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if the safety net was too comfortable I doubt I’d have ever felt the need to climb out of it Americans have been conditioned into accepting a staggering amount
by HarryHirsch 8y ago
if the safety net was too comfortable I doubt I’d have ever felt the need to climb out of it
Americans have been conditioned into accepting a staggering amount of abuse and into perpetuating that abuse.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- maratd 8y agoEuropeans have been conditioned to depend on state support to the point of being unable to function without it. Not during times of duress. At all times. This creates dependency. You become a slave to the state. When you are a slave to the state, your only recourse for redress is violence. Paris is burning. New York is not.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> Paris is burning. New York is not. And Occupy movement happened on Mars.
- AndrewKemendo 8y agoDid you actually go to Zucotti park? I went back in 09 and it was effectively equivalent in my mind to a big swap meet or a hippie craft faire. Light years of difference between that an firebombing riots.
- notfromhere 8y agoIf Paris is burning, New York is a room full of gasoline.
- dang 8y agoPlease keep this sort of flamebait far away from HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- shanusmagnus 8y agoCome on, dude. Accusing people who disagree with you of having been brainwashed is a pretty weak discussion strategy.
- crowdpleaser 8y agoAt least people can overcome abuse and thrive off of it. I don't know a single person who had an extremely cushy childhood who is 'on fire' for anything or striving for greatness. You need adversity to be great. Not all adversity is abuse. The American dream is about overcoming and flourishing to the limits of your will power, taxing people who have succeeded to provide succor to people who don't care about themselves is corrosive to the national spirit. Come visit some time, I'll show you around.
- almost_usual 8y ago>I don't know a single person who had an extremely cushy childhood who is 'on fire' for anything or striving for greatness. You could argue our current president had a pretty cushy childhood. Not sure if he's 'on fire' or 'striving for greatness' though. Social mobility is heavily determined by a combination of race, IQ, gender, social-class, where you were born, and physical / mental health. All of that is dictated by luck when you are born. Our ego tries to convince us that we're "self made" but for the most part life is determined by "luck of the draw".
- crowdpleaser 8y ago>You could argue our current president had a pretty cushy childhood. I think this kind of proves my point, people with cushy childhoods seem to turn out not great. I'd imagine he'd be a more effective leader if he spent more time overcoming adversity.
- HarryHirsch 8y agoAnd yet despite all the talk about the American Dream, social mobility in the US is uncommonly low amongst the Western democracies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility#/media/File:The_Great_Gatsby_Curve.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility#/media/File:Th... The US is right there with deindustrialized Britain and Italy with its massive North-South divide. These are not exactly models to emulate.