Americans are not as gullible and easily brainwashed as we put them out to be. They are simply conditioned to behave politically as they do.
It’s quite clear that Americans live under a government that does not represent them. It sends hundreds of billions to fund genocidal campaigns while neglecting domestic opioid epidemics, housing crises, and train explosions. As it receives millions in corporate lobbying, it returns tens of billions in subsidies, tax cuts, and contracts. During COVID, under both “red” and “blue” governments, the ten richest men doubled their fortunes while incomes of 99 percent of humanity fell. Clearly, it is counter to the American people’s interest to maintain the system of the status quo. Yet for some reason, they still do.
Some would argue that this is because they are inherently gullible. Because they lack the mental facilities to believe anything other than Fox News. Because they were not born to be part of a representative “democratic” system. I digress from this. It is not stupidity which hinders their poor political character, but rather desperation.
Through both word and action, the U.S. economic and state elite have done a fantastic job of convincing the vast majority of the population that no real change is possible. That anything beyond the two-party system isn’t just “totalitarian” but simply unattainable. Social critic Mark Fisher accurately summarized this in that “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.”
Speak out against climate change and they’ll uncomfortably allow you to have a platform. Speak out against settler-colonial extermination and they’ll let you be run over by a bulldozer. Speak out against the wrongdoings of the government, however, and you’ll find yourself hunted to the corners of the Earth, on the kill lists of the same CIA who has overthrown nearly a dozen democratically-elected governments.
Few people want to be run over by bulldozers, and even fewer want to be locked up in a black site. To many, it seems like the only other option is to accept the reality of the status quo. A change would be nice, but without an advanced scientific understanding of history and society, there is no reason for it to be expected.
Many Americans, deep down, know that neither of the two parties truly serves them. Yet since there are no alternatives, why not vote for the slightly better one, or as disaffected liberals may say, the “lesser of two evils?”
Under the illusion that a fairer world is impossible, there’s no reason for a moderately rational person not to settle for the best they can get. An oil worker from Texas, say, would indeed be slightly better off by choosing the Republicans than the Democrats because they’ll give his industry more subsidies. A minimum-wage dishwasher in California, likewise, will benefit slightly from voting blue because they don’t seek to abolish the minimum wage. In the end, both of them will be exploited by their employer, health insurance provider, and government, no matter who they vote for. Nevertheless, if they are better off than they would have been otherwise when their “horse” wins the race, their decision is far from stupid.
Out of desperation, some try to convince themselves that their politicians truly do care about them. At its core, this is no different than a man who attracts no women and falls into believing that a stripper truly likes him. This is where we get the minority of Americans who devoutly follow whatever Joe Biden or Donald Trump tells them. It should be noted that these people are much fewer than they appear to be on social media. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear affirmed that ”most Americans aren’t thinking about politics at the start of every day. Instead, they wake up thinking about their jobs, their children’s education, their family’s next doctor appointment, and the safety of their communities.” Moreover, according to a Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans described themselves as moderate, not pledging their loyalty to either of the two political parties. Even some of those who answered liberal or conservative likely don’t form the image of “gay woke snowflakes” or “racist gringo truck drivers” they are sometimes painted to be. Not committed to either neoliberal political faction, most Americans vote for what they believe is better for them in the moment.
In other words, given a mandatory choice between heroin and fentanyl, the American people choose their heroin.
Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, life there was not too great, to say the least. Child mortality was around 15%, illiteracy was above 80%, and income was lower than that of current Somalia. Landlords and warlords topped the social pyramid, as the vast majority of peasants had no hope of escaping their conditions. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck provided a more harrowing account of what life was like back then.
Back then, people believed in Confucianism. It was their “opium of the masses” a way for them to escape the harsh realities of their nation. Just as there seems to be no hope of change in America today, there was no hope of change in China for a century until Sun-Yat-Sen, and later, the communists led the way.
In 1949 when socialism revitalized the nation, the masses embraced it as it provided not just words but material progress. Within the first few years, life expectancy doubled, literacy soared to 93%, universal healthcare was established, feudalism was abolished, and the base of an advanced industrial society was created. No wonder Chinese young people are embracing him again.
Today in America, we are seeing much of the same happen, beginning with the call against Israel’s genocide and now with the awakening sparked by Luigi Mangione. People are beginning to realize their true class interests and sympathize with those who advance them. What will ultimately happen depends on their ability to organize and seize key institutions of power. Just like the so-called “backward” Chinese did eighty years ago, they certainly have the intellectual capacity to reshape their nation.
The present may be dark, but we should have high hopes for the future.