This just so sums up

[Votto]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

Finally... the USA is such a disturbing, dysfunctional country only as a "cult of the individual"... please explain this fact:
Nearly 3 times as many people want to move to this "cult of the individual" country as the next most desired location to move to.
Again... where are YOUR facts because these FACTs seem to dispute your thesis.
View attachment 382116

More Than 750 Million Worldwide Would Migrate If They Could

Fifteen percent of the world's adults -- or more than 750 million people -- say they would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity. This is up from previous years, but still shy of the record high of 16% set between 2007 and 2009.

news.gallup.com

People like yourself think that the world would be a utopia if only the US and Israel did not exist.

Funny thing, why are they all trying to come here if it is so bad?

Have you ever seen someone in Florida jump in an inner tube hoping the current takes them to Cuba?

No, you don't. Funny thing.

Now stop smoking pot.

 

[pknopp]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

It is mind boggling to me that you blame a lack of community on lowering taxes on the rich. How is a hand full of rich guys destroying the lack of community exactly? How are you connecting those dots exactly? So if we take the wealth of a minute number within society we will have community again? How so? For example, in Pol Pot's killing fields of Chicago, how will community return if we cut down Bezos and Gates, who are democrats BTW, make us return to community?

It's not a problem with someone that has money, it's a problem of what the country does to make sure the rich continues to get more and more money. It's not mostly through production. It's through Socialist actions of the Federal Reserve.

Quit the actions of the Federal Reserve and I'll quit defending those protesting.

Had it ever dawned on you Brown shirts that the lack of community you feel can be traced to the actions of the Left. Marxism is all about replacing the family unit and dependence on distant uncaring political figures for their collective salvation. So instead of the family needing each other to survive, we now have Big Brother to pay to have grandma or grandpa put away some where out of sight. Instead of telling women that they can have children out of wedlock because Big Brother will be there to help them pay for everything, perhaps telling them Big Brother will not be there might change the cycle of poverty known as single parent homes. And instead of closing down churches and schools because of Covid but turning your heads when Left wing riots run our streets, perhaps those institutions are what was holding society together, what is left of it, that is.

People like you make me sick. People like you ARE the problem.

Nobody puts grandpa and grandma out of sight. People have to work two jobs to survive today. It's a good thing that someone who is elderly can have someone look after them. As for the rest..........

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25:40

Well according to the extremist Left wing democrats, places like the former USSR, Venezuela, and North Korea, where you are not allowed to have money unless you run government, should be an oasis of community, but that does not seem to be the case, now does it.

You can address what I said, or you can address what you believe someone else said. I am happy to answer to what I said. Why not address me by what I said?

In fact, Marxism has murdered more people last century than any other religion or ideology, hands down, even fascism.

That's an easy call when you call anything you don't like Marxist.

 

[pknopp]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

Finally... the USA is such a disturbing, dysfunctional country only as a "cult of the individual"... please explain this fact:
Nearly 3 times as many people want to move to this "cult of the individual" country as the next most desired location to move to.
Again... where are YOUR facts because these FACTs seem to dispute your thesis.
View attachment 382116

More Than 750 Million Worldwide Would Migrate If They Could

Fifteen percent of the world's adults -- or more than 750 million people -- say they would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity. This is up from previous years, but still shy of the record high of 16% set between 2007 and 2009.

news.gallup.com

People like yourself think that the world would be a utopia if only the US and Israel did not exist.

Funny thing, why are they all trying to come here if it is so bad?

We've destroyed so many other countries. Where do you want them to go? The Iraqi mother doesn't have to worry about a bomb dropping on their kids head over here.

Have you ever seen someone in Florida jump in an inner tube hoping the current takes them to Cuba?

No, you don't. Funny thing.

Now stop smoking pot.

There are a lot of people who would like to go to Cuba but we have made that illegal. Is that what you consider freedom?

 

[gipper]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

Great op. So very true, but I’ll be called a commie for saying so.

We are rapidly going down the drain. With all this unrest what do the elites do to stop it? Well using history as our guide, expect war. They always resort to war to control the masses.

 

[eddiew]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

It is mind boggling to me that you blame a lack of community on lowering taxes on the rich. How is a hand full of rich guys destroying the lack of community exactly? How are you connecting those dots exactly? So if we take the wealth of a minute number within society we will have community again? How so? For example, in Pol Pot's killing fields of Chicago, how will community return if we cut down Bezos and Gates, who are democrats BTW, make us return to community?

It's not a problem with someone that has money, it's a problem of what the country does to make sure the rich continues to get more and more money. It's not mostly through production. It's through Socialist actions of the Federal Reserve.

Quit the actions of the Federal Reserve and I'll quit defending those protesting.

Had it ever dawned on you Brown shirts that the lack of community you feel can be traced to the actions of the Left. Marxism is all about replacing the family unit and dependence on distant uncaring political figures for their collective salvation. So instead of the family needing each other to survive, we now have Big Brother to pay to have grandma or grandpa put away some where out of sight. Instead of telling women that they can have children out of wedlock because Big Brother will be there to help them pay for everything, perhaps telling them Big Brother will not be there might change the cycle of poverty known as single parent homes. And instead of closing down churches and schools because of Covid but turning your heads when Left wing riots run our streets, perhaps those institutions are what was holding society together, what is left of it, that is.

People like you make me sick. People like you ARE the problem.

Nobody puts grandpa and grandma out of sight. People have to work two jobs to survive today. It's a good thing that someone who is elderly can have someone look after them. As for the rest..........

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25:40

Well according to the extremist Left wing democrats, places like the former USSR, Venezuela, and North Korea, where you are not allowed to have money unless you run government, should be an oasis of community, but that does not seem to be the case, now does it.

In fact, Marxism has murdered more people last century than any other religion or ideology, hands down, even fascism.

I'll put Christianity over hundreds of years up against anything you can name

 

[there4eyeM]

Summing it up Trump charges America 9 hundred thousand for security use of his golf courses Trump is nothing but a grifter

Well, also a golfer.

The pos even cheats at that

Don't tell us you are going to criticize him for being consistent now, are you?

 

[there4eyeM]

Ideologies (including religions) don't kill; ideologues kill.

 

[toobfreak]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly.

TRANSLATION:

1. Progressives spent years giving intel, money and support to China to "level out the playing field."
2. China modernizes, becomes superpower, develops killer virus for which we have no defense.
3. Now Progressives say: "See! I told you America was unraveling!"

 

[Stryker___777]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

I am a believer of what you call "the cult of the Individual" 1000 percent. All my life I have had opinions that goes against the grain of the spineless, fearful conformists that surround me
I guess some people like to conform? It makes them comfortable? Feel like their part of collective?

I also come up with my own ideas and insights Instead of quoting a navelgazing anti-American author who spent more time in the insulated halls of academia than the dystopian wasteland that is reality.

It takes a Titan like Trump to speak for many other *individuals* like me who have anti-mainstream opinions and that's the greatest reason I support him.

 

[eddiew]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

I am a believer of what you call "the cult of the Individual" 1000 percent. All my life I have had opinions that goes against the grain of the spineless, fearful conformists that surround me
I guess some people like to conform? It makes them comfortable? Feel like their part of collective?

I also come up with my own ideas and insights Instead of quoting a navelgazing anti-American author who spent more time in the insulated halls of academia than the dystopian wasteland that is reality.

It takes a Titan like Trump to speak for many other *individuals* like me who have anti-mainstream opinions and that's the greatest reason I support him.

Some may call him Titan some may call him a low life POS I stand with them

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

“The American cult of the individual…”

it’s actually culture, not ‘cult.’

And it isn’t going to change.

The primacy of the individual is seen as the cornerstone of liberty and freedom.

Indeed, Constitutional case law codifies the doctrine of the individual – the right of individuals to self-expression, the right of the individual to self-determination, and the right of the individual to find his unique place and role in society immune from attack by the state.

The doctrine of the individual is fostered by fundamental characteristics of the American experience: a large and diverse geography, a heterogeneous population, and the sanctioning of competition and conflict as an appropriate means to resolution.

This is why comparing the United States to other Western democracies is pointless and unjustified.

Consequently, the issue isn’t individualism per se, but the perversion of the doctrine where Americans no longer understand that a balance can be realized between individualism and collectivism; that Americans can work together to realize a common goal while respecting and preserving the doctrine of individualism.

How deeply divided the American people are on matters of race and politics, unfortunately, will be a significant barrier to Americans relearning how to work together for the benefit of the Nation as a whole.

 

[eddiew]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

“The American cult of the individual…”

it’s actually culture, not ‘cult.’

And it isn’t going to change.

The primacy of the individual is seen as the cornerstone of liberty and freedom.

Indeed, Constitutional case law codifies the doctrine of the individual – the right of individuals to self-expression, the right of the individual to self-determination, and the right of the individual to find his unique place and role in society immune from attack by the state.

The doctrine of the individual is fostered by fundamental characteristics of the American experience: a large and diverse geography, a heterogeneous population, and the sanctioning of competition and conflict as an appropriate means to resolution.

This is why comparing the United States to other Western democracies is pointless and unjustified.

Consequently, the issue isn’t individualism per se, but the perversion of the doctrine where Americans no longer understand that a balance can be realized between individualism and collectivism; that Americans can work together to realize a common goal while respecting and preserving the doctrine of individualism.

How deeply divided the American people are on matters of race and politics, unfortunately, will be a significant barrier to Americans relearning how to work together for the benefit of the Nation as a whole.

As admiration for our great country by the rest of the world now turns to pity .Trump has shown NO responsibility

 

[Dr Grump]

You copied but your source doesn't give any link to this statement: "The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care."

What is the source of that observation because FACT 1.3 million people disagree with you!!!

The U.S. is the No. 1 most generous country in the world for the last decade
Published: Dec. 7, 2019 at 2:01 p.m. ET
A global survey asked 1.3 million people whether they had helped a stranger or donated money or time to charity recently

That’s the conclusion of the World Giving Index, a ranking that measured how likely residents of 128 countries were to practice acts of generosity.

The index, from the U.K.-based nonprofit Charities Aid Foundation, is based on Gallup’s World Poll surveys of 1.3 million people.

Between 2009 and 2018, interviewers asked respondents whether they had done the following in the last month: helped a stranger or someone they didn’t know who needed help, donated money to charity, or volunteered their time to an organization.

The U.S. is the No. 1 most generous country in the world for the last decade

A global survey asked 1.3 million people whether they had helped a stranger or donated money or time to charity recently.

www.marketwatch.com

Doesn't need a source. On this very board I can find example after example of neocons backing up the statement.
Per head of population you are far from the most generous country in the world.

 

[Dr Grump]

It is mind boggling to me that you blame a lack of community on lowering taxes on the rich. How is a hand full of rich guys destroying the lack of community exactly? How are you connecting those dots exactly? So if we take the wealth of a minute number within society we will have community again? How so? For example, in Pol Pot's killing fields of Chicago, how will community return if we cut down Bezos and Gates, who are democrats BTW, make us return to community?

Had it ever dawned on you Brown shirts that the lack of community you feel can be traced to the actions of the Left. Marxism is all about replacing the family unit and dependence on distant uncaring political figures for their collective salvation. So instead of the family needing each other to survive, we now have Big Brother to pay to have grandma or grandpa put away some where out of sight. Instead of telling women that they can have children out of wedlock because Big Brother will be there to help them pay for everything, perhaps telling them Big Brother will not be there might change the cycle of poverty known as single parent homes. And instead of closing down churches and schools because of Covid but turning your heads when Left wing riots run our streets, perhaps those institutions are what was holding society together, what is left of it, that is.

People like you make me sick. People like you ARE the problem.

The disparity of wealth is increasing. Whenever that happens, communities break down. Brownshirts?? You have the gall to talk about 'us' brownshirts, when the type of society the idiot in the WH is driving your nation towards is exactly that. If you think it is all about taking wealth you haven't read the piece in its entirety.

 

[B. Kidd]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

You and the Dimm Party is dying out.

 

[eddiew]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

You and the Dimm Party is dying out.

Trump is putting the finishing touches on you racist Qanon racists

 

[Dr Grump]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

Finally... the USA is such a disturbing, dysfunctional country only as a "cult of the individual"... please explain this fact:
Nearly 3 times as many people want to move to this "cult of the individual" country as the next most desired location to move to.
Again... where are YOUR facts because these FACTs seem to dispute your thesis.
View attachment 382116

More Than 750 Million Worldwide Would Migrate If They Could

Fifteen percent of the world's adults -- or more than 750 million people -- say they would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity. This is up from previous years, but still shy of the record high of 16% set between 2007 and 2009.

news.gallup.com

Sure. They believe in the American dream. Many find, once they get there, for it to be a nightmare. Most of those migrants come from poor, uneducated countries like South American, the Indian subcontinent, Africa and south-east Asia. Why wouldn't they want to go the country sold to them on television and at the movies? I would too.

 

[B. Kidd]

why the US is fucked. Been trying to articulate it for years but never been able to do so properly. And no, this is not anti-American. Like most people in the world, a strong US (as it used to be) is much better than a strong China. So here's the article and some of its highlights.

The Unraveling of America

Anthropologist Wade Davis writes about Covid-19 and its devastating impact on the international standing of the United States.

www.rollingstone.com

Some highlights:

1. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
2. COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.
3. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.”
4. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years
5. But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace.
6. More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes
7. The country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees. Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.
8. Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong.
9. The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055.

These last three are my favourite and sum up every neocon loser on this board. Every..single..one...of...you.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom.

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.


American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society.

You and the Dimm Party is dying out.

Trump is putting the finishing touches on you racist Qanon racists

Eddie, go watch porn and go away...

 

[impuretrash]

Funny that the article blames conservatives for the decline of the family unit and American independence, social cohesion when it's the left that champions single motherhood, globalism and mass immigration. It's the left that runs pretty much all of our social institutions and all the GOP has ever done for the last several decades is concede and sell out on everything they supposedly believe in.

 

[Dr Grump]

I am a believer of what you call "the cult of the Individual" 1000 percent. All my life I have had opinions that goes against the grain of the spineless, fearful conformists that surround me
I guess some people like to conform? It makes them comfortable? Feel like their part of collective?

I also come up with my own ideas and insights Instead of quoting a navelgazing anti-American author who spent more time in the insulated halls of academia than the dystopian wasteland that is reality.

It takes a Titan like Trump to speak for many other *individuals* like me who have anti-mainstream opinions and that's the greatest reason I support him.

So the rest have to suffer so the likes of you and Trump's egos can be satiated. Right. Gotcha...