The rich continue to get richer, the poor continue their slide deeper into poverty, the middle class continues to shrink with hopes they somehow wind up on the favorable side of the poverty line instead of having to give up their desires to live a 1950's 'we deserve to have anything we want' lifestyle.
A whole bunch of whining about how bad and "third world" things are from people with more money and opportunity than the average person in some random country just about anywhere else in the world whose daily routine might include walking miles ida y vuelta to fill buckets with potable water for their families needs cooking and washing needs. They don't realize how good they have it and how easy their lives are compared to the majority of people currently alive and all those who've come before who struggled daily just to eat, be safe, stay alive. When the concern is that you can't flash your relatively opulent wealth anywhere or leave your bag of recently purchased stuff from an expensive designer store unguarded on the street without worrying someone might steal it, or you see someone in unfortunate enough circumstances that instead of counting your blesses and maybe showing concern for the person and wondering what it is about society that makes it that there is such a large wealth dispersity problem you instead complain about the smell of urine - you know you've only got so-called first world problems. Lot of Americans are soft - and not in a good way. Too spoiled for too long. No fortitude.
When it comes to crime the message from mainstream media, the political class, and the corporations who own it all is that Americans need to be afraid and live in fear. All this back and forth gives people of means and people who want to be in their position a way to point figures and blame. Lot of cherry picking. Lot of believing what their favored media outlets spew - regardless of the fact that many of these media outlets are caught lying and pushing bullshit in order to keep their viewers from changing the channel. Ratings! Every channel from the left of the dial to the right has been loving things since Trump came down the escalator - some just are far more accurate at getting the facts at least somewhat closer to reality (not that they aren't providing their own distractions to their audiences) while others are feeding their scared viewers exactly what they want to hear and have shown they are more than willing to spin facts and flat out lie in order to do so.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread is the recent in the (US) news story about how Rep. Jim Jordan and others in Congress are going after the AG of NYC for all of the dangerous crime in these liberal run cities while it turns out the places they represent actually have higher crime rates and bigger problems. Compare crime rates, gun violence, etc. per capita and the facts show that it's the red states that are suffering from higher crime rates, shooting deaths, etc. While looking that up also do a Google search to see which states have the highest rates of teenage pregnancies, the worst performing education systems, the worst health care, the lowest life expectancies, etc. Top it off with a search to see which states send the most tax dollars to the Federal Govt. and which states receive more than they contribute. The governors of these states which take more than they give always seem to whine about keeping Washington DC and the Federal Govt. out of their states, but when they get hit with a natural disaster are always they're with their hands out looking for Federal relief. Same with Senators who vote down help for other states, but ask for Fed money for their own.
But I'm sure if someone wants to dig deep enough they can find a fact to fit their conclusion and a person or group of people to blame. Blue mayors in states with a red governor/legislator (or vice versa) - leaves a lot or room to assign blame. And if those facts don't fit blame a teacher, blame the poor, blame a transexual, blame a homosexual, blame women, blame minorities, blame people who aren't Evangelical Christians, blame the people who essentially have no power, all while giving their money away to self-professed billionaires with their own planes who email them on the regular whining about how they are the actual victims and beg for money. Also take a look at all the other elites who actually have the ability, money, and power to exercise far more control over the local/state/federal laws and politics, the judicial system, the economy, etc.
Or just keep up hating and blaming other people and do anything but focus on the actual problem. Keep blaming others because those that are pushing your emotional buttons know exactly what they're doing, how to manipulate you and get you to react and give them a pass for their own actions which go against your own self interests - unless of course you're an unfairly treated rich billionaire in need of a massive tax break yourself. Notice how on a certain end of the spectrum there's a lot of projection. Criminals calling other people criminals while making themselves out to be the victims. Completely Orwellian and their audience/base seems not to care, or even notice. As George Carlin once said about the average person and stupidity. Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.'
I recently re-watched 'The Big Short' about the housing crisis in '07. They nailed it back then and the politicians go right back to letting the obscenely wealthy do as they please without any risk of failure. As has been said before, Socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor. Banks fail, airlines and other corporations get billions of $ to keep employees on the payroll during COVID, all sorts of Corporate Welfare, and they always do the same thing:
"Banks took the money the American people gave them, and used it to pay themselves huge bonuses, and lobby the Congress to kill big reform. And then they blamed immigrants and poor people, and this time even teachers!"
"I have a feeling in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people."
Just a thought, but maybe it's better to regulate banks and railroad companies transporting toxic chemicals (and not terminate these safety regulations like "the former guy" did so they can profit even more) instead of uteruses, drag shows, libraries, etc. Or if you still want to blame men in drag, do another Google search for "Republican drag" and see pictures of conservative icons like Ronald Reagan playing adult dress up.
