What we're seeing is the social contract falling apart.

[coti]

Mentally weak people, those who've never felt strong enough to successfully think beyond their own interests, are defecting from the "social contract." Trump has told them it is okay for people to ignore the larger interests of the group- our neighborhoods, our states, our nation, our world- in the name of "freedom."

The word "responsibility" has completely disappeared from our political discourse.

[ZZenith]

1. "I don't take responsibility at all." - Donald Trump 2020

The word hasn’t completely disappeared.

[csziggy]

19. That quote will resonate through history

In contrast to "The buck stops here." (Harry Truman)

[ego_nation]

2. The biggest difference between liberals and conservatives

is how they relate to the world. Liberals relate themselves to the world. Conservatives relate the world to themselves.

[Efilroft Sul]

5. Fantastic description.

[alwaysinasnit]

7. Excellent.

[calimary]

10. Boils it right down.

[LizBeth]

3. It is disappearing in another manner. Work to pay our way. In a time of pandemic, we do not feel

putting our lives on the line for minimum wage works.

[bluedigger]

4. The investor class abdicated responsibility for the social contract a while ago.

And so it goes.

[coti]

15. Yup, started with Reagan. nt

[intheflow]

6. The social contract is a social construct that's being deconstructed.

We can reconstruct it if the country survives the upcoming coup d'état and the evil has been vanquished - or at least imprisoned.

[Firestorm49]

8. Ah, yes. The same ones who can't stand the slackers who suck off the system,

the ones who grew up expecting the world to be handed to them. Now, they don’t see how amazingly stupid they make themselves look.

[Thekaspervote]

9. If Americans had behaved this way in 1941, we would all be speaking German

[ananda]

11. We might as well be.

We live in a reconstructed Nazi state now, one whose overriding principle is greed, power, and corporate fascism.

[plimsoll]

16. Extraordinarily unlikely.

Language is extremely conservative in the sense that it may be the last cultural aspect to change. French speaking nobles took over England, and 300 years later Chaucer's English is closer to Old English than it is to French.

[NickB79]

22. The implication was that we'd be a Nazi territory

And those who refused to speak the language of the Motherland would have been executed by now.

[rickyhall]

12. Not falling apart, it's being torn apart, dismantled by the rich.

Hedgefunders buying it, borrowing against it & selling it off.

[Done_Playin]

18. This... and your tagline too! n/t

[CaptainTruth]

13. Remember when Republicans touted "personal responsibility?"

That seems like ancient history.

[plimsoll]

17. That was for the little people

<eom>

[Maven]

20. "Personal responsibility" was always code for "you're on your own"

It was always about the degradation of social responsibility. And the rejection of social responsibility in conservative orthodoxy is what brought us to this moment. When people are so poisoned against any notion of the "common good" that they'd rather infect others with a deadly virus than follow social protocols of any kind.

Conservatism is now an antisocial personality disorder.

[UTUSN]

14. K&R

[Hermit-The-Prog]

23. The oligarchy has spent a lot to program a lot of peasant contrarians.

See, e.g.,

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/revenge-of-the-billionaires-how-an-oligarchy-of-the-morbidly-rich-can-take-down-democracy/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-weiss-sinclair-television-propaganda_n_5ac2c6d4e4b09712fec38b95?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/how-did-republican-party-get-so-corrupt/578095/

[coti]

24. Kick nt