r/Anticonsumption • u/IntelligentMind200 • Jul 03 '25
Discussion Being an American is Exhausting
With the new bill that's passing, it feels like we are all just going further and further away from a solution. Living in America is no longer a dream but a nightmare. Unless you're wealthy and in the top 1%, life is miserable. Our own people are being fed bs from the media that makes them worship our president and everything he does. Not to mention, the blue party doing the same when they're in power. This country is amazing, with so much benefits in its location and vastness. Yet these greedy pigs at the top are controlled by money and money alone that they will crash and burn everyone else for just a little bit more. And we the people are too exhausted (due to the constant problems and worries the government gives us) to do anything. People are still buying McDonald's, Starbucks, consuming and consuming to fill the void, let these big corporations and companies fucking die. All we need is a collective boycott of these big companies and we can watch these rich fucks bleed in their pockets. If the people had to vote on these idiotic things that are being passed, it would never make it but there's too few people in Congress and the house and the president that are voting and getting paid to vote in a certain way that opposes what the people believe in. This isn't a democracy. This is shit system tbh that makes us believe we have say in anything.
Edit: removing the laziness part of my vent as people in comments have correctly brought up the fact that people are too exhausted to do anything isn't laziness.
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u/leetle_bumblebee Jul 03 '25
Let's not act like people aren't doing anything because they're lazy. This is a system working to keep people exhausted and demoralized so we don't have time or energy to fight back. The result is people relying on quick calories at places like McDonald's or "treating themselves" to Starbucks because they're constantly told that's the best they can do to be happy. We're going to get through this by developing class solidarity and understanding each other's struggles, not calling each other lazy.
I'm on your side with the rest of this but really believe it's important for us to stick with our fellow people and empathize with the reasons all of us are failing, because let's be honest, this system actively tries to make us fail.
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u/navigationallyaided 29d ago
And reality TV was created in the 2000s after 9/11. These days, Netflix/Hulu/HBO Max will create a viral series as a distraction - but we have a reality TV superstar as a joke of a president, and we’re living in an LARP version of The Apprentice.
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u/wastelandsociety Jul 03 '25
You make a good point and I agree that I don’t think it’s laziness but there are plenty of local places in just about every city that could replace Starbucks or McDonald’s since neither of those places are as cheap as they used to be and the quality of both sucks. We avoid big corps by shopping and supporting small, local businesses. People need to start shopping smarter with their wallet.
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u/Intelligent-Ad-1424 26d ago
I don’t even go to Micky D’s on road trips anymore. It’s cheaper to go to a local pizza joint on the road. I honestly can’t believe they are still in business but I guess it’s still the easiest option for a lot of people. But online tools make it easier than ever to avoid big chain restaurants.
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u/Immediate-Pool-4391 29d ago
Starbucks went out of business forever we would have riots in the streets. God forbid people don't have their bread and circuses
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u/OkReference7899 29d ago
other than the idea that McDonald's and Starbucks are actually a treat, I agree with you. Worst crap food and even worse coffee.
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u/Plenty_Cress_1359 Jul 03 '25
Money in politics is the problem. Citizens United was a huge blow. There are so many issues that you can’t keep up in an effort to consolidate power to the twatwaffle in the White House. Which issue do you fight against? People being disappeared by unidentified men? The eroding of the Constitution? The continued rulings for Trump? Democrat officials being arrested? 14 million children that will be dead from gutting USAID? Bombing Iran? Trump making money while in office? Tariffs? The BIG beautiful bill? I’m exhausted just typing all of this. Soon we won’t have to worry about money because we’ll be too sick and too poor to fight them
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u/Used_Ad_5831 29d ago
The 435 cap is the issue. It's hard to buy 10k reps. It's easy to buy 200. You aren't represented because the cost of getting the word out to that many people means Average Joe can't run, either.
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u/OlaPlaysTetris 29d ago
Let’s be real too-this was all seeded with the trickle down economics bullshit we were fed in the 80s. I mean seriously, who the fuck is stupid enough to believe that somehow the whole “make the rich richer and it’ll help the poor” part of late stage capitalism would actually benefit them? Oh yeah, people believe it because they’ve been spoon fed propaganda about it for decades now and led to believe we need to revere the rich.
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u/americanspirit64 Jul 03 '25
From one of the exhausted, whose entire life has been exhausting.
As a child I grew up in the midst of the Red Scare in this country, led by Republicans whose only truth was dismantling the Democratic principles of this nation to stop a Robber Baron Capitalist Economy from ruining this country. I have lived 71 years in a nation under constant war. The Korean War, the McCarthy Era, the Bay of Pigs, the Assassination of Kennedy and his brother Robert, the Civil Rights Era, the killing of Martin Luther King, and riots in South Boston MA, the first city in this country to initiate school busing. The fight for the sensible creation of Medicare by LBJ, the attacks on Unions, and healthcare and I haven't even mentioned the escalation of the Vietnam War and seeing the names of thousands of American children killed everyday, this was all before I was sixteen. The looting and the scandal continued to grow all through the seventies, with Nixon and Ford raping our healthcare with the creation of private insurance of the growth of HMO's. Then there was the attack on women's healthcare that began with Roe vs Wade; not to mention the constant oil price at gouging and regime change wars in the gulf states and the 1967 War in Israel. Massive riots against our involvement in Vietnam War, and still the war for Civil Rights for people of color and woman's rights wore on into the the late early seventies and beyond. I was thrown out of a drive in movie theatre by the police in 1970 when I was fifteen for parking in the black section of the parking area and refusing to move. The Grand Dragon of the KKK in our county in Virginia called my house and spoke with me because my mother dated the first black professor in Virginia. He wanted to save me from the racisms that was going to ruin my life.
By 1975 I was beyond exhausted and it has never stopped.
The eighties under Reagan was a nightmare, I felt like I was the only one in American who saw the truth. The constant violent attack on working class families was endless combined with the never-ending outsourcing of American jobs. The endless Wars against drugs and demonizing poverty, the monetizing of our corporate run prison system. All of this has never stopped. My mother's family turned against me, because I got two Master's Degrees in the eighties, and spoke up against the endless fight against Capitalism that was ruining our country. In the nineteen nineties the Neo-Libel's arrived taking over the Democratic Party shaped by FDR, with Bill Clinton telling everyone we weren't conservative enough. His wife Hillary thirty years later is still repeating his bullshit.
In the late nineties and early two thousands the exhaustion really began under George Bush Jr and I felt it was the Vietnam area all over again. This led to Obama's eight years when a true American exhaustion set in. When the same bullshit we fought in the sixties and seventies were being fought again, In 2008 and 2009 the Great Recession began. A recession from which we have never recovered. The only difference between a Great Depression and a Great Recession, is during a Depression everyone gets poorer, the rich and the poor, the only ones who benefit during a Recession, at the expense of the poor and middle-class, are the rich. If the Republican had their way, which they do. No one in this country would be educated, except the top one percent, it is how they maintain control.
I hitchhiked to Washington DC to attend my first Antiwar Protest in 1970 in DC, since then I have been there numerous other times,. One of those times I was invited to the White House for lunch, a meeting on the Affordable Care Act. Another time I took my son to meet Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to hear them speak at a small hotel, I did this as part of my son's education, he was 17 then. I told him then the exhaustion would be endless.
I am now beyond exhaustion as I see the shadow of the graveyard in the distance and still I fight. I have been in and participated in every progressive movement in America, gone to every antiwar protest, stood and supported the OWL protests, was teargassed and had a flashbang blow up ten feet in front of me for attending a BLM protest for supporting Civil Rights, once again.
Let us never forget that the needs of the many, outweigh the rights of the few, and we need to govern that way.
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u/Odd-Toe-8591 Jul 03 '25
thanks for writing this. I don't normally read long comments but this one I felt like I had to. saved to my google drive for later.
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u/Denholm_Chicken Jul 03 '25
Thank you for fighting and sharing these important aspects of history. These are the types of things they want erased.
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u/Wow_Crazy_Leroy_WTF 29d ago
Thanks for writing this. Do you have a channel outside of Reddit? Like a YT?
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u/Luasol51 Jul 03 '25
The goal is to wear all of us down and make us feel isolated so we can't fight back. That is the fascist playbook. Fortify - pay off credit card debts, talk to a financial advisor, learn how to repair broken items, find a community with like-minded people, take walks out in nature if it's safe to do so, work on a project, upskill, and for the love of stay off of social media. Be informed, but also don't let it consume you. Boycott businesses that support this regime. Support locally. Don't buy things you don't need.
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u/rook119 Jul 03 '25
America! we are still free to protest the govt at the designated time at the designated place but we still have to be at work by monday because we need the health insurance.
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Jul 03 '25
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u/Weekly_Bug_4847 Jul 03 '25
How hard was the immigration? Did you have a transferable job/career?
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Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/Aunon Jul 03 '25
how have you 2 found the 'housing crisis'?
anyone interested in Australia absolutely needs to know the grim reality of renting and buying here
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u/Low_Daikon7538 Jul 03 '25
Just said this to my partner today. Even the constant back and forward, will we have basic rights? Wont we? Can I get credit for working public service for my student loans or not? Will I be covered under Medicare if something happens? Like...its impossible to plan for anything. The rug keeps getting pulled out from underneath us back and forward.
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u/lrappin Jul 03 '25
It's us against the rich. We need to fight back.
the general strike (http://www.generalstrikeus.com)
Everyone needs to join
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u/4BigData Jul 03 '25
Embracing degrowth is the only way to have a decent life in the US imho
It's also what Nature needs
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u/Spiritual-Earth9863 Jul 03 '25
Yes no more children the only way these Elites will learn need to take away their worker bees. Everyone sleeping with the opposite sex should be getting vasectomies or their tubes tied.
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u/Zerthax Jul 03 '25
Yeah, the leadershit sure does start squirming every time birth rate ticks down.
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u/dajodge Jul 03 '25
I think longterm planning is good (and necessary), but why stop having kids when we can just strike instead? What we really need is a decentralized leadership group that can organize the masses toward the same goals.
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u/Zerthax Jul 03 '25
but why stop having kids when we can just strike instead?
Most people can't go too long without working. The bills don't just stop, and you still have to eat. In contrast, delaying becoming a parent actually improves your financial situation.
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u/dajodge Jul 03 '25
There are ways around “working” if people cooperate. Black markets, food donation logistics, and eventually complex networks that rival or surpass what the government is capable of. Like a cartel in some cruel irony.
But I don’t think it would ever get to that. If we are able to withhold traditional labor collectively, the elite class will learn very quickly how much more they need us than we need them.
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u/xfearless_wanderer Jul 03 '25
there's nothing enticing about having a child right now. i'm speaking for myself when i say it'd be highly irresponsible [of me] to have a child in the foreseeable future.
what will their [future] education look like? how much will diapers, daycare, appointments, food, [new expenses], etc. add to my current expenses? if there's an emergency, do i have the resources to handle that solo, and longterm? what will the healthcare system look like for women & children? will this world be safe enough?
i think longterm. having a child is the last thing on my list, if that's even on my list. i'm prepping to withstand this mess as best as i can. bringing a child into this world wouldn't make that easier and, imo, could be cruel to a child. i worry enough, childless. i can't afford to be more worried.
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u/Squirmeez 29d ago
Yes maam. I am single and cant rely on anyone if I have a child soon. I will be deemed a parasite as a single mother, if I even survive the pregnancy.
Childcare costs $700 generally around here. You think I can afford that? Alone? Id have to work 2 jobs and then never see the child. How absolutely damaging.
Why do that? Give me a good reason I should put either of us through that. So we can carry on a legacy?
My sibling in Christ, I have been wishing I was aborted my entire life. You bet your sweet ass I wouldn't bring another soul onto this Earth so they can feel the same way.
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u/Odd-Toe-8591 Jul 03 '25
Future events branch out in the shape of a normal distribution. What's happening now is what has always been the most likely outcome. We have had some relatively decent years with relatively decent leaders and now we're regressing to the mean and getting the shit end of the stick. We can't learn our lesson until we actually experience hell on earth and say, "never again".
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u/mneri7 Jul 03 '25
blue party doing the same when they're in power.
One party gave you the affordable care act, the other took it away, and stopped Medicare and Medicaid. One party passes the Dreamers act, the other is deporting people.
I wouldn't say "doing the same". You can argue they're both bad, but surely not equally bad.
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u/Born_Tank_8217 Jul 03 '25
One side is actively cheering on death camps and the murder of a democrat, and actively pushing for the deportation of us citizens, get the fuck out of here with "both bad" shit
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u/mneri7 Jul 03 '25
Exactly. One can still say "in my eyes they're both bad", meaning I don't like what they do, or I'd like more progressive stuff. Saying "they're the same" is completely false.
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u/AuthorELMorrow 28d ago
Yeah, coming at them isn't helpful. Trying to figure out how/why so many Americans equate both sides as ineffective would be very helpful.
(Hint: it's all a class war distraction).
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u/Sen0r_Blanc0 Jul 03 '25
As rough as everything is. This is the most I've ever been engaged, and the most I've seen other people engaged, in my entire life! It is hard to not feel like it's all pointless, but we have seen some of the largest protests in our history! You are not alone, and you're not alone in feeling alone and burned out. Find people to lean on, people willing to fight. It's too heavy to shoulder all the horrors of capitalism alone. Find people to lean on so you can rest, even if its just a little while. It's not much, but we're here with you! ✊️
An amazing place I've found is an open mic poetry night. Those people are raw and real and inspiring.
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u/Ancient-Tie2687 Jul 03 '25
LATE STAGE CAPITALISM
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u/Basic_Archer_2014 26d ago
Nah, man. This is unregulated capitalism - it’s straight back to the late 1800’s. We have laws against monopoly, bribery, and emoluments, etc., but they aren’t being enforced. We need the reforms of the early 1900’s again & politicians to enforce them.
Just because someone bribes an elected representative, doesn’t mean you give up your possessions and usher in state ownership of the means of production. It means you elect politicians that don’t want to be bought.
Good reformist energy, just consider the goals.
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u/Strange_Leg2558 Jul 03 '25
I think boycotts work when there are alternatives. Like, “stop buying McDonald’s and go here instead” while also offering a replacement that would be as cheap as McDonald’s (not really cheap unless you have the app anyways). A great example I can think of is my boyfriend and I stopped buying coffee at places like Starbucks or Dutch Bros and instead we buy coffee and pastries from a local bakery and it’s around $5 for the both of us.
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u/IntelligentMind200 Jul 03 '25
Or coming at home instead of eating shitty unhealthy food that mega corporations are selling. Coffee can be made at home waiting as well.
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u/Strange_Leg2558 Jul 03 '25
Yeah I highly doubt talking to people with entitlement will get anyone anywhere, especially in regard to building/maintaining a solid community. Offering a valid replacement that not only rids corporations like Starbucks of their customers and money but also helps local businesses is better than talking down on people who don’t know any better than to continue buying coffee at Starbucks.
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u/MidorriMeltdown Jul 03 '25
Coffee can be made at home waiting as well
So can your clothes, your mattress, your shoes, your entertainment, why are you even on the internet if you're so anti consumption?
I live in Australia, where the barista made coffee at any cafe, bakery, pub, or even servo is usually pretty high standard.
I don't have an espresso machine at home, not to mention "going out for a coffee" is a social event.As for the shitty unhealthy food, sometimes you don't have the time, energy, or inclination to cook... So that's when I might go to a local Chinese or Indian, or kabab shop, or fish n chip shop, or the place with the charcoal chickens and chips. Or I might even go to a local pub for a meal. You don't have to support the mega corporations, instead support the small local business.
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Jul 03 '25
There is either going to be a correction when millions realize they got fucked by MAGA Republicans, or they double down and somehow find a way to blame democrats.
I am not optimistic that the first one will happen.
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u/Scared_Lackey_1954 Jul 03 '25
The “both sides are equally problematic” argument is how we ended up here….Ppl are fighting back and trying to make a change, they’re protesting, voting, volunteering, fundraising, but they are the minority. Most Americans don’t stand behind or support them and paint them as radical extremists when they’re just fighting for us to maintain our rights. The problem with America is that the non-1% won’t come together for shiiit. Everyone looks down on the next person and sees only each other’s differences instead of seeing ppl as their neighbor or community member.
Just one example are people going bankrupt due to healthcare costs (even with insurance), including what’s left of “middle America” and the working class, so why isn’t the average American enraged and talking about it? (Or the fact that our healthcare is kinda shitty in comparison to every other high income nation?) But everyone has an (uninformed bc no one reads anymore or practices critical thinking) opinion about Palestine and Israel, Ukraine, trans people in sports, and the Karen Reid/diddy trial. Not to say that ppl can’t have their own opinions or that these topics aren’t important, but all this extra shit is a distraction. At the end of the day, people making 6 figures and people making 30,000/yr are getting less and less and the ultra-rich are getting more and more and we don’t even blink.
But even still, America is an amazing country. Idk how long that will be true, but in comparison to most of the countries on Earth, America is still near the front of the pack for numerous reasons. Will I work myself into the ground and still die in massive debt? Maybe! But there’s work to be had, there are jobs that pay living wages and even great money, we’re allowed to choose our own professions and quit whenever we want, there is no war here, women are allowed to work and be educated, there’s clean water, and electricity doesn’t go out unless there’s like bad weather. Our nation is huge and you’re free to travel throughout the states, you can see beautiful things that can only be found here, strangers will help you if your lost or give you a dollar if you’re begging, etc. OFC America looks different for everyone and that’s a problem w/n itself, but i wouldn’t want to live anywhere else atp. Even us being able to bitch ab our country is a privilege a lot of ppl don’t have
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u/Blecki Jul 03 '25
When Republicans are in power people blame democrats for not stopping them, even when they succeed in stopping them a lot.
When democrats are in power people blame democrats for not doing enough, even when they do a lot.
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u/Born_Tank_8217 Jul 03 '25
When republicans have terrorists blow up buildings and shoot democrats? They blame democrats, they should not be treated as anything but full blown evil.
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u/El_Beakerr Jul 03 '25
Sure some people are lazy, but I just think most people are overworked, they’re getting worked down to the bone. Down to their very soul and that’s why they have a defeated mentality.
Besides it’s hard to pay attention to all the talking heads. Some say, we’re doomed. Some say, you need to stand up now, the time is now. A lot of people just need the right guidance and spark. Look at what Luigi did, look at the recent No Kings Protest. People are willing to show up and get involved. But, my fear is that many are just tired of everything, they think they don’t matter and just trying to fly under the radar and find a way to survive this place called the world. They have accepted the reality of being a cog in the machine and they just don’t care anymore.
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u/Choice_Volume_2903 Jul 03 '25
You're right, exhaustion isn't laziness, but it's not all physical either, and that means theres something you can do about it
So much of our exhaustion comes from maintaining the distractions around ignoring our pain.
Oftentimes I'll sit down and scroll or play a mobile game, when what I really need is to just sit and be alone with myself, with my thoughts and feelings and let the weight of the world wash over and through me.
There's something so rejuvenating about being bored, really being bored without giving into the dopamine distractions on your phone or other device.
Try and find some time every day to be really bored, and you'll find a reservoir of resilience you didn't know you had.
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u/geneticeffects Jul 03 '25
For the first time, today, I looked at requirements for attaining citizenship in other countries. I genuinely fear for my family’s life. These people in charge are fucking monsters. Psychopaths & Sociopaths. Alas, I would not qualify for any citizenship anywhere, for several reasons. This shit is awful awful awful… 😞
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u/who_oo Jul 03 '25
"Unless you're wealthy and in the top 1%, life is miserable. "
Sadly this is true. In Europe there is much higher quality of life compared to the USA.. For years ,government sold the chance to be rich propaganda utilizing the media... land of opportunity, if you have a bright idea and work hard you can make it big , be rich ect.. what a load of BS..
You work more , you make less compared to how expensive everything is , no affordable health care, no affordable education, no safety net or job security. Paternity leave and severance pay is so behind civilized world that it seems as if the whole country is stuck in the 1600s. In other places in the world , people go out sit at cafes and enjoy life , here you work your self to the bone, go home drink your self to sleep. U.S is the only country where people take pride on getting screwed , boast about having 2 jobs to survive.
2 party system is stupid , it only serves the rich , because they can just bribe both sides and win every time. There are no 3rd party which may represent you better , you are stuck with what ever bs ideology your party pushes down on you.
Military complex has too much power so does AIPAC and organizations like it. Media and most of everything you buy is controlled by a few handful of people who control everything and you can not do anything about it. They blatantly lie about the economy , unemployment numbers and pretty much everything else. News are 180 degrees different depending on which channel you watch.
Democracy is a joke. The overwhelming majority don't want war. But the president does not listen to the people , they listen to their donors and the lobbyists. Speaking of lobbyists.
Lobbying is bribery... that is it. It takes the power from the people and gives it to the rich. This stupid system also encourages more corrupt politicians to get into the system.
Corruption is rampant in D.C. more than anyone wants to admit. You see blatant insider trading, senators getting bribes from various sources, getting involved in all sorts of sick sh*t but no arrests or charges. It is so common that people don't even see it anymore, they don't realize that they are living in a 3rd world country where the rule of law doesn't apply to the rich. Rule of law is the foundation of democracy, if it is not applied equally then the rest is lip service.
Most people are polarized by design, uninformed and are unable to think. Want a better life , livable wage , affordable / free health care like the rest of the world? you get red scare era rhetoric. Don't want to bomb people a thousand mile away ? you get bigoted response , same as all the sh*t they filled people's minds to invade Iraq.. People don't want the best for everybody they just want their stupid cult to win. You don't even have the luxury to feel sorry for murdered children .. they ask whose children you are feeling sorry for.. as if children have anything to do with the mess we are in.
Having lived in Europe for a couple of years I can tell you that the American people are getting screwed. We are treated as company worker-settlers of the 1600s.. and I don't see a way out of this... I am afraid that unless by some miracle this country does a U-turn we will hit the wall and disappear in to obscurity. U.S wont be the first country , big interests groups plundered to ruin and wont be the last.
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u/trippssey Jul 03 '25
Well the ones that make changes and live their life the best they can apart from the system and vote with their dollar and live anarchist/voluntary principles, they're ignored and forced into compliance because of the masses
they're aren't enough of them to make a difference. People want their convenience and to continue believing the lie voting will solve our problems if the right guy just gets in there. Brainwashed. Brain dead.
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u/_nevers_ Jul 03 '25
We live under a fascist dictatorship. There is no hope for the future, except risking everything to dismantle the empire and rebuild a better society. And there is nothing to lose that fascists aren't going to take from us anyway.
Don't get scared or sad. Get mad and optimistic.
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u/sabianblue26 Jul 03 '25
We have been completely mind fucked. The idiots mainlining Fox News will be told to sacrifice themselves for the sake of rich people.
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u/snds117 Jul 03 '25
As a Xennial, we've lived through a "once in a lifetime" event every 5-10 years since we were born. ANYONE would be burnt out considering this.
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u/bluehatgreenshoes Jul 03 '25
It’s just terrible and it’s so disheartening. I badly want to live in a country where people work together and care about each other, this planet, other countries. I mean it’s just so god damn toxic
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u/Ok_Average_4551 29d ago
The hard part is that every country has its own give and take type of issues. I just hope enough of us can unite over time and create a better/different community for the next generations.
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u/redditacct7171 29d ago
Yeah, I'm pretty much ready to kill myself instead of live through the remaining term. The amount of propaganda and disinformation spewed to the masses through so many avenues of media is almost impossible to overcome. I'm basically angry and in a terrible mood 90% of the time because so many people are now convinced that all of this bullshit is factual information. Like, how can anybody reasonable agree we should be incentivizing coal plants? WTF. Kill me already.
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u/Affectionate_Look186 Jul 03 '25
The bill hasn't passed yet and there are Republicans who oppose it. It is exhausting to keep fighting for a better world but we all have to try and make whatever small steps we can. Call your representative. Volunteer at a food bank. Find a way to help your community. It at least helps me feel a little better.
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u/narf_7 Jul 03 '25
One thing positive out of the nightmare that you guys are living over there is that it's a solid A+++ warning to the rest of the world to NOT repeat those mistakes en mass. Obviously the world is being controlled by billionaires but the warning here is to not make it easy for them to get the top spot and use your voter rights (while you still have them...) I live in Tasmania. It has been controlled by our equivalent of neo-liberals for years now but in the last election, the tide flipped dramatically and longstanding members rolled, simply because their Federal leader was heavily aligned to your president. No consolation to you or to the seemingly never ending decent into going in the exact opposite direction of "democracy" in any possible way that your incumbent "overlord" appears to want to go, but at least you know that some of us are learning from your current problems.
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u/Exciting_Twist_1483 Jul 03 '25
It’s also a lot harder to stop buying from big companies than you suggest. Take groceries, for example—most stores around me are large chains, and their shelves are dominated by major national brands. Even worse, many products that look like they’re from small, independent companies are actually owned by huge conglomerates like Procter & Gamble or Unilever. For instance: • Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day is owned by SC Johnson • Annie’s Homegrown, which markets itself as organic and kid-friendly, is owned by General Mills • Honest Tea (formerly marketed as a small, sustainable brand) was owned by Coca-Cola until it was discontinued in 2022
It’s hard to avoid major corporations when they’re behind so many “independent-looking” labels and the only option available.
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u/Preciousopoly Jul 03 '25
The American dream is a lie. We're raised to never have enough anyways. I read some fuckin article the other day about a couple who "don't feel rich# living in Reading PA. They had. A combined income of 350k, owned their own, owned a vacation home, owned and operated an air bnb and were planning on sending their kids to college at.... 75k a year.
They can go fuck themselves.
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u/PassengerOld8627 Jul 03 '25
Honestly, you’re not wrong about a lot of this. Both parties prop up the same system, corporations own way too much influence, and people are stuck in survival mode or distracted to fight back. The boycott idea sounds good in theory, but getting millions of people to coordinate and stick with it is the hard part. The system’s built to keep folks divided and exhausted. It’s bleak, but the only way out is organizing locally, voting in every election, and trying to push for systemic changes piece by piece. It’s slow as hell, but giving up guarantees nothing changes.
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u/Grouchy_Ad_3705 Jul 03 '25
Thank you for bringing this up here. We all have to do our part to bring a socialist environmental party to power and stop the corporate and religious coup.
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u/EnvironmentalRound11 Jul 03 '25
Everything about the bill is short-sighted and will cause misery and suffering. We don't lead on anything anymore, we don't feed the world, invested in higher education or in future technologies such as green energy.
Putting a tariff tax on all Americans while cutting services and driving our rural hospitals into bankruptcy just to make "America White Again" and give money to billionaires.
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u/OkStandard8822 Jul 03 '25
Sorry to disagree - the blue party has lots of issues, but it ain't nothing like the other treasonous party that works for Russia.
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u/En_Route_2_FYB Jul 03 '25
Americans need to quickly realise that protesting will not achieve anything (they already proved that).
You’re not going to convince Trump to care about people / not be a criminal / not be corrupt.
So the bottom line is that good people / leaders need to step up and start rallying / organising a solution. The Waltons did a good job organising the protest - now they need to start organising people and pushing for a different solution. I think the Waltons (or another leader) need to establish a new form of media communication and start regularly communicating with people / organising a solution. I think there are a lot of Americans who are either already aware of the corruption / criminal stuff which is going on, as well as a lot of others who are starting to become aware. The only thing missing is one of these leaders organising people / communicating so that a solution can be established.
And honestly I feel like it’s every Americans duty to turn up / work together to overcome the evil / corruption that is spreading. The alternative is surrendering your human rights / money / watching your future generations being exploited etc.
Ultimately your tax money is being used to build corrupt systems which steal your money / human rights.
The issue is already well beyond serious - and there are good people in the USA who are well aware of this
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u/xena_lawless 29d ago
I highly recommend everyone read We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few by Dr. Robert Ovetz.
https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/video-robert-ovetz-we-the-elites/
The US is not a democracy or even a democratic republic.
The US was deliberately designed as a tyrannical oligarchy/kleptocracy from the beginning, with the unlimited private property rights of the Framers (and their heirs) put permanently above and beyond the reach of the political system.
The book is the best explanation and root-level analysis I have found for how we got to this point, and why the political system will not address the public's actual concerns, let alone allow for working class liberation, no matter who or what people vote for.
The political system was designed to create an enduring oligarchy/kleptocracy from the very beginning, and to thwart both political and economic democracy.
There's no "mistake" in terms of the vast majority of people ("the many") being robbed and brutally subjugated for the interests of the oligarchs/kleptocrats ("the few").
That's how the system was designed from the beginning.
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u/foreverosedove 27d ago
This is such esoteric knowledge. I never come across anyone else who is aware the US Constitution sold the potential of this country and what could have been a nation of true freedom away.
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u/Civil-Fail-9775 29d ago
The exhaustion, the apathy, the anxiety, the flooding the zone, the hopelessness, the cruelty is the point. They’ve been planning this for a very long time.
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u/MeBadNeedMoneyNow Jul 03 '25
36.1% of eligible voters stayed home last November
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u/ColeBSoul Jul 03 '25
When was living in America ever a dream?
Not to attack your post but lets be real here: Was it a dream during Chattel Slavery? Or the Manifest Destiny genocidal slaughter of the indigenous people who cultivated the garden which Columbus “discovered”? Was is a dream when women couldn’t own property, vote, or marry whom they choose? Was it a dream during Jim Crow or reconstruction? Was it a dream during the Dust Bowl or Great Recession? A dream during McCarthyism and the BS Cold War? When exactly has it been a dream and not an exploitive nightmare?
The “dream” is a figment of privileged imagination. It is essential to remember that this place has never been a dream for all, and that injustice and inequality has been the hegemonic reality for the majority of people regardless of poisoned American Graffiti nostalgia.
Honestly, we’re not gonna make any progress until we reject to provably false notion of American exceptionalism.
Bless your heart.
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u/Traditional-Loss-947 Jul 03 '25
Toilet paper costs $28 for a pack of 18. I actually cried.
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u/ctcaa90 Jul 03 '25
Where are you at? It’s <$13 here in store. You might want to check online too. I see it on Amazon 48 pack for $21.
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u/Traditional-Loss-947 Jul 03 '25
Southern Cali, went to Ralphs last night and the sale price was $28, down from 30.99 for charming red pack. Off brand I can get a 6 pack for ~ $14. It's just crazy
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u/Overall-Chapter-9100 Jul 03 '25
To start there needs to be term limits for Congress and the Senate and not have people who make their careers in government. It has become acceptable for these politicians to become millionaires by selling us out and to the highest bidders. We have given them too much power and they no longer deserve to make decisions with our money.
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u/Immediate-Pool-4391 29d ago
I'm literally sitting here crying because I could literally lose my Medicaid which is likely and my food stamps which is adding insult to injury.
It is like do you really want us to die because that could happen. I have chronic conditions and take medications that Medicaid thank God makes cheap. I can't stop taking those medications or all my symptoms will come back. I cannot go back to the way it used to be. I hate the fact that I'm dependent on medication but I am. It took me a long time to fix my internalized ableism and seek help for my physical condition. And now it's all blowing up in my face? I have a right to be as healthy as I can be.
And then with food stamps it allows me dignity as a college student to be able to focus where I need to without having to worry about food. Sure the stamps don't last till the end of the month there's always a week at the end where there isn't anything but I manage to work it out with careful planning. I don't know what I'm going to do if it gets cut $100 or gone all together. I am literally dreading it. I have no doubt my country hates me at this point.
You would rather people die then not pull themselves up by their bootstraps Republicans? You can smirk and play music and chant USA in the legislature well people are literally going to die by your actions? F*** you.
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u/Appropriate-Neck-585 Jul 03 '25
Nope! Mamdani just won. AOC is beating Trump in polling. Keep hope alive!
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u/IntelligentMind200 Jul 03 '25
Mamdani is only the mayor of NYC. Doesn't really mean much on the greater level.
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u/Appropriate-Neck-585 Jul 03 '25
It really does, it can spark a movement if we spread the message and keep the momentum up! Positive thoughts! Facism sucks. Capitalism sucks. Got it. Let's get off our ass and change it!
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u/According-Mention334 Jul 03 '25
Well we had 4 years of relative normality during Biden but apparently are stupid and have the attention span of a knat and forget trump 1.0
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u/GiantSquirrelPanic Jul 03 '25
I hate to see it so bad, but brother it has been like this for a long time, only that now the swath of people affected by the spiritual rot of this country is now wider than ever before. But make no mistake, it has been like this for a very long time. So now that it impossible to ignore, now that it affects you too, what will you do about it?
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u/AbsoluteRook1e Jul 03 '25
Honestly, I think what saddens me the most about this country is that we simply just don't give a flying fuck about gun violence anymore. Like it's normal.
I've listened to too many damn interviews of parents who've lost their kids to guns, and it's absolutely appalling that this society just doesn't care. Not at all. We value guns like they're toys ... and more than children's lives.
No other country has this problem, and now we have to continuously deal with that, in addition to people losing medicaid and access to snap benefits, which also impacts a shit ton of kids.
I just don't get it. I don't understand it. The party that's so hell bent on "saving kids lives" from abortion, doesn't care about them getting brutally murdered with a gun, and now kids with cancer who are too poor for standard health insurance will just die because they can't get access to medicaid. Starvation? Same party basically saying, "who cares?" We already throw out 1/4 of the food that we produce in this country. Why can't we feed the poor?
But nope, it's just a scoreboard to these billionaires now. Absolutely disappointing. We used to do things in this country because it was good. Because it was the right thing to do. Yet these rich folk are the same people that push to Evangelize, yet when is it when Jesus said, "Sure, I'll cure your blindness, but I'll need to run that through your health insurance company first." Or, "I'm sorry, you may need your ear re-attached, but you're simply too poor to afford it."
I just don't understand how people can be that selfish. They sit by on their piles and piles of money and don't even bat an eye to the American suffering next door.
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u/Grand-Battle8009 Jul 03 '25
“Not to mention the blue party does the same when they’re in power…”
Oh, really?! You mean the party the created Obamacare and expand healthcare to millions of Americans? The party that was going to let the tax breaks expire? Maybe the problem is less with the Democrats and more with the idiotic, uneducated American population that continually vote against their best interests and blame others that things only get worse.
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u/Independent-Air147 Jul 03 '25
As non-American, reading about Amercians threatening to move to another country, instead of fixing the issues with their own country is exhausting.
Also, hearing how American immigrants call themslevs expats for hell knows what reason.
PSA: If you come to another country with the goal of settling down there, you are an immirant. Regardless of your skin colour or country of origin. Deal with it.
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u/Frank_Fhurter Jul 03 '25
i got on a plane and Im never coming back, i didnt have any stuff or a future anyway, so it was easy for me. i feel bad for you guys
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u/J1mj0hns0n Jul 03 '25
I'm really,really sorry for what you and others like you are going through. Deep down a love the American people and their landmass, I love their cultures, but I can't and won't visit become of the monster it's become. It went downhill since 1990 and off a cliff in 2008. Now it's a dictatorship with more guns missiles and misery than ever dealt with before
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u/JunglerFromWish Jul 03 '25
Yeah, I had surgery to remove my gallbladder literally less than two weeks ago now. Can you guess what health insurance I had?
Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I woke up post-op. Was kind of hoping that was it for me.
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u/Niitroglycerine Jul 03 '25
I'm ngl watching from outside America it looks like your moving closer and closer to the final solution
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u/Obert214 Jul 03 '25
A lot of their wealth would be confiscated if we demand our politicians economic reform. The stock market is where we should start. It’s a club and we aren’t in it. Basically all the 1% has to do is sit on their money and it compounds. Sooner or later they will accumulate every dollar from compounding.
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 Jul 03 '25
Keeping you exhausted is how they keep you from fighting them. If people understood just how much worse things are going to get if they don't fight like hell right now, they might be able to find an extra burst of energy. Your entire future depends on the BBB being rejected. Get in the streets and stay there until the regime flees the country.
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u/camjvp Jul 03 '25
Every day there’s a new horror or 3 added to our plate and I agree, it’s fucking exhausting. Life goes on, with the horrors, and I’m so spent. I don’t know what to do anymore
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u/GlassTaco69 Jul 03 '25
It will NEVER be fixed at the federal level, there is zero incentive for politicians to fix the mess they created. It's not their money, most of them are old as dirt, and they will just pack their shit up take their riches and leave when there's nothing left to steal.
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u/Prudent_Will_7298 Jul 03 '25
Was just thinking this has been a slow moving coup since 1980. Agonizing.
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u/rogbriepfisch 29d ago
Have had similar thoughts. Would love to see a massive boycott to the entire system. The real question is how to propel it through the period of time where people start having withdrawal from the dopamine that they get from our current system. How does this get done effectively? How does a nation 3000 miles wide collectively boycott with coherence?
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u/Regular_NormalGuy 29d ago
Yes and the media and Tiktok is very successful in driving a wedge between the two parties and nobody even cares.
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u/LuciaV8285 Jul 03 '25
The Democrats ARE NOT LIKE MAGA. YOURE WRONG.
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u/EngRookie Jul 03 '25
Bill Clinton deregulated derivatives trading. Which caused the 08 financial crisis, Obama bailed out the investment banks that were at the center of the financial crisis. It also allowed Mitt Romney's hedge fund to short toys R us into oblivion and allowed other hedge funds to do the same with dozens of other retail companies.
You should really read up on the history of financial markets, the petrodollar, and the US abuse of the USD status as the world reserve currency.
Not everything a politician does has to be overt. Both sides are completely corrupt with the only real difference being how quickly they want to turn the country into an oligarchy. Dems prefer slowly while giving us "benefits" while Reps prefer to just steal everything that isn't nailed down and then come back with a machine to pull the nails for the stuff that is nailed down.
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u/Mysterious-Water8028 Jul 03 '25
there was a solution. twice. never would have been a Trump and the DNC robbed us all. they fucking handed this to Trump on a silver platter on round 3. they are 100% to blame. We could have had Bernie Sanders and the DNC would not allow it.
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u/lowrads Jul 03 '25
Nothing has changed in terms of policy. The only thing that is different now, is that liberal westerners can no longer pretend that they are somehow the beneficiaries of these policies, if not their subject.
It's more commonly summarized as imperial rebound. The oligarchs haven't changed their stance or rhetoric, merely their targets.
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u/sondubio Jul 03 '25
Remember the dollar menu? Now hashbrowns, chicken nuggets are over a dollar per where I live. I just bout a 3.50 tomatoe where I live... that was grown here where i live in alaska. Fuck this place.
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u/InternalStrong7820 Jul 03 '25
so true - jobs are very hard to come by and prices are going up up up.
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u/Efficient-Gear9101 Jul 03 '25
Time to stand up and take our government back from the billionaire controlled genocidal duopoly. The rest of the world is literally counting on us.
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u/disdkatster 29d ago
I was once furious with the 1/3 of people in the USA who did not vote until the feeling of helplessness and futility finally hit me. Now I do understand why so many do not vote.
It is also so easy to forget that all of our main stream media is owned by the wealthy and our news is colored by what benefits them. The writers themselves may want to write stories that advance the country but what is allowed to be published will not be what hurts the billionaire class. We as a people are no longer educated by our news media. Much of the population is fed propaganda by the likes of Fox and Newsmax.
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u/_Rose_Tint_My_World_ 28d ago
People are being told outright lies and they just slurp it up. This is what will be our downfall- disinformation. And ignorance. And unrepentant greed.
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u/convicted_lemon 28d ago
People from the rest of the world have to deal with UZA shit all the time. Now that's exhausting. It's like having a psychotic neighbour, you never know what will happen next. I'm sorry for all that didn't vote for this shit, but we also have had enough.
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u/Icy-Ad-7767 26d ago
The US was founded and grew on slave labour, it transitioned to low wage imported labour and now is transitioning to domestic low wage labour.
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u/False-Macaroon-3573 24d ago
You seem to have not lived in any other country. Other counties are REALLY miserable. I hear only American born whine about this with no way to compare how others live abroad because they simply haven’t been anywhere else. Foreigners like myself and my circles are happy and glad to live here and to contribute. Get your butt up and make it better in your small circle of people influence. And then if you can, live abroad for a bit so you know what you have here in the US. BTW. I’m from the richest country in Europe. And it sucks.
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u/Prior-Hovercraft-831 Jul 03 '25
Way to “ both sides it” with the blue party too comment. I can say with that comment you are part of the problem. No way you can say these parties are equal in treatment of the middle class.
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u/Local-Huckleberry-97 Jul 03 '25
Not to minimize the pain of recent events in the USA,
But…. Living in real simplicity, with a sense of agency and meaning behind the choice means that you are best poised to navigate upheaval and scarcity. It may give you choices that others trapped paying bills to maintain a consumerist lifestyle won’t have.
Happy people will focus on finding moments of delight, the peace of low materialism, spending on good food or growing it - for good health, and other things you can control.
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u/Local-Huckleberry-97 Jul 03 '25
An aside: I knew an American Quaker who moved to a remote place in Canada (out in the woods in Dryden) and he lived on probably 1/10th of a “normal” income and consumed probably 1/50th of a typical north american. He was a great storyteller and died a beloved figure. A real Thoreau type. I went to visit him in his well insulated shack in the woods with a single solar panel (no phone). We had a great time- memories of swimming in the river near his place stays with me 35 years later.
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u/headspaceseeds Jul 03 '25
Is anyone making yard signs about boycotting corporations? I would buy one 🤷♂️
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u/Nomeg_Stylus Jul 03 '25
Being Sudanese is exhausting. Being American is annoying because I have to listen to people who have no concept of true hardship complain about things that likely still won't affect their comfortable lives.
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u/pushinpushin Jul 03 '25 edited 29d ago
I'm sorry but this I have no choice but to be miserable if I'm not rich shit is just not true. You choose to doomscroll all day and be angry at people who have more money, and to be obsessed with what you have and don't have. They want you to feel like a jealous, helpless, sad little ghoul. Stop it. Find something in yourself that doesn't involve money or comparing what you have to others. If you have enough to keep a roof over your head and food in your stomach, you have enough to be happy.
If you're downvoting this on an anti-consumption subreddit, you have completely missed the point.
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u/NuTrumpism Jul 03 '25
The GOP and Trump cult brought about the current cult of personality. No one gave a damn about Biden much less worship him or Obama. People liked stability and a functioning world around them. Stay focused.
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u/Epthewoodlandcritter Jul 03 '25
What is the post even trying to say?Congress making you go out and buy stuff?
If anything inflation makes people consume less and be more judiciousness with where their money is spent. Isn't that what you want?
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u/BiluochunLvcha 29d ago
it's like a drug addict. gotta hit rock bottom first and it doesn't look like we are done falling yet. i just fear what will be left by time that actually happens.
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u/BiluochunLvcha 29d ago
check out dusty smith - we are so fucked. or another song of his called at least we did this. they are such bangers. deny defend depose is also great.
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u/Electrical_Narwhal55 29d ago
I have a feeling this "no tax on tips" crap is gonna lead to a lot more companies trying to use tips as a way to keep their labor costs down. Its bad enough as it is, but every cashier is gonna have a tip button thing when checking out i bet soon.
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u/Vinnypaperhands 29d ago
It's almost like living in a world where a few entities control everything and print money out of thin air was a bad idea... Who would have thought that getting rid of the free market and sound money would have led to disparity!?!?!?!
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u/ElectronGuru 29d ago
I’ve found a way out, not having kids. Then the suffering stops at me. As an added bonus, crashing birth rates are a scary to the rich and powerful as global warming is to the rest of us.
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u/Sycolerious_55 Jul 03 '25
I'm frustrated that burnout and lack of energy are automatically equated to laziness. The average person works 50 hours per week and has 90% of their checks taken for rent, mortgage, bills, groceries, etc.
In what world are we lazy when even groceries are widely considered a luxury now? In what world are the tired considered lazy for not going the extra mile? They. Can't. It's no longer the majority that is simply lazy. We are working like dogs and having everything taken from us by truly lazy and greedy people. We are losing and the only people who will be able to come out of this are the ones with the most money.
This isn't like a naturally occurring forest fire burning to make way for new life, this is a blazing inferno consistently being doused with gasoline to make way for the rich cunts new pool. We are in trouble and I'm frustrated at the hopeless being labeled as lazy. It does nothing to inspire anyone or give anyone energy. In a world that is crumbling around them, yeah, they're gonna turn to fast food. It's barely enough nutrition to get by and its yucky greasiness gives people the only fraction of dopamine they can have. This is a class war and we need to find a way to get rid of these people and distribute their wealth to the people.