If America Is Better Than Ever, Why Do So Many Americans Feel It’s Falling Apart?

[Hardkill]

On 11/22/2023 at 7:05 PM, Leo Gura said:

Life is better and easier than it's ever been in human history.

I've now largely agree with that after reading up on more facts and history of the US and the rest world.

This is something I’ve been trying to understand.

By most objective measures, the United States today is more socially fair and more materially developed than it was in the mid-1900s, and arguably even more so than in the late 1990s or early 2000s. We have far stronger civil rights protections, much less overt discrimination, dramatically better technology, medicine, and safety, and vastly more knowledge and opportunity than earlier generations had.

And yet, despite all of this, most Americans seem far less satisfied with the system than they were during the post-war era or even during the late 1900s/early aughts. Many people feel the country is “going in the wrong direction,” that institutions are broken, and that the system no longer works for ordinary people.

What’s puzzling is that earlier generations lived through far worse objective conditions: world wars, the Great Depression, much higher levels of violence, explicit legal discrimination, and existential Cold War threats. And yet, broad trust in institutions and belief in the system’s legitimacy were often higher than they are today.

So what explains this gap?

Is it:

• changes in expectations rather than conditions?
• the modern media and social media environment amplifying negativity?
• rising economic precarity despite overall wealth?
• loss of shared narratives and social cohesion?
• the decline of collective institutions (unions, churches, civic orgs)?
• or something deeper about meaning, identity, and modern life?

I’m not arguing that things are “fine” or that real problems don’t exist — clearly they do. We still have Trumpism, SCOTUS controlled by corrupt conservatives on the bench, economic inequality and affordability issues, climate change, lost of abortion rights in various parts of the country, a lot of people losing their healthcare coverage, AI fears, etc. as major problems in our country. 

But I’m now genuinely curious why subjective dissatisfaction has grown even as objective conditions (and fairness) have improved on net.

Would love to hear how others here think about this paradox.

Edited yesterday at 04:15 AM by Hardkill

[BlueOak]

Suppression.
Maintaining Levels of Fear
Maintaining Levels of Division.
Maintaining artificial prices on essentials like medicine.

For financial and political gain.

Additionally people have increasingly less wealth, influence, or power relative to those with power.

Edited yesterday at 07:49 AM by BlueOak

[Cred]

@BlueOak Word

Yeah, "tHinGs aRe nOw betTter thAn eVEr" is straight up textbook capitalist propaganda

Edit: There is truth to that statement, but if you use it to argue that capitalism is the best system for the current stage of developmemt of the world and it shouldn't be overthrown, THEN you engage in anit-comunism, pro-capitalism propaganda and working unpaid labour for the CIA without knowing it

Edited yesterday at 10:44 AM by Cred

[Nivsch]

6 hours ago, Hardkill said:

We have far stronger civil rights protections, much less overt discrimination, dramatically better technology, medicine, and safety, and vastly more knowledge and opportunity than earlier generations had.

An unpopular opinion these days but I think civil rights more than the most basic ones won't make you happier.

More technology won't make you happier, and more opportunities is actually a stressful thing.

Better medicine won't make you feel better mentally, but taking care of your body by yourself will.

Edited yesterday at 10:56 AM by Nivsch

[Cred]

12 hours ago, Nivsch said:

An unpopular opinion these days but I think civil rights more than the most basic ones won't make you happier.

More technology won't make you happier, and more opportunities is actually a stressful thing.

Better medicine won't make you feel better mentally, but taking care of your body by yourself will.

This is exactly right. These things you talk about are just fun little gifts from the slightly less malicious part of the bourgeoisie to delude the proletariat into thinking they have it well and should be thankful for the rigged system.

Notice that things like "civil rights" don't take any profits from the bourgeoisie so they don't give a shit weather we have them or not. In fact, they LOVE us talking and argueing about identity politics and shit because it distracts us from the real problem: The class struggle.

The MAGA community has TREMENDOUS revolutionary potential, since they intuitively understand that the system is rigged against them (also they have a shit ton of guns lol). Fighting them and degrading them only helps the rich.

At the end, the only things that truly matter are material things like the housing, healthcare, food, infrastructure, job security, etc. But the rich don't want you to have that unless you pay them big money

[Hardkill]

3 hours ago, Cred said:

This is exactly right. These things you talk about are just fun little gifts from the slightly less malicious part of the bourgeoisie to delude the proletariat into thinking they have it well and should be thankful for the rigged system.

Notice that things like "civil rights" don't take any profits from the bourgeoisie so they don't give a shit weather we have them or not. In fact, they LOVE us talking and argueing about identity politics and shit because it distracts us from the real problem: The class struggle.

The MAGA community has TREMENDOUS revolutionary potential, since they intuitively understand that the system is rigged against them (also they have a shit ton of guns lol). Fighting them and degrading them only helps the rich.

At the end, the only things that truly matter are material things like the housing, healthcare, food, infrastructure, job security, etc. But the rich don't want you to have that unless you pay them big money

Why the hell would you want to help the MAGA community? They have been contributing to the affordability issues we've been having by electing the wrong people to run the country.

[Jodistrict]

This is the best video I have seen on how to recover from this disaster.  It gives a hopeful scenario.

 

[Cred]

8 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Why the hell would you want to help the MAGA community? They have been contributing to the affordability issues we've been having by electing the wrong people to run the country.

The best way to help MAGA is to help them realize their mistake in trusting in Trump.

Marxists are way more anti-establishment than Trump. If you think about it the only thing keeping them from gaining class consciousness is the fact they are heavily propagandized with anti-communist propaganda. 

Edit: 

Also it is important to understand, that getting rid of Trump is not going to help with anything. Trump is not unique. He is a symptom of the problem which is capitalism and the democrats are just as guilty in upholding that system as the republicans.

The only way to sustainably fix the problems of america and the world is by violently overthrowing the american system and replacing it with a communist led govenment. And to archieve that, every worker with a gun is needed and then, it doesn not matter of they hate trans people or something.

Edited 12 hours ago by Cred

[Wilhelm44]

2 hours ago, Cred said:

The best way to help MAGA is to help them realize their mistake in trusting in Trump.

Marxists are way more anti-establishment than Trump. If you think about it the only thing keeping them from gaining class consciousness is the fact they are heavily propagandized with anti-communist propaganda. 

Edit: 

Also it is important to understand, that getting rid of Trump is not going to help with anything. Trump is not unique. He is a symptom of the problem which is capitalism and the democrats are just as guilty in upholding that system as the republicans.

The only way to sustainably fix the problems of america and the world is by violently overthrowing the american system and replacing it with a communist led govenment. And to archieve that, every worker with a gun is needed and then, it doesn not matter of they hate trans people or something.

Whats ur definition of communism ?

[yetineti]

I do not think OP intended this to get political.

Besides, the answer is not political.

The world, especially Americans, have been handed more personal power, autonomy and consequently more responsibility than any other time in history.

At the same exact time, other responsibilities are being taken for the sake of convenience and many feel their power leave with their purpose.

It turns out, personal autonomy is not societal autonomy. Yet—while each component of the modern world becomes more secularized and specific—naturally, so do people.

And unfortunately the people are still stuck on freedom—not what they can do with it.

How does an ant know where to stand?

 

Edited 1 hour ago by yetineti

[Hardkill]

11 hours ago, Cred said:

The best way to help MAGA is to help them realize their mistake in trusting in Trump.

Marxists are way more anti-establishment than Trump. If you think about it the only thing keeping them from gaining class consciousness is the fact they are heavily propagandized with anti-communist propaganda. 

Edit: 

Also it is important to understand, that getting rid of Trump is not going to help with anything. Trump is not unique. He is a symptom of the problem which is capitalism and the democrats are just as guilty in upholding that system as the republicans.

The only way to sustainably fix the problems of america and the world is by violently overthrowing the american system and replacing it with a communist led govenment. And to archieve that, every worker with a gun is needed and then, it doesn not matter of they hate trans people or something.

Almost no one wants communism in America.

Besides, communism has only worked in the short run, but has never worked in the long run.

what we need is either Social Democracy like in the Nordic countries or Democratic Socialism.

Edited 1 hour ago by Hardkill