General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are You Dumber than an American? [View all]frostfern
(67 posts)Especially the "caveat emptor" thing. Just look at what people like Glenn Beck do to people. It's so easy to prey on people's fear and distrust in this society. Too many people are inclined to indulge in outlandish conspiracy theories and simplistic emotive ideology because we have too short of an attention span to try and understand plain-old down-to-earth policy decisions or look for practical solutions to our nation's looming problems.
It's not just one side of the political spectrum either. Sorry if it hurts the left's feelings, but we have to own up to nonsense like the "911 truth" movement. I'm particularly disgusted with the apathy of my generation, the 35 and younger generation, particularly young middle-class white people. We've been so stupid to believe that we are powerless and elections don't matter. Too many people just want to be entertained and not bother with the actual leg-work required to affect real change. For too many people politics has become nothing more than an emotional indulgence. People constantly look for crap to be outraged over and stir up contemptuous tribalism but not bother trying to understand real complex issues. It does seem that things are finally starting to turn around, slowly. Or at least I can hope. It's sad but it seems like it's going to take more crisis and widespread suffering (as we had in the 1930s) to get people to really wake up.