Since our pseudo news outlets and social media pot-stirrers capture the imagination with stories that are largely untrue or focus on the wrong things, we seem to be ignoring hard truths. This concerns me as dialogue over factual information is greatly needed. Otherwise, we address the wrong problems.
America no longer is a country of upward mobility. We have fallen in the ranks of people climbing the socio-economic ladder and to whom and where you were born matters more than merit.
America ranked in the twenties in terms of science and math in world educational ranking the last time I checked. It may be worse now. That is not American Exceptionalism.
America has the most expensive health care system in the world but ranks around thirty-eight in quality outcomes. We have one of the hjghest maternal mortality rates in first world countries.
America was put on watch list for democracies around the world. That sentence speaks volumes. When people believe a former president who is known for being untruthful when he says the election was stolen, that gives me concern. The fact he cannot prove any of his wild contentions should be informational. He has won only one out of 65+ court cases and no recounts or audits. It is hard for him to lose any more than this, but he was still at it earlier this week.
That climate change thing is real and it is here. Storms are more severe and impactful. Drought areas are dryer. Wild fires are more intense. And, coastal areas are seeing more sunny day flooding. What is less discussed is the warmer weather pushes further north wreaking havoc on flora and fauna. The Maine lobsters are migrating north and we are seeing more tropical disease carrying insects up this way.
And, there are many other things we are not discussing.
musingsofanoldfart 
Hard not to feel discouraged, Keith. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how words have slipped into the rhetoric, out of context, and gained potency, setting the truths askew. For example, the conspiracists here in Canada keep to referring to our government as Communist, which is a blatant misrepresentation of what they are trying to convey. So frustrating.
VJ, labelers and name callers use these short cuts to convince people to follow them without argument. This is when more questions should be asked, not fewer. Keith
Exactly!
Dear Keith,
I have perused your post entitled “Hard Truths” and wanted to comment on your post. Here I am to communicate with you as follows.
How compelling and thoughtful an essay you have composed here! I commend you for your effort in highlighting the various outstanding issues and ramifications surrounding systemic untruth, or rather, systemic deception, systemic inequality, systemic discrimination and systemic corruption. I also concur with VJ Knutson regarding “how words have slipped into the rhetoric, out of context, and gained potency, setting the truths askew.”
I have discussed in great detail all of these issues in my extensive and analytical post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“, which has been greatly improved and expanded.
Gathering all the diverse and important strands together in the grand finale of the said post, I have attempted to sum up and reflect deeply the state of affairs with hard truths in the said post, especially in the last section named “Denouement: Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability“.
The age of Anthropocene could indeed be a very short one, as humanity seems to be plunging headlong into creating and facing a ghastly future, as explicated in my said post.
The various issues that you have highlighted aside, there is a great deal that can be analyzed and revealed regarding the vulnerability and fragility of democracy. The final section of this said post, named “Denouement: Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability“, specifically discusses this vulnerability and fragility. I look forward to your much esteemed thoughts and feedback there.
May you and VJ find the rest of 2021 and the forthcoming 2022 very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, reading, thinking and blogging whatever topics that take your intellectual fantasy and analytical whim!
Take care and prosper!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
Thanks Soundeagle. I look forward to reading your piece. Keith
You are very welcome, Keith. I would like to clarify that the aforementioned grand finale called “Denouement: Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability” is not a separate post. Rather, it is the last section of the twelve sections presented in the said post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“, which you can easily locate from the Home page of my blog.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
Dear Keith,
By the way, I would like to thank you for commenting on my festive post entitled “🎊 Season’s Greetings: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 🎄🎅☃️“. Since you last visited it, I have continued to introduce even more graphics and animations over the past few days. It is now very polished. May you enjoy its extra features there. In addition, please turn on your finest speakers or headphones, as the post will be playing music to you automatically for about two minutes.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
It’s all going to hell in a handbasket, and it is affecting all of us mentally, whether we want to believe it or not. Very frustrating.
Lisa, what bothers me is what should be overt is explained away. If they worked for a person like Donald Trump, they would quit in a heart beat. But, these sycophants who rationalize and abet his seditiuous actions are the worst. Keith
I had no idea that the US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates. I am a bit shocked to see this. When my son was born, I was full of trust. Thank God, I did not know about it. Some of the other points surprise me too but (sadly) some don’t, since the whole world witnessed the behavior of the former president… and that he got away with everything which no one understood how this was possible in a country like the US. BUT… there are more countries in this world that left a pitiful balance sheet for this and even past years. So the US are in good company.
Erika, I am reading Michael Lewis book called “The Premonition” about how America surprisingly botched the response to COVID and the term “missing Americans” refers to the 180,000 more who died than should have. Keith
This suggests that this book opens up some background that makes you cringe.
Erika, it does. I will write a post on it when I venture through it. Keith
Thank you for putting my thought into words, Keith. This is the second post I’ve read today that makes my want to move to another country. We are in big trouble.
Janis, thanks. The first step to addressing a problem is realizing we have one. Sadly, we have some who are making the problems worse. Don’t move just yet. Keith
Hard truths, indeed, Keith. But despite how discouraging everything seems, we do have it in our power to change the picture to some extent. You and I have often conversed about the importance of being vocal citizens—I think that’s even more important today than ever before. There is a noisy minority that gains outsized media attention.
The most difficult impediment is the increasing lack of a shared reality. We need to find ways to reach people in areas where local news outlets have vanished and large organizations with financial interests in discord, eg, Sinclair, are filling the gap.
Annie, well said. Misinformation abounds. We must push back and ask questions. And, we must let pseudo-news people and elected officials know we are paying attention. We are owed the truth. Keith
Hi Keith.
Your post and the responses reveal a sobering picture of the USA in the earlier 21st century.
Of course by now you know my views on History and the rise/fall of societies, nations and so forth. What does distress me is the almost wilful intent on a swathe of elected officials and their staffs, along with commentators to actually ignore those historical lessons. This is nothing new either, but in a nation as large and diverse as the USA that this narrow mindset should flourish when in earlier decades it would have been ‘laughed out of court’ suggests something has gone very wrong.
The analogy which comes to mind, is of one of geology. The process where the plates which form the basis of land, meet, push against each other until those tectonic forces cause an Earthquake.
Thus to try and label one person as the cause is missing the point, even to go back a decade or so does not fully answer the questions arising.
Maybe only those who will write in centuries hence will have the full perspective, as there are so many factors swirling around.
Who knows? Maybe the Civil War never truly finished, it simply spread out in a diluted form.
Well said, Roger. Fear and blame. The matched pair of political tactics. They have been around forever, but now are so easy to do.
An ideal time for the Russian and Chinese governments. Both ahead in arms race and their intelligence services sponsoring groups to flood the Western social media with nonsense such as Q Anon, Anti-Vaccination, and Climate Change denial thus gaining hapless dupes to spread descent.
Roger, with Brexit and American civil struggles, we have accelerated China’s projected ascdendance. I know you meant to type “dissent” but “descent” is also an apt word to define America. Keith