The Rise of the Brutal American
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
In these days of turmoil, trying to figure out what is going on and what could cause this, it is appalling to me that no one since to blame the elephant in the room: social media, the social internet and making it the core of our society was in hindsight the stupidest thing humanity has ever made. Don't go blaming the Russian bots or Chinese posters. The whole thing is making us more stupid, more entrenched, more vulnerable to massive manipulation of public opinion. And we go cry whenever they take away our algorithms (see the popularity of BlueSky vs Mastodon for example). Call me dramatic, but social media and Web 2.0 indirectly will cause the end of civilisation much faster and more effectively than mass media of old ever dreamed of. And we are still all here happily engaging with it.
It is very possible that Americans in the 70s where as dumb as they are today, no way for me to confirm it, apart from the fact that a lot of nonsense that's happening today was not happening then, so that has to count for something.
If it helps, the idiocy is not a purely American phenomenon but widespread and now affecting the younger generations. As someone with a Gen-Z sibling, the illiteracy of that generation, grown on Youtube and Tiktok, is utterly mind-boggling. A large contingent of them voted for conservatives and fascists just "for the memes." Back in my day, young people tended to be idealistic and progressive. Fighting for something. Hoping to be better and more open-minded than their parents. I squarely blame this shift on the social like-and-subscribe upvote-driven Internet.
The problem started with the "engagement algorithms". Surprisingly, radical and controversial content is more engaging, so people who spend a lot of time on social media tend to be enraged all the time (at their perceived enemy).
This is just another way of saying you don't agree with their views. One man's propaganda is another man's truth. Goes both ways.
The new thing to me is the turn from "smiling psycho that will knife you in the back" into a form of unabashed revelry in dumb brute posturing
One hideous thing about America's (further) lurch to the right is that somehow Bush-era hawk hacks like her are lecturing us on democracy.
Just any anything from this publication nowadays fits that mold. See David's Frum involvement. That's one of the people who sold the Iraq WMD fraud in the Bush administration.
This isn’t new. If you’re ashamed of how this country is behaving now, and you weren’t before, you’re part of the problem TBH.
The whole issue is that the President of the Ukraine choose to argue in an event that was just ceremonial to an agreement that he agreed to. It was NOT supposed to be a discussion or negotiations. The POTUS and vice president were pissed because the Ukraine president tired to put them in a difficult situation when the media was involved, particularly when he has came in the guise of already having agreed to sign the agreement.
That is literally what the vice president said he said the Ukraine president was being "deeply disrespectful", and know what, I agree.
Not an American by the way.
>POTUS and vice president were pissed
I don't care if they were pissed, they need to act like fucking statesmen!
I'm allowed to be a little uncivil here because I'm not the fucking POTUS. Let's hold our nation's best and brightest to a high standard. They're supposed to be figures that we aspire to emulate.
Which fact was this? That diplomacy will not work? Then why did he choose to come to sign the deal? Don't you think it to be dishonest and disrespectable to have an agreement, and when the other party believes it and provides them an audience, do a U turn and start arguing about stuff in public? I am not saying that they shouldn't argue. But that should have been before making the agreement and coming to the Oval office.
>I don't care if they were pissed, they need to act like fucking statesmen!
Ha! I think a statesman is supposed to have some amount of maturity and wisdom. And if a person have those things in an average quantity, they will know NOT to utter things that wouldn't advance their cause. And they will know what those things are. What this president have shown here is the utter lack of both, because those words spoken out of emotion, not only did not advance their cause, but have put them in a much worse position.
Correcting and responding in public is normal in politics, business ... except in Russia, North Korea and China communist party.
And these were NOT relitigations, he came to sign. Just a facts about world
Yea, so why did this president bother to come to the oval office for if he is so convinced that negotiations will not work?
>Correcting and responding in public is normal in politics, business
Sure, but there is a time and place to do that. Even a budding politician will know that. This president didn't know for some reason.
After that exchange Zelensky got full, energetic and unified support of the whole Europe and full support of his own people across political spectrum. And he sacrificed nothing because trump was openly signalling for a month that support of USA is already lost. The only cause that was not advanced was USA's.
USA mostly lost defense market in Western countries. What's a Patriot battery good for if US is going to suddenly and surprisingly align with your enemy and stop selling you the rockets for it?
Trump's temper tantrum intentionally triggered by Vance coached by backseat billionaires who put him where he is gave Zelensky everything he could realistically hope for from this meeting.
JD Vance and Trump torpedoed that meeting and even invited Russian media to it. There's a lot of context that you're leaving out of this.
As an American, I'm loathe to give this administration the benefit of the doubt.
Oh ya, for sure. Where and when I grew up (in the North-Western USA a good forty years back) the natural reaction to a bully gettin' all up in your face was to haul off and knock 'em the hell out, regardless of how important or untouchable they thought they were... Pretty sure I'd be lounging in a federal prison or Guantanamo right now if I'd have been Zelenskyy in that room that day. He's got far more self-control than I would have had.
Yes sir, I'm very sorry sir I didn't wear a nice suit when my people are being murdered.
Oops, I mean de-nazified sir.
Just tell me where I will sign to give up our natural resources for zero security guarantees.
The absolute weakest third-rate crybully with no conscience or morals. An empty vessel. A disgrace.
"it"? you mean when baby JD and Trump had a tantrum on live tv ?
"MOOOOOOOOM Zelensky called me JD =(((((( and he doesn't even have a suit =((("
Are these two supposed to be the leaders of the #1 power in the world ?
He would have been his country's disgrace if he just signed that "deal" as it stood, and Trump would have boasted about it for years, of how stupid Zelensky had been, and how he stole 500 billions in return for nothing.
You can see from the beginning of the press conference that something wasn't right, Zelensky was probably expecting a discussion rather than the direct signing that Trump began talking about.
Zelensky, if he didn't want things to break down, for sure exaggerated in how he behaved, he wasn't able to contain his distress.
But just signing that agreement, without trying anything, would have been foolish, and things are likely to end better for Ukraine now.
I'm bewildered that no attempt was made to get a minerals agreement with Europe, by the way; if Ukraine really has to give up some of its resources, it would be a lot wiser to give them to Europe, you can't place any whatsoever trust in the US right now.
A deal with Europe could let them get much more involved with the war, by bolstering the public support for it; and yes, Europe has a lot less military resources than the US, but at least you can rely on its word.
Europe will need years to build up a military and until then will have to rely on the US for troops, equipment, intelligence. And so they would need permission from the US to do anything. So Ukraine cannot go directly to Europe.
I know very little of military stuff, but no one can rely on the US anymore, whether they want it or not.
Now I can't access the article where I read it, but if I'm not mistaken Europe on the whole would be the second or third military power in the world.
That Trum and Vance got so hysterical is on them.