• TooManyFoods@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    We were for 200 years, but then Nixon happened, and instead of fixing it, we doubled down with Reagan, then instead of fixing that we got here.

    • NABDad@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Civil war happened, and we didn’t fix it because Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson was pro-South.

      We were on this path before Nixon.

      • pathos@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That shit already started with Washington, the first american conspiracy theorist poisoning the ideological well of the nascent country by cautioning against enemies from within and without trying to undo the country instead of appealing to the coherence of a newly forming society.

        • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t we just experienced the results of enemies within? Trump, Vance, and Musk are all American citizens.

          • pathos@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Yes. And yet, they used the same concept to justify their grasp for power.

            The important part to understand is the paranoid style of the appeal. It’s not an appeal to unity. It’s one to vigilance.

            • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 day ago

              Maybe we should appeal to engagement and voting along with vigilance so that the enemies from within don’t find a malleable minority to exploit for victory.