I really don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in the US saying their living standards are worse than third world countries.
Health outcomes are the worst in the first world, and certain health outcomes are worse than some third-world countries.
Education outcomes are among the worst in the first world, and certain education outcomes - primarily literacy - are worse than in some third world countries.
The US prison system has imprisoned more of its own people than any other country in the world for the last 50 years… Currently it ranks third behind El Salvador and Cuba, but that’s only been true for about 2 years. But the US parole system is twice as large as the US prison system, so the number of people being managed by the criminal justice system, monitored, surveilled, punished, and abused is three times larger than basically any country in the world and worse than any country has ever been in the last century. Not even the Soviet GULAG comes close. And China is not even on the race on this one. Recidivism in the USA is also abysmal because the US prison system is not designed to rehabilitate people, it’s essentially designed to torture them and break them mentally.
And then there’s the fact that the US is the only country in the world where most prisoners are required to pay hundreds of dollars a day for the privilege of being in prison, and that debt accumulates during their stay and then becomes a condition of their parole, with the state garnishing their wages from whatever meager job they can get after prison. Prisoners are also used as slave labor to produce over $11B in profit for both the state and private corporations.
The US also uses solitary confinement in prisons on a regular basis. Solitary confinement is an internationallly recognized form of torture and human rights violation. NYS recently passed a law limiting how solitary can be used, but not abolishing it, and the prison guards are protesting and exercising “civil disobedience” meaning they’re just not following the law. Because they’re upset that NYS is trying to stop them from torturing prisoners.
So is the US authoritarian? Well, it’s the number one country in terms of authoritarian use of power and cruelty against its population from the perspective of the criminal justice system. But that’s only a part of the story.
The US also has the largest police force in the world. The NYC police budget is larger than the entire military budget of DPRK, and that includes their nuclear program. If you put all the US police together in one group, it would be the third largest standing army in the world, larger than Russia’s military. And then the ICE budget separately just became something like the 5th largest in the world? So on the use of domestic force, yes the US tops the use of authority based on how much they invest in police.
The US also has the reservation system where it oppresses the occupied indigenous people. The US is a long-term colonial occupier. That’s hella authoritarian. Indigenous people are raped, murdered, and disappeared on a regular basis and the US turns a blind eye to it. Much of it is done by the police and military.
But the US also has a major authoritarian problem at the border, where people are beaten, tortured, put in concentration camps, families are separated, children are out into solitary confinement, etc. It’s an authoritarian hell hole at the border.
One thing we can note here is that all of the above uses of authority are primarily targeted at non-white people. White people are not safer from other inmates, but use of force reports show that prison guards are measurably more violent and brutal towards non-white prisoners. White people do better after prison than anyone else. White people get the softest sentencing compared to everyone else. The border is fine for white people. White people aren’t experiencing the reservation system. They were being forcibly sterilized for decades. They weren’t systematically having their kids taken from them and having their culture beaten out of them. Domestically, US authoritarianism is primarily used against non-white people. That’s why white people don’t experience Stop and Frisk, and why they aren’t terrified by every traffic stop. Authoritarianism in America happens to non-white people and they’ve been trying to warn white people for a very long time, but white people just don’t listen until it hits them like it’s starting to under Trump.
And it’s not just violence. It’s also surveillance. The US spies on all of its citizens. It punishes whistleblowers who try to expose it. It keeps all internet traffic and integrates itself in all the major tech companies to monitor citizens’ communications. It stores all encrypted traffic for later decryption. It has former government officials inside all of the major tech companies. Hell, the US House just passed a law (with 100+ Democrats voting in favor) that allows ICE to gather data from retail companies to track people going in and out stores and their buying habits. US secret police infiltrate church groups, reading groups, labor groups, pacifist groups, environmental groups.
But that’s just domestic authoritarianism. If authoritarianism is using violence, terror, and force to control a population, the US is the top global authoritarian. From killing a million people in Iraq to a 20-year occupation of Afghanistan where they trained child soldiers to rape and murder civilians to arming, training, and organizing terrorist groups in West Asia and death squads in South America, the number of authoritarian programs the US has executed and is executing today dwarf anything any other country in the world does, and touches orders of magnitude more people than anything any other country does. China hasn’t dropped a single bomb in combat in the last 37 years. China hasn’t fired upon a ship in 38 years (warning shots, yes, but no contact). Russia has invaded 3 countries since 1992. The US? 14.
So when we look at authoritarianism as the use of coercion over legitimacy as a way of controlling people, the US system of coercion domestically (i.e. its criminal justice system and policing organizations) is the worst offender in the world per capita, and the US system of coercion internationally is the worst offender in the world by all measures.
But as a white man? I don’t really notice.
Dang. That’s an exhausting list. I’ll steal that.
Sadly, as exhausting as it is, it’s just scratching the surface.
This cracker, gets nervous every time I see authority, but small town long hair in 90’s couldn’t even walk up a main drag (avenue/street) without cops stopping me, sometimes yeah it was deserved, large majority were not. Can you guess which came first? I’m half Irish decent with some American indian(not enough to look it, but I have more hate in my heart towards a majority of white people my claim to not bein a racist before I truly resolved them was I’ve known more of them. I ain’t ya normal cracker though ya dig?
Mmmm wealthy over privlilaged rich white men seriously they will try anything to get you to bow to them
Cause the us is now an autocracy? And unless you’re wealthy the living conditions are shit
It’s pretty irresponsible to say the US is an autocracy right now. While aspects of the republic are eroding, the Republic is still intact for now. It’s very important to be accurate about such things, as the actions we take to resist change dramatically between a corrupted Republic and a dictatorial state.
And living conditions for the average citizen in the US is still pretty good, even with standards of living stagnating. Especially compared to most of the rest of the world. While I personally am convinced the American economy is about to experience a new depression relatively soon, I think we all severely underestimate just how much room there is to fall.
Who is holding trump in check? He is getting away with whatever he wants, writing XOs that are taken as law. Like all good autocracies he has his cronies doing his bidding. Yes the us can get much worse.
While trump is getting away with quite a few things that should absolutely alarm most people, he isn’t “getting away with whatever he wants”. Some of his own appointed judges even rule against him to this day. He has grown the powers of the executive, sure, but he’s no dictator yet. He doesn’t hold absolute power. The Republic is still intact, and it’s important to acknowledge that because it definitely is facing legitimate existential threats more than just the incompetent-ass trump admin. Americans still have a few more chances to fight off a legitimately autocratic government, chances many Americans are already making an effort to take. An autocratic America is not inevitable.
You are absolutely correct but the person to whom you are responding is an absolute goof. (As you can likely tell.)
Opinions like theirs scare me almost as much as the trump administration.
Yeah, it can be pretty disheartening to see some of the very loud and irrational voices on the left. I want to try to publicly temper the silly black and white rhetoric as much as I can to hopefully help everyone focus on the actual problems we’re facing, rather than catastrophizing or pushing away potential allies with wild purist gatekeeping. It also helps when we hear another voice of reason to feel like less of an outsider…
I think I saw this while out and about and forgot about it but I 100% agree.
It feels like shouting into the void but it’s nice to come across posts like yours doing the same thing.
My personal theory, mostly based on how upvotes for a post can significantly differ from the comments, is that there are a lot of folks who have similar feelings but have given up being yelled at by crazies in the comment section. Which, absolutely fair, half the time I get a notification I’m going “ugh, what silliness is someone going to yell at me about this time?”
Anyway, keep up the good fight!
Let me know when he is in jail for his crimes, until then this is all show
I can’t help but notice you moved that there goalpost. I also can’t help but notice the absolute language you’re using. I agree that the wannabe dictator belongs on death row, but I think we both know he won’t see any jail time. However, that doesn’t necessitate that any form of resistance is “all show”. Don’t be silly. Politics isn’t so simple, comrade.
Oh shit I moved the goal post? About how he hasn’t been held to account? Yeah no I’ve not moved any goal posts.
Tell me you’ve never been destitute without telling me you’ve never been destitute. Yes, quality of life has gone down but it has not gone down to the level that we are worse off than a majority of developed countries. Things are getting worse. They are not getting better. Politics are becoming more authoritarian but we do not live under a dictatorship yet.
We haven’t passed the China or North Korea threshold yet.
You telling me that the people who live in slums without being able to eat in the us have it better than people who live in slums with nothing to eat in another country? Interesting take. Please show me where trump has been held to account. He and his little nazi buddies keep breaking the law and getting away with it. Trump (or his backers) want, it happens. Once he is held to account, and thrown in jail you will have a point that he isn’t a dictator.
Even when things were “good” in America you had tent cities and slums.
America has been a shit place to live for a long time. In my opinion America and China are on par with each other these days and I would never set foot in either.
I concur and I live in one of rhem
Lmao haven’t passed, shit who you think started this shit
We haven’t passed the China or North Korea threshold yet.
That is the lowest of bars you could possibly set for yourself. The US can both be turning into an autocracy and becoming poorer and less egalitarian without being worse than China or North Korea.
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It WAS better than it is. That is our perspective. We see things deteriorating. We have every right to bitch about it for all the good it will do. The USA isn’t the worst country in the world, but it is constantly dropping down the list.
How do you know the complaints come from Americans? I can claim to be anything I want if I’m trying to control a narrative.
I am a cat and I approve this message.
As a black man, I think black men who date white liberal women are the most racist group of people.
Or
As a gay man, I think homosexuals only care about hooking up with each other and I find it morally disgusting.
Because it’s a fake account like all the MAGA supporters on Twitter who happen to live in the middle east?
It’s up there in the rankings of causing the most harm to the world. And not so great to live in and work, if, for example, you’re an undocumented Hispanic farm worker (there’s still modern day slavery going on here too). But, for the average citizen, it’s of course better than many third-world countries, not really great when compared to peers. Living in in the US is like living in the modern imperial core that exports violence and extracts resources from other countries and peoples. So, yeah, it’s better than being in one of those countries the US is harming. However, it looks like the imperial boomerang phenomenon is starting.
I feel like we are just trying to imitate Dubai. Must be a great country to live in if you are a CEO.
It’s certainly interesting to see this perspective from other countries about the US in contrast to the neckbeards on reddit who lack any perspective outside of the unprecedented peace and comfort most westerners have experienced in recent generations. Even with all the growing uncertainty and conflict, this is still among the best of times to be alive as a human ever, especially in the west. Even comparing life for someone today versus 100 years ago is mind blowing for how good we have it now. So it certainly is silly seeing some redditor whining about living in America from their desktop in their air conditioned apartment, reliably eating more than enough each day, with reliable electricity and indoor plumbing built to legal standards that are generally enforced relatively well, with extremely low chances of contracting devastating diseases like smallpox, malaria, tuberculosis, encephalitis, polio, measles, etc. While I won’t deny the US has some obviously growing problems, still struggles with a barbaric “healthcare” system, and has a justice system that’s pretty fucked, the standard of living is still unprecedented in human history and still very well off in comparison to the world average. I think one of the biggest problems/obstacles for most average to wealthy Americans is a lack of perspective, and I don’t think they’re prepared for how much that is probably going to be challenged soon. While America still has quite a ways to fall, I’m very confident that the height of uncontested American hegemony is well behind us, and is already very much so no longer uncontested. And I believe that recent decline is what gets many of these American redditors to be all doomery and pathetic, not just the news cycle and negativity bias.
The standard of living is falling. That is what these people are seeing and they are rightly concerned. You would just let it happen? How passive of you. If we all do that, we will lose what we had all that much faster. THEN we can complain, right?
Lots of people in delusional levels of denial here
