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Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

The US is turning into on object lesson on what happens when you make wealth a religion.

I am glad the problems are surfacing and cracks are showing up so we can fix them. In some nations it is impossible to even criticize the government.

I don’t think we’re beyond repair yet but it feels much more like gaping fissures than surfacing cracks. Our infrastructure, education and healthcare is a disaster.

The cracks are surfacing from a very, very deep root. The basis on which American society is built is dearly lacking. I cannot understand how America went through something like the Civil War without making any radical changes. Maybe the language of religion is appropriate, after all.

> without making any radical changes.

You seem to have forgotten Amendments 13,14,15.

That isn't radical change. That's outlawing slavery. The system that led to slavery being allowed wasn't changed.

I'd love for you to make a list of countries that went through such a civil war yet kept the same constitutio.

> That isn't radical change.

You're looking at it through modern lens.

That was radical change at the time. They literally fought a war over it.

No, it wasn't at the time. It was catch up to the entire rest of the world and the mechanisms that led to slavery subsisting, IE the first ten articles of the US Constitution and the electoral college and the economical basis were not changed.

Meanwhile, France changed their entire constitution for much less. So did many other countries. It was basic incremental even for the time.

> It was catch up to the entire rest of the world

The rest of the world is irrelevant to whether or not it is radical within the context of America.

Your point makes zero sense given that American fought literally its most bloody war America to make abolishing slavery a reality.

Comparing us to other places is fallacious. Your example of France in particular makes no sense given that American and France were not in the same starting positions so saying that their ending positions are not the same and that that means it's not radical is illogical. France did not embed chattel slavery into its own foundations.

Simply put, America was much further behind and the progress it did make was a lot for where it started out from.

Wasn't civil war also really about money? Either use of labour or control of land?

We have a slightly different but just as effective system in place here that surprisingly is heading in more censorious direction.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/instagram-is-using-false-fa...

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/after-the-deep-state-sabota...

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-b...

I used to be a huge Greenwald fan. I think he handled the Snowden era like a total pro.

But lately the guy just sounds crazy. His takes are all incredibly predictable: Biden bad, Trump actually good for this one weird reason, libs hypocrites, Obama is a murderer, etc. All the same, boring, tired takes.

As long as he sources everything correctly I don't mind. He's still a great investigative journalist.

I've puzzled over some of Glenn's recent writing too. But I think I'm starting to get the picture. Although he's certainly left-leaning -- he likes Bernie Sanders -- what really motivates him is attacking the complacency of the center.

I don't find him boring, usually, though sometimes I fail to relate to something he's exercised about. But he definitely has a different bias than most journalists. I think this is very useful.

He’s also way too dismissive of Russia’s influence. They’re way more than a “medium regional power”. Dismissing the country with one of the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world and one of the most significant and extensive intelligence apparatuses this way raises serious questions about his impartiality.

> But lately the guy just sounds crazy.

No, he's talking about reality, and you're talking about the mirror-image of reality.

The CCP engaged in "elite capure" with Hunter Biden, while Joe Biden and his advisors stood by.

The libs are hypocrites. See above.

Obama's failure to honor our treaty with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoals resulted in the 9-dash line takeover of the South China Sea, resulting in the largest military buildup in the region since WW2. And none of our treaty allies trust us now.

It appears HN readers have no idea how far off course US politicians and elites are. When journalists from Venezuela and Colombia come to the US and say, "It's just like home." then you know there's a serious problem.

You think regulatory corruption is new?

No, but that doesn't mean it's tolerable or sustainable.

Good point. We’ve never seen scandals like this outside the US. /s

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