As a (quite young) American myself....you're absolutely right, and I'd imagine most, if not all people on this sub agree with your words.

It's sad, but the majority of people are too deeply saturated in a carefully manufactured illusion (media, pop culture, material possessions, etc.) that they either don't really know what is going on, or don't give a fuck.

I guess it comes down to what/when the tipping point will really be: where shit hits the fan, and people are truly outraged to the point of extreme unified action against their government. In a long line of government "changes" driven by infringed citizens globally, the US is just another corrupt country in line of major structural change in many aspects.

in a carefully manufactured illusion (media, pop culture, material possessions, etc.)

This is exactly it. The chains feel light right now because everyone's distracted by fads. Look at the people we worship... Kardashians, Hiltons, Jersey Shore, etc. A shameless lust for wealth and fame.

Everyone thinks they have a chance at that "dream" (more like a nightmare to me) and it keeps them docile.

Everyone thinks they have a chance at that "dream" (more like a nightmare to me) and it keeps them docile.

I agree. We have started to build a nation of people who are starting to believe that you don't really need to do anything to be famous, that you only need to be caught on camera and seen by many people-and more and more, we are starting to lose sight of what is actually important and even truly necessary in life.

The problem is that most people are obsessed with fame, but its delusional because they want it without having to create or really do anything.

Especially after Vietnam. They didn't want another Hippie revolution. So they seem to produce much more shows that are extremely stupid, but keeps the public wanting to watch it. That, and having the "next big thing." I.E. Iphones

Fear. I'm afraid of rioting. I don't want pepper spray in my face. I don't want to get jailed. I don't want to lie on a cell floor with 20 other rioters, bound and unfed, sleeping beside a toilet. I just don't think rioting in the streets will accomplish anything - the media will label you crazy, and the average joe might even agree with them. You'll definitely get arrested, and you might even get shot.

That's a lot of fear to overcome for an American populace that hasn't woken up yet. Count me in when I can stand in the streets with more than just a handful of others, because I just don't want to go to jail or be shot. I can't risk it, I don't want to risk it.

Maybe that makes me and people like me weak, but that's the truth.

There are worse things in life than death, perhaps. What if you've no life to begin with?

I think you're exactly right, and when Americans feel oppressed enough that we feel as if we have no life at all we may stand strong and in force fight that which oppresses us. But until then, I very much have a life and going to jail (a fate worse than death if it's indefinite) would eradicate that life. Young people, with things like careers in their future, would probably look at even a temporary time in jail as the destruction of the life they could have had, if they had a "clean" record.

We're definitely in one heck of a pickle.

Your points are valid, but what of this: We will continue to suffer as long as we think in terms of "I" or "me", instead of "us" and "we". In many ways, the continued suffering may be necessary.

We have been divided. And conquered.

most americans worship the main stream media and that of course is 100% propaganda.Mockingbird.Cointelpro.Paperclip. They worship sports and wealth. They worship trite entertainment. There are many who have awakened from the consumer slumber and I hope enough to make a difference. I have my doubts. The corrupt Luciferian military worships war and the so called christian church worships the military. We are deff preparing for a fight,at least we can say that. We know who has betrayed us by name. They are currently at war with the economy, drugs,any country they can hijack and exploit,possibly the american people,Iran. How many more wars do they think they can fight and still win? Once the war breaks out with the american people I think our competition will be stunned by the amount or fire they take coming from within their own ranks. We will kick tyranny in the face until it is dead.

Thanks for your concern.

The way I see it, 99% of the people that I am surround by daily (co workers and acquaintances from my daily path), you cannot even talk about anything related to politics or anything other than weather and work. Maybe they know whats up but the solidarity is just not there. Very divided people in my opinion. I was born and raised not in America, so ever since I have been here I have noticed that. But now in the times that we are, it is even more evident.

Solidarity….that is the short answer. But then if they had this, we wouldnt be in this mess in the firstplace. .

Excellent points. Particularly:

But always keep in mind, if you are talking to someone who is clearly against your mindset and acting a fool, stay calm, continue your conversation in a respectful manner. You may not change that persons mind, but you may change the mind or pique the interest of others listening.

It's like the common idiom, something along the lines of, "if you have to yell, you've already lost". People, for differing reasons, WATCH other people obsessively, as if with a magnifying glass. It is not a unique trait. People will notice your calm, rationale, and compassion. They may not agree with you at the time, but they sure will remember the guy who "lost". They will intuitively sense why he lost and they will remember how not to be "that guy" (who loses his cool). If nothing else, the calm person has just taught a lesson on the virtues of remaining calm. It may have been taught to just one bystander, tens, hundreds, or thousands, etc. They in turn, consciously or not, will teach others. This is what is essential. Large masses of people, in the long run, interpreting the world with a calm, clear mind. In this case it would truly appear "that it is better to lose a battle in order to win the war". As a bonus, you might win some of the battles, too.

Fluoride in the water. Heavy metals in the air. Poison in the Food. The T.V to control their minds.

All rioting will do is strip us from even more rights and expand our ever growing police state. Hell anything we do expands the fucking police state. There are a lot of us who recognize what's going on and what our future is going to look like on our current course, but there are more who don't see any of it. Until we can wake up enough people and unite under a common goal then I don't think we will see any real change.

Yes you can't riot when the American police don't count you as an American like them because they have to follow the rules and they think you don't.

I will try to be as brief as possible.

Our education system has been decimated. Completely and utterly decimated.

When one's language and thus understanding of abstract thoughts is hindered than ideas like "Liberty" become nullified. So many Americans do not even know their rights are under attack simply because they cannot even conceptualize ideas. Trying to explain to a person why they have a right to anything becomes increasingly impossible when the person has been robbed of the thinking tools necessary to even grasp the concept.

I talk to many people who are not educated and what I find is that most of the time they simply check out when faced with hard concepts. Hard, to them, pretty basic to someone who has had education or at least been infused with self proliferating morality.

We are now experiencing generations of people raised by previously educationally inept adults and the problem snow balls.

There are more factors including Sphere of Concern (dictated by entertainment and media) and a value systems re calibration (valuing money vs Integrity).

However, I feel the destruction (not corrosion, I feel there was intent behind what happened to our education) is the most telling since there are people who would not even be able to understand my last paragraph and thus renders them helpless against the will of others.

To add.

This is why you will see Americans become unreasonably upset with a choice made on a reality TV series rather than very real rights being taken. It is not because Americans lack gusto, passion or pride. It is simply because they don't understand. Take away a man's ability to rationalize and you have truly created a slave.

It's because we value our credit rating more than we value our human rights.

As an older American, I can assure you I too thought this way when I was younger. I wanted it to be a nice clean everybody lets get along drum circle.

In reality its not. At the foundation, we have to eat, and from that hunger strives the VITAL need to continuously improve and adapt. A state that provides and protects all of its people will one day, over long periods of time, forget the force that requires them continuously improve. In short, the Idiocracy nanny-state occurs.

Our industries largely exist due to the prevalence of self-destructive behaviors. Our government largely imposes on those that are nieve and think it is there to help them. It is not. It is fundamentally evil, wrapped in occult symbols. The necessity of it being evil is at the root of the American realization. It is there as a lesson to our people, who either learn from it and become a better warrior for life... or die from its vast insidious grasp.

Fighting its existence is equally as futile. Most young men will attempt to fight it's existence, nieve to just how powerful it is. This is fundamentally by design. There is a way to change it though. That is through evolution and awakening. The industries of vice are largely there to make us wiser. This is what the foundational Jewish texts are about. The existence of evil and a "God" that perpetuates it.

Fundamentally, America is more prosperous than all other nations because it acknowledges and enshrines a concept which many try to delude themselves into believing doesn't exist. Evil.

Word to the wise kids, your pot will become legal. And then it will become poisoned.

We are a divided nation, fearful of our fellow man, trained to ostracized those who disturb our image of our Country.

No one is willing to listen to the truth, and to those of us reading right, you know it true.

In a large city, you can go a year with out meeting your neighbors, Our propaganda machine is strongest in the conspiracy movement, look at what it's done the the 9-11 Truther movement inside the tea party, and Ron Paul supporters.

Get a bunch of Independent left leaning young people and flash Ron Paul in front of us, and then Bait and switch us with ROMNEY? Talk all about the birthers and the Obama deception (Alex Jones Operation Mocking Bird?), never any mention of Loose Change or Zeitgeist.

Americans Riot... 1.) Gas prices relatively are low.

2.) Food is very cheap

3.) Kept divided and Entertained.

4.) Majority cannot sustain any idea, or movement for longer than a month. {They put stuff in the water}

I love how, despite some speculation, loose change was marginalized as much as it was and not noted for it's action; During a time where I was given death threats for even mentioning that 9/11 was not what it appeared to be, loose change was the first of a slew of films where people dared to question. Those guys took so much heat for that film and thankfully they opened the forum to questioning.

And Zeitgeist gets marginalized too, I hear it refereed to as a "cult". Communal town hall meetings where people talk about how to infuse science and art to create an alternative infrastructure as a way to offer a different reality is the furthest thing from a cult.

Thanks for giving those two an honorable mention :D

Why aren't we rioting in the streets? A combination of bread/circuses/disinformation, and brutal repression, particularly of people outside or who are trying to change the political system. Militarized police, the gulag system and COINTELPRO are the most well known examples of this.

Basically it provides a way for people who have enough to get by to ignore what is going on, while brutally repressing those who can't make a living in the system, or start to make serious moves against it.

Dividing and conquering is part of it as well. For example working class blacks and whites don't trust each other by and large, and often look down on each other. But in reality these groups have far more in common then they think. Its like what happened in the post Civil War South, for a time the poor whites allied with the blacks to form political coalitions, but these coalitions where trumped by racist propaganda and klan activities.

Fear, lack of unity, not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel, not seeing any way possible to challenge how things are? When you know that your police will defend the banks, corporations, and government statures then you know you can't trust your police. Your national Guard has been used and will be used again against US citizens, so you can't rely on them. You've seen your comrades get arrested and beaten senseless for being peaceful in their protest against the government, so if that is what peaceful gets you, can you imagine what violence would? Not being able to get in contact with other like minded people, the propaganda machine and nark culture in the States means that finding someone who is willing to fight beside you is a very hard task. All these reasons and more.

Dude TV

The most controlled people are the ones who think they aren't controlled.

I think because it largely is not being enforced, so people are practically unaffected.

Sure all communications are being recorded, but beyond a few edge cases nothing is really happening to the average dude. At some point in the future when the average dude is sitting at a job interview or claiming a benefit and a post he made on facebook 2 years ago is brought up, perhaps the connection will be made.

Same thing with indefinite detention - while the law is now similar, it's not like east germany where your neighbors are being rounded up in the middle of the night without explanation and not seen again for years. For the vast vast vast majority of US citizens, it does not affect them at this time.

I ask the same question to myself every day.

If all of America could agree that the time to act is now and simply did not, you'd be right.

And you're still right, with one small exception. The average American is (forgive the comparison) like Cypher from The Matrix. They know they are in cahoots with people of questionable motive, but the rewards are sweet and keep them comfortable. Then they look at Iraqis, Syrians, Lybians, and assume that is their fate if they resist. That is, if they even think that hard about it at all. "Ignorance is bliss."

Even my own mother is under the impression that America will simply right itself, like it has so many times before. But this is a coping mechanism. Americans are pummeled constantly with advertising that tells them they aren't whole enough yet, that they are powerless without more more more money and more more more things to fill the inexplicable need for actual civic discourse and rectification of injustice that tugs at them daily. Many Americans have simply given up on self-introspection all together as a necessity of the survival grind placed upon them. Along with the title 'wage slave'.

I suspect this is a large contributor in the celebrity worship that is so prevalent in our culture - to aspire to be in control of your fame and fortune and be important enough to have a voice that matters. Even this is an illusion painted to give the sense of a Zion existing somewhere out there, where your rights still exist and you are free, if only you can possess enough talent and money to get there. it's the prevailing myth in ghettos and colleges from coast to coast. And that's why they don't teach statistics anymore.

But Americans aren't free to pursue their goals as they see fit. Americans are as trapped under infrastructure rubble as any Iraqi, unable to afford to leave the country and unwilling to do so out of an ingrained fear of the monolithic dark skinned other. This same fear causes suburban expansion that drives up living costs and destroys quality of life until it's a fine grey noise of daily grind, without room for deviant behavior or thought.

As you can see, many Americans have had their childhoods extended in perpetuity, and you can hear it when you attempt logical discussion with some of us. But most are far from stupid. This is the final hope for retribution, perhaps. That one day the regime will become so bold it will over estimate it's grip on the mind of the country.

But if you pay any attention to our politics, you'll note that the Corporate structure has been very careful to sever itself from the court of public opinion over the past decade, and with quite a great measure of success. I'm afraid America is the Fourth Reich, and they are going to make a real push at global dominance - first and foremost on the backs of Americans. And by the time most of America realizes it's time to act, they will be dead, dying or behind bars.

Because they have not learnt from the past and are too comfortable with their ease of access to fast food.

why does any country

Mass Stockholm syndrome and normalcy bias.

You should be just as concerned about your own home, no one is safe from the New World Order.

"The people shouldn't fear the government, the government should fear the people." - V What has made our nation strong is not the arm holding the gun, the hand writing the laws, nor the head speaking for the country, but the heart made of people fed up with social oppression in their homelands and instead chose to forge destiny for themselves but now the pulse is weakened by those who allow themselves to be trampled. George Washington and all the founding fathers would today be considered terrorists, essentially be "black-bagged" and water boarded before disappearing forever. Those who refuse to resist under the banner of patriotism are not evil but misguided, patriotism is good when deserved but there is a higher loyalty, the bettering of Mankind. Remember, right now we are bound by ropes which are much easier to break than chains. "A man chooses, a slave obeys."- Andrew Ryan

Because TV.

A lot of people are immigrants and do not understand anything about this country. They just think about money.

It starts with morning cartoons and then the constant brain washing in the public schools at 1st grade. It's hard to overcome a cult.

Unfortunately, we have a government that will act like a mafia if any wheel gets too squeaky. A revolution started by one person at a time is too slow for today's quick handed corruption.

I've tried spreading the word and I've wanted to move to Canada for as long as I can remember. I was telling a girl about the gun restrictions and how the constitution is being challenged and she called me a liar, like it wasn't happening already. She said as soon as they challenge her constitution she'll start a riot. I was like hey idiot you better start rioting then. But instead she went back to her teen mom marathons and watching the local news thinking those are the real problems. She said there's no way that can happen, I looked her dead in the face and said, "I'm sure that's what the Romans thought, that their empire would never fall." And walked away and clocked off work, hopefully it scared her a little

It a lack of proper education mixed with apathy.

American: Canada has an Army? lol

Canadian: Yes we do.

America: A little help?

[deleted]

when you do get into school and debt, you can't afford to throw away education with your newly aquired debt. You must keep your head down in the books, not out in the streets protesting.

Either once drones start killing citizens 'domestic terrorists' or when enough people have disappeared overnight and the average joe can finally put the two pieces of puzzle together.

http://i.imgur.com/im9Lb7H.jpg

What is going on as far as our rights are concerned is all about the dollar bill. The propaganda you see on the T.V. is just that. When the big move comes, which is away from the petro dollar, and the dollar collapses on itself it won't be just us that collapses.

Well, physical rioting isn't going to help. (We do have the strongest army) what we need is to strike against the things they believe they are feeding us. Gas is a HUGE one! Stop spending on that and we'll have them begging.

True.

As soon as possible I am expatriating to Europe, Nordic area, country undecided. It's a tossup between Finland and Iceland.

Internal war and strife? I'm outta hear and across the border to Canada. They are easier relations with Europe anyways.

I am also planning an exodus with a group of friends to Finland, we have friends in that country and they are telling us to get out as soon as we can. Done a ton of research about Finland, if Start Trek society ever really happens, it will be from the Nordic countries.

How can I start the process of expatriating? From the little I know, the first step is to look into dual-citizenship as a bridge to becoming a resident.

In spite of the childish and irreverent personality I portray on Reddit, I am a fairly stable and respectful person. (Fairly stable meaning that if anything endangers my daughter there is the slight risk of me going ballistic.)

http://www.migri.fi/frontpage

You have to go through the immigration process. Look through the different avenues to be a citizen.

The most important thing is finding a way to be in the country and contribute (working visa etc.). Once there, you can apply for citizenship (which is easy). They are very lenient and willing to work with foreigners more so than most other countries, they also have one the best refugees programs.

My Finnish friends were telling me that the perception there is they are very welcoming to foreigners. Their economy and political system are very sound so the thing they need the most are people. Once you come and live there they said that the governments treats you really good and pays for your living and education to integrate you into their society.

Also, if you really want the Finnish to love you, learn their language. It is a HUGE compliment to to try and learn their language since refugees come there and they learn the refugee languages, it has become taboo if you don't learn (or atleast try to learn) the Finnish language. When I say things in Finnish my friends light up and they feel uberly respected.

Their perception is, we allow you to come to our country and give you a new life, the least you can do is try to understand our culture. Don't let that tarnish your image of them though, it may be Taboo, but they are still nice and cordial to you.

Also, Meanwhile in Finland...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/121130FinlandFINAL.gif

Side note: I ask my Finnish friends certain questions regarding conspiracies but not mention exactly what. For instances I asked my friend...

"What do you know about Fluoride?"

His response immediately, Mind you he is 22 and is going to school to be a Lawyer.

"It causes Neurological disorders and lowers IQ, we banned it sometime in the 20's"

jaw drops Just like that. I then asked him.

"Is this common knowledge in Finland?"

His response.

"Of course"

Then he linked to me to a Finnish Wikipage along with a translator to understand the paragraph he wanted me to read.

I then explained to him that in the States if we talk about that we may be called a Conspiracy Theorist or a nut job. He is always shocked when I tell him things like this, hence why they want me to move there and open a Mexican restaurant LOL

This is truly an awesome post, I'm glad you took the time to post. As an American I cannot agree with you enough, we are being stripped of more and more rights everyday. I just wish more people would realize this and understand what's to come if nothing is done...

Because (we) Americans are stupid, lazy, trained, and brainwashed.

Because I don't know anywhere else I can legally own a modern (self-loading, magazine-fed) rifle, and still be allowed to talk to women who aren't related or married to me. (If you know of such a place, please tell! If I ever got rich I'd go to the third world because, you know, bribes, but not rich now.)

What an obvious circlejerk posting.

You can all talk about how you're personally hugely oppressed now.

My question is: Why does the US government allow its citizens to arm themselves to the teeth and organize and train militias? These people are paranoid loons better suited for live in the 17th and 18th centuries. Pls keep them south of the border. Quattrocket should pack up and move to Idaho.

in a carefully manufactured illusion (media, pop culture, material possessions, etc.)

This is exactly it. The chains feel light right now because everyone's distracted by fads. Look at the people we worship... Kardashians, Hiltons, Jersey Shore, etc. A shameless lust for wealth and fame.

Everyone thinks they have a chance at that "dream" (more like a nightmare to me) and it keeps them docile.

Especially after Vietnam. They didn't want another Hippie revolution. So they seem to produce much more shows that are extremely stupid, but keeps the public wanting to watch it. That, and having the "next big thing." I.E. Iphones