Ask Lemmy

Locking for rule 6.

they are in denial and don’t want to admit they made a mistake voting for trump.

I mean, who are you talking to...? The ones I talk to are going to protests. But also, I'm not hearing much about it because people are busy with their lives and are generally not very interested in talking about things they cant do anything about. Instead we talk about each others lives and goals, relationships, jobs, projects, hobbies, music.

If somebody came up to me and started trying to get me riled up about Iran, I would say "Yep, sure does suck. Can't wait til somebody assassinates that sumbitch." And that would be the end of the conversation.

Fatigue. There's just been so much and it's kinda fucking draining if you stay plugged in to it all. It's not like doomscrolling will make the situation any better either.

Also like, that was kind of the point of Don't Look Up. People do just shut these things out. If you understood the movie you should know the answer to your question.

Congrats, now you know the situation in Russia regarding the Ukraine war.
People feel powerless, are swamped by trying to make a living (which is by design), and at the same time feel like this is all wrong and someone ought to do something about it, which leads to a sense of guilt and shame.
So they shield themselves from it and wait for it to pass.

Thats because Americans tend to be lazy, apathetic, and generally quite privileged. Most Americans dont want to think about their privilege nor about the suffering needed to perpetuate American dominance. They just want to live in comfort and thinking about these things make them deeply uncomfortable so most choose not to at all.

As someone looking from outside, it feels like a lot of this could be minimized if the US fixed their electoral system.

It's an arcane system that makes the votes of the middle states more valuable than the outer states. Which means deeply conservative states get to say who runs the country.

So you end up with a religion driven police state, fueled by technofeudalism. Not unlike the regimes you keep overthrowing.

because they can't do anything about it.

I suspect this is because the U.S.’s ruthless actions contradict the country’s self-image, which has been cemented by decades of propaganda: the narrative that the U.S. is the good guy, spreading freedom and democracy wherever it intervenes, the proud nation that protects the world and punishes dictators for their cruelty - all that bogus.

Reality simply doesn’t fit this propagandistic narrative: after all, in violation of international law, the U.S. is waging a war of aggression alongside genocidal mass murders and committing the most heinous war crimes in the process - crimes so repugnant that they immediately expose the fairy tales of the freedom-loving, friendly world police as obvious lies.

So I consider this to be denial of reality. People simply prefer to live in a flattering lie rather than face reality: for many, their misguided pride in their nation is apparently so important that they refuse to acknowledge that there is absolutely nothing to be proud of anymore - on the contrary, they should be ashamed of their country, but they simply won’t accept that, which is why they prefer to close their eyes to reality.

It feels like a total Don’t Look Up moment.

Yeah, Don't Look Up is a bleak commentary on US society and politics. It feels like a DLU moment because it is and has been since at least 9/11, if not Reagan or Nixon.

American citizens have less of an attention span than a goldfish.

Source: Am America--- oooh shiny!

Who is this? I think you're living in a bubble or just looking at online idiots.

Every conservative I know is talking about it and how it's terrible and Trump is making a mistake.

It's not a 'Don't Look Up' moment.

People don't want to hear about it because they're working 2-3 jobs and 100 hours a week to afford rent on a roach-infested studio and food is becoming cost-prohibitive, on top of education, health care, and yes, fuel too. Both parties have gaslit them about it within the last two years to try and get elected.

And they don't have any power to do anything about it.

Because they are directly responsible for it.

It's been a long decade, I'm tired, boss... what's that? WHAT? It's only been just over a year? You're shitting me? Get the fuck out of here...

Because I’ve been hearing about wars and chaos for decades now. I hear about this stuff literally everywhere. I’m aware of it. I don’t need it shoved in my face 24/7. It’s exhausting.

It’s also addictive for a lot of people. They get so engaged with this stuff online that they neglect their real lives. That’s not healthy.

They don't want to be confronted with the point that their own vote for Trump caused this whole mess.

A reporter for the New York Times went to a bar during the Watergate hearings and asked if they could put it on the TV and he was kicked out

In Russia there's long been a sort of "social contract" between the oligarch elites and the general population. As long as the general population "stayed out of politics" and let the oligarchs stay rich and powerful, the oligarchs wouldn't interfere with their lives. The classic bread-and-circuses thing.

I guess the US could have a similar dynamic developing.

Americans have a bit of a reputation abroad for ignoring the fact non-Americans exist and are people. This sounds like an example.

If you never need anything from the outside world and the outside world makes you feel unsure or bad about yourself, it makes emotional sense. I hear China tends to be the same way.

Republicans want whatever trump wants.

Centrist democrats want whatever netanyahu wants.

I'm on the left. What I want doesn't matter and I'm tired of getting blamed because centrists have to pretend they don't love everything turmp is doing.

I'll read the news about it, I'll go protest about it, but I don't want to hear some shitkicker complaining about it — especially if I didn't see that fucker at the protests.

Because they can't bear the fact that they Fucked Around and are now at the Finding Out. Accepting blame has never been a cultural touchstone for the United States.

No idea but, here in australia this is a strange dynamic.

In general I dont talk to people about politics. Like 90% of people I know its just easier not to say anything about politics at all ever.

5% i know are conservative so just politely avoid the topic.

The remaining 5% are closer friends with whom I regularly discuss politics.

The fuel crisis is kind of uniting though - you can talk about that with anyone provided you don't go too far up the chain of "what caused this".

I haven’t watched cnn for years but this weekend they started talking about “enemies of our country like Iran ….” where their starting assumption was that bombing Iran was a normal thing to do, so the rest of the newscast wasn’t worth listening to

Because there's NOTHING we can do about it right now. Nothing.

Because don't look up wasn't about covid.

They're MAGA, and want to keep pretending that they haven't broken the entire fucking world.

Trump is the kid that would come to your house to visit, and break YOUR toys.

It's about time we start having a war that affects us negatively even in a limited capacity. Honestly, I think the fact most USA citizens haven't experienced war, especially as the being invaded side, makes them complacent and just war happy.

Because Americans are idiots

where? I have yet to see any American on lemmy do this.

I once described the entire plot of Don’t Look Up sincerely without having any knowledge of what the movie was about.

Well I'm not complaining about gas prices, but personally it's something I can't do anything about and it just makes it even harder for me to get the energy to do the things I can do.

It won't motivate me further to hear about it. It'll only lead to despair.