Almost everything in America is broken because in general the people are broken.

[fightforfreedom]

Healthcare system, broken.

Workplace culture, broken.

Congress, broken.

Supreme Court, broken.

Many peoples beliefs, broken.

The peoples ability to fix problems, broken.

Many peoples ability to recognize the truth, reality, broken.

Mental illness is raging like a wildfire across America. It has struck one of my family members. A person you would never believe would just completely lose control. It is one the most bizarre things I have ever witnessed in my life. A person who asks for help, you give them the help and then they turn it down. My family member had the world in the palm of his hand. He had a great life and mental illness has destroyed him. We fear he may commit suicide.

I believe much of the mental illness we are witnessing across America is being caused by the fact almost everything in America is broken. It has led to great stress and anxiety which can lead to mental illness. It's driving people nuts.

In other countries, the people use their taxes to do things like putting families before work. We do the opposite. We let our work, our jobs control our lives. They use their taxes to remove stress from their lives. They are happier, more content than we are. We use our taxes in ways that creates great stress in our lives.

In America, helping people, helping ourselves, is called evil socialism. That's insane and foolish.

[Demsrule86]

1. We have the ACA which is huge...hubs was on it this year...it was a Godsend. Our problem is

simple...we don't vote in every election including midterms and we don't vote for the Democratic candidate in every election...most of our issues today can be traced to the 2000 and 2016 General elections and of course, the endless midterms that we didn't show up for (like 2010) thus severely limiting the abilities of Democrat presidents to govern effectively. If you fight amongst yourself as a party and think that your vote needs to be earned, and play around with third parties, how can you not lose important elections and limit the ability of a Democratic president to govern?

I have seen at least a dozen threads blaming Democrats for Roe...which is ludicrous and other things. I have seen people here and elsewhere put forth ideas of how Democrats can 'fight'...the leaders you understand not the rank and file... that are completely impossible in a constitutional Republic. An example is we talk about eliminating the Electoral college which will never happen instead of strategies of how we might win the with the Electoral college. Time to get to work and understand that we need to vote in every damn election for the Democratic candidate or we won't have a Republic. Those that cry Democratic leaders must do XYZ and save us don't understand our situation. We have to save ourselves.

[Delarage]

3. I agree

2000 and 2016 were both stolen, though. Democrats did vote and the country still got screwed. But I agree with your point--had we come out in the numbers that match reality, cheating would have been impossible. But the cheating in Florida in 2000 would not have happened if the Repukes didn't control the state (Katherine Harris, Jeb) and that was the result of many smaller elections that people didn't show up to vote in. And I thought Trump was so absurd in 2016 that I believed Hillary would easily win. I voted (of course!) but I wasn't as concerned as I should have been.

[Demsrule86]

7. Those elections were not stolen. They were both close elections where third parties made a

big difference. The same party caused both losses- the stupid Greens who suck on all levels. Comey hurt us too...why is it that the minute a Democrat is under investigation, it is leaked or announced breathlessly by Justice and yet Republicans get a pass? Every leak needs to be investigated and the perpetrator fired.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. You will NEVER convince me that 2000 wasn't stolen

[JanMichael]

10. It was absolutely stolen. From butterfly ballots to hanging chads to state SC to US SC.

All wrapped up in America's perpetual hanging chad, Florida, which I lived in at the time.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. We've become Sociopath Nation

It didn’t happen all at once, but over generations, American society has come to admire sociopathic characteristics. Indifference to the plight of others is seen as strength; empathy is weakness. Imagine the cognitive dissonance when one feels the slightest guilt or altruistic desires, then fears ostracism for expressing it to friends or family.

Sociopathic characteristics are not the natural state of human society. We would have gone extinct long ago if cooperation had been eradicated from our collective psyche. Modern conservatism seeks to replace our natural tendencies with outright hostility and perpetual grievance. I hold their ideology responsible for our descent into societal madness.

[Brenda]

5. Yes, but

Modern conservatism cloaks that hostility and perpetual grievances in words of care in the name of their God. In other words tricking their non-violent flock members into agreeing with them. I believe the far right religious kookery combined with the psycho Qanon crap has turned large swaths of Americans into human-shaped piles of goo with no ability to discern reality from fantasy.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. Their 'religion' is a perversion and abomination

Even the most casual of observers can see the earmarks of sociopathy in their actions. Calls to warfare have replaced any pretense of emulating the character of their supposed savior.

[fightforfreedom]

12. I agree.

[Irish_Dem]

14. Yes we have a crime syndicate running the country. And the people seem to like it fine.

As long as they can get white male christian minority rule, they don't care what crimes are committed.
In fact they admire the leaders who can get away with anything.

I agree sociopathy has become the norm here in the US. The dark underbelly of human nature is now in full force.

But we are not alone. Look at Russia, Putin is a ruthless, murdering sociopath who delights in his soldiers raping and murdering three year olds. And the Russian people go along with it.

[Hortensis]

16. :) Are your posts intended as examples of your personal reality?

They are not true of the reality I and my family live in. The sociopathology we're seeing affects shockingly many, but many others are sane and sensible and wondering what on earth happened. 81 million Americans voted Democratic, after all, and we see constant examples of altruism, everyday to noble, if we look.

And for the most part Americans are so incredibly advantaged that even after 40 years of conservative corruption and hacking away at our rights and economic wellbeing, a large majority of Americans still report they're doing fine personally.

THAT is reality. Wow. Think about what that means.

Also reality is that pushing ideas like "broken, sociopathic" America is a very effective vote suppression technique. That's why America is awash in these messages, and of course many have gone under.

[BlueBloodedAmerican]

4. And the people are broken because almost everything is broken.

It goes both ways. A vicious circle that will be extremely difficult to break with all the money and power involved.

[betsuni]

8. I think such high mental illness rates are maybe not uniquely American, but close.

Or at least the number of people on anti-depressants. Maybe also the number of people who blame everything on scapegoats. Obviously, Republicans are most to blame for brainwashing people for decades and destroying government so they can run against government.

"In other countries, the people use their taxes to do things like putting families before work. ... We let our work, our jobs control our lives. They use their taxes to remove stress from their lives. They are happier, more content than we are."

I live in Japan and had to laugh, sorry.

[JanMichael]

11. I wonder if "Bowling Alone" was more right than I thought?

Then toss in the internet and everyone is in a soliloquy filled echo chamber.

It has driven people batty.

[modrepub]

13. Politicians Can't Help You

And "everything" isn't broken. You posted this message on a public website. The electricity, communication and basic infrastructure to allow you to post this message all worked (and no government agent or big business tyrant showed up at your front door to try and stop you). Given the complexities of our current world, I think it's somewhat of a miracle that when I get up and hit the lights the electricity comes on given all that must happen in the background to make it so.

Not to say that there aren't issues in the world but too often, if you fall into the big media trap, you only get the stories that generate anger and frustration. Probably because anger is a strong emotion and the media is fixated on generating on-line traffic. That, in my opinion, is the source of a lot of people's anxiety. Being gen-x, I can say it's been almost an entire lifetime of being sh-t on, degraded and ignored. My coping strategy is just to shrug and move on. Don't let them have the satisfaction of seeing you angry or emotional because most times it only seems like other folks are poking you with a red hot iron just to see if they can piss you off.

As I've said many times, you have to accept some folks just don't want your help. For your sanity, move on and find someone who appreciates the effort and empathy. Try and ignore the right bleedin' bastards or better yet out smart them. I'm a big fan of keeping taxes local and encouraging locals to focus on their needs and desires. Funny thing is, most red parts of this country do not have the tax base to support their basic infrastructure. In a perfect world they'd practice what they preach and pull themselves up by their own boot straps without taking tax money from anyone else.

[fightforfreedom]

17. Wrong, I said ALMOST everything is broken.

[jalan48]

15. The United States is a failing, corrupt empire. It's happened throughout history to all empires.

We got fat, lazy and have had little problem with our bloated military budgets and never ending wars. The appeal of a Caesar (dictator) who tells us he/she can fix everything and return us to the good old days is too hard to resist.