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I remember reading something once, that the reason so many people didn’t believe in the threat of Global Warming was because there have been so many other threats they heard about that didn’t come to be.
Except, they didn’t just, not happen.
Overpopulation? Mass starvation? Scientists dedicated their lives to increasing agricultural production.
Y2K? Computer scientists put more man hours than some factories did during WWII to eliminate the potential bugs.
Hole in the Ozone? We eliminated the chemicals causing that particular one.
But none of that work was in the public eye for 99.9% of people. So, their lives went on as if there was never any threat. Thus, people slowly got it into their heads, consciously or not, that all predictions of destructions wrecking our way of life were bullshit.
This is the (exclusively) political version of that. Most Americans have lived in a largely functioning democracy for so long they don’t really comprehend that it’s possible for America to not be as it is. Sure, plenty of people wring their hands about encroaching authoritarianism, but they don’t see America just turning into a state where voting and free speech don’t exist.
I don’t think this is strictly accurate. The 20th century was rife with problems we failed to address (in part or in total).
- Lead and Asbestos were rolled out despite their known hazards and were never properly cleaned up
- Our nuclear weapons stockpile is as big a threat as its ever been. We never really solved the problem of nuclear waste disposal, either, so we’ve just got these cesspools congealing in spots around the country.
- Aggressive industrial agriculture has drained a number of major aquifiers, while industrial fishing and ocean dumping has obliterating the native marine population
- Oil spills plague us to this day, utterly despoiling major riverways and polluting the Gulf of
MexicoAmerica at record rates. - De-industrialization has stripped much of the Midwestern interior of economic activity, plunging the region into poverty
- The Oxycontin/Heroin/Fentanyl epidemic only gets worse with every passing decade and the only response we seem capable of initiating is “more cops!”
What we’ve seen over the last 40 years hasn’t been a steady series of policy wins nearly so much as a consolidation of media into the hands of a small corporately controlled cartel. It isn’t that computer bugs and food shortfalls and environmental catastrophes and even outright genocides aren’t happening. Its just that we’ve decided to stop talking about each of them in turn, as the public loses control of its independent information streams.
Most Americans have lived in a largely functioning democracy for so long they don’t really comprehend that it’s possible for America to not be as it is.
Point to the decade in which America had a “largely functioning democracy”.
Was it during the 60s, when it was open season on civil rights leaders and populist presidents? Was it the 70s, when the Nixonian War on Crime/Drugs stripped millions of Americans from the voting rolls through felony disenfranchisement? Was it the Reagan Era, of brutal police violence and race riots and MOVE bombings and the FBI/CIA in open war with anyone to the left of Tip O’Neale? Was it Clinton’s 90s and the disaster capitalism that forced a wildly unpopular series of international trade deals with the intent of dismantling trade unions? Was it the Bush War On Terror, with its blacksites and misinformation campaigns and endless wars? How about Obama’s bank bailouts followed by the GOP spearheaded 2010 gerrymanders that packed and cracked state and federal legislatures nationwide?
Where’s this democracy I keep hearing all about? I’m 40 years old and I struggle to point to a moment in my life when this country ever felt like more than a White Dude’s Caliphate.
Yep. If I may recommend a book, the violence of organized forgetting by henry giroax critiques this disinformation machine which has normalized even the worst disasters, atrocities, and social injustices perpetrated by this country especially by laundering it via campaigns like the war on terror. Really compelling read, I can’t do it justice here.
You seem to be missing the point.
Don’t worry, one responsible billionaire will step in and put things right.
Anyone else have fantasies where aliens hover over the whitehouse?
If you pretend for a second this is a HoI4-like historical simulation, it’d be really interesting to see what the american dictatorship is going be like. Are we talking populist murder-happy forever-revolution? Shut-the-fuck-up-or-else secret police state? A digital surveillance state with never seen before levels of control? The suspense!
Alas, we live on this planet. Bummer.
More of what already works. Keep the masses busy with Disney, Fox, and fast food. Divide the population with wedge issues like abortion, LGBT, guns, etc. Give outsized presence to Trump‘s topics in corporate media. Consolidate media ownership further. Go hard on nationalist and imperialist rhetoric (MAGA). Wave the flag and cross. Blame immigrants. Blame foreigners. Stoke racial tensions. All the while make shitloads of money by manipulating the market and cutting regulation. Run elections but make sure democrats always lose. Depoliticize the population. Start a war. Spread so much crap information that people tune out. Privatize everything, empower billionaires.
Just because fascism was depicted in a video game doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.
If there’s anything to fault games like HoI4 for, it would be that it doesn’t really depict how bad fascism is, it’s basically just choosing which team you’re on and which buffs you’ll get. I think the devs just expected people to know how bad it is from understanding history, but maybe people really do think of it like choosing a team.
I do hold some hope that the Joint Cheifs have a “fuckin NO!” Line they wont cross. Like invading Canada.
yeah those fuckin NO guys were likely the ones trump fired though
Even then, theres an old saying about how people who know they arent doing the right thing having a line they wont cross, but true belivers being caipable of anything because they believe they are RIGHT.
I think everyone has a “fuckin NO! Line”, but for some people it’s just when they personally start to suffer.
What baffles me is that it takes them personally suffering to realize what was plainly obvious to every non-MAGA adult. You vote for the guy who said he would cut support programs you depend on and impose sweeping tariffs despite every economist predicting what would happen, basic necessities suddenly become unaffordable for you, and then it’s surprised Pikachu.
The tech oligarchs have already decided that they need the resources and don’t want to pay for them. This is definitely happening one way or the other.
I harbor a similar hope!
the issue with our current system is that it requires those with the power to cede some of the tools that help them in power in order to fix it
I worry about my American neighbors 😬
If we got rid of the unconstitutional “executive order” system, this couldn’t happen.
Executive Orders aren’t unconstitutional on their own.
The president can do meaningless gestures in an Executive Order, like declare a happy birthday to a foreign head of state or something, and that’s not unconstitutional.
The president can also exercise the inherent constitutional powers of the office through executive order, too: grant a military medal to somebody, tell executive branch employees that they have Christmas Eve off, provide for a system of classifying state secrets, etc. Those might have real effects, but so long as it’s the exercise of power that the presidency actually has, there’s nothing unconstitutional about that.
Then the president can also exercise the powers given by Congress: tell the EPA to start a rulemaking process, declare a public health emergency and invoke some of the powers under the procedures previously defined by Congress, etc. If the powers involved were granted by Congress, and the power itself was not unconstitutional, then there’s no problem there.
The big issue is that a lot of people misunderstand when an executive order is performative and has no legal effect, or when an executive order merely directs an agency to do something with legal effect. That agency’s actions need to be evaluated for legality, but the executive order itself does nothing, except communicates the president’s preferences to that agency in a public way. The president could just as easily call up that agency head by phone and say the same thing, and wouldn’t even need to publish that order.
It’s not the procedure that’s unconstitutional. It’s the actual contents and substance of the orders that are probably illegal.
Yeah that’s the problem: authority as such
Specifically unchecked authority. Executive orders are just as bad as legislation from the bench, or judgement by legislation. Whenever one branch of government overreaches into another’s territory, there should be hell to pay. But our system was established with the idea that the three branches would be fundamentally adversarial. The moment there’s any hint of cronyism, we’re screwed. Washington warned us against parties, others warned against the two-party system. Eisenhower warned us that the MIC would control both parties. Goldwater warned us that the MIC & the cult religions would take over.
We failed to heed the warnings. Here we stand.
Aren’t there supposed to be a whole bunch of 18-25 year olds who don’t have children or long term careers yet?
That’s why old people send them to war, they’re the expendable adults! (/s)
TBH though, it is a little weird I have no idea what that crowd is up to.
Is this boomer for real chat?!
Anyway, this 30 lbs of Ramen is about to disappear!
no swallow == fake
Ukraine flattening the Kremlin woukd go a long way towards rectifying much of this. The Oligarchy has become heavily invested Ukraine losing.
Read up on the history of Latin America to see where we’re headed. There are a couple different possibilities.
Well, there’s always the next President
Bold of you to assume we get more free elections.
I’m so sick of people spouting this, it’s defeatist and is essentially saying “i lost, oh well, time to give up.”
I’m sorry you feel that way. I welcome your mockery if we have something resembling a normal 2026 midterm and 2028 general.
I’m a little surprised so many folks don’t seem to realize we have crossed a threshold that may indeed spell the end of the US as we have known it up to now, and seem to think this was just another election. But, I guess for folks who haven’t witnessed that many of our elections in their lifetime it might seem that way.
If more people did realize that, I’d have a lot more faith that we’re going to be able to stop it.
I agree “folks don’t seem to realize we’ve crossed a threshold” and seem willing to just curl up and die.
Fuck that noise.
Well, we’re clearly talking about two different thresholds, but my happiness doesn’t require us to agree, and yours shouldn’t either.
Good day to you!
I suppose that’s true, you have a great day too!
Thanks!
… until there isn’t
‘Relatively’ doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
Yeah one thing I’ve observed is Americans constantly complaining that Democrats aren’t doing anything. There’s a belief that the opposition party can somehow stop a party that controls all branches of government.
They can’t. They no longer have power. Anything they do is completely performative. You’re complaining about a performance in a meaningless play while the people in power are dismantling your country and destroying people’s lives.
This is what Americans voted for. Didn’t think their vote mattered but it really did.
The Republicans had no problem stopping the show when they were the minority party in all branches.
Yeah, somehow Mitch McConnell gummed up the works at every turn.
Democrats need to figure out how to do that.
When Democrats have power they can’t do anything, when Republicans are in power everything they want done gets passed by Democrats.
Yeah Democrats are willing to make compromises to keep government working. That’s what’s supposed to happen in a democracy.
The problem is the GOP is anti-democracy. They do not make compromises to keep government working. They act like gangsters. But people keep on saying the Democrats are the problem anyway and keep on voting for the anti-democracy gangster party.
America seems to just hate democracy now. Why else would you continue to blame the pro-democracy party after the anti-democracy party got voted in? You’ve been conditioned to hate anything that resembles democracy.
Why else would you continue to blame the pro-democracy party after the anti-democracy party got voted in?
That’s my biggest gripe with Lemmy users.
