To own the libs!
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
191 points (90.6% liked)
Ask Lemmy
29800 readers
1604 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
YEA!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
'MURICA
Please send help
Help ? You mean prayers ?
"preventable disease" and "Americans" are very broad terms
We're concerned, we just can't afford health care
So why do Republicans like Jesse Watters say things like, "I'm offended that Canada wouldn't want to be a part of america."
Every cult has as one of its core tenets that only evil, terrible people wouldn't want to be part of it.
The U.S. is currently being run by a cult.
Not everyone in the U.S. is part of that cult. But a damned lot of the population of the U.S. is.
Source: Am american.
I hate that you’re right.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Probably the same reason Europeans drink and smoke too tbh
The risk seems worth it. Either because the see it as lower than it is or that the loss of life less valuable than others see it.
We also have a chronic disposition toward optimism. You know “the American dream” and all that.
So a disease with a 10% mortality rate has a 90% survival rate. And 90% is bigger than 50%, so when you factor in chronic optimism it’s basically a 100% survival rate in our brains.
Because, in spite (or perhaps because of) the 'rough individualist' propaganda, most Americans have a strong sense of powerlessness and that all they can do is keep their head down and hope for the best. It veers into some really absurdist fatalism at times.
t. leftist American from a conservative area who still keeps tabs on family
who still keeps tabs on family
Oof.
Luckily, the family member I'm closest to, my mother, is religiously fundamentalist and nationalist in a way that vaccinated her against MAGA, bizarrely. So talking to her is like having a 10+ year window into the past.
But yeah, for the rest, oof.
I think many of us don't realize that there's a better option. As in, this is just the way it is. Many who do learn there are alternatives then fall to propaganda about how the alternatives are worse or communist, etc.
Because we are so far removed from poor conditions that some of us don't even think they exist. And since they've never seen it, misinformation can just slide right in.
we have a domestic cult that doesn't listen to anything outside of the cult. for the people not in the cult, most are not against medicine and other modern things. some of us are actual scientists and feel like we just live here.
People only care about narratives, and a side effect of having a scientific/naturalistic worldview is that things like disease become narratively inert.
People used to care a lot more about diseases when they could be given narrative causes like witchcraft or demons.