I think very few happy people have the slightest idea that their little charmed lives are not what everyone else is experiencing.
Redbolshevik2
Why weren't you and the people you were apparently bigoted against equally susceptible to the propaganda? American culture is broadcast to every inch of the globe, why is it that those who benefit from the global economic system are most susceptible to it while those who benefit least are the least susceptible to it? There are obvious exceptions, like people at the bottom of a hierarchy embracing Capitalist ideology in an attempt to escape their conditions, and, you know, Engels. But I think it's frankly absurd to argue that it's not generally true.
Thinking about "they hate us for our freedom."
Really reinforces my conviction that Roderic Day is fundamentally correct about propaganda. Settlers aren't helpless victims of brainwashing, they willingly seek out self-flattery.
It's absurd on its face to think that anyone was "brainwashed" by something as transparently false and stupid as "they hate us for our freedom." Not even the slightest kernel of truth, but it's flattering.
As I'm approaching a decade of no hope both politically and personally, I have completely lost the desire to be principled. I want to see everyone who has what I don't to lose everything, and I want to see them cry.