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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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If you figure it out, let us know. My kids keep asking me the same thing. I dont know how to do that now because things have changed so much since I was young and meeting people.
It is very sad for me too see this. America was always held up as an example to me, as a giant melting pot of different cultures and classes, where women and queer and minority people and everyone could be friends alongside everyone. I don't know what changed , or if that was just a dream. It seems like people just stick with the people and cultures they know and grew up with here, for the most part. Still much better rights for me than in Gaza, maybe it just " grass is perfect on the other side of fence, until you get there." kind of thing.
There has been a decline in third places. There was a decline before the pandemic but the pandemic made it worse. Here's an article about the decline in America specifically and the newer ways people are trying to connect. It won't help you make more friends, but will help get perspective of one of the reasons things have changed.
It used to be like that. The last 25 years have changed this country drastically, and not for the better. It's been really sad to watch this great nation crumble from the inside out.
Parks, bars, book stores, stores that cater to your hobbies, and staying with events until the introverts are more confortable talking.
If you're hobby can be done alone and people are going to meet ups, then they're hoping for connections, too. They may just want to make sure you're not a random.
Coffee can take the place of alcohol as a adjusted experience, if that works for you.
Chicago, IL is going to be a lot more segregated than somewhere in California, or Southern Texas. There are so many mixed ethnicities that it becomes a non-issue and everyone blends together. It's less prevalent as you move further north, since Caucasian becomes a heavy majority and there are far fewer groups of other ethnicities.
You fell for the propaganda
Edit: the melting pot analogy is accurate, if you picture the rich turning up the temperature and stirring the pot...
Maybe you fell for the propaganda. My friends group consists of native Americans, Eastern Indians, BPOC, Mexicans, Chinese, SE Asians, and Caucasian.
There are plenty of ways the "melting pot" is true, but to picture the US as some utopia where everyone is welcomed instantly, is naive as hell. Why do you think there were so many hateful actions towards asian americans when covid hit? People suck
If you are not aware, the Gaza strip is an active warzone between terrorists on Israeli and Palestinian side, with my native people caught in the middle.
Yes people suck, but even a land with some rude people and casual racism can be held up as an example of people trying to work together.
Based on your other comments, it's clear that your view of the world is based on the path you have walked so far, and the narrow stretch of ground you have tread on. Maybe your rich overlords hid the existence of the rest of the world from you, but some of us have been living there.
Fortunately, you have many more steps left to walk, and time to consider the ground your neighbors have been walking on as well. Go, walk with empathy, watch the world and judge it with kindness, and build your heart with room for others in it.
They are letting the idea of perfection be the enemy of betterment.
It's reality. Do i wish everyone was welcomed openly, yes, but until that happens, perfection or betterment are both still just ideas
No, perfection is just an idea. Betterment is on you, if you want it. I want it, so I make it happen, in whatever contexts I have power to do so in.
It is very funny to me when young Americans complain about rich people. Almost all of you have a few solid meals a day, often hot food with meat. You have clean water all over the place, and you can even waste it to flush toilets and make fountains. You drive expensive cars, ( yes, even the ones you call cheap,) buy new phones and computers. And then you complain that your air conditioned apartment could be a mansion, that your car could be a Ferrari, that your stable, clean job of sitting at a computer could just be you sitting at home. That you college degree you bought cost too much, and no one told you it took money to get fair treatment. All because those rich people above you don't care about you and just want to make money for themselves. So far this is the main thing I do not like about the USA.
I didn't choose to be born in the US. Just because other countries have it worse doesn't mean we can't complain about how the corporations of this society are systematically strangling the paycheck to paycheck workers that essentially run this country. They keep us divided, angry at each other and focused on minor issues instead of working to help the starving/mistreated in the US
I'm not saying you are evil or uncaring. You just don't have and sense of how rich you are, and how much closer you are to billionaires that you think. Yes, money wise you don't have a billion dollars, I know. But most lower middle class people in the US would be considered top 2 percent in areas with actual poverty. Even in the phase paycheck to paycheck, it's implied that you know your paycheck will be enough to buy some very basic food and shelter, and that there is basic food and shelter to buy at all.
Think about a city of millions of people, where the vast majority of them live like your homeless people do, in makeshift shelters and harsh weather. Not sure if the city block they live on will be there when they get back at night, or if the tiny amount of money they earn will hod any value to a farmer, of if the farmer will even have any food. Then picture a handful of American houses there, and ask if they are "middle class". I know things could be better for you, but things could be better for billionaires too, And I bet you laugh at them if they complain their private jet is to small.
Ok and? Should i not say that the US is designed to isolate people and is not the land of the "American Dream" that you clearly wanted it to be? How do these ~~opinions~~ experiences of yours change the point i am making?
You are saying that all the evil and exploitation in America comes from the rich. My friend, by the standards of the world in general, you are the rich. What are doing to help the poor, and why do you expect the few richer than you to care more about you, than you care about my family in Gaza? Do you not think that your " rich overlords" say" yes and, so what" to your issues?
You want to fix America? I see two lessons from my life. "Eat the rich", as you say, but not as a online joke or a metaphor. Messy and unstable, but if you survive you can be as rich as you want.
Or, you can use the wealth you have to build something better. Why do you play the game of isolation if you hate it? Are you the only one feeling isolated within an hour of you? Do you truly think that everything you buy is the minimum, or that the luxury you have is worth nothing?
This is one of the main points that is lost in American culture. Face fears. Take your life into your own hands, rather than talking about taking the lives of the people you deem to be the source of your problems.
You may not be to blame for your situation, but you are the one responsible for it.
Face fears. Find friends. Don't Blake the rich, you are the rich. Live sustainably with what you have.
You've got the right idea, friend.
Ok so 8 people control half the world's wealth right, lets not act like this has no effect on our lives. If I am unable to help myself, how am i supposed to help someone else? Why do you act like i do not realize i am rich compared to others, when did i say that i was poor? I was born halfway up the ladder, am I not allowed to complain the ladder exists just because I am not the one at the bottom?
I didn't say you were the sole problem. The problem is rich people, including you, not realizing that ( even if you only care about yourself, as you seem to), you should be helping others.
Good job not being one of the richest 8 people in the world. Yes, those people are not nice, and don't want to help you. Now go help your neighbors and make friends with them. You also seem to have no scale on the problems that actual poverty causes, or how much rich people spend on their useless luxuries, and how much good that could do in the world.
You could go on about how disconnected you feel from everyone, and how it's all those 8 evil people's fault, and then try to fill that void with consumerism and giving them more money. Or you could cut you luxury in half, and donate it to a good cause. If you are not going to appreciate American wealth, then let someone else eat your scraps.
But no, what you really want is for it to all be someone else's fault, and to do nothing about it. Your weekly paycheck is a poor person's yearly wage, and that ignores slavery and the many other atrocities of this world. Yes, wealthy people who hoard their power for themselves are a problem. Yes, having even more wealth is even more of a problem, but if you are not going to help people below you up, then at least be aware that you issues are as laughable to us as billionaires issues are to you.
My issues? This whole post is about your perceived issue about how americans do not socialize, somehow you took my analogy for Fox News stirring up drama and twisted my words to make it seem as if I am blaming every problem in my life on rich people.
Solid take.
He acts like i live a life of luxury, but ignores the fact I was forced into it. I do try to live reasonably. If I could I would love to give half my paycheck to those in need, but how do I pay bills if I do that? I need to eat, I am forced to drive to work, so i need a car, if I could afford a house I'd have to pay for that, student loans because I am dumb. I have no money left at this point, so how do you propose I help others?
Its a systemic problem and it is foolish to ignore the biggest problem we have been facing since the mid 1800s, which is corporations guiding the direction of this nation and the world as a whole.
It is, indeed, a systemic issue, and no, you shouldn't ignore it. He's not saying you should, and neither am I.
However, it's a systemic issue that's in your own mind and behaviors, as well.
Learning how to live well, sustainably, be happy with what you have, and utilize your own power well is how you change the whole. That's not saying 'pretend the suffering doesn't exist and think positively'. It's saying that facing the feelings that have been induced in you, and learnjng how to stop being on tilt and start living your own life is how you make effective systemic change - or at the very least, effective personal change.
Maybe its in your mind and behavior
Yep, sure is. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the world who hasn't been mind-fucked or heart-fucked by capitalism or communism, or their roots ('enlightened self-interest' and socialism).
But, though it's in my mind and heart, so are the insights I've come to about its existence, and about people, love, and power.
So, you can do as you like, of course. I'll be continuing to grow, and continuing to learn how to back my power with love, amd my love with power.
Well said.