What Happened to my America?

[Hack]

Trying to get back to the OP's original question. Here's my take on how we got to where we are:

We live in what will probably come to be known as The Information Revolution. Sorta like the Iron Age, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the Space Age, but centered around the use (and misuse) of information. Some of the most profitable and highest market cap companies in the world have one product. Information. We all have near instant access to all types of information. Some of it true, some of it not so much. Used to be that I got my news by reading the paper in the morning, then checking in to one of three TV networks at 6:00 and again at 11:00. Now I get it be looking at my Apple Watch. And it is pushed to me, not pulled by me as was the case in the past.

So there is a lot of information. Of varying quality. Anybody with a web browser (ie...anybody) can in a matter of seconds find information to support or contradict any position placed forth. So people use information to support their particular point of view while actively rejecting anything that strays from that pov (Fake news!!!). Now, armed with "perfect" information, people on each side of any issue dig in and just continue to fortify their position by finding......more information. But only the information that fits their pov. Rinse, repeat, and notch it up a bit and you wind up with a vicious cycle resulting in people making vicious attacks on each other. One last ingredient...much of this is done psuedo-anonimously over the interwebs where everyone is the smartest, bravest, and most aggressive version of themselves. What could possibly go wrong?

Your perspective is interesting because for me what happened is all my life I was repeatedly annoyed every day by the "NEWS" that was pushed by the newspapers and TV. Basically I quit reading or watching the news because it was all so biased. Incredibly frustrating to hear people who didn't ever ask the questions that I immediately leaped to. People that reported based on some agenda very different than mine. Even without any alternate source of information - to me much of what was written seemed fake/wrong/biased whatever word you want to use for it.

It's so awesome to have some sources of news where the people are thinking *(my opinion) logically about issues and reporting more fairly. It's can still be difficult to find those news sources, but at least I have some recourse over ignoring the CRAP that was always pushed by those prior sources.

I believe you missed the point. No one said killing is justifiable IM just saying people being dicks (kinda the whole point of the thread..people are dicks and its their fault not the governments) can cause it. I can tell you if people stopped being dicks to other people then the killing would go way down that much is true. And a girl walking by in hot pants is not even close to the same thing. A cop and a perp is two aggressors and an escalating situation and a bully and a person retaliating is also two aggressors involved in an escalating situation. A girl walking along minding her own business not hurting anyone is not even in the same group. That is a straight up indisputable crime if shes attacked. But lets not carry on you have your view point I have mine... Yeah America

I firmly believe that the grade school bullies grow up to be bullies as adults. It's a human problem. And even those of us that try to follow the golden rule have trouble doing it. I often think of the phrase "judge not lest you be judged" and I try not to.

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[Tukman]

Did someone say,’Pasta’?.

 

[lacanteen]

I've been watching this thread on and off for a while. I haven't seen any info that would disclose the OPs age, but I was born and raised in the 60's and 70's in northeast Ohio which was very blue collar and very Democrat and still is for the most part.

As someone suggested, the thread title should be "what happened to our America". My parents were high school sweethearts and built a home on family property. My brother took over the house my mother grew up in and with the recent passing of my father, my niece will take over my father's home, keeping it all in the family. I grew up saying the pledge of allegiance every morning even through high school. I was taught to stand and remove your hat for the national anthem. I was taught to bow your head and be still when someone is praying. I was taught to stand when someone of honor entered the room such as a bride, graduate, judge, or guest.

We have lost the proclamation that we were founded as one nation under God. That all men are created equal. We have the right to pursue happiness. The key word is pursue, not guaranteed. We all get the same chance, but the results are up to us. In a recent interview, Mike Huckabee said that America has lost its God roots. "Do unto others........" has little or no meaning anymore. With that I can agree.

Social media has emboldened users to be part of a group or movement and also carries a degree of anonymity with it as well. A man's character has a lot to do with how he acts when he has no fear of being identified or caught. If cameras are around, and we all know everyone has one, a person can act out in front of law enforcement because all of the net is watching. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. We've all seen the internet trolls that join a forum and just hang out in the political arena. Add to this, the helicopter parents that want their kids insulated from moral teaching (see paragraph 2).

We've become a throw away society. Don't like your spouse? Divorce. Don't like someone on the forum? Ignore button. Don't want announcements from your alma mater? Block them. Technology has made some of us assholes.

Oh, and the politics thing? Term limits at every level should be the law. I don't believe our founders intended for government representation to be a lifetime career.

Now, where the hell is that pasta sauce? I like mine with extra garlic and basil.

 

[Briebee72]

As someone suggested, the thread title should be "what happened to our America".

Not sure why now several have said this. As this is an opinion post about MY feelings on the Country I live in. So yes the title is MY America because its about MY feeling on the topic. Now if I was posting an open letter style rallying cry looking for supporters yeah then I would have said our America

But as for the pasta yes ... whole wheat vegan pasta?? thats some snowflake stuff right there...or I dont know maybe its Popeye's chicken fault for bringing our a competitor to gods chosen chicken sandwich chain cik-fil-a? All this did seem to start when the chicken sandwich wars started.

 

[Caballus]

Not sure why now several have said this. As this is an opinion post about MY feelings on the Country I live in. So yes the title is MY America because its about MY feeling on the topic. Now if I was posting an open letter style rallying cry looking for supporters yeah then I would have said our America

Fair point. Every American has a different view of his or her America. Thanks for sharing yours.

 

[watisthis]

Literally, mocking you.

No one has said Biden is a good candidate or that he is progressive, but I'm really not sure what you're trying to say here. No one is arguing that Biden isn't a backstabbing clown, but this law was passed after Hoover, Nixon, and Reagan.

You're not wrong, but when we knew it was a national issue in 2019 when we declared this a national emergency that changed. The Federal Government has entire departments dedicated to dealing with these situations, the whole point of having a federal government is so they can handle and coordinate collective needs for all states. It is a national issue and so the responsibility lies at the Federal level for planning and execution by the states through established legislative frameworks.

Moreover, as a national security matter, it is certainly something to be addressed at the federal level for sourcing and funding. You're seriously arguing about how our government has worked since its inception.

Just need fewer people who think like you Democrats and Republicans alike.

 

[watisthis]

You mean like the FDR and LBJ presidencies? You really like to make things up as if no one understands history.

The issue affects the union. Meaning, the Fed leads in orchestrating and financing a disaster and recovery roll out. Source materials, equipments and funds are distributed to states. States do the grunt work in the scope of the disaster and recovery plan but can be bullied into doing things correctly or incorrectly by police and funding. Local agencies are delegated to conduct on behalf of the state and fill in gaps were special needs and circumstances arise.

Throughout all levels, constant feedback and adjustments ensure the disaster and recovery team implements what they can, gets what they need, and everyone knows how to make the system work.

Or we could give some nebulous guidelines and pit state-against-state-against feds in an idiotic bidding war and allow the federal government to intercept deliveries while giving half hearted and empty promises with no implementation strategy and prolong the problem as long as possible because they didn't have a plan and let the union dissolve into state to state crisis.

You simply have no idea how anything at any level of the government works.

Got plenty, just need to get a move on with this out with the old and in with the new.

 

[Bikeman315]

You simply have no idea how anything at any level of the government works.

Got plenty, just need to get a move on with this out with the old and in with the new.

Justin, Bill is the consummate button pusher and he loves pushing those of anyone who is center left. Other than going around and around in circles these posts do not really serve any purpose. They are humorous though.

 

[Briebee72]

Justin, Bill is the consummate button pusher and he loves pushing those of anyone who is center left. Other than going around and around in circles these posts do not really serve any purpose. They are humorous though.

LOL and this is politics and why it serves no purpose. it all just goes around and around and around and is a lot of money spent on bickering with little in the way of moving forward. And the privet sector who are all into politics all do the same thing as evident here on this thread. just round and round trying to upset each other with no real point or any moving forward.

 

[watisthis]

LOL and this is politics and why it serves no purpose. it all just goes around and around and around and is a lot of money spent on bickering with little in the way of moving forward. And the privet sector who are all into politics all do the same thing as evident here on this thread. just round and round trying to upset each other with no real point or any moving forward.

Meh, it has a purpose its just hard to see it sometimes.

Political polarization describes how divided the ideologies between parties are and measures the overlap of their general viewpoints. Party polarization or political polarization is also a social process, where partisans are driven by a growing 'team spirit' that is disconnected from policy considerations. With this, partisan antipathy has risen, where competitiveness causes some to believe that the opposing party's policies represent a threat to the nation's well-being. Pew has a good article on this.

This attitude of intense partisanship isn't new, lets look at our history. The first two parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicains. They were so partisan that when John Adams, a Federalist, was elected, he passed legislation to jail Democratic-Republicans who criticized the Federalist controlled government't.

Also, this isn't always the case, a good example is the civil rights, which was primarily pushed by politicians in the Democratic Party, but many northern Republicans supported it while, at the time, southern Democrats were its fiercest opponents. However, in recent days, the ideological divide splits the two parties cleanly, with the Republicans on the right and Dems on the left. Now that their viewpoints and attitudes on certain policy topics are more consistent, opposing parties with a different point of view is alienated, and considered a threat.

This is explained by basic psychological principles. When people have strong and overlapping identities within our own groups, they become biased against people who aren't in our groups. The outsiders are stereotyped, disliked, and treated unfairly. The stronger the identities, the stronger the response to inter-group rivalry. To be funny, just look at sports, such as, everyone hating the pats, or just New England/Boston in general.

It's just rather hard to get people to see things this way.

 

[watisthis]

Yeah, why wasn't the governors asking countries that were already experience covid 19 complications for advice. Why didn't they call up the man in charge of it all VP Mike Pence in late Jan. and early Feb. for help. If only we had Federal agencies and policies for all of this, shucks.

Yeah, the adjective antifa. Imagine labeling anti-fascist as a terrorist organization when America literally fought a war against fascism.

I just can't with how absolutely embarrassing you are.

 

[lateinthegame]

I think the reason it seems that so much bad is going on in the world is really no different then it ever has been. No changes since 3000 years ago. The only thing different is bad news now travels almost instantly to everyone's cell phone. That is the only difference.

 

[watisthis]

The President was telling people not to worry about it either is he a bad leader as well? Plenty of terrible leaders across the board but you're just a hypocrite.

Given the extremely poor track record on actual convictions in court, I would say you're incorrect. https://www.documentcloud.org/docum...-Argues-Prosecutors-Withheld.html#document/p1

Most of the time (obviously not every time but we need to be transparent here) these 'wannabe terrorists' and 'thugs' are pushing back against right-wing provocateurs, as evident by Project Veritas (above link) and other right-wing extremists. https://www.justsecurity.org/70497/...yd-protests-indicators-of-white-supremacists/

Antifa is shorthand for anti-fascist. Something that should be should be acknowledged as a very American Ideal. The right, especially the more fascists parts of the right, tries to label their opposition as a terrorist organization when there is no organization whatsoever. People that don't know any better, or people deliberately do it because their fascist learnings, labeling them as a terrorist organization sets an insane precedent.

All of a sudden, anybody following anything that resembles an ideology considered bad, legitimately or not, despite no organization or really with any crime at all committed, can be considered a terrorist. That means rights can be stripped away and they can be locked up without trial indefinitely, but I am sure you are ok with this as you also support Russia attacking the US.

Besides, we should consider white supremacists and racists, terrorists before Antifa by a long shot. There's all this violence attributed to the idea of Antifia but skimming through examples, no one has died in any of the ones I could find. Plenty of people have been killed by people believing that there's a genocide of the 'white race' going on simply because brown people have kids. People that chant 'you will not replace us.' People that just fear and hate anything foreign to them.

If this is too broad of a group to label terrorists, then by a long shot, Antifa should not either. But then again whites are just 'nice people' if you ask the President.

The first line of defense for what? For a national emergency, they knew about months in advance they are.

Do you think the Federal Government restricted Chinese travel just because we didn't like their attitude?

https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/
https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/capabilities-change.htm
https://time.com/5177802/cdc-budget-cuts-infectious-disease/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/28/us/politics/biosecurity-trump-budget-defense.html

Just because you don't understand how the Federal Government works or what their job is does not mean I need to teach you. Obviously, your high school education has failed you.

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