A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
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Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#2Exactly. Trump is one of these people, which is why they love him so much. That he is in a position of such great responsibility is incredibly dangerous.
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#3And why not? The entire political process is kabuki interspersed with conversations with important donors and lobbying groups that actually establish policy.
Nihilism isn't the answer, but neither is demanding a particular kind of we're-all-professionals kabuki without any real change. Flipping over tables is at least something.
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#4On the surface it seems pretty simple- the end of history utopianism of the '90s has mutated to the end is near dystopianism. There are no shortage of statistics explaining why the standard of living for the average American has dropped off, sometimes sharply, compared to that era. Hence accelerationism is now king.
For a good analysis for why both the far right and the far left are unhappy (more so than in other ages, at least), there's this article on neoreaction, which became vogue to talk about in 2013 before the present dominant political trends: "Shedding Light on the Dark Enlightenment" by Rick Searle at the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies (https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/searle20131202)
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#5> 24 percent agreed that society should be burned to the ground
Haven't read the actual paper, but does anyone know what response percentages one would expect from a "normal" population?
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#6And why not? The entire political process is kabuki interspersed with conversations with important donors and lobbying groups that actually establish policy. Nihilism isn't the answer, but neither is demanding a particular kind of we're-all-professionals kabuki without any real change. Flipping over tables is at least something.
Funnily enough, just a few months before the Anglosphere dove into the current populist wave, people like Charles Stross were talking about a future of beige bureaucratic dictatorships dominated by financialization and security states:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106983
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5187236
Not that we haven't departed too far from that future, but now we have the added problem of revived extremist tribalism and chauvinism of every type.
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#7> 24 percent agreed that society should be burned to the ground Haven't read the actual paper, but does anyone know what response percentages one would expect from a "normal" population?
I think it's implied that zero percent of normal people want to see society "burned to the ground"
Edit: after re-reading that part of the article I'm not sure anymore. I can't tell if the questions were phrased to imply a serious destructive desire or if "burn it down" was passable as "I'm discontent with life". Might have to read the paper itself to clarify.
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#8Exactly. Trump is one of these people, which is why they love him so much. That he is in a position of such great responsibility is incredibly dangerous.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. That's more or less why I voted for him.
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#9> 24 percent agreed that society should be burned to the ground Haven't read the actual paper, but does anyone know what response percentages one would expect from a "normal" population?
Yeah, I didn't find this article all that informative. What does that mean, anyway? It could mean that our current society is irredeemably bad (not unthinkable if you're not a middle to upper class white person) and that only a revolution can create a better society. Or it could be just pure nihilism. (I recall "guys we memed a president into existence" being the top comment on /r/thedonald's celebration post after the election.)
Re: A Shocking Number of Americans Want to 'Just Let Them All Burn'
#10And why not? The entire political process is kabuki interspersed with conversations with important donors and lobbying groups that actually establish policy. Nihilism isn't the answer, but neither is demanding a particular kind of we're-all-professionals kabuki without any real change. Flipping over tables is at least something.
Funnily enough, just a few months before the Anglosphere dove into the current populist wave, people like Charles Stross were talking about a future of beige bureaucratic dictatorships dominated by financialization and security states: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106983 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5187236 Not that we haven't departed too far from that future, but now we have the added problem of re…
The tribalism is mostly grist for entertainment media, though. NC bathrooms are national news.
Who's writing the bills, the budgets and the RFPs?
Politics are fairly decoupled from actual policy at this point, the policy is marching ahead with your beige boxes while the politics express a desire to change that but no ability to do so.