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It's really disheartening to think too much about the state of American society. Our country is deeply broken on such a scale that fixing it will take generatio

It's really disheartening to think too much about the state of American society. Our country is deeply broken on such a scale that fixing it will take generations if it's possible at all. And there's the absolute certainty that we will fail to act until it's too late: climate, war, civil instability, something will happen, we won't act, and everything will get so much worse. The problem is so big that is seems utterly impossible. Even if we elect some bright-eyed big dreamer utpoist as president, the very structure of our government is so rotten that it will not permit any change. It's so broken that it really seems like it'd be less work to tear it all down and start over. Otherwise it's a generations-long battle to reform everything. Can you even imagine what it would take to get Congress to agree to term limits? They can't even agree to pay the national debt. What can we do? Voting isn't enough, protesting isn't enough, what's left? I really hate living here. The cognitive dissonance between the rah rah america best types and the people starving in the streets is just sickening. Something is very wrong in the world and it's so huge that you can't even imagine it getting better

xDetoursx 3y ago
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nec4b 3y ago
>> Even if we elect some bright-eyed big dreamer utpoist as president,... I hope you are joking, or do you really believe this would be a solution to anything? >> I really hate living here. The cognitive dissonance between the rah rah america best types and the people starving in the streets is just sickening. Something is very wrong in the world and it's so huge that you can't even imagine it getting better I think you are living in a negative news bubble. Historically, the world is doing better than ever. Go travel, meet people outside of you circle if they are the gloom and doom types. >> What can we do? Voting isn't enough, protesting isn't enough, what's left? Start by working on your self, family, house, garden, friends, neighborhood, city,...
- mdnahas 3y ago
  Re: “historically, the world is doing better than ever.” Yes, that’s true. If you read “Enlightenment Now”, there are tons of wonderful graphs showing life improving. And for almost every country, as it gets richer, it gets happier. But the one exception is the USA. We’ve gotten richer lately, but not happier. Our government’s decision making ability is messed up. We have an excellent economy, but debt is increasing. Our government has income, but we nearly defaulted on our debt. Healthcare has been a problem for 30+ years. My state of Texas is run by Republican primary voters, which are an extreme 10% of the population. We need to end gerrymandering with single-party primaries. (I like jungle primaries with ranked choice voting.) We need popular elections for President (not everything riding on swing states). We need to remove the filibuster. We need to weaken the Speaker’s power, which caused omnibus bills rather than real debate. I’ve seen good activism and change at the city level. YIMBY’s are making progress. They’re now working at the state level. But it is still hard to see us making the necessary fixes at the federal level. I have horrible worries about what will happen if we don’t fix those very soon.

xDetoursx 3y ago

[flagged]

nec4b 3y ago

>> Even if we elect some bright-eyed big dreamer utpoist as president,... I hope you are joking, or do you really believe this would be a solution to anything? >> I really hate living here. The cognitive dissonance between the rah rah america best types and the people starving in the streets is just sickening. Something is very wrong in the world and it's so huge that you can't even imagine it getting better I think you are living in a negative news bubble. Historically, the world is doing better than ever. Go travel, meet people outside of you circle if they are the gloom and doom types. >> What can we do? Voting isn't enough, protesting isn't enough, what's left? Start by working on your self, family, house, garden, friends, neighborhood, city,...

mdnahas 3y ago
Re: “historically, the world is doing better than ever.” Yes, that’s true. If you read “Enlightenment Now”, there are tons of wonderful graphs showing life improving. And for almost every country, as it gets richer, it gets happier. But the one exception is the USA. We’ve gotten richer lately, but not happier. Our government’s decision making ability is messed up. We have an excellent economy, but debt is increasing. Our government has income, but we nearly defaulted on our debt. Healthcare has been a problem for 30+ years. My state of Texas is run by Republican primary voters, which are an extreme 10% of the population. We need to end gerrymandering with single-party primaries. (I like jungle primaries with ranked choice voting.) We need popular elections for President (not everything riding on swing states). We need to remove the filibuster. We need to weaken the Speaker’s power, which caused omnibus bills rather than real debate. I’ve seen good activism and change at the city level. YIMBY’s are making progress. They’re now working at the state level. But it is still hard to see us making the necessary fixes at the federal level. I have horrible worries about what will happen if we don’t fix those very soon.