Is the US a dystopia?

personally idgi. fresh produce in american supermarkets is quite bad and expensive, every major city in the world has decent markets, etc. i guess it's better if it's brightly lit and you can listen to an instrumental soft jazz version of after the gold rush? https://t.co/g3b5LOgBcD

— joolsd (@joolsd) December 14, 2021

which Publix plays that?!? I'm happy if I get early '80 Boz Scaggs.

I regret starting a thread that functions as an invitation to post the most depressing news you can find, but more narrowly the degree to which the US seems to be embracing core elements of the most prominent fictional dystopias is pretty striking! Sadly not cyberpunk this time:

https://pen.org/scope-speed-educational-gag-orders-worsening-across-country/

And it’s getting worse. In the month since the report’s release, state lawmakers introduced 12 new bills, bringing the total to a staggering 66 educational gag orders for the year in 26 states, 12 of which have passed into law.

Here’s what’s happening:

The recent group of bills includes seven in Missouri and one each in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
All 12 of these bills target K–12 schools, four include provisions that would impact colleges and universities, and four include a focus on state agencies, other state-funded institutions, and “places of learning.”
Six of these bills specifically ban “critical race theory,” making a total of 20 state-level bills introduced this year with such explicit prohibitions.
Six of these bills contain explicit prohibitions against teaching or using curricular materials from “The 1619 Project,” bringing the total of these to 17 for the year.

xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.

I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.

we do have abundant food (not everywhere, of course) of mostly mediocre quality. it's ok.

the critical race theory mess is one of the factors in favor of dystopia

to me

xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.

I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.

So was communism.

I guess that’s the kind of joke that lands better with boomers.

And that's the kind of joke that lands better with people from 2017.

the tweet is responding to libertarians tweeting photos of american grocery stores to prove a point

american supermarkets are among the purest products of american capitalism and therefore accurately reflect all our most popular theories about health and happiness, from gluttony to asceticism, all packaged in convenient sizes for easy consumption. it's a design that's been copied all over the world, with appropriate modifications to suit local tastes and incomes. almost any praise or criticism you want to make about supermarkets can be justified using real world examples.

from gluttony to asceticism, all packaged in convenient sizes for easy consumption

cf. Randall Jarrell's A Sad Heart at the Supermarket (1960) and the companion poem "Next Day"

Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All

You want to know dystopia? Sometimes I have to go to three different supermarkets to get everything I need.

I regret starting a thread that functions as an invitation to post the most depressing news you can find

You cannot design a thread that wouldnt fall prey to this within ten mins have you seen this site lately

no.

lol

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

whew I had doubts

"I can't answer without sharing my personal definition of dystopia"

5 voters just laying it all down

https://t.co/fFOE6vEXOc pic.twitter.com/PPoldWoOdT

— District Sentinel (@TheDCSentinel) December 15, 2021

we should maybe do a "worst living american" poll

impossible. polls are limited to only 50 choices

maybe a poll to make the poll

a poll of polls? better update the list of lists

don't visit ILB if you don't enjoy a poll of polls

glad we got this settled

got it sordid

Is ILX a dystopia?

just look around

As of today, 50% of women in federal prisons are Indigenous.

This is genocide.

— martha paynter (@MarthPaynter) December 17, 2021

Is the fact that's about Canada the point you're making or a mistake?

At first assumed US then saw the link below and posted because

Kyle Rittenhouse takes the stage at TPUSA’s AmericaFest to thousands of cheering fans chanting his name. He even gets his own Kyle Rittenhouse-themed song to come out to. pic.twitter.com/PD7nkjpQ81

— AZ Right Wing Watch (@az_rww) December 21, 2021

Kyle has merely fulfilled every child's dream of running away to join the circus. Taking two lives in the process.

Who could have seen THIS coming

a really well-written explanation by patrick blanchfield of the current disaster pileup of american culture in terms of freud's death drive. (i will fp anyone who points out that freud is now widely discredited or whatever.)

https://late-light.com/issues/issue-1/death-drive-nation

https://fair.org/home/a-for-profit-company-is-trying-to-privatize-as-many-public-libraries-as-they-can/

i think it was around the time that i learned about ALEC, and realized it was clear and in the open what was happening and how the GOP was operating, and absolutely no one gave a fuck -- that was around 2 years after i realized the usa was a dystopia

GRETA
Yes, dead. An apt choice of words. Considering the public is convinced that cigarettes are poisonous. If we can't insist that they're not, I believe my most recent surveys have provided a solution.
(re report)
We can still suggest that cigarettes are "part of American life," or “Too good to give up,” and most appealing "an assertion of independence".

DON
So basically if you love danger, you'll love smoking?

SALVATORE
We could put a skull and crossbones on the label! I love it!

GRETA
Before the war, when I studied with Adler in Vienna, we postulated that what Freud called "the Death Wish" is as powerful a drive as those for sexual reproduction and physical sustenance.

DON: Freud, you say-- which agency is he with?

There's another covid outbreak on my prison unit. DOC has plenty of N95 masks now, but prisoners will get a disciplinary infraction if they're caught with one. Why? Because N95s also protect us from their tear gas, which they still freely use during a respiratory pandemic.

— ChristopherBlackwell (@ChrisWBlackwell) December 28, 2021

'The government and your boss put you in harms way. We took away paid sick days and unemployment supplements. Better get vaccinated so you don't starve.'

I'm not a health comms person so I can't evaluate how effective this message is. pic.twitter.com/rHtsD4McYP

— Justin Feldman (@jfeldman_epi) December 29, 2021

For the sake of my own sanity and well-being, I'd rather not immerse myself in a poisonous sea of ill-feeling for no discernible larger benefit aside from self-promotion. The world doesn't need another smug, self-satisfied pundit trying to brand-build off political collapse.

— Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) January 6, 2022

opened my fortune cookie and i have so few words pic.twitter.com/b5roOyRR1Z

— krista! (@madeup_artist) January 6, 2022

That seems like low pay for a hitman

but the 401k has a 5% company match

Reflecting on January 6, people are justifiably concerned about election subversion. But given the state of Biden’s presidency, the more likely scenario is a popularly elected, and therefore empowered, second Trump administration. https://t.co/ElodhslLPK

— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) January 6, 2022

long on doomsaying, short on what to do about it

I believe Nero was an incredible fiddler and some people sang along

little known fact - the friction from him fiddling too fast is what caused the fire

nero fiddling 'everlong'