The Decline of American Society: Frustrated by all the BS!

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Does Anyone Else Feel Frustrated by How BS Everything Is?

Discussion of this same post on Lost Generation

"I'm sure I'm far from the only one, but sometimes it feels like it. There are just so many things wrong with everything. Our economy is screwed, this housing bubble is insane, student debt is predatory and insane and financially crippling an entire generation, these never-ending aggressive wars to expand the empire on our tax dollars, these lies the media tell and are allowed to tell, the rigging of regulatory bodies by the corporations who are supposed to be being regulated and the abuse of that to reinforce monopolies, the buying out of congress, the judicial system, and the legal system. Everything is being rewritten by billionaires, for billionaires. Everyone sees it. I don't know how people can talk about anything else. Talking about Brad Pitt's breakup or whatever just seems so impossibly trite in comparison to the societal decay that surrounds us. There is moral decay, financial decay, socio-economic decay. The middle class is dying out. Jobs are hard to find. Everything keeps getting more expensive, but wages don't ever go up. Money keeps inflating. Everyone is forced to rent, and not building equity. There are twenty-two empty homes in the US for every homeless person. The market is not balancing itself because it is rigged as a one-way ratchet, and the middle class is bearing the brunt of ensuring that happens.

Media is bullshit, modern movies are bullshit propaganda made by organizations who abuse the legal system for profit. Music is the same. News is a joke, everything is handed down from AP and Reuters, who are owned by the same people. There is no investigative journalism on MSM anymore, those people are fired.

Why do I open my mailbox and 9/10ths of my mail is advertisements? Why do they get to send mail for free? Oh right because they rigged it for their benefit.

Why are the people at the top getting away with everything and the people at the bottom are raked over the coals over nothing? Like a kid gets caught with a joint: 10 years in the slammer. Hillary repeatedly lies to congress and the FBI while under oath? Eh, they recommend no action at this time.

It's all about connections and power. It's disgusting that we've let our society become so focused on this hierarchy of power, devoting our lives to working, to generate just enough money to lightly indulge in the consumerism our society constantly flaunts in our face as the highest virtue.

Clip from Mr. Robot [1 minute]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNfzbPAD8FE

I wish people would stop playing these stupid games and get real. Wouldn't it be great if the MSM actually reflected the values of the populace? Wouldn't it be great if society actually had a moral compass that we held in high esteem, rather than this dog-eat-dog profit-seeking nonsense. Constant manipulation from every angle, to get you to behave and think and spend in ways that empower the machinery of the status quo.

If we want it to change, we must change ourselves. We must view culture not as an information system, but a trick being played on us. Mainstream culture does not organically arise from the views and preferences of the populace, as the MSM would love you to believe, but instead is carefully crafted and honed not only for what people like, but what narrative they wish to push. By selectively paying attention to and carefully ignoring other things, they craft a picture of the world that leads ones to draw certain conclusions. Conclusions you draw, by design, because of the bias inherent in the data being presented. You "figure it out" for yourself, and thus believe it more and see the ideology as your own. It's the main idea in the movie Inception. This trick, of tricking you in to thinking you came up with your ideology on your own, is a way they control you. You think you're making an unbiased judgement based on the data you have, when in fact the data is secretly selected to have an inherent bias that pushes an agenda.

We've all been doing this since the day we were born in to this mess. Some of us have learned these tricks. Other people have not, and fall for them hook, line, and sinker. Other people are caught in the middle, with the feeling something isn't right, but are too afraid or haven't seen enough information to make the conclusion that this system is there to abuse them, not to be their friend.

We must make our own culture. We must talk to each other about our opinions and ideas so that we can grow. We need to be driving the national conversation, not the MSM. We have completely put the cart before the horse by letting the MSM run the conversation over the last hundred years. The internet is our chance to wake up and empower each other, and they're trying their best to clamp down on that. But luckily we have places like this, where we can post the unvarnished ugly truth and not have an immediate censorship response by the "immune system" of these ideologies.

Just let it go. The way to make it go away is to build something else, something new, that is better and simply makes the old way obsolete. The more we make our own micro-cultures, and have the discussions some people aren't willing to have, the more everyone grows and learns outside the pre-made mental barriers given to us by the MSM."

What do you do when you live in a culture that is massively in decline and you have lost touch with it?  Many times I have dreamed of escape from it.  Perhaps others think the same thing. 

 In the society that probably helped to form my mutated Lipedema body with it's endless toxins and GMOs, surviving elsewhere would be beyond difficult and there's no money to get there.

I suspect there are others that feel the same way I do, and this guy I found on reddit does too. One thing I have faced is when I question this culture it can get a lot of people upset.  A lot of toxic people I dealt with would tell me to conform, and I would refuse. My bohemian ways such as cooking "weird" food and not fitting the norm have earned the ire of many. 

 One ex-narc friend, the same one who told me social security was a slave system, would defend the system and the Republican party and got angry at me one day telling me that I was a bad person for saying most politicians were narcissists, liars and corrupt. Many people do not like truth tellers and the guy yelling the emperor is naked, sometimes doesn't get a lot of friends. It really shocked me that someone saw politicians as a group of honest people. 

My narc family used to want to rip my head off whenever I made any comments that questioned society. I remember questioning 9-11 and I thought they were going to turn violent towards me. I grew up being told to embrace brain-dead TV culture, and that being too idealistic was "stupid".  My family has been rewarded for selling out to the system and being part of it. Both of my parents jobs were government civilian ones related to "war", I can't get more detailed then that but their livelihoods were directly linked to "war-making".

Of course they would defend it.  When I became anti-war by Bush #1's war in the Middle East, the family was not happy with me for the things I did question.   Leaving their church and then additionally making the stands I did, made me the arch-enemy beyond narcissistic doings. 

My husband was watching South Park the other week, where they had Mr. Garrison, as the Giant Douche fighting the Turd Sandwich--Hillary Clinton, and I noticed they had people eating Member-Berries, which were these berries that spoke of nostalgic happier times but were also racist at the same time.  The South Park writers probably were making a comment about rabble rousting Trump voters who dream of  halcyon days in the past ignoring all the previous wars, rot, racism and days without civil rights or any notion of equality in the past. 

In the evangelical world, I saw Quiverfuls and other people who wanted to bring back almost a neo-Victorian life that never really existed. A couple churches I attended would have the families with 8-9 children file in. Many of these people dream of an idealized life in the old days where it's Little House on the Prairie married to The Waltons with modern technology. The Duggars world of insisting on strict courting and girls living at home forever unless they married, is based on a past world that never existed either. In the years when life expectancy topped out at 35, could a woman depend on her father to support her for life if she remained a spinster? One sees same philosophical bent in Trump voters. "Make America Great Again" Which era, the 50s? The economic despair is leading many to this place, but the rest of the past was far from perfect. 

South Park, I don't agree with a lot of times but they are right about the people falling for the idea that Trump would take us back to earlier times when living in the US didn't suck and it wasn't all about power, control and oppression and people had some hope in the future.  The powers that be have used race and divide and conquer games to cover the economic despair and divert people from any real solutions while turning them more against each other. 

This despair is even being used by the powers that be for their own use. One friend of mine used to tell me, when I told him once, "Voting sucks, it's all rigged", that to "give up" is what the powers that be want you to do. I still vote for local races but  no one I vote for usually will gain an office. I  believe in standing up for whats right but a Christian's main hope is not in this world. One new thing we are seeing is that many people are feeling invisible and like their voice doesn't matter. The guy who wrote Bowling Alone probably would tell us all this is the natural outcome of the societal break-down and disconnection in America. Civil duty and the feeling of being an involved citizen has been ruined for millions. How does anyone individual make a difference anymore? I believe we can still speak out but something has changed for the worse.

Anyhow when I walked in the room and saw those weird Member Berries, it gave me a strange feeling, I said to my husband, "This whole country is living in the past. It's like people know our glory days are over and it's all down the tubes from now on. We got two "live in the past" candidates, one status quo woman who wants to bring back the scandals of the 1990s and do a rerun of the Clinton presidency this time with the wife in charge and another one who peaked in the 1980s, is a master of scapegoating minority races and is making promises he doesn't plan to keep. There is a reason we are stuck with far older candidates who have been rewarded by the system, one of whom looks ready for the nursing home. 

I'm old enough to remember when things were different and that is hard. For years I have said, society needs to start having a "drop-out" movement again, but it seems they have co-opted everything. As soon as anyone comes up with anything that takes off they move in and steer it. In the modern consumerist economy everything is up for sale including your soul. Even the Occupy movement which had rightful protests against bankers and corrupt Wall Street got bought by Soros. That sure shut down quick didn't it? Do you ever hear anyone protesting wars or the bankers anymore? Since I was a war protester in the era of the early 2000s, one thing I notice is even that got shut down. No one protests war anymore. Every war is acceptable.  The neo-cons managed to silence everyone. The days where people were outraged at Bush #2 for all the wars are long ago over.

As the nuts even speak of renewing the Cold War maybe hot war with Russia, no one's protesting. Remember when there was protests against war with Syria in 2013? The powers that be got their way anyhow. They got everyone shaking in their books from all the "terror". While those "crazy" "tin-hatter" people warned of false flags and manipulations, the population cheered for more wars in the Middle East. This is why even churches seemed to support the religious "crusades" such as in that one I left last year. Trump's on that band wagon. Hillary supports all the wars. I kept posting this video on my Facebook account, telling people to wake up but only a few friends even "got" what I was warning about.



But all the war mongering aside...

The economy is dying. The American dream has turned into a nightmare. Generation X is dying young and the whole system is in decline but no one is allowed to talk about it and we are told of an economic recovery that doesn't really exist. The Lotto system of getting a job has become more and more oppressive. I read on one board, about some young Americans making the decision to leave America that some nations don't even have credit scores. I always referred to the credit score as the slave score. Funny how things beyond your control like medical bills and losing a job, lower that number while there is a "morality" connected to it. 

I saw where one guy wrote as a response to the "frustrated by BS" post about how the economy has changed. I graduated college in the 1990 so the downward spiral had already begun right before the Clinton's first term but there used to be days where one wasn't punished day and night and where one could form a life without feelings of utter desperation. In this description one can see how things were rapidly changed. 

"My 20's happened in the late 1970's - 1980's. I graduated high school, got a pell grant that paid for college and books (part time student but it could have paid for full time) and a 30-40 hour a week job at a local pet shop. Anyone who slacked enough that they couldn't get a full grant and had to resort to student loans got them at 1.3% interest rate.

I made around $150.00 per week and at 18 rented a very cute little apartment in a decent area with nice landscaping, a pool and clubhouse- on a signature. My rent was $140.00 per month and they paid gas.

No one never heard of 'credit checks' to rent a place. The idea that anyone working any kind of job couldn't afford a place to live was ridiculous. When you put your money in a savings account it actually accrued interest, rather than costing you.

No one went into debt unless they absolutely had to - like when I bought my first home at age 28 with a $5k down on a $40K house. Monthly payment- around $180. Being in debt outside of home ownership was considered a moral failure, and something to be avoided. If you had a credit card it was pretty much for emergency use only. If banks had dared to charge people for not using their credit card- a lot of cards would have ended up in the trash-bin.

I was never paid less than $11 an hour - working at privately owned, Main St. businesses. I paid around $10 a month for full Blue Cross. (Deductible on insurance? What the hell is that?)

The reason for the pay/benefit scale was that there were 4 manufacturers within 20-30 miles that paid union wages ($17-$20/hr) and so everyone had money to support the local businesses. In return those businesses paid workers enough to stay competitive with the union wages in order to keep good people.

And now everyone is imprisoned by the banks, being convinced that not having a 'good credit rating' is a moral failure. The cost of everything has been driven so sky-high (by bank and government collusion) that people get locked into debt, paying interest to the banks, from the moment they graduate high school.

Houses that were $30k in the 90's are $350k now. The reason? All of that extra interest going into bank coffers.

You see, it's about feeding the Beast on every purchase you make. The MSM encourages this by convincing people that they have to wear certain styles or have a certain new car or they are worthless scum. Paid off politicians allow the banking system to remain unregulated so that they can screw you at every opportunity.

The only real way to break free from the cycle of poverty and despair, en mass, is to refuse to feed the beast.

The only reason protesting worked in the '60s/70s was because of the regular, raise hell and block roads protesting was having an impact on business across the country. Not because so many people were unhappy. They piss on your unhappiness.

So #Vacate the system rather than #Occupy.

Cut up the credit cards, refuse to be enslaved to a 'credit rating'. Move your money to a credit union.

Cut the cable tv cord.

If you can - sell your car and use alternate transportation. I have lost 15lbs and saved around $4k a year for the past 3 years.

Make friends with Craigslist/local adverts. Buy thrift, buy local, buy used through private purchases- and use cash.

Treat the 'Mall' as if it is ground zero for the zombie outbreak.

Find local gardening clubs/outlets and chicken keepers. Buy as much from them as you can. I get 2doz eggs for $4 - free range and no chemicals.

Refuse to watch advertisements. Totally tune them out.

I don't know how many people would be willing to do these things. But if enough do, if that beast starts going hungry, things would start to change. If not, then everyone will just continue to eat shit and I see debtors prisons on the horizon. Yes it can get that bad again.

He advocates dropping out, but it's hard.  It's good advice if you can swing it and find spontaneous associations and like minded people. Some people can manage a more rural life cut off from it all. I attempted to make that happen but job and medical requirements forced us to leave our last small town ten years ago. This is not a big city but it is one where a lot of people believe in their careers and the system outside of our inner city area.

The people who see through the system and question it seem to be rare. I find them online, but seem to find very few in real life or maybe people are afraid to talk about these things in person. What gets me is all the people who told me, "This is the greatest society on earth!". I seriously thought they were high or brainwashed. Maybe in the past but certainly not today. 

I think one should enjoy what they can of life too but there's very few admitting what is going on. They believe the media.  They are living in a denial of sorts. Even thinking this election is "real", is major denial. Look at what we got running, just more of the same. Both candidates ready to help destroy life in American even more and bring us more oppression for the bankers and the 1 percent. I'm ready to "drop-out", wish I could find fellow "drop-outs" who agreed with me about this society in real life.  Don't tell me to conform to it. I'm not interested.