Hacker News Reader

Comment by Nesco | Hacker News Reader

Personally I think we are watching the slow death of the USA. May be from France I am not getting all the subtle details about the situation on the ground but the country seems to be completely divided.

There is almost nothing now that holds America coherent as a country. It has too much variance to form a sensible cluster. It went from a basically almost racially homogeneous, English speaking, Christian - with a lot of flavours I recognise but still - and ideologically united country to a multi racial, multi confessional, and now in some part multilingual with radically opposing views and interests country.

There is more in common on many points between Estonia and Ireland than between California and Arkansas.

Trumpism was not an outlier but an indication of how strong the centrifugal forces became...

View on HN

This just isn't true. The US has been a multiracial nation for most of its history due to the country's enormous population of enslaved and eventually emancipated black people combined with an extraordinarily liberal immigration system. The US's diversity is one of the things that differentiates it from nearly every European country. It's a good thing.

You using the Irish as an example is totally bizarre to me because they barely get along with the English (who are mostly also white and Christian). The Troubles were not that long ago and represent a level of political violence between different cultural groups that the US hasn't seen in a very long time.

It went from a basically almost racially homogeneous, English speaking, Christian - with a lot of flavours I recognise but still - and ideologically united country to a multi racial, multi confessional, and now in some part multilingual with radically opposing views and interests country.

At no point in America's history was it ideologically united. It was divided from the very beginning; our founding document itself was the product of a compromise between two mutually exclusive governmental ideals.

There is more in common on many points between Estonia and Ireland than between California and Arkansas.

I doubt that very much. Arkansans and Californians speak the same language, eat the same food, watch the same shows and movies, listen to the same music, learn the same history. There are ideological differences, sure, but those ideological differences are the same as you see in other countries, including Estonia and Ireland.

Most of the country is not divided at all. There are differences of opinion sure, but not some kind of epic division. The media likes to focus on the extremes because they make the most noise and say the craziest things.

Democrat representatives recently voiced an analysis that the crazy extreme minority of the party cost them seats in the House because the majority of voters don't want extremes or crazy.

> Personally I think we are watching the slow death of the USA. May be from France I am not getting all the subtle details about the situation on the ground but the country seems to be completely divided.

I live in Washington DC and completely agree with you. The division has only been getting worse for years.

There have been predictions of the slow death of the US since the 60’s.

I won’t hold my breath.

I've heard this take from many in the EU, sounds like it's being pushed explicitly by media there.

Any student of US history can tell you that the current events are not especially indicative of the "death of the USA" or some such, and proposing that view just shows the hyped up fearmongering lens though which US events are portrayed to the world

Reply on news.ycombinator.com