https://archive.is/ExZju

I’ve used this for years. Love it!

I thought it was higher (80%)?

Could be several reasons. Most people aren’t aware. Some people don’t care. There are probably more reasons.

a convicted felon as President

I don’t believe that we’ll ever know precisely why and how this happened. However, my best guess is that the general public is uneducated and brainwashed by the media.

the way lgbtq people are treated

This one depends on which state you live in.

the rich controlling the media

This one has been going on for a long time. My best guess is that the rich and powerful want to become more rich and powerful.

constant warfare “for the good”

The billionaire oligarchs that are profiting from this have to paint it as such to get all the young people to participate.

taking advantage of third-world counties

The oligarchs are diseased dragons lying atop mountains of gold (see J.R. Tolkien). They don’t care about the earth or any life on it. The bottom line for them is power/money.

If that’s the case, then my general answer would be that the US is not as bad as social media and other media conglomerates make things out to be. One reason being is the media figured out a while back that tactics such as fear-mongering gained more people’s attention. Therefore people were more likely to read their newspapers and see their advertisements, etc. (i.e. clickbait)

Now that I have been, mostly, limiting my self to the Associated Press and National Public Radio I don’t feel things such as impending doom.

Would you elaborate more about what you believe is ‘bad’?

sometimes I see old movies and wished they still made some like them.

Same.

Eclipsa Audio?

I wish my daughter could meet her and know her, to have an understanding of what it means to be a true force of good in this world.

I’ve been thinking about this more and more over the past ten years. And I don’t mean to diminish the importance this person had in your life and the life of others.

I believe most of us look up to people like her and Jimmy Carter for example. The mistake I believe most of us tend to make is we do not view ourselves as a positive force. To put it another way, we believe that we could never live up to all the good things these people have done. Basically, we beat ourselves up for not being like these people.

Generally speaking, we all can be a positive force in this world. It’s just all the little things that we can do, in an entire lifetime, that adds up to a great deal of good. For example, when I’m out at the local grocery store I smile and say hello to random people. I engage in friendly conversation with the cashier. And then I say goodbye and have a great day.

I’m sure that we all can think of hundreds of other examples that seem small. However, when you do all of these little things over a period of many years it adds up to a lot of goodness and positivity.

Freezing my ass off and anticipating spring in rural Maine.

Confronted with information that could shake their worldviews, people can now search for confirming evidence and mainline conspiracist feeds or decontextualized videos. They can ask AI and their favorite influencers to tell them why they are right. They can build tailored feeds and watch as algorithms deliver what they’re looking for. And they will be overwhelmed with data.

This is, precisely, what morons do. How do you fix stupid?

Agreed and thanks!

I’ve known how blessed I am for over a decade. I’ve been trying to pay that forward since then. I will continue with this endeavor.

My family is barely middle class…

Same for us. That’s why we moved to inland (away from the coast) Maine. It’s fairly rural but within 45-60 minute drive to medium-sized cities. Most everyone living in our area commutes this for work. However, at home our money goes a long way.

While you are trying to immigrate out of the US you could consider moving to a more Democratic state such as California or Maine.

Enshittification

There is a ton of news coverage on this. Here’s an Axios article with a decent summary.

@[email protected] Is there any way to set this up?

An official cause of death has yet to be determined.