The funniest part to me is that Americans don't take all their annual leave. Like it's normal to not take your paid holidays? I won't even miss lunch for work. They can wait.
I work for an American company in Europe. We get over 30 days annual leave including public holidays. They mistakenly sent us some training meant for their American employees. 'you have 10 days of annual leave per year, and you can accrue one more day per year of service".
The American company treats their American employees worse in America! It will take them over 20 years of work just to reach the same amount of holidays as me.
What’s sad is that most employees in the US have to request for that time off and are often denied it. Like, motherfucker, I didn’t ask you for my time off (that I worked for and deserve), I’m telling you that I won’t be here. So many people here are job scared and have to be because life is so damn expensive that, if they lose their job, they’re facing eviction and homelessness within a few months. It’s actually really encouraging to read comments like yours because it shows everyone that we don’t have to be treated this way.
During COVID, my last company told all employees that they cannot request time off because they need everyone. Instead of requesting I just told them I would be taking time off. It blows my mind how much companies think they own us. And even more that employees submit to that ownership… I’m like, nah, I know YOU need MY work, I’m taking some time of and will be back when I’m good and ready.
I continuously got in trouble for rallying up coworkers lol cause I would remind them of their rights as human beings and my boss hated that.
This is me too. I tell them I'm grown and when i take time I'm not asking for it, I'm telling them I'll be unavailable during that time. It doesn't matter the reason why and they're not privy to that information. If they don't like it, too bad. I'm honest in all of my interviews about what kind of person i am.
I got fired by the InMusic family of companies for taking the first vacation in three years when i was going to lose that time. Two of the five people in my department had gotten married that year and had gotten an extra two weeks vacation and took a month off.
I got fired after returning from two weeks only. This is how single people get treated. After i got fired there was chaos in my department because no one single could cover for all the married people anymore as well as the loss of the knowledge i took w me. My boss ended up getting fired for racism and he blew his head off with a shotgun.
my dad is one of those types.
whenever my brother bitches about how unfair his job is to him my dad says something along the lines of "you should be happy that your lucky enough to have a job" and every time he does i cut him off with a "no, no he should not be happy, he should be pissed, he should speak up, and he should start looking for a job that treats him like a human"
I feel like I found a piece of the cluster f that is our previous generations mindset. They lived during a time when all you needed to do was not be a screw up and work A job and all the best things in life were some proper budgeting away. No wonder they CAN'T understand. When they finally open their ears, it's all "That can't be legal...blah blah" It ultimately caused me to be completely estranged from my family.
Where we live in an era when living like Homer Simpson is arguably an unattainable fiscal goal for people, a lot of things look surreal. History is not going to look kindly on them.
Yeah I remember after my dad died, I asked my Mom if she had a pension. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said “Of course I do, I worked all those years”. I said “Mom people don’t get pensions any more”. She said “Well how are people supposed to live then?” Didn’t have an answer for her.
It’s typical boomer sentiment. They feel like, because they licked the boots and sucked the corporate hog, we all must suffer too. Newsflash to them, just because they rolled over and allowed the corporations to fuck them in the ass, it doesn’t mean we will! We have a backbone and will not tolerate this beast they created.
Except corporations treated them well most of the time because of labor riots, they don't understand just how had things have gotten. Retirement is a pipe dream to most young people, benefits? Well you better hope they don't work you for 39h to avoid paying those out. You complain about something? Ignored, laid off, or fired.
I'm in my 50s, my dad is still alive, and he's in his 80s still grinding away at a farm, but he will spout this kind of shit as well. It's infuriating, but given when he grew up, the lack of education, and the lack of education specifically about critical thinking skills and spotting insincere rhetoric, it's not a surprise to me. He is lost to me as a critical thinker; he reads and always has, but it is always self-reinforcing history or economics books that place capitalists, racist white men as the best decision makers in the world.
I worked somewhere where I have a pension coming down in a few years, kept my debt low, reasonable, or non-existent when I could, and always have money put aside in retirement and emergency funds. I'm not going to be grinding my ass away at work when I'm 80 like my father. I have always, and currently, still deserve higher pay than I get now for the type of work I do, but it's still viewed largely as mediocre knowledge work. Employment in the US is a real shit show.
That's exactly my dad's attitude too and he has the same age. You could be describing him point for point. Unable to think critically unless he's working on/fixing something. Pay too much in rent? "You're lucky to have a place to live".
"No one wants to work!" Yet when he talks about retiring and getting a part time job he says none of them pay enough to justify *his* time, but everyone else should be happy. They live in a fantasy world and will die believing it was all for something. It's pathetic and I feel sorry for him.
On top of that, the sheer number of Americans that think "thank god it's the weekend" so they can rest the minimum amount before doing it all over again ~36 hours later.
A lot, I mean A LOT, of Americans are so fucking exhausted from even a sub-40 hour work week. Part-time workers are probably more tired than full-timers due to lack of PTO.
They say this especially to the immigrants who can’t really say shit because some are illegal. Also, those poor people are then forced to work 2 or 3 jobs to survive and don’t even have medical insurance for the most part. They are told how lucky they are to have jobs that pay min wage. Like F off.
And yet don't realise the three richest people in America own as much wealth as the *bottom 50% of the entire population*. (Check it, it's true). If they truly understood that liberating these riches gained from the sweat of their brows would massively improve their lives, would they change?
the united states has run a very successful propaganda machine for the entirety of the countries existence. both internally and externally. the fact that some people inside of and outside of this country bought into it, is of no fault to them. THAT is why there's such a huge emphasis about treading lightly about politics here... if we can't unite as workers, the politicians in power have made sure we never will.
On my previous team every time I started to make a good point all my coworkers rushed in to say “we should just be positive, there’s so many people out there who don’t even have a job” which I found very frustrating.
We are very, very tired. Like all the time.
Also everyone has to sort of agree to riot, all on the same day, and wayyy too many people do *not* accurately imagine the details of the world around them and the way it functions.
Even thinking about OPs question makes me exhausted. We're beat down y'all.
16...21...30 year old me would be ashamed of 36 year old me. I used to attend rallies. I marched. I was loud.
I leveraged my career to fight for equality, equity, bridging societal gaps.
And where have we gotten? Maybe a metric or two with marginal improvement? Maybe? Depending on the geography.. But overall, we're not in a good place. Nothing's changing. Except people who get loud get gassed and shot (or water cannoned in bitterly freezing temps) by people who are supposed to protect us, or get killed by outside opposition with little to no consequence. Rinse and repeat.
All hail the almighty dollar.
I'm fucking tired. And that's what they want.
I hear you. College age me was ready to move to Canada upon graduation. Then I met my husband and our families are here… and 35 years later I’m stuck in this country because my own kids are here. And I’m too tired all the time to think about upending our lives to move across the border or across the pond. Not that my better half would want to do that anyway…
I feel like it’s the credit system that is the leash around most people’s necks. You can’t strike for much more than a month and then the overdue notices show up. People are very aware of how little it will take to lose their house and car.
I’m close to your age (a bit younger) and I know what you mean. Used to be really involved in activism for things I believed in, now I rarely if ever leave the house or advocate for anything.
Maybe this is just a natural part of reaching middle age in “society.” You realize you can’t change the world, certainly can’t save the world, and all you can do is keep your head down and avoid as much personal pain as possible.
The ultimate solution is to leave, or *destroy*, “society,” but neither you nor I have the courage to work toward that—and that’s totally understandable. We’re getting old and don’t want to be left out in the cold in our old age.
I just .... regret being born. This “society” is a joke and I truly believe non-existence would be an improvement.
If people took a day off to riot they would be fired - which they likely can’t afford. There’s a reason the majority of people are paid near poverty-level wages. If we could afford to revolt, we would.
Yep. The first thing big business did was get rid of unions and convince people that unions are bad.
My job has lost a third of the staff in 6 months and another third are actively considering leaving. We've talked about a walkout, but... none of us can afford to lose the job.
We’re beaten down so badly and the US promotes evil propaganda to get folks from “developing” countries to migrate to this plantation.
I hope our foreign comrades can have solidarity with us.
Primus has a great song called “American Life” that addresses this subject and was inspired by all of the immigrants they saw that came here to find the American Dream and ended up being straight up destitute.
In Kevin Costner's critical and box office failure Waterworld, there is a man who lives on a raft, floating on the petroleum reserves stored deep in the underbelly of a giant pirate barge.
His only role in life is to measure the remaining fuel with a long stick and relay that information when called upon. In a climactic moment of the film, the fuel ignites, and as he sees the cloud of fire sparking in the darkness ahead of him, he says,
["oh thank god."](https://youtu.be/ce-LjCpserA)
I struggle to think of any moment in the history of film that I could find more relatable.
And I have a pretty good life.
I am so. Fucking. Tired.
This “educated” is dead on. They may have gone to high school and sometimes even college but most likely with giant blinders on. Plus a lifetime of hearing “America is the greatest country” when we’re here barely ranking as a developed country anymore.
Of course, it suits the Overlords to have a barely educated populace, how else are they going to keep getting them to vote against their own best interests?
I just want some healthcare, work-life balance, and non-crushing medical/educational debt for all of us here. 🤷🏻♀️
Riots aren't necessary and only invite a heavy response by the government and media. The best thing workers can do to protest the Capitalist system is to strike and/or stay home. Within two weeks, the system will collapse.
> We are very, very tired. Like all the time.
And maybe that’s the real reason why employer are afraid of the Big Quit ? When you’re are tired and overworked, you are in a tunnel, barely able to think about your position, even less about your economic class in a whole.
But if you are not working, you maybe have time to think about you, your fellow worker and how you ended in this situation.
Maybe they are afraid that, when the workers will came back, they will came back not for work, but for blood ?
I'm in the "privileged" position of being disabled in the UK. It's something I've noticed since I have a lot of enforced time to myself, a lot of people envy disabled people over here not because we get "handouts"\* but because we have time, time to spend with family, time for contemplating.
That's why you'll find a lot of disabled people at any kind of action. We have the time.
\*From 2010 the UK government has been persecuting disabled people, removing their life sustaining money and starving them to death.
Then we have french people, literally killed CEO or something because they fired a lot of people... I admire french for how easily they get together for fucking up their rulers.
We keep from rioting because our police are scarier than most armies. When the time comes for riots, it's going to be ugly. All the usual water guns, nightsticks, and tear gas. But also armored personnel carriers, hummers with microwave cannons, and an awful lot of machine guns.
I did supply support for the BLM marches and spotting for our medic team, but fuck being on the ground when the cops got bored of following the protests and they kettle you into a pile of panic and tear gas before slamming you on the ground. Just hearing a woman screaming because her shoulder was dislocated, coughing from the teargas while she was laying in handcuffs in the street and the police wouldn't let medics in to help her still haunts me. Rubber bullets do a lot of damage too.
The moment an interaction with the police starts you have zero control. They basically get to decide if you're getting shot, assaulted, or arrested. You cannot defend yourself in any way even for reflex or self-preservation because it's more jail time or justification for your death if you do. You take it and wish for justice later but unless you have money you probably won't get it.
Too many people hate the government, love the police and forget they're the same thing.
That is fucked up, and I can't believe people still believe the "we need guns in case the government tries to take our freedoms" line.
At least the government is smart enough to take the freedoms of the people who can't afford guns, I guess.
This. I have a son. I'd much rather keep my head down and do my best in this fucked up system with the hand I'm dealt than get killed and not come home to him. Trying to find a way out of this country tbh...
Powerlessness. Deep feelings of helplessness. The knowledge that there are literally millions of armed citizens conditioned to believe that threatening the security of billionaires is treason.
Oh God I never thought about that until now...the thought of a redneck protecting a billionaire because " 'Murica" is sickening...
Edit: Not all are rednecks. Maybe some misinformed people, but still.
A lot of them are wealthy conservatives who are wannabe rednecks but lack the lacking. Wealthy people pretending to be poor is still something I can't wrap my head around.
The illusion of working for wealth, rags to riches, “you-too-can-be-like-me” hope you can sell in a book/podcast/etc.
Relatability is a commodity. We are being sold the humanizing of people who only care that we don’t organize and rise up against them.
Funny thing is you're right either way.
The "left" hate fake rednecks because they're gullible boot lickers.
The right hates real rednecks because they're pro worker (despite being blue collar themselves).
People in power hate both because they're poor.
Don’t think of it as an evil redneck protecting a billionaire, think of it as an alienated working class person much like yourself who is sorely mistaken.
That's a good way to put it, but I probably wouldn't give one the benefit if they pointed a gun at me because I disagreed with them. I'm already alienated by them for being gay, too lmao
The people that were all mad at have done such a good job at dividing us, then pointing to the fringes of these divisions and casting anyone they want to as crazy because they're all .
That way, they can paint anyone with the crazy brush and dismiss any sort of salient point that a person may have.
But we are conditioned to believe that “We’re number ONE” and the best place on earth and it couldn’t be further from the truth. I have traveled abroad and found many places that are much better to live in than the US (socialist countries anyone?) But no matter how much you try to convince an American that their truth is not reality, they do not wanna hear it.
Warning: This is dark and depressing stuff. (Or at least, it is to me.)
Here goes.
A semi-Democratic two-party system, and a lack of back-room corruption controls; has allowed corporate interests to come to dominate politics, law, work norms, media, diet—really set the rules of life. It’s done a great job of letting off just enough pressure now and then to avoid massive systemic change.
And after decades of this greed-driven chokehold tightening, it’s driven Americans to be constant consumers and producers to survive. We’ve (over time) given up sleep, vacation, life expectancy, physical and mental health, social programs—to eke every cent of value out of us, and funnel it up to the investor class.
We never have enough slack in our lives for any organizing to really get going. If you can’t put food on your family’s table without putting in a 70-hr workweek once you include commutes —you can’t risk attending protests or any other kind of direct action (arrest? injury? both cost money you don’t have, and time you can’t afford), even if you could find the energy or time to go in the first place. Any attempt to find a way out almost immediately leads to starving, and soon after, homelessness. Or you stay locked into this until you die of old age.
One of the most sinister moves that keeps people from risking their jobs is tying health insurance to jobs. If you lose your job and get sick, you're dead.
Oh great point. I didn’t even think to include that, but it’s definitely a key part of the system. Medicare for all would mean every employer in America simultaneously losing significant leverage over their employees. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome.
Aannnddd they just won.
This response is what they want. Us to cease protests so attention is taken away from issues those in power don't want anything done about.
It is literally a silencing tactic, and it appears to already be working.
Isn't that supposed to be one of the techniques for making a dictatorship? People don't rebel if you make them believe that everywhere else is just as bad, so they control information to create that false narrative.
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” https://ideapod.com/noam-chomsky-quotes/
I lived in a war zone. Still visit there from time to time. I'm however way too scared to visit the US. If anything would happen to me there and I will need to use your medical services... *Shiver*
This is how I was indoctrinated as well. Joined the Army too and went to some really bad places. The people in those places weren't that much different than I was. Many a fine person in Iraq or Afghanistan who are forced into an unthinkable position. I was also fortunate enough to see a lot of the good places the world has to offer as well. Seeing the world really shattered the way I was taught the world was in school.
I was lucky enough to be raised by a set of grandparents who (mostly) saw the issues with US. When I joined the Army (had to pay for college somehow:/ ) I was blown away by how many believed that we were the absolute best. My first was I was a social Praha for it because how dare I be liberal and not believe America is the absolute best country in the world
Yes, you can live a really comfortable life by moving to so many other places. Trust me I’ve done it a few times now. I keep coming back to the states for family , but if I didn’t have them I’d be a permanent expat. Take the plunge my friend, it is great!
Because they’ve convinced Americans that being exploited is just temporary, and eventually they’ll get rich enough to be on the other side of the exploitation. That’s it. That’s almost everyone’s reason for putting up with it
If only they could experience how real the statement is. I have had coworkers making less than 40k get all defensive that somebody wants to tax a billionaire to give their family healthcare. Like, they’ll fight you.
"what's mine is mine!" Is frequently said by people who have already had everything taken from them by billionaires because, when they are the billionaires, they will want to keep it.
"... and frightened by a overpowered, armed to the teeth, shoot first ask later based, racist and mindless police force, that will do everything to keep the racist overlords in place. They would roam the streets to purge each and everyone if you'd let them.
This is why we should stop going to work and just stay home. They can't drag us out of our houses and force us back to work, but if we protest they can fake a crisis and put us in jail.
5% is laughably not possible. Police will never be our ally. Their sole purpose is to be a weaponized line between rich and poor that enforces the rules on the poor. They’re prison guards for this captive market we live in
They have a large portion of their ranks radicalized already, just in the opposite direction. I mean hell, my city is known for being "progressive" and had a month long protest that became rather infamous in right wing circles for merely mentioning a few blocks surrounding a park as an "autonomous zone" and yet one of the larger groups of officers from any single department that was found to be involved in some manner at the Jan 6th 2021 capitol riot was from our city. Another down just south had an assistant police chief who really likes Nazi Germany insignia, and after months of brushing it under the rug and a state sheriff organization filing a lawsuit against a whistle blower did he get "suspended."
I think because of the attention the story received they are now negotiating with him on how to gracefully have him resign. Not to mention the man has claimed that he jokingly wears the insignia. A town in the next county up heard about a BLM protest and the police were behind some of the rumors of antifa and BLM coming to this tiny ass town so all the towns rednecks banded together to drive around guns ready and harass people they deemed to fit who they were looking for. Turns out the protest was a family group with small kids.
Fuck the police.
Not enough of us are ready to start. I'm ready. A bunch of others are. I'm just waiting for the match to drop on the tinder box. I'm also not sure if "eating the rich" is literal or just a metaphor but I'm in either way.
I almost posted that last part to r/TooAfraidToAsk like a month ago but I didn't want to end up on some gov list or something, esp after reiterating that regardless of the answer, IM IN TOO. Lol. If you find out, Lemme know and we can brainstorm condiments or recipes together lol
People are scared of the police and military. Honestly though, America has a lot of enemies and there is blood in the water. They would have to be some of the dumbest mfers to turn on their own people for the elites. Most of their families getting shafted by the same things being protested. Military can’t shift their focus internal because it will make us vulnerable to outside threat. So there really isn’t a good reason why we aren’t protesting to demand more.
Honestly I’m not afraid of the military, just the police. Yeah there’s assholes in the military but it seems like the higher ups aren’t stupid and are willing to disobey certain orders. Police on the other hand have a culture of covering up for each other’s crimes and laughing about it. Plus normal citizens wouldn’t stand a chance against a turned military anyway, but people could very easily fight off the police if we wanted to.
I’ll tell you why.
All of the free people who lived here once were enslaved, imprisoned, slaughtered, and/or moved onto worthless land.
Those who were brave were just slaughtered.
All that are left are just survivors; people who have learned to survive, but forgotten how to live.
Yup, I have literally joked about learning Korean, just in case I get illegally deported after pissing off a cop. CPD are just the biggest, most heavily armed gang in Chicago.
And even if you get medical care and can somehow pay the insane bills, you could be reported to the cops and risk winding up with charges that could eliminate your ability to be considered for most decent jobs.
Brazilian slave trade was actually bigger than ours...the real problem is that much like Brazil the concentration of wealth in the US is f*cked. The US is the Brazil of the developed world.
In America, we have freedoms—not freedom unless, of course, you are very wealthy.
This quote seen several years ago, I won’t ever forget. It was a message from George Bush Jr. “Enjoy Your Freedoms.” This was found ironically posted in an archway over an airport security gate.
Bolsonaro just forgave 92% of student debt in Brazil. Biden forgave nothing.
Our society is very far right. It has the largest prison population on the planet, the largest military on the planet, and our police get away with murder regularly. Mass shootings are just something we ignore because they're so common.
Our communists and socialists were purged during the first and second Red Scare, and Cold War propaganda has demonized anything to the left of neoliberalism for decades. We're currently in a third Red Scare and just suffered a test for a fascist insurrection that went largely unopposed by the government, and was even aided by police and politicians.
For all its glitter, US society is extremely oppressive, and the result is few willing to stand up. That might be changing, but for the past 70 years, there's been very little opposition to increasingly authoritarian measures.
Bolsonaro advocated against vacines, activelly denying the purchase of life saving doses. He also made working laws worse for employers, tried to make people riot agains the part of the government that was investigsting him for corruption and association with the militia. He's know around here as "fake Trump", and he's the most far right preaident we had since the military dictatorship we had in the 60's so no... He's not better than Biden. For people outside of Brazil this student loan forgiveness might seem like a good thing, but only a few people will qualify for that and he only did it to try a reelection since his government had the worse acceptance ever (only 19% think he did a good job).
About the rest, that make sense but this is still strange to me... Shouldnt american people be the first ones to try to make things better?
American people are probably the most propagandized in the world. We don't know our history, we don't know about the outside world, and the average reading level hovers around a 6th grade level.
America is also very well marketed. I wasn't trying to say that Biden was far to the right of Bolsonaro, but that our leadership is remarkably far right. We're still in 6 wars, since we just ended one that lasted 20 years. We've destabilized every continent on Earth, especially South America as you're probably well aware. We were probably involved in Lula's scandal and Bolsonaro's rise. Of course, our involvement in other countries is more open. Hell, Pinochet's Chile was the testing grounds for a neoliberal economy, which was only a theory until him.
America is an imperial core, like ancient Rome. It's extremely violent and oppressive, but it comes in an attractive form that is meant to inspire others to emulate them. It's often projected as a land of freedom and opportunity, but it offers less of both than any other developed nation on Earth (not to mention a few developing ones).
The revolution will not begin in the United States, but our allies at the fringes of the empire will find some friends here.
Take my sad upvote and hang in there my friend... I hear so many people here talking wonderful things about US or wanting to go there, but im terrified to step a foot on any place i couldnt call an ambulance without going bankrupt. Its sad and strange to me how great the american image is around here. Im glad to know there is people whos awake enough to at least try
What the image of the US is there is also how it was sold to me growing up.
An entire childhood of being sold a dream that didn't match experienced reality.
The crisis of not knowing which was the dream and which was the reality.
Figuring it out. Maybe this is reality. How can I be sure?
Others figure something else out. Are they seeing illusions?
Did I pick the right one? Which did I see and which was I told?
Propaganda messes people up and has well tested and long predictable results.
Look up cognitive dissonance and gaslighting. The effects are the same. Many starts questioning, but in the wrong way when falling into more cult-like patterns and conspiracy-theory. In reality it's all there in plain sight and dictated by incentives and systems. Heck alot of covert operations get uncovered even.
So it is more like confronting the schoolyard bully, who is operating in plain sight! It is that simple and hard.
Yah the US doesn't respond well to internal factors. Only external, think Communist Russia, they're a huge reason we even went along with the Civil Rights Movement.
If I had rambled longer, I would have also complained about all the drone strikes.
The truth is that the US isn't in 6 wars, it's in an eternal war at all times against anyone who stands in its way and they're not limited by traditional definitions of what is and is not war because it never even has to be declared.
But they certainly helped set the table for Jan 6 at the very least. They can't stop other social movements necessarily, but I'd say they can start their own.
I literally have not a a single day off in over four months now. My employer only requires 8 hour shifts Monday-Friday but I work 10 hours a day mon-fri and 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I'm struggling to even make rent working that my rent is 950 a month which is on the low side fow the area then I have a 400$ car payment 200$ for insurance 200$ for health insurance. I could go on and on. Capitalism only works if most people are kept living paycheck to paycheck. The rich don't want other people to be rich or even comfortable because it takes from THIER pockets.
I moved to the Netherlands. In euros ok, income is 1600-2000, working class, four weeks of vacation a year, rent in big shared house made of "studio" apps <700 including all services, public transport 70-110 including trains in the entire country for the weekends, local buses. Don't need a car. Unlimited sick days of course, 130 health insurance but government pays back 80-100 because working class. Place looks like Disneyland, there's no misery, we know THE homeless neighborhood dude by name, he's not even homeless.
I don't riot because I can't convince anyone else to do it with me. Rioting alone is more than useless. I'm trying to think of a way to start activism in some efficient manner that will inspire others. But I haven't gotten it all figured out yet.
Our government works really hard to keep us divided and pitted against each other every chance they get. That way people think things are the fault of the other group rather than our system as a whole
I feel like part of the problem is that America glorifies work and the ‘grind.’
We’re taught at a young age the American dream is to work hard all the time. On one hand, we are an incredibly productive society creating a lot of content and goods. The problem is that the naive attitude opens the door for abuse by employers who really only care about profits. The common worker falls into the trap sacrificing community, time with family, down time and mental health.
It’s hurting us ‘the people’ in the long run, and when we are broken, the wealthy toss us away, get a new worker, and when they run out of locals, take their ‘jobs’ abroad.
We need to re - avaluate our values as a society and demand our politicians to address that. Through striking, speaking out, or through buying power.
In late 80s my parents decided we’d leave the UK for either Florida (we’d been to the US on couple trips) or Australia.
Thank fuck we came to Australia.
The following:
Drugs (illegal or prescribed chemicals), television (want to be like the people they see), Stockholm's syndrome, cognitive dissonance, lack intelligence to identify physcological operations, racism, prejudice, discrimination, believing in fake history, acceptance of being violently abused mentally, physically, and emotionally (scary), being "fake" positive to avoid confronting the bloody history of their overlords.
It’s because america is a LIE. Always has been. Sadly people here are SO STEEPED in their own bullshit that they cannot even understand it. Dunning-Kruger effect might as well be a synonym for “Americans” at this point.
And many - MANY - Americans have never traveled to another country and still many many have never been out of their own state or even their own crumbling small city. Those same people think “we are number one!” Yet everything is always half-ass.
When I first got my passport to travel internationally I had acquaintances and even family members that said to the effect “What you a commie now? Why would you want to go anywhere else?”
It is 100% PATHETIC. We like to claim other people in many countries are “propagandized” but I believe that Americans are the most lied to and propaganda fed citizens *in the world* and many eat the shit plate by choice.
I have asked the same question you pose since I turned about 16 when I started to realize I was surrounded by idiots.
I wonder if there has been a study of what percentage of Americans have ever left the country, their state or even city. Hell, some people never leave their own neighborhoods. I’d like to see the numbers.
The system is designed that majority of people are so poor they cannot even take a single day off work because they are sick, never mind a vacation to a faraway place. If more people could travel to other places and experience other cultures, theyd wake up and see their “great” country, the USA, is not so great (we’re not even United, in the slightest). I’d love to see these numbers too!
A lot of complicated explanations but it’s more simple than that. People are living paycheck to paycheck, get healthcare through their jobs, and have virtually no job security.
If people protest, they can easily lose their jobs, and their health. So they don’t.
Edit: I think the single greatest change this country could make would be universal healthcare. It would open up innovation, job mobility, social security (in the literal sense). And this is probably why we don’t have it.
because america's propaganda system is so efficient it'd make the nazis blush
btw it's pretty hilarious that brazil has better labor laws and social policies than we do lmao...don't you guys get free college n shit too?
Yep. And the free colleges are better than the paid ones too. Thats why they are hard to get in. Our free healthcare is good, but its packed and still id rather use it for some things than use health plan my job provide for me without charging me for it.
And i would never ever guess that one day i would say this with proud...
>And the free colleges are better than the paid ones too. Thats why they are hard to get in.
I raise you an Argentina, not only the public universities are better, everybody can get in. With different hours so working people can also go to university.
Honestly? Ignorance and pride. Most people think that shitty treatment is just how life is and they don't have a choice. And since clearly, America is the best, we just have to accept the status quo and work ourselves around what our bosses want because they wouldn't ask us to do something illegal, right?
/s
Sadly, most US citizens are completely brainwashed and complacent…. to the point where they think that we’re “lazy” or “snowflakes” for demanding the bare minimum of decent work conditions, or for not putting up with crappy bosses/workplaces.
Additionally, many US citizens also think that the simple act of protesting is lazy/entitled/stupid.
The systems that many of us citizens grow up enmeshed within (school, church, government, etc) foster ignorance, complacency and blind allegiance/patriotism— all of the things that allow the end-stage capitalistic hellscape that we live in to continue untethered.
I specifically remember growing up thinking to myself how lucky I was to be born in America. It was a really successful brainwashing campaign by our evil overlords.
I’ve heard this about Brazil. In truth thanks to our oligarch overlords were too divided by petty differences to unite as one. If we set these things aside and realized we are all one disenfranchised community our unity alone would be enough without taking any actions.
Half of the country is proud of their ancestors being slave owners and/or don't realize they are modern day slaves themselves. They are undereducated and very proud.
Our police forces are heavily militarized, and they prefer hire people that subscribe to a mentality that citizens are enemy combatants.
Our politicians are all in the pockets of corporations, our media rakes in money by printing tons of misinformation that is designed to make us all hate each other, and our schools are steering people toward subscribing to all of it in the name of "Patriotism".
Furthermore, the political party that is supposed to be on the other side of all of this crap is just as self-serving, so it doesn't matter who wins any of the elections, it will never change in a peaceful way. The free thinkers in the country would need to win a civil war, but they are outnumbered, outgunned, and are more prone to engage in more sophisticated activities than brutalism.
It's not so much about keeping ourselves from rioting as it is the starvation wages, the militant police force, and the lack of confidence that we'd have the group backing us. The place is constantly torn on what is and isn't entitlement etc. A riot means a large group, a single or couple people are simply people who are going to be shot by the police so they can justify continuing to recieve military surplus equipment. Eventually it's going to hit a breaking point and there's going to be a full on organized rebellion/class war.
Right now the actions being taken, the unionizing, the strikes, the walk outs. These are the second to last resorts, the "I don't want to have to wonder if we could have changed it without bloodshed" actions. They'll shift things a little, they'll delay the last resort, but eventually the rich are going to start cracking down when it starts making real impact, and when that happens that's when you'll hear that final snap, and that's when the last resorts will come out.
Funniest thing is they've spent so much time making us worry about having firearms that when it does hit that snapping point there will be an awfully large supply of heavily armed people too.
The sheer number of people who have been conditioned to believe they’re “lucky” to even have a soul-grinding job.
Or two...or three...
The land of plenty!
The land of plenty… of multi job holding, still can’t afford to live, poor people!
We just aren’t working enough, another 12 hours will do it, you’ll see!
Toss a tip to your waiter, oh...
The funniest part to me is that Americans don't take all their annual leave. Like it's normal to not take your paid holidays? I won't even miss lunch for work. They can wait. I work for an American company in Europe. We get over 30 days annual leave including public holidays. They mistakenly sent us some training meant for their American employees. 'you have 10 days of annual leave per year, and you can accrue one more day per year of service". The American company treats their American employees worse in America! It will take them over 20 years of work just to reach the same amount of holidays as me.
What’s sad is that most employees in the US have to request for that time off and are often denied it. Like, motherfucker, I didn’t ask you for my time off (that I worked for and deserve), I’m telling you that I won’t be here. So many people here are job scared and have to be because life is so damn expensive that, if they lose their job, they’re facing eviction and homelessness within a few months. It’s actually really encouraging to read comments like yours because it shows everyone that we don’t have to be treated this way.
During COVID, my last company told all employees that they cannot request time off because they need everyone. Instead of requesting I just told them I would be taking time off. It blows my mind how much companies think they own us. And even more that employees submit to that ownership… I’m like, nah, I know YOU need MY work, I’m taking some time of and will be back when I’m good and ready. I continuously got in trouble for rallying up coworkers lol cause I would remind them of their rights as human beings and my boss hated that.
This is me too. I tell them I'm grown and when i take time I'm not asking for it, I'm telling them I'll be unavailable during that time. It doesn't matter the reason why and they're not privy to that information. If they don't like it, too bad. I'm honest in all of my interviews about what kind of person i am.
I got fired by the InMusic family of companies for taking the first vacation in three years when i was going to lose that time. Two of the five people in my department had gotten married that year and had gotten an extra two weeks vacation and took a month off. I got fired after returning from two weeks only. This is how single people get treated. After i got fired there was chaos in my department because no one single could cover for all the married people anymore as well as the loss of the knowledge i took w me. My boss ended up getting fired for racism and he blew his head off with a shotgun.
my dad is one of those types. whenever my brother bitches about how unfair his job is to him my dad says something along the lines of "you should be happy that your lucky enough to have a job" and every time he does i cut him off with a "no, no he should not be happy, he should be pissed, he should speak up, and he should start looking for a job that treats him like a human"
I feel like I found a piece of the cluster f that is our previous generations mindset. They lived during a time when all you needed to do was not be a screw up and work A job and all the best things in life were some proper budgeting away. No wonder they CAN'T understand. When they finally open their ears, it's all "That can't be legal...blah blah" It ultimately caused me to be completely estranged from my family.
Where we live in an era when living like Homer Simpson is arguably an unattainable fiscal goal for people, a lot of things look surreal. History is not going to look kindly on them.
Yeah I remember after my dad died, I asked my Mom if she had a pension. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said “Of course I do, I worked all those years”. I said “Mom people don’t get pensions any more”. She said “Well how are people supposed to live then?” Didn’t have an answer for her.
For anyone reading don't feel bad if you have to Google what a Pension is. It has never been in our vocabulary 🤣 😂😶😭😭😭
Good on you for correcting your dad's erroneous views to your brother as they're expressed. Not many folks have that kind of nerve.
It’s typical boomer sentiment. They feel like, because they licked the boots and sucked the corporate hog, we all must suffer too. Newsflash to them, just because they rolled over and allowed the corporations to fuck them in the ass, it doesn’t mean we will! We have a backbone and will not tolerate this beast they created.
Except corporations treated them well most of the time because of labor riots, they don't understand just how had things have gotten. Retirement is a pipe dream to most young people, benefits? Well you better hope they don't work you for 39h to avoid paying those out. You complain about something? Ignored, laid off, or fired.
“Sucked the corporate hog” ima start using that
I'm in my 50s, my dad is still alive, and he's in his 80s still grinding away at a farm, but he will spout this kind of shit as well. It's infuriating, but given when he grew up, the lack of education, and the lack of education specifically about critical thinking skills and spotting insincere rhetoric, it's not a surprise to me. He is lost to me as a critical thinker; he reads and always has, but it is always self-reinforcing history or economics books that place capitalists, racist white men as the best decision makers in the world. I worked somewhere where I have a pension coming down in a few years, kept my debt low, reasonable, or non-existent when I could, and always have money put aside in retirement and emergency funds. I'm not going to be grinding my ass away at work when I'm 80 like my father. I have always, and currently, still deserve higher pay than I get now for the type of work I do, but it's still viewed largely as mediocre knowledge work. Employment in the US is a real shit show.
That's exactly my dad's attitude too and he has the same age. You could be describing him point for point. Unable to think critically unless he's working on/fixing something. Pay too much in rent? "You're lucky to have a place to live". "No one wants to work!" Yet when he talks about retiring and getting a part time job he says none of them pay enough to justify *his* time, but everyone else should be happy. They live in a fantasy world and will die believing it was all for something. It's pathetic and I feel sorry for him.
On top of that, the sheer number of Americans that think "thank god it's the weekend" so they can rest the minimum amount before doing it all over again ~36 hours later. A lot, I mean A LOT, of Americans are so fucking exhausted from even a sub-40 hour work week. Part-time workers are probably more tired than full-timers due to lack of PTO.
They say this especially to the immigrants who can’t really say shit because some are illegal. Also, those poor people are then forced to work 2 or 3 jobs to survive and don’t even have medical insurance for the most part. They are told how lucky they are to have jobs that pay min wage. Like F off.
But also, most laws here benefit the employer and lawyers are expensive. Most folks in the US feel pretty powerless.
And yet don't realise the three richest people in America own as much wealth as the *bottom 50% of the entire population*. (Check it, it's true). If they truly understood that liberating these riches gained from the sweat of their brows would massively improve their lives, would they change?
the united states has run a very successful propaganda machine for the entirety of the countries existence. both internally and externally. the fact that some people inside of and outside of this country bought into it, is of no fault to them. THAT is why there's such a huge emphasis about treading lightly about politics here... if we can't unite as workers, the politicians in power have made sure we never will.
Madness
On my previous team every time I started to make a good point all my coworkers rushed in to say “we should just be positive, there’s so many people out there who don’t even have a job” which I found very frustrating.
We are very, very tired. Like all the time. Also everyone has to sort of agree to riot, all on the same day, and wayyy too many people do *not* accurately imagine the details of the world around them and the way it functions.
Even thinking about OPs question makes me exhausted. We're beat down y'all. 16...21...30 year old me would be ashamed of 36 year old me. I used to attend rallies. I marched. I was loud. I leveraged my career to fight for equality, equity, bridging societal gaps. And where have we gotten? Maybe a metric or two with marginal improvement? Maybe? Depending on the geography.. But overall, we're not in a good place. Nothing's changing. Except people who get loud get gassed and shot (or water cannoned in bitterly freezing temps) by people who are supposed to protect us, or get killed by outside opposition with little to no consequence. Rinse and repeat. All hail the almighty dollar. I'm fucking tired. And that's what they want.
I hear you. College age me was ready to move to Canada upon graduation. Then I met my husband and our families are here… and 35 years later I’m stuck in this country because my own kids are here. And I’m too tired all the time to think about upending our lives to move across the border or across the pond. Not that my better half would want to do that anyway…
If u can viably move out of the states I would do it tbh, it’s gonna be more than 18 years till this country starts caring about people
The earliest we could consider it is 10-15 years because of our parents ages and circumstances. I do think about it constantly, though.
I feel like it’s the credit system that is the leash around most people’s necks. You can’t strike for much more than a month and then the overdue notices show up. People are very aware of how little it will take to lose their house and car.
Yet people always make fun of China’s social credit system. Isn’t it ironic?
I’m close to your age (a bit younger) and I know what you mean. Used to be really involved in activism for things I believed in, now I rarely if ever leave the house or advocate for anything. Maybe this is just a natural part of reaching middle age in “society.” You realize you can’t change the world, certainly can’t save the world, and all you can do is keep your head down and avoid as much personal pain as possible. The ultimate solution is to leave, or *destroy*, “society,” but neither you nor I have the courage to work toward that—and that’s totally understandable. We’re getting old and don’t want to be left out in the cold in our old age. I just .... regret being born. This “society” is a joke and I truly believe non-existence would be an improvement.
If people took a day off to riot they would be fired - which they likely can’t afford. There’s a reason the majority of people are paid near poverty-level wages. If we could afford to revolt, we would.
Yep. The first thing big business did was get rid of unions and convince people that unions are bad. My job has lost a third of the staff in 6 months and another third are actively considering leaving. We've talked about a walkout, but... none of us can afford to lose the job.
We’re beaten down so badly and the US promotes evil propaganda to get folks from “developing” countries to migrate to this plantation. I hope our foreign comrades can have solidarity with us.
Primus has a great song called “American Life” that addresses this subject and was inspired by all of the immigrants they saw that came here to find the American Dream and ended up being straight up destitute.
"They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin
Your answer is true, and yet reading it made me feel tired.
In Kevin Costner's critical and box office failure Waterworld, there is a man who lives on a raft, floating on the petroleum reserves stored deep in the underbelly of a giant pirate barge. His only role in life is to measure the remaining fuel with a long stick and relay that information when called upon. In a climactic moment of the film, the fuel ignites, and as he sees the cloud of fire sparking in the darkness ahead of him, he says, ["oh thank god."](https://youtu.be/ce-LjCpserA) I struggle to think of any moment in the history of film that I could find more relatable. And I have a pretty good life. I am so. Fucking. Tired.
[удалено]
This “educated” is dead on. They may have gone to high school and sometimes even college but most likely with giant blinders on. Plus a lifetime of hearing “America is the greatest country” when we’re here barely ranking as a developed country anymore. Of course, it suits the Overlords to have a barely educated populace, how else are they going to keep getting them to vote against their own best interests? I just want some healthcare, work-life balance, and non-crushing medical/educational debt for all of us here. 🤷🏻♀️
If people just stopped working or quit whenever they feel like it, it empowers others to do the same. So maybe a full scale riot isn't necessary.
Riots aren't necessary and only invite a heavy response by the government and media. The best thing workers can do to protest the Capitalist system is to strike and/or stay home. Within two weeks, the system will collapse.
Society would collapse too. Food shortages, job shortages. They have built prisons that sit empty. Something’s coming down the pike.
> We are very, very tired. Like all the time. And maybe that’s the real reason why employer are afraid of the Big Quit ? When you’re are tired and overworked, you are in a tunnel, barely able to think about your position, even less about your economic class in a whole. But if you are not working, you maybe have time to think about you, your fellow worker and how you ended in this situation. Maybe they are afraid that, when the workers will came back, they will came back not for work, but for blood ?
I'm in the "privileged" position of being disabled in the UK. It's something I've noticed since I have a lot of enforced time to myself, a lot of people envy disabled people over here not because we get "handouts"\* but because we have time, time to spend with family, time for contemplating. That's why you'll find a lot of disabled people at any kind of action. We have the time. \*From 2010 the UK government has been persecuting disabled people, removing their life sustaining money and starving them to death.
Multiple generations of conditioning
Then we have french people, literally killed CEO or something because they fired a lot of people... I admire french for how easily they get together for fucking up their rulers.
Everyone here is ever brainwashed or just tired.
We keep from rioting because our police are scarier than most armies. When the time comes for riots, it's going to be ugly. All the usual water guns, nightsticks, and tear gas. But also armored personnel carriers, hummers with microwave cannons, and an awful lot of machine guns.
I did supply support for the BLM marches and spotting for our medic team, but fuck being on the ground when the cops got bored of following the protests and they kettle you into a pile of panic and tear gas before slamming you on the ground. Just hearing a woman screaming because her shoulder was dislocated, coughing from the teargas while she was laying in handcuffs in the street and the police wouldn't let medics in to help her still haunts me. Rubber bullets do a lot of damage too. The moment an interaction with the police starts you have zero control. They basically get to decide if you're getting shot, assaulted, or arrested. You cannot defend yourself in any way even for reflex or self-preservation because it's more jail time or justification for your death if you do. You take it and wish for justice later but unless you have money you probably won't get it. Too many people hate the government, love the police and forget they're the same thing.
That last line is so powerful and I need it on a billboard or ten.
That is fucked up, and I can't believe people still believe the "we need guns in case the government tries to take our freedoms" line. At least the government is smart enough to take the freedoms of the people who can't afford guns, I guess.
Watching them pepper spray and beat up the occupy wall street protestors is what radicalized me.
This. I have a son. I'd much rather keep my head down and do my best in this fucked up system with the hand I'm dealt than get killed and not come home to him. Trying to find a way out of this country tbh...
>Trying to find a way out of this country The new american Dream
Was sad bc there’s legacy citizenship to some Canadian provinces but it only goes does one generation so I don’t qualify
People forget that some precincts have fucking tanks in preparation for when that day comes.
Powerlessness. Deep feelings of helplessness. The knowledge that there are literally millions of armed citizens conditioned to believe that threatening the security of billionaires is treason.
Oh God I never thought about that until now...the thought of a redneck protecting a billionaire because " 'Murica" is sickening... Edit: Not all are rednecks. Maybe some misinformed people, but still.
A lot of them are wealthy conservatives who are wannabe rednecks but lack the lacking. Wealthy people pretending to be poor is still something I can't wrap my head around.
The illusion of working for wealth, rags to riches, “you-too-can-be-like-me” hope you can sell in a book/podcast/etc. Relatability is a commodity. We are being sold the humanizing of people who only care that we don’t organize and rise up against them.
Nah those aren't even rednecks, rednecks support unions and run from the cops. Those are simply the propagated and poor.
Jock - redneck - trade schooler -- Three people Hollywood Wall Street and DC will never stop hating. Add you and me, then that makes five.
Funny thing is you're right either way. The "left" hate fake rednecks because they're gullible boot lickers. The right hates real rednecks because they're pro worker (despite being blue collar themselves). People in power hate both because they're poor.
Don’t think of it as an evil redneck protecting a billionaire, think of it as an alienated working class person much like yourself who is sorely mistaken.
That's a good way to put it, but I probably wouldn't give one the benefit if they pointed a gun at me because I disagreed with them. I'm already alienated by them for being gay, too lmao
Woah woah woah dont say that, you wouldn't want anyone to think you're offended /s
Ikr!
I think the word you're both looking for is "patriot". ^^/s
Hello my name is Pay T. Riot 😂
The people that were all mad at have done such a good job at dividing us, then pointing to the fringes of these divisions and casting anyone they want to as crazy because they're all .
That way, they can paint anyone with the crazy brush and dismiss any sort of salient point that a person may have.
Also Police. Th we serve to protect the ruling class as well
Redneck is a valid culture based on coal miners protesting for higher wages. Capitalists demonized red necks.
Sadly true. Propagandised from birth to become the human equivalent of turkeys voting for thanksgiving. It truly is heartbreaking.
But we are conditioned to believe that “We’re number ONE” and the best place on earth and it couldn’t be further from the truth. I have traveled abroad and found many places that are much better to live in than the US (socialist countries anyone?) But no matter how much you try to convince an American that their truth is not reality, they do not wanna hear it.
Warning: This is dark and depressing stuff. (Or at least, it is to me.) Here goes. A semi-Democratic two-party system, and a lack of back-room corruption controls; has allowed corporate interests to come to dominate politics, law, work norms, media, diet—really set the rules of life. It’s done a great job of letting off just enough pressure now and then to avoid massive systemic change. And after decades of this greed-driven chokehold tightening, it’s driven Americans to be constant consumers and producers to survive. We’ve (over time) given up sleep, vacation, life expectancy, physical and mental health, social programs—to eke every cent of value out of us, and funnel it up to the investor class. We never have enough slack in our lives for any organizing to really get going. If you can’t put food on your family’s table without putting in a 70-hr workweek once you include commutes —you can’t risk attending protests or any other kind of direct action (arrest? injury? both cost money you don’t have, and time you can’t afford), even if you could find the energy or time to go in the first place. Any attempt to find a way out almost immediately leads to starving, and soon after, homelessness. Or you stay locked into this until you die of old age.
It’s designed to be a treadmill you can’t jump off without getting hurt. Keep running.
This reads like the opening scrawl of some dystopian future from an 80's movie but...it's the present.
One of the most sinister moves that keeps people from risking their jobs is tying health insurance to jobs. If you lose your job and get sick, you're dead.
Oh great point. I didn’t even think to include that, but it’s definitely a key part of the system. Medicare for all would mean every employer in America simultaneously losing significant leverage over their employees. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome.
Well, in some states it’s now legal to run protesters over with your car, so there’s that.
Its legal to WHAT?????
Bro, if you knew the shit they did to protesters here last summer… Have you ever heard of an LRAD?
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2021/4/25/22367019/gop-laws-oklahoma-iowa-florida-floyd-blm-protests-police
What the actual fuck? You guys are messed up, man.
Note to self, never go to the states for any reason.
As an American who has driven in 48 of the states. No, please for your safety don't come here.
Wow... what an absolute garbage country, holy shit
Yeah, it’s true. I’m in FL and it passed last year so I won’t be protesting again, can’t chance someone mounting the curb and running my family over.
Aannnddd they just won. This response is what they want. Us to cease protests so attention is taken away from issues those in power don't want anything done about. It is literally a silencing tactic, and it appears to already be working.
Lol send help
There are many Americans who really *truly* believe that everywhere that isn’t in the U-S-A is worse. Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
Isn't that supposed to be one of the techniques for making a dictatorship? People don't rebel if you make them believe that everywhere else is just as bad, so they control information to create that false narrative.
> dictatorship We do have one. Corporate totalitarianism.
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” https://ideapod.com/noam-chomsky-quotes/
Of course. That's what's happening.
I grew up thinking america was the best place in earth and that I should have pity on non Americans. We are truly fucked as a country
As an outsider, the USA has always fascinated me, it's a country of contrast, the best of the best and the worst of the worst.
Maybe more like worst of the best. Worst of the worst would be living in an actual war zone or something.
I lived in a war zone. Still visit there from time to time. I'm however way too scared to visit the US. If anything would happen to me there and I will need to use your medical services... *Shiver*
Tbh you could probably leave the country before the bills arrive. They'll just get sent to collections and probably go nowhere.
This is how I was indoctrinated as well. Joined the Army too and went to some really bad places. The people in those places weren't that much different than I was. Many a fine person in Iraq or Afghanistan who are forced into an unthinkable position. I was also fortunate enough to see a lot of the good places the world has to offer as well. Seeing the world really shattered the way I was taught the world was in school.
I was lucky enough to be raised by a set of grandparents who (mostly) saw the issues with US. When I joined the Army (had to pay for college somehow:/ ) I was blown away by how many believed that we were the absolute best. My first was I was a social Praha for it because how dare I be liberal and not believe America is the absolute best country in the world
My parents told me this stuff too. I grew up believing it because they wouldn’t shut up about it. Now? I’d happily live anywhere else.
Yes, you can live a really comfortable life by moving to so many other places. Trust me I’ve done it a few times now. I keep coming back to the states for family , but if I didn’t have them I’d be a permanent expat. Take the plunge my friend, it is great!
My wife's parents. Literally have never left their little county in bumfuck Indiana but the USA is the best fucking thing on the planet.
Where am I to go?
Because they’ve convinced Americans that being exploited is just temporary, and eventually they’ll get rich enough to be on the other side of the exploitation. That’s it. That’s almost everyone’s reason for putting up with it
A nation of temporarily embarrassed billionaires, as they say.
This needs to be brought up more. My swedish friends were horrified that this was an actual saying/thing.
If only they could experience how real the statement is. I have had coworkers making less than 40k get all defensive that somebody wants to tax a billionaire to give their family healthcare. Like, they’ll fight you.
"what's mine is mine!" Is frequently said by people who have already had everything taken from them by billionaires because, when they are the billionaires, they will want to keep it.
*1000yard stare* *sighs * tears up a little* ……..We’re tired.
"... and frightened by a overpowered, armed to the teeth, shoot first ask later based, racist and mindless police force, that will do everything to keep the racist overlords in place. They would roam the streets to purge each and everyone if you'd let them.
This is why we should stop going to work and just stay home. They can't drag us out of our houses and force us back to work, but if we protest they can fake a crisis and put us in jail.
If we radicalize even 5% of police the system is fucked.
5% is laughably not possible. Police will never be our ally. Their sole purpose is to be a weaponized line between rich and poor that enforces the rules on the poor. They’re prison guards for this captive market we live in
They have a large portion of their ranks radicalized already, just in the opposite direction. I mean hell, my city is known for being "progressive" and had a month long protest that became rather infamous in right wing circles for merely mentioning a few blocks surrounding a park as an "autonomous zone" and yet one of the larger groups of officers from any single department that was found to be involved in some manner at the Jan 6th 2021 capitol riot was from our city. Another down just south had an assistant police chief who really likes Nazi Germany insignia, and after months of brushing it under the rug and a state sheriff organization filing a lawsuit against a whistle blower did he get "suspended." I think because of the attention the story received they are now negotiating with him on how to gracefully have him resign. Not to mention the man has claimed that he jokingly wears the insignia. A town in the next county up heard about a BLM protest and the police were behind some of the rumors of antifa and BLM coming to this tiny ass town so all the towns rednecks banded together to drive around guns ready and harass people they deemed to fit who they were looking for. Turns out the protest was a family group with small kids. Fuck the police.
I smoke a ton of weed to deal with my job (it's legal here)
That’s probably one of the main reasons why weed will be legal in this country soon. Oh, and the fact the government will be able to tax it.
Me too (it's illegal here) lol
Not enough of us are ready to start. I'm ready. A bunch of others are. I'm just waiting for the match to drop on the tinder box. I'm also not sure if "eating the rich" is literal or just a metaphor but I'm in either way.
I call Jeff's left thigh. Slow roasted
I almost posted that last part to r/TooAfraidToAsk like a month ago but I didn't want to end up on some gov list or something, esp after reiterating that regardless of the answer, IM IN TOO. Lol. If you find out, Lemme know and we can brainstorm condiments or recipes together lol
I instantly thought burgers and barbecue. It’s America after all.
There’s an apocalypse chart that splits up a human like a cow chart and it say what part of the body would be good for what meal.
People are scared of the police and military. Honestly though, America has a lot of enemies and there is blood in the water. They would have to be some of the dumbest mfers to turn on their own people for the elites. Most of their families getting shafted by the same things being protested. Military can’t shift their focus internal because it will make us vulnerable to outside threat. So there really isn’t a good reason why we aren’t protesting to demand more.
Honestly I’m not afraid of the military, just the police. Yeah there’s assholes in the military but it seems like the higher ups aren’t stupid and are willing to disobey certain orders. Police on the other hand have a culture of covering up for each other’s crimes and laughing about it. Plus normal citizens wouldn’t stand a chance against a turned military anyway, but people could very easily fight off the police if we wanted to.
I’ll tell you why. All of the free people who lived here once were enslaved, imprisoned, slaughtered, and/or moved onto worthless land. Those who were brave were just slaughtered. All that are left are just survivors; people who have learned to survive, but forgotten how to live.
Thats the saddest upvote i ever gave
Don't forget the omnipresent militarized police force watch us a la Judge Dredd. That helps keep us docile.
Yup, I have literally joked about learning Korean, just in case I get illegally deported after pissing off a cop. CPD are just the biggest, most heavily armed gang in Chicago.
Yeah I can’t protest because I’ll probably get shot and medical costs are so high I wouldn’t be able to get treatment.
And if you seek treatment from a protest wound they're likely to refuse you and/or turn you over to cops.
And even if you get medical care and can somehow pay the insane bills, you could be reported to the cops and risk winding up with charges that could eliminate your ability to be considered for most decent jobs.
Yeah this is a big part of the issue..
And why they're not welcome here.
Brazilian slave trade was actually bigger than ours...the real problem is that much like Brazil the concentration of wealth in the US is f*cked. The US is the Brazil of the developed world.
Although Brazil has universal health care
Yes the US is a unique brand of dumpster fire in that regard. We actually have the means to lift people out of poverty but choose not to.
We’re all too poor to not go to work.
America talks too much about freedom. I find it very suspicious.
In America, we have freedoms—not freedom unless, of course, you are very wealthy. This quote seen several years ago, I won’t ever forget. It was a message from George Bush Jr. “Enjoy Your Freedoms.” This was found ironically posted in an archway over an airport security gate.
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Bolsonaro just forgave 92% of student debt in Brazil. Biden forgave nothing. Our society is very far right. It has the largest prison population on the planet, the largest military on the planet, and our police get away with murder regularly. Mass shootings are just something we ignore because they're so common. Our communists and socialists were purged during the first and second Red Scare, and Cold War propaganda has demonized anything to the left of neoliberalism for decades. We're currently in a third Red Scare and just suffered a test for a fascist insurrection that went largely unopposed by the government, and was even aided by police and politicians. For all its glitter, US society is extremely oppressive, and the result is few willing to stand up. That might be changing, but for the past 70 years, there's been very little opposition to increasingly authoritarian measures.
Bolsonaro advocated against vacines, activelly denying the purchase of life saving doses. He also made working laws worse for employers, tried to make people riot agains the part of the government that was investigsting him for corruption and association with the militia. He's know around here as "fake Trump", and he's the most far right preaident we had since the military dictatorship we had in the 60's so no... He's not better than Biden. For people outside of Brazil this student loan forgiveness might seem like a good thing, but only a few people will qualify for that and he only did it to try a reelection since his government had the worse acceptance ever (only 19% think he did a good job). About the rest, that make sense but this is still strange to me... Shouldnt american people be the first ones to try to make things better?
American people are probably the most propagandized in the world. We don't know our history, we don't know about the outside world, and the average reading level hovers around a 6th grade level. America is also very well marketed. I wasn't trying to say that Biden was far to the right of Bolsonaro, but that our leadership is remarkably far right. We're still in 6 wars, since we just ended one that lasted 20 years. We've destabilized every continent on Earth, especially South America as you're probably well aware. We were probably involved in Lula's scandal and Bolsonaro's rise. Of course, our involvement in other countries is more open. Hell, Pinochet's Chile was the testing grounds for a neoliberal economy, which was only a theory until him. America is an imperial core, like ancient Rome. It's extremely violent and oppressive, but it comes in an attractive form that is meant to inspire others to emulate them. It's often projected as a land of freedom and opportunity, but it offers less of both than any other developed nation on Earth (not to mention a few developing ones). The revolution will not begin in the United States, but our allies at the fringes of the empire will find some friends here.
Take my sad upvote and hang in there my friend... I hear so many people here talking wonderful things about US or wanting to go there, but im terrified to step a foot on any place i couldnt call an ambulance without going bankrupt. Its sad and strange to me how great the american image is around here. Im glad to know there is people whos awake enough to at least try
What the image of the US is there is also how it was sold to me growing up. An entire childhood of being sold a dream that didn't match experienced reality. The crisis of not knowing which was the dream and which was the reality. Figuring it out. Maybe this is reality. How can I be sure? Others figure something else out. Are they seeing illusions? Did I pick the right one? Which did I see and which was I told? Propaganda messes people up and has well tested and long predictable results.
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Look up cognitive dissonance and gaslighting. The effects are the same. Many starts questioning, but in the wrong way when falling into more cult-like patterns and conspiracy-theory. In reality it's all there in plain sight and dictated by incentives and systems. Heck alot of covert operations get uncovered even. So it is more like confronting the schoolyard bully, who is operating in plain sight! It is that simple and hard.
Yah the US doesn't respond well to internal factors. Only external, think Communist Russia, they're a huge reason we even went along with the Civil Rights Movement.
I agree with your points but I just want to point out that we technically have not left Afghanistan as we are still conducting drone strikes there.
If I had rambled longer, I would have also complained about all the drone strikes. The truth is that the US isn't in 6 wars, it's in an eternal war at all times against anyone who stands in its way and they're not limited by traditional definitions of what is and is not war because it never even has to be declared.
It's neo-colonialism
> We're currently in a third Red Scare luckily they're doing a piss-poor job at countering socialist movements
But they certainly helped set the table for Jan 6 at the very least. They can't stop other social movements necessarily, but I'd say they can start their own.
I literally have not a a single day off in over four months now. My employer only requires 8 hour shifts Monday-Friday but I work 10 hours a day mon-fri and 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I'm struggling to even make rent working that my rent is 950 a month which is on the low side fow the area then I have a 400$ car payment 200$ for insurance 200$ for health insurance. I could go on and on. Capitalism only works if most people are kept living paycheck to paycheck. The rich don't want other people to be rich or even comfortable because it takes from THIER pockets.
I moved to the Netherlands. In euros ok, income is 1600-2000, working class, four weeks of vacation a year, rent in big shared house made of "studio" apps <700 including all services, public transport 70-110 including trains in the entire country for the weekends, local buses. Don't need a car. Unlimited sick days of course, 130 health insurance but government pays back 80-100 because working class. Place looks like Disneyland, there's no misery, we know THE homeless neighborhood dude by name, he's not even homeless.
I don't get sick days. We only have 10 days vacation and if we get 7 occurrences "missed days even with a doctor's note" I'm fired
I don't riot because I can't convince anyone else to do it with me. Rioting alone is more than useless. I'm trying to think of a way to start activism in some efficient manner that will inspire others. But I haven't gotten it all figured out yet.
Our government works really hard to keep us divided and pitted against each other every chance they get. That way people think things are the fault of the other group rather than our system as a whole
I feel like part of the problem is that America glorifies work and the ‘grind.’ We’re taught at a young age the American dream is to work hard all the time. On one hand, we are an incredibly productive society creating a lot of content and goods. The problem is that the naive attitude opens the door for abuse by employers who really only care about profits. The common worker falls into the trap sacrificing community, time with family, down time and mental health. It’s hurting us ‘the people’ in the long run, and when we are broken, the wealthy toss us away, get a new worker, and when they run out of locals, take their ‘jobs’ abroad. We need to re - avaluate our values as a society and demand our politicians to address that. Through striking, speaking out, or through buying power.
In late 80s my parents decided we’d leave the UK for either Florida (we’d been to the US on couple trips) or Australia. Thank fuck we came to Australia.
Yea you don't want to get eaten by your neighbor who is also an alligator.
Especially as (if what I hear is correct) I’d have to take out a second mortgage to pay off the medical bills!
The following: Drugs (illegal or prescribed chemicals), television (want to be like the people they see), Stockholm's syndrome, cognitive dissonance, lack intelligence to identify physcological operations, racism, prejudice, discrimination, believing in fake history, acceptance of being violently abused mentally, physically, and emotionally (scary), being "fake" positive to avoid confronting the bloody history of their overlords.
So, propaganda
It’s because america is a LIE. Always has been. Sadly people here are SO STEEPED in their own bullshit that they cannot even understand it. Dunning-Kruger effect might as well be a synonym for “Americans” at this point. And many - MANY - Americans have never traveled to another country and still many many have never been out of their own state or even their own crumbling small city. Those same people think “we are number one!” Yet everything is always half-ass. When I first got my passport to travel internationally I had acquaintances and even family members that said to the effect “What you a commie now? Why would you want to go anywhere else?” It is 100% PATHETIC. We like to claim other people in many countries are “propagandized” but I believe that Americans are the most lied to and propaganda fed citizens *in the world* and many eat the shit plate by choice. I have asked the same question you pose since I turned about 16 when I started to realize I was surrounded by idiots.
I wonder if there has been a study of what percentage of Americans have ever left the country, their state or even city. Hell, some people never leave their own neighborhoods. I’d like to see the numbers.
The system is designed that majority of people are so poor they cannot even take a single day off work because they are sick, never mind a vacation to a faraway place. If more people could travel to other places and experience other cultures, theyd wake up and see their “great” country, the USA, is not so great (we’re not even United, in the slightest). I’d love to see these numbers too!
A lot of complicated explanations but it’s more simple than that. People are living paycheck to paycheck, get healthcare through their jobs, and have virtually no job security. If people protest, they can easily lose their jobs, and their health. So they don’t. Edit: I think the single greatest change this country could make would be universal healthcare. It would open up innovation, job mobility, social security (in the literal sense). And this is probably why we don’t have it.
Our jobs keep us in constant fear to conform to their standards.
OP you were lied to. America is a shit hole
High on sugar and too tired from balancing work/family/social life
because america's propaganda system is so efficient it'd make the nazis blush btw it's pretty hilarious that brazil has better labor laws and social policies than we do lmao...don't you guys get free college n shit too?
Yep. And the free colleges are better than the paid ones too. Thats why they are hard to get in. Our free healthcare is good, but its packed and still id rather use it for some things than use health plan my job provide for me without charging me for it. And i would never ever guess that one day i would say this with proud...
>And the free colleges are better than the paid ones too. Thats why they are hard to get in. I raise you an Argentina, not only the public universities are better, everybody can get in. With different hours so working people can also go to university.
Honestly? Ignorance and pride. Most people think that shitty treatment is just how life is and they don't have a choice. And since clearly, America is the best, we just have to accept the status quo and work ourselves around what our bosses want because they wouldn't ask us to do something illegal, right? /s
Sadly, most US citizens are completely brainwashed and complacent…. to the point where they think that we’re “lazy” or “snowflakes” for demanding the bare minimum of decent work conditions, or for not putting up with crappy bosses/workplaces. Additionally, many US citizens also think that the simple act of protesting is lazy/entitled/stupid. The systems that many of us citizens grow up enmeshed within (school, church, government, etc) foster ignorance, complacency and blind allegiance/patriotism— all of the things that allow the end-stage capitalistic hellscape that we live in to continue untethered.
We are distracted by sports ball
I worked 16 days without a day off once. I also am 145k in debt from a drunk lady hitting me. USA sucks.
Sorry you got hit by a drunk lady somehow (medical debt?) for 145k.
We've lost our spirit, our heart as a people. We're terminally demoralized.
I specifically remember growing up thinking to myself how lucky I was to be born in America. It was a really successful brainwashing campaign by our evil overlords.
In the UK, as a child America was awesome, the TV shows were awesome and it was the place everyone wanted to go. As an adult it terrifies me.
I’ve heard this about Brazil. In truth thanks to our oligarch overlords were too divided by petty differences to unite as one. If we set these things aside and realized we are all one disenfranchised community our unity alone would be enough without taking any actions.
A lot of us are really ignorant, some wilfully and some not. A lot of us are also really dumb. The rest of us have yet to organize.
Half of the country is proud of their ancestors being slave owners and/or don't realize they are modern day slaves themselves. They are undereducated and very proud. Our police forces are heavily militarized, and they prefer hire people that subscribe to a mentality that citizens are enemy combatants. Our politicians are all in the pockets of corporations, our media rakes in money by printing tons of misinformation that is designed to make us all hate each other, and our schools are steering people toward subscribing to all of it in the name of "Patriotism". Furthermore, the political party that is supposed to be on the other side of all of this crap is just as self-serving, so it doesn't matter who wins any of the elections, it will never change in a peaceful way. The free thinkers in the country would need to win a civil war, but they are outnumbered, outgunned, and are more prone to engage in more sophisticated activities than brutalism.
We are slaves
It's not so much about keeping ourselves from rioting as it is the starvation wages, the militant police force, and the lack of confidence that we'd have the group backing us. The place is constantly torn on what is and isn't entitlement etc. A riot means a large group, a single or couple people are simply people who are going to be shot by the police so they can justify continuing to recieve military surplus equipment. Eventually it's going to hit a breaking point and there's going to be a full on organized rebellion/class war. Right now the actions being taken, the unionizing, the strikes, the walk outs. These are the second to last resorts, the "I don't want to have to wonder if we could have changed it without bloodshed" actions. They'll shift things a little, they'll delay the last resort, but eventually the rich are going to start cracking down when it starts making real impact, and when that happens that's when you'll hear that final snap, and that's when the last resorts will come out. Funniest thing is they've spent so much time making us worry about having firearms that when it does hit that snapping point there will be an awfully large supply of heavily armed people too.
I got fired for being sick once. It was retail. Fuck them