It was always a lie. First it was "we the white male land owners" and then "we the white males." Expansions to that pool of who "the people" are have been slow and excruciating.
"America never was America to me" as Langston Hughes said in 1935
“Money is speech” might have a whole lot to do with it.
We don’t have representation of the electorate, we have a system of open bribery for the rich to control everything with their bought politicians.
Money is speech, corporations are people, "we the people in order to form a more perfect union" has become "we the companies in order to form a more exploitable customer base"
You guys have a system set up by a bunch of random guys 3 centuries ago that you worship as gods and refuse to update. That might be part of it
No, I'd really like to update the document. But, everybody else thinks the constitution is infallible, so yeah, definitely one aspect of the problem.
It's due to a large chunk of the people ~~believing~~ religiously indoctrinated to believe a text can be infallible.
If you start from that assumption, it's a whole lot easier to understand why the constitution can be so rabidly defended from change and why the fantasy lore of its authors is rarely questioned.
refuse to update
It has 27 amendments so far. If you think it's so easy, then go ahead, try it, and tell us how that went.
Some amendments are more equal than others.
The 4th has been dead awhile and both parties take turns pissing on its grave.
Every other country manages to get by without having a magical biblical-like document guiding them on all their laws
Is that so?
How does that respond to anything I wrote?
I guess I’m confused at your original response. Like I know other countries have constitutions (my own does even). What I’m saying is that it only seems to be the US that holds their constitution up as some sort of biblical document that’s near impossible to change or update. I know the “founding fathers (🤢)” intended it to be a living document which it is not.
Americans seem to assume that the opinions of some random dudes near 3 centuries ago are perfect and shouldn’t ever be changed
As I was suggesting with
If you think it’s so easy, then go ahead, try it, and tell us how that went.
the barriers to change it (process, legal requirements) aren't something to easily dismiss (are you aware of the process & requirements?) especially with today's political obstructionism. It requires approval by supermajorities (²⁄₃) of both houses & ratification by ³⁄₄ of the states.
That’s kind of my point though. In Canada, the only reason I know our constitution is even looked at in 2025 is because my friend works in environmental policy. The amount of times I hear that some American was exonerated in a court case because broke the US constitutional amendment is crazy. It’s just weird to me that a short document that was mostly written so long ago plays such a part in American law, especially with what you mentioned about it being so hard to update. This has been said to death but the right to bear arms was an amendment written when guns were single shot and took ages to reload.
Fundamental principles that define & operate a government aren't supposed to change frequently or easily. Neither are fundamental restrictions on the authority of government (ie, fundamental rights).
It makes sense to me that those fundamental freedoms are written somewhere & that judicial decisions would frequently cite them & related case law especially in claims that legislation violates them.
It also makes sense to me that changing those fundamental rights requires something more substantial (to indicate overwhelming consent of the people) than merely legislating them away. Otherwise, a congress with a simple majority of Trumpy republicans could simply legislate away essential freedoms as they pleased.
While the US has problems, merely having a constitution (1) the courts meaningfully refer to (2) that demands special effort to amend isn't clearly a problem. Do you have a better solution for ensuring some freedoms aren't recklessly written away?
While the US has problems, merely having a constitution (1) the courts meaningfully refer to (2) that demands special effort to amend isn't clearly a problem.
I can agree with that. I guess what I take more of an issue with really comes down to “American civil religion”.
Americans seem to be taught (from my outsider perspective) that the basis of which the US was founded upon is perfect and needs no changing ever. There’s so much propaganda surrounding the founding documents that even suggesting changing something is basically akin to blasphemy. Like look at the second amendment. Even suggesting that maybe it doesn’t fit into modern society is considered heresy.
That sort of thing is why I really don’t like politicians claiming that their country is “the best in the world”. You see it in Canada too, and I hate it because even if it’s true, it just sort of waves away the many improvements that can be made. There’s ALWAYS things to improve upon
We’ve ignored key parts of it partly because of sentiment like yours.
So now the religious racist fascists have taken over and most of the rest of us aren’t armed. It was always the bad guys who mostly didn’t oppose guns.
And, particularly damning, neither side took action to deal with the underlying problem: mental health. By that I mean that ver half of ALL gun deaths are n the USA, every year, are from suicide. No magazine capacity limit, assault weapon ban, or background check will help that.
Neither side gives a fuck, preferring to use shootings as a political tool. “They’re coming for your guns!” helped elect Trump at least the first time, and “won’t someone think of the children?” is why I will soon need to apply for a permit just to be able to purchase a firearm in my state instead of universal health care.
tl;dr: Not nearly enough Democrats are armed and thus won’t be able to stop the fascist traitor racist criminal GQP.
So keep feeling smug, the planet has a way worse because people like you got your way and now a super power is evil.
Dude none of what you feel offended by was said in the comment you replied to.
This is something a Steve would say… NotSteve… 🤨
Ah yes, the much revered Floundering Fathers of the Stateship Free Enterprise!
You guys have a system set up by a bunch of random guys 3 centuries ago that you worship as gods and refuse to update. That might be part of it
The problem isn't the system itself. The problem is that those random guys forgot to add in little things like consequences and what to do when someone violates it. The entire thing was written by a bunch of people who somehow forgot that they had JUST GOT INTO A WAR OVER THIS SHIT. It's like the idea of tyranny somehow became a foreign concept that nobody would ever consider and everybody is going to be good to each other forever and ever and ever amen so there's no need for consequences, right?
I'm tapping the sign again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
Freedom means destroying the right. We've instead decided to peacefully protest against an unchangeable cult of hatred.
Look what happened.
We’ve allowed morons to think that their stupidity is equal to others’ intelligence, and that both are equally valid and capable of governance.
We need to smack stupid to the ground so hard their grandchildrens’ grandchildren feel it.
One large problem there: All the people that are "stupid" in the way you describe think exactly the same way you do here. It's why I think arrogance and the inability to stand being humiliated by deferring to other people's expertise, as well as a feeling of being privileged to be above the needs of other people, as well as a paranoid fear of others intruding on your space is the more pressing problem.
I have lived with and worked with people with actual learning disabilities, thanks to my own different disability, and "stupidity" is not the problem, it's okay to be stupid. It's not okay to demand the whole world submit to your emotional wellbeing and feelings of superiority and privilege.
it's okay to be stupid. It's not okay to demand the whole world submit to your emotional wellbeing and feelings of superiority and privilege.
Absolutely right.
Stupid-Americans are the new Irish-Americans and Taco is their JFK.
If only Trump could get the JFK treatment!!!
Conservatives. That, combined with the constant undertow of hatred and anti-intellectualism.
They've had individual freedoms and liberties ingrained into their personalities that the 'we' no longer exists. 'Community' only exists as far as it serves the person's goals.
I think this is a large amount of the issue, along with what others have commented. There literally is.a hostile sentiment towards the "common/greater good" in the US if it means individuals have to sacrifice even a modicum of inconvenience. COVID and asking people to mask up was a perfect example of it in action. And that wasn't even entirely a democrat vs red hat cult thing, though the cultists definitely were much more pissed off and loud about it.
It's strange. I spent my formative years in Singapore, a country widely regarded as a 'police state' by most western accounts. But there, I felt the community as a whole had rights of its own, and those superceded individual rights. Then I spent some time in the us, and while it wasn't as bad as it is now, the difference in attitude was stark. Now over there freedom of expression wins out over the community rights. And it's much to their own detriment.
They went soft during reconstruction. Not fixing the southern problem then has allowed that racism and bullshit to fester for another century and the billionaires were able to harness that hatred for their own means.
Yeah i dont think the North was a beacon of equality. They stopped slavery. They did not stop racial seggregation.
We are experiencing late-stage "American dream". The American dream is not a house in the suburbs and 2.5 kids. The dream is to become wealthy enough that you stand above the law. "Freedom" means exactly that. With enough money you can do whatever you want. Now we have the billionaire class of god-tier freedom. Their American dream is a nightmare for the rest of us, but their freedom is more powerful than our freedom.
Simple:
People with money used it to convince our government that money is the same as people, but more important. So it's now "We the people (with the most money)."
What's gone wrong?
!!! --> CAPITALISM <-- !!!
Also it's a joke to pretend the country that was founded on the genocide of native people and slavery was ever "we the people" at any point in time, and to push this blatant lie is to erase the history of millions of people.
“Weed the people” is the current cruel federal program to bleach USA of those considered to have too much melanin in their skintone
"Weed the people" should be the official slogan for federal cannabis legalization.
If you're a WWE fan, you'd understand how funny that is.
Several years back, a wrestler named Jack Swagger was running an anti-immigrant gimmick (How fitting.....) as a bad guy. He was basically wrestling's MAGA before MAGA was a thing. His taunt would be that he would forcefully slap his hand to his heart like someone pledging allegiance to the flag while screaming "WE THE PEOPLE".
Then he was busted with marijuana in the real world. Suddenly, fans started taunting him with chants of "WEED THE PEOPLE." at arenas and online. It was hilarious. It basically killed the gimmick because nobody took him seriously after that.
(Granted, not many people were taking the gimmick seriously anyway because Swagger wasn't very good and the gimmick was a bad idea from day one. But the taunts put the final nail in the coffin.)
Money in politics.
The "we" decided some others aren't "people".
Capitalism was the system of economics from the get go. This allows people who want power (money) to be able to obtain it ad infinitum, which leads to corruption being possible since politicians can be bought.
It was always a pipe dream, my friend. If you stop smoking, you might see reality... In other words, your only mistake was sobriety.
Every stripe and star on the flag represents a genocide in the past, and an ongoing genocide in the present.
Regarding the present genocide of natives: https://youtu.be/WCpgv4OOJCs
‘We the’ is just a misspelling of ‘White’.
Fun fact, ‘People’ was also supposed to read ‘Patriarchy’ but the country is just dumb so.
Here is the uncomfortable truth:
It has always been a lie.
The US revolution happened because those with money wanted more and because the UK was actually going to respect native rights, or at least try to. Go read "The Crucible of War" by Fred Anderson.
Didn't the south join in the fight because Britain was in the process of legally abolishing slavery and they were afraid of this abolition applying to colonies?
From article
Do you remember when a police officer in Massachusetts arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates as he was trying to get into his own home? That got huge national attention. And then President Obama called a “beer summit” and brought them both to the White House to talk.
That was diplomacy in a sense, but it was also democracy policy.
Wasn't that mostly superficial, performative, photo-op theater? Shouldn't democracy policy be more substantive?
I think an effective democracy policy needs to revitalize community & public service programs to promote social engagement, understanding, & support.
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