General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We Just Didn't Know [View all]Nay
(12,051 posts)people in this country. Millions of them. But the value of 40 yrs of propaganda is that it has convinced many more millions simply by its incessant drumbeat of authoritarian, religious right, and racist ideals for a whole generation now. Lots of people are easily manipulated into doing whatever the prevailing culture tells them to, and the prevailing culture here is a toxic mix of attitudes like this:
--buying more stuff makes you happier
--white males are the top of the heap, and don't you forget it or we'll get violent
--I've got mine, and fuck you
--anyone on welfare is a lazy cheater
Then you add in the fact that the rich, through Citizen United and other ways, buy their way into the system and twist it to their greedy desires. This distorts the system for all the rest of us, who have to deal with the fallout (crummy jobs, lousy/expensive health care, crummy schools, Nazi-like police officers, run-amok military contractors, etc.).
It culminates in the election of a creature like Trump, who is the embodiment of greed, ignorance, racism, sexism, and a bunch of other -isms. It's going to be a scary ride all the way through.