Being from Northern California, I've been around the San Francisco Bay Area a lot (including recently), and when I see depictions like this I can only conclude this is pure propaganda:



Most of the city is not run down and full of drugdealers. I've driven through San Francisco a lot in the past year or two and never saw anyone defecating. I don't remember ever seeing dirty needles on the floor (and I've done a fair amount of walking around the neighborhoods.) Yes there are a lot of smash and grabs but it's never a good idea to leave valuables or a backpack inside a car in plain view. Yes the city has problems, especially homelessness, and the Tenderloin neighborhood looks like somewhere in a poor third world city, but "reports" like this are a huge exaggeration IMO. San Francisco filthier and more chaotic than Mumbai, India? And about run down Democratic cities, I've seen plenty of run down rural areas just driving through Texas.

Basically though, Right Wingers have a distorted depiction of American cities by Propaganda Masters Fox News and other RW propaganda outlets, thus helping to set up the justification for Trump to send his goons into cities.

It's the future of democracy around the world, and possibly the future of life on earth...

This is from 2019, with the coronavirus accelerating these trends now...

"A total of 68 countries suffered a decline in political rights and civil liberties during the past 12 months, with only 50 countries registering any progress in these areas, it said. "

“Challenges to democracy in the United States have outsized effects beyond American borders,” Mr Abramowitz added. “Other nations watch what is happening in the United States and take cues from its leaders’ behaviour. The ongoing deterioration of American democracy will accelerate the decline of democracy around the world.”

“If the balance continues to tip towards dictatorship, the free societies that remain could find themselves isolated in a more dangerous and chaotic world,” said Sarah Repucci, a senior director at Freedom House.

- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/democracy-freedom-house-annual-report-civil-liberties-authoritarian-donald-trump-us-a8763196.html

And without the leadership of the United States, as well as more of the world sinking into authoritarianism (especially right wing, science denying...) how can there be any cooperative global leadership to fight climate change?

Putin is former KGB and Trump's his boy in the White House doing everything he can to destroy this country and its democracy, while Putin is pretty much restoring the autocracy of the Soviet Union in Russia. Will the Soviet Union win in the end? Will Americans let this happen?

They thought that America may put up a fight if they were going to claim world domination, but with Putin's boy in office, he has insured that this country will be so devastated that it won't be able to fight back, ensuring that the American age is over. Not only will America pay the price, but also all the countries that America has protected as well as the freedoms that Democracy has promoted.

This embrace of unbridled selfishness has not only drove economic inequality way beyond every other developed nation, to politicians not caring about harming people and the nation if they stand to profit, but a president who is willing to tear this country into pieces and kill hundreds of thousands if it benefits him. It's like everyone's allegiance to the country, society, and the welfare of the community is up for sale, and depends whether or not it benefits them personally. This is no way to run a society.

from the threat of the virus (except in controlling outbreaks), while we are still in the middle of a covid nightmare. Just look at some of these numbers from yesterday as to # of new coronavirus cases (from worldometers):

France (pop. 67m) : +836
Japan (pop. 126m): +583
Germany (pop. 83m): +509
Australia (pop. 26m): +425
South Korea (pop. 52m): +60
Hong Kong (pop. 7.5m): +58
China (pop. 1,400m) : +10
Thailand (pop. 70m): +3
Taiwan (pop. 24m): +2
Vietnam (pop. 96m): +1
New Zealand (pop. 5m) : +1

We are being left behind in the world

Blue states being occupied
Democratic politicians being extorted into submission or being imprisoned over false charges
Left leaders being disappeared
A lethal and crippling virus raging and being covered up by the govt
ER's being closed because they are full of coronavirus patients (your on your own if you get sick)
A ruined economy and massive poverty and homelessness
Science being banned
Racism being legalized
Liberals and progressives declared as enemies of the state
Academics becoming second class citizens
American world influence collapses
Undocumented Immigrants captured are executed or sent to concentration camps
Mexicans and blacks and liberals being sent to concentration camps to become slaves
Elections in America completely rigged, thus leading to the installation of Republican leaders everywhere.
Putin laughing hysterically at capturing and ruining America

that too many Americans are not used to thinking about anyone other than themselves and their circle. They think of themselves as the center of the universe. They are used to thinking like "Why should I give a damn?" "I don't care who it would help/hurt, what is in it for me?" "I've got mine" "Why should I have to pay taxes to help others?" "All I have to care about is my child, why should I care about other people's children?" "You should only care about yourself." This is all strange to them, caring about people that they don't know.

There's little sense of "we are all in this boat together" for the past several decades in this country. Rampant hyperindividualism, neoliberal economics, and cynicism (due to the Right Wing's wet dreams coming true) have made much of the American population cold and uncaring about anything other than themselves and their circle. Things like impressions that the media and government officials can't be trusted help justify it to them, but they don't care to err on the side of caution. They also have attitudes like: "If the world treats me like shit, why should I care about anything other than myself?", and "If I die, I die, I just want to enjoy life."

Also a diffusion of responsibility happens when people like Trump and crazy Republicans promote not caring about others. After all: "If everyone is not doing it, why should I?"


Americans were more thinking more collectively for awhile, but old habits die hard (with the help of Trump and the Republican party) and here we are.