[fzeroracer]

> The Military is an expensive operation and the Plutocrats actually are willing to maintain the flow of bread to the right places. When the cash-flow is under plutocratic control, their military budget can be used to ensure no disruptions to the new system. Enough service members will still get their paychecks as to not incur any wrath over the switch.

They're already working towards cutting military benefits, so this doesn't hold up. It's more than just keeping the paychecks moving but also keeping or improving quality of life. The moment they gut military healthcare and tell them to find private health instead it's not gonna look good for loyalty if Trump orders them to shut down protests.

As for the flow of bread, they're not willing to make short term sacrifices to solidify control. The fascist play would've been to use the power of the government to artificially lower food prices and create single payer healthcare to placate the masses until the takeover is total and complete. But tariffs will continue to raise food prices, eggs will spiral out of control and people will blame the person in charge.

> All of the American people, from rich to poor, have survived terrible economic crashes before, and this one probably won't be any worse to the top 10% than 1929 was.

This is true, but a key point is that the far right has fostered an immense level of anger and hatred. An economic crash would be met with unprecedented violence from people that suddenly can no longer afford basic healthcare or food. One of the key indicators of this issue is that the multiple attempts on Trump's life didn't come from anyone on the left, but from the right. The assassination of the healthcare CEO wasn't a communist plot, but rather from a person that followed along with the conservative mindset until the medical system radicalized him. An actual Great Depression event triggered by the looting of the federal government would send these individuals into overdrive.

[chudstudley]

Actually, it does hold up; they're not cutting serving military benefits, but veterans benefits and resources. If you're young and useful, the Plutocrats still want you working. If you're discharged or retired, they don't need you anymore. They want to incentivize competitive hubris, so if you didn't use that time and service to secure a spot in the upper classes, you are neither necessary nor going to be a problem for them anyway.

The Plutocrats aren't running a hearts-and-minds campaign here; they neither need nor want to placate the masses. The masses hold far less power than businesses and corporations do. This is about subjugating the only citizens who matter: those businesses and corporations that might be able to sway the masses through pay. Egg prices soaring are not a concern for those who are too rich to notice or bite the bullet. It exclusively matters to you, me, and others at or beneath our level, who cannot effect change.

A return to 1880s or 1930s levels of crime is not a fear of the Plutocrats, but an expectation. It is part of those short-term "sacrifices", the memetics of disorganized in-fighting they anticipate to solidify their control. The 20th Century was just a Golden-Era short reprieve from this status-quo. Now, some will blame the person in charge, and a few of those will even march, and it will effect as much change as it has in the last decade. Others will blame the scapegoats, and a few of those will even march, and it will effect as much terror as it has in the last decade.

The amount of anger and hatred that any dissenting masses can foster against the Right is still not enough to even match the sway of the wealth of the Plutocrats who use the Right as a tool to secure their wealth and mobility. Those assassins were not Leftist, no, but they didn't lead to any sustained or organized movements. Neither did they inspire more people to turn up and vote against the man they attempted to relieve society of, nor were they considered a part of the Right by its plebeian loyalists. Both of these outcomes are the goals of the Plutocrats who use their police and information networks to rapidly suppress such disorganized violence and set an example.

When you and I can't afford eggs anymore, we will just stop buying eggs, while still showing up to our jobs. I hope this pisses someone off enough to spark a domino-effect, but Nazi Germany didn't fall from within, and the U.S. Plutoracy is not likely to during our lifetime either. But hey, after the Trade Wars, if we indeed still have our jobs, things might reach a normalcy similar to life in the PRC, so after the dark period there's at least that to look forward to.