Should we "fight every day to save our democracy?"

That's a notion that's rather impossible to deny or confirm. How do you quantify empathy? By the philanthropic involvements of our most wealthy citizens? Because by the measure, we definitely do give back much more than Europeans.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/23/americans-are-more-generous-than-europeans-by-a-large-margin/

But it's a much different dynamic when you're assessing the largesse of the average citizens in the U.S. versus other countries, mostly because of how our systems work. Average Americans fucking hate -- HATE -- taxes, which they are often led to believe are simply a means of income redistribution. The rising tides raise all boats angle gets short shrift in comparison with the pick yourself up by your bootstraps tenet.

Besides, Trump's ongoing relevance elevates one long-hidden truism that has been brought into bas relief: A large swath of Americans give fuck all about the rules or the truth as long as it benefits them and/or fucks their perceived enemies.

That said, him being called to account -- four indictments so far -- is edifying in one regard: We remain a nation of laws, and empathy only comes into the equation during the sentencing phase

 

Well-stated.
Still, many people do not/will not comprehend what really is very simple.
Turn the fucking tube off.

 

Yeah, they do. Especially given the circumstances - that the news media tries really hard, in the name of profit, to be divisive.

the nation just isn’t as bad as you think it is.

 

I barely consume news media.

And I didn’t say the nation was bad. I said most Americans are incredibly selfish people and we no longer have any concept of or willingness for collective action.

 

You could say that about human nature.

Relative to the most of the world I don’t see that being unusually true of Americans.

 

That's what happens when laws are broken every other day.

 

Our "collective action" targets are not quite as easily defined as "build a bomb," "beat the Nazis" or "land on the moon***."

Our COVID shutdowns hurt some people, didn't affect others at all and were more of a "well, we gotta do SOMETHING" approach rather than a concrete solution with sacrifice by everyone. Our government spending is so wasteful and kickback dependent that we're convinced that only a fraction of it actually goes to help anyone. Climate change may very well be another money pit where no matter how great our intentions and much money and action you throw at something, actually changing the climate of a celestial body that grows by 200,000 energy-dependent people every day could be utter fantasy.

And our targets change depending on who's in the White House. I suspect climate change and Ukraine will take a backseat to immigration if Biden loses.


***which never even would have been a goal had Shepard beat Gagarin.

 

You’re not really disagreeing with me.