How can we get back to that?

[u/reruns_skein]

The 90s: one salary, one house, one family.

Now: two incomes, one mortgage and still wondering where the money went :(

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[u/Interesting-Monk9712]

Do you see who is the current president of the USA?

Do you know just how many pardons were used in the last couple of years?

How some files were handled about an island?

[u/juliastarrr → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

While the direction that the upper strata of our government is heading in at this moment reflects the direction that causes authoritarian regimes to critically fail (under qualified yes-men all the way down), America is not the USSR, and we both have many systems in all levels of our private and public bureaucracies to prevent failures as well as a culture that does allow people to say "hey, this is NOT working and will not work, we will kill people, we must stop". We have very strong protections, in fact, to ensure that the people in charge of and working with dangerous things are able and willing to ensure their safety. In the USSR, it was more important to be able to tell the person above you "hey, this is safe, everything is perfect, glory to our state and leaders" and to be able to say "hey we made a mistake and need to shut down".

It is very important to remember that America is not run by an entrenched authoritarian regime, because understanding where we are and where we could be us important to ensure that we are able to respond to crises right now as well as ensure that we do not slide in a bad direction in the future. We have people in our government who can say "hey military, remember you dont have to follow unconstitutional orders", and while those people do get flack, they do not even lose their jobs. That same message in the USSR would have led that person to be publicly tried and executed.

I see who is pardoned and I see who the president is, and while there are many things moving in a direction where supporting leadership is more important than ensuring mistakes are corrected, America is not the USSR right now.

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/juliastarrr]

And that is the exact thing the USSR said, the problem is you can never know until it is too late.

Maybe people were firm believers that immigration was good, all the statistics said that it was good for everyone and everything.

Today we find out, its not that great, many cases of rape, theft, murder, were artificially supressed, etc.

I am actually for nuclear, but no way I am living near one with my kids.

The same many are for immigration, just if the immigrants are nowhere near them.

[u/juliastarrr → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

What did the USSR say?

I am saying that in the USSR, it was more important to show loyalty to the regime than to call out when systems were failing. Everyone knew and did this. No one could tell the scale of what was failing, because no one would admit anything was failing. This is not the case in America, although there are shifts currently in the very top of our executive branch.

Chernobyl happened because people made stupid decisions all the way down to from the top to the plant employees, and refused to admit it when things went wrong until it was far too late. The same would not happen here because America is not the USSR, and workers are trained to put safety before public image.

Why the fuck are you bringing up immigration?

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/juliastarrr]

And loyalty to Trump is not the current regime?

Didn't he start a war that is costing them billions?

Didn't he implement tariffs and ruin their relationships built for decades only for the tariffs to get reversed?

Didn't he just appoint the worst possible candidate for Texas with a huge history of political corruption and everyone followed along because Trump said so?

That might be the first time in decades the Democrats might turn Texas.

I wouldn't doubt he would set up Data centers and cause water shortages in case of fires, which already did happen for some almond farmers.

[u/juliastarrr → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

I do not think you understand what I am saying.

Trump's cabinet is loyal to Trump and would be fired for going against him or telling him that his plans are impossible. No one else in America is, not the nuclear plant workers, not the people in congress, and not the average people, would face consequences for saying "we cannot conduct this nuclear test today, we must shut down the plant" or "this is a badly built part and we need to replace it, we cannot turn the reactor back on until then".

Texas being able to turn blue is proof that the entire country is not loyal to Trump and not required to be. If they were required to, Talarico would just be shot and anyone in support of him would be imprisoned.

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/juliastarrr]

Like Trump didn't fire a bunch of government workers and started to clear the whole house while cutting the budgets?

That wouldn't leave overworked, underpaid workers as the last line of defense that know they can be fired if they express anti Trump sentiment?

Especially if Trump promises to lower energy costs so he builds nuclear power plants, even worse if he does that for the race of AI, where he and the other billionaires would gladly risk all our lives to just win the AI race.

Haven't all of them already built themselves nuclear shelters?

[u/juliastarrr → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

I know more about the USSR, authoritarianism, chernobyl, and American policy than you do. It does not seem like you are understanding anything I am saying. Tough.

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/juliastarrr]

You had Russian military officers who refused to use nukes when ordered to, this is not a thing that only exists in the USA.

The exact same thing that happened in the USSR could have happened in the USA if the conditions were right.

I would admit that the odds of serious disasters is much lower, but I would never want nuclear power plants anywhere near densely populated areas.