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> I think it’s actually time to consider that there’s something else that’s driving general dissatisfaction in the U.S. (maybe social media?) to try and underst

> I think it’s actually time to consider that there’s something else that’s driving general dissatisfaction in the U.S. (maybe social media?) to try and understand whether there is a general dissatisfaction factor affecting the U.S., and if so, which issues are attributable to this and which are issues Americans are mad about in of themselves. I've wondered about this too. Someone said Anger is Unmet Expectations or something better than that, and using that model to think, what are we not meeting? Is it strictly economic? Cost of living prices going up? The collective consciousness believing that the Hollywood image of the American Dream boom times, plus the constant highlight reels of social media, convinced a lot of Americans that if we work hard, if we hustle, if we strive, we get a reward? And that whether that reward is financial stability, the 'celebrity lifestyle', the 'good life', whatever it is, we aren't getting it? Are our expectations too high? How do you diagnose and turn off un-realistically high expectations in a healthy way?

lm28469 3y ago
> How do you diagnose and turn off un-realistically high expectations in a healthy way? In the west we keep telling everyone we live in the best system ever designed yet the bottom 50% see their conditions worsening day by day, salaries are stagnating for a good 50 years now, services are getting worse and worse, retirement age keeps getting higher, obesity and diabetes go up, more and more jobs feel like being a useless cog in a dying machine, big industries that made entire communities proud were delocalised long ago, & c. The list is almost infinite at this point The bottom line is that we can see our parents and grand parents had it better, which means the promise of the ever improving system is obviously broken, and with it goes the hope. Almost as if acquiring useless gadgets made in wherever it is the cheapest to make them for now isn't enough to inspire people...

lm28469 3y ago

> How do you diagnose and turn off un-realistically high expectations in a healthy way? In the west we keep telling everyone we live in the best system ever designed yet the bottom 50% see their conditions worsening day by day, salaries are stagnating for a good 50 years now, services are getting worse and worse, retirement age keeps getting higher, obesity and diabetes go up, more and more jobs feel like being a useless cog in a dying machine, big industries that made entire communities proud were delocalised long ago, & c. The list is almost infinite at this point The bottom line is that we can see our parents and grand parents had it better, which means the promise of the ever improving system is obviously broken, and with it goes the hope. Almost as if acquiring useless gadgets made in wherever it is the cheapest to make them for now isn't enough to inspire people...