1.) guns
2.) MAGA

1. Trump
2. Vance

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mistrust of or irrelevance of scientific and technical expertise by/to the average American. Anti-intellectualism celebrated "trust my gut" "common sense"

All else stems from this

This. The pride that people take in their ignorance is disgusting. I don't get down on people for being uneducated-- education = privilege, after all-- but I have pure contempt for people who brag about it.

The "educated" people proclaiming the wisdom of science and technical expertise have proven to be wrong many, many, many times. A lot of what we were initially told about COVID, to use one example, turned out to be distorted, often deliberately, or just plain old wrong. A lot about COVID we were told was also very true. But we can't overlook that too many people seized the authority in the name of science and education when they shouldn't have done so, or tried to turn science into morality of some kind and used it to lecture people as if they were a priest in some kind of temple, passing wisdom on hot button cultural topics, and in the process created an enormous amount of distrust for institutional knowledge. And unfortunately, it's well-deserved distrust. Reap what ye sow.

I'll admit to automatically being skeptical whenever I hear the word "expert" tossed about, which must be one of the most overused words out there. And I have advanced degrees from elite institutions. If we're going to add something to the list of what we don't like about the US, it's the American expert classes usurping a certain kind of self-declared moral authority that is not done in the same way in many other peer countries.

US chocolate
Public schools with no uniforms

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a small sample size but with so naming naming "gun culture," why can't a real, legislative change take place for better guardrails re guns?

Aside from the 2nd amendment look outside your bubble and understand the math. 30 of the 50 states (60%) support either constitutional carry of shall issue gun permits. So while the majority of DCUMers may seek more gun control laws, the rest of the country does not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a small sample size but with so naming naming "gun culture," why can't a real, legislative change take place for better guardrails re guns?

Because of money. Too many politicians are not public servants but rather servants to the big corporations and lobbies and themselves.

We a need MASSIVE white collar crime overhaul and I can’t for the life of me understand why Americans don’t seem to care much about this .

Trump et al are looting the government. That’s OUR money.

+1

And two things I like!! The diverse natural beauty of our country is pretty unparalleled. No other country has such different, and amazing, landscapes throughout it.

And secondly, capitalism.

1- Losers obsessed with politics
2- Inability of most people to live in the moment (distracted, rigid schedule, etc.)

1) gun culture
2) car culture

My answers intentionally don’t touch on the current political climate because if I focused on MAGA stuff, my list would go on forever. These 2 things have been an issue long before MAGA and will continue to be an issue long after MAGA is toned down or, hopefully, thwarted entirely.

1). Superficiality/Consunerism
2). MAGA

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a small sample size but with so naming naming "gun culture," why can't a real, legislative change take place for better guardrails re guns?

Well for one this is a largely DC area website and most people in urban / suburban metro areas support gun control.

But we have an outsized amount of power in our system vested in land mass vs population and rural areas are vehemently against gun control.

That plus the gun lobby remains too powerful to overcome.

1) a culture that looks down on and disparages children, families, and parents. Contrast this to just about every other place on earth - developed and developing countries both! - where people are excited to see kids out and about and there are policies that are supportive of families.

2) freedom is great, but our society has become too individualistic and too fractured. This results in tolerating or even uplifting generally anti-social behaviors. People want to steal, shoplift, openly do drugs, can’t force people into treatment, cheat others, not get an education or start in a career, and we just shrug our shoulders because “freedom.”

1. Poor state of America’s public education system.
2. Progressives.

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a small sample size but with so naming naming "gun culture," why can't a real, legislative change take place for better guardrails re guns?

Because of money. Too many politicians are not public servants but rather servants to the big corporations and lobbies and themselves.

We a need MASSIVE white collar crime overhaul and I can’t for the life of me understand why Americans don’t seem to care much about this .

Trump et al are looting the government. That’s OUR money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a small sample size but with so naming naming "gun culture," why can't a real, legislative change take place for better guardrails re guns?

Criminals seem to ignore the existing laws. It's not clear how another law will fix this.

Ah yes, that’s why we allow cocaine and meth expos at convention centers. And we give tax breaks to cocaine dealers when there’s a drought and they have a bad year. And we as tax payers support tax-exempt advocacy organizations to promote cocaine use.

Oh wait…