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I’m in a Chinese cultural exchange discord server because of a few friends and the amount of people who are so unbelievably unaware of what is going on the US is crazy.
I guess I’ve been keeping away from non-left spaces for too long because it was a big shock that when I recommended people to not go to the US I receive pushback as if it’s unfounded for you as a non-white to get kidnapped out of nowhere. It will never not be crazy to me how people, especially third-worlders can see the US in any positive light still. And their refutation is that “You don’t live there, the people who live there would know”. Which clearly doesn’t hold up.
Sorry for the rant comrades, just wanted to get some anger of my chest. Please stay informed and be safe.
Tell them the US is a failed state. Source: I fucking live here.
Thing is there are many Americans in ther server, especially White males. They legitimately think the Trump deportation stuff is good because it gets rid of gang members. How they ignore all the rest is absurd to me and in fact how any American isn’t rabidly against their own “country” is insane.
I’ve just been feeling like we can’t go on like this anymore, not that we could before. But now it’s so fucking evident that the US is a fucking dystopia that kidnaps people off the street to send them to a death camp. It seriously cannot get any more obvious than that, imperialism turns inwards and unleashes fascism unto it’s own citizens and they still can’t face the facts and take action.
What will the West be in the future? Global capitalism is on the decline and will eventually lead to the capitalist collapse but then what? Will the people ever wake up when the final imperialist war happens? It doesn’t seem to be that they even have the capability to wake up, all they can do is delude themselves, refuse any form of “leftism” and keep shifting right. The only option then is literally a JDPON as ridiculous as it is, they have literally shown themselves to be incapable of having empathy and doing the right thing, others must to teach them how to do it.
I think the problem is that the thing the united states has done most successfully in its propaganda is to get its people to not pay attention to the world around them.
I feel like people think of political strategies as a push and pull from left to right but even more prevalent in the west, where the spoils of global dominance are abundant, is a pull towards willful ignorance.
In the US I am rarely frustrated by a right wing person who has bad takes about what’s happening- that is a very rare experience. The vast vast majority of people will never pick up a newspaper, read an article, or watch a video on the news. Most people get an inkling of major events by stumbling across them while browsing sports or their hobby on social media. And even then theyll peek in, internalize the first take they see that feels ok, then never peek again. My frustrations are with people who have no idea what’s going on and feel proud about not wanting to find out.
The west is nowhere near a mass waking up because people are still going to their regular jobs, shopping at their regular stores, and hanging out with their regular friends. Change will have to come from outside of the west or things will have to get far worse here for far more people for anyone to be motivated to do something about something.
While I agree that the us is a failed state and the west is in a kind of collapse, it’s hard to convince someone of that while they’re playing video games on their PS5 after eating out at a new chicken place that opened up at the end of their day sitting in a cubicle chatting with coworkers.
This has been my struggle for a while. I’m pretty convinced that the principle issue of America/the west is not that there are “dumb people” that support Trump and right wing policies though they contradict with their class interest, it’s the people who are apathetic and are only able to think about what’s immediately in front of them (I need more money, I need this treat etc.) and disconnect everything else going on, such as when people are wrongfully detained they assume that it would never happen to them.
I’ve also found that when prodded, these people will not want to learn or get involved because it will make them depressed (they also say “I’m not interested” as if it’s some hobby), but also they have a discontent for their current lifestyle anyways. There are infinite excuses they will make up on why not to learn or get involved.
For your last point, there is a lot of people in the United States who don’t have that. The point should be that despite the immense wealth, how many people are doing okay and etc that there are those who have been truly left behind and grinded down to bits.
I’m sure you and the other person understand that, more so just saying that should be the point they hammer down when talking to people. My partner’s family is from a third world country and they literally had trouble understanding why someone like me would struggle so hard growing up in a place that literally had almost no utilities in a country that was so immensely rich. It may not just compute for them.