for four years.

In 2016 there were civil service career professionals in all of the executive branch departments. This time, he's coming in with a plan to immediately purge all non-political workers and replace them with folks who have sworn an oath of loyalty not to the constitution, but to Trump. They've spent the last two years building a personelle database with folks who have already taken said oath, been vetted via social media and interviews with their friends and family, to make sure they are real loyalists. Again, nothing to stop him there, only thing to accelerate the agenda.

However bad you are imagining this term might be: I promise it will be worse.

Maybe we can fly under the radar for awhile. I hope that's true. I hope it's true long enough that we can have a blue wave midterm to put SOME brakes on him. Or I hope it's true long enough for me to get out of the country.

But if it's not? I have NO IDEA if I would have time to give people warning before the site was shut down.

I didn't say all this in the news because people will then want to respond to it, and we will have no way to not have a political debate. So I directed people here if they want to know. I think most don't.

Kim, I hear you on all your points. In a discussion I’m in on the Hall of Fire forum, someone started a thread called ‘Trump Presidency Redux’. I made the point that it wasn’t a redux, but more a 2.0. It’s only been a week and already he wants to control the Republican senate with Tim Scott and wants them to rubber stamp his cabinet picks. He has more radical far right backers this time, and they are ready to put Project 2025 into play.

Fortunately, the west coast of the USA has Democratic governors who can slow-walk any radical executive orders he throws out, but it won’t be enough. Hopefully they can run a long enough delaying action to allow for some reprieve at the 2026 mid-terms.

We are in uncharted waters here, and anyone who says that it’s ‘just politics-as-usual’ are either deluding themselves in ignorance, or are Trump supporters. Stuff is going to happen, and people are going to get hurt.

I know of several people that are with Kim in wanting to find an exit from the ‘United’ States. I was thinking of doing an AMA on being an American ex-pat settled in another country. There is a lot to know and be mindful of, and if my experience over the last 15 years could be helpful… still debating with myself on that.

This sounds like something you could run without having to mention WHY it's on so many people's minds, but would be a very interesting topic to a lot of folks.

Don't take too long thinking about it, it's not that long an event!

I put it out there. No mention of politics.

I just realized that you already had one out there, and that technically you're not supposed to do more than one topic for LL. But since I encouraged you to do it, and the topic has special salience this year, we'll just pretend nothing happened

Oh, sorry... there I go breaking rules ... I can edit the Bird title as it's basically me showing off my avian friends. Before I do, will the title change affect anybody getting an accolade?

You're fine, I was the one who should have caught that! It's harmless.

Ugh...this all sucks so much and I need RPR now more than ever. I hope you can find a way to safeguard yourself and the site Kim.

I can't speak to the server and admin side, but I can tell you guys for sure that the mod team is going to do whatever we can to help support Kim and keep the RPR a safe space for all members of the community.