Just an American full of dread over here

[ErinKC]

It flipped by quite a margin due to Labour being taken over by activists too far to the left installing a puppet leader more aligned to the far left. Your average working class person is more to the centre. So the hated Conservative party ended up closer to them than the party created for the working classes.

This is exactly what happened here. Blue collar union workers were solidly democrat for decades until the left completely abandoned them because they took them for granted and just presumed their support. Clinton didn't even visit some big union states during her run against Trump and he completely capitalized on the fact that they'd all moved on and forgotten about "real Americans." So, Trump - a New York City millionaire - somehow became the resident man of the people! He knew exactly who to target and how, and that's why he did so well.

I'm sorry to hear about your mom!

[ErinKC]

There's too much to worry about in the world, and I don't have the mental capacity to worry over it all. So I'd rather bury my head in the sand. Until it affects me personally, or my family, I don't care anymore. For my own sanity.

This is the only way, I think. I also have slowly gotten rid of all social media over the last few years. I ditched facebook during the 2016 election because it was all too much even back then. You're right that we're all just pawns in this broken system and there's really not much we can do so what's the point of worrying!

[Lencoboy]

While it pains me to say this, I can sense a lot of defeatist remarks in this particular thread.

Obviously it's everyone's own personal choice, but us simply giving up on nearly everything, burying our heads in the sand and simply accepting that nearly everything's going to get worse and worse and we're basically powerless to do anything IMO is part of the problem and not the answer, even though they all obviously seems like the easiest options right now.

Also of course what doesn't help is the fact that many of us on both sides of the Atlantic are so set in our ways and also stuck in our own little worlds to really care about many issues that could possibly even affect us personally as well, including issues like climate change, and pandering to the non-believers in order to keep the peace, and inadvertently to win votes.

However, I agree with the remarks about ditching social media, which can certainly amplify the so-called 'mean world syndrome' and encourage the habitual doomscrollers even further down the rabbit holes.

Also, I wonder if the 'Generalised Anxiety Disorder' (GAD) sub-section might be a more appropriate place for this particular thread?

[Lencoboy]

While it pains me to say this, I can sense a lot of defeatist remarks in this particular thread.

Obviously it's everyone's own personal choice, but us simply giving up on nearly everything, burying our heads in the sand and simply accepting that nearly everything's going to get worse and worse and we're basically powerless to do anything IMO is part of the problem and not the answer, even though they all obviously seems like the easiest options right now.

Also of course what doesn't help is the fact that many of us on both sides of the Atlantic are so set in our ways and also stuck in our own little worlds to really care about many issues that could possibly even affect us personally as well, including issues like climate change, and pandering to the non-believers in order to keep the peace, and inadvertently to win votes.

However, I agree with the remarks about ditching social media, which can certainly amplify the so-called 'mean world syndrome' and encourage the habitual doomscrollers even further down the rabbit holes.

Also, I wonder if the 'Generalised Anxiety Disorder' (GAD) sub-section might be a more appropriate place for this particular thread?

Perhaps I may have been a little harsh with some of my words, which I sincerely apologise for, but on the other hand I agree that it can seem like a 'damned if do, damned if don't' no-win situation for many of us.

Another big issue is we're now basically oversaturated with constant 24/7 rolling media which can inevitably lead to fatigue, unlike before the latter half of the 90s when we still only had news bulletins on TV at set times throughout the day.

Sometimes less was /is truly more!

[ErinKC]

Perhaps I may have been a little harsh with some of my words, which I sincerely apologise for, but on the other hand I agree that it can seem like a 'damned if do, damned if don't' no-win situation for many of us.

Another big issue is we're now basically oversaturated with constant 24/7 rolling media which can inevitably lead to fatigue, unlike before the latter half of the 90s when we still only had news bulletins on TV at set times throughout the day.

Sometimes less was /is truly more!

Not harsh at all, Lencoboy! A struggle a lot with the competing interests of wanting to do my part to make the world a better place and wanting to hide away and just protect my own mental health. I spent a long time as a macro person. I got a masters in National Security years ago and worked for the federal government. But I got so disenchanted and cynical over the years about any person’s ability to actually make a difference. Now I’m 40 and I just finished law school and feel like I’m better suited to serve one client at a time. To make the world better in a more micro way. But it’s hard to be an informed citizen and also stop myself from trying to do something.

[Lencoboy]

Not harsh at all, Lencoboy! A struggle a lot with the competing interests of wanting to do my part to make the world a better place and wanting to hide away and just protect my own mental health. I spent a long time as a macro person. I got a masters in National Security years ago and worked for the federal government. But I got so disenchanted and cynical over the years about any person’s ability to actually make a difference. Now I’m 40 and I just finished law school and feel like I’m better suited to serve one client at a time. To make the world better in a more micro way. But it’s hard to be an informed citizen and also stop myself from trying to do something.

It also seems that we've become more of a 'walk on by'/'brush under the carpet' society over the past 25 years or so where many 'higher-ups' in particular seem to have developed an 'oh just have it your own way then' kind of attitude, especially in order to 'keep the peace', which sometimes does more harm than good in the long run.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It also seems that we've become more of a 'walk on by'/'brush under the carpet' society over the past 25 years or so where many 'higher-ups' in particular seem to have developed an 'oh just have it your own way then' kind of attitude, especially in order to 'keep the peace', which sometimes does more harm than good in the long run.

That's a bit like the decline in people being more connected in the community like how we don't know our neighbours much anymore. But it's not all bad or there wouldn't be so many good people in the world who do help each other.

I saw an article about how the Doomsday Clock is the closest to midnight ever (just as we have many times before ) and couldn't help thinking Trump!

[Lencoboy]

I saw an article about how the Doomsday Clock is the closest to midnight ever (just as we have many times before ) and couldn't help thinking Trump!

Yep, sounds like loads of bluffing once again from Dollard! Nothing from that guy's big trap really shocks nor surprises me anymore.

You're correct about the 'Doomsday Clock many times before' thing, or much rather, 'crying wolf' many times before!

[ErinKC]

That's a bit like the decline in people being more connected in the community like how we don't know our neighbours much anymore. But it's not all bad or there wouldn't be so many good people in the world who do help each other.

My husband and I talk a lot about the lack of cohesion in society. I do agree there are still plenty of very good people doing good things, but there is a lost sense of commonality. We think about it a lot in terms of seemingly insignificant things like entertainment and pop culture. My husband and I grew up in different places and didn't meeting until college, but we have so many shared childhood memories because of watching the same TV shows and seeing the same commercials, etc. There was something importantly cohesive, I think, about everyone sitting down to watch prime time TV together or wait for the big season finale, or wait for the next album of a big band to come out. But, today entertainment is so individually curated that even a small group of friends often doesn't watch the same shows or listen to the same music, and even if they do, they don't watch it at the same time, etc... It's very disjointing!

And I think this spills into politics. We lack a common goal or interest as a society. Of course, there was always disagreement and dislike and distrust of political opponents, but there was a least some sense that we were in it together. I think that's mostly gone now.

Not to go off on too much of a tangent, but I have a theory that the end of the Cold War was the beginning of the end for America. A country like America that's so enormous and so diverse in people and beliefs and cultures and interests and that is designed as a federalist system needs some kind of overwhelming existential enemy to bind its people together and the Soviet Union was the perfect thing.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, our leaders have been scrambling to find a replacement and each iteration becomes more and more internally focused and damaging. First was "Radical Islam," which was mostly outward focused, but still brought the search for enemies home with things like the Patriot Act. When that fear faded, the next big enemy was immigration, which drew the focus even more inward facing because so many Americans are immigrants or have family who are immigrants. Then, over time as race relations got worse and worse and then finally culminating during Covid, the two sides really solidified the idea that our biggest existential threat comes from within - the other side.

So, no longer was it that Democrats and Republicans could work together to make American a better place. Now, the other side isn't merely a political opponent with different ideas on how to make the country better - they are evil and a threat to the your very existence. So there is no compromise, because to compromise would be to conspire with the enemy. And, I think we're past the point where a new threat of some kind would rally us together. I think if something like 9/11 happened today you wouldn't see the same cohesion as we saw in 2001 because Americans don't trust each other anymore, which is quite disconcerting!

[.Poppy.]

I think there is just too much money for the wealthy involved in keeping America in a state of unrest. Just look at this runaway inflation that was largely due to corporations raising prices and cutting costs so that the people at the top could get wealthier while the rest of us struggle. Or how many communities in the US don’t have access to safe, reliable drinking water because it would hurt someone’s bottom line. I think when you are able to look at someone - especially children - and deem them unworthy of basic necessities you’ve already lost.

It’s interesting, Erin, I remember in high school my history teacher said one of the biggest tells he saw was after 9/11 when we went to war and Bush told the American people not to worry, they could continue to live life normally. Obviously the “war on terror” was a bad and terrible thing, but my teacher’s point was that statement sowed a new level of apathy amongst citizens. Who cares what’s happening in the Middle East if we can still get our Stanley cups, that kind of thing. And that was back in 2009, but I really think he had a point.