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Sorry if the premise is inflammatory, but I’ve been stymied by this for a while. How did we go from something like 1940s era collectivism or 1960s era leftism to the current bizarro political machine that seems to have hypnotized a large portion (if not majority) of the country? I get it - not everything is bad now, and not everything was good then. FDR’s internment camps, etc.

That said - our country seems to be at a low point in intellectualism and accountability. The DHHS head is an antivaxxer, the deputy chief of the DOJ is a far-right podcast nutball, etc. Their supporters seem to have no nuance to their opinion beyond “well, Trump said he’d fix the economy and I don’t like woke.”

Have people always been this unserious and unquestioning, or are we watching the public’s sanity unravel in real time? Or am I just imagining some idealistic version of the past that never existed, where politicians acted in good faith and people cared about the social order?

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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 78 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

As a westerner who lived in Asia for the past 2 decades I have unusual take on this.

Americans generally aren't more stupid than anyone else but they have no face saving culture which acts as a useful bottleneck on social and information exchanges. Because of this Americans can easily subscribe and announce their beliefs even if theyre low effort conspiracies because they are not afraid of losing face for believing in something stupid.

Combined that with information flow that is too fast for most to even comprehend let alone keep up with means that Americans are quick to believe lies and don't feel punished for doing so.

This is very different in face saving cultures like Asia where if you say or do something stupid you'll have strong social consequences and even spiritual/religious ones if you're a Buddhist.


The caveat here is why Europeans are a bit better than this? I'm not sure i hadn't lived there for a while but I'd imagine that smaller countries are less susceptible to this issue as they can correct quicker and I think Europe does have a bit of face saving culture, well definitely more than the US.

TL;DR: Americans are stupid because they are shameless

[-] czardestructo@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

This comment hits hard. There are a lot of ignorant people in my life that spout idiotic stuff and I brush it off, I disengage. I could take the time to listen, converse and correct but I don't. I disengage, I brush it off as just "Oh boy, there goes crazy Joe rambling again! But generally he's a good guy so I'll tolerate it". I need to start taking the time to push back and correct people I care about so they understand people are judging them when stupid things are said. Thank you!

[-] coffeeisblack@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Something people are discussing but not enough is America and the world’s refusal to diagnose and medicate mental illness.

Crazy Joe may just need meds.

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this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
654 points (92.2% liked)

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