Whats the deal with America?

June 27, 2006 1:41 AM

Is it just me or has America gone batshit? I grew up in the USA but left eight years ago. Reading the daily newspapers and utilizing mostly US websites, there is this creeping feeling that America is headed quicker to its inevitable decline and people are more selfish and paranoid than ever.

Think freepers, moonbats, domestic spying, reliance on credit, no savings, power measured only by wealth, a developing functional capitalist theocracy in the making.

At least on the outside looking in, America doesn't look like it believes it own ideals anymore. I am not trying to slam the states, but the place just feels uncomfortable now. Do I need to get psychological help or do others feel this way as well?

posted by Funmonkey1 to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

It woiuld be interesting to see good discussion about this. While you're clearly coming at it from one angle, I'd be really interested to see thoughts from the other end, ie though who believe that America is doing better than ever and their reasons for thinking so.

But, this might be considered chat filter.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:48 AM on June 27, 2006

Response by poster: Ahh, I suppose it could be chat filter but not really - I haven't been back to the states since and really don't know how people feel about this.

Curiousity.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 1:56 AM on June 27, 2006

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the answer to this question has to do a lot with who you voted for in the last two elections.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:58 AM on June 27, 2006

Response by poster: steve, I don't think so..

The elections may play a part, but probably a better question is has there been a deeper and profound change in underlying attitudes`?
posted by Funmonkey1 at 2:01 AM on June 27, 2006

Indeed, it's a strange time to be an american. That said, I'm still proud to be one.

As simple as I could state it.
posted by ryecatcher at 2:04 AM on June 27, 2006

Well Funmonkey1, I would say that things are a crazy as they have ever been.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:09 AM on June 27, 2006

as crazy as they have ever been

damn it, why can't we edit comments!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:10 AM on June 27, 2006

I feel the same way. I stopped reading the newspaper about six months ago and the interesting effect is that everything just seems like this insane comedy now. Like this whole "Iran" thing? I keep waiting for the funding to be pulled, like from a sitcom past its prime.
posted by salvia at 2:20 AM on June 27, 2006

Hrmm. I think a lot of the "insanity" of America is just hysterical reporting. You see, "Everything's fine" doesn't sell newspapers or get very good ratings. At least, it doesn't sell nearly as well as "OMFG WTF IS GOING ON WITH AMERICA". Especially, as you say,

a developing functional capitalist theocracy in the making

seems to be a BIT of a stretch. I'm guessing that America of the 17-1800's was much more of a theocracy than America of the twenty-naughties, but that's just a guess.
posted by antifuse at 2:37 AM on June 27, 2006

Hard to think that this is the tipping point. The Reagan Years were, by any sane measure, far creepier than now. Certainly along all the things you outlined:

freepers, moonbats

Check. And more Klan. And city blocks of Philadelphia getting bombed by their own PD.

domestic spying

Presumably. If nothing else, you can substitute Iran/Contra for that one.

reliance on credit, no savings, power measured only by wealth

Eighties were even more so.

a developing functional capitalist theocracy in the making

Again, eighties were even more so.

And they had the added fun of a real threat of global thermonuclear war falling unexpected out of a clear blue sky.

And the eighties weren't much different from the Watergate 70s, which weren't much different from the rash-of-assassinations 60s, which weren't much different from the McCarthy 50s.

The difference is probably just in your level of awareness of what's going on. Any time as an aware adult with the concerns and worries of an aware adult is going to seem pretty crappy next to hazy memories of being a largely uninformed and uninterested adolescent.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:56 AM on June 27, 2006

And they had the added fun of a real threat of global thermonuclear war falling unexpected out of a clear blue sky.

And we don't e/2006/06/26/AR2006062601256.html">now?

Anyhow, I believe it is far worse than the ol' gipper days of Reagan, the cold war, the Wall etc...as one example among many the tools of technology have only enboldened the elite to loot the treasury and rape the earth, and tell you through the bought and owned media and ideals of American exceptualism it's for your own good. Entropy Nation since the 50's/60's It's certainly looking more and more like a Stalinesque nanny state imo.

Are there any great parallels between the "Red Scare" of Communism with McCarthy and what may end being called the "Black Scare" of terrorism?
posted by Unregistered User at 3:51 AM on June 27, 2006

I vote for MORE batshit insane recently, especially in relation to the rest of the world, with several obvious places as exceptions. I think W makes Reagan look reasonable, and the press wasn't so toothless then, and our Bill of Rights wasn't so endangered. I think once we have some perspective Iraq is going to make Iran Contra look like child's play. My FDR and Kennedy loving/Bush & Reagan hating mom died over ten years ago, and I keep feeling surprised the anger hasn't just driven her right out of her grave to avenge the attack on the middle class values she held so strongly--great public schools, libraries & hospitals, and working toward the goal of a more even playing field--these sound quaintly utopian now.

America is in the shitcan in lots of ways, but don't make a mistake of looking at the past with rosy glasses, either. Jim Crow, lynchings, Kent State, Japanese Internment camps, HUAC. It has always been a struggle to shape the country toward our ideals and keep the loonies in check.
posted by tula at 3:53 AM on June 27, 2006

Well, I banged that one up..
Try U.S. to Deploy Patriot Missiles In Japan to Counter North Korea
posted by Unregistered User at 3:53 AM on June 27, 2006

Remind me to never post before coffee.
Note to self: No decaf in the AM and black as cheney's heart.
I should have sd, America has lost it's soul, and left it at that.
posted by Unregistered User at 4:09 AM on June 27, 2006

I think we're seeing the extreme end of a pendulum-swing started under Reagan. If the whole framework doesn't tip over because the swing is so extreme, there'll be a big swing the other way. If it's big enough, maybe we'll get our Constitution back. If the current swing is big enough to cause a tipover, we're screwed, and corporate interests will be all that matters any more.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:57 AM on June 27, 2006