this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts
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From a non-American's perspective, I think part of the mistrust comes from Americans have been through high-profile lies perpetrated by government agencies.
For example, a more recent one in the last few decades is the Food Pyramid/MyPlate that was/is promoted by the US government's agriculture department. This has led to Americans in the late '70s/early '80s to start a war on saturated fat and cholesterol, and the rapid adoption of carbohydrates in the average diet. What has happened in the decades following is a rapid increase in metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mental illnesses — all of which were rare in human history prior to the '70s. While I'm glad Americans are waking up to the realisation of the mass brainwashing of what constitutes "healthy" food, I'm still upset that — due to the influence of America on the global stage — my own country has followed suit in adopting the US's dietary guidelines to the detriment of our own health.
And that's just one example.
The most glaring generator of mistrust for decades now is the thing citizens discuss all the time but is never addressed: our out of control military budget.
We could solve every one of our country's financial issues multiple times over by reducing the military budget, and not even drastically so.
Our military was tasked with an audit to reign in waste and spending. They couldn't pass an audit so they were just given a free pass, no penalties or repercussions. The first audit was 2017 and they failed to pass. They failed two more since then. Senator Sanders intoruduced a bill in 2021 and again in 2023 which required an audit and was supposed to impose penalties for failure, it's been introduced so we'll see how that goes.
Thank you for that.
I've long thought we need a non-military service branch much like you describe and for much the same resson.
In my experience it isn't just "rich" kids but anyone that grows up with minimal adversity and exposure to people outside their immediate (sheltered) bubble that are really hard to work alongside. Anyone who hasn't been told "no" enough to understand the world doesn't cater to them, really.