Most people in other countries have a better understanding of what's wrong with the US than Americans do.

And yet for all that, when Americans are forced to confront reality, they are repulsed by the shamelessness and greed of the people in charge, the xenophobia and racist fearmongering, the jingoism, the out-of-touch liberal patronizing, and the sheer indifference to anyone who isn't white and wealthy.

If there is a silver lining to the Trump era, it's how none of these people, in either party, even bother to hide it anymore and how much disgust that provokes.

If you're politically aware and keep up with the news on a daily basis, even if you don't read any deep analysis, congratulations, you're in the 90th percentile of Americans. If you have even a basic grasp of US history such as Jim Crow, Reconstruction, etc., you're even higher than that. There is a reason they attacked journalism and education first.

So it's funny when people who think they're politically astute are constantly blindsided by what's happening because they believe more in the US, in the system, and in a political party like the Democrats than they do in a paradigm of human rights and dignity.

People who get their talking points and marching orders from the Democratic Party are, on the whole, useless. Because the Democrats have a vested interest in protecting the GOP and themselves, their wealth and their power.

Most people in other countries have a better understanding of what's wrong with the US than Americans do.

Like, the attempted Democratic rehabilitation of GW Bush and Dick Cheney is truly bizarre in a world where Trump represents the apotheosis of their politics and the GOP as a whole. Just utter lawless imperialism, racism, and cruelty. And it makes sense once you understand that this Democratic Party is full of former cheerleaders for Bush, Cheney, the War on Terror, and the surveillance and privacy nightmare they collectively unleashed. They like this stuff. They think it's a "win."

Everything is exactly as bad if not worse than those "radical" leftists have been saying for decades and some people are still like, "Huh? How could this happen?"

Most Americans consume either no news, state propaganda (e.g., Fox, CBS), elite propaganda (e.g., WaPo, NYT), or junk news (most online sources) and thus have a poor grasp of what is happening and almost zero context for why.

There basically aren't any trustworthy mainstream news sources anymore and the indifference of the political establishment means most people have given up. That's why local organizing about things people can see is so extremely important.

The corruption, the bipartisan complicity, the imperialist greed, the bigotry and xenophobia. The massive inequality that lets the wealthy own everything. The hollowing out of journalism and education. The surveillance, the lack of privacy. Oil companies in charge of foreign policy. Out of control cops and police budgets. Fucking genocide. Pogroms against vulnerable people. There was a literal pedophilia and sex trafficking ring connected to people at the highest levels of power!

So it's funny when people who think they're politically astute are constantly blindsided by what's happening because they believe more in the US, in the system, and in a political party like the Democrats than they do in a paradigm of human rights and dignity.

People who get their talking points and marching orders from the Democratic Party are, on the whole, useless. Because the Democrats have a vested interest in protecting the GOP and themselves, their wealth and their power.