A society in which it’s everyone for themselves, that refuses to care for one another, is no society at all. Then everyone acts shocked and horrified at someone who understandably snaps, like modern western culture doesn’t run entirely on schadenfreude.

That was the crux of the idea of a social contract, which is long dead in the US. Now people line up to revel in the suffering of their fellow citizens with “well you were stupid to do xyz in life, so you deserve your suffering haha.”

  • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    This isn’t common amongst all Americans. Just a loud minority. It’s also overly emphasized on social media as well.

    • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Yeah, well the majority aren’t voting for politicians that would enact a UBI, or rebuild the safetynet we actively, jubilantly destroyed as a nation in the 80s and 90s under Democrats and Republicans. Our current President was a major player in that when he was in Congress then, including putting a lot of poor minorities in prison to boost for profit prisons.

      I’m not just talking about rhetoric, I’m talking about actions as a society. A vocal minority didnt make both of our only 2 major political parties work exclusively for the haves against the have nothings.

      • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        the actions of corrupt leadership decades ago are not the same thing as the entire populace being unredeemable.

        • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.worldOP
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          11 months ago

          You say that as if they (the plutocrats that own you and I) could destroy it twice. They moved on to fully legalizing political bribery. Until undone, they don’t need to do that twice either. Now they’re unhappy with the reproduction rate of their capital batteries, so bye bye abortion “rights.”

          The corrupt politicians convinced the people to give the rich people their share in hopes that it’ll get urinated back on them with interest. Our institutions have been captured, political bribery is legal. The people arent unredeemable, the current system that oppresses them is. We can stretch that pain out over generations, or we can stop playing the torturer’s sick game.

          • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            I can’t tell if you’re even trying to support your original claim in the actual post anymore. Is this a complaint about society or the government institution. They are not the same.

          • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            again, you’re talking about everyone being terrible people because of corrupt leadership.

            • kugel7c@feddit.de
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              11 months ago

              No he’s talking about Systems being terrible, not only because of their current leadership but by their design. Not everyone is terrible but we all get pushed to be terrible by a system that is terrible for all but the most fortunate.

              • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                That’s not what the original post claims though. It’s fine if it’s about systems, but then they should clarify their post.

      • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Our political system pretty much ensures radical progressives can’t get elected. Voting for someone who supports UBI could put a far-right extremist in office. This type of situation led to Trump. Pretending like people vote for what they want the most and not intelligently voting to stop something worse is extremely naive. If this is the foundation of your reasoning, it’s 100% faulty. I’m not saying it doesn’t have merit on certain points, but you can’t build a house on a foundation of sand.