u/ScrumTumescent

There are a lot of different answers as to why society is fucked up right now. Well, first off, does anyone disagree? Obviously there's the Capitalist/Materialist argument that things have never been better in terms of material wealth than they are in 2026. This is undeniably true. However, simply increasing the amount of money per day a person has to spend doesn't fix *all* social peoblems. Despite an ever rising tide, life expectancy and mental health is declining in the western world. For this discussion I'm focusing on society & culture, not economics.

So, if you are part of the camp that sees *something* wrong culturally in the West, you likely have a culprit in mind. Right here is where I believe propaganda offers a false answer that can, and often does, replace one's independent answer: Capitalism, PoMo NeoMarxism, lack of faith in Christ, drugs, immigration, governmental corruption, a conspiracy by elites, globalists, Zionists, rapeculture, toxic masculinity, 4th Dimensional Lizard entities, demons (if you're Tucker Carlson), and so on.

Propaganda is excellent at scapegoating and deflecting attention away from the true sources of problems. There's an entire industry devoted to it called Public Relations.

You pick your favorite culprit. Then understand that there's no way that this one thing alone could be it. There there are several things contributing towards inhospitable social conditions. You must now rank-order them. Is High School even on the list?

You ever wonder why The Kardashians are worth Billions? Why government elections are a popularity, not policy, contest? Why it's so easy to divide us with tribalism in the first place?

If you're the curious or open minded type, give the article a read. It's at least thought-provoking. The thesis is: the teenage brain isn't anywhere close to developed in the high school years, showing scientifically demonstrable differences from adult brains. High School is a place where teens get to exist in a separate subculture for 8 hours a day while their pre-adult brains and accompanying psychological values are forming. Teenagers spend 16 hours a week around adults vs 60 hrs around other teenagers. The social rules and judgements developed in high school set the foundation that will be expanded upon in adult life.

I suspect that the reason America feels like a circus run by teenagers is because it is largely that. Most of us never left high school, mentally. All the culprits you've come up with are still very real reasons why America is struggling (again, culturally, not materially). But our inability to deal with them could be because, as a nation, the thing we all share most in common is that we went through the high school experience together. It shaped our values whether we acknowledge it or not. It's not fair to call highs school "indoctrination" because it wasn't the curriculum that shaped how we think, but rather the sub-culture comprised purely of other teenage brains that you lived in for the first 4 years of your post-childhood life.

https://nymag.com/news/features/high-school-2013-1/

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746

This is the BBC reporting Princeton's findings. The study itself is referenced in the report. Yes, these findings were published in 2014 so it's not "news", meaning it's not part of the current zeitgeist that only considers breaking developments as relevant.

What Princeton found is that 95% of legislation isn't written for the benefit of citizens. This means that the US is more Oligarchy than Democracy.

First question: Do you think Oligarchy is harmful to democracy?

Next question: what is more concerning, the fact that the US government drafts 95% of legislation to the benefit of corporate business, or Woke?

Woke is *annoying*. A lot of kids have been told they're trans when they're not. No doubt some under-age children have received hormones and surgeries before they truly understood what they were going through mentally. Cancel culture is a form of censorship. Men shouldn't be allowed in women's sports. Stunt casting in TV and film with diversity hires is annoying. Immigrants. What did I leave out? Fill in the blank.

If you add up all of Cultural Marxism's crimes, is it worse than democracy ceasing to function because wealthy corporate interests pay to have their voices be heard over voting citizens?

If you think Oligarchy is worse than Woke, then every moment you spend being an anti-Cultural-Marxist activist is one that could be spent fighting a greater enemy. A current example of the Oligarchy getting its way is the Iran war. The people have spoken and a majority do not want $30 Billion of taxpayer money spent per month fighting Israel's war for Israel. Yet gov't and military don't listen to the people, they listen to influence. The Saudi Arabian government has given $2 Billion in private equity to Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, as part of a fund meant to create a "financial corridor" between Saudi Arabia and Israel. That's Oligarchy in action, not Woke.

Source: https://youtu.be/9aqvESSiIvk?si=kVKDIeh-uqZ-Z3ni