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To be fair, that's a good chunk of political discourse anytime conservatives/neoliberals in any country feel like they're losing power. Japan, the UK, Germany and plenty others all pushed xenophobic and anti-immigration talking points to the top of the political discourse recently. I'm pretty sure Australia had a bunch of anti-immigration marches last year.
Yeah absolutely, its a common tactic for all ruling classes and has been for some time. It is just particularly prevalent in the US.
But is it though? I'd argue it just seems more prevalent because the US "controls" more of the media in the west and the capital interests that owns that media is almost universally conservative. That doesn't actually reflect how the vast majority of Americans even feel. Most people, let alone the average American, doesn't even understand how immigration works or just how bad the system in the US is.
Not "people", MAGA's and GOP voters.
Yea. MAGA are not people.
Except they don't make any effort to not blame foreigners.
To be fair, you could substitute USA for any country and it would be valid.
Many countries are actually the victims of Western/American sanctions, blockades, unfair trading rules, etc. so it actually makes sense for them, lol. America is, to the detriment of the whole world, the global hegemon (at least for now), they make the rules!
As an American, I find it ridiculous that people from my home town, population <2000, are complaining of imagrants, while living on a Native American Reservation. They speak as if the migrants escaping atrocities, are bringing thier "3rd world" here.
My experience with migrants are they nice people and often bring some interesting food along with them. The closeness thing to "ethnic food" the people spouting this non sense have ever had is Taco Bell.
Americans complaining about the chinese and russian interference, and meanwhile every year there is a fucking american CPAC (Conservative Action Political Conference) celebrated in my country full of treachourous rethoric and direct foreign intervention. I wish my government had all these gringo leeches sent to a camp and their traitor collaborators put on trial.
America would do the same if China or Russia was making political conventions up there.
America would do the same if China or Russia was making political conventions up there.
Nah, all foreign operatives are welcome to contribute to American politicians. And really - it's not even a joke. Between Citizen's United (which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing elections) and crypto (who do you think was buying Trump's coin?!), our politicians don't complain about interference - they cash in on it.
I believe you talk out of your ass like that as an American because you are not really aware of all the abusive influence your country exercises in the rest of the world and especially the global south.
You believe citizens united and crypto are a bug in the system? My friend America is a bunch of corporations in a trench coat, the point is to make money not serve it's people. You were led to believe this bunch of bull about democracy and freedom and in the end the whole neoliberal cycle of abuse was bound to come back and bite you on the ass.
And still it is not even a fraction of all the pain and destruction america has caused all over the world, i am hoping someday it comes back to you guys full force.
People here upset by this generalization unironically enjoying a meme yesterday referring to 'russian/israeli/Iranian shills'
More than a few seem to be caused by South Africans and Israelis to be fair.
Its ridiculous.
"Were turning into Russia!" When the USA is ramping up things its been doing for decades.
Acting like the downfall started with trumps election
Russia is America lite
It was when any hope of ever changing died. But good news is if it's what you're already used to then you'll get to have so much more of it from now on 🥳
To be fair, immigrants kinda ruined this place starting in 1492.
kicks off with two back-to-back turf wars while blap-blapping all the bystanding public. Does it with slaves
1492? How Eurocentric of you.^[/s and ;-)]
It's the Russians spreading propoganda and making people racist trust me!
To be fair, Murdoch and Musk hold significant responsibility for the dumpster fire currently taking in this country...
Admittedly fair but they follow a home grown trend. If they did not fulfill their current roles some other loser would.
Roger Ailes was empowered by Murdoch, but he was a POS before that
Outside of news media, I dont really ever hear this. Then again I dont have any magats in my life.
I learned early on immigrants uplift their communities, and we have both emperical and ancidontal evidence to support this.
Sorry for my spelling, the app im using now doesnt seem have any spell check. I either did spell correctly, or I was so wrong my phone offered no other suggestions.
It is so fucking tiring to hear that all the problems with the US are inexplicably because of foreign influences. Many people here in this country do not realize that they are just different flavors of right wing rhetoric with some being more overt and extreme than the rest. Just the same xenophobic rhetoric with a different window dressing. There is next to no left-wing political discourse that understands that what ails this country is, in fact, our very culture and economy. The only thing any foreign influences are doing is exacerbating a problem that was already a long-standing issue in this nation.
Like, I get that the US has enemies that would like to see it go down so they can expand. I get that. Yet, while this is true that I don't want to see those other Imperialist nations expand it is also true that the US itself is no shining beacon of freedom and liberty that the propaganda would like us all to believe it is. It is just another authoritarian, Imperialist nation that exploits the masses both foreign and abroad.
Anytime you try to get to the core of an issue with someone they never seem to break past that point where they must come to terms with America itself is a problem.
In my humble opinion, the oligarchs are the root of our problem - they control media, corrupt politics. Media led to propaganda that has half the country believing an alternate "reality" that is simply lies.
That said, the reason I think we have Trump is largely Russia's influence.
So really, it's a combination of internal and external pressures.
Oligarchs are products of the systems we have which govern our society. Without those systems, oligarchs cannot exist nor relegate power for themselves to facilitate their continued existence through manipulation of said system's structure.
Russian influence is a small part of a much larger problem with America's individualist, hyper-capitalist, racist and xenophobic culture. Russia didn't need to do much at all but stoke the flames of cultural issues that have already been a part of the American social fabric for centuries which have only been emboldened and institutionalized by our political and economic systems.
Trump is a personification of the rotten underbelly of America that has always existed behind the thin veil of propaganda. He is representative of everything the left-wing political authors over the last century have been warning about coming to fruition.
We could keep the economic system in place that allowed the oligarchs to get so powerful if we simply figured out better ways to tax them to limit their wealth to a stupid but not globally-stupid level. Universal healrth care and other social nets, ending the insane wealth inequality and restoring it to merely unhealthy levels. Put laws in place to break up media and political influence (i.e. money into politics, e.g. Citizens United).
They could keep a decent portion of their wealth and we could make things more fair and better for everyone.
But at this point, I think it's going to take radical change to break their hold.
I wouldn't downplay external influences, but I certainly say this is primarily an internal event and nothing new, but a combination of how the country was founded plus evolution over the decades to make it worse and worse.
My main objection to the submission is the idea that foreign influences played no role at all. And the submitted idea is ridiculous on its face.
No. There is no way to keep capitalism in place and fix what ails society. That is just incredibly naive and ignorant of leftist political theory.
:rolls eyes:
:vaguely points at all the countries that have kept capitalism in place and while aren't perfect by any means, generally doing fine:
:walks away from useless conversation with a naive and ignorant twit:
How do you stop the oligarchs from changing the laws over time so that they don't have to pay those taxes anymore if they are the primary source of funding for every political campaign, lobbying group, and news media? How do you do it when many of our politicians are effectively oligarchs or share the interests of oligarchs? How do you even get that sort of taxation law passed under these conditions? The nordic countries accomplished this to a degree but those social safety nets they built are being eroded away as we speak. How do you put limits on capitalism when the capitalists are the only ones with state power?
That is the ultimate question of democracy in a nutshell: How do you give power to the people and prevent certain bad people from corrupting it?
I don't think anyone's come up with a complete solution.
You mentioned nordic countries, and if you hadn't, I was about to. I think they're a great example of showing how it can be done.
And the other part of the answer is: Education. You educate each generation so that they can stand up against the oligarchs and stand strong to vote against the laws that weaken democracy.
Various countries have done this to varying degrees. The US is somewhat of an outlier in the OECD ("Developed" countries) list in that we are pretty corrupt and undemocractic.
You have to constantly fight to keep a democracy strong. You can't just sit back and think it'll take care of itself. The attacks are constant.
So I don't have answers for you; rather, I share some of the same questions. But I do have opinions on some things the US can do to make things better. They're uncomfortable and I don't think we [as a country] are ready yet - not enough of us ready yet.
But I'm doing the part I can: arguing on the internet about where we are and what we should be working toward. It's about all I can do. The more of us that agree, the more likely it is that enough of us will be able to enact changes.
You're the person depicted in the meme
You're ignorant of the situation.
Oh fuck off already. The general US hate on Lemmy is fucking ridiculous, especially given those of us on this platform don't share the hateful rhetoric in the least.
Hate the admin. Hate the minority of morons who blindly support their bullshit. All the general hate for all US citizens does is show ignorance of the situation we face here.
On the other hand, fuck this evil country and the rotten fucking people who live here.
What is the hate here? The meme is making fun of the tendency of USians to blame immigrants for every problem they face. This is not spun out of nowhere.
It's probably at least partly a reaction to decades of US exceptionalism where the US (and many citizens) proclaim it's the greatest and most developed nation on the planet (and definitely the good guys) while anyone with a little travel experience already knew that's not the case.
What's true though is that it's a large but relatively young nation with the biggest military, biggest economy and biggest tech companies on the planet.
The culture of the US is a product. It is designed to be apathetic if not hateful towards the enemies of the state and intentionally developed to misguide the populous. US culture is systematically created by the business owning class who recognizes that pointing the US population's understandable ire over their own destitution at foreigners is in their interest. I can hate that fascimile of a culture without hating the people who have fallen victim to it. My enemy is not the American people but the American people are taught to believe I am their enemy.
Tankie bullshit. Awesome. You still profess general hatred of all US citizens and can go fuck yourself courtesy of the large portion of the population who support immigrants and understand that this country was formed by immigrants and depends on them as well.
If you truly believed the shit you just posted you wouldn't have posted this meme.
atleast
...is not a word. Please improve.
Fuck you're so right. I am actively trying to get better at that too lol