Firstly poverty is everywhere, but we don't call it poverty. we call call it laziness/criminality. Most people cannot afford to go to the doctor even with health insurance because the copay of the most basic appt is around a full days work on minimum wage (after taking hundreds per month for the privilege of having health insurance).
Society is entirely consumerist and focused on the individual. In some places, even recycling isn't common. Leftover food in restaurants or grocery stores is thrown away and explicitely ruined so that dumpster divers (the mass amounts of impoverished people) don't get free food.
Every form of community costs money here unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere that invests money in parks, which is not very many places. And you can tell its really affected how people think because we're inherently distrustful of each other (by design).
Finally, the government largely does nothing but take our money and give it to rich people or go bomb brown people with it. I live in portland and the mutual aid groups have done more for the wildfire evacuees than the government, so far. SOME local governments do get good stuff done but thats extremely rare and doesn't happen very often, and almost always watered down in some way. We have maybe 15 or so decent leftists in gov that I can think of in the whole country, the rest are neolibs that want tepid market based "solutions" or just religious fascists.
I feel like this gets to the heart of it, or something I dunno, like america has refined and sharpened individualism to such an extreme that everyone is in their own little bubble of misery. We're communal creatures not meant for this kind of separate competetive attitude.
exactly. And everyone feels it too, everyone feels lonely. It turns into a sick thing where you can only bond with people who paid money for the same things you do, instead of bonding the basis of like, shared community and common humanity.
Either that or it's very associated with religion, which can range from pretty okay group of people, to complete 100% no compromise evangelicalism and or conservatism. Generally, the more rural you go the more towards the later it tends to be.
unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere that invests money in parks
The rural 'city' I live in does have some parks, but hardly anyone goes to them. However, considering how the older people who live here always seems to give me the vibe that they really hate anyone younger than 30 that isn't married and having kids. And also how religious this city "is", like you'd run out of fingers just counting the number of churches here. It doesn't surprise me one bit how little the parks are used.
Another "perk" of that attitude is that it also extends into how the police is ran here. To put it this way, the best case scenario i'd have when pulled over by a city police is that i'm getting searched for drugs no matter what just because i'm young and male. As the joke between family goes, it takes 3 cruisers to do a traffic stop, 1 to make the stop, 1 to bring the back-up, 1 to bring the K-9, and a 4th because that cop was bored that day.
edit: To expand a little bit here, the town got wrecked by 2008. However, it somehow stayed on life support only because about 20mi north of the city, there's a truck and air freight hub there. And where I live is Hillsboro OH, which is quite a depressing little town.
not great, comrade, not great.
Firstly poverty is everywhere, but we don't call it poverty. we call call it laziness/criminality. Most people cannot afford to go to the doctor even with health insurance because the copay of the most basic appt is around a full days work on minimum wage (after taking hundreds per month for the privilege of having health insurance).
Society is entirely consumerist and focused on the individual. In some places, even recycling isn't common. Leftover food in restaurants or grocery stores is thrown away and explicitely ruined so that dumpster divers (the mass amounts of impoverished people) don't get free food.
Every form of community costs money here unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere that invests money in parks, which is not very many places. And you can tell its really affected how people think because we're inherently distrustful of each other (by design).
Finally, the government largely does nothing but take our money and give it to rich people or go bomb brown people with it. I live in portland and the mutual aid groups have done more for the wildfire evacuees than the government, so far. SOME local governments do get good stuff done but thats extremely rare and doesn't happen very often, and almost always watered down in some way. We have maybe 15 or so decent leftists in gov that I can think of in the whole country, the rest are neolibs that want tepid market based "solutions" or just religious fascists.
I feel like this gets to the heart of it, or something I dunno, like america has refined and sharpened individualism to such an extreme that everyone is in their own little bubble of misery. We're communal creatures not meant for this kind of separate competetive attitude.
exactly. And everyone feels it too, everyone feels lonely. It turns into a sick thing where you can only bond with people who paid money for the same things you do, instead of bonding the basis of like, shared community and common humanity.
deleted by creator
Either that or it's very associated with religion, which can range from pretty okay group of people, to complete 100% no compromise evangelicalism and or conservatism. Generally, the more rural you go the more towards the later it tends to be.
The rural 'city' I live in does have some parks, but hardly anyone goes to them. However, considering how the older people who live here always seems to give me the vibe that they really hate anyone younger than 30 that isn't married and having kids. And also how religious this city "is", like you'd run out of fingers just counting the number of churches here. It doesn't surprise me one bit how little the parks are used.
Another "perk" of that attitude is that it also extends into how the police is ran here. To put it this way, the best case scenario i'd have when pulled over by a city police is that i'm getting searched for drugs no matter what just because i'm young and male. As the joke between family goes, it takes 3 cruisers to do a traffic stop, 1 to make the stop, 1 to bring the back-up, 1 to bring the K-9, and a 4th because that cop was bored that day.
edit: To expand a little bit here, the town got wrecked by 2008. However, it somehow stayed on life support only because about 20mi north of the city, there's a truck and air freight hub there. And where I live is Hillsboro OH, which is quite a depressing little town.