Politics isn't what it seems? what are we, 12? How is this news¿
I mean I appreciate you posting to give room for conversation but like... Did anyone really not assume this by now?
edit: Also, I tried reading but it paywalled me.
Entirely seriously:
The average American has a literacy level of a 6th grader. That's the mean literacy level of the entire adult (meaning 18 years old or older) population.
So... yes.
Yes, the average American is essentially a 12 year old, that is generally how old a 6th grader is in our education system.
Americans are shockingly stupid compared to most other developed countries.
Despite something like 38% of our population having a 4 year degree or higher... only somewhere around 10% or less are capable of objectively comparing and contrasting multiple news articles about the same story, highlight the differences in phrasing, framing, and identify information and context that is or is not present, and also have a general background knowledge of the publication itself, as well as general background knowledge pertaining to the story itself.
Our education system has collapsed, after 30 years of the Republicans working toward that goal, knowing that idiots are easier to manipulate.
Yeah, I'm aware. It's like that in most of the americas, possibly excuding uruguay, surinam and canada. Even in countries with great education, 50% will be below average by definition, leaving lots of room for the sneaky people, and we are living in post truth.
Even when what gets reported is verifiable, the tools of manipulation and manufacture of consent that are available nowadays are unprecedented.
With social media we invented the most state of the art, effective brainwashing machines to date and quickly started using them to start wars (of course).
Yeah, we are now at about 30ish % of the adult population with reading skills under 2nd grade level, ie, functionally illiterate.
... And that metric is almost 10% worse than it was 10 years ago.
We've gone from about 20% illiterate to about 30% illiterate in 10 years.
Normally you only see a decline like that in a country that is an active warzone, or a smaller country has been utterly devestated by an immense disaster.
If you go by ranking of countries by literacy rate, we dropped from somewhere in the top 20 to 30... to between the top 80 and 90... in ten years.
It is an utter disaster.
It goes beyond literacy and education, the reality that people experience is completely manufactured. Hypernormalization of everything. Governments manipulating public perception of events and history has rendered most of the population incapable of even interpreting their own experiences much less the world around them. This is a problem much larger than reading levels or education, people are sleep walking.
Edit: russia being part of this conversation is not a coincidence
The sad truth is it doesn't matter how true or fabricated whatever it is people believe, as long as it keeps them coordinated and united as a nation... Or else the other nations that really like your stuff and land might make their people all believe the same thing and they can gain advantage over time.
No one likes hearing this cute little opinion I have but I think the greatest enemy the USA has today is not the right wing nut jobs nor the left wing jobs, it's division itself.
Believe it or not, american citizens today are experimenting two things history is very familiar with:
Sorry, sorry, I mean:
Cause those are totally different.
Either way, when things get this polarized, fights get ugly. Pushing and shoving cannot be unpushed or unshoved... trust and good faith are lost, and they don't fix themselves.
Only thing that can possibly unite the US with the current level of polarization is nothing short of an atrocity within borders.
Sorry if it's insensitive to talk about these kinds of opinions out loud. just sharing my honest perspective.
I dont think its insensitive, but I do think you're missing the forest for the trees a bit with this part
the greatest enemy... is division itself
This was sortof poorly communicated on my part because its such a long winded concept but basically my original comment was an acknowledgement that the division was indeed the enemy but more specifically that the ruling class and those in power have consciously and intentionally placed these divisions with deadly accuracy in order to protect the meta interests at play.
For example, libya was a country in Africa mostly useless to america and had no real geopolitical weight in the global arena. When Syria sent suicide bombers to take down a commercial airliner the american government commited to a worldwide obfuscation of this fact because they were collaborating with Syria in military actions against other countries in the Middle East and needed to keep their appearance of impropriety at bay while they were publicly allied. So, at the behest of the american government, libya took credit for the bombings in order to create confusion around the investigation which was very clearly showing no evidence of Libyan involvement and extensive evidence of Syrian involvement. The original reporting of the bombing accused Syria of being the perpetrator, but due to America's pressure campaign the findings were decried as inconclusive.
Decades later, while Syria was committing a genocide and no longer a public ally of the US, libya once again became a subject of the spotlight. Why? Because america was welcoming them into their alliance of course. Libya had "given up their WMD's" (which they never even remotely came close to having) in exchange for being brought into the fold to fight the "evil regimes of the middle east."
Now, one might wonder at this point: what about libya changed in those intervening decades? The leader of their terrorist state was a dictator named qadaffi, and the noble nation joining the coalition was lead by.. the same guy. Objectively nothing about their government or country had changed except the fact that america now saw them useful to their perception management operations.
This is, again, a very poorly explained way of saying that what you percieve as division are actually carefully crafted splinters deliberately used to shatter the ability of anyone to accurately understand and describe the world around them. We are so constantly bombarded with sci-fi level propaganda and unconscious manipulation of narratives about the world around us that almost none of the things that divide people are even real in the first place.
Anti abortion politics was a manufactured astroturfed movement thought up by the highest levels of government and society in order to force a fascist resurgence within the country to destabilize the working class. The tea party movement was a manufactured astroturfed movement funded by billionaires in order to foment a fascist resurgence within the country to destabilize the working class. Illegal immigration is a direct result of american foreign policy destabilizing governments around the world and creating refugee crises that are so large no other country could afford to absorb them and the anti immigration panic is a manufactured astroturfed movement designed by the highest levels of conservative power structures to manufacture consent for holocaust style death camps. These are all factually proven right wing psyops that have successfully destabilized the country and created all the division that is so visibly causing our society to collapse.
In all of these scenarios, there are specific actors and groups directly responsible for and consciously in control of the supposed divisions no matter what they may be. Left or right is a burlap sack over your head that you cannot remove but can turn 180 degrees in between waterboardings. Take the sack off and look at who's holding the hose. It's capitalists every time. Doing something that is inherently destructive to society and the world at large specifically with the intent of profiting off the now destabilized workers, state, or country.
This is long enough so I'll try to wrap up. The real solution to divisions in society is by reducing inequality and the way to reduce inequality is by forcibly divesting capitalists from their capital and returning it to the people who produced it. All the divisions, all the wars, all the economic failures come from a single point and their entire game for the past 400 years has been to obfuscate that single point behind an led screen of shiny new things to get mad about instead of the people exploiting all of us for their own gain.
(The reference to libya is an example given in the documentary "hypernomalization" by Adam Curtis if you'd ever like to hear the story unfucked by my frantic desire to get this comment out lol Here's the link if you're interested )
I agree with basically everything you say until you establish the sole culprit of all ills being a socioeconomic philosophy. Everyone's favorite culprit of the ills of society is capitalism. Not that I have any sympathy for it. It's just the flavor of subjugation that was working last century. I've also seen hypernormalization and I enjoyed it very much, but I think Curtis has the same issue you're having. Theocracies, feudalism, centrally planned economies such as those that communism often push for, monarchy and anarchy don't do any better. They all enslave people in their own ways.
The way I see it, the world is run by empires, their vassals and then there are client states and places where there's nothing to steal left. Empires stay dominant by harnessing the power of three things: thought control, warfare and slaves. Always has been like this and it still is. Show me any human society of over 100.000 people where their most underprivileged aren't being horribly abused. You might point to scandinavia, but... Who makes their phones and electronic devices? Who handpicks blueberries for them when it's winter on their hemisphere? Who ends up paying the price for the weapons, the oil and the drugs they sell?
They just managed to sweep their slavery under the rug, just like we comfortably buy our presliced bacon and have a delicious breakfast without ever having to face the death of the animals that were sacrificed for them.
If you think any system fixes what you're describing, i ask you to paint a picture for me and tell me why it will not eventually devolve into the most ruthless members within eventually getting to positions of power (be it within the private sector, the government or a dominant religious institution) and becoming even more corrupt. I don't even need any historic examples of it working. Just what it would look like.
Cause empires, societies and ideologies have life cycles, just like organisms do. Sometimes they can renew themselves and gain new strength after big events or compelling leadership come by, but they all collapse eventually. In the vedas they describe the golden age, silver age bronze age and eventually the kali yuga of societies, where corruption, depravity and distrust become so widespread the people stop believing in anything and no longer care about anything but themselves. In the west we prefer talking about decadence, and it's always the same. Be it with the mongols, the romans, the french, dutch, chinese...
The people on top get so rich it poisons their minds and alienates them from society. The hierarchies become distant from each other, a peasant or slave so far removed from an emperor, they're unable to consider each other human. The creation myth and the promises of a better tomorrow for all becomes evidently a lie and people stop finding meaning in unity.
Cults of abundance and paganism emerge (cryptobros, technocrats, ecoterrorists, utopian marxists, etc). The people that can afford to drench themselves in hedonism (all decadent empires become completely obsessed with food, sex, drugs, sports and entertainment) while the underprivileged do the shit work and die in wars. Most people stop having kids. The blatant hypocrisy makes people claim for a hero and populism emerges. Unrest comes. Revolutions start bubbling and get crushed by the forces that are kept well trained and fed by the corrupt leadership, until eventually, either some other emergent and younger empire sweeps in or a revolution becomes successful.
Doesn't really matter which of those happens. The result is the same. The poor get it the worse, the rich flee or break deals and only end up inconvenienced and humiliated but not dead, and people in between either go to other parts of the world because "fuck this place" or become slaves to the new regime, which will do the same thing all over again.
This is no different than a rotten tree falling apart and if you think killing every last capitalist, intel agent and rich person will make any difference, I'd say you're not looking at the big picture.
The problem with polarization isn't that you the powerful remain in power and keep oppressing the poor. That part's inevitable. The problem is they show weakness to foreign enemies who start sharpening their teeth. Then come the proxy wars and if a direct confrontation can be avoided, whoever loses must forever pay tribute to the victor... until it happens to them.
Nature is unfair, life is unfair and politics and societies are extremely unfair and cruel. Doesn't matter what systems or leaders you choose. Take your pick. Nations either run on warfare, slaves and propaganda, or are the victims of those that do.
That's brutal. I'm sorry.
I appreciate the sentiment, on a human level, but on another, the grand scheme of things, the historical level... we deserve it, but the rest of the world doesn't deserve what will happen because of our self-imposed stupidity.
We are a dying empire, going supernova in spectacular fashion.
I can only hope that we as a country do not lash out further... but we probably will.
As I am from los Estados Unidos, I am the one that should be apologizing to the rest of the world.
When, not if, the US Dollar collapses, it will have an exaggerated effect on South American and Central American countries in particular, many of whom have largely tied their economy to its stability.
I agree with all your predictions and the geopolitical risks you mention, but as far as I'm concerned, you're cool. All around the world, everyone is ruled and bossed around by horrible people. Yours just happen to have bigger guns and the gold standard for central bank reserve currencies. I don't think it's fair to consider every single person that lives in a country/empire/whatever a bad human being or someone who deserves bad things, no matter how horrible the empire in its collective efforts.
You guys have good valuable people. I've had the fortune to meet a few and stay friends with them. I'm sure this is true for even the most perverse organizations. Some people are just there cause they didn't have any better alternatives.
The value of someone is a case by case basis thing as far as I'm concerned. There's no passport that skips the line to condemnation or salvation.
I figure it's just like in poker, you know? The cards we have, we got dealt. The question isn't why didn't we get the hand we wanted, or how could we redesign the game in order for everyone to get good cards... The game will be over by then. Only thing that matters is how we play what we're dealt.
And yes, I realize the cards both of us might get very soon might be very bad, but I guess i'd rather see if I can make some kind of play with whatever I have and have fun with the other people around me than endlessly grieve about the ones I wanted or the people that stopped me from getting em.
Much love, my friend. It's not your fault and nothing is the end of the world (believe it or not, not even the end of the world). You have nothing to apologize for that you didn't personally do freely and knowingly, and even if you have those, everyone does and most are less reflexive about it. Stay strong.
Why does Uruguai stand out?
idk they used to have really high literacy rate a while ago and their country is regionally famous for having functional government services, or at least it was until recently. They seem to be doing well economically too, so I think they might have better average education than the rest of us in this god forsaken hellscape of a continent.
Huh, so that is why in speech writing you are advised to speak at 6th grade level and not to "overcomplicate" things? Then it is no wonder that if people don't read and just watch public speaking/advertising they'd revert back to that equilibrium level that allows you to participate in society, but just as a consumer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/20160712094308/http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/writing_guide/writing/flesch.shtml seem to deliberately dumb English down for practical purposes.
Do you have any sources at hand for this information?
the differences in phrasing, framing, and identify information and context that is or is not present, and also have a general background knowledge of the publication itself, as well as general background knowledge pertaining to the story itself.
This is the most damning part. I've tried talking to people to tell them about this but ever time I get the same braindead "it's not that deep bruh" response. These idiots don't even understand how or why this kind of information is important.
Literally sleep walking through life.
The headline is a cold take but the article goes in-depth into all the ways the FSB is aware of how China is probing Russia (for example, approaching disillusioned Russian scientists with access to classified tech, and employing academics to study cultural links between current regions of Russia and historic China, such as Outer Manchuria) as well as discussing long-term strategic considerations for all sides like how climate change will make Russia's northern coast an attractive option for China to transport goods to sell in Europe, and old quotes by Trump about how his priority is to court Russia to "un-unite" it from China. There's a lot in it, honestly, as the document (which the NYT received from hackers and consulted various intelligence agencies as to its veracity) is pretty detailed, apparently. It also mentions that China is studying the war in Ukraine as it figures out what would best counter Western military tech in the 21st century.
Sounds interesting. Can you copypaste it or smth?
Thanks so much! Will read when i get a coffee. Glanced through and looks really interesting
In China, especially after the rise of Chinese nationalism in the 1920s,[citation needed] the treaty has been denounced as an unequal treaty.[7]
In September 2024, the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Lai Ching-te claimed that if China's claims on Taiwan are about territorial integrity then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century, mentioning the treaty.[8]
Eheh
Russia out of any country lying in public politics about powerful neighbors?
Shocked I am.
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