The article is certainly firebranding, but the core tenet strikes a valid point: how has the US lost the plot within such a short time? How did it go from the flag bearer of freedom and progress to isolationist bully that wants to invade Greenland and become best friends with Russia?

From the outside it is really hard to comprehend. Was it FoxNews that poisoned the American mind or the social media brainwashing? How can a society allow a billionaire to cut programs in Africa that saved hundreds of thousands of lives that cost pennies when compared to any military adventures.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> how has the US lost the plot within such a short time? How did it go from the flag bearer of freedom and progress to isolationist bully that wants to invade Greenland and become best friends with Russia?

American culture has lost its near-monopoly on optimism. We're now almost as cynical as the Europeans. (:D)

That cynicism means civic disengagement, technological doomerism and general symptoms of depression. That collectively degrades the mostly bottom-up structures we've long relied on, requiring shifts to less-efficient (and hastily cobbled together) top-down command structures.

	▲	DangitBobby 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I disagree that the loss of optimism is causative. I've lost my optimism because I've seen what we're capable of as a country and it's not reassuring.
	▲	sillyfluke an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		>That cynicism means civic disengagement By what metric? You have to go through Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, and a few Eastern european countries before you get to the US on voter turnout. Not to mention labor unions striking as a form of political protest (eg Italian labor unions striking against the Gaza war). And depression prevalence also seems to be higher in the US. Did you mean worse than Europe instead of "almost as" bad?

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kzrdude 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It hasn't been a short time, it's been a gradual process. I would look for example at the trust in congress over time.

https://www.pew.org/en/trend/archive/fall-2024/americans-dee...

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Jtarii 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It seems like the US never really reovered fully from the Civil War, and the undercurrent of racism has just been allowed to fully come to the surface with social media.

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direwolf20 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

America has never been that. With everyone having access to apps like TikTok, the brainwashing stopped working as well and people can see that it isn't.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> with everyone having access to apps like TikTok, the brainwashing stopped

The ad-powered social media addiction stopped brainwashing?

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direwolf20 3 hours ago | parent [-]

TikTok was a Chinese app that had no qualms against showing Americans what their country does.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> TikTok was a Chinese app that had no qualms against shooting Americans what their country does

If one wanted deeply pessimistic takes on America and Americans, there has been a media market for that since at least the advent of cable news. Mistaking TikTok, one expression of a phenomenon, for the general trend is mistaking a tree for a forest.

	▲	iamnothere 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There has historically been a lot of US-critical content manufactured by the US, which normally deflects criticism towards individual failings, external enemies, or surrogate political effigies. A few examples: Falling Down, Bulworth, American Beauty, all the other 90s/00s media critical of suburbia, 24, The Daily Show. Most of these are left-coded, I’m not as familiar with the right-coded stuff (I usually tuned it out) but from what I can tell it’s usually aimed against foreigners and weak/effiminate liberals. 2010s/20s race activism made “white people” into the effigy for the first time, but that’s still a deflection. Pre-sale TikTok was the first time that a mirror was held up to US politics from a global perspective, where the masses could get a less fitered and channeled understanding of how they are seen by the world. (Reddit provided this previously but it has fewer users and less impact.) As much as I hate TikTok and short videos, it had a big impact. There’s a reason that they forced the sale. Domestic control of mass media consumption is the primary method by which public opinion is shaped within the US.
	▲	keybored an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Cable News America-criticism? Is that when a gaggle of millionaires complain about either the racists in Middle America/how liberals smell like Europeans? Then someone blurts out, Dangit, We’re Americans, We’ve been slipping these pasts five minutes at being the bravest and most freedom-loving people, God Bless. To roaring or prompted applause.

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forgetfreeman 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

America has absolutely been all of that and more within living memory. The problem is it's getting to the point where you need to be pushing 50 to remember a time when this was the case.