Europeans don't, maybe sometimes can't, understand the absolute crushing pressure and gaslighting that most Americans are put through to make us the way we are.

It's a decades long effort to turn most of the population into a money and power pump for a tiny elite class, all while grinding us into dust.

We're crazy and scared all the time, and have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world.

There's a reason dying of opiates seemed like a rational choice to a lot of people.

@quinn IIRC it was Republicans in the 1970s who decided that an educated population would be too much of a hassle (and not likely to vote conservative)?
@floe @quinn Ronald Reagan made a comment like that about avoiding an "educated proletariat" which is usually what gets pointed to in that regard

@zoe_squonk

Reagan and his handlers sure destroyed a lot of good institutions and norms. Gingrich didn't hold back either. And the 1976 "The Two Santas Strategy" also played a part.

@floe @quinn