What Happened to my America?

[Briebee72]

I can remember when, not all that long ago, America was a dream a place you wanted to come to build a life, A place if you were born here was free and polite and if you traveled were respected because for being an American.

But over the last 10/15 years what the hell has happened? WE have basically lost all respect in the world, we are a joke, we are now the headlines around the world for crime, BS, racism, disrespect and basically we look like the bottom of the barrel where no one would go.

Younger generation has zero respect at all. Thinks its funny to insult people argue and be total jerks. All the boomer, karen mellienia BS is nothing but insulting to everyone.

People with their cell phones doing nothing but trying to start problems so they can film it and get on the news or you tube.

Mostly it is respect and the lack thereof. Neighbors who aggravate neighbors and are all so what screw them. People rude in public, people drive like jackasses and cause accidents, total disrespect for the president's office. Now mind you I said the office not the man. IM not a fan of his either but there use to be a time people still respected the office regaurless of how you felt about the man. now that's gone and you have reporters just trying to start shit people making jokes and just being totally disrespectful.

You can't call a woman a woman or you are sexist, if you don't call someone by their "identity" then you are a biases piece of crap. but most times how do you know what it is they want to be called? Hell I don't know. If you are white you are automatically a racist, if you are black you are automatically a criminal, if you are hispanic you are automatically a illegal....

Everyone wants to be special. no more man woman any more. Now there is cis man cis woman, transeual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, pansexual, neutral, binary, non binary and so on there are now 46 classifications for sexuallity! I mean seriously.

Headlined being made sensational for no reason. With over the top adjectives.. Fire rips through office... Car plows through crowd and Sales on cars are plunging at record paces..... you read and find out it was a trash can on fire, the car jumped a curb and hit a jogger and the car sales is about how they are down 2% at one dealer. Its just over the top and everyone is making things seems worse then they are.

I can go lay in a tanning bed at one place and then go next door and have to put on a hazmat suit to get a hamburger...

Everyone is scared of everything people are unfriendly as hell. I asked a guy the other day if the store was open as I got out of my car in the parking lot and i swear he acted like i was gonna murder him. This is actually more common, hell cant even ask a passerby a question any more.

These things were like this before trump so dont make this a political post its the people not the government. And people were like this before covid or any of the current things going on this week. So lets not blame those things.

Its people, people need to grow up and start acting right again. Im serious if i go out of the country and anyone asks Im from canada.

I use to be all pro America and yeah its a great place.. what the hell has happened. I want to feel this way again.

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[Tacswa]

It has gone to $hit. That is what happened.

 

[Strokerswild]

You are correct on things taking a slide as of the last 10-15 years. I've had similar discussions with others.

 

[watisthis]

I agree with most of what you're saying, but, honestly, 80-90% of this happens every other decade or so. I would bet Japanese Americans felt this same way leading up to and during WW2. The internet has only been an amplifier for it all. Times are changing, need to brush off the minor disagreements and be a more generous and understanding society.

 

[Bluemustang]

This is what mass/mass-social media will do to people. There is so much propaganda being pushed at people from every direction, every time of day and there's a someone on the other end benefitting from it. It's getting to the point where you don't know what truth is. Actually, the truth is what they say it is. Our media (and our government) seems to be operating under the premise that we are too dumb to know anything for ourselves, so we need their help and should do and think what they say. Every time the next hot story comes out, everyone follows rank and file and if you don't and you speak up or question it, you're immediately ostracized and either silenced, or you're shamed into silencing yourself. IMO the most dangerous thing out there is mass media/social media outlets, and that includes whichever side you're on.

 

[kz]

It is very simple - economic inequality is absolutely extreme here and you see effects of it. There are other underlying issues but this is what connects it all.

 

[Bikeman315]

The Rodney King incident was in 1991, 29 years ago. Can you just imagine what that would have looked like in today's 24/7/365 media circus. Yeah, we can.....it's called Minneapolis.

Breibee72, there is still a lot of good out there. Just look at the police departments that are joining/walking with the protesters. I guess the media cuts both ways. Here's hoping & praying that maybe, just maybe, this time change will start to happen.

 

[MRGTX]

We have political leaders in the USA (and a lot of other countries right now too) that grow their power by turning us against each other.

We have politicians in the USA that run on lower taxes that communicates the idea that we should want to do our part less rather than investing in society and finding the leaders that put our national wealth to good use.

We have politicians that use their power to make their reelection more likely (gerrymandering districts, installing cronies, etc) rather than working for the people.

We have politicians who believe that they only represent the people who voted for them rather than working for everyone in their district/state/country.

The most popular news channel makes all of its money on making a specific group of people feel victimized and threatened by minorities and immigrants and dividing everyone into "us/them". Their audience has been hearing it so long that they can't hear anything else or even remember that their own ancestors were immigrants too.


Are these causes or symptoms or both?

 

[Bikeman315]

We have political leaders in the USA (and a lot of other countries right now too) that grow their power by turning us against each other.

We have politicians in the USA that run on lower taxes that communicates the idea that we should want to do our part less rather than investing in society and finding the leaders that put our national wealth to good use.

We have politicians that use their power to make their reelection more likely (gerrymandering districts, installing cronies, etc) rather than working for the people.

We have politicians who believe that they only represent the people who voted for them rather than working for everyone in their district/state/country.

The most popular news channel makes all of its money on making a specific group of people feel victimized and threatened by minorities and immigrants and dividing everyone into "us/them". Their audience has been hearing it so long that they can't hear anything else or even remember that their own ancestors were immigrants too.

Are these causes or symptoms or both?

Maybe a little of both. Everything you pointed out is true but not new. Remember Joe McCarthy? 1954. I blame a lot of this on the relentless need for the media (both sides) to keep us firmly attached to them. Repeating the same stories over and over. Replaying the same videos over and over. Discussing the same topics and points of view over and over, ad nauseum. Sometimes I swear we are being brainwashed. What happened to George Floyd is beyond words but how many times do they have to show it. Over, and over, and over. I'm sick of seeing it and I'm sure many others are too.

 

[dpAtlanta]

This is my theory from over 15 years ago.

It started with ONE man, and ONE man alone.............. Ted Turner!!!
Ted said he was going to start a (one) 24 hour news channel... they laughed at him claiming that there is news at 6:00 AND 11:00. You would have to "make up news" in order to have a (single) 24 news channel.

Now look at how many 24 hour news channels we have, let alone how many 24 hour news websites their are.
It's all about advertising dollars... how many clicks or viewers do you have, because that is where people will want to advertise.

C'mon... think about it, Jerry Springer is still on because of the Shock & Awe of his content... decades of the same stuff.
Every news channel must out do the other to get viewers and/or clicks.

It's NOT Ted fault... someone was going to be the first one to do it... he just was the originator.

 

[Flimflamman]

The Internet exacerbates all that is happening. For all the good it does indeed do, the bad is tenfold.

 

[key01]

Y2K

 

[Biggus Dickus]

Growing up, the misguided rebel that I was, thought of cops as fascist pigs. But even then, whenever I did have an encounter with LE...I'll spare you the details...I stood still, shut up, and complied with basic requests. Now I'm seeing people throw explosives at cops! Unbelievable. Is this sort of a wave of people who just don't GAF anymore?

And despite the cries of persistent racism, I work at a very integrated place (top to bottom, with a Romanian immigrant at the top of the food chain living the American dream) and as long as you act cool and do your job, nobody will F with you. One example for sure, but a good example of how decency and fairness still exist. And let's not forget that we not too long ago elected a president who at one time would have been called a mulatto and ostracized by whites and blacks alike.

The bigger issue I think is poverty and overwhelming financial stress being placed upon greater numbers of people. And the rich are getting richer on the backs of the poor: Eg: Consider the minimum wage or low income non-skilled worker who has to finance a used car (that has been paid for many times over) at 25% interest; the PayDay loan sharks; Credit Card companies that resort to extortionate interest rates on the people who can least afford them, etc., etc., Fear, stress and worry is their lot. And I fear we may be seeing their breaking point. But this unprecedented redistribution of wealth to oligarchs will breed more of this discontent, and we risk losing democracy for good.

And then the politicians do what they can to deny them the ability to participate in the democratic process (what politician doesn't love a good gerrymander?)

Things have changed - my parents immigrated from Europe after the war for a better life - and more so a better life for their children. And it worked: 3 kids: 1 RN, 1 PhD, and 1 MD.

As for LEOs, now I respect and appreciate what they do and interact with them professionally on occasion. But sadly, many of them cannot afford to live in the cities they work in.

 

[watisthis]

My grandpa always said the 60-70s were the end of days and the Rapture was soon. those hippy kids protested and destroyed all sorts of stuff. He knew the end was coming. It didn’t.

What you refer to is call the fourth coming. It’s a 4 generation rotation that take place about ever 80 years. History works on a cycle and as much as we should learn from previous mistakes were don’t.

All this boils down to one thing. The central banks have made the rich super rich at the expense of the middle /lower class. Over half of working age people don’t have jobs. We are seeing the effects of this redistribution. When the .1% controls over half the wealth there is a Problem. This is the result.

The fourth turning was a great book.

 

[Briebee72]

So I see lots of blame of politics and economic station. I have to disagree, while these things do affect things to a degree. Its as if people are saying well if everyone had money and politics weren't involved we wouldn't have these issues. Eh, I beg to different. People just like to blame others for their issues. Bottom line is people have become asshats, entitled and expect everyone to give them everything. I encountered people everyday who have money and are total jerks. Matter of fact I know plenty of poor people and a few homeless and they are appreciative of what they have and most would give you anything they have. I just don't see ones socioeconomic status as the real issue here. The problem is people, its always been people and their attitudes. How much money do you need to live? I lived off 7500.00 a year for 3 years and I lived fine. Paid my part of the rent, I ate fine and had a truck. People expect to much. They want the full cable package with sports for 140.00 a month and the 25 gig cell plan for 180.00 a month with a 1200.00 cell phone and a mac computer and a new car and a 4 bedroom house and and and and and and... a bunch of crap they don't need. I see people out spending thousands on stuff they absolutely do not need to live well and then complain they can't pay rent or feed their kids. Yet have all new iphones, a case of beer each day, 2 packs of cigarettes, designer cloths and a 60k suv. They also manage to buy pot as well yet cant pay the electric bill. Yet blame the government for their hardships?

I live in an area of the country where I have had to listen to it for years. They people here ,the natives, are not the nicest friendliest people. Yet everyday they blame everything on people from elsewhere. its the northerners fault, its the floridians fault. its people from out of town and so on... NO one ever says well yeah people here are just entitled jackasses.

People never want to look inward for their issues it is just easier to blame the government or the cops or other people instead of making the changes from within.

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