No.9853
Anonymous
2026-05-09 14:12:38
"well this is gonna be great for the gas prices"
No.9866
Anonymous
2026-05-09 18:23:43
Oh sorry I'll call up Trump and tell him to stop
No.9867
Anonymous
2026-05-09 18:30:45
American leftists be like: I hate my community and myself. I hate my mother and father and siblings and partner. I hate the nurses that delivered me. I hate all of my former teachers and my classmates. I hate all of my current, former, and future coworkers and neighbors.
Everyone else? They're chill
Everyone else? They're chill
No.9868
Anonymous
2026-05-09 18:47:56
Sorry I don't mean to be mean or rude. I think it's a virtue that you care about the suffering going on in the world and feel despair about the role of your country in exacerbating it. I hope you can believe me when I say I have no ill will towards you.
No.9872
Anonymous
2026-05-09 23:47:22
'Bad stuff is good when it happens to bad people'
No.9902
Anonymous
2026-05-11 11:31:25
>people are motivated by their material interests/conditions
>this shocks and disgusts the leftist
I am convinced that I, a conservative, have read more leftist theory than the average leftie
>this shocks and disgusts the leftist
I am convinced that I, a conservative, have read more leftist theory than the average leftie
The typical parochial American response to the destruction and tragedy caused by their own government has always been retarded, but it gets worse over time and is starting to become farcical. Another favorite of mine is "muh midterms". Trump has kicked the hornets nest, not only mucking around in other countries (for which there is precedent, at least, to his credit) but just straight up de-legitimizing the Petrodollar hegemony, and then you hear the response from Americans like "Well, this DEFINITELY doesn't bode well for Republicans in the midterms!" You'd think these midterms were God's own saving grace like choosing the Pope from the sheer consequential tone they're discussed in. I've voted in midterms before and barely anyone shows up, and because state and local politics in the US is a befuddled mess, and party politics at the sub-federal level less straightforward than at the federal level, it's almost entirely irrelevant as the judgement day it's always touted as.
The few comments to this post are telling. One, that this place seems to be majority American, as a sad consequence of not only its foundation as a r/redscarepod offshoot but the subsequent Kiwifarms/NRx lite flood later on. You can tell because they immediately started going on about left-right politics instead of interpreting the topic head-on as the cultural critique it is. They're robots to be sure, programmed to respond to every topic under the sun in the exact same way, but also by dint of being American, cannot see outside of their own sphere, and retort against OP's critique. There are Euros and other non-Americans here, but the topic is too self-evident to comment on, approaching the American miasma too exhausting to once again behold, and unless you have personal experience there or have anything salient to add, is easily skippable.
I'm not sure if I would call the typical American whining about the consequences of their actions "schadenfreude" exactly, since it's much less satisfying and much more frustrating. Perhaps we can get the Germans, or the French, or maybe the Finns, to invent a new word in its stead, for the peculiar sensation of watching and reading American complaints about gas prices or grocery unavailability or whatnot. I wonder if there's a David Foster Wallace-type circle of Limbo out there, in the hyperspace unknown, where an infinite plane of forever echoing local news voices rings. Pain at the pump! Over five dollars a gallon. Republicans looking to lose seats at the midterms. JD Vance, Gavin Newsom, Democrats. House Senate Appropriations Committee. More at 8. Raiders lose to the 49ers. A million killed in burning fire in the NearMiddleFarEastSouthAsia. Trump approval ratings sink below 20%. Here's the weather with Faggot McFuckface.
The few comments to this post are telling. One, that this place seems to be majority American, as a sad consequence of not only its foundation as a r/redscarepod offshoot but the subsequent Kiwifarms/NRx lite flood later on. You can tell because they immediately started going on about left-right politics instead of interpreting the topic head-on as the cultural critique it is. They're robots to be sure, programmed to respond to every topic under the sun in the exact same way, but also by dint of being American, cannot see outside of their own sphere, and retort against OP's critique. There are Euros and other non-Americans here, but the topic is too self-evident to comment on, approaching the American miasma too exhausting to once again behold, and unless you have personal experience there or have anything salient to add, is easily skippable.
I'm not sure if I would call the typical American whining about the consequences of their actions "schadenfreude" exactly, since it's much less satisfying and much more frustrating. Perhaps we can get the Germans, or the French, or maybe the Finns, to invent a new word in its stead, for the peculiar sensation of watching and reading American complaints about gas prices or grocery unavailability or whatnot. I wonder if there's a David Foster Wallace-type circle of Limbo out there, in the hyperspace unknown, where an infinite plane of forever echoing local news voices rings. Pain at the pump! Over five dollars a gallon. Republicans looking to lose seats at the midterms. JD Vance, Gavin Newsom, Democrats. House Senate Appropriations Committee. More at 8. Raiders lose to the 49ers. A million killed in burning fire in the NearMiddleFarEastSouthAsia. Trump approval ratings sink below 20%. Here's the weather with Faggot McFuckface.
>>9904
i think it's their rich people response to minor inconvenience. Americans don't experience tragic events at the scale most nations do. other nations have experienced prolonged wars or internal crises that go on for decades or more and even in the case they don't have affect the generations to come, stuff that the majority in a country can't bounce back from in a short while.
Americans constantly recall the horrors of 9/11 and the 2008 recession. i don't want to downplay 9/11 and I can certainly understand why it would shake a whole nation but the way they converse about it you would think all of them were personally affected in tangible ways when really their access to food, water and shelter did not change. 2008 led to people losing businesses and jobs but they bounced back from it.
i think it's their rich people response to minor inconvenience. Americans don't experience tragic events at the scale most nations do. other nations have experienced prolonged wars or internal crises that go on for decades or more and even in the case they don't have affect the generations to come, stuff that the majority in a country can't bounce back from in a short while.
Americans constantly recall the horrors of 9/11 and the 2008 recession. i don't want to downplay 9/11 and I can certainly understand why it would shake a whole nation but the way they converse about it you would think all of them were personally affected in tangible ways when really their access to food, water and shelter did not change. 2008 led to people losing businesses and jobs but they bounced back from it.
>>9905
If you are serious about analyzing the American psyche and its response to events, I would first dispense with the rhetoric of "rich people". Let us not descend into the extremely tired topic of GDP, PPP, currency exchange rates, average income, household expenditure, and so on. Americans may be, on a global scale, rich, yes; they do live in the center and not the periphery, they have a comparatively large consumer wallet, and money flows its fastest and deepest rivers there.
The whole "rich people" thing is itself a tired lens in which to view the world, a misleading, reddit-tier cliche. You aren't wrong by bringing it up, but let me guide your intuition in a different direction, and replace your "rich people response" with "globally politically privileged response". It's a mouthful, and I'm still workshopping it, sorry. But the idea is the same, and what you yourself described - the position of being unaffected by global events, and especially those that are directly or indirectly caused by their nation's actions (so, most of it). By reframing richness into political privilege, we can circumvent the standard American counter you hear from them about how the poor and disadvantaged in the US suffer. And I will be happy to repeat that claim, too: yes, there is a shit load of poverty in the US, both material and im-, and much of it is not exactly obvious when looking at numbers and statistics such as income. But this deflects from global privilege. That is, even the poorest and most pitiable American is still in a position of privilege by the sheer fact of being American and living in the US. As you said, they will not be affected by tangible blows to society, outside of 9/11.
This is an extremely unpopular, and extremely unapproached, point of view in political discourse, especially within the past few decades. Americans will not acknowledge this at all, if they can even grasp it, and if confronted with it, will continue to harp on about poverty or discrimination or this and that.
However, I would also counter the general tone of your comment about Americans being unaffected by much outside of rare events such as 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis (which was a global event anyway). The third world and periphery has its terrible, hellish strife, yes. But life in America is one of constant, low-level physical, mental, psychological, and psychic attrition. The whining that they do online DOES have basis in reality, albeit one irritatingly detached from international cause-and-effect. Life there is not fun. I would argue that it's not exactly even for the ultra-rich, which is why so many of them have one foot outside of the US at all times, if not having fled entirely, using the US as a financial headquarters and physically residing in Geneva or Monaco or Wellington or some shit (Dubai was recently on this list too). This is not because the ultra-rich have to strive for material comforts, but again, because of that constant low-level attrition that is environmental, ambient, and all-encompassing, when you are inside the borders of the US. It's a spiritual malaise, certainly, although we're supposed to discuss politics in material terms only - not the useful Marxist kind, but the base secular kind. And that spiritual malaise affects you, and is impossible to escape from, unless you leave altogether.
If you are serious about analyzing the American psyche and its response to events, I would first dispense with the rhetoric of "rich people". Let us not descend into the extremely tired topic of GDP, PPP, currency exchange rates, average income, household expenditure, and so on. Americans may be, on a global scale, rich, yes; they do live in the center and not the periphery, they have a comparatively large consumer wallet, and money flows its fastest and deepest rivers there.
The whole "rich people" thing is itself a tired lens in which to view the world, a misleading, reddit-tier cliche. You aren't wrong by bringing it up, but let me guide your intuition in a different direction, and replace your "rich people response" with "globally politically privileged response". It's a mouthful, and I'm still workshopping it, sorry. But the idea is the same, and what you yourself described - the position of being unaffected by global events, and especially those that are directly or indirectly caused by their nation's actions (so, most of it). By reframing richness into political privilege, we can circumvent the standard American counter you hear from them about how the poor and disadvantaged in the US suffer. And I will be happy to repeat that claim, too: yes, there is a shit load of poverty in the US, both material and im-, and much of it is not exactly obvious when looking at numbers and statistics such as income. But this deflects from global privilege. That is, even the poorest and most pitiable American is still in a position of privilege by the sheer fact of being American and living in the US. As you said, they will not be affected by tangible blows to society, outside of 9/11.
This is an extremely unpopular, and extremely unapproached, point of view in political discourse, especially within the past few decades. Americans will not acknowledge this at all, if they can even grasp it, and if confronted with it, will continue to harp on about poverty or discrimination or this and that.
However, I would also counter the general tone of your comment about Americans being unaffected by much outside of rare events such as 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis (which was a global event anyway). The third world and periphery has its terrible, hellish strife, yes. But life in America is one of constant, low-level physical, mental, psychological, and psychic attrition. The whining that they do online DOES have basis in reality, albeit one irritatingly detached from international cause-and-effect. Life there is not fun. I would argue that it's not exactly even for the ultra-rich, which is why so many of them have one foot outside of the US at all times, if not having fled entirely, using the US as a financial headquarters and physically residing in Geneva or Monaco or Wellington or some shit (Dubai was recently on this list too). This is not because the ultra-rich have to strive for material comforts, but again, because of that constant low-level attrition that is environmental, ambient, and all-encompassing, when you are inside the borders of the US. It's a spiritual malaise, certainly, although we're supposed to discuss politics in material terms only - not the useful Marxist kind, but the base secular kind. And that spiritual malaise affects you, and is impossible to escape from, unless you leave altogether.
No.9907
Anonymous
2026-05-11 15:04:20
When the war broke out and I went to pay the needful eight hours of my life to my employer and all people at my office talked about was how their vacation plans were shattered I felt disgusted. At least had they expressed concern about oil prices and extraction&refining infrastructure getting sent to low orbit I could respect that, since this is material issue to running our civilization, and crisis in that area will be extremely dire to our euro neck of the woods, and cause devastation to the general South. But no, most important issue of the day was that some jackasses booked gaudy holidays in Qatar and DAE and were now stuck for their money. I don't usually think of myself as a better of the average office drone, but I couldn't help myself at that moment.
No.9910
Anonymous
2026-05-11 17:09:35
>>9906
>life in America is one of constant, low-level physical, mental, psychological, and psychic attrition
>It's a spiritual malaise
i believe you but i'm curious about this. would you mind elaborating on the why of it
>life in America is one of constant, low-level physical, mental, psychological, and psychic attrition
>It's a spiritual malaise
i believe you but i'm curious about this. would you mind elaborating on the why of it
No.9915
Anonymous
2026-05-11 20:22:11
The news has seriously fried your brains in ways that 100,000 years of evolution could never have prepared you for.
The state of nature is everybody killing each other. Life today is more peaceful and boring than it has ever has been.
Don’t compare the world as it is to the idealized, perfect version in your head
The state of nature is everybody killing each other. Life today is more peaceful and boring than it has ever has been.
Don’t compare the world as it is to the idealized, perfect version in your head
No.9916
Anonymous
2026-05-11 20:28:12
Also the world has changed a lot since Wallerstein. You need to factor in Russia, China, and the EU as distinct actors with their own aims
No.9917
Anonymous
2026-05-11 20:42:21
Geopolitics are really weird now. Most people haven’t updated
>>9906
This dumb asshole wants to pretend that Americans aren't richer than everyone else.
The GDP per capita in Alabama or West Virginia is higher than in Sweden or Germany. And you're going to Euro-seethe about it. "IN MY COUNTRY IN MY COUNTRY IN MY COUNTRY"
This dumb asshole wants to pretend that Americans aren't richer than everyone else.
The GDP per capita in Alabama or West Virginia is higher than in Sweden or Germany. And you're going to Euro-seethe about it. "IN MY COUNTRY IN MY COUNTRY IN MY COUNTRY"
No.9926
Anonymous
2026-05-12 13:34:01
Americans have access to a degree of luxury that would make Europeans' brains melt.
A mule deer walked past my backdoor as I read the euro-seething in this thread. This is common because the mountains are about 10 minutes' drive-time away. My quarter-acre property has risen $152k in value in the last nine years. I can and often do walk barefoot around my property, feel the grass between my toes, because there is no street crime here and I never have to think about broken bottles or needles on the ground. I have hops rhizomes growing on the hill to my south. I ate two hot dogs for lunch. It cost me $2.25, tax included. That's 1.91 EUR for 225g of beef. I filled up my tank for $40 to last me the entire week. I pay zero dollars and zero cents income tax. I have never paid VAT in my life. I've paid about $3,800 in property tax this year, but my state is probably going to abolish property tax this year.
It's called being an ubermensch, buddy.
A mule deer walked past my backdoor as I read the euro-seething in this thread. This is common because the mountains are about 10 minutes' drive-time away. My quarter-acre property has risen $152k in value in the last nine years. I can and often do walk barefoot around my property, feel the grass between my toes, because there is no street crime here and I never have to think about broken bottles or needles on the ground. I have hops rhizomes growing on the hill to my south. I ate two hot dogs for lunch. It cost me $2.25, tax included. That's 1.91 EUR for 225g of beef. I filled up my tank for $40 to last me the entire week. I pay zero dollars and zero cents income tax. I have never paid VAT in my life. I've paid about $3,800 in property tax this year, but my state is probably going to abolish property tax this year.
It's called being an ubermensch, buddy.
Luckily, the mass affluence afforded by total AI automation of work will give the average euro access to the luxuries previously only available to us. We're going to lift you out of poverty whether you like it or not
No.9933
Anonymous
2026-05-13 09:38:31
>>9932
Is this that MAGA communism everyone keeps talking about?
Is this that MAGA communism everyone keeps talking about?
No.10307
Anonymous
2026-06-01 00:11:07
Most people carry about their personal shit that they have to deal with, yes.