• AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Our greed culture is the root cause of this. You can trace the distancing of Americans back to when Ronald Reagan gave away the store to the rich and businesses went from valuing their workforces to seeing them as a disposable drain on their bottom lines. We were encouraged to applaud successful greed and condemn failure to be greedy enough.

    A house divided cannot stand. When we aligned our values with “turn the bull loose” capitalism by destroying social supports and public education, we created an entire underclass of exploited citizens, the resentment rose between the have a little and have nothings, we decided to compete against one another instead of cooperating as a society would, and now a lot of us have a zero sum mindset of “If someone else is losing, that must mean there’s more for me!”

    The happiest nations on Earth are heavily taxed because everyone in those societies understand that their society rises or falls together. That is a foreign concept in the United States, with the have everything’s having no allegiance to the society that facilitates their succes, they just want to take while giving nothing back, and with the power their wealth provides, they’re permitted to.

    https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/happiness/

    Everything will continue to decline until we reign in our greed class and stop them from dividing us with the bully pulpit of all major media that they own toxifying everything we see with social wedges to keep us divided so we don’t look up.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-americans-own-a-record-89percent-of-all-us-stocks.html

    This is not a society anymore, it’s a bunch of rugged individuals at each other’s throats with a tiny owner class using their power to maintain that hatred and division to maximize private profit because their greed is insatiable. All this suffering, because a handful of asshole families with unethical levels of wealth demand to trade humanity for ever more currency, disgusting.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      You seem to have a grasp of the root of the problems. Please contribute more to share your view. I appreciate it. I’m surprised America is 16 on the index.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate that a lot, thank you.

        I would, but as other users have pointed out to me, I can get pretty nihilistic and depressing in my commentaries and assessments, which may be counterproductive.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      My exact thought. Communities were stronger when people could feel secure in their home and livelihood, when they had enough free time to actually be a community. Finance ghouls hollowed out the industrial base of the country, neoliberal politicians (republicans and democrats both) gutted the labor movement, and fossil fuel companies and their handmaidens in the auto industry brought us a world where most people have to drive everywhere they go.

  • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Like all liberals, she misses the point - if it isn’t anti capitalist, it isn’t helping.
    Especially when it comes to discussion of alienation which is a feature of capitalism, not a bug.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Ever get tired of Capitalism being the cause of all our problems? I do. I was discussing Capitalist Realism yesterday and was overwhelmed by the magnitude of its pervasiveness.

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It really is at the heart of pretty much every problem that we face today, and one of the things it does best, as you mention capitalist realism, is convince us that it is not only the only way, but that it is the predictable result of “human nature”. It really becomes more perverse, and more enraging, the more you look.

      • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Not exactly tired of it, but I know what you mean. It’s so blinking obvious how it poisons everything. What I’m tired of is trying to figure out how to win over the politically naive to this understanding.

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I’ve determined that it is impossible until they are affected personally by it. The population is not educated to interpret its effects. This is the impetus to political polarization. Stay strong and informed. When the time comes to direct solutions, you will be needed.

      • Loom In Essence@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We need a balance of capitalism, socialism, and democracy. We are unbalanced toward capitalism. We just need to tip the scale, not overthrow capitalism.

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          A for profit economy cannot coexist with the planned economy of socialism. In mixed economies, which the US has now, capitalism will always overtake the social policies. It is happening now in Denmark and Norway. They are privatizing their social safety nets. I respect the idea of moderation, but in this case it won’t work. Capitalism must be disassembled and replaced with a planned economy with an actual democratic workplace.

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You not willing to see a thing because it doesn’t fit in with your narrow and wilfully ignorant world view, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

              • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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                1 year ago

                The sources are given below the video. YouTube is a great source for academic discussions. Universities host forums on there. His opinion is informed(see sources.). Just because loneliness and depression happens in other systems doesn’t negate the fact that it is endemic to capitalism. What system doesn’t have mental health issues.? The point is that capitalism compounds the issue. Maybe instead of dismissing the proposition, do some investigating to find out if it’s true. Just a suggestion.

        • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          “Aha, someone who disagrees with me and posed a simple question, challenging my claims! ATTACK!!! ATTACK!!! ATTACK!!!”

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It isn’t a lack of comprehension, especially not in someone of her position, it is a reluctance to give up privileges she is well aware she has, even if she wouldn’t admit it out loud.

  • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Interesting article. Too bad it’s written by a hypocrite. HRC’s campaign was rife with divisive tactics, from labeling a quarter of the country “deplorables,” to playing the gender card relentlessly, to colluding with the DNC to hedge out her primary opponent (Sanders).

    • wahming@monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      Not American, so I can’t speak for any of that. But this article on its own seems pretty accurate and thought provoking

    • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      at least a quarter of Americans are very much deserving of the title “deplorable”

    • Fisk400@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You know what is worse? Depressed bed blobs pretending that they are introverts and normalizing antisocial behaviour. Healthy introverts have and regularly meets friends. They just don’t do it as often and in the same way as extroverts. I know these things because I went to therapy instead of trying to normalize my insecurities on the internet.

      • PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        It’s Hillary, only worth a light skimming. You surprised a social vampire like that gets lonely? Her ego and neediness was so big, it cost us the 2016 election. She deserves to be lonely.

          • PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            No, I don’t think she’s lonely. She takes care of it by feeding on the souls of others socially & politically. She would be terribly lonely if she didn’t have that going for her, hadn’t created this form of sustenance for herself.