Asklemmy

To some 20%-30% of the country 'patriot' means 'whites only'. Honestly, if your so dedicated to being a patriotic American you can't stand up to a government doing everything it can to destroy America, you're just an idiot.

We’re aware. People who get all their news from Fox or ignore politics in general probably aren’t but even my conservative family members are embarrassed about the threats to Canada and Greenland. Canadians are generally considered super nice and polite by Americans so pissing them off crossed a line. Even apolitical people probably know the U.S. National Anthem is being booed at sporting events.

There’s elections in several states today that will provide some data to know more. Louisiana had an election on Saturday and rejected 4 constitutional amendments supported by Republicans. None even got 40%. Louisiana is an oddball state so I’m not sure it’s a harbinger of today’s elections but if voters in Wisconsin and elsewhere vote like Louisiana, it’ll be very telling.

No "average" person is aware because they are too busy trying to just survive. Nobody wants to chance losing what they've worked so hard for. The only people who watch the news are seniors and disabled people, and they're being misled if they just watch TV news.

People who call themselves Republicans are happy with what's going on. People who call themselves Democrat are not happy but think they need to work within the system to solve the issues and wait until the next election. Libertarians have sided with the Republicans. Socialism is still a taboo way of thinking for the most part here.

Then you have disabled people (like me) who are watching what is happening in horror and have sky high anxiety wondering if they're next to be disappeared or homeless. I can stand for maybe 30 minutes at most, holding a sign maybe 15 minutes at most. So I'm doing what I can and that is trying to live as if things are "normal" to continue on my mental health recovery and sobriety journey at the same time being horrified and terrified of what's to come. It's a weird duality that I don't like. I told my therapist the other day that I have hope for the future for my recovery but I have lost all hope in what is going on politically and in the news.

A lot of this I also blame on false American beliefs fed to us in school that we were safe from all of this nonsense because of our constitution. The American Dream and all that B.S. They sugar-coat our history as a country in schools -- at least they did when I went to school in the 80's/90's, I don't know about now. It's as if America only has a rosy history, even the Civil War is glorified in false narratives.

It's easy to see how we got to this point as a country. The question is, how do we get ourselves out of it?

The average American voter is hilariously unengaged. Many of them read at an 8th grade level at best. We're suffering the consequences of an education system that has been tragically underfunded for generations, and our media institutions are thoroughly compromised. Because of this, media literacy may as well be non-existent. The worst actors in our public institutions know this and have chosen to capitalize on it. Foreign interests recognize the obvious weakness in our social fabric, and they have been taking advantage of it to great success.

We are completely lacking the most crucial part of any functional democracy - an informed electorate. We have the least qualified people making the most important decisions.

The United States is effectively a failed state. Many of us recognize this, but our options for addressing the problem are limited. We not only have to dislodge the largest defense structure the world has ever seen, but we have to somehow fix the plague of weaponized stupidity that is conservative culture in order to ensure the worst humans don't end up in powerful positions.

If you have any suggestions on how to start fixing that, I'm all ears.

As is typical for the US, 1/3 are deeply aware, 1/3 are in full "patriotic" support, and 1/3 are too distracted by the latest TikTok dance to notice.

We know. We hate it.

Imagine reading some fiction book, like fantasy or something like that.

You see a state that was created by genocide, which was continued until there was barely anyone left to kill, which state then became world hegemon, took control over nearly entire planet economy and proceeded to find new targets for genocide, ecocide, invasion, looting and murdering every political opponent.

You would think it's caricaturally evil, worse than Mordor.

And here you ask "they are now definitely a rogue state"? Now?

We're successfully distracted by the more immediate personal problems they've created for us

It's been a rogue state for decades, they call it 'American Exceptionalism', and the 'patriotic Americans' are happy about it.

Half are aware, the other half is happy about how things are going. Apparently we have hundreds of millions of racist dumbfucks here.

Now? USA has been supporting a genocidal nuclear regime in palestine for decades. They've been threatening and attacking every state in the region. Total rogue.

Between the media surpression and the fact a lot of people don't follow the news, or give a shit, i'd say no.

I see a lot of people starting gardens or looking to getting chickens to be as self sufficient as they can. Many are holding off on large purchases to save in case "something happens". People around me who were never interested in firearms and in fact were generally opposed to them are starting to arm themselves at a rapid pace.

Lots and lots of people, actually. Many identify with the tough-talkin' images being projected, believing it's just what the world needs and that the magic sorting hat will assign them to the privileged class when the dust settles.

Most of us are either completely deluded or utterly crushed by the collapse of our entire system of government. We know this is corrupt, and we want to organize to bring it to an end. But we have so many checks and balances that even if we all marched today with pitchforks and torches it wouldn't effect any real change without burning down every police station, city hall, state house, and the federal buildings. All while hoping the military doesn't show up and now us down with their weaponry. All the whole knowing that there has been a sharp rise in the popularity of police using violence and death as a deterrent.

In short, we know, and we can't see any way out of this mess. It wasn't supposed to be possible, and looking back we all saw it coming. But we were just dismissed as alarmists every time we spoke up and we are surrounded by morons who think this is the best thing that has ever happened to this national.

Those of us who pay attention know.

However, the media ecosystem is INCREDIBLY conservative and pumps out the rah-rah jingoism whenever it can. Those of who just stick to the mainstream echochambers think the US is a bastion of freedom and peace.

Roughly half of the population has absolutely no clue what's going on. Kids, old people, non-news-readers/viewers, etc.

A third of the population is vaguely aware that some shit is going down based on vibes but can't identify the problem.

Half the remaining sixth can identify the problem as political but misattribute the cause. Leaving just a 12th of the population actually aware of our situation.

Are people in the us aware... No!