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> Yeah, I am 100% ashamed to be American This is also another disturbing trend I'm witnessing in my generation. Sure, ok, you're not happy with some of the stu

> Yeah, I am 100% ashamed to be American This is also another disturbing trend I'm witnessing in my generation. Sure, ok, you're not happy with some of the stuff that happened. DO something about it.

collyw 11y ago
What do you suggest?
cryoshon 11y ago
Pfft, easier said than done, which is the critical problem. My experience is that voting in every election and writing your politicians does nothing. Contributing to their campaigns does nothing, because you don't contribute nearly enough to matter. Protesting in the streets does nothing; nobody cares, and then the cops stop you from protesting. Raising awareness does nothing, everyone is aware of the largest problems. Organizing the public does nothing; they are powerless. Reducing apathy does nothing; refer to the inability to do anything even when voting/writing/protesting. Rioting in the streets does nothing except ruin the areas people live in and make a strong backlash against whatever issue. The citizenry are fully disenfranchised from making changes. I get it, I haven't tried starting a company to fix the USA's smorgasboard of problems yet. Maybe that's the ticket. There's also the other problem of bad things being done in your name, even when you speak out. Millions of people protested the Iraq war, and look what we got for it. There is far too large of a disconnect between the public will and the government's execution of that will.
- crpatino 11y ago
  You can do something. That something will not change much, and not at all overnight, but to think there is nothing to be done... that's exactly what they want you to think. Look around you, there is always people working against your values and people supporting your values. You can do worse than withdrawing your labor and your money from the former and prefer to do business with the later. You say raising awareness does nothing. That's because hard facts are mostly irrelevant. People live by narratives, and the current mainstream narrative tells them to ignore your facts as irrelevant. You can use creativity to paint a more compelling narrative that will make them want to look for the facts themselves. You say organizing the public does nothing. That's because what passes for organization nowadays is naive stupidity. Not every opinion is equal, or even valuable. Go learn some how to organize people for real, then get some practice with no more than a handful of friends working in small scale stuff. You could also do worse than that!

> Yeah, I am 100% ashamed to be American This is also another disturbing trend I'm witnessing in my generation. Sure, ok, you're not happy with some of the stuff that happened. DO something about it.

collyw 11y ago

What do you suggest?

cryoshon 11y ago

Pfft, easier said than done, which is the critical problem. My experience is that voting in every election and writing your politicians does nothing. Contributing to their campaigns does nothing, because you don't contribute nearly enough to matter. Protesting in the streets does nothing; nobody cares, and then the cops stop you from protesting. Raising awareness does nothing, everyone is aware of the largest problems. Organizing the public does nothing; they are powerless. Reducing apathy does nothing; refer to the inability to do anything even when voting/writing/protesting. Rioting in the streets does nothing except ruin the areas people live in and make a strong backlash against whatever issue. The citizenry are fully disenfranchised from making changes. I get it, I haven't tried starting a company to fix the USA's smorgasboard of problems yet. Maybe that's the ticket. There's also the other problem of bad things being done in your name, even when you speak out. Millions of people protested the Iraq war, and look what we got for it. There is far too large of a disconnect between the public will and the government's execution of that will.

crpatino 11y ago
You can do something. That something will not change much, and not at all overnight, but to think there is nothing to be done... that's exactly what they want you to think. Look around you, there is always people working against your values and people supporting your values. You can do worse than withdrawing your labor and your money from the former and prefer to do business with the later. You say raising awareness does nothing. That's because hard facts are mostly irrelevant. People live by narratives, and the current mainstream narrative tells them to ignore your facts as irrelevant. You can use creativity to paint a more compelling narrative that will make them want to look for the facts themselves. You say organizing the public does nothing. That's because what passes for organization nowadays is naive stupidity. Not every opinion is equal, or even valuable. Go learn some how to organize people for real, then get some practice with no more than a handful of friends working in small scale stuff. You could also do worse than that!