[sph]

Yes, such a personality had its place when it was also well educated and knowledgeable about the world. These days, America is aggressive, militaristic, heavy handed in international affairs as well as being completely brainwashed by social media, online propaganda, and terrible education to a lesser extent.

In these days of turmoil, trying to figure out what is going on and what could cause this, it is appalling to me that no one since to blame the elephant in the room: social media, the social internet and making it the core of our society was in hindsight the stupidest thing humanity has ever made. Don't go blaming the Russian bots or Chinese posters. The whole thing is making us more stupid, more entrenched, more vulnerable to massive manipulation of public opinion. And we go cry whenever they take away our algorithms (see the popularity of BlueSky vs Mastodon for example). Call me dramatic, but social media and Web 2.0 indirectly will cause the end of civilisation much faster and more effectively than mass media of old ever dreamed of. And we are still all here happily engaging with it.

[throw-the-towel]

I'm sorry because this is going to be rude, but we're talking stereotypes anyway. I cannot remember a time, ever, when America was considered "well educated". And the "knowledgeable about the world" bit is just ridiculous, that quote about war being God's way of teaching Americans geography dates back to the 19th century.

[sph]

I am not American. I'm just, like many, influenced by your propaganda.

It is very possible that Americans in the 70s where as dumb as they are today, no way for me to confirm it, apart from the fact that a lot of nonsense that's happening today was not happening then, so that has to count for something.

If it helps, the idiocy is not a purely American phenomenon but widespread and now affecting the younger generations. As someone with a Gen-Z sibling, the illiteracy of that generation, grown on Youtube and Tiktok, is utterly mind-boggling. A large contingent of them voted for conservatives and fascists just "for the memes." Back in my day, young people tended to be idealistic and progressive. Fighting for something. Hoping to be better and more open-minded than their parents. I squarely blame this shift on the social like-and-subscribe upvote-driven Internet.

[Tainnor]

I agree that social media is one of the big issues, but I think the early versions of it - when you were just talking to your friends - were fine.

The problem started with the "engagement algorithms". Surprisingly, radical and controversial content is more engaging, so people who spend a lot of time on social media tend to be enraged all the time (at their perceived enemy).

[kelipso]

> brainwashed by social media, online propaganda

This is just another way of saying you don't agree with their views. One man's propaganda is another man's truth. Goes both ways.