So Ponpeo wants to run for POTUS in 2024, does he?
He should never be allowed to forget he was the architect of the " peace treaty" with the Taliban while freezing the legitimate Afghan government out of the process.
@Darkenyght1701
#politics #republicans #worldaffairs #US
What can the rest of the countries around the world think of America now?
Not only did trump get in the White House, but he brought in the red hoard. Then the Big Lie & attempted coup d'etat on Jan 6th.
2 YEARS LATER NONE OF THE KEY PLAYERS ARE IN PRISON.
And we've elected even more fascist, sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-everything that are supposed to serve their constituents, but are bought & paid for by special interests.
@QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
I can tell you, as an expat, that the democratic countries around the world are extremely anxious about the future and what's going on in America. The authoritarian governments are patiently optimistic that Fascism will return to American "leadership" and thus weaken its international power and democratic influence. #US #Politics #WorldAffairs
@OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
I am expat as well and to see the US from outside is very disturbing to many. The US is no longer looked upon as a leader and example for the world but rather somewhat of a joke. Speaking to friends here, locals, they don't understand how it could have happened. #politics
@sghamel @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
It happened because half of us can’t be bothered to vote. We get the government we deserve.
@LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701 I would say that your statement is mostly true. Media had a big part in it though. They do tell stories now as much as they tell facts. Not all but most of them. The people I talk to here though cannot understand why the US just believes what they hear. It's sad really.
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
"Why the US just believes what they hear."
Well, that certainly requires a not-insignificant social history of the USA to begin to explain (...er, no time to explain -- to sum up... 😉 ). We've invented a whole SERIES of founding mythologies that don't hold up to scrutiny but make ppl feel good, from the Geo. Washington/cherry tree fable to Manifest Destiny and "American Exceptionalism." ++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
2/ AND, the discomfort of questioning ANY or most of it is what's given rise to the #CRTPanic and all the religious "rights" cases and laws that are, in reality, an attempt for people of a very specific flavor of religion to impose their beliefs on others.
It's the #ToxicMasculinity eruptions.
It's every kind of anti-diversity backlash.
Because if one questions any of it, one might have to question all of it. And...?
++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
3/ And then?
We run into how abysmally badly Americans do nuance and grey areas. Sure, not all of us, but too many. As a culture, we are an all-or-nothing people.
And for people for whom absolutism is comforting, our history and those founding myths and the primacy of BELIEF over KNOWLEDGE means that it's FAR easier to buy into BS that reinforces what they WANT to be true than to risk undermining received "wisdoms." ++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
5/
the Colonial period. It's why a "stock" character in entertainment of the last 50-100 years has continued to be some guy who doesn't believe in your "fancy book-learnin'." While that character isn't necessarily the "hero," he usually ends up being on the winning side and sometimes unwittingly saves the day in some way. While the character who IS the studious type is more likely to be mocked and, perhaps, reviled.
++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
6/
The comparative recent-ness of the US' founding and then geographic (and cultural) expansion means that not only are our myths (and the values that they reflect) much closer to the present day, it's also much more recently true that the ability to sow & reap, build something or kill one's food meant the difference between survival or not.
Cultures with a longer historical memory had much longer to build... ++
@CLManussier @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
Sorry everyone but I had to go out and came back to many conversations. If I didn't get to yours you are welcome to catch me up with a question but I will read through them asap.
#politics
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
7/
traditions around & classes of people above or separate from that dependence on survival skills. It's why we ALSO have such difficulty getting away from rhetoric around the "realness" of work or manhood or being an American. All the crap we hear in commercials for pick-up trucks or the mock battle that is the NFL.
There's a whole soup of cultural reasons why a TERRIFYING number of Americans are ... ++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
8/
unable and/or unwilling to recognize the lies they are being told by grifters and political extremists who DO NOT have their best interests' at heart, but who are actively conning and manipulating them.
I've said since end of 2016, or maybe not until early '17 that con artists KNOW THEIR MARKS. If you can spot the con, you were never the mark for that particular scam.
We are all susceptible... ++
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
9/
to SOME kind of con, so we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back TOO hard.
But, THIS con involves an existential threat to our very future AND, by dint of our size and the last century of international influence, the futures of many others beyond our shores.
It's DEEPLY frustrating for the rest of us & for those seeing this from afar. But that so many in our culture are part of the problem is sadly no surprise. /##
@sghamel @LnzyHou @OldCountryDoctor @QueenOfEverything @Darkenyght1701
4/
Because one of the ingredients in those founding myths is the whole "anyone can make it with enough grit/effort/determination."
While that's clearly garbage, it was part of the thing that made crossing an ocean to a "new" world (for those who chose to do so, and even for a few who had it imposed on them) seem a better option than the status quo.
It's why the anti-intellectual strain here goes ALL THE WAY BACK to ++