Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life@mas.to
Multiple times this year I’ve had coffee with fellow immigrants who grew up in corrupt third world countries and the shared sentiment has been that Americans don’t understand how bad things are going to get.
Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life@mas.to
K-ZO da Snowman@kzodasnowman@spore.social
@carnage4life@mas.to I can't find it now, but there's an article from a Sri Lankan immigrant to the US that I always think about. 2018 or so. He basically said get used to it, don't delude yourselves. The slide is slow and heavy.
Cory Fisher :verified: :donor:@gofish@infosec.exchange
@carnage4life@mas.to I’ve had some of my immigrant friends laugh at me while I talk about how horrible this shit is in the U.S.
Nazani@Nazani@universeodon.com
@carnage4life@mas.to Have you heard any good suggestions on where to go next? 🤔
Sweet Home Alaberta 🇨🇦
🇺🇦
🏳️🌈
🏳️⚧️
🇲🇽
@NMBA@mstdn.ca
@carnage4life@mas.to
Needed to snuff the flame before it became an iceferno:(
@dutch_connection_uk@mastodo.neoliber.al
@carnage4life@mas.to Definitely was how I felt about it. Trevor Noah's "African Dictator" skit really resonated with me. After seeing the actions of people like Zuma, why would Americans decide they like that and they want to emulate it here?
I suspect part of the answer is just that they think that they're just fundamentally superior and immune to those consequences.
Carina C. Zona@cczona@hachyderm.io
@dutch_connection_uk@mastodo.neoliber.al @carnage4life@mas.to Americans didn't learn anything from seeing Zuma because most Americans have never heard of Jacob Zuma, let alone could identify what country he led, let alone can articulate why he'd be an object lesson for the US. Same goes for Allende, Orban, and countless others.
I lived in a corrupt country where the banking system had been greylisted for money laundering and an investigative journalist had been murdered in a car bombing for refusing to stop reporting on corruption. I felt like I was living 5 years ahead of America, at most. That was well before the last US election. The gap is a lot smaller now.
What was striking to me is how people living within a corrupt society go right on acting like everything is fine and normal except they quietly have no faith in the "justice" system or political class, completely disengage from politics because they are convinced at best it's useless and at worst very dangerous, just assume most of their taxes will be misappropriated to line pockets, and feel like a sucker if they don't treat turn around and likewise steal from people more vulnerable than them and rely on the general lawlessness to protect them from consequences.
Normalizing corruption at the top is poisonous to the national soul. It's a dark way to live, even if you're never a target of political harassment. I got out as fast as I could. I didn't even experience being at the short end of the stick in a corrupt society, which god knows has to be much worse. Americans who benefit from privilege have not begun to grasp what is happening. But there is no such thing as being above being affected by being inside a corrupt system.
Carina C. Zona@cczona@hachyderm.io
@dutch_connection_uk@mastodo.neoliber.al @carnage4life@mas.to Americans didn't learn anything from seeing Zuma because most Americans have never heard of Jacob Zuma, let alone could identify what country he led, let alone can articulate why he'd be an object lesson for the US. Same goes for Allende, Orban, and countless others.
I lived in a corrupt country where the banking system had been greylisted for money laundering and an investigative journalist had been murdered in a car bombing for refusing to stop reporting on corruption. I felt like I was living 5 years ahead of America, at most. That was well before the last US election. The gap is a lot smaller now.
What was striking to me is how people living within a corrupt society go right on acting like everything is fine and normal except they quietly have no faith in the "justice" system or political class, completely disengage from politics because they are convinced at best it's useless and at worst very dangerous, just assume most of their taxes will be misappropriated to line pockets, and feel like a sucker if they don't treat turn around and likewise steal from people more vulnerable than them and rely on the general lawlessness to protect them from consequences.
Normalizing corruption at the top is poisonous to the national soul. It's a dark way to live, even if you're never a target of political harassment. I got out as fast as I could. I didn't even experience being at the short end of the stick in a corrupt society, which god knows has to be much worse. Americans who benefit from privilege have not begun to grasp what is happening. But there is no such thing as being above being affected by being inside a corrupt system.