The weirdest thing about American culture

203 points · 40 comments · view on lemmy.world

40 Comments

umbrella@lemmy.ml · 20 pts · 29d (2 replies)

the worst part is that people still won't believe the government is still doing these things, or that new conspiracies are in motion. they don't seem to even want to confront these facts.

yogthos@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 29d (1 reply)

It really is amazing when you present people with all the horrible stuff that's been revealed, and they go oh yeah that all happened, but that was in the past. Like you have the same government with the same interests, same social and economic structures, but somehow think that the same type of society somehow produces different results today than it did previously. Just absolute brain worms.

PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 28d

It don't even have to be 20 years, some US propaganda stories were unraveled in mere days but this still didn't shaken libs at all.

davel@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 29d (1 reply)

It’s a krazy tankie konspiracy until it isn’t, over and over again.

yogthos@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 29d

and nobody ever learns anything in the process

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 29d (3 replies)

A limited hangout or partial hangout is a tactic used in media relations, perception management, politics, and information management. The tactic originated as a technique in the espionage trade.

According to Victor Marchetti, a former special assistant to the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a limited hangout is "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further".

calmblue75@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 26d (2 replies)

The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further".

Eh? Doesn't getting intrigued mean you want to know more?

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 25d (1 reply)

It means you want to consume the finer details of the limited hangout.

calmblue75@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 25d

That makes sense, thanks

ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 29d (8 replies)

Let me tell you what I think is weird about USians. Everyone knows they're ruled by a pedophile cabal who's above the law, yet everyone believes what they say about their enemies.

Everyone knows the pedophile cabal profits by causing death and destruction on a global scale, yet the people have unshakeable reverence for the murder squads.

Everyone knows they're a nation built on genocide and exploitation, and they're largely proud of the American Ideal

EmmiLime@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 28d

They will literally still repeat CIA propaganda that CIA themselves have admitted are false or there are de-classified documents that prove this. And if shown this they will not engage with it. Liberals are genuinely unsalvageable sometimes....

eldavi@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 29d (6 replies)

it makes me think that cognitive dissonance can be a self perpetuating thing forever.

davel@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 29d (5 replies)

Sure, cognitive dissonance can be self-perpetuating if it’s self-serving, otherwise it requires continued maintenance.

The worse things get under late capitalism, the less self-serving it becomes for the labor aristocracy, the more maintenance will be required.

RiverRock@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 28d

Over the last five years especially, I've noticed that the baseline squishy 'leftist' position on a bunch of topics has quietly, begrudgingly inched closer to what communists have always been saying, while many of the people themselves still take every opportunity to rail against communists. It's starting to feel like the Life of Brian "what have the romans ever done for us" bit. "Other than (this, that, a litany of events past and present)...when have the communists ever been right about anything?"

Or like you said, it's a crazy tankie conspiracy theory right up until it isn't.

Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 28d

Indeed.

Tribalism means that individuals will convince themselves that the group they feel that they belong to are "the good guys" and that the "leaders" of that group are the best kind of leader and doing the right things. This in turn reinforces their feeling of satisfaction with being a member of the group they think they're a member of.

It's a self-sustainable positive feedback cycle.

However, if for some reason people lose the feeling of belonging to that tribe and start feeling that "I'm not like these people", all that starts to unwind.

trolololol@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 28d (2 replies)

Labor aristocracy

The WHAT?

Zerush@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 29d (11 replies)

They measure things with body parts and random units. Eating industrial waste, believing it's food.

davel@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 29d (10 replies)

My feet are always with me. Do you carry a meter stick everywhere you go? I thought not.

Zerush@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 29d (9 replies)

Ok, if it is allowed to remove your shoe to measure a furniture you want to buy, i.e. only if your foot actually measures exactly one foot

davel@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 29d (8 replies)

My guy, every foot measures exactly one foot.

Fancy_Gecko@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 29d (2 replies)

my foot or your foot ?

davel@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 29d

Yes.

trolololol@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 28d

On your ass? I don't mind which foot 😂😎

Zerush@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 28d (4 replies)

Yes, and 1 pound is everywhere 1 pound, even on the Moon. The US don't have even a different unit for weight and mass. because when the imperial system was invented they thought that it was the same.

piranhaconda@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 28d (3 replies)

Uh... But a pound IS a pound on the moon, it's a unit of force/weight not mass (I wish we [the US] used metric, just being annoyingly pedantic for fun)

Edit: Aaaand apparently my brain didn't read your whole comment, you already addressed the weight/mass thing. Long day, laying in bed w headache, can't read

davel@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 28d
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 28d (1 reply)

You say it, a Pound is a Pound weight on earth, but weight depends on gravity, so a Pound is only 1/6 Pound on the Moon Imperial system is obsolet crap, maybe enough for a farmer, but in tecnology, science, where you need to work with measures of μ, feet and inches are as usefull like roman numbers for integrals.

piranhaconda@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 28d

A pound is still a pound on the moon, since it's a unit of force not mass. It just requires more mass for a scale to measure that force. I'm an engineer that works on spacecraft, I know units, and hate the imperial system and all the conversions I have to do

Edit: and it's still useful to differentiate between mass and weight/force, just depends on the context. A doctor would want to know an astronaut's mass to accurately track health. But writing up a fitness plan to maintain muscle mass and bone density, force/weight is more relevant because squatting 100 kilograms on the moon isn't as useful a metric as setting it to a specific force in pounds/newtons

altphoto@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 28d

The concentration camps. We have concentration camps now. Those things.

pineapple@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 28d (1 reply)

trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 28d

Are we really doing Assadism in 2026

pineapple@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 28d (4 replies)

Why do they declassify them at all? It would be much easier if they just kept them classified.

yogthos@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 28d (3 replies)
dessalines@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 28d (1 reply)

This is correct. By exposing some but not all of the picture, they get to manage the story, and steer it in acceptable directions.

If its a full leak that's out of their control, then heads start rolling.

yogthos@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 28d

Yup, and another side of it is that having these disclosures lets defenders of the system say that there is transparency, and and that's why, despite the flaw, the system really does work overall. Sure, all these terrible things happen, but there is accountability, and disclosure, so really it's all fine.

pineapple@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 28d

Thanks

Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 28d

2, every 2 years or so. They are 20 years old, but throughput is 0.5/year.

Fancy_Gecko@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 29d

and every time the answer is , nothing !