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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20368770
It’s easy to understand if you realize that America is essentially a corporation rather than a country, and that country is only representing its shareholders.
In case you’re confused - if you’re not rich and powerful, you’re not a shareholder. You’re an employee or a commodity or an expense, and you exist to enrich the shareholder class.
America had a moment in the 60s and 70s where real change might have been possible. Then Reagan took over in the 80s and selfishness and greed somehow became virtues.
They instilled a sense that helping others makes you dumb and gullible. Strong, smart people get theirs and fuck everyone else.
People who need help are just taking your money to buy drugs and can easily get a job and become middle class instantaneously.
Then a few decades later, the middle class disappeared, and everyone became poor and struggling. Corporate profits keep breaking records, though. Economic inequality in America has surpassed pre-Revolution France. Every billionaire is Louis XIV-level rich and indulgent.
Honestly, it's incredibly naive to think that America's issues started with Reagan. The McCarthy witch hunts against communism happened in the 1950s. They targeted education institutions, as well as people that believed in democratic socialism. It stopped a generation from coming up through college and having those values instilled. It was that generation that passed reforms like universal healthcare in other western countries. Reagan was just a product of that system, he wasn't the root cause.
It is a bit like saying "feminism was going perfectly until Phyllis Schlafly came along!" There's a point to be made in there somewhere, but it suffers from a want of depth.
We survived the Gilded Age. We can survive this, if we fight. Labor revival, revitalized progressive movement, voting reform...
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but I still hold out hope that we'll join the developed world in the coming years.
If we had an unlimited timeline I'd buy that, the problem is climate change will make all but struggle inevitable in ~75 years at the rate we're destroying it.
Famine, water wars, and billions of climate migrants will destroy any hope of an egalitarian revolution...
75 years is a very optimistic timeline. The things you mentioned are already starting to happen.
I don't want to burst your bubble, but the developed world, or rather the people in charge of it, took a good look at you guys and decided they wanted to live like kings as well.
Since then, they have steadily dismantled institution after institution while telling people that immigration is the reason their lives are getting worse. It won't be long before we lose access to good, free healthcare, safe and affordable education, and all the other qualities of life we've enjoyed for so long
Yep, get active, get involved, and volunteer. We don't have to just hope, we can be a part of making it happen
Whether that be for a union or a political campaign, they are won when we fight for them
I am not enjoying Gilded Age II: Electric Boogaloo
Just long enough for operation paperclip to have settled in and start grassrooting some real patriotism
Yep truth...one of the only candidates I ever gave serious money to. His platform was basically "Hey let's catch up to the rest of the 1st world nations shall we?"....
Uh guys, even the "giving money to politicians" thing is really fucking weird
Is this not a thing in other western countries? Serious question and would appreciate knowing more
Giving money to politicians is generally considered bribery, because it is
Germany here. We do donate to parties, but not individual politicians.
Fuck no! We thought yous just....like giving money to already rich people.
Admit it, yous are weird like that
bribery is illegal in most normal countries, not just western
America is not a real country, it is three corporations in a trench coat.
Or maybe just a pile of money kinda lookin’ like Jabba the Hut.
Looking at the US candidates from Germany, this is always how Bernie appeared to me.
The VP debate tonight had commercial breaks. Just a friendly reminder for everyone that regardless of the party, it is the almighty dollar that is in charge.
Reminder for people reporting this....putting "rule" in the title is not required.
What is fucked is many other countries with healthcare have powerful privatization lobbyists also working their asses off to privatize essential public services. The Canadian and British healthcare system has been in jeopardy for years due to that.
It’s also the same crap conservatives do with the government in general in the US. Cut budgets and make institutions dysfunctional, then say that the dysfunction indicates it should be privatized.
That’s why the Open Market Committee is the most important organ of US government. It adjusts the rules to maximise shareholder value. It’s great if you are a billionaire.
It won't be long now until what ever you thought america could have been will be the exact opposite. Watching the missiles rain down on Isreal today is a reminder that people want that for us here in the states. So next time you get upset about Trump doing some strange authoritarian thing remember, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Russia, China, Saudia Arabia etc. won't stop attacking the foundation of our democracy and the Republicans will continue to let them. Republicans want to rule the ashes.
A war in the states is a win for authoritarianism. Destabilizing this country, is empowering others.
we need a reverse McCarthyism.
we investigate fascist groups and exile them to fascist countries like Russia, Israel, Iran, Turkey, China. then we take their undesirables and put them in fascists home, jobs, etc.
it's a win for everyone except the fascists.
I'm sorry, but why exile your fascists to other countries? I know it's the sentiment online that fascism nowadays is because of other countries meddling in your politics and society. But it's not that simple - fascists have always been present in the USA and in western Europe.
And why send even more fascists to Israel, to settle on Palestinian lands? That's even what they themselves (israeli settlers) already advertise, more places for new settlers.
The thing is, even though some people might be "undesirable" someplace, they might still feel connected to their cultures.
Western folks have to deal with their own fascists and those movements.
Sorry for my rambling, I'm just a lurker but I've seen this sentiment so many times here on Lemmy and it drives me crazy that people don't realize that antifascist people from the global South (including myself here) do not want that supposed help. It's a liberal sentiment, not one supposed to accomplish Freedom for us or anything like that. It's freedom for yourselves.
No, you're right. It's far too easy to dump a problem onto someone else. America has to deal with the clear authoritarian/fascist sect it has. Sweeping it under the rug or sending it somewhere else allows it to grow.
it's not a corporation. in order to have a corporation you must first have cooperation.
we're slowly turning into a plutocratic republic.
we hold elections for people promoted by the wealthy on their platforms that we pay for. our choices haven't been our choices since at least the 1990s.
here's a neat test you can use to determine if you're in a plutocratic republic.
how many Democratic candidates are running for POTUS?
now, how many Republican candidates are running for POTUS?
!if you said one of each, believe it or not, you're in a plutocratic republic!
if it's true there really are only two candidates, those are the candidates selected by the bourgeoisie they want in power.
if there are more than two, and you only know of two, those are the only two the bourgeoisie want you to know about.!<