A broken country

[Casady1]

If someone had told me 50 years ago that people would not get a vaccine because of politics I would not have believed it. America as a nation has lost its way. During WW2 people did everything for the war and the nation. They put up with rationing and all sorts of sacrifices. Fast forward 80 years and America has become a nation of spoiled brats. This all started with Reagan when he promoted the individual above the good of the society and we now see it in so many ways. I am in high tech and when I see the disregard for society exhibited by some in high tech and I shake my head. We have a fundamental misunderstanding of freedom in this country. Few have ever studied this concept in college. Typically, it is a part of political science.
One party is pandering to the least educated. Our political system is showing its age. It does not represent the majority at all anymore and we are being governed by the minority. No society will continue to function when the least educated governs. It can be a blend of all the people but one segment governing is a disaster. The ideas of the future does not come from rural America. It comes from the most educated.
This is our most perilous time since the civil war.

[Walleye]

1. Cruelty and selfishness have been elevated to virtues. Kindness and empathy are now vices

This has been the basic shift that has been happening and just accelerated in the last five years. It has such a strong momentum, I don’t know how we turn it around

[NewHendoLib]

2. Yes. It is utterly disgusting to behold.

[PXR-5]

3. So true,

and yes I also believe it all started with Reagan.

And if I may quote TFG; "I love the uneducated"

[anti stupid]

4. so true

And as you mentioned....There is a segment of well-educated and mostly wealthy people who, motivated by greed and lust for more power, use their wealth and influence to manipulate the poor and uneducated. It's easy to lie, and take advantage of existing biases when the people you are targeting are profoundly ignorant.

[Irish_Dem]

5. I think about the heroism in WWII. Today people are not brave enough to get a shot.

Or wear a mask.

Yes Americans have become spoiled, immature, ignorant.
In a national emergency, America is a big fail.

[jimfields33]

11. The country is double the size and very varied in everything.

The comparison is very hard to do.

[Irish_Dem]

12. For people who had relatives fight and die in WWII, it is an easy comparison.

My uncle was killed in combat in WWII and my father was career military and flew combat in three wars.
To see such bravery up close and then see cowards refuse to get vaccines, is disgusting.

[Lars39]

13. So?

[walkingman]

6. Excellent post and I so agree. For decades we have undervalued education while

at the same time pushing it from a profit motive. When I attended for the first time (68-72) it was far more rigorous than when I later went in the 90's. They actually failed people. I am not for just pushing people to go to college just to go but to actually learn to critically think. As someone that was a regional mgr for a fortune 500 company, you would be amazed at the lack of education that many entry level applicants have these days. I blame a lot of it on our K-12 system. Many enter college without the basic skills in liberal arts.

[Delmette2.0]

21. What you said is correct.

When the federal Gov't started reducing education funds to states local schools started suffering. First was building maintenance, new desks and books. Then other classroom supplies, teacher salaries, healthy lunches.

I think we can teach young children critical thinking. Just start with simple choices and ask them to tell you the good and bad for each choice before they decide. Communicate at or a little above their level. Ask them about what might happen later with their decision.

The problem is we have to teach this to some of the teachers, principals and school boards first.

[Karma13612]

7. Yes to all you have said.

As I have paid more attention to the news and politics as I’ve gotten older (67 presently), I am filling with dread and fear of the future in this country.

Everything is broken or breaking down.

When I try to comfort myself with reasoning (the police are going to protect me, you have saved a bit of money for a catastrophe), I realize the police are not always on our side. I realize that if the government doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, we default and there is a global market crash. That wipes out my pension. That wipes me out. All my defenses are gone.

I am too old to ATTEMPT a migration to another country. I don’t fancy Latin America or Southeast Asia as an alternative. My husband is British and we could go there, but he is steadfast in remaining amongst the ashes of this country as we go down in symbolic flames. And I can only imagine how hard it would be to get a permanent visa to the UK when things get worse.

[secondwind]

8. If we continue this way, there will be another Jim Jones to lead the sheep into drinking

the Kool Aid. smh

[LymphocyteLover]

9. Yes, all very true. The right has learned how to weaponize victimhood to win elections

Long twitter thread here on that

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1462415083917565959.html

[doc03]

10. I agree, but I think the Democratic party calling Republicans dumb

uneducated rubes is a big mistake. We play right in the Republicans narrative that Democrats think they
are better than them. Sure Republicans pander to the uneducated but I know highly educated people that
vote Republican and still have their Trump flags out. Don't understand it but they do. The educated elite are the
enemy, look how they have demonized Dr. Fauchi the medical scientists, climate scientists and educators.
What is our enemy? the uneducated? Their supporters.

[plimsoll]

14. While the US did sacrifice during WWII,

We should not forget that sacrifice was only possible after we were attacked. In retrospect how much was pulling together and how much was lashing out in anger?

We give Reagan too much credit for undermining society. This was a strong thread in Libertarian thinking long before Reagan came to power. Reagan was the smiling face that normalized depravity, but not the genesis of depravity.

In many respects Libertarianism is identical to Anarchism, neither cares for the well being of others. As far as I can tell the black block folks will become libertarians when they get their pile. It is the self above all else that has ruled the GOP since 1973, and much like Dr. Frankenstein the creators of the Monster want to deny their creation and their involvement.

[uponit7771]

24. +1, before PH America was 1000% in the "stay neutral" camp because of conservatives

[Old Crank]

15. One thing

The people in charge are highly educated and are using the system to hold back teh education of the masses. Most every one of these populists are IVY leaguers. Yet they complain to their voters about the elites. They devalue education for any one but themselves.

Until people wake up the country is in big trouble.

[Rebl2]

18. This is so

true. One in particular is Josh Hawley. He complains about the elites, yet he went to a private Catholic high school and Ivy League college. Republicans hypocrisy is at all time high.

[Mr. Steve]

16. Sad, but true

There is a huge amount of volume paid to the idea of rights, but virtually not a peep seems to go to the concept of responsibilities.

[Lonestarblue]

17. We are a nation founded in violence.

We think of the Pilgrims as God-fearing people who just wanted religious freedom. Yet they used their religious freedom as a tool of oppression, using the hysterics of a teenager to murder 20 people while 5 others died in custody. Andrew Jackson uprooted the Cherokee and sent them on a death march so that white people could take their land. It was the US Army that cleared the way for land grabs in the Oklahoma territory and the genocide of Native Americans.

We had a hundred years or so of relative peace at home, but we have come to full circle where much of the populace uses greed and violence to get what they want no matter how many people die. We are awash in guns, along with the hatred of others that makes them more likely to be used to kill fellow citizens. I do not see a solution but only a situation that will get worse until some heinous act shocks people into realizing that the country is being destroyed from within.

[traitorsgalore]

19. Roughly 800 GOPlague covidiots are dying every day

The Reagan revolution is now a death cult, reaching its zenith as the party of pure greed, selfishness and stupidity. It's almost imperceptible but their deaths are having an effect on the GOPlague's ability to exist as a political party.

The last death gurgles of the GOPlague will be in 2022 when they try to install their puppet leaders in states with rigged election boards. I don't think most Americans will just stand by and watch, it'll outrage the nation. Sadly, it'll have to get to that point before anything changes in the political realm.

Until then, Americans will have fun reading sites like sorryantivaxxer and watching late night TV make fun of the crackpots.

[Javaman]

20. democracy is killed via death by a thousand cuts.

and the right wing knows this.

they have been hammering at the system every since FDR introduced the New Deal.

they plotted to overthrow him, but thankfully Gen. Butler wanted no part of it and revealed what they were up to.

but that was the kickoff.

what Jan 6th was, was the culmination of almost 90 years of planning by the right wing. Nudging the ball forward in little bits, taking down democracy in small increments.

and here we are.

people plod along as if everything is just "business as usual" never truly realizing just how much we all have lost.

[BlueJac]

22. K&R x 1000

[uponit7771]

23. lack of leadership, we're good people ... Putin's Whore started the whole vaccine political issue

... and people who don't know any better followed him and the rest are a basket of deplorables who exploit them

[LuckyCharms]

25. What bothers me is these people calling themselves "patriots".

When in fact, they would not recognize true patriotism if it pissed on their shoe.

People who love the flag, yet they desecrate it by flying an all black version of it.

They fly flags with a person's name on it proudly, and equate that to patriotism.

They say "me" and "I" a lot, instead of "us" and "we".

All of these things are most extreme examples of total disrespect for people that they insist they admire...our veterans.

They *say* they cherish our flag, but in fact, they do not cherish what it represents.

Our flag represents many many things, including the absolute right of a football player to peacefully take a knee in protest, yet they disrespect that protester instead of backing him.

They can't walk the walk. They call themselves patriots and warriors, yet many never actually served their country.

They are children playing a game. Cowboys and Indians. Shoot 'em up. Let's play war.

They do not understand the concept of a society.

Empathy is a foreign concept to them.

They are human trash who lost at life.

[Mysterian]

26. Fundamental flaws in our political system need fixed:

1. Eliminate the electoral college.
2. The number of senators for a state based on population.

These two items have allowed the right-wing to gain a disproportionate amount of power.