I still hear plenty of people say that not only are they the same but what is happening right now would have happened regardless who was president.

I simply do not understand the world these ppl live in

what electrocuting Pokemon of other races until they submit isn’t racist enough for you?

All versions of Pikachu are racist

Been speed running a slave class with private prisons. I believe they are prepared.

The American market is a massive part of some companies yes. But most companies only have a small percentage of revenue in the US.

Listen… the US is just one country. Its a big one and one that buys a lot. But still one country. Many companies can compensate the loss of that market by exploring the many other markets that they have down played. Furthermore, the availability of products that would have gone to the US may even make it cheaper to make and sell products everywhere else than in the US

hate and stupidity go hand in hand

There’s also the time JCPenney’s actually had everything at the best price and so they weren’t doing discounts. But everyone was waiting for the ‘sales’. Your average American would rather have something be marked up $200 and then listed as 75% off than just pay $50 regular price.

I’m in the same boat as you. I think I’m pretty middle of the pack. The bottom is filled with genuine morons.

Gonna spend the rest of my life knowing I’m surrounded by fucking morons. And I’m not some genius. I had a typical public education. I guess the difference is I actually paid attention.

Yep, I’m smart enough to know I’m not that smart. But I can at least look around me and go “This isn’t normal, right?”

It’s a weird fucking curse to have. Smarter than the average American due to the decades of under-funding the education system. I know how to use a computer more than boomers and younger people stuck using machines locked down by corporations.

Ask me to do a math question higher than high school level? I’m going to flounder. You ask me who was president in 1890 without looking it up, I probably know it. And I know that’s not exactly a flex, it’s probably overall better to know more advanced math than trivia, but it’s just how my brain works.

And yet I’m still smarter than Trump and his cultists.

What’s the George Carlin quote? Something about how stupid the most average person you know is, then realize that 50% of people are dumber than that?

Yeah, I dunno broseph. Lots of other first world countries have things like universal healthcare, paternity leave, significant and mandatory vacation, longer lifespans, generally higher quality of life and happiness, politics that aren’t straight up clown shows, more human rights.

You’ve successfully nailed an obvious generalization that there are stupid people everywhere, but the point is that stupidity is hyper-concentrated in the good ol’ US of A. As is evident.

Just accept it. We have free healthcare for 50 years.

oh boy, you really showed them!

Doesn’t help that a whole lot of idiots also think it’s somehow very clever of them to “rise above” it all by acting like it’s “both sides”. This is what passes (for a special kind of smug idiot) for political acumen.

Of course, the “liberal media” harps on the “both sides” thing all the freaking time. Which is why I find it mighty curious that a lot of supposed “leftists” take up that mantra, too.

Amongst wealthy countries, the US scores above average in science and reading comprehension, and are only really showing lag in mathematics. In terms of critical thinking, this has been a baked-in element of the curriculum, that was intentionally baked-in, for a long time now. Most countries are this way, and those that have dedicated time to specifically critical thinking, as its own subject, are relatively new, and not many do it, in primary education, yet. So this means the US is not unique in how poorly students are taught critical thinking, amongst countries with similar levels of resources.

Also, baby boomers demonstrated a lower level of critical thinking skills, than kids do today, they also show sharper cognitive decline, earlier in life, than X, and millennials have been. So is it that the conservatives have been trying to disassemble the public school system, to move funds to privatized education, thus eroding the common access to education? If so, why does the US actually score well compared to its peers? Why is it that the oldest common generation is actually the worst of the common generations, still alive, for things like critical thinking, and cognitive decline?

So there is some other factor(s) that make the US seem to stand out on this issue, amongst peers. Could it be US media specifically empowering the voice of morons, because outrage drives viewership, and profit is the only goal to US news/media companies? Is it that the elites within the conservative party have redesigned their entire party structure, and playbook, to empower morons, because morons vote for them more often than not? Is it a combination of these factors, and others, that have been shaping the US in this fashion? Could this be why we have been seeing greater, and greater, pushes from political influence groups, in other countries, that have ties to US wealth? Things like dismantling the NHS, establishing US style media as the dominant party in places like europe (murdoch family owned outlets getting larger pieces of the pie, and pushing sentiment to dismantle not for profit sources, like the BBC, and NPR/PBS, for example), far right parties, trump cocksuckers, putin cocksuckers, etc. have been on the rise for past ten plus years? Could it also be that people are growing increasingly disaffected with capitalism, and there are a lot of people lashing out, lacking understanding of what is causing life to be more difficult, and reaching out, in desperation, to anyone who sounds different from those who got us here, even if it should be obvious those people would likely make these specific issues worse? Is it that these things are also compounded with a growing desire, amongst the growing disproportionately wealthy set, to push all the bad aspects of societal structure, to hasten its collapse, and then swoop in to take over directly?

IMHO it is all of the factors in the previous paragraph, and others I haven’t bothered to bring up, and not so much the education system, at least not yet. Sorry for the word vomiting in this post.

Indeed, add in all the religious meddling in educational curriculum and you’ve got a recipie for an ignorant population.

That is objectively false. Other countries are far more educated.

You can’t possibly be this naive.

BS If an item costs an extra $100 to put on a shelf, the retailer will still want to cover the costs of obtaining and spending that $100. No-one is going to use funds commercially, for free. WTF do you think retailers will be good keeping the same profit, numerically, whilst spending 145% more for it?

Less if anything.

You buy something from China for $100. Add packing, staff costs and delivery and you sell it retail for say $200. A nice healthy profit margin.

Now you add the 145%, so it costs $245 from China. None of the rest of it will cost you more. Still an extra $100, for $345 total.

The retail customer pays an extra (345/200=) 72.5% instead.

It’s a lot, but not 145%.

So if your retail price goes up by 145% or more, they either weren’t making a lot of profit before, or they’re greedy bastards.

I think “corporate greed” is a good explanation for pretty much all our problems.

This is what the democratic party has to learn. Your sister is a sizable representation of the electorate. They have no goddamn idea how anything works. They voted purely based on vibes. You have to capture the terminally unengaged and uninformed voters if you want to be able to stay in power.

Ah, because of the famous inflation dial in the US president’s office which Biden kept cranked up for shits and giggles. Well known fact.

She sounds like a single issue voter.

Thats really the biggest problem. People not looking at the whole candidate.

its low information voters that mostly voted for him besides the incels/joe roegan people.

No the non-voters are just as responsible for this mess.

SpongeBob.

It also doesn’t fuck up life for everyone else on the planet, which is a boon.

I’m in the Deep South, I bet by end of week I see a place charging “Fuck China” surcharges.