this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
670 points (98.0% liked)

politics

19126 readers
2335 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] avater@lemmy.world 108 points 1 year ago (8 children)

why is america reverting itself to the dark ages?

[–] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 131 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Conservatives throughout history adore the dark ages of Europe. That was the peak of their power; the population was uneducated, worshiped the wealthy as kings and queens, and the people were too poor and stupid to do anything about it.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There’s a reason why the church hierarchy mirrors the structure of medieval feudal governments. It is one.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not only hierarchical church groups that can be repressive.

The witch-hanging Puritans of New England were Congregationalists, who recognize no church authority higher than the congregation itself -- but who compelled everyone in their colonies to pay church taxes and attend services. Likewise, the Southern Baptists -- a denomination literally created to defend the sanctity of slavery -- don't have bishops or a church hierarchy.

Meanwhile the Episcopalians do have a church hierarchy (originally rooted in the Church of England, founded by Henry VIII), but are generally considered the most liberal of the "mainstream Protestant" churches.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Any given church denomination may not be hierarchical, but conservatism itself (and thus conservative denominations) favor rigid social hierarchies. The church itself, as the deliverer of God's word on earth and thus the sole arbiter of what's moral and right, naturally should be at the top of that hierarchy.

You know, as long as you don't belong to one of those other denominations. They're heretics.

[–] avater@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

like in the french revolution 😅

[–] marx2k@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What did the conservative in the dark ages of Europe pine for?

[–] cmhickman358@thelemmy.club 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ninekeysdown@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

TBF Slartibartfast did an amazing job on them. Even won an award if I’m not mistaken.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 43 points 1 year ago

Because the rabid right has been on a campaign for the last 50+ years to regain control and regress the country to a time before the civil rights era and before Roe v Wade. They've followed a multi-pronged attack strategy. They spread propaganda via right wing AM talk radio and then Fox News, and so on. They sidled up to the Christian right wing. They have fought against school funding and fought against teaching science and have dictated a conservative biased curriculum (TX). They have groomed judges and justices and influenced their appointment. They attacked the middle class and funneled that wealth to the ultra rich. They instituted voter suppression and outrageous gerrymandering. And on and on.

Half a century of that and the rest of us are fighting for our democracy and our lives against the rise of the extremist right wing (aka fascism).

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Religion and religion mixed with politics, mostly.

It's weird because conservative christians are some of the most evil people I know. It doesn't make sense.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 year ago

The difference between an atheist and a christian fundamentalist is that the atheist is at least honest about not believing in Christ.

[–] theuberwalrus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

It makes perfect sense. Evangelical Christianity states that you are saved as long as you believe in Jesus. Evil or good, it doesn't matter.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The supreme Court was quoting 12th century English common law in support for the abolition of roe versus Wade, if that tells you anything.

Also they want to "increase the supply of ~~toddlers~~ infants" for the domestic US adoption industry, which was also in Alitos opinion.

And, you know what they say about opinions...

[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

WE NEED MORE BABIES! KEEP THOSE FOREIGNERS AND THEIR CHILDREN OUT. AMERICAN VALUES AND GOOD CHRISTIAN LIVING ARE ALL WE NEED!!! Sincerely, the hypocritical crazies who prey on fear, hatred and ignorance.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And, you know what they say about opinions…

"Opinions are like assholes- nine of them sit on the Supreme Court, but six of them are on the Supreme Court"?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"We hate the British so much that we'll wage war against them to get our independence!"

"Yeah so we'll use British laws to justify our bigotry..."

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

They also seem keen to bring back child labor, so maybe they want fodder for that, too. What Carlin called "obedient workers".

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago

Because otherwise people might get silly ideas about equality and the state owing then a decent standard of living.

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Cheap soldiers and workstaff coming from the poor and uneducated communities.

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Think of education. Back before the Internet and smartphones took off, education was distributed. The most centralization we had was curriculums per state. TV was the closest thing to the Internet, and because it was all we had, it was a huge money maker. There was lots of quality content on there, including educational stuff like Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Bill Nye the Science Guy... I could go in for a long time.

Once the Internet took over our lives, TV went to hell, and YouTube and social media took over. These were no longer curated or created with the same goals as the TV shows of the 90s. They are random people seeking attention, sucking in people so well that it pulled everyone down into a kind of sludge of stupidity. Instead of attracting people with dinosaurs, exploration to outer space, imagination, etc. they have Mr. Beast and others with their mouths wide open and spending a million dollars at a grocery store.

These are all English videos, so the barrier to entry for the US is very low compared to the rest of the world. They're also American culture, so it resonates with Americans more.

Europe also has far better education systems than the US, so that goes a long way in resisting this kind of stuff.

America is self imploding because of its own narcissism, and the Internet is feeding into that and having a snowball effect. There is no regulation of ideas there.

It's very similar to the dark ages because of someone just makes shit up, like "cure this disease by letting a leech suck some blood out of you" and enough people repeat it without being put in check by a higher authority, then it's adopted as a common belief.

That's the other part of this: politics is usually taboo to discuss with people here, at least many polite people think so. It's a touchy subject, so you're taught to not being up these things with friends or coworkers, which just creates even more of a vacuum.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Reading things like Democracy in Chains shed a lot of light.