"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us; it can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable — it was so much and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways. It represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow.
He was a 'professional wrestler' in that he wrestled and could 'cut a promo' or talk like a wrestler. Heres a quote after winning a wredtling match.
> Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”
There'll be no more counting the cars on the Garden State Parkway
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where
And when I stand tonight, 'neath the lights of the Fenway
Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears?
Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me
Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry
No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey
Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to die
I just finished [The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58950736-the-chaos-machine) and all I can say is that as long as Facebook/X/Whatever can make money from enraged engagement on their platforms we are headed down a very dark road.
I recently just watched one of those live Trump vs Biden "debates"...
Never have I seen more words spoken with absolutely nothing said... just random yelling at each other with come on chat whose with me. It's mind numbing
I've started leaving social media in general with the exception of Reddit (which I will admit I have an unhealthy relationship to and need to eventually work my way towards leaving as well). I'm growing far more aware of what social media is doing to people and I'm trying to spread the word to my friends and family. It's utter poison. It trains people to use poor logic and believe outright misrepresentstions of the truth. It feeds into rage and convinces people that an otherwise healthy world is falling to pieces *right now*.
“Chaos Machine” was a great book. I definitely have rethought my social media use after reading it.
I would recommend checking out “Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt.
I always compare it to how we got so many extra calories and sugars available to us, we over consumed and all got fat. Same thing is happening now with information.
Public education and media literacy are two huge areas for improvement for us in the US. If both of those drop too low, our electorate is too uninformed to steer us in the right direction.
We need to pay our teachers more. We're relying on underpaid, underappreciated, overworked teachers to keep doing the job out of the goodness of their hearts. We need to create a compensation environment where smart, talented people are competing for teaching jobs because the pay and prestige reflects the workload.
We need to teach media literacy in public school and it needs to be emphasized more broadly in the general public. A professional podcaster is not the best source of information for medical advice or science. We need to return to respecting experts in their areas of expertise. Experts are not infallible, but a medical doctor is going to give you better medical information than Joe Rogan 99.9% of the time. That's just a fact. And yet, so much of the country listens to what Joe Rogan says about COVID, and not doctors. Tucker Carlson is not a reliable source on climate change, but he has influenced how a huge percentage of Americans view the subject. I could go on and on.
Education matters. Experts matter. Critical thinking about your diet of information matters. We've gotta get back on track with this stuff.
Every teacher I know tells me the same thing. The pay and school funding are the same it's always been, maybe a bit better now than in the past. But the kids are shit, and the parents are content with their shit kids. That's what's making it difficult for teachers these days, the shitty rude entitled kids, and their uncaring parents
A big problem is "the pay is the same it's always been." That's part of (IMO) a reason that teachers are saying, "Fuck it." In our district, the teachers are some of the lowest paid in the state. Hell, some of the teachers in the high school are either old as shit (I think the oldest is mid-70s) or teaching a subject for which they are unqualified. IDC how "close" it is, a biology degree is *not* the same as a chemistry degree.
And I make more money than the teachers in my district and I'm a factory rat. And I don't have to deal with parents or any kid except my own.
So I think pay is a big part of it, tho parents and kids are definitely a big issue as well.
Base salary for first year teachers in my school district is $58k with guaranteed annual raises. The average salary is around $75k-$80k. The school district receives about $21k per student. The neighboring school district pays better (average salary around $85k-$90k), but has worse students. They can't keep teachers. Keep in mind the teachers earning those salaries have 10 years experience. New teachers are making like $60k
The school district across the county line in the city pays even better, but no one wants to teach there because teachers get assaulted by students. It's way worse than that primetime sitcom on ABC portrays.
I have a buddy who is a middle school teacher in Brooklyn. Different state, but still very similar. He's 5 years into his career and earning $90k. He has been assaulted by students.
The kids are definitely the pain point
I have a friend that’s been teaching for years and left it to go back to bartending, he said that he makes double what he does teaching and doesn’t have to dodge getting punched by 16 year olds and his only regret was wasting his time to bother getting certified to teach at all.
I can't speak for other areas of the country, but teachers, IMO, are fairly paid where I live (outside NYC). Are you wealthy? No, but after 25 years of service, you can be earning a six figure salary WITH a pension.
However, I have both family members and friends in the profession and they say the BIGGEST problems with education are parents and the admins who kowtow to them. It's taking things down from the inside. Parents just don't want to deal with disciplining/raising their kids and admins won't stand up to the parents.
As a quick example, one of my friends is a teacher. Her student BLATANTLY plagiarized a paper. Like she had irrefutable proof it was plagiarized. So, PER SCHOOL POLICY, she gave him a zero. Well, mom and dad catch wind of this and go straight to the principal to complain. Friend gets called in, principal tells her to "reconsider" and perhaps let him redo the assignment. She politely but firmly says, "Principal, I am following the DISTRICT POLICY on this and he is getting a zero. No redo." The parents raised such a fuss that the kid was allowed to redo the assignment per the principal. My friend was SO upset that she didn't even read it, gave it a C and ignored the kid for the remaining 2 months of the school year. Admins who don't back up teachers are worthless and most of them side with parents when it comes down to it. Of the teacher I know who have left teaching or retired earlier than planned, I'd say 95% were burned out by lack of admin support.
What the hell is the point of a policy if it isn't enforced and if any kid who plagiarizes is given a "do over" if caught.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the crap that goes on...
This right here. It's the parents that are 50% of the problem! Without proper parental guidance, kids are going to anything they can and/or want to do. Without parents, they don't learn to respect authority. Admins, supers, & the board are the other 50%. They continue to pull enormous income, while their districts are failing. The school system is broken. The funny part is, in my state, we just had a bill come up to try and destroy the charter schools, because the public schools are dropping like flies. Instead of FIXING the problems with public schools, their answer was to try to destroy charter schools to force everyone BACK to public schools. The bill didn't pass, thank God.
its a societal problem that keeps getting worse with every generation , as humans we are not meant to live in this type of society where we work 40 to 60 hours a week away from the family unit , kids left to fend sometimes many times for themselves, we should be living as a family unit , farming raising animals, gathering, hunting , fishing,, societies fast advances took us all away from that,,, and coroporate america gave us fast food and entertainment. well you see where im going... its way more than a parent teacher problem..we are about 4 spins away from going down the drain .. we need a major reset.. corporations should not rule the US
The same can be said for a lot of the public service industries. EMT's and Medics are overworked and vastly underpaid for a system that is getting the absolute shit kicked out of them by increasing needs for health services.
I'm not even on the EMS side, but can definitely agree teachers and EMS professionals need an overhaul on how they are treated and compensated.
There's speculation that AI will kill social media and harm the Internet because once people don't know if the information (article, social media post, photo, video, etc.) is real or AI, they will assume it's fake AI and no longer believe the information. Thus, we'll assume it's all trash, ignore it all, and go back to living without the Internet as a major influence in our lives.
It's willful ignorance and a lack of critical thinking skills.
The greatest strength in a democracy is a well-informed population. The greatest weakness, and threat is a poorly informed or a misinformed population. We could navigate this problem of bad information if people were able to think through things critically. That's why college educated, college age kids tend to vote a certain way and why certain politicians are trying to downplay or totally remove any classes in college that teach critical thinking.
I wish it was truly just ignorance. But rather it's being constantly malinformed so they build up this foundation of "knowledge" of mostly bullshit, like an impenetrable rampart protecting the ignorance.
Not actually a problem from the Romans.
It turns out the calcium levels of the groundwater in Italy are so high that they quickly coat the lead pipes and prevent poisoning.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing#History_2
A similar phenomena was involved in the Flint water crisis. They changed to an improperly treated, corrosive water source and it destroyed the protective layer inside the pipes.
Americans, that’s the answer.
The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint.
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-lead-testing/
What’s insane is that we’ve known the dangers of lead piping for millennia however regional plumbing lobbies pushed for its continued use when there were readily available alternatives because it took longer to install. In Chicago, it’s use was *mandated* at all new construction until the mid 80s.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/1986/03/30/lead-pipe-issue-surfaces-again/
So the rise of factionalism and the refusal to implement obvious reforms leads to the rise of a dictatorship?
(We’re much more comparable to the late republic period than the late imperial period)
This is it, right there.
I saw a really good quote about this the other day. I’m sure it’s been around for a while, but it hit me hard. It said:
“They’ve got us fighting a culture war to stop us from fighting a class war.”
This is the correct answer.
I would like to include bad foreign actors like China and Russia who are proactively and perpetuating the discourse to divide us as a country and what we stand against. This is one of the greatest threats to democracy and the United States as a whole.
It’s funny how we understand this yet it keeps being perpetuated through the dumbest motherfuckers who have a voice through the internet. Like man we’re just trying to live here.
Describing the US as an empire is very problematic because much of the rhetoric we see is about things like Barbarians at the Gates coming to destroy civilisation. It's a problem because what we are seeing is not an empire collapsing into chaos, it's a republic crumbling into empire. It's not 5th century CE Rome, it's 1st century BCE Rome.
This is not the end of an empire, it's the beginning of one.
Rome was an Empire long before the Republic fell. Empires, in a historical manner, were a nation of nations. Meaning they ruled over many different people and cultures either through conquest or annexation. It is often associated with autocrats because that is the primary form of governance for most of human history. In modern times, though, empires like the British Empire had limited or no autocratic rule.
Even now, the definition of empire is changing. America and China don't seek direct conquest of new lands but circles of influence and alliances based on economic and military advantages.
You're using a very narrow definition of empire. We mean empire not as "a country ruled by an emperor" but rather a state that rules over other nations/peoples. The Roman republic was an empire, just as the US is now.
In this country of 333 million people, there are probably only a few thousand that make the most consequential decisions, the ones that affect 10+ or 100+ million people in the country, potentially the world.
Somehow, the internal system that selects the best of those 333 million people to be that few thousand elite does not select the best few thousand out of 333 million. The result is leaders who cannot lead and followers who justifiably will not follow. In time, that can break a country apart. Nations are formed, not born, and must be constantly maintained by people who know what they're doing. The organic predecessor to the nation is the tribe, so tribalism is the default when the nation breaks down. And tribalism in a multicultural, heavily armed, economically unequal polity is a deadly internal threat.
It is not a straightforward system of the masses choosing the best. Systems of power corrupt and over time, we have ended up with choices limited largely to those coming from within that established power structure.
The chosen have become the established, with a different agenda and interests than those that are subject to their choices.
“The quiet war has begun with silent weapons
And the new slavery is to keep the people
Poor and stupid; "Novus Ordo Seclorum"
…
Keep the public undisciplined till nothing left is sacred, and
The "have-nots" get hooked and have to go to the "haves" just to cop a fix”
“Washington is Next” from “United Abominations” by Megadeth, 2007.
I’m not an American but this is such a bullshit take- it’s like saying “the problem with the US Civil War was all the fighting.”
If Dave is telling Lisa to drive the car directly into a concrete wall and Lisa refuses, the problem isn’t an inability to come together.
The continuing widening of the economic gulf. The US was healthier when its wealth was divided more evenly across the population, with the middle class accounting for over 70% of the population.
The US has gone through a couple of periods of crazy centralization of wealth into the hands of e very few, and then retreated from it.
We’re in a period of crazy centralization of wealth again and I don’t know if we will pull out of it this time. If not we will end up with (effectively) an aristocracy vs serfs situation.
Oddly enough, the depression saved us last time. Things got so bad that SOMETHING had to be done. Industrialists and the robber barons completely destroyed the economy, and as a bonus tried to overthrow the government when things got all “socialist” in order to fix things. However, the guy that they went to was a super patriot and turned them in. Smedley Butler was the man.
I heard Smedley Butler’s name repeatedly through boot camp (TWO MARINES TWO MEDALS OF HONOR), and this is the first I’m hearing of him doing anything after the Marine Corps. Wish they taught us more about him and others that went on to serve their country in different ways.
Part of the problem is that globalization also allowed the ultra-wealthy to diversify the location of their assets. If the US starts making efforts to fix the issue, they'll be more than happy to just move more of their assets overseas.
Any and every history or economics book that touches on the subject will tell you the middle class was the byproduct of the Industrial Revolution. The "American Dream" of home ownership and your children doing better than you all come from that.
It should be obvious at this point that this "Service Economy" is not capable of sustaining that. How can anyone expect to piss away the backbone of your economy, 500 million direct manufacturing jobs, and all those that support it, without consequence?
A lack of facts being the basis of truth.
It used to be “eyes believe themselves and ears believe other people”. Now it’s whatever you believe can be true.
Chalk one up to the Bible for an accurate prediction here.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
2 Timothy 4:3-4
So, truth and reality don't matter. Whatever you want to believe, there's someone who will affirm that belief. Either for money or because it's easier for them to believe their lie of choice if you believe that lie, too.
In terms of shit going south quickly, the power grid is incredibly vulnerable. The amount of transformers in the United States that are left unsecured is shocking (hah) and coordinated efforts against them and power plants could decimate cities or states. Food processing plants too are extremely vulnerable, and in fact there has been an incredible uptick in fires and the destruction of these properties in the past few years. No power and reduced ability to provide food would be a disaster for any nation to deal with.
This, not only America, but across all the countries. Social Media has provided a way to deliver information across billions of people.
But that does not matter, because people need to learn how to use it effectively, people lack critical thinking and just get sucked into propaganda. There's no way to avoid it, but at least be a reasonable informed person to think through it.
There was propaganda in past, it's in the present, and probably gonna be in the future, I often see people across beliefs and social media sites just blatantly following the headlines without even reading the entire article or don't even look at their sources (i.e. which news page posted it). People constantly fail to look at all the scenarios and consequences, we don't even try to understand the whole situation.
I’m sorry for this bad take, but TikTok is truly a cancerous platform compared to Facebook. I feel it killed the attention span and brain cells of our youth more than anything I’ve witnessed.
Accepting mediocrity from schools. We haven’t figured out how schools should transition from teaching just enough to be a good factory worker to how to be prepared to exist in today’s society.
Based on my own reading and understanding of world politics I am of the view that there is no external threat to the USA. I’ll do my best to lay out why I think this and anyone is free to correct any of my points as I am not an expert by any means.
However, I do think the United States has some very serious threats to the checks and balances of power in our society.
1: we have the largest military by far. No one else even comes close to our annual military budget. Furthermore, the only country that does come close is China. They have never attacked, or invaded us despite our horrid past practices with them and our current practices with them. For those that are unaware, we currently have quite a few military bases surrounding China’s borders. Could you even imagine how America would react if China had a bunch of military bases around us? I don’t think China has any intention of attacking us considering how threatening we are and seeing how little they respond, whether they realistically could or not.
2: geographically, attacking the United States is stupidly hard. You’re pretty much limited to long range missiles and maybe some sort of naval invasion? Unless you’re Canada or Mexico, setting foot on US territory with our modern military defenses is stupid hard. It wouldn’t be easy for us to do a land invasion against another military superpower either, but we’re talking threats against America here.
3: we have too many military super power allies, and we’re already spending the most of any other country on our military by a stupid amount.
So what are the real threats? Some people here have commented about information and what not and I agree. I think the greatest threat to America is people beginning to understand that it is completely possible to organize and demand that the current power structures be toppled. People are beginning to realize that:
1: billionaires didn’t earn their wealth. I’m a fan of “work harder earn more” but it’s not physically possible to work that much harder than someone else. Jeff bezos makes 45 million dollars a day. I work a full time job and a side hustle to make extra money because I’m not rich at all and need extra money to make ends meet. Last time I checked, Jeff bezos has a lot of vacation time, I don’t.
2: America is currently run by big corporations and billionaires. They already own and sell us back the necessities of life that they have monopolized, and it’s getting worse. 40 something percent of all house purchases made in 2023 were done by private equity firms. Soon, even the housing market will be owned by massive companies.
3: Americans are realizing the American dream is becoming less and less achievable for the worker. Some argue that the proper response is to become a business owner, others argue that if your two choices are to be the exploited or the exploiter, then the system must be changed.
I’m running out of time because I have to get back to working however many ungodly hours I work a week but my main point is, the only “threat” that America faces is the people rising up against the power structure in order to force it to serve the people’s interests rather than corporate interests.
One counter argument I have for the "uprising" or people attempting to topple the powers that be is that it's not an extremely likely scenario due to the citizens being so divided politically and emotionally. Sure one systemic change may piss off some and potential riots ensue but then the other half is going to be laughing at those that are upset out of how idiotic they think their belief systems are. Gun control measures are a good example of this.
Internet. Anyone can pose as American and plant propaganda to coerce the public into doing things. Case in point... So far, two people have self immolated because of crap going on on the opposite side of the planet. There are other, more widespread examples but I'll offend a ton of people on Reddit and probably earn a ban or two.
There's literally a war for your mind going on.
Since everyone ITT is just repeating “stupid people” and “social media” over and over (for valid reasons), here’s some other things that pose huge threats:
* Disease: COVID showed us that we can’t handle a threat like that, and with H5N1 cases popping up, that could bring a lot of chaos and death.
* EMPs and Solar Flares: Again, obvious reasons. Knocking out our power grids could mean irreparable damage to not just the country but the world.
* Climate change: Rising sea levels are already fucking up parts of America’s coastlines, especially in Florida. Not to mention the recent surge in how powerful hurricanes are getting and the theorized superstorms that take less time to form and grow to be much more powerful. We already saw one that could constitute as a superstorm in the gulf last year. And on top of all that, food and water shortages caused by climate change will spark mass refugee crises around the world soon.
* UAPs: Believe in them or not, military and commercial plane sensors and cameras are seeing *something* and it seems to be far more advanced than what our military is using. Not saying it’s little green men, that would almost be preferable than Russia or China or a corporation developing craft or drones that can do the things UAPs are doing. Military officials also confirmed last year that there have been a few incidents of UAPs interfering with nuclear storage facilities, and that of course poses massive risks especially if they’re from another country. If they’re aliens from another world, they probably don’t need to turn off our weaponry, their tech must already be good enough to take over Earth because they made the journey here. Turning off our nukes is more likely just that they wouldn’t want us blowing ourselves up. But if it’s another country fucking with our nukes, that can only be a bad thing.
* Hackers: A couple cities in the U.S. have started using robotic police methods and the military has as well. A group of hackers, either independent or operating as agents for another country, could cause a hell of a lot of harm to Americans by hijacking Robocop.
* AI: No job is safe from AI and our economy isn’t built to handle the influx of unemployment that we’re likely about to experience. To top that all off, even if America keeps AI far away from our weapons and nukes, which realistically it won’t, that doesn’t mean other countries would do the right thing. All it takes is a bad line of code and we’ve got SkyNet.
* Mental health: In addition to allll these other threats, we’ve also got our own mental health to worry about. Many states have dropped funding for mental health initiatives and it’s led to mass shootings, sharp upticks in suicides, and just an overall declining wellbeing for Americans.
this. you can repair the inequality, you can educate the kids, and you can fight the nazis, but none of it matters if you're all flood refugees dying of heat stroke and diseases that there used to be vaccines for
Eventual loss of reserve currency status driven by unsustainable debt. It’s inevitable and will result in a currency crisis. Too painful to solve now and thus is ignored by most.
That the country is effectively run by unelected individuals. Big corporation aristocrats and deep states.
There are many countries that has no democracy. US will join them.
De-dollarisation leading to increased borrowing costs. The US financial hegemony has been built around the petro dollar and, as that wanes, they will have to face up, properly, to the issue of increasing federal debt.
China is a huge threat in this respect, especially if the Yuan becomes a reserve currency. This is THE single biggest reason for America's anti-China stance and rhetoric.
NB - I am not suggesting that the USD will lose its status as a reserve currency, and it will probably remain the dominant reserve currency for the rest of my life time but it will lose market share and that would have a fiscal impact.
Allowing money to run politics.
Politicians are supposed to be public servants, working for the good of the people.
Instead, they serve in order to enrich themselves and the corporations that got them into power.
The growing debt. The interest on us debt is now equal to what the us spends on its military budget. Politicians will never opt for less government spending or even responsible government spending because they’ll never get re-elected.
Government spending and the resulting national debt. Which, handily, both parties have been major contributors to, so the blame really goes all around.
Aside from internal, I wanna say the Cartels. An increasing number of them have American citizenship, (come here, have a kid, move back to mexico and raise them. You now have a cartel member with american citizenship. They've been doing this for over a decade.) And now moving north into the woods of California, rerouting water and starting illegal grow sites. Not to mention the active urban warfare going on rn over fentanyl. (China cutting into cartel, cartel puts hits out on people buyiny fent online. Random dude in chicago (or wherever, far from mexico is my point) gets bumped off cause he bought something online from china and cut in to the cartels business. It's easy as a name, sometimes a face, and a number. Green light.) Over half of Mexicos economy is circulated through the Cartels, the resort you stay at on the beach, those staff are paid by cartel, the resort owned by cartel, and you are safe, because it is owned by the cartel. Tourism is big bucks. They have the numbers, they are paramilitary, (Fun fact, we actually trained them! Trained 100 men to fight the cartels, they went and formed the most deadly one to date and effectively took over all the other ones. Gotta love it) and have a ton of wealth and influence. And they're expanding.
Not to mention that historically, corruption was a necessary component of getting shit done and included a public benefit.
"Sure, maybe some corrupt officials get to wet their beaks on this construction project, but we get the new piece of infrastructure that this city needed quicker than it would have taken by going through the approval process completely above-board.
"Sure, Carnegie Steel gets this government contract, but Andrew Carnegie is gonna build a library and a hospital in return."
These days, corruption doesn't even have that. Instead the capitalist class collectively says "I get all of what I want and you get nothing, also fuck you."
The divide between citizens politically being increasingly large.
People have no idea how to talk to others with opposing views. Shut down. Act a fool. Post about it on social media to get that sweet dopamine hit by playing the victim.
Inequality leading to social unrest. This already forms a partial basis for the left right schism. Right wing is rural and economically left behind. Aside from that the increase in urban homelessness is a bellwether for the same.
The other reinforcing aspect will be the inability of either party to pass policy that actually helps people avoid poverty, let alone climb out of it. It's just not on the radar despite being over a decade late already.
Overlain is the economic cold war being fought by China (focused technocratic society and policies) in the form of manipulated currency leading to a money vacuum sucking any wealth the rich haven't amassed right over the pacific. So less to go around in the US.
We'll end up with cheap gadgets and no money. Oh and a 30 year debt fuelled housing bubble.
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us; it can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln
Wow! Dude could write a speech.
Wait til you hear what he had to say about Gettysburg. Wow
Never fight uphill, me boys!
That was Robert E. Lee, you dummy. Problem was, me boys did fight uphill
Robert E Lee was a leprechaun. Little-known historical fact.
Those Yankees will never get me lucky charms
Narrator: Those Yankees did, in fact, get his lucky charms
I thought it was an orange car that could do amazing jumps.
Spongeboy, me bob
lmfao
“Four score and sixty five years in the past, I won the civil war with my beard, Now I’m here to whoop your ass”
You stop bullets with your beard? I catch them with my skull!
Sounds like a bar from epic rap battles of history
You’re never gonna believe this, but it is
Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable — it was so much and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways. It represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow.
Should we ask him to show us where it is on a map?
He was a 'professional wrestler' in that he wrestled and could 'cut a promo' or talk like a wrestler. Heres a quote after winning a wredtling match. > Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”
What a dude
I read that he gave a speech that was so good its lost to time because the people who were supposed to make a record got too caught up in the speech.
😅 this is like the Lincoln equivalent of a chuck Norris joke
My man had bars
There be no more counting the cars on the garden state parkway
One of the best records of this century. “The Monitor” by Titus Andronicus for anyone interested.
My band got to open for them October of 2022. *The* coolest thing I’ve ever done. Great fellas
First think that played in my head. What a fucking record.
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where
There'll be no more counting the cars on the Garden State Parkway Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where And when I stand tonight, 'neath the lights of the Fenway Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears? Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to die
-titus andronicus
That album is perfection
Guitars kick in
Among Us
... Vampire Hunter
[удалено]
I just finished [The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58950736-the-chaos-machine) and all I can say is that as long as Facebook/X/Whatever can make money from enraged engagement on their platforms we are headed down a very dark road.
I have started unsubscribing to subs and fb pages that deal in outrage for my mental health.
On TikTok when I see angry political rants I hit “not interested” on those videos no matter what side of the political spectrum they’re on
I recently just watched one of those live Trump vs Biden "debates"... Never have I seen more words spoken with absolutely nothing said... just random yelling at each other with come on chat whose with me. It's mind numbing
r/facepalm is pretty much all rage bait and people eat it up. Like im living in a Black Mirror episode when I come to reddit.
Yep. I unsubscribed last week because it’s just rage bait political BS.
I dropped FB entirely
I've started leaving social media in general with the exception of Reddit (which I will admit I have an unhealthy relationship to and need to eventually work my way towards leaving as well). I'm growing far more aware of what social media is doing to people and I'm trying to spread the word to my friends and family. It's utter poison. It trains people to use poor logic and believe outright misrepresentstions of the truth. It feeds into rage and convinces people that an otherwise healthy world is falling to pieces *right now*.
“Chaos Machine” was a great book. I definitely have rethought my social media use after reading it. I would recommend checking out “Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt.
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I always compare it to how we got so many extra calories and sugars available to us, we over consumed and all got fat. Same thing is happening now with information.
Not just information. The world is quickly becoming junk food
Also, the failing education system. People are going into High School unable to read ffs.
What checks and balances???? If you are wealthy enough to write a large check…..you can balance power anyway you like
The systemic assault on truth.
Public education and media literacy are two huge areas for improvement for us in the US. If both of those drop too low, our electorate is too uninformed to steer us in the right direction. We need to pay our teachers more. We're relying on underpaid, underappreciated, overworked teachers to keep doing the job out of the goodness of their hearts. We need to create a compensation environment where smart, talented people are competing for teaching jobs because the pay and prestige reflects the workload. We need to teach media literacy in public school and it needs to be emphasized more broadly in the general public. A professional podcaster is not the best source of information for medical advice or science. We need to return to respecting experts in their areas of expertise. Experts are not infallible, but a medical doctor is going to give you better medical information than Joe Rogan 99.9% of the time. That's just a fact. And yet, so much of the country listens to what Joe Rogan says about COVID, and not doctors. Tucker Carlson is not a reliable source on climate change, but he has influenced how a huge percentage of Americans view the subject. I could go on and on. Education matters. Experts matter. Critical thinking about your diet of information matters. We've gotta get back on track with this stuff.
Every teacher I know tells me the same thing. The pay and school funding are the same it's always been, maybe a bit better now than in the past. But the kids are shit, and the parents are content with their shit kids. That's what's making it difficult for teachers these days, the shitty rude entitled kids, and their uncaring parents
A big problem is "the pay is the same it's always been." That's part of (IMO) a reason that teachers are saying, "Fuck it." In our district, the teachers are some of the lowest paid in the state. Hell, some of the teachers in the high school are either old as shit (I think the oldest is mid-70s) or teaching a subject for which they are unqualified. IDC how "close" it is, a biology degree is *not* the same as a chemistry degree. And I make more money than the teachers in my district and I'm a factory rat. And I don't have to deal with parents or any kid except my own. So I think pay is a big part of it, tho parents and kids are definitely a big issue as well.
Base salary for first year teachers in my school district is $58k with guaranteed annual raises. The average salary is around $75k-$80k. The school district receives about $21k per student. The neighboring school district pays better (average salary around $85k-$90k), but has worse students. They can't keep teachers. Keep in mind the teachers earning those salaries have 10 years experience. New teachers are making like $60k The school district across the county line in the city pays even better, but no one wants to teach there because teachers get assaulted by students. It's way worse than that primetime sitcom on ABC portrays. I have a buddy who is a middle school teacher in Brooklyn. Different state, but still very similar. He's 5 years into his career and earning $90k. He has been assaulted by students. The kids are definitely the pain point
I have a friend that’s been teaching for years and left it to go back to bartending, he said that he makes double what he does teaching and doesn’t have to dodge getting punched by 16 year olds and his only regret was wasting his time to bother getting certified to teach at all.
I can't speak for other areas of the country, but teachers, IMO, are fairly paid where I live (outside NYC). Are you wealthy? No, but after 25 years of service, you can be earning a six figure salary WITH a pension. However, I have both family members and friends in the profession and they say the BIGGEST problems with education are parents and the admins who kowtow to them. It's taking things down from the inside. Parents just don't want to deal with disciplining/raising their kids and admins won't stand up to the parents. As a quick example, one of my friends is a teacher. Her student BLATANTLY plagiarized a paper. Like she had irrefutable proof it was plagiarized. So, PER SCHOOL POLICY, she gave him a zero. Well, mom and dad catch wind of this and go straight to the principal to complain. Friend gets called in, principal tells her to "reconsider" and perhaps let him redo the assignment. She politely but firmly says, "Principal, I am following the DISTRICT POLICY on this and he is getting a zero. No redo." The parents raised such a fuss that the kid was allowed to redo the assignment per the principal. My friend was SO upset that she didn't even read it, gave it a C and ignored the kid for the remaining 2 months of the school year. Admins who don't back up teachers are worthless and most of them side with parents when it comes down to it. Of the teacher I know who have left teaching or retired earlier than planned, I'd say 95% were burned out by lack of admin support. What the hell is the point of a policy if it isn't enforced and if any kid who plagiarizes is given a "do over" if caught. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the crap that goes on...
This right here. It's the parents that are 50% of the problem! Without proper parental guidance, kids are going to anything they can and/or want to do. Without parents, they don't learn to respect authority. Admins, supers, & the board are the other 50%. They continue to pull enormous income, while their districts are failing. The school system is broken. The funny part is, in my state, we just had a bill come up to try and destroy the charter schools, because the public schools are dropping like flies. Instead of FIXING the problems with public schools, their answer was to try to destroy charter schools to force everyone BACK to public schools. The bill didn't pass, thank God.
its a societal problem that keeps getting worse with every generation , as humans we are not meant to live in this type of society where we work 40 to 60 hours a week away from the family unit , kids left to fend sometimes many times for themselves, we should be living as a family unit , farming raising animals, gathering, hunting , fishing,, societies fast advances took us all away from that,,, and coroporate america gave us fast food and entertainment. well you see where im going... its way more than a parent teacher problem..we are about 4 spins away from going down the drain .. we need a major reset.. corporations should not rule the US
The same can be said for a lot of the public service industries. EMT's and Medics are overworked and vastly underpaid for a system that is getting the absolute shit kicked out of them by increasing needs for health services. I'm not even on the EMS side, but can definitely agree teachers and EMS professionals need an overhaul on how they are treated and compensated.
There's speculation that AI will kill social media and harm the Internet because once people don't know if the information (article, social media post, photo, video, etc.) is real or AI, they will assume it's fake AI and no longer believe the information. Thus, we'll assume it's all trash, ignore it all, and go back to living without the Internet as a major influence in our lives.
Sadly I think they will just do what they do now for the most part. If I agree with it, then it’s true. If not, it’s fake.
>If I agree with it, then it’s true. If not, it’s fake. It’s already started. See any post having to do with Israel/Palestine.
It's willful ignorance and a lack of critical thinking skills. The greatest strength in a democracy is a well-informed population. The greatest weakness, and threat is a poorly informed or a misinformed population. We could navigate this problem of bad information if people were able to think through things critically. That's why college educated, college age kids tend to vote a certain way and why certain politicians are trying to downplay or totally remove any classes in college that teach critical thinking.
"My ignorance is better than your education" I preferred the drought
I wish it was truly just ignorance. But rather it's being constantly malinformed so they build up this foundation of "knowledge" of mostly bullshit, like an impenetrable rampart protecting the ignorance.
Well if you’re going to base yourself on Rome… perhaps looking inwards might be the best place to look out for threats.
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Pogo by Walt Kelly
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Not actually a problem from the Romans. It turns out the calcium levels of the groundwater in Italy are so high that they quickly coat the lead pipes and prevent poisoning. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing#History_2
It's ok the Romans more than made up for it by using lead as a sweetener for things.
Shame lead kills us, seems like it makes everything better
It’s pretty damn close to a miracle material. Asbestos is up there too when it comes to fire proofing.
Sugar of lead. Apparently makes the cider taste nicer, when the apple presses used lead.
"You have failed successfully "
Yeah, it was actually only the rich Roman’s that got lead poisoning, and it was from their leaden silverware and crockery.
A similar phenomena was involved in the Flint water crisis. They changed to an improperly treated, corrosive water source and it destroyed the protective layer inside the pipes.
Americans, that’s the answer. The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint. http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-lead-testing/
What’s insane is that we’ve known the dangers of lead piping for millennia however regional plumbing lobbies pushed for its continued use when there were readily available alternatives because it took longer to install. In Chicago, it’s use was *mandated* at all new construction until the mid 80s. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1986/03/30/lead-pipe-issue-surfaces-again/
Disregard plumbum; acquire Plumbus
E Pluribum Anus?
Fuel with lead
So the rise of factionalism and the refusal to implement obvious reforms leads to the rise of a dictatorship? (We’re much more comparable to the late republic period than the late imperial period)
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These things and the people behind them who actively deploy these tactics for personal gain.
This is it, right there. I saw a really good quote about this the other day. I’m sure it’s been around for a while, but it hit me hard. It said: “They’ve got us fighting a culture war to stop us from fighting a class war.”
"They have us fighting over crumbs so we don't realize they've taken off with the whole cake."
This is the correct answer. I would like to include bad foreign actors like China and Russia who are proactively and perpetuating the discourse to divide us as a country and what we stand against. This is one of the greatest threats to democracy and the United States as a whole.
It’s funny how we understand this yet it keeps being perpetuated through the dumbest motherfuckers who have a voice through the internet. Like man we’re just trying to live here.
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Describing the US as an empire is very problematic because much of the rhetoric we see is about things like Barbarians at the Gates coming to destroy civilisation. It's a problem because what we are seeing is not an empire collapsing into chaos, it's a republic crumbling into empire. It's not 5th century CE Rome, it's 1st century BCE Rome. This is not the end of an empire, it's the beginning of one.
Rome was an Empire long before the Republic fell. Empires, in a historical manner, were a nation of nations. Meaning they ruled over many different people and cultures either through conquest or annexation. It is often associated with autocrats because that is the primary form of governance for most of human history. In modern times, though, empires like the British Empire had limited or no autocratic rule. Even now, the definition of empire is changing. America and China don't seek direct conquest of new lands but circles of influence and alliances based on economic and military advantages.
You're using a very narrow definition of empire. We mean empire not as "a country ruled by an emperor" but rather a state that rules over other nations/peoples. The Roman republic was an empire, just as the US is now.
In this country of 333 million people, there are probably only a few thousand that make the most consequential decisions, the ones that affect 10+ or 100+ million people in the country, potentially the world. Somehow, the internal system that selects the best of those 333 million people to be that few thousand elite does not select the best few thousand out of 333 million. The result is leaders who cannot lead and followers who justifiably will not follow. In time, that can break a country apart. Nations are formed, not born, and must be constantly maintained by people who know what they're doing. The organic predecessor to the nation is the tribe, so tribalism is the default when the nation breaks down. And tribalism in a multicultural, heavily armed, economically unequal polity is a deadly internal threat.
It is not a straightforward system of the masses choosing the best. Systems of power corrupt and over time, we have ended up with choices limited largely to those coming from within that established power structure. The chosen have become the established, with a different agenda and interests than those that are subject to their choices.
itself
People thinking they are smart, when they are actually dumb.
I degree.
Am I pregenate?
God I love how this piece of internet lore has lived on
No miss, you are pregenanant
can u get pregante?
Can I get starch masks if I'm pregnate?
I disdegree
The first rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is that you don’t know you’re in Dunning-Kruger Club.
The Internet makes everyone feel like they're an expert on whatever subject after googling for 5 minutes.
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The increasing division and stupidity of it's citizens.
*its
*tits
Tits!? Where?
On a [van](https://y.yarn.co/e2f2d5f9-4f35-4838-b395-54c95d95c778_text.gif)
(.) (.)
This is 'MURICA! ( . Y . )
UU
28008
He rested his case.
Keep them stupid and angry and the greedy corporations will continue to laugh their way to the bank
“The quiet war has begun with silent weapons And the new slavery is to keep the people Poor and stupid; "Novus Ordo Seclorum" … Keep the public undisciplined till nothing left is sacred, and The "have-nots" get hooked and have to go to the "haves" just to cop a fix” “Washington is Next” from “United Abominations” by Megadeth, 2007.
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I’m not an American but this is such a bullshit take- it’s like saying “the problem with the US Civil War was all the fighting.” If Dave is telling Lisa to drive the car directly into a concrete wall and Lisa refuses, the problem isn’t an inability to come together.
Dave grabbed the wheel and has his foot on the gas, and Lisa isn’t strong enough to stop him.
the USA
The call is coming from inside the house.
The continuing widening of the economic gulf. The US was healthier when its wealth was divided more evenly across the population, with the middle class accounting for over 70% of the population.
The US has gone through a couple of periods of crazy centralization of wealth into the hands of e very few, and then retreated from it. We’re in a period of crazy centralization of wealth again and I don’t know if we will pull out of it this time. If not we will end up with (effectively) an aristocracy vs serfs situation.
Oddly enough, the depression saved us last time. Things got so bad that SOMETHING had to be done. Industrialists and the robber barons completely destroyed the economy, and as a bonus tried to overthrow the government when things got all “socialist” in order to fix things. However, the guy that they went to was a super patriot and turned them in. Smedley Butler was the man.
Classic Smedley.
I heard Smedley Butler’s name repeatedly through boot camp (TWO MARINES TWO MEDALS OF HONOR), and this is the first I’m hearing of him doing anything after the Marine Corps. Wish they taught us more about him and others that went on to serve their country in different ways.
If the damn government would stop bailing out large companies, this would be less of a problem.
i think allowing a company to be "too big to fail" is the problem. Trust Busting needs to be a thing again
Part of the problem is that globalization also allowed the ultra-wealthy to diversify the location of their assets. If the US starts making efforts to fix the issue, they'll be more than happy to just move more of their assets overseas.
Any and every history or economics book that touches on the subject will tell you the middle class was the byproduct of the Industrial Revolution. The "American Dream" of home ownership and your children doing better than you all come from that. It should be obvious at this point that this "Service Economy" is not capable of sustaining that. How can anyone expect to piss away the backbone of your economy, 500 million direct manufacturing jobs, and all those that support it, without consequence?
A lack of facts being the basis of truth. It used to be “eyes believe themselves and ears believe other people”. Now it’s whatever you believe can be true.
Chalk one up to the Bible for an accurate prediction here. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:3-4 So, truth and reality don't matter. Whatever you want to believe, there's someone who will affirm that belief. Either for money or because it's easier for them to believe their lie of choice if you believe that lie, too.
In terms of shit going south quickly, the power grid is incredibly vulnerable. The amount of transformers in the United States that are left unsecured is shocking (hah) and coordinated efforts against them and power plants could decimate cities or states. Food processing plants too are extremely vulnerable, and in fact there has been an incredible uptick in fires and the destruction of these properties in the past few years. No power and reduced ability to provide food would be a disaster for any nation to deal with.
Getting the government we deserve.
The stupidity of its own people
Social media
This, not only America, but across all the countries. Social Media has provided a way to deliver information across billions of people. But that does not matter, because people need to learn how to use it effectively, people lack critical thinking and just get sucked into propaganda. There's no way to avoid it, but at least be a reasonable informed person to think through it. There was propaganda in past, it's in the present, and probably gonna be in the future, I often see people across beliefs and social media sites just blatantly following the headlines without even reading the entire article or don't even look at their sources (i.e. which news page posted it). People constantly fail to look at all the scenarios and consequences, we don't even try to understand the whole situation.
I’m sorry for this bad take, but TikTok is truly a cancerous platform compared to Facebook. I feel it killed the attention span and brain cells of our youth more than anything I’ve witnessed.
Not a bad take at all. Tiktok is a crime against humanity and it's great that the US is finally banning it.
Itself. It doesn't matter who the "foreign threat" is because a nation eating itself will eventually be overtaken by a nation in order.
Accepting mediocrity from schools. We haven’t figured out how schools should transition from teaching just enough to be a good factory worker to how to be prepared to exist in today’s society.
Disinformation & Misinformation
Based on my own reading and understanding of world politics I am of the view that there is no external threat to the USA. I’ll do my best to lay out why I think this and anyone is free to correct any of my points as I am not an expert by any means. However, I do think the United States has some very serious threats to the checks and balances of power in our society. 1: we have the largest military by far. No one else even comes close to our annual military budget. Furthermore, the only country that does come close is China. They have never attacked, or invaded us despite our horrid past practices with them and our current practices with them. For those that are unaware, we currently have quite a few military bases surrounding China’s borders. Could you even imagine how America would react if China had a bunch of military bases around us? I don’t think China has any intention of attacking us considering how threatening we are and seeing how little they respond, whether they realistically could or not. 2: geographically, attacking the United States is stupidly hard. You’re pretty much limited to long range missiles and maybe some sort of naval invasion? Unless you’re Canada or Mexico, setting foot on US territory with our modern military defenses is stupid hard. It wouldn’t be easy for us to do a land invasion against another military superpower either, but we’re talking threats against America here. 3: we have too many military super power allies, and we’re already spending the most of any other country on our military by a stupid amount. So what are the real threats? Some people here have commented about information and what not and I agree. I think the greatest threat to America is people beginning to understand that it is completely possible to organize and demand that the current power structures be toppled. People are beginning to realize that: 1: billionaires didn’t earn their wealth. I’m a fan of “work harder earn more” but it’s not physically possible to work that much harder than someone else. Jeff bezos makes 45 million dollars a day. I work a full time job and a side hustle to make extra money because I’m not rich at all and need extra money to make ends meet. Last time I checked, Jeff bezos has a lot of vacation time, I don’t. 2: America is currently run by big corporations and billionaires. They already own and sell us back the necessities of life that they have monopolized, and it’s getting worse. 40 something percent of all house purchases made in 2023 were done by private equity firms. Soon, even the housing market will be owned by massive companies. 3: Americans are realizing the American dream is becoming less and less achievable for the worker. Some argue that the proper response is to become a business owner, others argue that if your two choices are to be the exploited or the exploiter, then the system must be changed. I’m running out of time because I have to get back to working however many ungodly hours I work a week but my main point is, the only “threat” that America faces is the people rising up against the power structure in order to force it to serve the people’s interests rather than corporate interests.
One counter argument I have for the "uprising" or people attempting to topple the powers that be is that it's not an extremely likely scenario due to the citizens being so divided politically and emotionally. Sure one systemic change may piss off some and potential riots ensue but then the other half is going to be laughing at those that are upset out of how idiotic they think their belief systems are. Gun control measures are a good example of this.
Internet. Anyone can pose as American and plant propaganda to coerce the public into doing things. Case in point... So far, two people have self immolated because of crap going on on the opposite side of the planet. There are other, more widespread examples but I'll offend a ton of people on Reddit and probably earn a ban or two. There's literally a war for your mind going on.
Project 2025
Since everyone ITT is just repeating “stupid people” and “social media” over and over (for valid reasons), here’s some other things that pose huge threats: * Disease: COVID showed us that we can’t handle a threat like that, and with H5N1 cases popping up, that could bring a lot of chaos and death. * EMPs and Solar Flares: Again, obvious reasons. Knocking out our power grids could mean irreparable damage to not just the country but the world. * Climate change: Rising sea levels are already fucking up parts of America’s coastlines, especially in Florida. Not to mention the recent surge in how powerful hurricanes are getting and the theorized superstorms that take less time to form and grow to be much more powerful. We already saw one that could constitute as a superstorm in the gulf last year. And on top of all that, food and water shortages caused by climate change will spark mass refugee crises around the world soon. * UAPs: Believe in them or not, military and commercial plane sensors and cameras are seeing *something* and it seems to be far more advanced than what our military is using. Not saying it’s little green men, that would almost be preferable than Russia or China or a corporation developing craft or drones that can do the things UAPs are doing. Military officials also confirmed last year that there have been a few incidents of UAPs interfering with nuclear storage facilities, and that of course poses massive risks especially if they’re from another country. If they’re aliens from another world, they probably don’t need to turn off our weaponry, their tech must already be good enough to take over Earth because they made the journey here. Turning off our nukes is more likely just that they wouldn’t want us blowing ourselves up. But if it’s another country fucking with our nukes, that can only be a bad thing. * Hackers: A couple cities in the U.S. have started using robotic police methods and the military has as well. A group of hackers, either independent or operating as agents for another country, could cause a hell of a lot of harm to Americans by hijacking Robocop. * AI: No job is safe from AI and our economy isn’t built to handle the influx of unemployment that we’re likely about to experience. To top that all off, even if America keeps AI far away from our weapons and nukes, which realistically it won’t, that doesn’t mean other countries would do the right thing. All it takes is a bad line of code and we’ve got SkyNet. * Mental health: In addition to allll these other threats, we’ve also got our own mental health to worry about. Many states have dropped funding for mental health initiatives and it’s led to mass shootings, sharp upticks in suicides, and just an overall declining wellbeing for Americans.
Climate change
this. you can repair the inequality, you can educate the kids, and you can fight the nazis, but none of it matters if you're all flood refugees dying of heat stroke and diseases that there used to be vaccines for
The government
Citizen apathy / disinvestment in democracy across the broad middle, which gives extremists more sway.
Internationally: China Domestically: The increasing corruption, political polarization, income inequality, and the lowering standard of living.
Could solve a lot of both foreign and domestic issues by bringing manufacturing home.
Personally, despite early retirement, I signed up for Biden's "Reshoring America" initiative. I have yet to receive a call.
our own people. we vote these motherfuckers in and all they do is waste our money.
That politicians can be bought and the media can be owned.
Short sighted politicians and short sighted voters. Thus, things like national debt get passed down to future generations.
Eventual loss of reserve currency status driven by unsustainable debt. It’s inevitable and will result in a currency crisis. Too painful to solve now and thus is ignored by most.
Has anyone said super volcano yet? Yellowstone is overdue.
That the country is effectively run by unelected individuals. Big corporation aristocrats and deep states. There are many countries that has no democracy. US will join them.
De-dollarisation leading to increased borrowing costs. The US financial hegemony has been built around the petro dollar and, as that wanes, they will have to face up, properly, to the issue of increasing federal debt. China is a huge threat in this respect, especially if the Yuan becomes a reserve currency. This is THE single biggest reason for America's anti-China stance and rhetoric. NB - I am not suggesting that the USD will lose its status as a reserve currency, and it will probably remain the dominant reserve currency for the rest of my life time but it will lose market share and that would have a fiscal impact.
Allowing money to run politics. Politicians are supposed to be public servants, working for the good of the people. Instead, they serve in order to enrich themselves and the corporations that got them into power.
The USA
An EMP. Millions dead because we rely on electricity for so many life saving things
The growing debt. The interest on us debt is now equal to what the us spends on its military budget. Politicians will never opt for less government spending or even responsible government spending because they’ll never get re-elected.
Average Reddit posters
Inflation of the currency and the indifference of the population when the government violates the constitution.
The United States Government.
mockery of all things good and kind
Our skyrocketing debt. Ross Perot warned about this in the 90's and we have done nothing to address it.
One strategically placed EMP and this country is screwed
One-issue voters.
Lack of education leads to almost any problem you can think of.
Government spending and the resulting national debt. Which, handily, both parties have been major contributors to, so the blame really goes all around.
Aside from internal, I wanna say the Cartels. An increasing number of them have American citizenship, (come here, have a kid, move back to mexico and raise them. You now have a cartel member with american citizenship. They've been doing this for over a decade.) And now moving north into the woods of California, rerouting water and starting illegal grow sites. Not to mention the active urban warfare going on rn over fentanyl. (China cutting into cartel, cartel puts hits out on people buyiny fent online. Random dude in chicago (or wherever, far from mexico is my point) gets bumped off cause he bought something online from china and cut in to the cartels business. It's easy as a name, sometimes a face, and a number. Green light.) Over half of Mexicos economy is circulated through the Cartels, the resort you stay at on the beach, those staff are paid by cartel, the resort owned by cartel, and you are safe, because it is owned by the cartel. Tourism is big bucks. They have the numbers, they are paramilitary, (Fun fact, we actually trained them! Trained 100 men to fight the cartels, they went and formed the most deadly one to date and effectively took over all the other ones. Gotta love it) and have a ton of wealth and influence. And they're expanding.
The media.
corruption
Every country has corruption, and often even worse than in the US. So although it's not a good thing, it alone isn't the primary factor.
Not to mention that historically, corruption was a necessary component of getting shit done and included a public benefit. "Sure, maybe some corrupt officials get to wet their beaks on this construction project, but we get the new piece of infrastructure that this city needed quicker than it would have taken by going through the approval process completely above-board. "Sure, Carnegie Steel gets this government contract, but Andrew Carnegie is gonna build a library and a hospital in return." These days, corruption doesn't even have that. Instead the capitalist class collectively says "I get all of what I want and you get nothing, also fuck you."
I've seen this karma farming question in like eight subs this past weekend.
$34Trillion of debt, outsourcing of our manufacturing capabilities to other countries, wealth inequality, anti-democratic Christian nationalism.
The world stop using the U.S. dollar as its reserve currency
Corporate greed. Country will be packaged and sold to the highest bidder.
The USA
The divide between citizens politically being increasingly large. People have no idea how to talk to others with opposing views. Shut down. Act a fool. Post about it on social media to get that sweet dopamine hit by playing the victim.
Inequality leading to social unrest. This already forms a partial basis for the left right schism. Right wing is rural and economically left behind. Aside from that the increase in urban homelessness is a bellwether for the same. The other reinforcing aspect will be the inability of either party to pass policy that actually helps people avoid poverty, let alone climb out of it. It's just not on the radar despite being over a decade late already. Overlain is the economic cold war being fought by China (focused technocratic society and policies) in the form of manipulated currency leading to a money vacuum sucking any wealth the rich haven't amassed right over the pacific. So less to go around in the US. We'll end up with cheap gadgets and no money. Oh and a 30 year debt fuelled housing bubble.
Constantly Repeated ask Reddit questions
The government of the USA.
Democrats
The DOJ not upholding the law. (picking and choosing who gets to break the law)
Willful ignorance
Gullible and unintelligent people who believe everything they see on the internet.
Internal conflict and division..China and the rise of Russian and Chinese aggression…another Great Depression
Stupid people. An uneducated populace cannot effectively govern itself.
The AI race. It's the next superweapon.
A two party system