I wish so badly I could edit the title to more accurately reflect what happened. “Police shoot reporter in the back.”

  • Stamets@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    Unpopular Opinion: Y’all were never great. The country had one brief period of some sanity before it got dropkicked out the door by Reagan. The only difference between the United States and Russia is good PR and even better propaganda. The United States is offensive to common sense and human decency on every fundamental level, from it’s inception until today. Things are just more obvious now. That’s the only difference.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The US had a period of “greatness” shortly after WWII.

      Why was the US “great” in the 1950s and 1960s?

      1. The labour protections from the New Deal hadn’t yet been repealed, so more wealth was shared with ordinary people (as long as they were white).
      2. The US was the only major country to escape WWII without massive damage to its infrastructure. So, while other countries were focusing on rebuilding cities flattened by war, the US economy just shifted from producing war goods to producing consumer goods.
      3. A lot of the world’s best and brightest fled to the US as a safe place to escape the war. These immigrants were essential to the US economy after the war.

      So yeah, people’s grandpas were able to buy a house and support a family working a menial job for a brief period after WWII. But, that’s not because of some fundamental characteristic about the US that makes it better. It’s mostly because the US was fortunate enough to be on the opposite side of the planet from one of the most destructive wars in history.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh come on! At one point, through almost an accident of history, our country was still able to make things, build things, and pump out babies while the rest of the organized world had to reassemble their firebombed and nuked cities.

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The US threw over 100,000 of its own citizens in concentration camps 60 years before Reagan was president. You’re giving the man far too much credit.

    • nexguy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You think the U.S. was great in the late 70? I guess if you were a straight white guy then of course.

      • Stamets@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        You think the U.S. was great in the late 70?

        Would you mind pointing out where I said that?

        Go ahead.

        I’ll wait.

        • nexguy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well the brief period of time before Reagan was the late 70s… A truly horrific time for the U.S. but you seem to think it was a period of sanity.

          • Stamets@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 year ago

            You seem to think it was a period of sanity.

            Would you mind pointing out where I said that?

            Go ahead.

            I’ll wait.

            Actually, screw this. Let me just cut this off now so I can get on with my life.

            The country had one brief period of some sanity

            The operative word in that sentence is the word SOME. Stop painting my opinions to be all or nothing, stop shoving words down my throat, and actually read what I have to say. I also did not specify the period I was talking about, only that Reagan drop kicked it out. You made an enormous amount of assumptions and pretended as if they were reality. They’re not.

            If you are curious next time, the correct thing to do is ask for elaboration or clarification.

            Please stop wasting my time.

              • Stamets@lemmy.worldOP
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                1 year ago

                You’re either a troll or literally incapable of understanding that “some” means certain things I pick, not you.

                Whatever the reason, the outcome is the same.

                • nexguy@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  …but you could pick any moment in history and it would have “some” sanity. So you effectively said nothing.

    • sramder@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Come on… other than the eugenics movement the 20’s sound decent. Lots of nice art deco a few years later….

      Take that with the mid 50’s though the late 70’s and you’re talking about a solid half century. It’s not a bad run given our assumed trajectory ;-)

      I was always kind looking forward to seeing the dystopian wasteland phase.

    • thedruid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That is an incredibly bad take. One so fundamentally poor, indeed obtuse, that this comment has to be filed under, " you’ve got to be fucking kidding me"

      Don’t expect a response from me. I won’t waste time on stupidity.

      • Stamets@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Also… Oh nooo… I won’t get a response from you… oh noooo… Whatever will I do?

        Bruh, I only knew you made a comment because a friend pointed out the silliness of it.