US state of the union in a nutshell
May. 19th, 2025 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ionelvOne can’t describe any better 2025 USA than this short standup clip about Amtrak (by someone born in a ex-communist country). And don’t bring up excuses like population density (which does not apply on Northeastern train routes) or the amazing air travel alternatives (which makes one take shoes off on every takeoff, line up like cattle for a silly security kabuki dance and packs all in steerage with zero elbow and knee room and hands out 1/2 oz pretzels and one can of soda as free refreshments). #1 my foot. How the mighty have fallen.
LE: I forgot to mention that 2025 USA requires that one needs to be careful about what she says or writes (especially on social media) and if they have been indiscrete in the last few years, they might have to spend a few hours scrubbing their social media posts or bring a burner instead of personal phone on US trips lest they risk a nasty encounter with the brown shirts at the border. For the few of us that were born behind the Iron Curtain, there is definitely a very bitter sense of deja vu along with the realization that the pendulum of autocracy swings unimpeded even in those places where its inhabitants sincerely believe that their country is a beacon of democracy while their dear leader is sucking up to and colluding with the top autocrats in the world, has stacked its top court already and is working hard to muzzle any last ember of its much vaunted “free” (corporate) press.
LE: I forgot to mention that 2025 USA requires that one needs to be careful about what she says or writes (especially on social media) and if they have been indiscrete in the last few years, they might have to spend a few hours scrubbing their social media posts or bring a burner instead of personal phone on US trips lest they risk a nasty encounter with the brown shirts at the border. For the few of us that were born behind the Iron Curtain, there is definitely a very bitter sense of deja vu along with the realization that the pendulum of autocracy swings unimpeded even in those places where its inhabitants sincerely believe that their country is a beacon of democracy while their dear leader is sucking up to and colluding with the top autocrats in the world, has stacked its top court already and is working hard to muzzle any last ember of its much vaunted “free” (corporate) press.
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Date: 2025-05-21 02:36 am (UTC)* real high speed rail has existed in Europe and Japan since the 60s and even China has it for over 20 years now (interestingly, all regions of the world that were lifted from very low points by considerable US treasury and/or American blood)
* US passenger rail is a joke in comparison and all its future potential is and has been mostly vapourware for decades
* intercity travel via high-speed rail (mostly electrified) is vastly superior to any other mode of travel from a comfort, safety and environmental POV, although air travel safety is comparable with high-speed rail.
I will concede that having high-speed rail does seem like an unimportant thing to hark on in the greater scheme of things (especially for those that don't have it), but in my opinion it is a litmus test that separates the best of human civilization from the retarded insular declining anglosphere civilizations that make do with short-term corporate-driven billionaire-shaped profit-centric choices, and that is only the tip of the iceberg that hides other ugly things under the waterline: mind-numbing inward-pointed internalized jingoistic propaganda, and a crumbling infrastructure and social net (e.g. healthcare, pensions, education, mass media) that has created a growing underclass that keeps marshalling the best interests of its vampiric overlords for the price of some cheap stale bread and the pro sports or fast cars going in circles circus.
That is not to say that the same dynamics don't exist outside the anglosphere, but they pale in comparison when one looks at the speed with which the greatest democratic experiment in the world (that saved the world democracy more than once) is transforming itself into an autocracy (and the expected domino effect of the delayed copycat downfall of its anglo siblings).
LE: I must admit that seeing the US on the receiving end of a Marshall Plan in a decade or so, will be some fine historical irony and long overdue karma as well.
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Date: 2025-05-21 05:10 pm (UTC)So you're saying Quebec will save us? :p
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Date: 2025-05-21 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-21 05:46 pm (UTC)