Robert Andrew LentzDec 9, 2024
J. Nathan Matias 🦣

Watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl, I am struck by how the history of the United States can be traced through a sequence of epic speculations, scams, and crashes.

This country is so much more, but it is forever scamming, forever being scammed, and forever trying to remediate the consequences. The hope and optimism that make us so capable and future-thinking also make us endlessly vulnerable.

Dec 8, 2024 at 11:54pmWeb
Show threadRay JepsonDec 9, 2024
@natematias millennialism never seems far as well. I guess it's part of being a young nation.
Show threadBill SeitzDec 9, 2024
@natematias https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/americans-con-fraud-balleisen/535281/
Why Americans Get Conned Again and Again

Their admiration for ingenuity and gumption leaves room for opportunists.

The Atlantic
Show threadJ. Nathan Matias 🦣Dec 9, 2024
@billseitz ooh, thanks!
Show threadMatt FranzDec 9, 2024
@natematias Yeah, that was a good series. Unfortunately we don't call them Panic's anymore, though.
Show threadChris AmicoDec 9, 2024
@natematias How is that film? It’s Ken Burns so I assume it’s good, but is it?
Show threadJ. Nathan Matias 🦣Dec 9, 2024
@chrisamico so far so good. It’s a great mix of story and music and history and science. I had no idea how risky agriculture was, how many prior efforts at agriculture had failed, and how much land speculators and platform operators took advantage of people.
Show threadJ. Nathan Matias 🦣Dec 9, 2024
@chrisamico also I had no idea that climate misinformation was central to the founding of Kansas- people were told by land speculators that the climate had changed and become more stable
Show threadGadfly (-booq-)Dec 9, 2024
@natematias A friend had this sort of thing as their take on "Is Trump a fascist?" -- that no, Trump's not a fascist, tho plenty of people in his orbit and shadow are or are trying to be, but Trump himself is a /huckster/, which although it can find a lot of strategic overlap with and have many of the dangers of fascism, has a different appeal and makes different plays and plays on different mythologies.
Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 9, 2024
@natematias One thing I've learned living here is that Americans secretly (and often not so secretly) love con artists. They're as American as apple pie.
Show threadMichael SladeDec 9, 2024
@klausfiend @natematias The phenomenon of America’s infatuation with conmen is well told in the musical, The Music Man. The difference with our current crop of conmen is that Professor Hill’s arc is in becoming a good man and his con is close enough to the truth he gets away with it.
Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 9, 2024
@michaelslade @natematias 76 trombones is too many trombones, anyway.
Show threadMichael SladeDec 9, 2024
@klausfiend @natematias It was a lie. Would 52 have been more credible?
Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 9, 2024
@michaelslade @natematias Not unless they wanted to wake the dead in River City!
Show threadGarrett WollmanDec 9, 2024
@natematias I wish I could remember where I saw it, or even who wrote it, but I remember reading a very provocative analysis of US history from the perspective that the driving force has always been stolen land, and once you run out of land to steal, that's it, the whole edifice collapses. (It takes time, though.)
Show threadLyle Solla-YatesDec 9, 2024
@natematias Medical history tells this story also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley 🐐
John R. Brinkley - Wikipedia

Show threadSid 🇵🇸Dec 9, 2024
@natematias is it more? I dunno
Show threadRoger MooreDec 9, 2024
@natematias
A huge part of the history of scams in the US is that we're a high trust culture. That level of trust is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we save a lot of time and effort by not spending too much time figuring out how people are trying to cheat us; on the other hand, we're a lot more likely to become victims when they are scamming us. Dan Davies talks a lot about the balance between the two in "Lying for Money".
Show threadJust a CogDec 9, 2024
@natematias This documentary and the series on the Vote should be watched by everyone. Ken Burns documentaries are remarkable.
Show threadMorten Hilker-SkaaningDec 9, 2024
@natematias all I hear is "Forever Freedom".