86 points

Because powerful people turned politics from a policy / representation in to politics as an identity. People will almost anything for their two minutes of hate.

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31 points

religion is a big part of it. how many millions of people only vote for the candidate who promises to criminalize abortion without knowing (or caring about) a single other goddamn thing about the person

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6 points

I’m going to start a 3rd party. This party is going to be the “Fuck America” party. My party is going to run on the ideals that America is awful, and that trump is not a problem, he’s a symptom. America is the one who overwhelmingly approved of his ideas. I’m going to openly state FUCK GOD, THERE IS NO GOD. I’m going to take the stance of FUCK EVERYBODY. You guys want to argue about if boys and girls and trans should all be allowed to play high school sports together? Ok, here’s what we’re going to do, assholes. Boys and girls and trans can all play on the same teams together now. BUT!!! Every school district will also have one new team. This team won’t have students on it. You want to play basketball with boys and girls and trans, that’s fine, but we’re going to also make you play games against professional athletes who are trying to qualify for the national olympic teams. Why? Because then no matter which high school team you’re on, you lose. Everybody loses. That’s the message here. Equality for all, and fuck all of you because humans are the worst.

Then I hear people argueing about abortions. Can a woman have an abortion, or is it against gods will? You know what? Fuck that! Forced abortions for men. All men will now have their balls smashed by the youtube show Hydrolic Press. We put all your balls into the hydrolic press, and let an industrial size piece of machinery squish them flat. No more babies.

And as for women, we’re going to treat you equally too! No more opening the doors for you, or holding your chair. No more weddings, or divorce. No more considering your opinion on stuff. What? You thought when a bunch of guys get together, we all sit around and consider each others feelings? No. We wrestle each other and punch each other to decide where we’re going to eat that night. Doesn’t matter if your vegan, we’re eating at a place called gut busters meat emporium. Because Steve, with the biggest bicepts broke your nose, and you were too much of a pussy to get up and punch back.

Dogs are now manditory in government. Every government position is now held by a dog, because dogs are better than people, and they’re the only good boys!

…what? Why is everybody staring at me? Oh my god, was I talking outloud?

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4 points

At first I was going to ask if you were okay.

But then I got to the dogs and realized that I’d like to sign up to your newsletter.

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3 points

Republicans didn’t start caring about abortion until they decided they could go after the Catholic vote. Even Evangelicals didn’t have a position on it until Republicans started to target them with misinformation about it. Those people think that they literally take screaming babies and putting them into a blender. There’s a video they made in the 80s called “the silent scream” that they used to scare kids with.

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32 points

“I might be rich one day”

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249 points

Because the rich control an overwhelming amount of the media we consume. They are capable of shaping the narrative to their benefit.

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156 points

They also successfully killed public education, so literally the citizens are too stupid to understand they’re being conned.

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73 points

This is the most important part.

And also they push religion hard which is inherently a system of control for the uneducated and exploited.

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53 points
*

Not just control, but Christianity specifically (as well as a few others) is really good because it promises a paradise after you die.

You can get idiot plebes to spend their whole lives dreaming about it all being better after they die, because they were pious and accepted abuse during life.

So, control through fear and hope.

EDIT: Also Christianity is inherently misogynistic and that’s very appealing to disaffected young men who hate that women won’t fuck them. Angry young men with no direction or group to belong to are one of the most dangerous and destabilizing groups a country can have.

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0 points

I was an atheist for the last 20 years and recently converted to Unitarian Universalist.

I would say that in the west, this characterization tends to be true. But I do think there are honest faith communities acting with good intent. Unfortunately, there are few.

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I must’ve fallen through the cracks, because I went through the American education system and I’m not completely stupid.

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18 points
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It’s more that the system itself just leaves more and more children behind, as passing kids who aren’t actually making the grade has become the norm because parents are abusive and more apt to harass/harangue and schools are pressured with funding to make sure enough kids are graduating. Teachers themselves are left with few options and there’s still bright kids, they’re just waaaaay in the minority compared to the apparently teeming masses of absolute fuckwits.

Also, I’m in my 40’s and when I think of the quality and intelligence of the people I graduated with? Well, maybe it hasn’t gotten that much worse, actually. Because I remember thinking everyone around me was a fucking idiot, tempering that thought as I got older, but now I’ve come back full fucking circle to these people are fucking idiots, raising other idiots.

If kids are dumb today, millennials are on the hook for it, boomers didn’t do this one.

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9 points

“There’s no educating a smart boy.”

— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time (Discworld, #26)

GNU Sir Terry

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2 points

…well…

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7 points

Probably the exception to the rule. I did as well, and constantly find myself at a loss for how it simply doesn’t occur to most people to stop and think about something for a split second as opposed to just impulsively doing whatever.

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4 points
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And, social media, these days nearly as important, if not more important.

You (very understandably) hear a lot about state-sponsored (especially Russian) astroturfing, but very little about billionaire and company sponsored astroturing, which is very much a thing.

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15 points
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Informed consent: People are not against exploitation. They just want to switch sides. Why would you vote for something that cripples you once you got rich?

Uninformed consent: They honestly believe they are voting for their own interests.

Indifferent consent: Usually single issue or ideology-driven voter.

¯⁠\⁠_⁠༼⁠ ⁠•́⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠•̀⁠ ⁠༽⁠_⁠/⁠¯

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3 points

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