Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Current Problems in American Culture

 1) Our corporate media I've seen the best minds of multiple generations, but in particular the older ones, rotted and emptied-out by corporate media. MSNBC is just as bad as FOX. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, etc... The social media platforms - ridiculous propaganda channels. We are the most propagandized society that has ever believed it was freely educated/informed (there are worse authoritarian societies, but the people knew the state of things). That is not to say they do not provide good information, instead you must recognize the obvious bias (always present in any human dissemination of information) of the media you consume. If you believe the news you consume is free of bias, sorry, you are ignorant.

2) Our corporate parties (2 in particular). Bought and paid for. The check has been issued, both sides bend the knee to billionaires. Where does that leave the rest of us. A special note. One of the most loathsome political acts is to blame others for your side losing an election. Such cowardice should not be ignored. It is the act of abusers: "I did it because of this." No, take responsibility for your failures, learn from them, grow, and become something better.

3) Our corporate education model. What happens when multiple generations are taught to answer questions on quizzes/tests, instead of immersing themselves in environments, peoples/cultures, and issues they want to explore. Americans are sadly, overwhelmingly, anti-intellectual. It is a damning statement about our culture. People fear knowledge. Let that sink in, people fear knowledge. It's enough to make you wonder whether this dumbing down of America is intentional. Sadly, people also fear difference, the strange, the unique. Have we arrived at a point where people just want the same people and the same things throughout their lives. Where people want a culture where everyone think, looks, and acts the same? I would consider this - cultural insanity.

4) Us, all of us, you and me and them. Quit slinging blanket dismissals of people and cultures. Focus your intellect and criticism to the root of the problems/issues.

"There are in fact no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses.”
--Raymond Williams

"Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all (15-16)." - Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook. (1957) Translated by Martin Brady. NY: Bloomsbury, 2013.

"For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you. Remember?" - Marie Howe "Singularity"

"The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n." - John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1

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