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comment by goo
goo  ·  3436 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Systemic Racism and Standing Up To It (AKA Violence Is Almost Inevitable)

I don't live in America, but to provide insight from another Western country: this is absolutely terrifying.

Why is everyone so... passive? The US been a key figure in social change, civil rights, and is a tad nosy when it comes to the affairs of other countries... but its people are willing to accept such a horrible and tragic conflict on their own soil? I wouldn't want to raise children there either.

I feel like this ignorance only prevails because of a strongly nationalistic and individual-focused culture. The "It's not happening to me, so I don't care" attitude is getting out of control. In the day and age of globalization, you would think such an attitude would diminish.





War  ·  3436 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think part of it is this ambivalence to attempt to make change out of fear that in the end nothing will change. I'm a Political Science major at my university, and one of the biggest issues with getting people involved in any cause is most believe that getting involved in a cause or movement will not actually change anything. I can't say for sure this is something that plagues the rest of the U.S., but I know there is this deep sense of powerlessness in the face of the government these days.

ArtemusBlank  ·  3436 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Also, I think these days a lot of people are just trying to survive. For most people, The American Lifestyle is pretty much work, work, and work because you need to keep your home or your apartment. You need to put food on the table for your family. You need to make sure your children have the necessities to get a good education or make sure an elderly parent is being taken care of. You need to pay your electric bill, your gas bill, your car bills and etc and etc. When you have so much on your mind, fighting for social change can seem like a daunting task. When you're living from paycheck to paycheck and see all these politicians going around in circle after circle after circle getting nothing done, what can you do but fight for yourself?

War  ·  3436 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That sort of goes along with another trend. Most people won't join a cause for change out of fear that change will destabilize an already tough system. People already have it hard, and they don't want it to be harder. Even though it would only be hard short term whereas long term most would benefit from a more tolerant and active government.