What In The Living Horseshit Has Gone Wrong With Americans?

There was a time when if a spy was found in our midst we would hang the filthy bastard from the nearest tree. Now we nod in agreement when our Government tells is it is OK to spy on every single aspect of our lives. Has every god damned one of us become a drooling complacent dolt?. Where in hell did we go so wrong as to become this fucking heard of sheep that we now are. Where is the outrage.

by Noam Chomsky describes this in great detail. When you make a people scared enough, they end up giving up their own rights for the illusion of security and comfort.

That - and an addiction to endlessly stupid TV programming. We can thank the Republican party for the generational *Me first* drones they've set loose on the country.

This country is f*cked.

I was talking with a couple who go to one in our neighborhood. They aren't the type that are completely hypocritical. They aren't going to vote anymore, they're looking to move to land out in the country to get away from everything too.

A lot of religious folks I've talked to are being turned off by society in general and are looking to withdraw. Depending on who you are, that can be a good thing or a bad thing.

I was listening to my neighbor (a six year old) describe Spiderman 3 in detail to my six year old yesterday, including the part where a guy is killed by being impaled on the point of some sort of vehicle.

Quite frankly, I can't quite blame them.

overly protected Americans. Didn't you know that Americans are special and should never have to suffer through a war being fought in their towns and cities? That with all those nukes and the world's most expensive army, no one could ever harm us? That we should never have to pay for our foreign policy?

9-11 allowed Bush/Cheney and the neo-cons to take over and turn America in the nation of lily-livered cowards we have today. Americans now have no spines.

environmental element is making Americans stupid, i.e. lead, heavy metals. That is about the only thing that I can think of that explains their stupid political decisions over the past few decades.

Or perhaps you have been collecting stories of people who were Democrats, began taking a prescription and then overnight became wide-eyed Bush-lovers or something?

Is your water Fluoridated?

Fluoride - Mind Control Of The Masses:

http://www.befreetech.com/fluoridation.htm

This is no joke.

impairment from lead poison.

Around the Country many others are poisoned by various heavy metals in the atmosphere.

And in addition to brain altering substances, we are also be made sick by numerous other forms of contamination.

nt

not until it affects us personally that is when the sh$t will hit the fan.

But you know - the American Government has had an FBI for some 7 decades now (if I'm doing the math right and I'm probably not), and what is the FBI doing? Spying on us.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

...I think it has been a gradual process.

Basically I began to notice about 20 to 25 years ago, the discourse began to shift. Where you used to hear "democracy vs. communism" during the Cold War, that soon shifted to "capitalism vs. communism" -- i.e., in the public discourse, discussions of our political system morphed into discussions of our economic system, as though they were and must be one and the same. Also during the same time, discussion of the people and voters morphed from the term "citizens" to the term "consumers". And because virtually all of the pundits, newscasters and public personalities took the changes right in stride, using the new terms, it came to be accepted -- "conventional wisdom" after all means whatever it is that most people believe. So once the discourse changed, the terms of debate changed, and everything became framed in capitalist-economic terms and in consumerist terms.

I believe this was a conscious push by the corporatist powers that be, who want nothing more than for the "private sector" to run the whole show.

Well the truth is, they pretty much already do. They buy support in the government for favorable policies -- policies that let them maximize their return to shareholders, without having to consider any other aspects of what they do -- this is the tragedy of the commons writ large, we are being giant wastrels of the world's resources, and then on top of that we are now breeding end-times believers in greater numbers than ever, just in time to look around at our horrible consumerist society and say "well it was written in the Bible so that's okay, End Times are here, who cares about resources anyway".

But I do not say the American people are stupid. Rather they are manipulated, misled and outright lied to regarding anything of import. It's amazing that they are starting to wise up some, even if only a little -- after all, a majority want out of Iraq in spite of all the fear-mongering and lies about that tragic fiasco. And they have given George W. Bush historic low ratings. So no, I don't really think they are stupid. But because the discourse has been poisoned -- yes that is a strong term but it is exactly what has happened -- they do not have the tools to reason it out. If we think only in terms of "capitalism" as one of the axiomatic goods (and by the way, that usually means "unregulated capitalism"), and if we think of our role as "consumers" rather than "citizens" -- well then you get the BS we have now, where people think that cheap goods at WalMart is a reasonable tradeoff for good jobs at home.

Sorry this got so long, it's a question I've pondered a bit.

In the a general sense I agree with you. It is the corruption of our language and the resultant effect on our ability to consider the things around us that seems to be the problem. Where I disagee is in how it would have had to come about. Your explaination - which I think is mostly correct, would almost have to be the result of a concerted effort of media and the education system. That to me seems to large a ball of wax to carry. I think it may very well have had more to do with the dumbing down of our schools and some of the dolts they have spilled out who have been trained to make it to the top rather than to think their way through anything at all. We get the result of that dumbing down and the trained greed it has produced.

...I totally believe there has been a concerted effort, pushed by right wing ideologues, nurtured in right wing think tanks, and promoted by their plants throughout the media and the education system. And yes, the dumbing down of our educational system was part and parcel of that effort -- after all, they have expensive prep schools for them and theirs, they surely don't want any uppity peons on their hands, and people who think for themselves tend to be uppity. In fact, at one time that might have been a pretty good definition of what it means to be an American -- someone who thinks for themselves based on available data, and is pretty up front about what they think, and who is not afraid to say so because we live in a country that understands that ideas should stand and fall on their own merits.

Now the right wing will say that it's just that they "won" in the "marketplace of ideas"; that is what accounts for the widespread acceptance of their terms of discourse. But they have won by making use of the lowest of tactics: outright lies, distortions, and bait and switch and strawman arguments. And because of their success at skewing the discourse in this way, the larger public do not have the tools and terminology that will allow them (us) to formulate solutions for today. Instead we are mired in old arguments based on distorted words and distorted meanings, while other words and meanings are systematically excluded from the conversation altogether (why is it, do you think, that only the monied classes are pointing fingers and crying "class warfare"?).

Anyway. I don't think it requires a widespread conspiracy, so much as a concerted effort over decades by committed ideologues. And that is what I think happened.

I just read Orwell's 1946 essay on politics and the english language and was much impressed. I'll comment from it in a moment.

When I say 'concerted effort' I meant some sort of concrete conspiracy, even if only a subtle and well hidden one. Two people would have had to talk to each other and agreed to something to meet my criteria for the word. Lessen the criteria just a little bit and you and I are on the same page.

Back to Orwell's essay. In it he suggests (admittedly without evidence) that the corruption of language follows the corruption of politics and points to Italy, Germany, and Russia as places where one might look to find out if he is right or not. Maybe today we'd add the USA to his list.

So now we have to go back and see where it began. I'm here to say it was on a Republican watch and it wasn't Eisenhower's.

Remember that one?
That is the earliest example of twisting the language that I can recall.
I also recall it was being used around the same time the reich-wingers were taking over the Southern Baptist Convention.

Probably just a coincidence though. Right? Right???

now go out and buy some stuff, you commie!

I think you've hit upon something incredibly important that the Left should be using ; think of the Red Scare , McCarthy, WWI and WWII propaganda against spies and spying "Loose Lips Sink Ships". I think American culture has a lot that makes it a very EASY & SIMPLE connection between Spying = Bad.

Now what we need is a very simple slogan that brands the Right as the spies the McCarthy's the red state(scare) .. something so catchy it will hard not to want to repeat it even if you don't believe it.

Because of course in truth its real; just the message isn't sinking in because we aren't being effective at communicating it. Repugs are masters of it "flip/flop" - "cut & run" etc etc. We need to learn from our enemies tactics but imbed the terrible truth in our message so that people can begin to awaken.

The Right: The party of Spy & Lie.

peace

the irony is overwhelming. I believe this all goes hand in hand with the coup of 2000 and over time the screws will turned ever tighter on the American People's freedom and privacy, until there is a breaking point by either the American People or the rest of Earth and I'm not sure which will happen first.

at an airport a couple of years back, told me Bush should have been "clapped in irons" the minute the wiretapping surfaced.

I swear that reality television combined with guerrilla advertising has created a whole new generation of stupid people. Beyond stupid.

OMG, I heard Britney had another meltdown on the streets of LA the other night.

I hope she is OK.

What about Paris?

And, OMG, OMG, I haven't heard anything about Linsey Lohan in like 3 HOURS!

And is Angelina Jolie really pregnant?

Who will be the next American Idol?

OMG!

I've read that we are so into the long-established "enemy" dynamic regarding the world and the classic fight/flight biological survival mechanism, that we don't know what to do without struggle and enemies.

Do we create enemies when there are none there? Is there a group of Americans who take advantage of this, who helped to create it?

I'm honestly asking. This could be completely incorrect, but I don't have a better answer than pure cowardice, which I'd rather not have as my conclusion.