In my head they are very normalburger if that makes sense. They think Trump can stop the war enough to affect the market, right?
Behavioral standards plummeted during the pandemic and never recovered. People are a lot more stressed, and they refuse to behave. We’re divided, and it really does not help that our leadership literally believes that AI is going to replace most jobs.
I do not think the leaders believe that AI is going to replace most jobs. They definitely believe that they can use the threat of AI taking most jobs to further exploit the working class.
They really do though. Like, you’re assuming a level of rationality that they don’t possess.
Yeah that’s mostly a justification for layoffs. They’re not competitive robotics manufacturing AI that cuts down the need for enormous chunks of capital for factory floor space + varied equipment + switching things up to change what you’re producing. They’re not competitive on the large computational engineering models important for R&D (which they’re not doing either) and iterating new rocket engines. It’s a giant grift, but people need to be careful not to universalize the values of Silicon Valley AI companies.
These billionaire dipshits are not as bright as you think
How are the schools
Hectic and our teachers are constantly complaining about how kids can’t do basic reading comprehension tasks. Like copy a sentence from the board into their notebook and then repeat it back to you in their own words. There are 13 year olds who cannot do this. There are adults who can’t do this. The majority of Americans read at or below the level of an 11 year old.
I live in a rural area in the US. Public school teachers are generally very good at their jobs, but a lot of the school boards around me have been taken over by the far right and so-called conservatives. They run on platforms like “ending forced vaccines for children” and banning transgender flags and they mostly win because there’s a lot of dumb racists here.
Where I am (major metro) the schools are still decent but severely underfunded.
In fucking shambles. One of my dreams, if I ever win big on the rarely purchased lotto tickets, is to open a free clinic with free pharmacy, and a private, means-tested Pre-K12 Montessori school that only accepts on the poorest first and donations only buy your name on a plaque.
What do you mean by that? The standards of education or mental health in schools?
In the U.S., schools are funded by property taxes, so schools in rich areas are fine, although educational standards suck across the nation.
Mostly okay. Slow discussion building on why test scores are dropping and are they still dropping. Is it COVID (immeidate shock), Long COVID (long term health issues), or nearly all course work and books being on tiny laptop screens (money showed up for a wholesale transfer to Chromebooks during COVID. They were actually helpful during lock-downs, but were kept after.).
Seconding this. We’re in freefall right now.
The average American barely has any idea there’s a war even happening or who the president is. Half the people I know think Biden is still president. Even people who do know there’s a war wouldn’t be able to find Iran on a map. Everything about our government and everything it does might as well be a TV show to my fellow Americans. They see it as fiction that doesn’t impact our lives and most people think it’s extremely boring so they tune it out.
People are crashing out but for different but associated reasons. Everyone’s broke, no one can afford healthcare, there’s a mass shooting every 3 days. Everyone’s tired and the alienation is so thick that people are all pointing in different directions to where they think the problem is. People are getting more conspiracy brained and twitchy.
Americans are deep fried in every sense
Even people who do know there’s a war wouldn’t be able to find Iran on a map.
I work a customer service facing job at the poop factory. The only person I’ve ever heard mention the war is one overly chatty customer who asked me “so did you hear we’re in another war now?” with the same cadence as “did you catch the big game last night?”
Depends on the person. I’m a therapist, tons of my clients are very upset, scared, crying, having trouble sleeping, depressed, feeling powerless and angry, etc.
This administration’s actions are taking a huge toll on some people’s mental health.
And people who are trans or gay? They are scared and many want to get out but can’t.
Having said all that… there are plenty of people who are not bothered because they are not informed and don’t realize how bad things really are.
“they”? the idea there is a singular “they” is laughable at best.
most people are tuckin their heads down tryin to make it to their next paycheck… like they have for 40 years. thats the problem.
too many people think their votes dont matter (~35% dont vote at all ever), so we end up in a world where the north lost the civil war and fascists have come to roost.
too many people think their votes dont matter
They’re correct
We don’t live in this world because of elections, we live in this world because Northern leadership refused to execute the Southern leadership and officers and put the soldiers on some kind of list (they were good friends)
To be fair, it really doesn’t seem like people’s votes matter. That’s why there is currently a corrupt criminal in office.
Living the American Dream
My mom STILL insists that the war wasn’t about slavery, and so thinks the South should’ve won and isn’t offended by the Confederate flag.
But she’s “not a racist, I like all those black people more than this white person”.
The ‘background noise’ is getting louder but for the most part, people are just carrying about their day worried about their own personal lives
I just recently got a bunch of medical stuff and psychiatric stuff sorted out after decades of barely being able to function. So I’m finally feeling “normal” and the state of our politics has me stressed to the point of action, but not to the point of curling up in a ball and doing nothing, which is unusual for me. Very surreal to be functional in a nonfunctional world.
People rarely distinguish between the sentiment of a demographic versus the sentiment of the individuals that make up that demographic. Hence, stereotypes.
“Americans” are not a monolith. There’s almost 400 million people in this country. Idk how each individual is doing, but most of the people I know are too busy trying to keep their heads financially above water to care. The actual American people have very little say over what happens in this country, and most are just as trapped in the horror as the rest of the world.
Does a country without public transit, universal healthcare, or any social safety nets sound like a country where the average person is in control to you?
I have a “conservative” friend. We both had a bit of a crashout discussion last night. We’re American.
The economy is crashing in front of our eyes. We’re both extremely privileged and lucky and we both recognize it and we recognize how fucking stupid everything is in our society. We recognize we’re powerless to even change the nature of our jobs.
Trying to conduct my day as normal (food needs buying and bills need to be paid, after all), but with a marked increase of episodes of staring of into space internally shrieking as avenues of opportunity and life plans made years ago are irrevocably altered.
What’s the alternative? Give up? That doesn’t help anyone.
I’m sure some people are. But constantly crashing out isn’t useful even in the worst situations. What is useful is taking real steps that have real effects. Action is the antidote for anxiety.
There have been many organized protests against Trump since he took office. I’m not sure how much press they’ve received outside the US. Though many still support him because they are indoctrinated into the MAGA cult, I would say that most (over half) of Americans are against the war for a variety of reasons.
The problem is that there is not much we can do in the short term to create change. Our system of government does not have an effective means to recall a leader.
The threat of legal action does little to deter this administration. For one thing, it’s slow. For another, they’ve shown that they can and will ignore court orders and this far don’t suffer any consequences. Finally, the administration has done as much as possible to install loyalists and remove honest people in every part of government, including the legal system.
Impeachment is a joke. Even if the process was started again, Republicans in the Senate would never convict one of their own.
So the average citizen doesn’t approve of what is happening but don’t see any effective means to change. It’s a very helpless feeling. Many disgruntled communities have been able to create some change in their local government but even changing political parties is not real change. We still have 2 right wing parties bought by special interests. I think many of us just try to do good where we can in our own sphere of influence.
Personally? I am extremely worried, yet at the same time I’ve become so used to all the crazy shit that I’ve become almost too comfortably used to it. I live day to day and not try to think about how much more horrible the future is going to get.
Side topic:
ls “normalburger” a word commonly used in English?
If so, what does it mean (I assume it does not refer to grilled beef patties?)My English dictionary draws a blank here…
Maybe it’s a regional thing, but I don’t think it’s a common phrase. I’ve heard “nothing-burger” a lot, and this may be someone playing off that.
No, I think the expression it plays off of is “nothing-burger” which is more common. Like, when everyone is expecting a very bad or very good thing to happen and nothing comes of it: “Well, that was a big nothing-burger” … that and leftist online discourse calling the US “burgerland” or the burger-reich
I’ve heard magaburger a few times, normal burger is new to me.
🚨 Breaking: the Americans have questions about the burgers
I am not an American.
The word “Normalbürger” is a very common expression in my own language, but that’s clearly not how you used it in your post, hence my question.
So, what does it mean?
Oh, how burgerbrained of me not to think outside the target audience, my mistake man, sincerely, but it also doesn’t work without the assumption of nationality. I made up the word on the spot to indicate an American in declining mental and physical health but overall stability, let me check if someone else used the word first in English.
Burgerbrained would be an actual example of a trending portmanteau in English. Invest now
Then better use burgerbrained (which doesn’t seem like a portmanteau to me btw), avoids possible confusion with the existing word.
“Normalbürger” in German-based languages just means “average citizen” in a completely neutral way.
So not what you have been going for.
Things are not normal. It is like a lot of people are waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Resistance is legal, so long as it does not go “too far”. I am near an “ICE” city. When empty cars with cut seat belts started showing up, there was an added level of horror film unease. The kidnapping by random “not ICE” didn’t amount to much, though we have yet to truly know who was kidnapped by “not ICE” (likely few). The murders have on not been good, but are at least fairly public.
No one is arming, as a shooting war on American soil will get everyone killed. There were days I wondered if we would be bombed. So far the “keep calm, and resist.” Crowd is making progress, which helps keep tensions from boiling over.
Elections are coming up, which is providing an outlet for energy. Real voting won’t be until November, and zero changes will happen until January 2027. Expect crazy shit to ramp up.
America is huge though. For any trend in one location, the opposite is happening elsewhere.
This is a very good time for the privileged to take a “mini-vacation”. It both slows production and gives one a chance to enjoy their last days on Earth.
So far the “keep calm, and resist.” Crowd is making progress
Oh yea, I’ll bet
There were days I wondered if we would be bombed. So far the “keep calm, and resist.” Crowd is making progress, which helps keep tensions from boiling over.
What progress?
If crying most days is crashing out, then yes.
