I think infantilisation of americans through their media soup combined with leaded fuel, asbestos and now microplastics is worth considering here.
Maybe this is a uniquely euro way of thinking? I sorta lean towards what yugopnik is saying here and it’s gotta be because we’re both in europe and look at the americans in a kind of fucked up “how the fuck did they get like this?” way.
It’s ok you can call me reactionary for sorta sympathising with what he’s saying, I can definitely see how it’s reactionary. But also like… Wtf america?
Leaded fuel in road vehicles was also a thing all over the world too. US banned it in 1996, UK in 1999 and EU in 2000 (though some member countries already had a ban in effect before that).
Even then America is the premier car centric society in rural Czechia you could walk basically anywhere or take an electric tram downtown back in the day
Our hometown still is walkable but the town to town trolleys are gone afaik 😔 tbf when I was growing up they were on their last legs but very fun to ride in as a kid
It really feels very very different from our perspective. Like, european literacy rates are all 98%+ just for a start while the US is at 21% illiteracy.
I can’t really explain it to you, the vibe is different speaking to europeans compared to americans, I can not tell who is a child when I speak to americans whereas I absolutely know who the children are and who the adults are when I speak to europeans online. Americans online are very often indistinguishable to me from like 12-16 year old extremely edgy european kids.
It’s the combination of rampant illiteracy, poor emotional regulation, and insistence on having to react to any stimuli. I’ve seen two Burgerlander fash get into some online argument because Fash #1 made some sarcastic comment about needing more woke movies but Fash #2 didn’t pick up the very obvious sarcasm and accused Fash #1 of being a woket-word, which led to Fash #1 calling Fash #2 some other slur, which led to some long comment thread of them accusing each other of being woke.
The thing is with the United States, they have a ton of very smart people that both empower and “hide behind” the ignorant on a societal level, and you always hear about the ignorant and almost never hear from the very smart people, at least that’s what I feel as a non American. The right wing political movement in the US is actually a perfect example of this. You always hear about the latest idiotic thing Trump or one of his cronies said, you almost never hear about the people actually running things behind the scenes and keeping it all together. The US military is another example, you always hear about the latest foolish thing they did, and almost never about all the higher ups with multiple master’s degrees and even doctorates.
No Child Left Behind, focus on sight reading (just skip words you don’t recognise), standardised testing, extremely long periods without school aka having an entire summer off, malnutrition in schools all combined creates something uniquely American. All of those things exist in a vacuum to some extent elsewhere but America has all of them all at once.
And that’s not even including the bombardment of propaganda and lead.
I think infantilisation of americans through their media soup combined with leaded fuel, asbestos and now microplastics is worth considering here.
Maybe this is a uniquely euro way of thinking? I sorta lean towards what yugopnik is saying here and it’s gotta be because we’re both in europe and look at the americans in a kind of fucked up “how the fuck did they get like this?” way.
It’s ok you can call me reactionary for sorta sympathising with what he’s saying, I can definitely see how it’s reactionary. But also like… Wtf america?
Asbestos was all over Europe too (and everywhere else) and has no neurological effects AFAIK.
Leaded fuel in road vehicles was also a thing all over the world too. US banned it in 1996, UK in 1999 and EU in 2000 (though some member countries already had a ban in effect before that).
Even then America is the premier car centric society in rural Czechia you could walk basically anywhere or take an electric tram downtown back in the day
Is that not the case anymore?
Our hometown still is walkable but the town to town trolleys are gone afaik 😔 tbf when I was growing up they were on their last legs but very fun to ride in as a kid
yeah that’s less important in my thing i guess i just threw that in there as yet another way materials poisoned everyone
I believe it doesnt exactly poison so much as mechanically disrupt tissue. It is very small and sharp fibers.
Yeah i didn’t intend to be literal, just the general vibe
Y’all aren’t that different ok or have you willingly dismantled your colonial legacies and ties to the zionist entity when I wasn’t looking?
It really feels very very different from our perspective. Like, european literacy rates are all 98%+ just for a start while the US is at 21% illiteracy.
I can’t really explain it to you, the vibe is different speaking to europeans compared to americans, I can not tell who is a child when I speak to americans whereas I absolutely know who the children are and who the adults are when I speak to europeans online. Americans online are very often indistinguishable to me from like 12-16 year old extremely edgy european kids.
It’s the combination of rampant illiteracy, poor emotional regulation, and insistence on having to react to any stimuli. I’ve seen two Burgerlander fash get into some online argument because Fash #1 made some sarcastic comment about needing more woke movies but Fash #2 didn’t pick up the very obvious sarcasm and accused Fash #1 of being a woket-word, which led to Fash #1 calling Fash #2 some other slur, which led to some long comment thread of them accusing each other of being woke.
The thing is with the United States, they have a ton of very smart people that both empower and “hide behind” the ignorant on a societal level, and you always hear about the ignorant and almost never hear from the very smart people, at least that’s what I feel as a non American. The right wing political movement in the US is actually a perfect example of this. You always hear about the latest idiotic thing Trump or one of his cronies said, you almost never hear about the people actually running things behind the scenes and keeping it all together. The US military is another example, you always hear about the latest foolish thing they did, and almost never about all the higher ups with multiple master’s degrees and even doctorates.
No Child Left Behind, focus on sight reading (just skip words you don’t recognise), standardised testing, extremely long periods without school aka having an entire summer off, malnutrition in schools all combined creates something uniquely American. All of those things exist in a vacuum to some extent elsewhere but America has all of them all at once.
And that’s not even including the bombardment of propaganda and lead.
It’s definitely the lead and whatever chemicals Dupont is serving in tonight’s dinner