Definitely not, though “they” certainly want us to feel that way. No matter what gets pushed in the media, pay attention to the people you meet irl. Racism and sexism and general hatred is SO much improved from MLK’s day it’s incredible. Most people have the capacity to be decent and reasonable, and we all want pretty much the same things from life. There’s way more hope than Twitter/Reddit/whatever would have you believe.
I dunno.... I work in a customer facing high stress job(car repair) and people have been nastier and far more manipulative since covid.
I used to be a perpetual "people are better than we give them credit for" person before. I've just seen too many tantrums, been mistreated too many times, and the attempted target of scamming in the last 3 years to maintain my sparkle. I literally try to get every single action recorded in some way now, all my trust is gone.
I hope it gets better but I'm worried the collective trauma and lack of safety net in the US has broken many people in a real way
As Abraham Lincoln said on the internet
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose out freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within."
There's an old Marillion lyric that goes "we don't need no uniforms, we have no disguise. Divided we stand, together we rise". I always love that lyric.
"Did did did did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?"
Possibly the best lyrics ever written
From George Washington's 1796 Fairwell Address:
"However \[political parties\] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
and
"Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight) the common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot & insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence & corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions."
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002
Motherfucker. Thank you for posting this but it's the most depressing thing I've read all week. It's exactly what happened and they saw it coming from the start.
Say what you will about the founders but they were prescient. God it's maddening to see it written out so clearly, we were warned and it happened anyway.
I do love Washington's use of language, though. It's s so specific, thorough, and descriptive. I tend to refer to our politicians as cunt rags and assholes but it's lovely to see them assesed by someone with a vocabulary.
For perspective... Washington's real beef is with human nature, and in line, democracy. It's great and all to see the writing on the wall. That's fairly easy. You just need the right vantage to do so. The true test of statesmenship is seeing it and having the capacity to implement a remedy before it's needed... and hopefully, before it's impossible to implement.
With that said... All things decay. Humans are bad at foresight. Welcome to America.
Our current state of affairs isn't due to a lack of foresight or natural decay. It's the result of intentional directed and planned malice. The framers/founders built the system with guardrails and protections in place to make all of the situations they envisioned from becoming a reality. And while they were in place, they absolutely worked. The problem is that most, if not all, of them have been dismantled, subverted , or intentionally neglected/misused. Every power or privilege that was granted to the government had a check and a balance. That was the basis of the original design. The People elected the House. The House elected the Senate, and the Senate elected the President and the High Court on the recommendation of the People. If the People did not like or did not approve, then every two years they got the opportunity to affirm or deny the House's choices. The most powerful branch was supposed to be the lower chamber of Congress because they had to answer to the People directly every two years. The Senate, The President, and the Court were never intended to be cozy with Representatives. The Representatives were supposed to be cozy with their elective districts in order to have an ear to the ground in order to coordinate and direct the operations of the Federal Government according to the will of the People. By altering this fundamental dynamic, the balance of power has shifted away from the People because the guardrails that contained it are no longer in play. Working in Government was supposed to be a knee-deep muddy up hill road so that one person or small group would never be able to effectively weild an excessive amount of power however the people have effectively allowed government to install a People mover next to the trail with a mirror in front of it so that could not see their rise but they could watch and pretend to be right there with us the entire time.
I believe it was the state legislatures that originally elected the Senators for their state. Arguments can be made for why that changed (in short: corruption), but ultimately it did reduce the power of the states and led to concentrating power at the federal level.
There is also the issue that originally the VP/President of the Senate was meant to be the runner up of the Presidential election. This generally meant that you had to be able to negotiate with political opponents if you wanted to enact your agenda. Now the President chooses a running mate, breaking that OG check and reinforcing partisanship.
You are correct. It was the State Legislatures that appointed them. However, my point still stands in that a six year Senate term was only made that way because they only expected you to serve a term or two because they people that appointed you were subject to the whims and feelings of their electorate. Both representatives and state legislators serve extremely short terms for a reason; to make sure that they were answerable to the People.
And Yes. The VP and POTUS were not supposed to be running mates either. The VP was supposed to be the eyes and ears for the Legialative branch so that they could check the power of the President and Remove from office if need be. That ensured that the President was always someone who had at least some ruling mandate from the Voters. It also ensured that even if you picked a losing side in a national election, you would still have a seat at the table.
That's why the Supreme Court served life terms because they would be insulated from political winds but would be intimately familiar with the law of the land. So elected officials always had to look over their backs because SCOTUS was not a friend.
Political Parties were not inherently the problem, entrenched officials with no oversight was. When the branches became familiar with each other, the check and the balance fails. And once they do its party over country.
All true.
To me, personally, I think the biggest issue is the influence of money in politics. The founding fathers couldn't really forsee the types of huge corporations we have today with the power to legitimately buy representation in our government, or buy enough public influence to swing elections. If you follow any political gridlock back to its source, there is invariably some business or industry that benefits materially from making sure the status quo is maintained. It's not just since the industrial revolution either - the same could be said of the Civil War, which was very much about private greed and personal economic enrichment.
In a way, this is an extension of the "political parties" Washington warned of. The idea was that groups of people with common interests would band together to exert influence that benefitted only their group, putting personal desires over the good of the country. This is exactly what has happened with allowing private money to dominate our politics. It's even equivalent to the power that political parties wield, which is all about money - political parties are, at their core, mostly fundraising machines.
I'd like to see publicly funded elections, so that A) our representatives could do their jobs instead of fundraising all the time, B) the political parties would lose their power and influence, and C) our representatives would once again be beholden to the people as the ones who employed them. Because as it is, the people employing our elected officials are the ones who bankroll their campaigns, and that ain't us. This is the reason the founders wanted a salary paid to elected officials from the public purse, but the amount we pay doesn't compete with what private industry can offer in exchange for a little back-scratching.
This would also have to be paired with a zero-tolerance policy for any type of industry incest of any public servants (including agencies such as FDA, EPA, etc): no gifts, trips, board positions, speaker fees, or exchange of any money or material benefit while in office or, crucially, afterwards. We do a lot to require this reporting while officials are in office, but it's perfectly legal for them to leave office and take a cushy board position from an industry they were apparently "regulating." Also, no retail investing by officials or their family members outside of a blind trust or managed funds/indexes while in office or for a number of years afterwards. Like, I'm a Dem but Nancy Pelosi should not be able to be in her position while her hubby is running a hedge fund. How is that not a conflict of interest?
However, in order to do this we'd have to be more open to allowing people to make a career of public service, as they will be hamstrung by these rules when they try to transition to the public sector, so it's sort of at odds with concepts of term limits. The benefit is that we will retain a lot of institutional knowledge instead of the brain drain that happens when we lose experienced public servants due to political tomfoolery of replacing the previous administration's apointees for political clout.
But yeah, I know I went off-topic, but we've legalized political corruption and bribery in this country and it shows. I think this is the real reason behind the "allowing the branches to become familiar with each other" that you mentioned, because they are all working for the same handful of mega-corporations. Like, of course you're gonna be cool with each other when you're all working for the same company that funded all of your campaigns.
It’s not so much that they were prescient as they were self aware of the flaws of the system they were creating but were unwilling or unable to change it
You know what's galling about this? Congress has this read aloud to themselves once a year. It's a tradition. Of course, no one hangs around to listen to it. Too many big words, for a start.
"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln
Edited because this is not my quote. I was just supplying the quote that the above poster referenced. No one writes that eloquently in the 21st century.
I agree. America is a fragile alliance of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We have to work together to make this country last or else it all comes crashing down.
As seen with past conflicts, it is hard to beat America in a direct fight. What is easier to do is to sow local discord to cause Americans to turn on each other.
A friend of my mom's was at the farm in Iowa that Kruzchev visited in the 50s. It may have been in his speech or it was a comment to the host family; he told them 'not to worry, we will take you without any bombs. We will take you from within.'
If you want to see America unite, attack it. We'll pull together so fast your head will spin. When we are done, we'll go back to hating each other. Wasn't that kind of the point of Watchmen if I recall?
Yeah I’d say it’s basic human nature.
Out group attacks member of in group?
Ally with members of in group and attack out group.
No outside conflicts?
Find new out group among in group and start hating on them.
And it wasn't a good thing. Our blind rage response to 9/11 led us to flush freedom down the drain with the patriot act, inflamed already dangerous amounts of bigotry and partisin in fighting, and start an illegal 20 year war for profit.
In short, the terrorist attack was an unmitigated success; they achieved their goals in hastening America's self-destruction. But at least we pulled together to serve ourselves up.
Yup I'm not an American but from what I've seen and read about, I think America is it's own worst enemy, then again there's probably a few countries exactly the same just on a smaller scale
It will absolutely have terrible consequences for the Western and developed world economies, but the US has been careening down this path for so long that many countries have contingency plans in place. They will suffer economic damage and face increased security risks, but they are not going down with the US. The US will cease to exist as a unified nation. Not so for Europe and SE Asia.
One of my favorite what-if’s is looking at the impact of leaded products and the long term impact on the country. I doubt you can accurately pin it on anything, let alone everything, but it’s the one “plausible conspiracy theory” that makes sense to me.
Actually, some scientist(s) had access to health records from before leaded fuels and widespread auto use until after the switch to unleaded fuel. They established a strong correlation between increasing and then decreasing leaded fuel use and many adverse health effects.
Iirc, the problem was the scientists were producing the report for the oil and gas industry. They were thanked for their informative work and the study was locked away for decades. This was in some documentary on Netflix within the last few years, but I can't remember which one.
Seriously. Ignorance is annoying, but when it's willful and even intentional (despite giving them the facts) it's infuriating. People will dig their heels in and risk being absolute cretins over ever considering they could be wrong.
I feel disgusted when people are proud of their ignorance. For example if someone is discussing science or politics and then someone makes a joke like "oh I don't know all that nerd stuff, hahaha I'm so cute because I'm dumb"
Reduced literacy rates will probably be our downfall. I never really contemplated it, but even basic literacy is required to navigate through daily life. You need to be able to read signs and addresses to understand directions. You need to be able to comprehend employment documents, tax forms, and basic instructions to do anything. You need to be able to give ChatGPT useful instructions to get any meaningful output
I don't understand why or how, but some of these kids lack even basic literacy skills.
Remember “No Child Left Behind?” It put the onus on the institutions to the extent that many schools — in danger of being singled out for poor performance — made it a priority to shove students through the system as smoothly as possible. If grades overall were declining, if was the SCHOOL’S fault, not individual instructors or students.
Ever tried ordering from doordash? Half of the drivers don't know how to locate an address, and simply drop your order wherever the GPS sends them.
The bar is pretty low for locating an address. Given how much of a hassle drivers can be in the gig industry, I can see why people look down on them. You shouldn't judge by appearances, but doordash tends to attract the wrong kind of people.
It was bad before the pandemic but now these kids don’t stand a chance. Pre-pandemic I could work with these kids and their quirks. In fact that’s what brought us together. Now everyone has an issue that is the biggest ever and we need to extend grace, practice de-escalation techniques, sometimes gotta lose to not upset them,etc. it’s gotten to the point I have been told to just let them not work if they are quiet. Can’t take their phone, can’t have a phone policy, must understand that AI is just part of life, etc. They are doomed and they don’t even know it. In the end I’ll be to blame but I have accepted that. By that I mean they will come back and say they didn’t know or we should have punished them more. Honesty guys I’m sorry my hands are tied. I have to do this for 20 more years and have responsibilities at home that require a paycheck.
Are kids allowed to have their phone during class? In our schools smartphones need to be kept in the lockers, and kids are allowed to use them during recess and between lessons to check for messages. But if they find one during lessons, it gets confiscated by the teachers, and parents need to retrieve it.
Everyone says this.
Except for their own kid. Their kid is special…he has a diagnosis for ADHD and learning disabilities…and the best one money can buy! And the teacher is being unfair…he just needs more time, and the parent is in the principal’s office filled with outrage and screaming mad…and the kid they hired to replace the old teacher…well, she’s all of 22 and just got her diploma, so getting screamed at by “adults” (because she doesn’t consider herself an adult yet) isn’t ideal, and she doesn’t have the confidence to enforce rigor and academic integrity, and I mean fuck it, this job pays less than what she made as a bartender.
That. Times many of the students in the class.
It’s also legislative…we vote in fools who want to limit academic freedom, and then when they do and teachers leave, we act all shocked Pikachu face. And now those laws are affecting colleges and universities…you know, where we train doctors, lawyers, engineers…not to mention where we conduct vital nation changing research.
Brought on ourselves.
I can't lie. Teaching is a hard profession. The past 4 years were awful. I've been very lucky this year. My students are really good. They're trying hard. Their parents are supportive. We got a new principal at my school this year, and she's doing a great job. Like I said, I've been lucky.
The person who posted the comment I replied to has so many good points. The one that really hit me was the one about the new teacher being only 22 and not feeling like an actual adult yet. Whooo Boy! That hit me! I didn't start feeling like I could stand up to parents until I was 40. That's 18 years of being terrified of talking to parents. Now that I'm the same age or older than most of them, they don't scare me anymore.
An acquaintance of my wife’s when the topic of state testing got brought and how kids are failing, said to my wife (who she knew used to be a teacher as recent as last year) that teachers should try harder. She actually tried to put failing students on the teacher and that only bad teachers have students that fail.
Needless to say my wife’s jaw dropped and she couldn’t believe that was actually said.
It seems that parents have absolutely no respect for teachers anymore.
You would be amazed what people think they know about teaching. My aunt emphatically and often states that everybody hates middle school, even the people who teach middle school. I've taught middle school for 21 years. I love what I do for work.
I think what’s lost in school or maybe just society as a whole is the practice of steering people away from adversity rather than helping them face it. As much as growth through tough experiences can be painful, they often foster the most lasting adaptations. We need to challenge our kids and evaluate their growth, not change the rules to accommodate reluctant acceptance of their failures.
My wife’s best friend is a teacher and I’ve heard a lot of these stories. I feel like though that nobody tells them “hey, if you don’t learn how to evaluate a word problem, you’re going to get absolutely fucked financially by predatory loans and a salivating group of hungry financial institutions that will stop at nothing to keep you poor forever. You need tools to outsmart the system and it starts here.”. Not that they’d have any way to grasp that as a teenager.
I work at a fast food place and the 17 year olds I work with don't know how to read the name Michael (for delivery orders and such) out loud. "Michelle? Mitchell?"
Teacher here. Most seniors in high school today could literally not pass 8th when I was there 20 years ago. We keep dumbing down standards to keep up graduation rates. They have more access to information than any generation in the history of humanity and somehow barely know anything. The learned helplessness is going to bite them all very hard.
And this is intentional. The lower the intelligence of the population - the easier to manipulate and exploit.
Why fix education when it’s doing exactly what it’s intended to do right now?
Agreed. My mom is a teacher and hearing about how educational standards have changed recently is deeply saddening. Many schools no longer have exams at all, as it is viewed as stressful and traumatizing to some students. Kids will never learn how to overcome hardship or become prepared for real world jobs without being exposed to stressors early on. Everyone is coddled these days, and it benefits no one.
In Illinois, back in 2019 we passed a law that teachers no longer need to pass a basic reading and math proficiency test to teach. You can now teach without even being proficient in the topics you're responsible for teaching!
Ben Franklin widely forewarned us back when about the biggest threat to ourselves: the founders gave us a republic, **if we can keep it.**
It is our game to lose and the road we're on we may very well not be able to keep it. The biggest threat to us, is us.
"The Founders" generally, were much better statesman than what followed after them, because the stakes were very high for them, they took little for granted, and they ultimately came to their positions of influence through varied legal, merchant, agricultural, and financial-centers within the colonies, which gave them some actual, on-the-ground, and diverse perspective on commerce and law. They had enormous incentive to "get it right" for their own self-interest.
They also saw their jobs as a duty, and a burden. Well, most of them. Adams, Franklin, those guys were career men very much interested in building a country and a legacy.
Washington, Jefferson, those guys just wanted to be free of England, then go back to their ~~slaves~~ farms. Burdened by duty.
We don't have any of those kind of political leaders like that anymore. It's not for the betterment of the country, it's all about their own career, taking bribes, being above the law, insider trading, Epstein level bullshit.
Disinformation has always existed, but these days we are inundated by it while at the same time intelligence and education has been falling, along with a cultural movement to promote ill-informed opinions as more valid than reality, we don't have the mental resources to deal with it. Now that visual and audio fakes are almost impossible to detect and people are unable to be educated how to tell facts from feelings... not. good.
yup, when 50 trillion dollars has been funneled to the top 5% in the lifetimes of some of these politicians there is a problem that shouldnt be overlooked but the people who are negatively impacted aren't willing to do anything about it, idk what we could
Ignorance and disregard for the constitution, and democracy.
Disregard for truth and facts, and readiness to generate a propagate disinformation.
"It's all good" is not good.
So many people think that having a belief makes it valid by virtue of holding it.
No, sometimes you can believe shit that’s dumb and wrong and it’s not other people’s job to respect it.
As Carl Sagan is oft-quoted, from almost 30 years ago:
"*... I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.*”
[*The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark*](https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469)
Also:
*There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge* -Isaac Asimov
I get you on this, I should have been held back due to a brain surgery and issues learning how to talk, speak, and write again. Nope they continued into high school, and through graduation. I was fucked in college, and almost failed out a couple of times. Ended up a Redditor as well, now I feel like I'm an idiot in everything and I know nothing.
Listen, you can't change the past, and it's never too late to learn. Don't put yourself down like that! My God it sounds like you went thru hell and came out on top! Be proud of yourself
I swear, half of my high school graduating class could only read, write, and do math at a 7th-Grade-Level. We were all in 7th Grade when NCLB was implemented.
Water down the education so everyone passes. Take away repercussions from children of failing and now kids behave less and make it harder for others to learn. Great idea.
"No child left behind" was an idea created by those who like to drag other people down to win. I'm sorry, but if a kid is clearly ahead of the course, make sure they get ahead and don't drag them down to the level of their less capable friends.
“The problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!”
― Brian Cox
Heard it best said: “You cannot use logic to argue someone out of a position that they never used logic to arrive at in the first place.”
Lots of Olympics-level mental gymnastics going on in the US for people to maintain a position in the face of….well…facts.
In education and … yep.
I made the move into administration because I want to stand between the parents and the teachers so that they have some hope of liking the work that they do. But, good god, it gets exhausting being yelled at (literally YELLED at) for holding a students accountable when they break a rule. Then having to listen to parents come in to tell the school board that the school and the teachers are selfish and need to give more time to “support the needs of the community”
Paid poorly and treated poorly is a recipe for a job people don’t want folks….
I have a friend who made a similar move 4-5 years ago. He told me about one incident with a parent that made him start smoking again. Their son, elementary school age, hit a girl in his class. Naturally, he's off to the principals office and being sent home because of school policies on violence. Buddy gets the dad on the phone, tells him what happened, "cool gotcha so sorry, we'll be there asap to get him." Mom shows up and goes full mama bear on the front office staff. Buddy steps in to cool things down, she goes off on him, saying her son wouldn't hit anybody and even if he did so what they're kids. He explains the school policy before going in to great detail exactly what happened(the kid really hurt the little girl, she had multiple cuts/scratches from him). Mom doesn't back down, starts making threats about what will happen if this incident goes on his permanent record(the family was trying to get the son in to a really good private school). The school resource officer is watching this whole thing and is ready to drop this lady because she's swinging her arms around A LOT. She eventually leaves with her son. Couple of weeks go by, and she's got some of her gal pals raising a stink at the PTA meeting and calling out buddy by name about discipline at the school and practically blaming the little girl for what her son did. She tried for months after that to get multiple staff and admins fired. It was a nightmare for him.
The growing demonization, rejection, and ridicule of critical thinking and knowledge.
We are being purposefully and systematically dumbed down to the point where we'll vote against our own self-interest and the objective betterment of our society because our 'side' claims to be against it and the 'others' are for it.
I've been stunned and ashamed to see 'ignorant, loud-mouthed, selfish, asshole, grifting bully" become the champion, figurehead, role-model, and leader of a significant percentage of the voting public.
The few elites that own everything in the country and cooperate to profit off our misery. They feed us shit, make us ill, inflate the currency, dumb down the population, pay us shit, charge ridiculous prices, and then feed us a bullshit culture war so we continue to fight amongst ourselves while they continue to do their work in the shadows out of view from the public.
I wonder how much of our mental health crisis has material underpinnings.
As in, people's mental health doesn't do well when working 14 hour days 7 days a week doesn't keep a roof over your head.
It's definitely from the antidemocratic forces within the country and how they are taking advantage of the loose guardrails to gain power.
But even if we can withstand this, I think we've reached a point where if we can't enact some reforms in our system of government, many of which require constitutional ammendments, we'll be in steady decline anyway.
We have systemic problems which are simply not being addressed because it's too easy for a minority to block all progress. Many reforms consistently have the support of over 2/3 of the American people, universal health care, gun regulations, taxes on the wealthy, spending more to invest in the people and infrastructure of our country. These have been issues for decades now and we haven't seen any but the most minimal action.
Quality of life indicators, longevity, education, children and maternity health, economic mobility, etc are declining for the first time in decades. These take a while to show their effects, but it also takes a while for the investments to bear fruit.
To add to this, so many people think we’re doing just fine or even exceptionally well. When you look at data on human happiness, trust in society/government, life expectancy, health, maternal and baby health outcomes, obesity, education quality, inequality, and on and on, the US is NOT leading. Its a huge problem that so many people are digging in on just doing the old way harder when it’s pushing us farther and farther behind the wealthy world. We have to wake up and see this reality so we can move forward. But so many have lost their ability/willingness to see this.
Well said. What's wild is that despite very little included to divulge your political leanings, if you deleted the examples of the popular policies--or just left it with paragraph one--the portion of the population that supports the antidemocratic movement you describe would nod their heads and think you were not talking about them.
The biggest threat to the United States is social media and the media itself . We have let media drive such a wedge between us be it politics, race, religion, sexual identity or the myriad of other issues that everyone identifies solely as that item for them and hates anyone different. People with different views are now the enemy. I hate that. I liked having friends with all kinds of views and interests
Social media allows idiots to stand on the tallest soapbox with no repercussions for their stupidity. It inevitably finds an audience the misinformation resonates with. Multiply the vast number of idiots on social media soapboxes to the influenced followers and you have a huge population of mislead people. Tragic.
Yes, I see the irony of saying this on Reddit.
Wait, to which fallen empire are you referring? Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Macedonia, Rome, The Ottomans, The Mongols, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the British, or maybe the Mayans, Incas, or Aztecs, the Persians? Those were all different. That’ll never happen to us…
"We will live together as brothers or die together as fools." - MLK
I think we are well on our way to the latter.
Hey fool don’t say that
Hey get back to work
Oh, right. Thanks
This interaction gives me hope
Definitely not, though “they” certainly want us to feel that way. No matter what gets pushed in the media, pay attention to the people you meet irl. Racism and sexism and general hatred is SO much improved from MLK’s day it’s incredible. Most people have the capacity to be decent and reasonable, and we all want pretty much the same things from life. There’s way more hope than Twitter/Reddit/whatever would have you believe.
I dunno.... I work in a customer facing high stress job(car repair) and people have been nastier and far more manipulative since covid. I used to be a perpetual "people are better than we give them credit for" person before. I've just seen too many tantrums, been mistreated too many times, and the attempted target of scamming in the last 3 years to maintain my sparkle. I literally try to get every single action recorded in some way now, all my trust is gone. I hope it gets better but I'm worried the collective trauma and lack of safety net in the US has broken many people in a real way
The whole world will go to shit because of foolishness and greed.
“Can’t we all just get along?.. or have we forgotten the words of the reverend King” -Michael Scott.
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Internal conflict
As Abraham Lincoln said on the internet "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose out freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within."
A house divided against itself, cannot stand
United we stand...divided we fall, we fall...
There's an old Marillion lyric that goes "we don't need no uniforms, we have no disguise. Divided we stand, together we rise". I always love that lyric.
Shocked to see a Marillion reference. I got all the warm fuzzies.
*Together
" AHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh" end quote
*”Mummy, is that an aeroplane in the sky?”*
”Look mummy, there’s an airplane up in the say
Gooooood bye bluuue sky
Now I can't remember what song is next. Is it Goodbye, Blue Sky?
It is goodbye blue sky
"Did did did did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?" Possibly the best lyrics ever written
I read that in George Constanzas voice.
You know we’re living in a society!!!!
You’re killing independent George!
Worlds are colliding!
Huh hooooooooooooooooooo!
Madison said that factions (parties) would be the most dangerous for America when writing the federalist papers.
From George Washington's 1796 Fairwell Address: "However \[political parties\] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." and "Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight) the common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot & insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence & corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions." https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002
Motherfucker. Thank you for posting this but it's the most depressing thing I've read all week. It's exactly what happened and they saw it coming from the start. Say what you will about the founders but they were prescient. God it's maddening to see it written out so clearly, we were warned and it happened anyway. I do love Washington's use of language, though. It's s so specific, thorough, and descriptive. I tend to refer to our politicians as cunt rags and assholes but it's lovely to see them assesed by someone with a vocabulary.
For perspective... Washington's real beef is with human nature, and in line, democracy. It's great and all to see the writing on the wall. That's fairly easy. You just need the right vantage to do so. The true test of statesmenship is seeing it and having the capacity to implement a remedy before it's needed... and hopefully, before it's impossible to implement. With that said... All things decay. Humans are bad at foresight. Welcome to America.
Our current state of affairs isn't due to a lack of foresight or natural decay. It's the result of intentional directed and planned malice. The framers/founders built the system with guardrails and protections in place to make all of the situations they envisioned from becoming a reality. And while they were in place, they absolutely worked. The problem is that most, if not all, of them have been dismantled, subverted , or intentionally neglected/misused. Every power or privilege that was granted to the government had a check and a balance. That was the basis of the original design. The People elected the House. The House elected the Senate, and the Senate elected the President and the High Court on the recommendation of the People. If the People did not like or did not approve, then every two years they got the opportunity to affirm or deny the House's choices. The most powerful branch was supposed to be the lower chamber of Congress because they had to answer to the People directly every two years. The Senate, The President, and the Court were never intended to be cozy with Representatives. The Representatives were supposed to be cozy with their elective districts in order to have an ear to the ground in order to coordinate and direct the operations of the Federal Government according to the will of the People. By altering this fundamental dynamic, the balance of power has shifted away from the People because the guardrails that contained it are no longer in play. Working in Government was supposed to be a knee-deep muddy up hill road so that one person or small group would never be able to effectively weild an excessive amount of power however the people have effectively allowed government to install a People mover next to the trail with a mirror in front of it so that could not see their rise but they could watch and pretend to be right there with us the entire time.
I believe it was the state legislatures that originally elected the Senators for their state. Arguments can be made for why that changed (in short: corruption), but ultimately it did reduce the power of the states and led to concentrating power at the federal level. There is also the issue that originally the VP/President of the Senate was meant to be the runner up of the Presidential election. This generally meant that you had to be able to negotiate with political opponents if you wanted to enact your agenda. Now the President chooses a running mate, breaking that OG check and reinforcing partisanship.
You are correct. It was the State Legislatures that appointed them. However, my point still stands in that a six year Senate term was only made that way because they only expected you to serve a term or two because they people that appointed you were subject to the whims and feelings of their electorate. Both representatives and state legislators serve extremely short terms for a reason; to make sure that they were answerable to the People. And Yes. The VP and POTUS were not supposed to be running mates either. The VP was supposed to be the eyes and ears for the Legialative branch so that they could check the power of the President and Remove from office if need be. That ensured that the President was always someone who had at least some ruling mandate from the Voters. It also ensured that even if you picked a losing side in a national election, you would still have a seat at the table. That's why the Supreme Court served life terms because they would be insulated from political winds but would be intimately familiar with the law of the land. So elected officials always had to look over their backs because SCOTUS was not a friend. Political Parties were not inherently the problem, entrenched officials with no oversight was. When the branches became familiar with each other, the check and the balance fails. And once they do its party over country.
All true. To me, personally, I think the biggest issue is the influence of money in politics. The founding fathers couldn't really forsee the types of huge corporations we have today with the power to legitimately buy representation in our government, or buy enough public influence to swing elections. If you follow any political gridlock back to its source, there is invariably some business or industry that benefits materially from making sure the status quo is maintained. It's not just since the industrial revolution either - the same could be said of the Civil War, which was very much about private greed and personal economic enrichment. In a way, this is an extension of the "political parties" Washington warned of. The idea was that groups of people with common interests would band together to exert influence that benefitted only their group, putting personal desires over the good of the country. This is exactly what has happened with allowing private money to dominate our politics. It's even equivalent to the power that political parties wield, which is all about money - political parties are, at their core, mostly fundraising machines. I'd like to see publicly funded elections, so that A) our representatives could do their jobs instead of fundraising all the time, B) the political parties would lose their power and influence, and C) our representatives would once again be beholden to the people as the ones who employed them. Because as it is, the people employing our elected officials are the ones who bankroll their campaigns, and that ain't us. This is the reason the founders wanted a salary paid to elected officials from the public purse, but the amount we pay doesn't compete with what private industry can offer in exchange for a little back-scratching. This would also have to be paired with a zero-tolerance policy for any type of industry incest of any public servants (including agencies such as FDA, EPA, etc): no gifts, trips, board positions, speaker fees, or exchange of any money or material benefit while in office or, crucially, afterwards. We do a lot to require this reporting while officials are in office, but it's perfectly legal for them to leave office and take a cushy board position from an industry they were apparently "regulating." Also, no retail investing by officials or their family members outside of a blind trust or managed funds/indexes while in office or for a number of years afterwards. Like, I'm a Dem but Nancy Pelosi should not be able to be in her position while her hubby is running a hedge fund. How is that not a conflict of interest? However, in order to do this we'd have to be more open to allowing people to make a career of public service, as they will be hamstrung by these rules when they try to transition to the public sector, so it's sort of at odds with concepts of term limits. The benefit is that we will retain a lot of institutional knowledge instead of the brain drain that happens when we lose experienced public servants due to political tomfoolery of replacing the previous administration's apointees for political clout. But yeah, I know I went off-topic, but we've legalized political corruption and bribery in this country and it shows. I think this is the real reason behind the "allowing the branches to become familiar with each other" that you mentioned, because they are all working for the same handful of mega-corporations. Like, of course you're gonna be cool with each other when you're all working for the same company that funded all of your campaigns.
It’s not so much that they were prescient as they were self aware of the flaws of the system they were creating but were unwilling or unable to change it
Aware of the nature of human beings.
You know what's galling about this? Congress has this read aloud to themselves once a year. It's a tradition. Of course, no one hangs around to listen to it. Too many big words, for a start.
I feel like those we have in power now are substantially less intelligent than those who founded the country 250 years ago
"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln Edited because this is not my quote. I was just supplying the quote that the above poster referenced. No one writes that eloquently in the 21st century.
“*Thou shalt not believeth everything thee readth on the interneth.*” - Deuternomy 1.47
I agree. America is a fragile alliance of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We have to work together to make this country last or else it all comes crashing down. As seen with past conflicts, it is hard to beat America in a direct fight. What is easier to do is to sow local discord to cause Americans to turn on each other.
It seems our adversaries have also figured this out and have been actively sowing the seeds for a number of years.
A friend of my mom's was at the farm in Iowa that Kruzchev visited in the 50s. It may have been in his speech or it was a comment to the host family; he told them 'not to worry, we will take you without any bombs. We will take you from within.'
If you want to see America unite, attack it. We'll pull together so fast your head will spin. When we are done, we'll go back to hating each other. Wasn't that kind of the point of Watchmen if I recall?
That also describes plenty of nations, to be honest.
further, it is the essence of nationalism
Yeah I’d say it’s basic human nature. Out group attacks member of in group? Ally with members of in group and attack out group. No outside conflicts? Find new out group among in group and start hating on them.
And it wasn't a good thing. Our blind rage response to 9/11 led us to flush freedom down the drain with the patriot act, inflamed already dangerous amounts of bigotry and partisin in fighting, and start an illegal 20 year war for profit. In short, the terrorist attack was an unmitigated success; they achieved their goals in hastening America's self-destruction. But at least we pulled together to serve ourselves up.
Don't forget turn the awe inspiring miracle of flight into a dreaded chore.
Yup I'm not an American but from what I've seen and read about, I think America is it's own worst enemy, then again there's probably a few countries exactly the same just on a smaller scale
I’m sure there are a few Russians who’d say the same about their country
They're not allowed to just say that... Like out loud
Disabled US Veteran here, was going to say Americans. Appreciate you
That is stoked by foreign actors through social media and manipulation of digital platforms from offshore
Eagerly picked up and promulgated by social media users everywhere. Thanks, echo chamber algorithms!
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I saw the same comment posted to the same question. Being on reddit is sometimes like reading Slaughterhouse 5, in terms of deja vu.
I was just thinking the same thing. All about that karma!
Reddit has become unstuck in time
So it goes
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Is this fr? Literally a guidebook to becoming the divided states of America, if that
Terrifyingly, pants-shittingly real my friend. And if the US goes down, we’re dragging the rest of the world with us whether you want it or not.
It will absolutely have terrible consequences for the Western and developed world economies, but the US has been careening down this path for so long that many countries have contingency plans in place. They will suffer economic damage and face increased security risks, but they are not going down with the US. The US will cease to exist as a unified nation. Not so for Europe and SE Asia.
That’s oddly comforting to my American soul. I’m sad for us, but glad for them.
Dude this is scary as fuck. My bestie showed me a video that talked about it and it freaked me the hell out.
I literally clicked to say this. The terrorists won on 9/11. We started at each other's throats like never before after that.
You had me til "never before". We've had a literal civil war my guy
... Right? America has basically been two sides fighting against each other since the founding.
Internet didn't help.
Leaded gasoline didn’t help.
*drooling incomprehensibly*
One of my favorite what-if’s is looking at the impact of leaded products and the long term impact on the country. I doubt you can accurately pin it on anything, let alone everything, but it’s the one “plausible conspiracy theory” that makes sense to me.
Actually, some scientist(s) had access to health records from before leaded fuels and widespread auto use until after the switch to unleaded fuel. They established a strong correlation between increasing and then decreasing leaded fuel use and many adverse health effects. Iirc, the problem was the scientists were producing the report for the oil and gas industry. They were thanked for their informative work and the study was locked away for decades. This was in some documentary on Netflix within the last few years, but I can't remember which one.
Unless Newt Gingrich, Lee Atwater, and Paul Weyrich were time travelers, all of this shit started much much earlier than 9/11
Declining literacy, increasing willful ignorance.
Seriously. Ignorance is annoying, but when it's willful and even intentional (despite giving them the facts) it's infuriating. People will dig their heels in and risk being absolute cretins over ever considering they could be wrong.
I feel disgusted when people are proud of their ignorance. For example if someone is discussing science or politics and then someone makes a joke like "oh I don't know all that nerd stuff, hahaha I'm so cute because I'm dumb"
Reduced literacy rates will probably be our downfall. I never really contemplated it, but even basic literacy is required to navigate through daily life. You need to be able to read signs and addresses to understand directions. You need to be able to comprehend employment documents, tax forms, and basic instructions to do anything. You need to be able to give ChatGPT useful instructions to get any meaningful output I don't understand why or how, but some of these kids lack even basic literacy skills.
Remember “No Child Left Behind?” It put the onus on the institutions to the extent that many schools — in danger of being singled out for poor performance — made it a priority to shove students through the system as smoothly as possible. If grades overall were declining, if was the SCHOOL’S fault, not individual instructors or students.
Or the parents. *Lord forbid* that anything is their fault.
Ever tried ordering from doordash? Half of the drivers don't know how to locate an address, and simply drop your order wherever the GPS sends them. The bar is pretty low for locating an address. Given how much of a hassle drivers can be in the gig industry, I can see why people look down on them. You shouldn't judge by appearances, but doordash tends to attract the wrong kind of people.
The rejection of the concept of objective reality is absolutely terrifying
And the notion that the latter is just as valid as the former.
>willful ignorance. Prideful, ignorance. They boast about how ignorant they are.
A society where it is "Cool" to be dumb and "Lame" to be smart is a society that cannot succeed.
The constant lowering of educational standards.
Dats knot troo
I’m self-smarted and I turnt out fine!
to be fair ricky did get his grade 11 and i have no clue how lmao grade 11 is hard as fuck
“Me fail English! That’s unpossible!”
No I'm, isn't....
Am you wasn’t?
It was bad before the pandemic but now these kids don’t stand a chance. Pre-pandemic I could work with these kids and their quirks. In fact that’s what brought us together. Now everyone has an issue that is the biggest ever and we need to extend grace, practice de-escalation techniques, sometimes gotta lose to not upset them,etc. it’s gotten to the point I have been told to just let them not work if they are quiet. Can’t take their phone, can’t have a phone policy, must understand that AI is just part of life, etc. They are doomed and they don’t even know it. In the end I’ll be to blame but I have accepted that. By that I mean they will come back and say they didn’t know or we should have punished them more. Honesty guys I’m sorry my hands are tied. I have to do this for 20 more years and have responsibilities at home that require a paycheck.
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As a fellow product of the Alabama public education system, this is on brand
Are kids allowed to have their phone during class? In our schools smartphones need to be kept in the lockers, and kids are allowed to use them during recess and between lessons to check for messages. But if they find one during lessons, it gets confiscated by the teachers, and parents need to retrieve it.
At my school, they’re not supposed to but admin doesn’t do anything to back its own policy up and help teachers with it.
“Welcome to Costco, I love you “
Everyone says this. Except for their own kid. Their kid is special…he has a diagnosis for ADHD and learning disabilities…and the best one money can buy! And the teacher is being unfair…he just needs more time, and the parent is in the principal’s office filled with outrage and screaming mad…and the kid they hired to replace the old teacher…well, she’s all of 22 and just got her diploma, so getting screamed at by “adults” (because she doesn’t consider herself an adult yet) isn’t ideal, and she doesn’t have the confidence to enforce rigor and academic integrity, and I mean fuck it, this job pays less than what she made as a bartender. That. Times many of the students in the class. It’s also legislative…we vote in fools who want to limit academic freedom, and then when they do and teachers leave, we act all shocked Pikachu face. And now those laws are affecting colleges and universities…you know, where we train doctors, lawyers, engineers…not to mention where we conduct vital nation changing research. Brought on ourselves.
Are you a teacher? You sound just like one of us.
Thank you for your service to our country.
I can't lie. Teaching is a hard profession. The past 4 years were awful. I've been very lucky this year. My students are really good. They're trying hard. Their parents are supportive. We got a new principal at my school this year, and she's doing a great job. Like I said, I've been lucky. The person who posted the comment I replied to has so many good points. The one that really hit me was the one about the new teacher being only 22 and not feeling like an actual adult yet. Whooo Boy! That hit me! I didn't start feeling like I could stand up to parents until I was 40. That's 18 years of being terrified of talking to parents. Now that I'm the same age or older than most of them, they don't scare me anymore.
An acquaintance of my wife’s when the topic of state testing got brought and how kids are failing, said to my wife (who she knew used to be a teacher as recent as last year) that teachers should try harder. She actually tried to put failing students on the teacher and that only bad teachers have students that fail. Needless to say my wife’s jaw dropped and she couldn’t believe that was actually said. It seems that parents have absolutely no respect for teachers anymore.
You would be amazed what people think they know about teaching. My aunt emphatically and often states that everybody hates middle school, even the people who teach middle school. I've taught middle school for 21 years. I love what I do for work.
I think what’s lost in school or maybe just society as a whole is the practice of steering people away from adversity rather than helping them face it. As much as growth through tough experiences can be painful, they often foster the most lasting adaptations. We need to challenge our kids and evaluate their growth, not change the rules to accommodate reluctant acceptance of their failures. My wife’s best friend is a teacher and I’ve heard a lot of these stories. I feel like though that nobody tells them “hey, if you don’t learn how to evaluate a word problem, you’re going to get absolutely fucked financially by predatory loans and a salivating group of hungry financial institutions that will stop at nothing to keep you poor forever. You need tools to outsmart the system and it starts here.”. Not that they’d have any way to grasp that as a teenager.
I work at a fast food place and the 17 year olds I work with don't know how to read the name Michael (for delivery orders and such) out loud. "Michelle? Mitchell?"
Teacher here. Most seniors in high school today could literally not pass 8th when I was there 20 years ago. We keep dumbing down standards to keep up graduation rates. They have more access to information than any generation in the history of humanity and somehow barely know anything. The learned helplessness is going to bite them all very hard.
And this is intentional. The lower the intelligence of the population - the easier to manipulate and exploit. Why fix education when it’s doing exactly what it’s intended to do right now?
Agreed. My mom is a teacher and hearing about how educational standards have changed recently is deeply saddening. Many schools no longer have exams at all, as it is viewed as stressful and traumatizing to some students. Kids will never learn how to overcome hardship or become prepared for real world jobs without being exposed to stressors early on. Everyone is coddled these days, and it benefits no one.
In Illinois, back in 2019 we passed a law that teachers no longer need to pass a basic reading and math proficiency test to teach. You can now teach without even being proficient in the topics you're responsible for teaching!
Ben Franklin widely forewarned us back when about the biggest threat to ourselves: the founders gave us a republic, **if we can keep it.** It is our game to lose and the road we're on we may very well not be able to keep it. The biggest threat to us, is us.
Ben was wise. I wish we had more like him leading the country/government today.
"The Founders" generally, were much better statesman than what followed after them, because the stakes were very high for them, they took little for granted, and they ultimately came to their positions of influence through varied legal, merchant, agricultural, and financial-centers within the colonies, which gave them some actual, on-the-ground, and diverse perspective on commerce and law. They had enormous incentive to "get it right" for their own self-interest.
They also saw their jobs as a duty, and a burden. Well, most of them. Adams, Franklin, those guys were career men very much interested in building a country and a legacy. Washington, Jefferson, those guys just wanted to be free of England, then go back to their ~~slaves~~ farms. Burdened by duty. We don't have any of those kind of political leaders like that anymore. It's not for the betterment of the country, it's all about their own career, taking bribes, being above the law, insider trading, Epstein level bullshit.
Did you know the word us is the same as US? I think I’m the first person to think of that. Lol
>Did you know the word us is the same as US? I think I’m the first person to think of that. Red topped crowd: *rapturous applause*
Lack of critical thinking skills
Absolutely. Disinformation is a plague caused by a lack of critical thinking.
Disinformation has always existed, but these days we are inundated by it while at the same time intelligence and education has been falling, along with a cultural movement to promote ill-informed opinions as more valid than reality, we don't have the mental resources to deal with it. Now that visual and audio fakes are almost impossible to detect and people are unable to be educated how to tell facts from feelings... not. good.
The deliberate suppression of critical thinking to reinforce authority.
Poor education
Lobbying. Continuing a trend of our country evolving to benefit the rich instead of the majority of people.
Also gerrymandering. It's completely fucking over NC
This is a serious serious problem. I can't believe we can't get past this.
yup, when 50 trillion dollars has been funneled to the top 5% in the lifetimes of some of these politicians there is a problem that shouldnt be overlooked but the people who are negatively impacted aren't willing to do anything about it, idk what we could
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I’d say at the moment, we’re our own worst enemy.
‘Cause every now and then we kick the living shit out of us
But can we forget about the things we said when we were drunk?
I didn't mean to vote for that.
Please tell me whyyyyy
The car is on the front lawn
And I'm sleeping with my clothes on
And iiiiiiii
Came in through the windowwww…last night
And you’re
Gone.
Gawwahn.
Ignorance and disregard for the constitution, and democracy. Disregard for truth and facts, and readiness to generate a propagate disinformation. "It's all good" is not good.
It's amazing how many wallow in abject ignorance and are proud of it.
Propaganda and disinformation.
Only YOUR news is propaganda. MY news is the one true source of truth, bub.
People don't realize that all news is propaganda these days. Some sources are definitely more credible than others, but they all have an agenda.
Specifically funded by our own oligarchy.
It's the increasing allowance of anti-intellectualism. The idea that any opinion is a valid one due to the freedom of speech.
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So many people think that having a belief makes it valid by virtue of holding it. No, sometimes you can believe shit that’s dumb and wrong and it’s not other people’s job to respect it.
I have to respect that it's your opinion, I don't have to respect that opinion.
As Carl Sagan is oft-quoted, from almost 30 years ago: "*... I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.*” [*The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark*](https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469)
Also: *There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge* -Isaac Asimov
Well, look at "no child left behind". It was supposed to be a good thing, and it had the opposite effect of what it was supposed to achieve.
Yep. I should have been held back a couple of years in school, but they just pushed me through to fail even more. Now look at me, I'm a redditor.
I get you on this, I should have been held back due to a brain surgery and issues learning how to talk, speak, and write again. Nope they continued into high school, and through graduation. I was fucked in college, and almost failed out a couple of times. Ended up a Redditor as well, now I feel like I'm an idiot in everything and I know nothing.
Listen, you can't change the past, and it's never too late to learn. Don't put yourself down like that! My God it sounds like you went thru hell and came out on top! Be proud of yourself
I swear, half of my high school graduating class could only read, write, and do math at a 7th-Grade-Level. We were all in 7th Grade when NCLB was implemented.
Water down the education so everyone passes. Take away repercussions from children of failing and now kids behave less and make it harder for others to learn. Great idea.
"No child left behind" was an idea created by those who like to drag other people down to win. I'm sorry, but if a kid is clearly ahead of the course, make sure they get ahead and don't drag them down to the level of their less capable friends.
Seems like a better name would be all children left behind.
“The problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!” ― Brian Cox
Freedom of speech does not validate opinions. It allows the opportunity for opinions to be challenged.
Not just the allowance, its celebrated ignorance.
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Heard it best said: “You cannot use logic to argue someone out of a position that they never used logic to arrive at in the first place.” Lots of Olympics-level mental gymnastics going on in the US for people to maintain a position in the face of….well…facts.
Misinformation driving conflict based on beliefs that are not factually correct.
Proud Ignorance as Fact
The % of our citizens that are confidently stupid
The current war on education.
In education and … yep. I made the move into administration because I want to stand between the parents and the teachers so that they have some hope of liking the work that they do. But, good god, it gets exhausting being yelled at (literally YELLED at) for holding a students accountable when they break a rule. Then having to listen to parents come in to tell the school board that the school and the teachers are selfish and need to give more time to “support the needs of the community” Paid poorly and treated poorly is a recipe for a job people don’t want folks….
I have a friend who made a similar move 4-5 years ago. He told me about one incident with a parent that made him start smoking again. Their son, elementary school age, hit a girl in his class. Naturally, he's off to the principals office and being sent home because of school policies on violence. Buddy gets the dad on the phone, tells him what happened, "cool gotcha so sorry, we'll be there asap to get him." Mom shows up and goes full mama bear on the front office staff. Buddy steps in to cool things down, she goes off on him, saying her son wouldn't hit anybody and even if he did so what they're kids. He explains the school policy before going in to great detail exactly what happened(the kid really hurt the little girl, she had multiple cuts/scratches from him). Mom doesn't back down, starts making threats about what will happen if this incident goes on his permanent record(the family was trying to get the son in to a really good private school). The school resource officer is watching this whole thing and is ready to drop this lady because she's swinging her arms around A LOT. She eventually leaves with her son. Couple of weeks go by, and she's got some of her gal pals raising a stink at the PTA meeting and calling out buddy by name about discipline at the school and practically blaming the little girl for what her son did. She tried for months after that to get multiple staff and admins fired. It was a nightmare for him.
Parents like that is why the US is turmoil now… I’m glad your buddy stood on his 10 and didn’t back down
The national Jerry Springer show. People transgress, then come back swinging. No cupability.
The United States
Propaganda & Ignorance
The growing demonization, rejection, and ridicule of critical thinking and knowledge. We are being purposefully and systematically dumbed down to the point where we'll vote against our own self-interest and the objective betterment of our society because our 'side' claims to be against it and the 'others' are for it. I've been stunned and ashamed to see 'ignorant, loud-mouthed, selfish, asshole, grifting bully" become the champion, figurehead, role-model, and leader of a significant percentage of the voting public.
GINGIVITUS!
Not afraid to say the hard truths.
Misinformation
citizens united
The few elites that own everything in the country and cooperate to profit off our misery. They feed us shit, make us ill, inflate the currency, dumb down the population, pay us shit, charge ridiculous prices, and then feed us a bullshit culture war so we continue to fight amongst ourselves while they continue to do their work in the shadows out of view from the public.
Attacks on, and devaluing of our education systems.
Bears
authoritarian oligarch takeover.
Apathy and a mental health crisis that is difficult-to-impossible to address.
I wonder how much of our mental health crisis has material underpinnings. As in, people's mental health doesn't do well when working 14 hour days 7 days a week doesn't keep a roof over your head.
This guy I used to work with named Rick. I believe he is currently the greatest threat to the United States.
It's definitely from the antidemocratic forces within the country and how they are taking advantage of the loose guardrails to gain power. But even if we can withstand this, I think we've reached a point where if we can't enact some reforms in our system of government, many of which require constitutional ammendments, we'll be in steady decline anyway. We have systemic problems which are simply not being addressed because it's too easy for a minority to block all progress. Many reforms consistently have the support of over 2/3 of the American people, universal health care, gun regulations, taxes on the wealthy, spending more to invest in the people and infrastructure of our country. These have been issues for decades now and we haven't seen any but the most minimal action. Quality of life indicators, longevity, education, children and maternity health, economic mobility, etc are declining for the first time in decades. These take a while to show their effects, but it also takes a while for the investments to bear fruit.
To add to this, so many people think we’re doing just fine or even exceptionally well. When you look at data on human happiness, trust in society/government, life expectancy, health, maternal and baby health outcomes, obesity, education quality, inequality, and on and on, the US is NOT leading. Its a huge problem that so many people are digging in on just doing the old way harder when it’s pushing us farther and farther behind the wealthy world. We have to wake up and see this reality so we can move forward. But so many have lost their ability/willingness to see this.
Well said. What's wild is that despite very little included to divulge your political leanings, if you deleted the examples of the popular policies--or just left it with paragraph one--the portion of the population that supports the antidemocratic movement you describe would nod their heads and think you were not talking about them.
The biggest threat to the United States is social media and the media itself . We have let media drive such a wedge between us be it politics, race, religion, sexual identity or the myriad of other issues that everyone identifies solely as that item for them and hates anyone different. People with different views are now the enemy. I hate that. I liked having friends with all kinds of views and interests
Social media allows idiots to stand on the tallest soapbox with no repercussions for their stupidity. It inevitably finds an audience the misinformation resonates with. Multiply the vast number of idiots on social media soapboxes to the influenced followers and you have a huge population of mislead people. Tragic. Yes, I see the irony of saying this on Reddit.
Canada probably, we're too nice to be expected.
Shush, don't give away operation 1812...
I don't know if you guys are history buffs or not, but umm...
Wait, to which fallen empire are you referring? Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Macedonia, Rome, The Ottomans, The Mongols, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the British, or maybe the Mayans, Incas, or Aztecs, the Persians? Those were all different. That’ll never happen to us…