The comments nail it too... America is a swindle. Designed to rob and oppress the working majority, while enriching and empowering the 1%.
I suspect it's pretty much always been that way, just in the the past the ruling elite hadn't gotten it quite so sewn up so they had to give the poor more to keep them quiet. But America has always been run from behind the scenes by the robber barons and unscruplious tycoons. The difference is, now they no longer have to pretend otherwise, because they believe there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, and thus they can do whatever they want.
Well, I'm not entirely sure about 'god-powered' ... but you're not wrong on the rest. Comes to something though, when just being a decent human being is tantamount to a revolutionary act..
Although come to think of it, there was this other fellow about two thousand and something years ago who more or less said, lets all be most excellent to one another...and look what happened to him.
True that.. a long haired arabic looking cult leader who espouses socialism and radical ideas like doing away with taxes and increasing welfare to the poor. A man who goes around disrupting legitimate financial business leaders in their workplace and assaulting them. Who also encourages civil disobedience, and questioning legitimate civil authorities while living an 'alternative' lifestyle of freelove whilst hanging out with thieves and prostitutes!
Yeah, can't see many on the right agreeing with him.
I mean, what do they think this guy's idea of heaven is going to be like, anyway? It's pretty obviously a bong house attached to a soup kitchen. I don't think they'll like that at all.
Hell yeah.. I mean.. he'd let anyone in! Well...any raff and scraff that is. I mean he actually said anyone who'd worked hard at the American Dream and amassed a fortune [or inherited it] would be excluded! How backwards is that!! I mean, the man's practically a commie!!
"Meanwhile, in our ever-declining adversary-of-convenience, the Moscow subway runs on time."
I mean, I don't disagree. Look at Andrew Cuomo and his many attempts to sideline updating the damn subways; look at the MBTA and their attempt to privatize the commuter rail and its failings; hell, look at New England in general and the fact that many of the bridges along the Alexa lines are due for severe updates.
I saw a recent article (sorry, I don't have a link) saying that New York public transit is pretty much in a death spiral with declining ridership and increasing fares and maintenance costs because of delayed required deep maintenance. It's really a shame. We spent a week in Berlin 3 years ago and used nothing but the subway to get around and it was a breeze, absolutely loved it. They certainly did it right there.
One of the earlier things I spotted as a big difference between local-America and Terramagne-America was the mass transit system. I noticed that characters rarely waited more than a few minutes for a bus.
Turns out, in the busiest parts of town, a bus will run past any given bus stop about every 5 minutes. In most neighborhoods, it's 10-15 minutes. Even in the crappy parts of town, it's rarely more than an hour, with a few hours of gap between the "last" night bus and the "first" morning bus; until you get out to the very fringes that might only have one morning and one evening bus.
The bus stops are scattered along every few blocks, so one rarely needs to walk more than 5 minutes to find one. A lot of those are bus shelters, with seating inside a little enclosure. Each major section of a larger town has a transit hub linking buses, commuter trains, taxis, etc. along with showers and parking for bikers. So the bus routes really cover the whole town, often in a mix of grid routes (traveling back and forth along straight streets), area loops (like around campus), and express loops (connecting two major centers like an apartment complex and a mall). Shiv looked at the local-Omaha bus map and said, in an appalled tone, "Where's the rest of it?"
The buses have ample storage space for bikes, groceries, and so on. Often apartment complexes have a shuttlebus of their own, and they like ones with wheelchair bays because you can use those as cargo space if you don't have a lot of wheelers riding. (That is, if you have two residents in wheelchairs and four bays, you can pretty much count on at least two bays for cargo.) That minimizes the need for owning a personal car. Shiv literally doesn't see the point of having a car, or a driver's license, because he can use a bus to get anywhere he wants.
It's so much a part of their culture that there is literally a television show set on a bus, The Violet Line. You don't see it much, just little glimmers here and there of "There's a bus in five minutes, we can catch it if we hustle." But it's a whole different world.
I believe it, I don't know if anyone really is pushing things in the right direction. With the L stop now getting a complete shut down, I know it's not going to make things better, and Cuomo has done very little to assuage those concerns.
I no longer feel like the people running this country, this state, this county, this city, can be trusted with a quarter found on the sidewalk.
I still love the concept of America, but I do not see anything in common between everyday life and the false image we were sold. It's all flimflam and humbug.
Well, I've been telling people all along, look at how those in power treat the powerless -- women, Native Americans, the disabled, etc. That's how they would treat everyone if they thought they could get away with it.
We're the wait-staff for them, and they don't feel obligated to show their noblesse oblige anymore because nobody else is watching to see if they're good business.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-12 12:03 pm (UTC)I suspect it's pretty much always been that way, just in the the past the ruling elite hadn't gotten it quite so sewn up so they had to give the poor more to keep them quiet. But America has always been run from behind the scenes by the robber barons and unscruplious tycoons. The difference is, now they no longer have to pretend otherwise, because they believe there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, and thus they can do whatever they want.
The problem is.. they might be right.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-12 11:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-13 12:05 am (UTC)Although come to think of it, there was this other fellow about two thousand and something years ago who more or less said, lets all be most excellent to one another...and look what happened to him.
Well ...
Date: 2018-12-13 12:51 am (UTC)I have no idea why they also claim to be Christian, when they don't like pretty much everything the dude stood for.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2018-12-13 01:02 am (UTC)Yeah, can't see many on the right agreeing with him.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2018-12-13 01:07 am (UTC)LOL
Re: Well ...
Date: 2018-12-13 01:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-12 07:55 pm (UTC)I mean, I don't disagree. Look at Andrew Cuomo and his many attempts to sideline updating the damn subways; look at the MBTA and their attempt to privatize the commuter rail and its failings; hell, look at New England in general and the fact that many of the bridges along the Alexa lines are due for severe updates.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-13 06:09 pm (UTC)Alas!
Date: 2018-12-13 06:32 pm (UTC)One of the earlier things I spotted as a big difference between local-America and Terramagne-America was the mass transit system. I noticed that characters rarely waited more than a few minutes for a bus.
Turns out, in the busiest parts of town, a bus will run past any given bus stop about every 5 minutes. In most neighborhoods, it's 10-15 minutes. Even in the crappy parts of town, it's rarely more than an hour, with a few hours of gap between the "last" night bus and the "first" morning bus; until you get out to the very fringes that might only have one morning and one evening bus.
The bus stops are scattered along every few blocks, so one rarely needs to walk more than 5 minutes to find one. A lot of those are bus shelters, with seating inside a little enclosure. Each major section of a larger town has a transit hub linking buses, commuter trains, taxis, etc. along with showers and parking for bikers. So the bus routes really cover the whole town, often in a mix of grid routes (traveling back and forth along straight streets), area loops (like around campus), and express loops (connecting two major centers like an apartment complex and a mall). Shiv looked at the local-Omaha bus map and said, in an appalled tone, "Where's the rest of it?"
The buses have ample storage space for bikes, groceries, and so on. Often apartment complexes have a shuttlebus of their own, and they like ones with wheelchair bays because you can use those as cargo space if you don't have a lot of wheelers riding. (That is, if you have two residents in wheelchairs and four bays, you can pretty much count on at least two bays for cargo.) That minimizes the need for owning a personal car. Shiv literally doesn't see the point of having a car, or a driver's license, because he can use a bus to get anywhere he wants.
It's so much a part of their culture that there is literally a television show set on a bus, The Violet Line. You don't see it much, just little glimmers here and there of "There's a bus in five minutes, we can catch it if we hustle." But it's a whole different world.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-13 07:05 pm (UTC)It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-12 08:35 pm (UTC)I still love the concept of America, but I do not see anything in common between everyday life and the false image we were sold. It's all flimflam and humbug.
Re: It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-12 08:39 pm (UTC)Now they do. So they are.
Re: It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-12 11:59 pm (UTC)Re: It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-13 01:43 am (UTC)Not a comforting thought.
Re: It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-13 01:45 am (UTC)Re: It's worse than a swindle
Date: 2018-12-13 01:53 am (UTC)