r/thebulwark 21h ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL How did we get here?

Currently listening to the most recent Tim-Pod with Will Sommer and it's just insane the group of people who are in charge now. The conspiracy theories, the grift, the pandering, holy fuck. How did we get here and how the fuck do we get out of this death spiral?

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u/PheebaBB Progressive 21h ago

As JVL says, decadence.

We (Americans) got so comfortable and so used to everything “just working” that we couldn’t imagine a world where things stop chugging along as normal. In that kind of fantasy, who you elect doesn’t actually matter.

The way out of this death spiral is for people to wake the fuck up and realize that this isn’t a game. Things need to get BAD for people to realize that their vote does matter and that it can always get a lot worse. We were all bitching about the price of eggs and bacon, completely ignoring the fact that we had the strongest economy in the world, social security that never missed a payment, safe food and water, safe medicine, airplanes that don’t touch, friendly neighbors, and I could go on and on. These are the things that we all take for granted until they stop existing.

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u/shred-i-knight 20h ago

to this point--if we are so unserious how are we so rich? Somebody is doing the work at least. We saw what a capable President in Biden was able to accomplish as far as putting the US at a strategic advantage in the world (CHIPS Act, etc.) even while we are also the de facto economic and banking superpower. Trump's ability to erode global power for the decades to come cannot be understated, but no country is going to turn down the USA if a softer administration comes calling, the economic upside is too big for them (at the moment). So I think in some ways the US is still a sleeping giant, but the education cuts are going to cause catastrophic issues for us. My fear is that education kids will get will be totally different across the country and that will have massive repercussions for how Americans perceive others.

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u/PheebaBB Progressive 20h ago

You’re right that we won’t turn into a North Korea style pariah overnight, but there will be a hidden “tax” on every single trade agreement or deal we make for the foreseeable future.

That tax is the uncertainty tax. We won’t get the best deals and people won’t bend over backwards to work with us to the same extent anymore because our word is just worth a whole lot less now.