Watching the US is a lot like watching a kidnapping in progress, from a distance. Good people in the hands of some really evil and greedy fucks, but only some realize, or *want* to realize, what is going on. It’s a lovely country that I long to revisit, and I really like the people a LOT, but at the same time I am also glad I am not American with all the smoke and mirrors masking cages as freedom. It makes me sad to see friends caught in this confusing flux though.
Other countries are heading in the same direction, but the US always seems to be a bit ahead in this kind of extremism, perhaps partly due to the propaganda that has been connected with it ever since the 19th cent and especially since WW2. It is getting very hard to see a deeper difference between corrupted modern socialist and communist states, republics and Renaissance monarchies, with true freedom being a chimera in these corrupted systems, all of them instead giving us decorated and pretty dog collars that allow us free movement within the distance of the leash.
A big part of the problem, regardless of system, is numbers. Number of people, which has grown madly over the last 150 years, in a way that is beyond any comparison in history. And this combined with how good, decent people, with a strong sense of duty, stay calm as long as life is “good enough” and seemingly largely undisturbed by those in power, means that those in power, who are ultimately rather few, can work and exploit the great numbers of people just a little each, literally feeding them sugared shit and surrounding them with crap so profit can be maximized, with no pride in anything but profit, something which with large numbers of people will add up to insane amounts, and yet leaves most people largely undisturbed, not realizing what is happening.
But this mellowness and simple satisfaction combined with the great numbers also inevitably leads to disenfranchisement and ever growing dissatisfaction and outright anger among some, where some of the latter also gets directed in the wrong direction, kicking downwards as it is easier and feels good. And this is where things get really dangerous and volatile, with the risk of igniting either a reaction against those in power, or a reinforcement of their strength and control, shifting blame towards the weaker, and building a truly authoritarian “fascist” state. Currently things seem to be moving towards the latter in a great many places. Just as planned.
