My point is that there are no “good guys” and “bad guys”. There are only differing levels of power. The US has been doing a lot worse for a lot longer. It’s just that past administrations were diplomatic about their use of power. This administration, being a reality TV star, is just choosing to be loud about it.

America under Biden supplied 80% of the bombs that Israel dropped on Gazan civilians. Obama led the illegal attack on Libya and killed Gaddafi and doomed Libya to anarchy and chaos. Bush destroyed Iraq and doomed them to anarchy and chaos- creating ISIS. I could go on and on.

Most American citizens (just like the citizens of virtually every country in the world) are not really concerned with geopolitics. They have to pay their rent, they’re gonna be late for work, their kid is failing a class, their girlfriend is pissed because they don’t go out enough, they’re tired from work, they’re working hard for that promotion, they’re worried about rent increases, etc.

So to answer your question. No, Americans don’t really care. And even if they care, they’re forced to worry about more pressing individual matters. Basically the same thing that happened in your home country in the 1930s.

A superpower by definition cannot really be a rogue state. A “rogue state” is a political label applied by dominant powers to states that defy the international order. For example Iran or North Korea are considered rogue states because they defy the international order. What is “the international order”?

Well, it’s the combination post-WW2 institutions created by none other than the US. The UN, IMF, NATO, etc. They set the norms of “legitimate” behavior. When the US participates in military interventions, economic sanctions, and other aggressive actions it’s framed as upholding “rules-based order” whereas identical actions by weaker states get them condemned with the label as “rogue states”.

To call the US a rogue state is to misunderstand power. Hegemony is the ability to define reality, not just defy it. In this way, the US has always been a rogue state in the sense that it does whatever it wants regardless of the international norms. I mean, just look at the mid 1900s and its actions in Latin America. It was involved in about a dozen states toppling governments and supporting military dictatorships- including sponsoring the genocide of natives in Guatemala.

Most Americans have absolutely no clue how involved the immigration process actually is. Unless you have specific skills, have immediate family in the country you’re going, or are loaded… 95 times out of 100 you’re not going anywhere.

Although where there’s a will there’s a way. You get a tourist visa, overstay, marry a local.

I’m glad I’m a dual citizen with money stashed away in both the US and the country I was born. If shit gets too bad in the US, I can lay low elsewhere while things calm down.

The current administration’s strategy is to try and see if it sticks. For example one executive order was to end birthright citizenship. Blatantly unconstitutional. Was immediately blocked by a judge. But they still made the order.

They are starting to ignore the federal courts here and there. Dipping their toes in the water. Starting to indicate that judges are “radical left activist judges” and that they “have no authority” and that they should be removed and impeached and the system overhauled as a whole.

Right now the institutions are trying to block this administration but they are doing their best to set up for the moment where they will basically cross the Rubicon and ignore the Supreme Court.

I have a feeling we’re only months away from that moment and after that moment it will be clear to everyone that the US does not have 3 branches of government anymore but just one.

you’re correct it’s not a unique experience to feel isolated from the rest of your peers. i feel like it’s an experience that might actually be increasing. i think social media ironically adds to this in the youth. many biracial people also experience something like this (ie, too white for the blacks, too black for the whites)

when i got here initially i moved to a place where nobody spoke my native language. so when i went to school, i would get put in a class all by myself with a nice lady who would hold flash cards with pictures on them. she would show me a card, it would say something like “cat” or “ball” and then she would repeat them over and over.

so the first year or so of primary school I was alone in a room because I didn’t speak english yet. really what eventually taught me english was cable TV

another element in the experience is being afraid of authority. the police were dangerous because at any moment if they caught us the family could get separated and we could get deported. one time my parents were cleaning an office late at night (they worked in cleaning when they first arrived in US) and they brought me with.

i didn’t understand what a fire alarm was so i pulled it. my parents, scared that the authorities would arrive and see a young child, took me and put me in the backseat of the car where people’s feet usually go and they put a blanket on me. they told me to be very quiet and not make a sound otherwise we could all be deported. so i hid in that car for an hour or so until the emergency services left

i share these things not to say i had a hard life or anything like that. I think I had a good upbringing. and I understand many Americans have had much worse experiences and also feel alienated as well.

But I share these things just because the story in the OP touched me because I was that 11 year old child once. It’s a life and a set of experiences a lot of Americans don’t really think about very much. Or at least historically has been more or less ignored.

Nowadays illegals have attention but unfortunately an overwhelmingly peaceful people become “rapists and murderers”. if you look up statistics, illegals are 2-4x less likely to commit crime than native born americans (if you get any charge at all, you can get deported… even if you get acquitted or the charges dropped!). so naturally they tend to be more careful breaking laws

thank you, i appreciate the kind words. like i said, after processing and coming to terms with my upbringing, I see it as a positive these days. I got a unique outlook on life that most people don’t have the privilege to see.

I know things about this country Americans don’t have any clue about. By being sort of “in between” cultures, it lets you zoom out more easily. the world which was once small gets bigger.

It’s very depressing our world is still caught up in racial problems and not important problems like food and shelter.

I think people are scared. Americans are insecure about their future. Financially, emotionally, and societally.

I think we have to go through this painful phase but we will come out the other side with a new 21st century ideology. Once that fixes the contradictions of the 20th century one we still have.

exactly this. later on as an adult I realized I had my own path and that path was always going to be different from the average. got me thinking differently, opened my mind, etc. I think also knowing 3 languages helps

ideology gets impressed upon you at an early age already, especially here in the US.

I grew up illegal in the US. I was brought on a travel visa at the age of 5 and it wasn’t until my mid 20s that I became a citizen.

I vividly remember being in elementary school, around her age, in music class where we were learning the national anthem. The entire class would stand up and we should sing “I’m proud to be an American” and I remember silently crying as I stood up and sang the song.

I cried because I understood even at that age that I was not an American. I was part of everything while simultaneously always being detached from everything. Never fitting in, but pretending to. I think long-term it created a strange sense of detachment from society. This shit fucks you up and it’s heavy stuff for a child to process. It wasn’t until my adulthood that I really started to understand and internalize a positive narrative from my upbringing. An 11 year old child does not have the capacity to process this.

And I’m in my 30s now- I grew up illegal before social media and before this xenophobic outburst started circa 2016. I’d imagine it’s so much worse today.

I feel for this little girl. I feel for all the children in the country who’s only crime was existing. Obama, while famously being the deporter-in-chief (both Obama terms aw more deported than Trump’s first term), at least did offer DACA as an executive order for these children.

Really, I think you can tell the state of a society by how they treat the vulnerable. And the US is getting increasingly brutal and cruel. We’re in for a wild fascist ride, comrades. It’s only just begun.

The machine can’t help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.

I appreciate your second response here, it seems less hostile.

My counterpoint would be that capitalism is an Ouroboros. It’s forever devouring its own tail- consuming its own critique and spitting it back out as commodity. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Every once in a while there is some sort of social movement (punks, hippies, hip hop, gays, etc) and it has a real chance to threaten the system.

Punk becomes a fashion statement, hip-hop a soundtrack for commercials and corporate events, gay pride becomes a marketing gimmick. It’s incorporated, stripped of any revolutionary potential and repackaged as an ideological product for you to consume.

This is the perverse genius of capitalism. It doesn’t survive in spite of crisis. It needs the crisis to survive. The absurdity becomes palpable, like you mentioned, but it doesn’t matter. The system flaunts this absurdity, knowing full well that we have no way out.

It is a trap- a Möbius strip of ideology.

So while I enjoyed the performance and I don’t expect anything more from Kendrick (he is under no obligation to be a real revolutionary figure), I also think we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking this was anything more than a corporate spectacle meant to sell future Super Bowl tickets by way of exploiting the discontent and dissatisfaction of poor blacks. (and really, it’s two fold. a) you exploit the black culture not only in the positive way that’s black-positive b) you exploit the angry white culture who is threatened by it). You get to double dip.

You’re right to put on the glasses. Just don’t forget they distort as much as they reveal.

Yep. When you think you have been freed from ideology at that moment you are in ideology. Turtles all the way down. I am under no illusion that I am an not an idiot.

I don’t claim to be an activist. I’m interested in the ideological undercurrents

You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but that’s not how this works.

This is the very thing I’m claiming about the performance. It’s controlled rebellion. Performative dissent. Dissent and dissatisfaction itself becomes commodified and sold back to you. It allows the viewer to feel like they’re part of something revolutionary without ever threatening the system. Imagine a safety valve, releasing just enough pressure to prevent real change. It’s like a laugh track in a sitcom. It tells you what to feel. You can have the experience of laughing without actually having to laugh.

This type of “socially conscious” art (movies, music, etc) functions in a way lets the consumer feel like they have participated in something emancipatory without actually having to. It’s ideology.

Note at no point did he criticize the status quo. He did not mention president Trump, who was present in the crowd, at all. Kendrick, a legendary socially conscious rapper who is an icon for life- chose not to say anything at all. Why?

Either a) he doesn’t care or b) he understands there is a very small window of acceptable “dissent” he is allowed to express. I think this micro-dose of dissent pacifies and sedates the viewer.

hijacked their platform and made them pay for it

He made them pay? He made them hundreds of millions of dollars. This was the most highly viewed super bowl performance in my adult life.

this isn’t about your approval.

You seem to care more about my approval than I do. What difference does it make if I approve? I liked the performance but I’m discussing the ideological basis for these styles of performative vague dissent.

Me and you both are constantly eating from the trash can of ideology. It’s painful, but it’s worthwhile to put on the glasses so you can at least see what you are eating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k

Kendrick dropping truth bombs on the NFL’s biggest stage

What truth bombs did he drop? Some vaguely rebellious sounding lines? “The revolution will be televised?”

This was milquetoast at best. Actively harmful at worst. I really enjoyed the performance but he is doing exactly what he criticizes the record labels of doing. Taking black culture and commodifying it by turning it into a spectacle.

This was corporate spectacle and nothing more.

“Come, comrades, and claim your Che Guevara t-shirts. Indulge that half-buried discontent with the system by picking up these subversive punk rock accessories. For a fleeting moment, we’ll even add a trans flag poster—yours for nothing but shipping and handling. Put on the revolution you crave.”

no. not many people spoke my native tongue.

when i finally did move and found more people speaking the language, we would speak our language not to hide from the teacher but just because it was more comfortable

yeah this is just the start. it’s gonna get progressively worse until inevitably the system blows up. that could take decades. i’m guessing it culminates in some sort of unwinnable war

Yeah, it’s interesting to see history repeat itself in my lifetime. Everyone seems to be OK with people going after the other - but what happens when they come after you?

Latinos I know, even some illegals, support Trump. Why? Because in their mind, when Trump says “they’re bringing over the murderers, the rapists” he’s obviously not referring to them. it’s the other immigrants.

when he says “immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country” it’s the other immigrants

when he says “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there” he obviously means those barbaric other immigrants

this type of “I’m with him and he is not talking about me” seeps into other areas too

I saw a long facebook post on reddit the other day. it was a veteran explaining that his wife had recently got a job at a VA hospital. that she was set to start in 2 weeks and they just moved states for her to start the job. that he was a disabled vet that has supported Trump since day 1.

but Trump, true to his word, froze all hiring for all “non-essential” government departments. that, coincidentally, includes his wife’s new position. she was told her job was no longer available.

in his post, he said “Trump, I know this is an oversight. I know when you said you were going to cut all government hiring, you didn’t mean this one, you meant the others”

it’s honestly fascinating. People want desperately to be inside of the “in group” that they’ll play mental gymnastics and enthusiastically support policies directly harmful to themselves

like you said, eventually you will get burned. it doesn’t matter who you are. fascism will hurt us all, even the blond blue eyes wunderkind

The ADL is likely giving a calculated response because of what happened last time Nazis took over a western country

Israel is far-right. Far-right actors will align itself with other far-right actors. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that the militaristic society who actively perpetuates the worst apartheid in living memory would naturally align itself with the far-right.

The next fascism will not be anti-Jew. That’s all ADL cares about

i see your point too, but i also think you’re mistaken.

engaging is any time of interaction whatsoever. i could go to a ragebait and go into the comments and calmly and politely explain xyz. But

a) in social media sites where algorithms are used the post I’m commenting on will be more likely to show up on other people’s screens. because social media sites want engagement- doesn’t have to be positive and

b) even in social media sites where there is no algorithm (like the one we’re speaking on) people are more likely to click on a comment section the larger the number of comments are. no point in clicking on the comment section if there’s 0 or 1 comments. every comment is an indirect increase to the visibility and probability of engagement with future users

while I do agree with you that there are different levels of engagement- either way you are engaging.

it probably does indirectly. users are probably more likely to go into the comment section if they see a larger number of comments. no reason to go there if it’s empty

As a Floridian… trust me when I say Florida is not 50% blonde

The rapper in question is Canadian and lives in LA. Gotta blame Cali for this one.

engaging with something is perpetuating it. that’s how rage-bait works. the more people comment the more it spreads. content doesn’t have to be good, it just needs people to engage with it

We pay anywhere from $200~$300 per day. 8~10 hour days, 5 days a week. roughly $25~$30 an hour for people that have more than a few months of experience. from my research it’s a fairly high wage for unskilled work relative to other jobs

it’s just a few things

a) our work is mostly nomadic. it involves staying at hotels all across the US for months at a time and then packing up and moving when finished. we pay for room & board, as well as provide a truck & gas. but even so, most Americans do not want to live like this. juan and pablo don’t mind at all though.

b) it’s hard labor. pretty much digging holes all day. again, most Americans do not want to do this. they either perceive it as below their station or they don’t have the willingness to do hard labor in the sun for hours a day

i’ve been doing this nearly a decade now. it’s pretty well known in the industry. you need a laborer, you get a central american (mexican, guatemalan, nicaraguan, etc). you need a supervisor, you get an americanized / assimilated latin american (typically Mexican). you need someone for the office, you get an American