i had not thought about it, but this does not surprise me. the ideology of the US is to make the wealthiest asshole in a room of 10 people feel completely free to ruin everyone else’s experience/lives.
i remember when i was much younger and first recognizing the environmental destruction of overconsumption and the shittiness of rich people stunting on poor people, and not for anything so noble as “feeding kids”. rather, “i’m gonna buy a hummer and drive across country” or “i’m buying a fashion accessory for $2500.” i would impulsively say, “that’s stupid. you’re an asshole” to those people.
and, right on cue, other americans would swarm me and say, from the script, “it’s their money. they have every right to spend it how they want.” for 9 out of 10 of us in the US, that thinking is still dumb, but probably not undermining community or the biosphere. but there’s the 1 asshole that sees their personal power in the moment as an invitation to wreck the place. to piss all over the sink in a restaurant. to break the public phone or steal the phonebook. to take all the candy in the bowl. to not wash their hands after a shit.
there’s one person in a room of 10 that needs a constant reminder that their actions have consequences and if they are an asshole, the other 9 are within their power to smack some sense into them.
Hot take: I think the liberal abhorence of physical violence in schools in self defense of bullies. I don’t think there’s a good way around it or we should just let it get back to the “good ol’ days”, but kids who defend themselves often get the book thrown at them. I worked in schools years ago, and most of the time admin would suspend the kid who defended themselves with a wink and a nod to the kid to let them know they actually did the right thing by punching the bully in the nose. I saw a white rich girl get a black eye from the black girl she was being overtly racist to (even calling her the n word), and staff all felt it was justified. But there’s a small contingent of administrative staff on school boards that will expedite expelling kids for these situations, which I also saw happen.
Idk, I just feel like if you’re hurting people, people can and will kick your ass, and that’s actually a valuable lesson.
i had not thought about it, but this does not surprise me. the ideology of the US is to make the wealthiest asshole in a room of 10 people feel completely free to ruin everyone else’s experience/lives.
i remember when i was much younger and first recognizing the environmental destruction of overconsumption and the shittiness of rich people stunting on poor people, and not for anything so noble as “feeding kids”. rather, “i’m gonna buy a hummer and drive across country” or “i’m buying a fashion accessory for $2500.” i would impulsively say, “that’s stupid. you’re an asshole” to those people.
and, right on cue, other americans would swarm me and say, from the script, “it’s their money. they have every right to spend it how they want.” for 9 out of 10 of us in the US, that thinking is still dumb, but probably not undermining community or the biosphere. but there’s the 1 asshole that sees their personal power in the moment as an invitation to wreck the place. to piss all over the sink in a restaurant. to break the public phone or steal the phonebook. to take all the candy in the bowl. to not wash their hands after a shit.
there’s one person in a room of 10 that needs a constant reminder that their actions have consequences and if they are an asshole, the other 9 are within their power to smack some sense into them.
Hot take: I think the liberal abhorence of physical violence in schools in self defense of bullies. I don’t think there’s a good way around it or we should just let it get back to the “good ol’ days”, but kids who defend themselves often get the book thrown at them. I worked in schools years ago, and most of the time admin would suspend the kid who defended themselves with a wink and a nod to the kid to let them know they actually did the right thing by punching the bully in the nose. I saw a white rich girl get a black eye from the black girl she was being overtly racist to (even calling her the n word), and staff all felt it was justified. But there’s a small contingent of administrative staff on school boards that will expedite expelling kids for these situations, which I also saw happen.
Idk, I just feel like if you’re hurting people, people can and will kick your ass, and that’s actually a valuable lesson.
It’s almost painful to me how accurately this describes most Americans.
America is the most heavily propagandized nation in the history of the world.
“I have free choice, so that means every available choice is morally corrrect” is possibly a founding brainworm of American capitalism.