Yep - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

radiofreetom.bsky.social • 4 days ago

Yep

1/ I wonder if there's a complement to Mettler's _Submerged State_ thesis: the successful state thesis. In brief: American government has *in many ways* been so successful for so long that Americans have forgotten why they need it, making anti-government rhetoric more appealing.

Comments

bobstinsonsghost.bsky.social•4 days ago

I had two MAGAt's tell me today that the stock market going down is actually a good thing. Jesus are these people zombified.

jutjutjoanney.bsky.social•4 days ago

Not just gubment though! Reality in general. Vaccines? I'm still in awe that we want to relearn that one.

dcarlton.bsky.social•4 days ago

Sort of like a Minsky moment--a long period of little consequence for risk-taking encourages risk-taking to the point that the whole thing blows up.

pauldimilla.bsky.social•4 days ago

Everything will seem fine to far too many Americans until, suddenly and seemingly out of the blue to them, it isn't.

wilfhound.bsky.social•4 days ago

Organisations have no memory. Only individuals have memory. As the WW2 generation has died, and with them their memories, we see the phoenix rise of a once rightly discredited ideology, namely, fascism.
Smashing up whatever they don't understand is the new policy in the Idiocracy.

bobdevine.bsky.social•4 days ago

We can thank the US government for modern computers, the Internet, satellite communications, and GPS. But what have they done for us lately? /s

bikemike.bsky.social•4 days ago

This was a problem for Biden: he had several successes but they were quite successes. Getting bipartisan support for some laws required him to keep quiet so as not to drive away republicans. Same with diplomacy which requires work behind the scenes

calamityjim.bsky.social•4 days ago

Reagan exploited this nicely.

profsjw.bsky.social•4 days ago

We've had 50 yrs of complaints about the government brilliantly pushed by the GOP & a conservative media eco-system. A neutral-about-Truth MSM dutifully spreads it all around. A Dem Party spends decades learning no lessons & struggling to respond. But at least some eyes are open about the problems.

citrineglitter.bsky.social•4 days ago

It's like the need for vaccination against horrible diseases. We're all vaccinated, there are no horrible diseases attacking and killing kids, so the recognition of the need . . . fades. People get a bad case of, "Ain't nobuddy gonna tell ME what ta do," and kids start getting sick again.

rjfravel.bsky.social•4 days ago

Contentment and complacency both feeding and a product of self absorption.

garethspenn.bsky.social•4 days ago

"The federal government had better keep its hands off my Social Security."

I think that's an actual quote.

citrineglitter.bsky.social•4 days ago

Oh, lord, yes! There's a LOT of shots of that sort of sign, always at the Tea Party demonstrations. Here's a couple of 'em:

citrineglitter.bsky.social•4 days ago

This is my new favorite TeaBaggie slogan:

laurili.bsky.social•4 days ago

People be idiots.

oatsmint.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yes. But that's about to change. And then we'll see what happens.

liammcreanan.bsky.social•4 days ago

Maybe they need a winter to appreciate just how long a summer it's been?

tenneynaumer.bsky.social•4 days ago

Of course! They don't remember disease before antibiotics and vaccines. The roads before the interstate hwys, the days before widespread commercial air travel. How it was before the internet and not everyone had a phone at home.

johnmchenry.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yep - people who use the interstate highway system and benefit from the remarkable safety record of commercial air travel and never ask “How did these things come to be?”
🙄

inthecenterhoping.bsky.social•4 days ago

Many Americans- primarily those who voted for Trump- believe that somehow magically even if you fired all federal employees, that the government would continue just fine in providing them everything they’re entitled to.

citrineglitter.bsky.social•4 days ago

They don't see a connection between an "unelected bureaucrat" at the Social Security office and the nice lady who answered the phone and patiently straightened out the problem Aunt Martha was having with her check amount.

christineewrites.bsky.social•4 days ago

same with vaccines. they've forgotten that they work.

who43.bsky.social•4 days ago

Everyone has a smartphone with tiktok and YouTube. How much actual thought, much less action, can be expected?

thimbleukus.bsky.social•4 days ago

Same argument for vaccines.

hbservetus.bsky.social•4 days ago

Americans are not meeting the personal responsbility standards established in Federalist Paper 1:

"...been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government..."

josephpalmer.bsky.social•4 days ago

I recall someone talking about the effect of getting a US Government Social Security check every damn month in the US mail.
Now that they are direct deposit, it's a different relationship.

citrineglitter.bsky.social•4 days ago

Right! When it comes in the mail, it's a physical thing you see, it's in your hand, and you take it to the bank to deposit it.

It's easier when the money just magically appears, sure, but the reality of it is in holding the check in your hand.

rpfromak.bsky.social•4 days ago

The same applies to vaccinations

amicusopus.bsky.social•4 days ago

Didn't someone say, 'We had to forget ourselves in order to remember us?', or did I just make that up myself?

lvwintersweet.bsky.social•4 days ago

My dad could remember when the rivers around NYC were filthy- and the difference that the environmental policies made. He was far from an environmentalist. I think it’s lived experience that gives context. You can’t write off things totally when you’ve seen life without them.

adamshepard13.bsky.social•4 days ago

Don’t forget the boredom.

flashrookie.bsky.social•4 days ago

This.

justadayortwo.bsky.social•4 days ago

I was just recently thinking how I may have to explain to my grandchildren the "good ol days" when we too for granted clean air and water, easily accessible National Parks the middle class drove to visit on family vacations.

punkahbandit.bsky.social•4 days ago

Same in Australia TBH, just 10 years behind.

maximumeffort433.bsky.social•4 days ago

Antidepressants have a similar problem.

Person is depressed.
Person takes antidepressants.
Person starts to feel less depressed.
Person stops taking their antidepressants.
Person is depressed.

Also applies to antibiotics.

seabeegator46.bsky.social•4 days ago

Terrible analogy.

maximumeffort433.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank god, because it seems to me like that's exactly what America is doing, we make a little bit of progress, think things are okay now, and then piss it all away because we don't see what made things okay in the first place.

josephcappadonia.bsky.social•4 days ago

People take good government for granted.

lynnsmaagaard.bsky.social•4 days ago

They only know what they are being told.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply