universal basic income; single payer healthcare; free/cheap college tuition; parental subsidies like day care; etc. all have OVERWHELMING support from americans and we get none of those; yet we still call ourselves the world’s best democracy while simulatenously decrying “authoritarian” “shit holes” who do have these things for their own people, just like the sort of temporarily embarrassed political/cultural/social millionaires that steinbeck admonished us for being.

i wish that the narratives of american exceptionalism wasn’t so strong that it makes us so blind and trusting of a ruling that class that has repeatedly and verifiably taken advantage of our ignorance; even millennials and gen-z are fully aware of our ruling’s class’ historical duplicitousness, but continue to insist that the same ruling class’ actions in ukraine, palestine, or afghanistan are done out of a desire to bring democracy or “fairness” to the world.

i also wish that the propaganda wasn’t so effective that things like tiannamen square or the berlin wall couldn’t fool us into believing that we’re the best democracy in the world despite all the violence and suffering that our democracy has inflicted upon the world just to maintain our status quo.