Americans were conditioned decades ago to be a quite docile. they work in their cubicles and have their families and their little house in the suburbs… America has been a beige, thoughtless landscape for the majority of people for decades.

The only thing needed was to consolidate the media to create enough fear and control to drive enough people to give away their rights, which I’m sure the rich and powerful will point out that the people aren’t even using!

Obama himself has repeatedly come out and said that if people want change then they need to go out and vote. Vote? It’s crickets instead.

If you actually go out and meet enough people, you begin to realize that the real reality of America is far different than this Internet supposition. People have wanted a strong man authoritarian for a very long time. They are exhausted. They don’t care about their country , their community, their culture… capitalism has worn them down so much that all they really care about is getting to each weekend and having enough to pay for housing and some food. Subtle propaganda helps take care of the rest.

America hasn’t been able to think for itself in decades. The people at the top know this, and they have a lot of disdain for the fact that the majority of people just go home and watch sportsball on Sundays. So they finally decided to see how much they could get away with, and it looks like it’s going to be the entire pie!

It’s not just the two party system. You have to get the money out out of politics before anything else can positively move back toward democracy.

my Pakistani coworkers are absolutely wonderful. Sweet, hard-working, very enjoyable to talk to, but their families and lives are just a totally different universe and they don’t share it.

The honestly very poor black community around the area? they fucking hate us white people. like actively, all the time, no what no matter what you have or haven’t done they don’t like your ass one bit. i’ve seen inside some of the homes, and they are filled with independent black power movie posters about shooting Whitey. No kidding.

I know it takes a village, but when people are so very different and forced to be near each other, it doesn’t mean that they will socialize or help each other; it’s like living on two different planets. there’s all kinds of social research showing this now, and what you get is micro segregation along income lines, rather than everyone helping each other and lifting up the community together.

I wanted for most of my life for people to get along and the world to be a better place, thinking that education and modern access to information could somehow make things better. It seems that was entirely and completely wrong. when people have any kind of discomfort at all about new culture or new person or new idea? They pretty much just run away.

The people here on hacker news are probably an exception, because we are here searching for commentary and interesting ideas and new information.

However, in a certain respect this is why government is supposed to exist: we never would have gone to the moon. Or built the highway system. Or train tracks. Or a whole lot of big things which don’t immediately seem to have a benefit.

It takes a large body with power and money to enact regulations and movement and take on big projects which would obviously benefit a majority of people in the long-term.

When this is done, countries can move mountains, literally, but without it? We are just left to boil in our own juices as people running around flailing.

I think your idea is absolutely worth personal consideration, but at the same time my feeling is the answer is somewhat obvious on a societal scale. But we’ve lost all trust in government, and there is no political will left to get almost anything done in North America

Not saying that’s what you could or would have done, I’ve just gotten to the point in life where I’m alreaover it, ready to throw it back at them. Maybe it’s from living in this part of the world, but our plumber said “always be ready for people to be mean to you“ and while it doesn’t make for a very peaceful life, it certainly makes for fun ripping heads off.

Putting this idea in people’s mind, that they will be OK if they don’t eat for a day, would be revolutionary. However, companies want to sell things rather than simply give people a basic idea and open their world to possibilities.

As a former Climber, moved to an area that doesn’t have a decent rock Gym and bought a house, this is inspiring. I have a chance to climb again and it will require losing some weight loss. I’m just a hair into the overweight category at the doctor.

One question: how tall are you?

Heh, grind your meat

A Marketing and propaganda rule is that the very first thing people read/see sets the tone for the entire discussion. If you get everyone off track right from the jump it degrades the entire discussion and, ultimately, the usefulness of hacker news.

forming a habit involves taking an action and having a result. A consequence. Talking about it does not work for a lot of people. They need to be pavlov’d.

Once those difficult emotions are cool, everyone can explain what you did and why, yes. I just don’t think that always waiting for things to “cool off“ is actually helpful, it robs people of the consequences of their actions. People need immediate consequences to reinforce behaviors.

if someone jumped in front of the train they probably need to get police, medical, and train teams out there. The police need to do a quick investigation and gather any evidence around tracks (could be foul play), the medical team needs to probably clean things up. You also probably need to have Inspectors for the train to check and make sure that the train and tracks are safe to continue.

Overall, having to get all three parties to the site and then assess and perform their duties, an hour seems pretty reasonable

I see very little love from parents, but I generally see an enormous amount of selfishness. True betrayal, overt and subtle abuse, and kids seem more to push through that to really thrive… occasionally.

This idea that someone has never felt to love this powerful before? Incredibly selfish. It feels almost disgusting to write about let alone really think about. Who the hell are these people saying these things? Do they even hear themselves?

Every metric and every explanation I ever hear or read about when it comes to kids seems… ultimately selfish. The future for civilization looks awfully bleak, and bringing children to this world? Now?! Their future is a dodgy proposition at best.

Having children consistently seems to be for people with little creativity, little prospect in their lives, and very little thought or consideration for a wide and colorful world which could actually use some help instead of holding up in a house for 20 years.

Society uses our biology against us. It uses it to create enormous anxiety, depression, and poverty through having children. I wish to live the second half of my life in a meaningful way rather than shackling some unsuspecting little-me to the insane whims of hyper consumerist and capitalist culture designed only to extract everything from them and create as much anxiety and hurt as possible, that it might produce as much from them as possible.

For someone to not see that this is what most societies have become? The height of blindness; i’m not sure I’ve ever seen a parent in America who didn’t have their kids as part of this culture of spectacle , of blindly shambling without critical thinking. It’s as if most people want to collect all the check boxes in life, like little Pokémon, little experiences that they simply must have and show off to people to fluff their ego.

Sure, the process produces all kinds of crazy chemicals but so do hallucinogenic drugs. They’re basically both the same thing, but one of them really makes people unhealthy, intense, and emotionally unbalanced while the other just makes them see weird stuff that isn’t there.

The more you look at it, just the less it makes sense. All the uncritical, thoughtless people that I’ve ever met in my life are the ones having kids, while all the people I’ve respected, who are generally considerate, intelligent, kind, intentional, mindful, and honestly quite accomplished and as helpful as possible toward their fellow people? None of them have kids. Not a single one. Not my entire life. Well one. One, and it’s such a bad experience, and is so painful and difficult for he, his wife, and the child that he says he would never wish it on his worst enemy, despite absolutely loving his child and doing his best to demonstrate that every day.

I know it’s a bit rambling, but there you go.