I hear these comments for not wanting to help people, and it feels like we’re worshipping individuality to the detriment of community, which is necessary for survival.

  • “I don’t want my money going to ___ .”
  • “This is not a democracy, it’s a constitutional republic!”
  • “You don’t have any freedoms under socialism/communism.”
  • “They’re just looking for a handout because they’re lazy.”
  • “I’m a self-made man. I didn’t need anyone’s help.”
  • “Empathy is not a virtue.”
  • “I don’t see how that’s my problem.”
  • umbrellacloud@leminal.space
    2·
    2 hours ago

    OK instead of looking at it that way, think about how you feel about other people and what other people mean to you.

    If someone new is born, does that mean you have a new resource, or a new competition for resources?

    Back in the day, a new person meant a extra paid of hands, not just another mouth to feed.

    If I died tomorrow, would you care in any material way? I’m not talking about your subjective, passing emotions, I’m talking about if you would feel my loss materially. Would anything be different about your life?

  • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    2 hours ago

    I have no empathy nor sympathy left for the right. I would like for them all to bleed out through their eyeballs.

  • DrivebyHaiku@lemmy.caEnglish
    122·
    8 hours ago

    These values are cyclical in history. Mostly they persist until the system breaks down and then there is a surge of solidarity which sets things back on the path until people start thinking all their advantages came from their own ability and then the cycle repeats.

    The early 1900’s was fairly communal but the great war and the 1920’s was filled with this sentiment of individuality until the depression crashed it out and then there was a split - a combo of Union efforts, reinvestment in government systems and extreme solidarity out of nessesity in the US/UK and the same time toxic individuality caused a canabalization of society in fascist areas of Europe. The World War created more extreme communal solidarity. In the areas where there was union resistance and communal solidarity legislation to keep businesses in check was installed and that gave way to pushback from business interest. As solidarity continued there was more general prosperity and you started seeing marginalized communities start to speak up. Racial communities, disability communities, queer communities - those who had been denied the comfort everyone else was taking for granted popped up and fought like hell for empathy and some made bigger wins than others…but then you start seeing the push back. Austerity gospel via Regan and Thatcher “there is no society just individuals and families” and all those safeguards and solidarity that were put in place to solve the crash of the 30’s started to be undone and slandered as “too much overreach”.

    Looking at the UK if you go back even further you see this cycle repeat work backwards and you see it. Victorian workhouse systems replacing the welfare state and then being discarded as cruel. The Georgian fight for the poor law and charity and the industrial revolution’s runaway excess of the rich that fed people into the meat grinder of labour and erroded poor law to force compliance.

    Empathy’s time will come again but apparently we need to be reminded by virtue of horror what the cost of this kind of inviduality is.

  • nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7·
    9 hours ago

    These are age old comments, I heard all of them from a very young age. It’s been there the whole time.

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
    9·
    11 hours ago

    Yes. We have become a nation of de facto sovereign citizens. The average American thinks of nothing past the crummy job, the soul breaking commute, the mortgage, and another Ben Franklin for the third star on the fourth stripe on little Ayngylynn’s tae kwon do white belt. Frank Freeway and Susie Soccermom are too wrapped up in themselves to care what kind of people we are.

    Back in 1997, my sociology professor said the US would become the meanest society in history. And OMFFSM, I see it everywhere. There’s no more sense of community or even common courtesy. Hurt the other guy or get hurt. Violence over small things will soon be commonplace and inescapable. We will all have to be armed, much as we may hate it. This is all by design.

  • verdi@feddit.org
    33·
    17 hours ago

    It’s by design.

    The spread of the superhero (Übermenschen) to ubiquity in pop culture, especially Hollywood, the punishing and assumption of evil within destitute people, the indoctrination of children (pledge of allegiance et al), the selective curricula that largely keep the general education from showing the populace of the US that their country is more closely related to a self styled African dictatorship than a modern social democracy. Usanians frequently utter “it’s not personal, it’s business”. That is the hallmark of declining hegemon and roughly translates to “fuck you, got mine”.

    • KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      5·
      8 hours ago

      it’s not personal, it’s business

      This mentality is such an ingrained part of corporate culture, and our culture has been centered around corporate life since around when Reagan came into office. The top suggestions for how to survive in this USA culture is to cut off empathy. What’s worse is I think a lot of people have. There’s an air of cruelty to every aspect of this society, from politics to police to medical to social media. Everyone wants a break from the reality of their shitty life, and many are willing to step on others for the hope of an opportunity.