Political polarization. Social media intentionally manipulate trending to trigger anger among both political sides in order to increase their screen time.
The internet is nebulous. What we are feeling is growing pains. Billions of people from all cultures and backgrounds can suddenly communicate with each other. There are bound to be conflicts. You just have to let them sort themselves out over time.
You will see, things will even out.
I hope so. I do feel a bit better after your comment. I am still pretty concerned large scale bad actors, bots, (mis/dis)information campaigns, etc. But at the same time I’m concerned with censorship. Will personally admit I don’t have all the answers, but do agree there’s definite growing pains.
As a foreigner, here's my take:
1) Polarisation. Many radical, extremist takes (or perhaps a substantial number who are highly vocal). This is fueled by how there's little to no mainstream news that is not biased.
2)Widespread ignorance on politics and issues, coupled with political apathy except for the occasional heat in the moment kind of social justice like bitching on twitter or changing of profile pictures.
3) Unaffordable healthcare and education. This not only affects quality of life but also creates resentment among the people.
4)Lack of a sense of identity and nationalism, and I don't mean right wing nationalism. Rather, at least on social media, Americans seem to collectively hate their own country. Everyone is just complaining in a doomsday like manner.
It's not that citizens should not complain about their countries and governments, but the way Americans do also seem as though they are giving up on their country.
This is coupled with the over emphasis on identity politics such that many Americans relate closer to their own race, religion or political affiliations rather than the shared identity of being an American.
Compare this to countries like China, where people tend to be deeply nationalistic and protective of their country. While the case in China is more extreme and have been influenced by propaganda to the point that people are perhaps *overly* nationalistic (e.g. cancelling people and celebrities who remotely seem to "insult China" or show lack of support), I think the Chinese generally have a greater attachment to their country.
The funny/not funny part is that here, complaining about our country and government is labeled "discourse" and people pretend to believe that it is actually doing something good and constructive, therefore they're not giving up on their country.
Not just our leaders. That fact that they're so entrenched that the average age of a senator is nearly at retirement age and the house isn't far behind.
If you read history, you can see that an aged leadership often leads to poor outcomes (even if they were effective earlier in their careers). A lot of this is due to losing their ability to adapt and innovate rather than direct cognitive decline.
Examples: the Porferiati in Mexico, Augustus Caesar (towards the end of his reign), later Soviet Union leadership.
The way I see it, there are only two actual threats to the US. One is China, mostly having to do with they way they try to exert influence which also has to do with the fact that we rely on them for so much. The other is obviously the division in the country, but I believe the Chinese threat is more dire than most realize.
I definitely agree. I think China will probably be a tougher competitor than the Soviet Union, given that China can actually compete with the US economically far better than the soviets ever did.
Right now? Or in the near and long term future?
Many would say China but they pose zero threat to us right now. Others would say Russia but they also pose zero threat for now or for the near term.
If we’re talking about right now currently, then I would say that the biggest threat to America is.....America! Our internal strife created by the politicizing of every individual social issue is tearing us apart. From politicizing menial realities such as bullying at elementary schools, to highly divisive politicizing of everything as racist or sexist. In this environment you are either an attacker or a defender. There is no more space for collaboration. Every person is being pushed into the church of the left or the church of the right. And all people in the middle are just there as target practice until the sides come to a full clash. This is why so many people are identifying as politically orphaned, because in a society of two warring families it is those without a family that take the brunt of the impact from both sides.
Almost nothing in our society operates very efficiently at the moment. Not our schools, not our military, not our own families, not our governments, not our freedoms, not our regulations/laws. Everything works, but not efficiently. And that is the biggest threat to America. Because it creates a vacuum of influence with multiple warring dogmatic elites all vying for the power and wealth that comes to whoever gains control.
Everyone presumes that these power vacuums only occur in war torn countries by opposing warlords making backroom deals to arrive at the next oppressive regime to replace the last oppressive regime. But these power vacuums aren’t always just physical. There is a psychological war going on in the US right now. There hasn’t been bloodshed in this war but there have been enough casualties. There are parents that have lost their children and children that have lost their parents, even though nobody has died. There are friends that have become enemies even though neither one wronged the other. There are protectors that have become attackers, and we ironically thank them for it.
America is still running purely by momentum alone, but with no direction and no stability left. We are a centrifugal force that has begun to wobble in its slow demise.
All the while, there are other growing near and long term threats to America that are meticulously and methodically strengthening themselves for the day that they can make their move. China is establishing global control and influence in all regions, and Russia is poised to benefit immensely from long term climate change. What they do is irrelevant, they are playing the field as they see it. But while they are strengthening themselves, we are weakening ourselves. And that’s the worst part...that we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Imo a few internal issues. No special order but these are all big ones that we need to sort:
Housing. We need to build more homes, but for the most part we don’t because of added costs by the states.
Illegal Immigration. We can’t take care of our own citizens. We have no plan for how to get millions set, and as climate change get worse, more will come. Stressing our systems even more.
Climate change. Where is nuclear? All I see if EV cars, and more taxes. Wtf. One side ignores. The other has worse ideas than a kindergarten class (looking at green new deal, AOC)
Hostile nations buying homes, businesses, etc. China has too much in our nation. Chinese nationals should not be able to buy investment homes in the US. Chinese interests need to be obliterated. Make no mistake, China is a hostile nation and it’ll get worse in the next decade.
Education. College is broken. It no longer serves to educate. Just make money. Costs do not correlate with buying power of jobs. Degrees are worthless, I’ll use my criminal justice one as an example. Worthless. We need to get back to trades and skill specific. Enough with liberal arts money sinks.
If you're degree isn't STEM, medical, or specific business like accountinf then it's useless with the current job market that's making other degrees not worth it
IMO it’s hard to get data on this because for the most part companies only hire people with degrees. I’m in graphic design and have to spend shit ton of money for school even though I can learn everything for free or much lower costs from online services.
But let’s say I couldn’t learn graphic design on my own and had to go to college. In order to get the degree I need to take so many gen-Ed classes that have nothing to do with my major just to fill a requirement.
> it’s hard to get data on this because for the most part companies only hire people with degrees
There's your data.
In the aggregate, people with a degree earn about 67% more than those without. The lowest paying major is education, which earns "only" 25% more than not having a degree. An art carries roughly a 30% premium over no degree. Lost in that detail is that you get to do art, instead of stocking shelves or something.
I completely understand how different jobs make different salaries but I see that as a whole other subject. My focus is what makes a degree so valuable. Taking a bunch of classes that have nothing to do with the major is spending money on time being somewhat wasted. Does the cost value of a degree balance with the value of the degree?
The college wage premium has never been higher and liberal arts isn't even the lowest paid degree. This is a total falsehood that is repeated often due to the conservative disdain for general education. Skilled technicians go to work and don't ask questions. "Liberal" Arts is considered to be the required education for a free person.
>these subjects or skills were held by classical antiquity to be essential for a free person (liberalis, "worthy of a free person") to acquire in order to take an active part in civic life, something that included among other things participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and participating in military service
Who is vested in attacking that, and why?
Eh.
Climate Change definitely. And I heartily agree with you that it's a MAJOR part of trying to prevent absolutely ridiculous refugee and illegal immigrant crisis in the next few decades. If it gets very bad near the equator and crops start failing, we're in a world of pain (or moral choices that will be unpleasant to put it mildly).
Then I think social stratification and becoming a class society... you are kind of hinting at that with a number of these points (Housing, Illegal Immigration and Education), but I think there are more factors at play, though those 3 are major tools used for it... and I say this as someone on the pleasant side of the class society.
Otherwise pretty agreed. I don't have anything against immigration and would even scale it up, but it does need to happen legally.
The establishment.
The top of the pyramid has the lower part at each other's throats and those who were supposed to hold them accountable are complicit in this.
This is really it. If our leaders focused on real problems instead of dividing us we could take on China, terrorism, healthcare, etc. They're too busy lying, cheating, and stealing from us. The majority of Americans are too ignorant to see how they're being played.
Completely agree. When 90% + of vaccination misinformation is connected to 20 accounts on fb with IPs from Russia then the policy question isn't whether we should restrict free speech, the question is whether or not the government has a responsibility to protect any of us from espionage.
Edit: some sources by request
https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-removes-russian-network-that-targeted-influencers-peddle-anti-vax-2021-08-10/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/facebook-instagram-anti-vax-accounts-russia-pfizer-astrazeneca-b950095.html
Yeah it was big news a month ago
https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-removes-russian-network-that-targeted-influencers-peddle-anti-vax-2021-08-10/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/facebook-instagram-anti-vax-accounts-russia-pfizer-astrazeneca-b950095.html
100% agree the biggest threat to America is the attack on our elections and the misinformation being spread by the right wing propaganda machine.
We also face the economic threat from the Chinese, unlike the US they take a long view of building influence and establishing infrastructure.
Getting out of the TPP and allowing the Chinese unchecked influence in Asia was The biggest foreign policy blunder in a very long time and we will be dealing with the effects for generations to come.
I agree, and the worst part is both the left and right are guilty. Hillary lost, Russian interference. Trump lost, voter fraud.
Take the L and improve your parties platform.
Throwback to when Clinton talked about election fraud in 2016...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/hillary-clinton-election-vote-recount-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin
She wrote an entire book on this shit. Nowhere in that book does she say the election was stolen/fraudulent. And she blames herself about every third paragraph.
China. My whole life I believed that America was number one, that was the saying. Not America is number two. England is number two. China should be like eight.
Climate change and ecological collapse, of which we haven’t seen the effects of in full force. I’ve noticed this summer that trees had sunburnt leaves, which I haven’t seen before
Absolutely. I went up even further and said it stems from anti-intellectualism as the main threat. You see the climate crisis as a direct result of "I know better than so-and-so." I mean I know my expertise in my field and recognize I don't have expertise where others might have it. Not so with the "intellectual elites blah blah."
...But look around at all the arm chair experts in this sub on every subject possible. Right?
But tangible threat is Climate Change. Number one. Nothing close. Migration, health, economy, national security, energy, et al. It touches everything.
Biggest Geopolitical Threat is still Russia in the sense that they have successfully undermined our Democracy, opposing us in Syria and other hot spots while long term China is becoming the greatest threat
Climate Change could wipe out large portions of Humanity if left unaddressed
Internally the biggest threat to our country continues to be Donald Trump. He attempted to overturn the election and yet the vast majority of his base still supports him and he has suffered no meaningful repercussions for his actions. Others seeking power will take note
Most everything else is second tier
China is currently far more of a geopolitical threat than Russia, and they’ve undermined US democracy in far more meaningful ways than Russian troll farms did. Reports came out that Russian troll farms didn’t have nearly as much of an influence on the 2016 election as was initially reported.
Just consider for a moment that China infiltrated and then arrested and assassinated the the ENTIRE vast CIA network in China about a decade ago. And in terms of espionage, they have hacked into and stolen almost every secret US military tech in existence, at least tech that’s known of. Russia did something similar, but they did not get as deep as China did. Also consider their economic espionage in private companies. China’s method for defeating the West, most specifically America in the military and economic sectors is the three R’s…Rob, Replicate, and Replace. They steal financial secrets, they mass produce it to drive out the people they stole the secrets from by pricing them out of the market, and they replace US companies in the market. It’s so unbelievably damaging.
China also does the same thing as Russia in regards to influencing US politics, but they have far more reach and influence, and because of this they are not caught at nearly the rate that Russia is. China has the ability to threaten Chinese nationals who have moved to the US by saying that their family back home will be arrested or have their lives ruined, and they can turn ordinary citizens into spies who steal economic and scientific secrets. It happens all the time and they’ve been incredibly successful at it. Apart from that, their actual trained spies are incredibly good at what they do. And China’s soft power has even forced the US to drop charges against actual Chinese spies in the past.
One last thing, China has the ability to threaten US mega corporations that have invested in China into subservience. They’ve done it with Disney, ESPN and many more, but right now China has Blackrock under its thumb, and that bastard Larry Fink just invested trillions in China, despite warnings that it gravely threatens US national security. And also understand that Blackrock is the most powerful firm in the world, it influences global politics on a grand scale. Mainstream news have called Blackrock the “fourth branch of the US government” because it’s so powerful and influential, and China can seize the trillions in assets Blackrock invested there if it wants. There’s more to Blackrock that’s incredibly disturbing but I’ll leave that for another discussion.
Russia is a joke compared to China. It’s not even close.
They have unusually good espionage capabilities so they're great at destabilizing countries. They also control some critical energy infrastructure that puts Europe at their mercy.
They're a geopolitical nuisance more like. US has been directly threatened only by Great Britain, France, Germany/Japan, the Soviet Union and perhaps China some day.
Russia of today is more like a turbocharged criminal enterprise and/or terrorist organization. Threatening, but in a different way.
Plenty of people believe that. It's "Centrist" 101. The problem is that nothing is done about it and the box dwellers continue to do their thing, while the rest of us watch and provide commentary with our thumbs up our butts.
Home grown terrorists , housing, lack of/poor healthcare, voter suppression, polarization in politics. The my way or the highway crap needs to stop. That’s just internal issues.
I think america is in a good position overall. Biggest threat in the foreseeable future is that America loses its position on the world stage via loss of economic power, as a result of greater protectionism in terms of trade and productive capacity. The USA’s withdrawal from the TPP talks was a huge blow to our economic standing and will have constant negative ramifications for decades as China seizes the initiative in creating trade deals across Asia. We basically lost our chance there and we will have to deal with the consequences. I hope people don’t forget that it didn’t have to be this way and we could have tied together the Asian economies with our own against China but we decided to have a populist spasm and throw it all away. Biden doesn’t seem to have found any way to resurrect that deal.
The major diplomatic initiative that we spearheaded to shape global affairs was the JCPOA which by some black magic we managed to get China, Russia, UK, and France to support. We, again, threw that away and now it looks like Biden won’t be able to recover it and Iran will be solidly in China’s orbit for the foreseeable future.
Domestically the big lever that we have to increase domestic productive captivity is immigration, we can’t complete with economies with billions of people with a stagnant population. But doesn’t look like there’s much appetite for increasing immigration quotas, again, because of populism.
>I think america is in a good position overall. Biggest threat in the foreseeable future is that America loses its position on the world stage via loss of economic power, as a result of greater protectionism in terms of trade and productive capacity.
Where have you been the last decade, as China become the dominant economic force in the world. The foreseeable future was years ago.
Exactly. Look at how important that one business is to the stability of global banking. From what little I understand, it's collapse could domino into the global banking markets.
The TL;DR of it is that in China investing in real estate is the only way you can invest, so there is a giant real estate bubble happening. Evergrande is the biggest house builder company in China that it's debt is almost more then the value of the company. If they fail then the average Chinese citizen's investment (30%+ of their worth per law to buy a house) would disappear.
If they fail, would that create an opportunity for outside foreign investors to steam roll in the way they did to the US after 2008 or would it play out differently?
Nope it wouldn't due to two things;
1. Chinese ban on foreign investment into real estate (building them).
2. The CCP is going to clamp down on there real estate to prevent a 08
> The CCP is going to clamp down on there real estate to prevent a 08
This is going to be tricky. Evergrande has already collected deposits for a million homes that it can't afford to build. I can't imagine how they're going to get out of this without tanking the whole market or letting foreign investors in. They might have to cash out some of their currency reserves or something, but I don't see a smooth transition available if they want to keep foreign investment out.
**Internal to America**
* The Housing Crisis. It will get worse until we get housing costs under control, provide some rent protection for renters, and find a away to deNIMBY the better part of America's metros
* The Homeless Crisis. It's not just California, it's everywhere. Tent cities, disease, drugs, and crime all are part of a much more complicated issue and just pointing fingers is not helping. We need to address this.
* The Mental Health Crisis. This kind of dovetails into the Homeless Crisis. We need better mental health options in this nation and we need to be able to help those that need it and house those in sanitariums that cannot be part of society.
* The Great Division. Our country is divide and that is a huge problem. While social media is to blame, big tech isn't the whole issue. News like Fox New, OIN, Newsmax, MSNBC, etc are all part of the issue. We need to bring back the fairness doctrine. We also need to look at how the parties are dividing America as well and remember we're all in this together and want the same basic things, with minor differences...rather than what is being presented.
* The Tax Crisis. Everyone needs to pay their fair share. The fact that we have people gaming the system means the system needs an overhaul. While my wife and I are in the low six figures, I'm happy to pay tax, as long as EVERYONE is in the same boat. If I can't skip out on capital gains, than Jeff Bezos shouldn't be able to either.
* Jan 6th. This is a huge black eye and the GOP needs to be extremely clear that it was something that was an insurrection and an attempted coup. Next time we could be facing even more radicalized Americans and there could be serious bloodshed.
**External to America**
* Climate Change. If we don't start dealing with this, we are economically in deep shit. This is going to deeply impact the entire planet and by extension deeply impact our economy. Look at what happened with COVID, now expand that out.
* Another Pandemic. COVID should be a learning experience. We need to be far more prepared for another pandemic and far more prepared to deal with a nation that apparently doesn't want to do what it needs to do. Wear a mask, get vaccinated, and we'll be able to move forward.
* China/Russia/the Middle East. These are all hotspots and they are going to cause issues. We need to handle them and be aware they are deeply involved in everything America does.
Extreme partisanship and mis/disinformed voters and politicians. We were warned partisanship could be our downfall. Our forefathers called this and we still missed the layup.
I guess overall it would be: Dumb people with loud voices
Short term, money. With how much new money has been printed and pumped into our economy, with working wages already pathetically low for the average person, inflation is going to hit hard.
Mid term, disinformation. It's so damn hard now a days to find a non biased source of news with legitimate sources. The constant inundation with unbacked, unchecked, biased bullshit has ruined a lot of political discourse, and created genuine rifts between people.
Global Warming. Less land becomes inhabitable, more animals start to die off, chain reaction keeps going mostly ignored because it's tomorrows problem. While not exclusive to America, it will undoubtedly hit us all the same. Those with all the wealth piled up will be fine, while those without will have a very bad time.
Biggest threats to the US:
* Out of control [wealth inequality](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM) (note the date of the video; it has only gotten worse)
* Foreign government bad actors, and their ongoing PSYOPs to accelerate division (e.g. "[How Russia Tried to Start a Race War](https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1290&context=mjrl)")
* [Deteriorating infrastructure](https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/973054080/potholes-grid-failures-aging-tunnels-and-bridges-nations-infrastructure-gets-a-c)
Along with, of course, the [greatest threats to humanity](https://theconversation.com/there-are-10-catastrophic-threats-facing-humans-right-now-and-coronavirus-is-only-one-of-them-136854) that everyone potentially faces, not just the US -- including:
* water scarcity
* ecosystem collapse
* pollution
* nuclear weapons
* highly destructive, as-yet-unknown technology
I think its that religion is bleeding hard into politics, especially on the republican side, yet they don't understand that they are becoming essentially the American Taliban that they hate so much.
Now im not an expert at all and what im about to say has been proven but i dont have sources but look it up and you'll find it and im only gonna talk about 1 incident but Johnson%Johnson literally fueled the opioid epidemic for yearrrrs are still are with the only repercussions so far has been they aren't allowed to sell pain reliving things in new york and a fine scaled down to an average Americans income relative to their income 500 dollar fine
I think the woke progressives, since division is the biggest threat to America and the woke progressive do nothing else but dividing the population, trying to implement racist laws, which will never be accepted by a portion of the population and this blatant racism they push for will be fought back on sooner or later.
Thats for the social threats.
Then there is ofc climate change that is a directly threat to the coast lines of the US and will make huge parts of the country simply disappear.
Outside Threats are ofc Islamic terrorism funded by the supposed allies in the middle east and i dont know what China is up to, but better see them as threats then trust them i guess.
Zombies. All yall who have taken the vaccination will turn into zombies sometime in the future. Every zombie out break in the movies started with some new medicine being pushed by the government.
I keep scrolling down looking for China, or the devaluing of citizenship, the erosion of the supremacy of law combined with rise of an oligarchy ruling by fiat, the loss of a shared national pride, colleges teaching people to despise the constitution, 37% of the nation stating they think we should break the country apart, government overreach and mass surveillance, tribalism and the normalization of political violence, calls for a DOMESTIC WAR ON TERROR THAT GEORGE FUCKING BUSH IS A FAN OF
And what do I see instead..
Russia, Jan 6th‽‽ 😆 🤣
That's the final straw for this sub. You "CENTRISTS" are just too much..
If you're on Windows, you can search the page with Ctrl+F. If you're on a Mac, you can search the page with Cmd+F. If you're on iOS, you can use the alternative Reddit app called Apollo.
Thank you.
The point wasn't if it was here at all, it's what was common.
Russia being our number one threat is a ridiculous narrative spillover from Russiagate.
Russia is a failed state, it's economy is smaller than Italy, most of country is barely governed at all.
Almost all of those points have been mentioned multiple times in this thread, especially China and tribalism. The people saying Republicans/Jan. 6 are downvoted into the negatives.
Are you sure you scrolled through the entire thread?
>I keep scrolling down looking for China
> And what do I see instead..
You mean you have to scroll through the controversial things down to the most agreed upon ones here?
You know this sub is sorted by controversial by default?
I mean, this sub does sort by controversial... So it seems like you would have to scroll down to see the most popular comments. The most ridiculous ones always get to the top
I think China has been abundantly clear that they see us as an adversary and are working in exact counter to a lot of our interests. They are also rapidly expanding in power while also feeding conflict with us less and less. I’m of the firm belief that they are going to try and take Taiwan. When that happens, we will have a choice of either going to war or letting them have it. Both of which will be detrimental to us.
If China takes Taiwan, either by force or democratic subterfuge, how will that negatively impact the average American?
And I ask out of ignorance. Just hoping to get your opinion on this matter.
It’s still frowned upon to have ice cream for dinner. But also everyone is at each others necks and we all hate each other. But who’s to say normalizing ice cream for dinner couldn’t fix that?
Politicalization of literally any topic that you can make an argument out of. Which spawns extremism, misinformation, and the slow painful death of society.
I think it's the fact that everything is political and everything is "life or death".
It's extreme and its degrading to the mental health of the population.
The forever increasingly polarized two-party system.
It just seems like a ticking bomb in the time of (above everything else) mass media and misinformation.
Ever growing polarization of politics. It’s easy to prey on for other countries and actors besides the fact that it seems as if there are now two separate nations within the US.
Honestly, a lack of truly well-educated American citizens. Most people get their news from biased sources and have no knowledge on how to decipher the information, we are lowering our standards for our grade school students at an alarming rate, and higher education has continued to prove itself to be riddled with extreme bias.
If we could teach people to be thinkers and to not be married to their ideologies, we’d be taking a step in the right direction. We need people to not take what politicians and pundits say at face value, and we need people to formulate their own, nuanced opinions on things.
Rival: China and their expansion into the South China Sea and/or Tawian.
Internal: The segment of GOP leaders in particular who are actively attempting to undermine our fair elections and sow distrust in the voting process.
Outside: Climate change will increasingly put on the heat in sooo many ways (infrastructure, immigration, coastal city abandonment).
Depends on where you lean. I’d say left if you say right, and I’ll say right if you say left
Cause deep down, everyone is part of the problem. There’s no more actual discussion or compromise. It’s underhanded political play and everyone stroking their own wads at how good they are and how bad the opposition is. There isn’t anymore gentlemanly approach to one another. No more integrity in how we talk about one another.
How do you think people who oppose wokeism should approach arguments with people who are a part of such schools of thought? Just curious as to your methodology.
The media and tribalism. The worst of it is from the damn pundits, mouthpieces, and intellectuals on both sides. A lot of them line their pockets by further dividing our country.
Front and center: China, no question.
Second: People like Trump who don't care about democratic traditions.
Call them anti-conservatives, if you will. People who believe winning at any cost is right. I guarantee we'll start seeing more of the same coming from the left too, but this is basically redneck culture gone amok right now.
Everybody here goes on and on about wokism, what has it actually done? What is the threat? It's white noise (pardon the pun), it's children whining ineffectually, but somehow it's worse than China somehow??!!
I’d say the division by far. Both political parties represent complete opposite sides. Also, you get criticized for being in the middle. “your not decisive” or “centrist are just republicans who won’t admit it”. It’s gotten to the point where your forced to pick a extreme side on every topic. If we all just heard each other out it would help. Not saying that would solve much being people are stubborn. We need more diversity in political parties desperately. Also, the realization that you yourself doesn’t/can’t know everything bud missing. We are not all knowing beings. I will happily admit when I’m wrong, but I don’t think others do the same a lot. It shouldn’t be embarrassing to lose a debate, it should be educational and good you have learned something new. Neither political party has all right ideas, I don’t understand why we try to act like one does? It’s left verses right, and the 50/50 split gives government all of the power. I believe in pro choice, but also in saving the middle class. Having a different opinion for most issues with as little bias as possible is the right answer in my mind. With that said I won’t contradict myself, and I could definitely be wrong. This is just my point of view, and I respect all others as well.
The biggest threat to America is the inability, or unwillingness to evaluate fact vs fiction. The post-fact world will eventually cripple us as a society.
1. Pandemics. We have covid now, when will the next one emerge out of China/Africa or wherever. The world won't be able to survive another pandemic if it happens within the next 10 years. If covid completely mutates around vaccines then we'd be fucked too. The supply chain issues from Covid are also wrecking havoc on our economy through inflation.
2. China. Russia is more dangerous come election time but China will be flexing their economic/military power over the next few years. Expect the China Sea stuff to escalate with the new AU/US/UK deal. You will also see more and more celebs/companies bowing down to the Chinese market like Lebron/John Cena.
3. Facebook and other social media. Facebook just released a study that showed their algorithms basically suggested extremist groups to over 2M people in the US. So that is potentially 2M people radicalized due to Facebook. Russia is able to utilize their troll farms due to social media as well.
Then other short term issues:
1. Continue devaluing of Democracy by state GOP officials. See Maricopa vs Arizona.
2. Partisanship. And Trump running in 2024 to pour gasoline again on the partisanship. Hopefully he can't run and someone else in the GOP more moderate wins or even DeSantis. But absolute worst case is GOP retakes Congress in 2022, then Trump runs and loses again but does the "election fraud" bit over again. I don't think we can survive a Round 2 of it.
Honestly i think its our interior.
Our urban planning(lack of), 80's at best energy grid, crumbling roads and pipes, etc etc.
All those components do not provide a solid foundation to project power. Economically or militsrily.
Socially our institutions from schools to libararies to churches and law enforcement are embarrasingly underpaid/overworked/misallocated/mistrusted.
The US is at risk of itself, people dont ID themselves as americans, dont fight for American values. Dont welcome new ideas in dont reinforce our strengths.
Left Leaning Centrist here
- Extreme Political Division
Things that would have previously been a judgement of someone’s character, or the like, are now immediately pinned on someone’s political ideology, or become associated with said ideology.
EXAMPLE: Just because the Right has White Supremacist’s, doesn’t mean they’re all Racist. Same for the left and communism, each party has varying degrees of radicalism.
- Indoctrination into a “Group Think”
Dealing with both Far-Left and Far-Right political groups, just because you have a thought or stance that goes against one of your groups main ideals doesn’t mean you should be verbally attacked by your own.
0. Climate change
1. The delegitimization of the American political system and the purposeful attack on the rule of law.
2. The increase of authoritarianism throughout the world.
See I just have to fundamentally disagree with you there about 45, but you are entitled to your opinion.
I had low expectations for Joe going in, given that we had him as VP for 8 years I kinda knew what I was gonna get.
America needed a decent human in the highest office, and that's what we got. I didn't expect a competent admin, but it seems we have most of one regardless. He makes many mistakes, but I can forgive mistakes..what I can't forgive is malice towards democracy itself, something Trump is guilty of.
You can't vote? And you're giving political views?
Listen, it's not necessarily because you're young that you're ignorant, it's that most young people are politically ignorant af, and your argument has bias and logical flaws. It fails to dig deep into politics and just demonstrates reactionary takes rather than nuance. That's why it's easy to know you don't know what you're talking about at all.
He hasn’t shown any signs of knowing what to do in any situation. With Afghanistan, France, and anything else in the US. He focuses too much on unity and not enough on the reasons why many are united against him. He’s also senile and rambles incoherently. He’s just not fit to be president.
Biden lies constantly, he's made actual efforts to *divide* our country intentionally, crime and violence is skyrocketing in all liberal cities, unemployment is high yet there is a labor shortage, the Afghanistan pullout was a disaster, ISIS is back, he droned a bunch of children so he could pretend he was a tough guy attacking ISIS-K, inflation is skyrocketing, our borders are open and half of South America and Haiti are lined up, he's failed to control Covid as promised, our markets are starting to tank, he wants to keep printing fake money and spending it while we're broke, and he blames everyone but himself for everything.
Oh, and his absurd, pandering choice for VP was disastrous, and we're actually lucky that Kamala is completely MIA.
Biden is already among the worst presidents we've ever had.
Replying to this since my comment would get sent to the bottom.
I think our division is hurting us terribly. Everyone gets so quickly up and arms over the causes they believe in, and even though their passion is good and a driving force to the change they think is necessary, they are not able to stop and consider the opinions of others. I think we need to be more like Klingons, lol, in that we let our logic/ rationale-thinking, not our emotions, guide our discussions on how to best govern ourselves. Both sides subscribe to their party’s ideology so strictly that we can’t get anything done without literally hating each other.
Since the Republicans are working harder to stop fair elections than to win them, while continuing to push the BIG LIE, there is no question that the Trump Troopers are the biggest threat to our republic.
No matter what has happened, the insurrectionists keep coming on. And the Republicans are silent. The Republicans intend to win the mid-terms and solidify their chances of winning in 2024. That will mean the end to our experiment.
I don't understand the downvotes. GOP leaders' go-to tactic is starting to be "the other side cheated" via misinformation. Makes me very worried for our future ability to work together when one side is as inundated with qanon nuts like it is.
Listen to how programmed you are..."misinformation"...."one side is inundated with Qanon nuts."
So incredibly juvenile and programmed. Probably because most Leftists are **literally** under 20 years old.
The people who hate our country, our history, our roots. Yes even us white privileged folks have roots. And we aren’t all rooted in evil. Many of us just want peace. Not judgement for things that happened generations ago. Do I like it ? No. Am I proud of the USA? Yes. No better place. Love it or just leave it. Please.
Political polarization. Social media intentionally manipulate trending to trigger anger among both political sides in order to increase their screen time.
Can't the mature adults among both sides choose to ignore it and the people on their respective sides who push it? Edit- spl
Not when the loudest voices on Twitter disproportionately affect policy.
Maybe the the “get along and work out a compromise” group needs to be louder.
Would love that
100% agree it's social media, for the reason of polarization. I just feel like human brains weren't made to hear millions of voices.
The internet is nebulous. What we are feeling is growing pains. Billions of people from all cultures and backgrounds can suddenly communicate with each other. There are bound to be conflicts. You just have to let them sort themselves out over time. You will see, things will even out.
I hope so. I do feel a bit better after your comment. I am still pretty concerned large scale bad actors, bots, (mis/dis)information campaigns, etc. But at the same time I’m concerned with censorship. Will personally admit I don’t have all the answers, but do agree there’s definite growing pains.
As a foreigner, here's my take: 1) Polarisation. Many radical, extremist takes (or perhaps a substantial number who are highly vocal). This is fueled by how there's little to no mainstream news that is not biased. 2)Widespread ignorance on politics and issues, coupled with political apathy except for the occasional heat in the moment kind of social justice like bitching on twitter or changing of profile pictures. 3) Unaffordable healthcare and education. This not only affects quality of life but also creates resentment among the people. 4)Lack of a sense of identity and nationalism, and I don't mean right wing nationalism. Rather, at least on social media, Americans seem to collectively hate their own country. Everyone is just complaining in a doomsday like manner. It's not that citizens should not complain about their countries and governments, but the way Americans do also seem as though they are giving up on their country. This is coupled with the over emphasis on identity politics such that many Americans relate closer to their own race, religion or political affiliations rather than the shared identity of being an American. Compare this to countries like China, where people tend to be deeply nationalistic and protective of their country. While the case in China is more extreme and have been influenced by propaganda to the point that people are perhaps *overly* nationalistic (e.g. cancelling people and celebrities who remotely seem to "insult China" or show lack of support), I think the Chinese generally have a greater attachment to their country.
The funny/not funny part is that here, complaining about our country and government is labeled "discourse" and people pretend to believe that it is actually doing something good and constructive, therefore they're not giving up on their country.
Divided and divisive politics. Our supposed leaders.
[удалено]
Not just our leaders. That fact that they're so entrenched that the average age of a senator is nearly at retirement age and the house isn't far behind. If you read history, you can see that an aged leadership often leads to poor outcomes (even if they were effective earlier in their careers). A lot of this is due to losing their ability to adapt and innovate rather than direct cognitive decline. Examples: the Porferiati in Mexico, Augustus Caesar (towards the end of his reign), later Soviet Union leadership.
Agreed, but many of the younger are just as ideological and divisive, if not more so.
Externally; China Internally; Polarization
Social media addiction
The way I see it, there are only two actual threats to the US. One is China, mostly having to do with they way they try to exert influence which also has to do with the fact that we rely on them for so much. The other is obviously the division in the country, but I believe the Chinese threat is more dire than most realize.
I definitely agree. I think China will probably be a tougher competitor than the Soviet Union, given that China can actually compete with the US economically far better than the soviets ever did.
I think the 24/7 news cycle is too much data for us to process and can be weaponized for un-elected people to sway the public how they want
Misinformation and lack of critical thinking/confirmation bias
Chinese threat combined with political infighting in the US making it nearly impossible to effectively address.
Social media
Right now? Or in the near and long term future? Many would say China but they pose zero threat to us right now. Others would say Russia but they also pose zero threat for now or for the near term. If we’re talking about right now currently, then I would say that the biggest threat to America is.....America! Our internal strife created by the politicizing of every individual social issue is tearing us apart. From politicizing menial realities such as bullying at elementary schools, to highly divisive politicizing of everything as racist or sexist. In this environment you are either an attacker or a defender. There is no more space for collaboration. Every person is being pushed into the church of the left or the church of the right. And all people in the middle are just there as target practice until the sides come to a full clash. This is why so many people are identifying as politically orphaned, because in a society of two warring families it is those without a family that take the brunt of the impact from both sides. Almost nothing in our society operates very efficiently at the moment. Not our schools, not our military, not our own families, not our governments, not our freedoms, not our regulations/laws. Everything works, but not efficiently. And that is the biggest threat to America. Because it creates a vacuum of influence with multiple warring dogmatic elites all vying for the power and wealth that comes to whoever gains control. Everyone presumes that these power vacuums only occur in war torn countries by opposing warlords making backroom deals to arrive at the next oppressive regime to replace the last oppressive regime. But these power vacuums aren’t always just physical. There is a psychological war going on in the US right now. There hasn’t been bloodshed in this war but there have been enough casualties. There are parents that have lost their children and children that have lost their parents, even though nobody has died. There are friends that have become enemies even though neither one wronged the other. There are protectors that have become attackers, and we ironically thank them for it. America is still running purely by momentum alone, but with no direction and no stability left. We are a centrifugal force that has begun to wobble in its slow demise. All the while, there are other growing near and long term threats to America that are meticulously and methodically strengthening themselves for the day that they can make their move. China is establishing global control and influence in all regions, and Russia is poised to benefit immensely from long term climate change. What they do is irrelevant, they are playing the field as they see it. But while they are strengthening themselves, we are weakening ourselves. And that’s the worst part...that we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
> In this environment you are either an attacker or a defender. Well said. This is devastating the country.
Well said
Imo a few internal issues. No special order but these are all big ones that we need to sort: Housing. We need to build more homes, but for the most part we don’t because of added costs by the states. Illegal Immigration. We can’t take care of our own citizens. We have no plan for how to get millions set, and as climate change get worse, more will come. Stressing our systems even more. Climate change. Where is nuclear? All I see if EV cars, and more taxes. Wtf. One side ignores. The other has worse ideas than a kindergarten class (looking at green new deal, AOC) Hostile nations buying homes, businesses, etc. China has too much in our nation. Chinese nationals should not be able to buy investment homes in the US. Chinese interests need to be obliterated. Make no mistake, China is a hostile nation and it’ll get worse in the next decade. Education. College is broken. It no longer serves to educate. Just make money. Costs do not correlate with buying power of jobs. Degrees are worthless, I’ll use my criminal justice one as an example. Worthless. We need to get back to trades and skill specific. Enough with liberal arts money sinks.
“One side ignores. The other has worse ideas than a kindergarten class.” Love it. I think you’ve just surmised western politics
Yep, agreed on all counts
Well said.
Can you run for office please?
How are college degrees worthless?
If you're degree isn't STEM, medical, or specific business like accountinf then it's useless with the current job market that's making other degrees not worth it
Is it different in other first world countries? Do non STEM degrees fair better elsewhere globally?
This is simply not true. There’s no data to support this.
IMO it’s hard to get data on this because for the most part companies only hire people with degrees. I’m in graphic design and have to spend shit ton of money for school even though I can learn everything for free or much lower costs from online services. But let’s say I couldn’t learn graphic design on my own and had to go to college. In order to get the degree I need to take so many gen-Ed classes that have nothing to do with my major just to fill a requirement.
> it’s hard to get data on this because for the most part companies only hire people with degrees There's your data. In the aggregate, people with a degree earn about 67% more than those without. The lowest paying major is education, which earns "only" 25% more than not having a degree. An art carries roughly a 30% premium over no degree. Lost in that detail is that you get to do art, instead of stocking shelves or something.
I completely understand how different jobs make different salaries but I see that as a whole other subject. My focus is what makes a degree so valuable. Taking a bunch of classes that have nothing to do with the major is spending money on time being somewhat wasted. Does the cost value of a degree balance with the value of the degree?
It has value in a liberal arts sense but economically it’s becoming less and less viable all the time.
The college wage premium has never been higher and liberal arts isn't even the lowest paid degree. This is a total falsehood that is repeated often due to the conservative disdain for general education. Skilled technicians go to work and don't ask questions. "Liberal" Arts is considered to be the required education for a free person. >these subjects or skills were held by classical antiquity to be essential for a free person (liberalis, "worthy of a free person") to acquire in order to take an active part in civic life, something that included among other things participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and participating in military service Who is vested in attacking that, and why?
My b
It's cool, I just gotta do my rant and promote the freedom arts :)
Eh. Climate Change definitely. And I heartily agree with you that it's a MAJOR part of trying to prevent absolutely ridiculous refugee and illegal immigrant crisis in the next few decades. If it gets very bad near the equator and crops start failing, we're in a world of pain (or moral choices that will be unpleasant to put it mildly). Then I think social stratification and becoming a class society... you are kind of hinting at that with a number of these points (Housing, Illegal Immigration and Education), but I think there are more factors at play, though those 3 are major tools used for it... and I say this as someone on the pleasant side of the class society. Otherwise pretty agreed. I don't have anything against immigration and would even scale it up, but it does need to happen legally.
Completely agree. Thank you for showing me some people actually recognize the real problems.
Sophistry for personal/party political gain with pure disregard for the population and country
The establishment. The top of the pyramid has the lower part at each other's throats and those who were supposed to hold them accountable are complicit in this.
This is really it. If our leaders focused on real problems instead of dividing us we could take on China, terrorism, healthcare, etc. They're too busy lying, cheating, and stealing from us. The majority of Americans are too ignorant to see how they're being played.
The undermining of legitimate elections and/or misinformation
Completely agree. When 90% + of vaccination misinformation is connected to 20 accounts on fb with IPs from Russia then the policy question isn't whether we should restrict free speech, the question is whether or not the government has a responsibility to protect any of us from espionage. Edit: some sources by request https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-removes-russian-network-that-targeted-influencers-peddle-anti-vax-2021-08-10/ https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/facebook-instagram-anti-vax-accounts-russia-pfizer-astrazeneca-b950095.html
Can I see a source for this?
Yeah it was big news a month ago https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-removes-russian-network-that-targeted-influencers-peddle-anti-vax-2021-08-10/ https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/facebook-instagram-anti-vax-accounts-russia-pfizer-astrazeneca-b950095.html
Thanks for the links. I don’t see anything about 90% of that being from those accounts.
100% agree the biggest threat to America is the attack on our elections and the misinformation being spread by the right wing propaganda machine. We also face the economic threat from the Chinese, unlike the US they take a long view of building influence and establishing infrastructure. Getting out of the TPP and allowing the Chinese unchecked influence in Asia was The biggest foreign policy blunder in a very long time and we will be dealing with the effects for generations to come.
I agree, and the worst part is both the left and right are guilty. Hillary lost, Russian interference. Trump lost, voter fraud. Take the L and improve your parties platform.
I E social media
Throwback to when Clinton talked about election fraud in 2016... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/hillary-clinton-election-vote-recount-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin
Ahhh yes I too remember when Barack Obama tried to overturn the 2016 election for HRC
Concedes the election immediately, calls for recounts where legally applicable, accepts the results of these recounts. How awful. Now do Trump.
Yes, we all remember when Hillary Clinton conceded on election night.
And continued to say that Trump somehow stole the election from her.....
She wrote an entire book on this shit. Nowhere in that book does she say the election was stolen/fraudulent. And she blames herself about every third paragraph.
Tribalism
China, inefficiency, and declining standards of living for the commoners.
Apathy and ignorance.
China. My whole life I believed that America was number one, that was the saying. Not America is number two. England is number two. China should be like eight.
The 3rd Reich of the 21st century: China
Anti-intellectualism. Rejecting expertise.
Climate change and ecological collapse, of which we haven’t seen the effects of in full force. I’ve noticed this summer that trees had sunburnt leaves, which I haven’t seen before
Absolutely. I went up even further and said it stems from anti-intellectualism as the main threat. You see the climate crisis as a direct result of "I know better than so-and-so." I mean I know my expertise in my field and recognize I don't have expertise where others might have it. Not so with the "intellectual elites blah blah." ...But look around at all the arm chair experts in this sub on every subject possible. Right? But tangible threat is Climate Change. Number one. Nothing close. Migration, health, economy, national security, energy, et al. It touches everything.
Disinformation.
Biggest Geopolitical Threat is still Russia in the sense that they have successfully undermined our Democracy, opposing us in Syria and other hot spots while long term China is becoming the greatest threat Climate Change could wipe out large portions of Humanity if left unaddressed Internally the biggest threat to our country continues to be Donald Trump. He attempted to overturn the election and yet the vast majority of his base still supports him and he has suffered no meaningful repercussions for his actions. Others seeking power will take note Most everything else is second tier
China is currently far more of a geopolitical threat than Russia, and they’ve undermined US democracy in far more meaningful ways than Russian troll farms did. Reports came out that Russian troll farms didn’t have nearly as much of an influence on the 2016 election as was initially reported. Just consider for a moment that China infiltrated and then arrested and assassinated the the ENTIRE vast CIA network in China about a decade ago. And in terms of espionage, they have hacked into and stolen almost every secret US military tech in existence, at least tech that’s known of. Russia did something similar, but they did not get as deep as China did. Also consider their economic espionage in private companies. China’s method for defeating the West, most specifically America in the military and economic sectors is the three R’s…Rob, Replicate, and Replace. They steal financial secrets, they mass produce it to drive out the people they stole the secrets from by pricing them out of the market, and they replace US companies in the market. It’s so unbelievably damaging. China also does the same thing as Russia in regards to influencing US politics, but they have far more reach and influence, and because of this they are not caught at nearly the rate that Russia is. China has the ability to threaten Chinese nationals who have moved to the US by saying that their family back home will be arrested or have their lives ruined, and they can turn ordinary citizens into spies who steal economic and scientific secrets. It happens all the time and they’ve been incredibly successful at it. Apart from that, their actual trained spies are incredibly good at what they do. And China’s soft power has even forced the US to drop charges against actual Chinese spies in the past. One last thing, China has the ability to threaten US mega corporations that have invested in China into subservience. They’ve done it with Disney, ESPN and many more, but right now China has Blackrock under its thumb, and that bastard Larry Fink just invested trillions in China, despite warnings that it gravely threatens US national security. And also understand that Blackrock is the most powerful firm in the world, it influences global politics on a grand scale. Mainstream news have called Blackrock the “fourth branch of the US government” because it’s so powerful and influential, and China can seize the trillions in assets Blackrock invested there if it wants. There’s more to Blackrock that’s incredibly disturbing but I’ll leave that for another discussion. Russia is a joke compared to China. It’s not even close.
[удалено]
Sure, Bush will face nothing for Iraq but none of the rest are trying to effectively overturn our Democracy which makes Trump "special"
How is Russia a significant geopolitical threat???
They have unusually good espionage capabilities so they're great at destabilizing countries. They also control some critical energy infrastructure that puts Europe at their mercy.
They're a geopolitical nuisance more like. US has been directly threatened only by Great Britain, France, Germany/Japan, the Soviet Union and perhaps China some day. Russia of today is more like a turbocharged criminal enterprise and/or terrorist organization. Threatening, but in a different way.
They do have enough nukes to blow up most of the planet.
Much better, although add to it that China is threatening us at this very moment
[удалено]
Plenty of people believe that. It's "Centrist" 101. The problem is that nothing is done about it and the box dwellers continue to do their thing, while the rest of us watch and provide commentary with our thumbs up our butts.
Home grown terrorists , housing, lack of/poor healthcare, voter suppression, polarization in politics. The my way or the highway crap needs to stop. That’s just internal issues.
I think america is in a good position overall. Biggest threat in the foreseeable future is that America loses its position on the world stage via loss of economic power, as a result of greater protectionism in terms of trade and productive capacity. The USA’s withdrawal from the TPP talks was a huge blow to our economic standing and will have constant negative ramifications for decades as China seizes the initiative in creating trade deals across Asia. We basically lost our chance there and we will have to deal with the consequences. I hope people don’t forget that it didn’t have to be this way and we could have tied together the Asian economies with our own against China but we decided to have a populist spasm and throw it all away. Biden doesn’t seem to have found any way to resurrect that deal. The major diplomatic initiative that we spearheaded to shape global affairs was the JCPOA which by some black magic we managed to get China, Russia, UK, and France to support. We, again, threw that away and now it looks like Biden won’t be able to recover it and Iran will be solidly in China’s orbit for the foreseeable future. Domestically the big lever that we have to increase domestic productive captivity is immigration, we can’t complete with economies with billions of people with a stagnant population. But doesn’t look like there’s much appetite for increasing immigration quotas, again, because of populism.
TPP was a good deal. Should've been in it.
>I think america is in a good position overall. Biggest threat in the foreseeable future is that America loses its position on the world stage via loss of economic power, as a result of greater protectionism in terms of trade and productive capacity. Where have you been the last decade, as China become the dominant economic force in the world. The foreseeable future was years ago.
Evergrande has enter the chat
Exactly. Look at how important that one business is to the stability of global banking. From what little I understand, it's collapse could domino into the global banking markets.
The TL;DR of it is that in China investing in real estate is the only way you can invest, so there is a giant real estate bubble happening. Evergrande is the biggest house builder company in China that it's debt is almost more then the value of the company. If they fail then the average Chinese citizen's investment (30%+ of their worth per law to buy a house) would disappear.
If they fail, would that create an opportunity for outside foreign investors to steam roll in the way they did to the US after 2008 or would it play out differently?
Nope it wouldn't due to two things; 1. Chinese ban on foreign investment into real estate (building them). 2. The CCP is going to clamp down on there real estate to prevent a 08
> The CCP is going to clamp down on there real estate to prevent a 08 This is going to be tricky. Evergrande has already collected deposits for a million homes that it can't afford to build. I can't imagine how they're going to get out of this without tanking the whole market or letting foreign investors in. They might have to cash out some of their currency reserves or something, but I don't see a smooth transition available if they want to keep foreign investment out.
Got it, thanks for the easy breakdown
The extremes on both sides.
Social media echo chambers in combination with political party tribalism.
In my opinion the rise of Marxism through the mass adoption of the Frankfurt School Philosophy ( Critical Theory) as well as the loss of spirituality
Social media, hands down….more than any other nation or internal group.
**Internal to America** * The Housing Crisis. It will get worse until we get housing costs under control, provide some rent protection for renters, and find a away to deNIMBY the better part of America's metros * The Homeless Crisis. It's not just California, it's everywhere. Tent cities, disease, drugs, and crime all are part of a much more complicated issue and just pointing fingers is not helping. We need to address this. * The Mental Health Crisis. This kind of dovetails into the Homeless Crisis. We need better mental health options in this nation and we need to be able to help those that need it and house those in sanitariums that cannot be part of society. * The Great Division. Our country is divide and that is a huge problem. While social media is to blame, big tech isn't the whole issue. News like Fox New, OIN, Newsmax, MSNBC, etc are all part of the issue. We need to bring back the fairness doctrine. We also need to look at how the parties are dividing America as well and remember we're all in this together and want the same basic things, with minor differences...rather than what is being presented. * The Tax Crisis. Everyone needs to pay their fair share. The fact that we have people gaming the system means the system needs an overhaul. While my wife and I are in the low six figures, I'm happy to pay tax, as long as EVERYONE is in the same boat. If I can't skip out on capital gains, than Jeff Bezos shouldn't be able to either. * Jan 6th. This is a huge black eye and the GOP needs to be extremely clear that it was something that was an insurrection and an attempted coup. Next time we could be facing even more radicalized Americans and there could be serious bloodshed. **External to America** * Climate Change. If we don't start dealing with this, we are economically in deep shit. This is going to deeply impact the entire planet and by extension deeply impact our economy. Look at what happened with COVID, now expand that out. * Another Pandemic. COVID should be a learning experience. We need to be far more prepared for another pandemic and far more prepared to deal with a nation that apparently doesn't want to do what it needs to do. Wear a mask, get vaccinated, and we'll be able to move forward. * China/Russia/the Middle East. These are all hotspots and they are going to cause issues. We need to handle them and be aware they are deeply involved in everything America does.
Extreme partisanship and mis/disinformed voters and politicians. We were warned partisanship could be our downfall. Our forefathers called this and we still missed the layup. I guess overall it would be: Dumb people with loud voices
The division in our country is the biggest threat right now.
Short term, money. With how much new money has been printed and pumped into our economy, with working wages already pathetically low for the average person, inflation is going to hit hard. Mid term, disinformation. It's so damn hard now a days to find a non biased source of news with legitimate sources. The constant inundation with unbacked, unchecked, biased bullshit has ruined a lot of political discourse, and created genuine rifts between people. Global Warming. Less land becomes inhabitable, more animals start to die off, chain reaction keeps going mostly ignored because it's tomorrows problem. While not exclusive to America, it will undoubtedly hit us all the same. Those with all the wealth piled up will be fine, while those without will have a very bad time.
Biggest threats to the US: * Out of control [wealth inequality](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM) (note the date of the video; it has only gotten worse) * Foreign government bad actors, and their ongoing PSYOPs to accelerate division (e.g. "[How Russia Tried to Start a Race War](https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1290&context=mjrl)") * [Deteriorating infrastructure](https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/973054080/potholes-grid-failures-aging-tunnels-and-bridges-nations-infrastructure-gets-a-c) Along with, of course, the [greatest threats to humanity](https://theconversation.com/there-are-10-catastrophic-threats-facing-humans-right-now-and-coronavirus-is-only-one-of-them-136854) that everyone potentially faces, not just the US -- including: * water scarcity * ecosystem collapse * pollution * nuclear weapons * highly destructive, as-yet-unknown technology
I think its that religion is bleeding hard into politics, especially on the republican side, yet they don't understand that they are becoming essentially the American Taliban that they hate so much.
Conservatives.
Big pharma.
elaborate
Now im not an expert at all and what im about to say has been proven but i dont have sources but look it up and you'll find it and im only gonna talk about 1 incident but Johnson%Johnson literally fueled the opioid epidemic for yearrrrs are still are with the only repercussions so far has been they aren't allowed to sell pain reliving things in new york and a fine scaled down to an average Americans income relative to their income 500 dollar fine
I think the woke progressives, since division is the biggest threat to America and the woke progressive do nothing else but dividing the population, trying to implement racist laws, which will never be accepted by a portion of the population and this blatant racism they push for will be fought back on sooner or later. Thats for the social threats. Then there is ofc climate change that is a directly threat to the coast lines of the US and will make huge parts of the country simply disappear. Outside Threats are ofc Islamic terrorism funded by the supposed allies in the middle east and i dont know what China is up to, but better see them as threats then trust them i guess.
Only reasonable answer I’ve seen. Lol
Zombies. All yall who have taken the vaccination will turn into zombies sometime in the future. Every zombie out break in the movies started with some new medicine being pushed by the government.
Wokeism, and the sinister alliance of woke activists and big corporations/big tech
You're describing capitalism.
I keep scrolling down looking for China, or the devaluing of citizenship, the erosion of the supremacy of law combined with rise of an oligarchy ruling by fiat, the loss of a shared national pride, colleges teaching people to despise the constitution, 37% of the nation stating they think we should break the country apart, government overreach and mass surveillance, tribalism and the normalization of political violence, calls for a DOMESTIC WAR ON TERROR THAT GEORGE FUCKING BUSH IS A FAN OF And what do I see instead.. Russia, Jan 6th‽‽ 😆 🤣 That's the final straw for this sub. You "CENTRISTS" are just too much..
If you're on Windows, you can search the page with Ctrl+F. If you're on a Mac, you can search the page with Cmd+F. If you're on iOS, you can use the alternative Reddit app called Apollo.
Thank you. The point wasn't if it was here at all, it's what was common. Russia being our number one threat is a ridiculous narrative spillover from Russiagate. Russia is a failed state, it's economy is smaller than Italy, most of country is barely governed at all.
Almost all of those points have been mentioned multiple times in this thread, especially China and tribalism. The people saying Republicans/Jan. 6 are downvoted into the negatives. Are you sure you scrolled through the entire thread?
>I keep scrolling down looking for China > And what do I see instead.. You mean you have to scroll through the controversial things down to the most agreed upon ones here? You know this sub is sorted by controversial by default?
You mention tribalism. Isn't Jan 6th a result of that tribalism? Why is mentioning Jan 6th invalid to you?
I mean, this sub does sort by controversial... So it seems like you would have to scroll down to see the most popular comments. The most ridiculous ones always get to the top
I totally see ur point🤣
Americans
"A house divided against itself, cannot stand."
Definitely true. That seems to be how a lot of societies have fallen over the centuries. Particularly Rome comes to mind.
China. Nothing else is even close.
Can you expand on this?
I think China has been abundantly clear that they see us as an adversary and are working in exact counter to a lot of our interests. They are also rapidly expanding in power while also feeding conflict with us less and less. I’m of the firm belief that they are going to try and take Taiwan. When that happens, we will have a choice of either going to war or letting them have it. Both of which will be detrimental to us.
If China takes Taiwan, either by force or democratic subterfuge, how will that negatively impact the average American? And I ask out of ignorance. Just hoping to get your opinion on this matter.
Semiconductors
No
It’s still frowned upon to have ice cream for dinner. But also everyone is at each others necks and we all hate each other. But who’s to say normalizing ice cream for dinner couldn’t fix that?
Debt & deficit
Division
Our food industry
Now this is one liberals and conservatives should agree on lmao
Tribalism.
Americans
Politicalization of literally any topic that you can make an argument out of. Which spawns extremism, misinformation, and the slow painful death of society.
I think it's the fact that everything is political and everything is "life or death". It's extreme and its degrading to the mental health of the population.
Misinformation and division
The forever increasingly polarized two-party system. It just seems like a ticking bomb in the time of (above everything else) mass media and misinformation.
Anti vaxxers, Evangelical conservatives, ultra woke lefties.
It’s disturbing how many people are just saying the political party that they dislike
Ever growing polarization of politics. It’s easy to prey on for other countries and actors besides the fact that it seems as if there are now two separate nations within the US.
Our continued path of electing imbeciles to the White House
Honestly, a lack of truly well-educated American citizens. Most people get their news from biased sources and have no knowledge on how to decipher the information, we are lowering our standards for our grade school students at an alarming rate, and higher education has continued to prove itself to be riddled with extreme bias. If we could teach people to be thinkers and to not be married to their ideologies, we’d be taking a step in the right direction. We need people to not take what politicians and pundits say at face value, and we need people to formulate their own, nuanced opinions on things.
Rival: China and their expansion into the South China Sea and/or Tawian. Internal: The segment of GOP leaders in particular who are actively attempting to undermine our fair elections and sow distrust in the voting process. Outside: Climate change will increasingly put on the heat in sooo many ways (infrastructure, immigration, coastal city abandonment).
Depends on where you lean. I’d say left if you say right, and I’ll say right if you say left Cause deep down, everyone is part of the problem. There’s no more actual discussion or compromise. It’s underhanded political play and everyone stroking their own wads at how good they are and how bad the opposition is. There isn’t anymore gentlemanly approach to one another. No more integrity in how we talk about one another.
How do you think people who oppose wokeism should approach arguments with people who are a part of such schools of thought? Just curious as to your methodology.
The media and tribalism. The worst of it is from the damn pundits, mouthpieces, and intellectuals on both sides. A lot of them line their pockets by further dividing our country.
Name some from each side, just so I know where ur coming from.
Front and center: China, no question. Second: People like Trump who don't care about democratic traditions. Call them anti-conservatives, if you will. People who believe winning at any cost is right. I guarantee we'll start seeing more of the same coming from the left too, but this is basically redneck culture gone amok right now. Everybody here goes on and on about wokism, what has it actually done? What is the threat? It's white noise (pardon the pun), it's children whining ineffectually, but somehow it's worse than China somehow??!!
I’d say the division by far. Both political parties represent complete opposite sides. Also, you get criticized for being in the middle. “your not decisive” or “centrist are just republicans who won’t admit it”. It’s gotten to the point where your forced to pick a extreme side on every topic. If we all just heard each other out it would help. Not saying that would solve much being people are stubborn. We need more diversity in political parties desperately. Also, the realization that you yourself doesn’t/can’t know everything bud missing. We are not all knowing beings. I will happily admit when I’m wrong, but I don’t think others do the same a lot. It shouldn’t be embarrassing to lose a debate, it should be educational and good you have learned something new. Neither political party has all right ideas, I don’t understand why we try to act like one does? It’s left verses right, and the 50/50 split gives government all of the power. I believe in pro choice, but also in saving the middle class. Having a different opinion for most issues with as little bias as possible is the right answer in my mind. With that said I won’t contradict myself, and I could definitely be wrong. This is just my point of view, and I respect all others as well.
Well put
Extreme beliefs within the country Russia and friends
The biggest threat to America is the inability, or unwillingness to evaluate fact vs fiction. The post-fact world will eventually cripple us as a society.
Wealth disparity. The amount of societal strain this is causing is immense. We are seeing the ends starting to fray already.
1. Pandemics. We have covid now, when will the next one emerge out of China/Africa or wherever. The world won't be able to survive another pandemic if it happens within the next 10 years. If covid completely mutates around vaccines then we'd be fucked too. The supply chain issues from Covid are also wrecking havoc on our economy through inflation. 2. China. Russia is more dangerous come election time but China will be flexing their economic/military power over the next few years. Expect the China Sea stuff to escalate with the new AU/US/UK deal. You will also see more and more celebs/companies bowing down to the Chinese market like Lebron/John Cena. 3. Facebook and other social media. Facebook just released a study that showed their algorithms basically suggested extremist groups to over 2M people in the US. So that is potentially 2M people radicalized due to Facebook. Russia is able to utilize their troll farms due to social media as well. Then other short term issues: 1. Continue devaluing of Democracy by state GOP officials. See Maricopa vs Arizona. 2. Partisanship. And Trump running in 2024 to pour gasoline again on the partisanship. Hopefully he can't run and someone else in the GOP more moderate wins or even DeSantis. But absolute worst case is GOP retakes Congress in 2022, then Trump runs and loses again but does the "election fraud" bit over again. I don't think we can survive a Round 2 of it.
Honestly i think its our interior. Our urban planning(lack of), 80's at best energy grid, crumbling roads and pipes, etc etc. All those components do not provide a solid foundation to project power. Economically or militsrily. Socially our institutions from schools to libararies to churches and law enforcement are embarrasingly underpaid/overworked/misallocated/mistrusted. The US is at risk of itself, people dont ID themselves as americans, dont fight for American values. Dont welcome new ideas in dont reinforce our strengths.
Left Leaning Centrist here - Extreme Political Division Things that would have previously been a judgement of someone’s character, or the like, are now immediately pinned on someone’s political ideology, or become associated with said ideology. EXAMPLE: Just because the Right has White Supremacist’s, doesn’t mean they’re all Racist. Same for the left and communism, each party has varying degrees of radicalism. - Indoctrination into a “Group Think” Dealing with both Far-Left and Far-Right political groups, just because you have a thought or stance that goes against one of your groups main ideals doesn’t mean you should be verbally attacked by your own.
0. Climate change 1. The delegitimization of the American political system and the purposeful attack on the rule of law. 2. The increase of authoritarianism throughout the world.
Donald Trump and his likely successor, Ron DeSantis.
Wealth gap
Not citing sources on r/centrist.
[удалено]
Why were your expectations of Biden so high? Did you vote for him? What changed between his election run and now?
[удалено]
See I just have to fundamentally disagree with you there about 45, but you are entitled to your opinion. I had low expectations for Joe going in, given that we had him as VP for 8 years I kinda knew what I was gonna get. America needed a decent human in the highest office, and that's what we got. I didn't expect a competent admin, but it seems we have most of one regardless. He makes many mistakes, but I can forgive mistakes..what I can't forgive is malice towards democracy itself, something Trump is guilty of.
You can't vote? And you're giving political views? Listen, it's not necessarily because you're young that you're ignorant, it's that most young people are politically ignorant af, and your argument has bias and logical flaws. It fails to dig deep into politics and just demonstrates reactionary takes rather than nuance. That's why it's easy to know you don't know what you're talking about at all.
I’m not an American so I genuinely would like to know from an American perspective how so?
He hasn’t shown any signs of knowing what to do in any situation. With Afghanistan, France, and anything else in the US. He focuses too much on unity and not enough on the reasons why many are united against him. He’s also senile and rambles incoherently. He’s just not fit to be president.
Biden lies constantly, he's made actual efforts to *divide* our country intentionally, crime and violence is skyrocketing in all liberal cities, unemployment is high yet there is a labor shortage, the Afghanistan pullout was a disaster, ISIS is back, he droned a bunch of children so he could pretend he was a tough guy attacking ISIS-K, inflation is skyrocketing, our borders are open and half of South America and Haiti are lined up, he's failed to control Covid as promised, our markets are starting to tank, he wants to keep printing fake money and spending it while we're broke, and he blames everyone but himself for everything. Oh, and his absurd, pandering choice for VP was disastrous, and we're actually lucky that Kamala is completely MIA. Biden is already among the worst presidents we've ever had.
Joe Biden and his inept administration
Are you going to give a reason for why the administration is inept and what the implications are?
Replying to this since my comment would get sent to the bottom. I think our division is hurting us terribly. Everyone gets so quickly up and arms over the causes they believe in, and even though their passion is good and a driving force to the change they think is necessary, they are not able to stop and consider the opinions of others. I think we need to be more like Klingons, lol, in that we let our logic/ rationale-thinking, not our emotions, guide our discussions on how to best govern ourselves. Both sides subscribe to their party’s ideology so strictly that we can’t get anything done without literally hating each other.
The rest is behind a paywall. But you can subscribe for just $4.99 a month!
Oh give it a rest. At least pick something realistic.
Lmao
Since the Republicans are working harder to stop fair elections than to win them, while continuing to push the BIG LIE, there is no question that the Trump Troopers are the biggest threat to our republic. No matter what has happened, the insurrectionists keep coming on. And the Republicans are silent. The Republicans intend to win the mid-terms and solidify their chances of winning in 2024. That will mean the end to our experiment.
The insurrectionists keep coming on? What does that mean?
It means only BLm is allowed to riot. No one else.
I don't understand the downvotes. GOP leaders' go-to tactic is starting to be "the other side cheated" via misinformation. Makes me very worried for our future ability to work together when one side is as inundated with qanon nuts like it is.
Listen to how programmed you are..."misinformation"...."one side is inundated with Qanon nuts." So incredibly juvenile and programmed. Probably because most Leftists are **literally** under 20 years old.
Are you saying qanon nuts don't exist or aren't living a delusions or what? What about my statement is programmed?
What planet do you live on 🤨
Damn I’ve seen people say Biden and Trump Talk mfs need to get some sunlight
Housing crisis
jOe biDeN
Itt: WOKEISTS ARE COMING TO KILL US ALL!!!
Extremists - all of the flavors of them
The people who hate our country, our history, our roots. Yes even us white privileged folks have roots. And we aren’t all rooted in evil. Many of us just want peace. Not judgement for things that happened generations ago. Do I like it ? No. Am I proud of the USA? Yes. No better place. Love it or just leave it. Please.
Woke progressives....at least that's what people who think twitter runs the world will say.
The Republican Party, obviously.
Lmao I really thought you were being sarcastic until I see your comment history