Are Americans a Broken People? Why We've Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forvces of Oppression

[Louisiana1976]

Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?

Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further?

What forces have created a demoralized, passive, dis-couraged U.S. population?

Can anything be done to turn this around?

Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them?

Yes. It is called the "abuse syndrome." How do abusive pimps, spouses, bosses, corporations, and governments stay in control? They shove lies, emotional and physical abuses, and injustices in their victims' faces, and when victims are afraid to exit from these relationships, they get weaker. So the abuser then makes their victims eat even more lies, abuses, and injustices, resulting in victims even weaker as they remain in these relationships.

snip

http://www.alternet.org/story/144529/are_americans_a_broken_people_why_we%27ve_stopped_fighting_back_against_the_forces_of_oppression/?page=entire

[thunder rising]

1. Wut? Just because we don't go out and look as stupid as teabaggers? Wait for the 2010 elections.

[BOSSHOG]

2. And sadly LA1976

So many of "us" (US Citizens) have chosen to support vigorously the forces of oppression (Teabaggers, right wing radio etc.)

[sam sarrha]

3. it's cause of that damn Fluoride in the water...!!

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Actually, That Might Be Somewhat True...

But I've been researching iodine deficiency recently after iodine supplementation dramatically helped my son's ADHD/Asperger's/Autisim/Whatever: Many of us may be suffering from iodine deficiency, which is needed for proper thyroid function and thus for proper metabolism. Too little iodine may cause sluggishness and brain fog. According to the feds, average iodine intake halved from 1970-1990 and hasn't changed much since, and fluoride makes the problem worse because it competes with iodine in the body.

Maybe that's why we've turned into flaming couchlings.

[Capn Sunshine]

8. How is that even possible with Iodized Salt?

:shrug:

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Good Question... But...

Turns out that there's a few problems with iodized salt:

1. People are eating less salt than they used to because it's supposed to be dangerous (it may actually be the opposite of dangerous for most people...), so many of us never reach for the salt shaker.
2. Only table salt contains iodine, not salt in processed foods. More of us eat processed foods these days.
3. Iodine in iodized salt goes away reasonably quickly when exposed to air. Salt that's been sitting in a shaker for a few weeks has practically no iodine left.

My research on this subject has been, very, very interesting.

[sam sarrha]

16. eat lots of kelp

[sam sarrha]

15. fire retardants put in everything as ordered by law.. without any research. destroys the thyroid

[Odin2005]

4. Stockholm syndrome.

[madrchsod]

6. agreed....

we have become a nation of children who sleep with the light on

[sendero]

7. Americans are a complacent people...

.. most of who have correctly figured out there there is little point in voting in Federal elections any more because the country is run by banks and other large corporate interests.

Their complacency is aided and abetted by the fact that for most of them, for now, their basic needs are met.

This is rapidly devolving though, and more and more people are going to have trouble meeting their basic needs. Maybe complacency will give way to something more interesting.

[Blasphemer]

13. That's it exactly

Yes, we have the working poor and people living paycheck to paycheck but a lot of people are still pretty comfortable in their lives. 19% of Americans believe they are in the top 1%. Another 20% believe they will be there in a few years. People simply have NO idea what the wealth gap is really like. When I was 23 years old, I was single, making 200,000 a year, Clinton was President and things seemed pretty good to me. I intellectually knew I wasn't anywhere near the top tier of wealth but life was good and I felt like I was on top of the world. 10+ years later and my perspective is very different. One can go from relative "wealth" to working poverty in an instant.

[omega minimo]

9. This is the result of 30 years of the excuse: "People won't care until it affects them."

Welcome to LIHOP!!! :toast:

[Phlem]

11. No kidding,

When I grew up with it, the only answer was to get out of the house. Now a legal citizen for 10+ years, but living for almost 40yrs. in the USA, I wonder how one moves out of this relationship.

Plus the population generation of right wing, ignorant, apostles that are breeding more crazy tools doesn't help.

Go Jeezuz! ...sarcasm :0(

Outside of understanding how hopelessly fucked we are, what does one do? Can't vote crazy, contemplating not voting sack of lies, does that leave the green party?

[ljm2002]

12. Americans are a brainwashed people...

...we're "the greatest country that ever existed". We're the "land of the free, and the home of the brave". We're the "sole superpower". We have the "best and most innovative healthcare system in the world". We are the "land of opportunity". We're "the most generous people in the world". We're "the most advanced people in the world". We're "a peaceful people".

Quite simply, people have been conditioned to believe that we're the best. Therefore, everything else follows from that premise, and we believe that we get to dictate to the rest of the world. We accept "Shock And Awe" as a necessary action, rather than the crime it was, and we cheer it on, right on cue, after being whipped into enthusiasm by the shameless media.

In the meantime, our education and infrastructure are crumbling, our social safety net continues to fray, the haves take more and the rest of us keep sliding down the slope towards the abyss, where already millions of our fellow citizens are hanging by their fingernails, or have already lost their grip and are plunging down, down, down.

But of course that's okay, because where else ya gonna go and find all of those wonderful opportunities? We have nothing, nothing at all to learn from other countries, because how could we? We're already the best, blessed by God, and we don't need lessons from the lessers who inhabit the rest of the planet.

Brainwashed, we do not see our own enslavement for what it really is. We react in rage when it is pointed out.

Now maybe the above is a bit of overstatement, but really, I think it is essentially what's going on with Americans right now.

[blues90]

14. I do feel If we had the truth long ago we would not be victims

Just go back to JFK's murder . if we really knew what happened and why then what we see now would never exist.

They get away with these crimes and the people never demand the truth , we are told , OH well it's classified , well who owns this info , why do we allow everything to be hidden as if it is some top secret . It's top secret as in covering up a lie.

All of these people who have been criminals should be called out and locked up just like anyone here would be.

No , instead we are handed some story that is so far from basic common sense and the worst part is we let them get away with this.

We have reps to this day who did the same or worse than Clinton yet they get away with it and this is just an example compared with the massive crimes not only against the american people like Katrina but people from other countries we allow to be attacked and murdered for the sake of another lie , terrorism.

How is this protecting the people of america.