This is applicable to Americans in the country and better answered if you actually live in it. The question stands - have you given up on America or do you really think there is a shred of a chance for a turnaround?
I think I have given up on America to do anything better for itself. I think the passing general election nailed the final nail in the coffin, that people who voted wrongly, wanted to worsen things in general to appease selfish personal agendas.
I think Americans in general really are set in stone about baking a cake and having it too with their interesting levels of double standards. They complain about big tech having your information, but turn around wanting you to sign a petition that asks for your information. They complain about commercials all year long, but will tune in by the millions for a Super Bowl. They complain about unfair wages, bad workplace environments and shitty bosses but didn’t make so much of a fuss during the pandemic.
There’s just too many things internally wrong with this country, that dampens what hope I ever had for it. Politicians and the “Real Owners” want to keep Americans dumb, complacent, tight and stressed to do anything. But if you give Americans a bit of leverage that could chip at those odds, they shit the fucking bed with their own incompetence.
So what gives, really? Live you life, do the best you can for yourself and those around you. Live another day but god damn fuck the majority of Americans and this country in general.
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Absolutely. Left America 15 years ago. The culture is glorified narcissism. The culture believes the earth is infinite. The culture believes they are the best in the world. The culture believes any criticism is self hatred and must be removed.
I’m not seeing much hope in the future, so yes I’ve given up. I want to leave so goddamn bad.
Yep.
Only half my life ago, but as a surly teen I didn’t yet have the vocabulary to explain why
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I’ve never taken down on them to begin with
It’s time to start working on dual power structures in your respective city.
America has been dead to me for years. It’s a crumbling empire and I have no respect for any of its leadership. I will never give up on myself or the working class, but we have far too much rabid individualism and egos to work together.
The people will weather the storm and come out the other side, albeit differently, but any semblance of government here is trash. Both parties are nothing but greed-driven parasites and everyone knows it now. The new generations aren’t fooled by the same bullshit propaganda now and the ruling class knows it. That’s why they’re ruling with an iron fist and the cops have zero accountability.
Cop cities going up everywhere; a military base on every continent; Israeli money weaving into everything; the Democrats are useless fucks; the Republicans are unmasked fascists. This country is in the final stages of late capitalism. I don’t want to live here and haven’t for years, but I persevere for family and friends here. I’ve already told my wife of a revolution ever happens, I’m probably going to be the 65-year-old man that dies in it.
The US Empire cannot be reformed from within, it needs to be completely dismantled as a state. This new state needs to place indigenous Americans at the forefront as a starter for decolonization, must be Socialist in character, and comprehensively democratic with minority protections. The current US State works entirely off of Imperialism, and maintains hundreds of overseas millitary bases to terrorize the world into bending the knee. The state is not democratic, candidates are pre-approved by the capitalist class. Megacorps rule the US, and have dominance over both parties.
This does not mean “genocide against all who live in the US.” Rather, it means that the working class of the US must overthrow the state and replace it with one run by and for the working class, in an anti-Imperialist and de-colonial manner.
There are some lovely, smart and aware people in that huge country. It’s not homogeneous. But overall? It won’t get much better without a revolution. And that’s a huge ask. It’s possible, other countries have managed despite police repression and mass illiteracy, but it’s a long journey, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the people with the awareness and the means will just try fleeing instead.
Yeah, it would take a particularly competent, wise and self-sacrificial dude/tte or team to wrangle the masses of hateful tards, kindly direct them towards thought, morality and prosociality, and make something new out of country that was baptized in the blood of innocents (and loves taking blood baths!).
Hey, please don’t use ableist slurs. It’s easy to criticize conservatives without doing so.
Fair enough, I made the adjustments. 🙏
Thank you!
Make no mistake, this is far beyond one dude/ette. You’d need a whole (non-electoral) well-organized party to educate and agitate, and earn the support of many thousands or even millions of citizens through their actions, in order to build the necessary movement.
Again, it’s been done before and under more oppressive conditions, but it’s a tough road.
Forgive my ignorance but would you be willing to list those more opressive conditions where they were successful?
Could really use some hope right now…
Russia, China, Cuba, etc. Many such cases of successful Working Class revolutions in more dire circumstances.
Maybe I give up too easily. Let’s hope God heard ya and has some plans for the few (?, am I just too negative?) Americans that can still be saved/lay the foundations for a new society. I kinda feel they’ll need Him, lol.
If everyone gave up on a place when futures there look bleak, there wouldnt be a place left in the world worth living in.
No, but the country has problems. It’s always had problems. Even with all of the economic hardship and political strife we have today, most people are safer, healthier and have better prospects today than they have had in most of US history. It’s by no means perfect and we have a lot of work to do. But, giving up and checking out has never improved anything. It also doesn’t help that we have a steady drip-drip-drip of negative information fed to us by our phones and algorithms. We are also facing one of the largest Constitutional Crises in US History, with the President pushing the boundaries of his Constitutional powers. Even if nothing breaks, we are likely to see many changes from all this. Hopefully, those changes result in better guardrails on the Presidency. And maybe even a repudiation of the Roberts Supreme Court. But, such a future is hard to see when we are in the middle of the storm.
I even have hope for the slight voting majority which put Trump back in power. It’s easy to dismiss those folks as a bunch of <insert invective terms here>. And some of them almost certainly fit those descriptions. However, there are a lot of them which are just scared and confused by the FUD sandwich being fed to them by the 24-hour news cycle, social media algorithms and politicians looking for easy votes. It’s going to be hard work to pull them back off the brink. And if you’re not up to that work, I understand. It’s hard to want to put in the effort for folks who seem so far gone. I’ve spent a lot of hours arguing with folks with whom I disagree wholeheartedly. It’s tiring and I can only take so much before I decide it’s time to move on for a while. But, I would rather keep up the argument than let the country slide into full blown autocracy.
So ya, I have hope. It’s a grim hope and one which recognizes that we could lose. But, giving up now feels premature.
I even have hope for the slight voting majority which put Trump back in power. [whole paragraph]
Many of them, probably the majority of them, have core mutual interests with us at the end of the day. We are the worker class. Once you’re able to strip away culture war crap and electoralist talking points, there’s a large amount of shared ground.
There truly are some people who are too far gone, and some other people who benefit from looting the country, but if you can find shared ground and teach instead of argue, picking battles, I’d say there’s a better shot at reaching through to some of them. In fact, to prove the point through exaggeration, if you’re a decent communicator who’s able to explain technical concepts in familiar language, you can straight-up outline Marxist economic theory to them without triggering an argument. This is more a playful example than a strong example, but it gets the point across, that you can sometimes draw out some smart insights from the rubble, because many of them are oppressed by the same system and fed up at it, they’ve simply been encouraged by that mass media towards the wrong way targets or the wrong solutions. For a personal example, I’ve seen union members complaining about legitimate grievances at work and the company’s abuse of progressive language (e.g. abusing the term “diversity” as a cover to outsource jobs to unqualified cheaper foreign labor) but unfortunately haven’t learned the tactful language to properly express their critique, so one could understandably mistake it for reactionary “them chinese took er jerbs!” rhetoric, falsely accuse them of racist values and push this person further anti-left. It’s certainly important to be aware of wolfwhistles and red flags, but it’s also important to not jump to conclusions either.
I’m going to start with one phrase of yours that galls me: “voted wrongly”. There’s no such thing. There’s votes that you or others disagree with, but no such thing as a wrong vote. And as long as you keep going with the narrative that any vote against your preference is wrong, you’re going to make more enemies in places and times when you need allies.
As far as my own hope? I don’t know. I only know that some people who were prosperous before are suffering now, and that some who were suffering are now prospering. I’m sure it will keep going like that. So I don’t know if it’s hope, but rather comfort in the knowledge that nothing ever ends. Giving up isn’t an answer I can accept, so I have to keep going and do what I can to build a future for myself and those I love.
i have given up. I mean, I had when I was a developing young adult and while I am in my mid 40’s now, it’s only embiggened my concerns. it’s taboo here on .world but I truly think the problem is the current era’s phase of capitalism’s expansion especially with the adaptation to technology in the last 50 years.
there was, truly, no time when this country was great; and I’d posit there is no time when any country is as they exist to extract and exploit.
there is no where to go.
so what I do and have done for 20 some odd years now is try to affect (effect??) change in my community. my “city” is like 14k people. I am a firefighter, first responder, and help where I can elsewhere when I see it. i vote. make my concerns known at town hall, especially against how much our PD is expanding due to “safety” horseshit. I help others vote, I mean to say help them realize they can, where to go, etc. I joke but am kind of serious too when I tell our selectmen that the reason I like supporting my small town is because we know where they live. They get the point with a chuckle and then ask for my votes.
affect (effect??)
Yeah, I think ‘affect’ is right. ‘Affect’ (verb) means ‘to change’, while an ‘effect’ (noun) is the result. Shining a light on your face will affect you by creating a blinding effect. I may be oversimplifying it but there are plenty of articles about the two often-confused words that go into more detail if you care.
i do care. thanks! always overthinking it. :)
