@sigdeff "the universe just randomly happened and that they are meaningless meat sacks"
These beliefs are not necessarily from indoctrination, and hopeless nihilism isn't where they inevitably lead. On the other hand, people who are really, REALLY into conspiracy theories usually develop an "Everything looks like a hammer" approach to life.
@karl Someone posted a list of states not too far down in the comments of the video. I haven't had time to follow the rabbit hole more deeply. Someone said a similar law was struck down in Texas, that might be a line of further inquiry for you also.
@MentORPHEUS Amazingly accidentally the otherwise disparate groups with nothing in common seem to agree. Its the same shit with selling a war; tell one group its for saving the women, another that its about repression of gays, another that its to make them pay for terrorist acts, another that its end times prophecy, another that its just economics to take their shit, another that it has to be done to prevent a thousand dominoes from falling. Next thing you know a whole bunch of alienated specialists are all on the same page in agreement even though they can't stand to speak to or know one another.
@destraht Holy crap, some quick reading of the comments and googling shows that similar laws exist in 26 other states! Fuck the Zionists, and fuck the American end times Fundies who kiss Israel's ass because they think it will give them an in with the returning Jesus.
@destraht It looks like a school play or little league game of first graders. Everyone is doing something different, nobody is following any kind of program or pattern. The people in full suits will overheat in less than 5 minutes, that bouncing around more than everyone else act isn't sustainable.
@MentORPHEUS Indians and Chinese have done a number in the US convincing them how enlightened that they are.
There's a touring traditional Chinese dance company (based in NY) called Shen Yun that has been advertising heavily in the LA market due to an upcoming engagement here, playing up "Thouuuusands of years of Chinese tradition." Suddenly in the last few days with the virus scare, the ads now start with the message: "Proudly made in the USA." Then those words are replaced with, "NOT from China."
@Chaddeus_Rex Meanwhile, his daughter is self-medicating for that Hawaiian maladay known as Lakanookie Disease in clubs and bars.
@itiswr1tten 2meIRL4meIRL my early 20s love life. I fell into the trap of "Doing what kinda worked before" with my high school GF, which obvs worked against me in the 20s SMP. Only thing missing from this was the repeated claims that "You should just continue to be yourself, you'll make some (OTHER!) lucky girl so happy SOMEDAY."
Eventual second GF was somewhat intersectional/feminist so lapped up the privileges of womanhood while reciprocating 0% and being a nonstop living example of the what they say/do discrepancy.
Third GF belly laughed at some woman-positive thing I said early on which pretty much snapped me out of the women are wonderful effect for good.
Tagging in a few others since this is an effort post and I want some other opinions
Don't fucking call me neolib, I am elitist and massively anti egalitarian but wield a political mask in my professional life. Those are separate ideologies but only one is enshrined in the Real.
Anyway....
American exceptionalism is the most interesting and intrusive philosophy pre WWII. Who coined it is somewhat disputed, but I believe it was Alexis De Toqueville, whose analysis of America defined it as exceptional in a few ways. Interestingly, the phase itself was popularized by STALIN, who used it in 1929 to articulate why American communists thought the USA could "work" communism due to certain ways it was exempt from Marx's theories (see Jay Lovestone for more on USA commies).
There was no real factual basis for the widespread belief in American exceptionalism. Natural resources, origin, geography, size, and the especially laughable "lack of class distinction" are all statistically or anthropologically proven wrong. But for quite some time, that didn't matter. Americans viewed themselves not only as special, but a force destined and responsible to change the world.
The U.S. government feared the victorious European powers that emerged from the Congress of Vienna would revive monarchical government. France had already agreed to restore the Spanish monarchy in exchange for Cuba, placing monarchy uncomfortably close once again. As the revolutionary Napoleonic Wars ended, Prussia, Austria, and Russia formed the Holy Alliance to defend monarchism. In particular, the Holy Alliance authorized military incursions to re-establish Bourbon rule over Spain and its colonies, which were establishing their independence.
These actions all seeded the US to establish the Monroe Doctrine, which can be summarized as "the New World shall not be integrated nor interfered with by Old World powers". The separation intended to avoid situations that could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers so that the U.S. could exert its influence undisturbed, and Monroe was referenced over and over, through the Reagan presidency even.
In short, pre WWII America declared its destiny before it could back up its words, then manifested that destiny into existence through unity and force of will. That is the closest to magic we've ever seen in history, bar none. I'll debate this point with anyone, and both my family trees start with The Mayflower. I am by blood 100% European and by birth 100% American.
Political scientist Eldon Eisenach argues in the twenty-first century American exceptionalism has come under attack from the postmodern left as a reactionary myth:
"The absence of shared purpose is ratified in the larger sphere of liberal-progressive public philosophy.... Beginning with the assumption of American exceptionalism as a reactionary myth..."
These bottom feeders of revisionist ideology want to pretend that WWII was some fluke, like America just got lucky. That's their explanation for everything where winners and losers emerge because their liberal ideology demands the only answer to why perfectly equal people experience dissident outcomes is oppression. The reality is, America planned and declared to the world this would happen. The question is, will we let it slip?
I'm hard-line bourgeois capitalist, so I don't care about the USA. Imo, we're way too far gone to have the balls to enforce another Monroe type action. Now all we do is whine about class and race, and we let the billionaires buy the system. Game over.
I care about the size of my capital reserves. Everyone and everything else, whatever.
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