• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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      Doesn’t necessarily need to. Would open the door to many other awful laws based on single cases. Found a single case of gay men sexually abusing children? Ban homosexuality act enacted. Some gamer shoot up a school? Gaming banned.

      The UK might have banned consensual extreme pornography after one death, but it shouldn’t be the norm. If anything, it should be seen as an infringement on human rights by anti-rights activists.

    • ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host
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      Quick search indicates 342 million people in the United States according to their census, i tried to find the total amount of American citizens but that statistics doesn’t appear easy to find, if we divide it in half and say 171 million US citizens who all potentially own 1 maybe 2 maybe 5 maybe 10 firearms, even if the laws were to change federally at any point do you think every citizen is going to comply?

      Even the Canadian government struggles confiscating firearms from licensed owners, and that’s closer to 2 million firearms now prohibited, I can’t imagine how Americans would handle it.

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    And then the main conspiracy nuts are going “Nyeh!”, because it was about overthrowing a democratically elected government, and not rolling out communism (read: Obamacare).

  • Themosthighstrange@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    someone post all the major things the cia has done in the last 70 years by bullet point, much has been declassified and the fact none of the public is freaking out over the things they have done is maddening

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
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      Well yeah, the CIA has done horrible stuff in the 40s, and the 50s, and the 60s… And the 70s and 80s and 90s… And some stuff in the 00s.

      But now? They probably learned their lesson.

    • nelly_man@lemmy.world
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      The most recent thing that I learned about was that the CIA secretly worked with Boris Hagelin when he formed Crypto AG in the 1950s to ensure that encryption devices sold to foreign countries were easy to break by American intelligence agencies. Then in the 1970s, the CIA secretly purchased Crypto AG and owned it until 2018.

      Crypto AG sold devices to countries across South America, Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia. Basically, all of tge US’s adversaries aside from the USSR and China.

    • leg@leminal.space
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      I fruck out about it the first 10 or so times I found out about these things, but it doesn’t hit the same after a while. This is just what the US is. I vote, I speak my mind, I engage in a little domestic terrorism, but ultimately I don’t have enough power to change things in my lifetime. I’m crossing my fingers for an organized network of assassins with a conscience to materialize.

        • leg@leminal.space
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          I tend to agree. I would just like if a certain type of person didn’t have the kind of power that destroys the environment and worsens lives for ends that only serve to benefit that same type of person. How that happens doesn’t matter to me, but assassins would be quick and final. Collective action from the people would make me feel better for the future though.

  • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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    I have a co-worker who fought in Vietnam. I showed him the thing about the Pentagon straight up admitting that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was bullshit, but he refused to accept it. Still feels that we had to fight that war because if we had allowed the communists to win, it would have meant that communism would have taken over the world … even though we actually did lose that war.

      • Kairos@lemmy.today
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        Any time someone brings up the draft I remind them the last time the U.S. did a draft it was for a war that they lost, and justified due to things that never actually happened after the U.S. lost.

        So basically the U.S. enslaved and sent tens of thousands of people to their deaths for no reason.

          • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days ago

            Draftees make horrible soldiers, especially in unpopular wars which, lets be honest, have been all of the US’ military engagements since 1945. I think the military would rather do without them and the grenades that tend be dropped into the tents of sleeping COs.

            • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
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              My wife and I were talking about a draft for Iran and whether they would widen the age range they’re looking for and try to draft me. I said that if they tried, I would promise them that if they handed me a gun that I would use it to kill as many high ranking American officers as I could because I’m much more dangerous than a pacifist or conscientious objector; I will actively sabotage a war that I don’t believe in and that I’m forced to participate in. So I think they’d let me stay home. If you force me to give my life for a cause, I’m gonna be the one to pick the cause.

              • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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                Depends how everything else is going. Probably at the point we have a draft to go to Iran, we’ll already be an authoritarian state and your options are to go to to war or to ICE camp. You think Russians are volunteering to die in Ukraine?

                But I’d be curious if that would have worked in Vietnam. I’m guessing they would just put a note in your file to subject you to as much abuse as possible or just kill you the way they did Pat TIllman. Conscientious Objector status is a really a sop to religion, otherwise I think a lot of people could qualify for it.

                Edit: Get out of the US if you at all can.

      • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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        Well it largely never played out because western capitalists spilled so much blood making sure it wouldn’t. If people had been free to decide for themselves, many more countries would have gone communist, as it has better outcomes for the majority of people than capitalism.

  • terwn43lp@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    we show you a price, then charge more at checkout

    it’s easier to get a gun than a doctor’s appointment

    tipping

    pharmaceutical commercials

    casually having the largest prison population in the world and pretending it’s normal

    violence on tv is okay, but no cussing or sexuality

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      it’s easier to get a gun than a doctor’s appointment

      A lot of times, it’s cheaper too!

      tipping

      I don’t think tipping is weird on it’s own, but the default expectation of tipping, and the fuckery around wages that makes tips essential to earning “a living” instead of a nice bonus is definitely weird.

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        Tipping is weird on its own. The idea that you are showing gratitude by pushing money on someone is gross at best and downright offensive at worst.

        If someone tried to thank me with a hand full of change I’d tell them to fuck off.

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            If it were 20s or 100s it would be more insulting, you understand this, no?

            If it’s the difference between paying rent or not then it’s a huge problem that the behaviour exists to enable that situation. If it weren’t a cultural behaviour it would be called panhandling.

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          I see it as an extra “thank you” if someone goes above and beyond what I was expecting for a service. It’s not something that should be given out lightly or something that is expected, but I also know that tipping is necessary for people in some jobs to make a living. It’s not a fault of their own, but a fault of a system that saw a benefit they were getting, and was like “oh, we can just under-pay these employees and use tipping as leverage against them.” Do I hate the tipping system in the US? Absolutely. Am I going to impose financial stresses (by not tipping) on the waitstaff at a restaurant in order to make a point about how badly they are compensated for their work? Absolutely not.

        • ReptilianCleric@lemmy.zip
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          Considering that giving cash to someone under any other circumstances is considered tacky (even gift certificates/cards are more acceptable, and that’s just cash with limits on where/how you can spend it), it is weird that tipping is so ingrained in our culture. And unsettling, to be honest…

    • thefluffiest@feddit.nl
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      3 days ago

      Nothing about this is new. The authoritarianism, the concentration camps, the dispossessions, the witch-hunt of immigrants and people with a darker skin, the fearmongering, the robber baron oligarchs. We’ve all been here before. And not just once.

      The truly astonishing cultural trait is that Americans keep on living in lalaland and pretend it isn’t happening, it never happened, and it COULD never happen cuz yada yada the Constitution and We The People and the second amendment.

      Americans are one shortsighted bunch willing to swallow any and all propaganda.

      • Noxy@pawb.social
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        COINTELPRO: surveil and oppress and facilitate violence towards black folks for daring to not want to be quite so oppressed

        MKUltra: jerk off dolphins while playing with acid

  • trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    One thing that, uh, amuses(?) me is that apparently there’s still a national emergency from 9/11: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/03/2025-16941/continuation-of-the-national-emergency-with-respect-to-certain-terrorist-attacks

    You know how Hitler rose to power by abusing a national emergency regulation? You know how there was worry of Trump doing a fascism, back when Obama handed over to the guy? You know how Trump literally announced beforehand that he’ll do a fascism, when Biden handed over to him?

    Both could’ve chosen to terminate the national emergency. Neither did so.

    https://www.courthousenews.com/biden-extends-9-11-state-of-emergency-by-a-year/

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      25 years ago, I could see how they had a kind of rugged romantic working appeal back when trucks were four wheels, chassis, big engine, and two seats. They don’t seem to make those any more, I only seem to see the giant luxury wanker variety.

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    My favorite weird thing about American culture is that it is so aggressive. Aggressive food (PopTarts, Big Gulps, etc), aggressive games (football), aggressive national anthem (literally about war), and so on. We are an oddly aggressive people.

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    Theoretically that’s what the 2A guns are meant to be for…

    But doesn’t really work out that way when the adversary is your own Government, who has access to very arguably the best armed police force and military in the world, and is more than willing to turn those on you.

  • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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    Their constitution is a divine document, dictated by the elder gods which cannot be altered in any way (including the amendments, oddly enough) and which can solve any problem and contains every truth.

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      American civil religion

      American civil religion is a sociological theory that a nonsectarian civil religion exists within the United States with sacred symbols drawn from the national history of the United States. Scholars have portrayed it as a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration. The ritualistic elements of ceremonial deism found in American ceremonies and presidential invocations of God can be seen as expressions of the American civil religion.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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        I’ve always thought of this as being very bizarre and I don’t know if something similar has ever emerged in another country so far.

        The US has birthed lots of very weird ideas.

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      Also the sort of person who shouts that the loudest, will happily go along with any suggestion that the amendments they don’t like were a corruption of the true spirit of the Constitution and should be repealed.

    • DoucheBagMcSwag
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      2 days ago

      Actually that’s incorrect in terms of the “cannot be altered”. The constitution can be altered via a ratification by 38 / 50 states or 2/3rds of congress. With a supermajority being required, this would mean that the proposed amendment would have to be bipartisan… Which means it’s almost impossible to do, especially nowadays… Unless the country were to take a major shift left or right (or more likely the elections become rigged)

      Last time this happened though was in 1992

      thank goodness because if it was too easy, the “two terms” would have been amended already by the Party of Trump

      No wonder he wants to “federalize elections.” Just look what’s been happening in Nicaragua since 2013 which has finally come to a head (although Ortega’s judges just straight up nullified the term limit…

      On paper the USA SCOTUS cannot do this since they can only interpret …but they can take away teeth to enforce which they have done before… they just can’t straight up say “nah that’ part of the constitution is nullified.” Like what happened in Nicaragua in 2013

      • NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip
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        I mean, they’ve already reinterpreted parts of the Constitution to not mean exactly what it says. They can wordsmith their way around the 22nd amendment if enough of them find politically advantageous. I’m sure Alito has a draft ruling already ready to go.