Is the US a dystopia?

option 3 ftw

US perfidy always comes back to tea

not really

hm sounds like you're either a "no" or "The Beatles" but afaict you can still secretly vote however you wish

it's going to take a lot of restraint not to shoehorn this in to thread connections

I figured it was what it was for.

least serious answer is the correct one

by that you mean "yes"?

oh misread "least" as "last" nevermind

This question is unhelpful and I have no idea why it is being asked.

Badly trimmed shrub = dystopiary

Dropped the clay - dyspottery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeu3iH0R_GM

I mean, pulling up the forecast today and seeing tornado warnings for Chicago in mid-December doesn't make me not think it's a dystopia.

an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.

not imagined, authoritarian rather than totalitarian and pre-apocalyptic instead of post IMO

so maybe it's not a dystopia but merely dystopic

dystopic? I dunno. but ilx is def dyspeptic today.

I did not remotely intend this thread to be serious, but there's an argument to be made that 1492 counts as the apocalypse

Can the apocalypse be local?

Americans rly struggle with not being the world and i think its quite telling tbh

let it beatles

Climate catastrophe is going to be pretty universal IIRC.

which is v little to do with the point about 1492 is it

you can get with dystopia, or you can get with datopia

just throwing this out there but maybe dystopia fans are blind to dystopias

I dunno I think most fans of the crust punk band Dystopia probably would agree that the USA is a dystopia fwiw

let me see, is the US a dystopia.

the republican party is trying to actively KILL a lot of people. let me just see how that plays in the polls

The approval rating among those who voted for [Biden] has dropped from 80% to 69% in the April survey. There have been notable declines among Americans 18-34 and suburban residents, both of whom, in dramatic swings, now register net negative views on the president.

As bad as Biden’s number may be, the polling data for Democrats in Congress is far worse.

Republicans now sport a historic 10-point advantage when Americans are asked which party they prefer to control Congress, holding a 44%-34% margin over Democrats. That’s up from a 2-point Republican advantage in the October survey.

In the past 20 years, CNBC and NBC surveys have never registered a double-digit Republican advantage on congressional preference, with the largest lead ever being 4 pints for the GOP.

“If the election were tomorrow, it would be an absolute unmitigated disaster for the Democrats,″ said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research Associates and the Democratic pollster for the survey.

yes it's a full blown dystopia

nah but rich people have never had it better tho

A 4 pint lead is difficult to overcome tbh. sorry

Can the apocalypse be local?

Americans rly struggle with not being the world and i think its quite telling tbh

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Friday, December 10, 2021 8:10 PM (one hour ago)

I was addressing "the apocalypse" that it could be argued helps to confirm the US as a dystopia, the subject of this important poll. So I guess I do think it can be local, idk, why not? Anyway Columbus never even entered future-US territory, it's more of a symbolic hinge year for everything being terrible from then on

I'd figure most people using the term think in the sense of dystopian science fiction and I kinda think 2021 has quite a few elements that seem like out of such.

There's no utopia that's not someone's dystopia, and vice versa.

The notion of local dystopias is an interesting one. Could be that there was an egalitarian paradise unfolding just a continent or two over from Mad Max.

If the US ticks all the boxes- and there's a case- then clearly plenty of very nice places to live in exist besides so id say thats a clear yes

Have we ever not been? Slave state — apartheid state — Vietnam/Watergate — Corporate state — Fury Road (2016-present)

the people in the mayfield candle factory that collapsed worked 12-hour shifts that paid $8 an hour. 110 ppl were inside. 40 ppl are still unaccounted for. they haven’t recovered a survivor since 3 am. pic.twitter.com/CsIIfLw3Pc

— Tracy Moore (@iusedtobepoor) December 11, 2021

it’s legal in kentucky to fire someone for refusing to work mandatory overtime

— Tracy Moore (@iusedtobepoor) December 11, 2021

The notion of local dystopias is an interesting one. Could be that there was an egalitarian paradise unfolding just a continent or two over from Mad Max.

Zardoz is another one. Although The Eternals are mainly a bunch of insufferable bores and their egalitarian paradise is pretty lame, but you wouldn't complain about it if you were being held captive by Charlotte Rampling.

Slave state — apartheid state — Vietnam/Watergate — Corporate state — Fury Road (2016-present)

We didn't start the fire, etc.

Let's see what all we have...you got this one.

US combined laissez-faire capitalism on it's drug industry and combined with heroin blow-back from the 'war on terror' created the opioid epidemic for fun and profit killing over a million Americans since 1999.

Getting back to the topic at hand, Le Guin wrote a book about a moon. Also was there some Cold War global political framework in her gender-bender book? I don't recall.

Climate catastrophe is going to be pretty universal IIRC.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:14 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

which is v little to do with the point about 1492 is it

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:17 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It is though (unless I'm misreading). The USA is the biggest historical contributor to the climate crisis. An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis. Same for much of global environmental destruction -- Amazon forest all gone? Thank Ronald McDonald.

Local teachers in South Dakota “Dash for Cash” to help their classrooms by fighting over $5,000 in $1 bills while the crowd hoots and hollers. pic.twitter.com/azwGJKhaKU

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) December 12, 2021

they're going to remove that rug at some point

and then charge them for it!

An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis.

Are we talking a world where Europe never came into contact with the Americas?

I can’t live without potatoes

-LL McCooljay

It would have happened eventually.

I can’t live without potatoes

OTM

Lol, Neanderthal.

Is there any way to interpret that other than being pro-suicide?

I thought that too

there used to be an army dad in the vehicle but he stopped loving

Is there any way to interpret that other than being pro-suicide?

Pro-homicide?

Presuming there isn't much actual "aiming" involved in suicide

"He Stopped Shooting Her Today"

not to waste too much of my precious life parsing a sociopathic bumper sticker, but I did try to think about it as homicidal and it doesn't really make sense imo. of course, I assume the owner of the sticker thinks it's just an amusing pro-gun statement, but still: they should have workshopped this one a little longer

Definitely pro-homicidal. It's basically a "bless his heart" for our times.

Otoh I'm glad they wore a "I'm a terrible person who should be shunned" nametag on their car. Saves me the time of finding out later

there's a lot of pro-homicide signs in this country. my neighbor across the street has a big sign on their front door that says "warning: you are no longer trespassing, you are a target" with a big gunsight on it. i live in a residential neighborhood

a good friend of mine is the mail delivery person for my block, i should ask him about that door i'm sure he knows it

we live with sociopaths, what can I say

I mean, people spend lots of money on the “Stormtrooper Edition” of a white Jeep, utterly missing the point of the film and thus showing themselves to be both a fascist and a fucking moron.

One of the things I appreciated about Star Wars retroactively is its depiction of the First Order. when The Force Awakens came out, I'm not even sure if Trump had declared intent to run yet. We knew a little about the alt-right but we considered them cosplaying dorks. So I saw that movie and I'm like "man, this is just lame, the First Order is just a copy of the Empire".

but really, they were like the radical racist right in America, who are obsessed with the Civil War/Confederacy but won't admit the real reason why, and they incorporate that old iconography into their clothing, flags, bumper stickers, "The South Will Rise Again", etc. From the ashes of the Confederacy, they have sought to re-institute the cis-white supremacy and strengthen the patriarchy, and have helped enact this by lobbying, entering and winning political races, getting appointed to the White House/etc.

like in the original Star Wars, Vader and the Emperor are truly evil motherfuckers, true believers swayed by the Dark Side, and they seize power through violence and a coup. People acquiesce out of fear, whilst propaganda wins new devotees over time, but you get the impression over time that the coalition is held together mostly by fear and eventually it even gets to be too much for Vader himself. The shit's in the ash-heap of history, the Republic reforms, and it is clear to mostly everyone how evil the Empire was and 'never again', but below the surface, young fetishists of the Empire who bought into the lore, iconography, and broad strokes, probably learned from the distorted, wistful memories of older, unrepentant collaborators, decide "the Empire wasn't WRONG, it was ineffective", and they actually create a more fucked up version where people are snatched from their families to be trained as Stormtroopers from birth, and entire solar systems are vaporized.

the parallels are unintentional but so glaring.

seriously if only the sequel trilogy had run with that concept fully, but we were stuck with JJ Abrams and not the Gilroy brothers.

also Kylo Ren was an alt-right teen rebelling against his lib parents.

Alex Keaton in space

seriously if only the sequel trilogy had run with that concept fully, but we were stuck with JJ Abrams and not the Gilroy brothers.

― omar little, Monday, July 6, 2026 1:21 PM bookmarkflaglink

yeah tbh much of this content existed in the canon novelizations only, lol

i had to do radical surgery on the Edge (...)

― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Friday, May 29, 2026 6:58 AM (one month ago)

my brain stopped reading at this point, this would make a great short story prompt

Got behind a SUV this morning that had an "Army Mom" license plate frame and window sticker, but the other sticker was "Live, Laugh, Love but if that doesn't work Load, Aim, Fire".

I mean, I hate the "Live, Laugh, Love" signs as much as the next person, but that's a deeply fucked up thing to put on your vehicle.

― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, July 6, 2026 8:23 AM (five hours ago)

a couple years ago i was out getting a haircut when i saw someone with a bumper sticker that said "I'M OUT OF ESTROGEN AND I HAVE A GUN"

i laughed because i remember that meme from, like, the 90s, the whole erma-bombeck-but-edgy- / if-you-can't-handle-me-at-my-worst- / white-women-whose-personality-is-betty-boop-and-who-assume-betty-boop-is-also-white- core thing. it's always been with us. do they still run "andy capp"? do they still run mel lazarus' "momma"?

anyway it was funny because i could never in a million years get away with saying something like that lol, i'd be in a men's prison so fast your head would spin

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/06/nx-s1-5883784/dhs-ice-critic-lawsuit-free-speech

yeah, I just heard that story.. really scary that they feel empowered to do this, cranks have been writing letters far worse for decades

Kate, Andy Capp is still with us:

https://www.gocomics.com/andycapp

Momma, however, was discontinued after Lazarus passed away in 2016, at which point (according to the Comics Curmudgeon) the strip had been in reruns for some time.

https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things

^^^
The greatest concentration of Flock cameras in my town
https://i.ibb.co/vxvDcg0H/Screen-Shot-2026-07-21-at-9-19-53-PM.png

are the clusters that surround Home Depot and Lowe's.
https://i.ibb.co/fY9tJ0KP/Screen-Shot-2026-07-21-at-9-20-52-PM.png
https://i.ibb.co/sJ1BjTzc/Screen-Shot-2026-07-21-at-9-20-14-PM.png

Even the big mall (in the upper right) isn't covered.

And hmmmm. Wonder where one might be the most likely to find undocumented workers?

Great article, Raymond, thanks for sharing.

very heartened by the anti/Flock movement

https://i.ibb.co/sJ1BjTzc/Screen-Shot-2026-07-21-at-9-20-14-PM.png

hide in a cardboard box, smoke a cigarette, steal some reeboks

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/22/calvin-duncan-louisiana-maga-white-supremacy

New documents and court records obtained by EFF show that Texas deputies queried Flock Safety's surveillance data in an abortion investigation, contradicting the narrative promoted by the company and the Johnson County Sheriff that she was “being searched for as a missing person,” and that “it was about her safety.”

The new information shows that deputies had initiated a "death investigation" of a "non-viable fetus," logged evidence of a woman’s self-managed abortion, and consulted prosecutors about possibly charging her.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it

even without the camera stuff that’s dystopian

I just heard somewhere that you should *never* ever ever shine a green laser pointer at a Flock camera, it's not good for them

i think you'd need a dr. doom level laser to really damage it though, unless you stand there for hours or something, idk icbw

someone needs to make little EMP cannons or something.

I was wondering to a friend the other day if one of the ukrainian emp guns they use on drones would wreck one

https://www.cltampa.com/news/a-77-year-old-republican-man-is-staging-a-solo-protest-against-st-petes-flock-cameras/

a sign stuck to a pool skimmer held in front of the camera is the low-key, non-destructive approach. (but might get you arrested).

I guess Meta (tm) is getting pretty meta using a song about the impending end of the world in an ad for AI saying "we are betting on people". Yeah f'n right...

This is about as good as the phrase I saw on an Amazon box that said "Without you I'm empty..." or something of the like.

I swear PK Dick is laughing his a$$ off in the infinite somewhere.

It's like the Cylon's or those reptile people from V having a sense of humor.

Melania especially when she is wearing those really blocky shades remind me of the actress from V who played the aliens' spokesman.

So, Perez Hilton.

Feel terrible for someone suffering psychosis as he seems to be. But it was surreal: this was the first time I had thought about him since he was this major villain in the blogosphere, a period of celebrity journalism that was itself dystopian. Cronenbergian all around.

He lives about a half mile from me.

abysmal job numbers today while the stock markets stay green pumped by AI's that are actively taking jobs seems bad but idk

Jonathan Majors stars in DailyWire’s “Run Hide Fight: Infidels” as a former Delta Force veteran who teams with students and a campus security guard after Islamist terrorists seize a pro-Palestine encampment at a liberal college campus. Out Sept. 16, 2026. pic.twitter.com/8bOYQPne7p

— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) August 6, 2026

What was he in that people thought was good/gave a shit about him for?

Last Black Man in San Francisco and Da 5 Bloods, I think. He had menacing presence in the (bad) third Ant-Man movie, enough that you could understand why they'd try to build him up as their next big villain. Then he was arrested a month later, and pretty swiftly and correctly canceled.

He also got an Emmy nomination for Lovecraft Country

He also got an Emmy nomination for Lovecraft Country

That baffles me. I watched that show (bought it on Blu-Ray to do so, since I didn't have HBO at the time) and it was... fine, but he was far from the best thing about it. He was basically a lump in the middle of the screen. (The book is much better than the series, FTR. Unfortunately, the sequel sucks.)

lol to release a movie like that when Biden crushed all student protests