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Michelle Spencer (she/her)'s avatar

Slightly off-topic, have you seen this fascinating article? I picked it up from Cori Carl over on No Saints, No Charity about why Americans don’t vote for policies they would financially benefit from

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/why-do-we-not-support-redistribution/

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Walter Rhein's avatar

I wish I knew. They're so brainwashed they do the opposite of what's in their best interests. Sometimes people give me weird looks of almost understanding when I bring this up, most of the time they just laugh at me and call me names.

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Michelle Spencer (she/her)'s avatar

I was an exchange student in the US in the 1980s. I was chillingly struck by how much a high school pep rally resembled George Orwell’s Two Minute Hate in ‘1984’. As an Aussie teen sitting, mystified, in the bleachers I wondered what would happen if bad actors leveraged that programming for their own purposes. My new classmates made sure I joined in after the first time, their disapproval was vocal and unanimous.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Yes, there's so much cultish social pressure that is considered normal in this country. I had some friends who came up from Australia when I was still in school and they had the same impression. If it hadn't been for them, I might not have noticed.

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Sari Tähtinen's avatar

Thank you Walter🙏

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