US Politics |OT|

[thehunter]

No need for bringing up Nazis, you could as easily bring up Commies lol. China's one party system is authoritarian but at least gets things done. (Actually their are 8 non communist parties under the CPC but they can't challenge the official party)

But indeed, every 'democracy' is slowly turning into a fascist oligarchy. The erosion of the middle class is universal under all our western democracies, and all the fascist/populist parties do is take advantage of that to blame immigrants for rise of living costs. Which are really just middle class wages being stagnant since the 1980s.

You have the left trying to 'fix' this with social security, which is ludicrous when you think about it. The middle class should not need social security, social security is meant for the poor and those that can't work. But we're steering the entire middle class into the 'poor' while having to raise taxes / go into debt to be able to provide social security for the entire middle class. 

The right tries to 'fix' this with tax cuts and deregulation, which have shown to only increase inequality, further driving the need for social assistance for the middle class. Meanwhile the rich get richer and gain more and more power over our democracies. 

Late stage capitalism is where we are. And as long as politics run on scandals, not much will change. Are Democrats really that different from Republicans, both are struggling to make ends meet. However the entranced media keeps everyone pitted against each other and oblivious to the bigger picture while the 1% is laughing all the way to the bank.

Lol, fair enough!  Tragically, I wouldn't call this capitalism right now, preferring corporatism instead.  A great book from 20 years ago (by a modern-day Trump critic, no less!) is Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.  He's approaching things from the right during the Bush era but is fair in his treatment of the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767917189?psc=1&language=en_US

I also don't think we're beyond the point of recovery, but the key element we're missing is objective virtue.  At the risk of momentarily going off-topic for illustration, just look at the dating scene these days; I really feel sorry for Gen Z given all the confusion, misplaced expectations and toxicity that was built into that system.  There used to be rules around appropriate behavior, communication, etc which we intentionally threw out the window because it was deemed "old fashioned". 

Men are now starting to realize this, mainly because the system is so plainly rigged against them at the present moment, and this has fed the MAGA movement.  Yet, political or social solutions aren't going to start the 180 we need to do here.  Rediscovering why we held views in past generations on purity, monogamy, honesty, fidelity, loyalty, humility and a slew of other virtues, both in dating and in politics, is the only stepping stone I believe we can get to in order to pull ourselves back from the brink.

Otherwise, as you (and Ben Franklin again) suggested: a society without any morals will naturally appeal for tighter and tighter oversight and controls to stop bad things from happening in everyone's lives.