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Strip mined for what exactly? There are two parts to this. People are feeling frustrated and left behind. Its not only the US. Its nearly everywhere. COVID cer

Strip mined for what exactly? There are two parts to this. People are feeling frustrated and left behind. Its not only the US. Its nearly everywhere. COVID certainly didn't help. That is what is giving rise to right and far right parties getting elected all over the world. This is not as hard to understand. But many people learning about US politics seem to confuse right wing incendiary rhetoric with what people want. People want solutions to the income divide. The easy solution presented by right wingers is that money, jobs etc is a limited resource and "outsiders are strip mining". Two entirely different things. What people need and how it is being achieved. The reality is rich people have always disdained the poor - "they don't work hard enough and don't deserve help". While people at least had that empathy for fellow underprivileged. But under constant bombardment about being "strip mined" they have slowly let that go. COVID certainly didn't help. And even then that is not unique to US. Nearly every country populace has something against immigrants. US is not unique in that aspect too. If America was passing a law to provide livable wages to its workers everyone would champion the cause. But I am sure many loud RWs will oppose that as "welfare society" and "not what people want" etc. But to many outsiders who grew up in the era of American exceptionalism this is a unique situation. The last place anyone expected this to happen is America and everyone will lament that.

tremon 1y ago
The last place anyone expected this to happen is America I don't really understand this. In my circles, I have heard people warning about the direction that the US was heading in since the 90s. The US government has been working for We, The Corporations instead of the people for decades (Bayh-Dole, repealing Glass-Steagal*, zero repercussions for the subprime mortgage crisis). The militarization of police forces didn't happen overnight either, and neither did the anti-intellectual bias in US corporate media (for example, I remember when Sarah Palin was hyped up as a viable presidential candidate). So no, from my point of view none of this is unexpected nor unforeseen. The only thing that could have surprised some people was the timing (directly after Obama), but the direction was communicated loudly. * sidenote: the Glass-Steagal act was enacted just a few years after the 1929 stock market crash which caused the Great Depression; and within ten years of repealing it, we got hit with the largest financial crisis since 1929. Lessons were unlearned and not learnt again.
msgodel 1y ago
There are similar problems with this and tourism. Except tourists who don't understand your culture tend to leave relatively quickly and don't get to vote in your elections.

tremon 1y ago

The last place anyone expected this to happen is America I don't really understand this. In my circles, I have heard people warning about the direction that the US was heading in since the 90s. The US government has been working for We, The Corporations instead of the people for decades (Bayh-Dole, repealing Glass-Steagal*, zero repercussions for the subprime mortgage crisis). The militarization of police forces didn't happen overnight either, and neither did the anti-intellectual bias in US corporate media (for example, I remember when Sarah Palin was hyped up as a viable presidential candidate). So no, from my point of view none of this is unexpected nor unforeseen. The only thing that could have surprised some people was the timing (directly after Obama), but the direction was communicated loudly. * sidenote: the Glass-Steagal act was enacted just a few years after the 1929 stock market crash which caused the Great Depression; and within ten years of repealing it, we got hit with the largest financial crisis since 1929. Lessons were unlearned and not learnt again.

msgodel 1y ago

There are similar problems with this and tourism. Except tourists who don't understand your culture tend to leave relatively quickly and don't get to vote in your elections.