You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context

How do we shake out these individualist brainworms? I see variations of this argument ALL the time: “A few people in group X are bad/irresponsible/not-like-me so no one can have the nice thing”

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points
*

I don’t think it is possible most of the time, they’re a lost cause. Individualism in the west is not just a personality trait but extremely tied to cultural behaviour and identity, rejecting individualism is often seen as attacking western/American values of freedom and autonomy.

Maybe it is possible in the rare cases this person happens to be a hypocrite and they happen to have benefitted from some form of government program or maybe they have some personal aspiration that could be fulfilled through some government plan but they don’t realize it due to misinformation.

I think a simple example was the Bernie campaign for healthcare and meeting people that still believed their insurance costs would be higher or their service quality would be worst somehow. At the very least you have to make sure they don’t have these false beliefs as part of the foundation.

But as I said imo American individualism is so tied to culture that nothing short of massive government re-education through a revolution would change anything. It is a lost cause really. The most you can hope for is these people are not the majority because eventualy they’ll become hypocrites themselves, material conditions etc eventually everyone will desire something and if that can be provided by society then it can be the start.

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

I often tell people the protestant mindset of the American population will never be killed. Work will always make the “man” and if a “man” does not work “he” does not eat is a fundamental part of that.

permalink
report
parent
reply

It’s absolutely the majority. It’s everywhere and so encompassing that I really don’t feel like I fit in here. And now I’m depressed 😞

permalink
report
parent
reply

the_dunk_tank

!the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

Create post

It’s the dunk tank.

This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.

Rule 3: No sectarianism.

Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome

Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)

Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.

Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances’ admins or moderators.

Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this. Posts that do not meet this requirement can be posted to !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml

Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again

Community stats

  • 2K

    Monthly active users

  • 20K

    Posts

  • 444K

    Comments