this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
235 points (91.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

29842 readers
1238 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 133 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

We're actively disinformed. That's why. It's really that simple.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

As an example of the deeply ingrained disinformation and brainwashing, see a comment I made earlier today regarding Liberals continuously blaming progressives for Trumps win — without evidence — instead of the statistically verifiable, and multi-decade ratfuckery by the fascists... not to mention the ~100 million American adults who refuse to vote in every election (aka. the 100 million adults Liberals continuously fail to motivate), or the ~80 million voters who support fascist authoritarianism, or the corporations who have corrupted the political class and propagandized the entire population for 5 decades, or the political class who continuously serve the oligarchy.

War is peace! Freedom is slavery! The political class, bought and paid for by fascists, will save us from fascism!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 54 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because

  1. taxing the rich is a partisan stance

  2. people are unaware that the government would spend less on singlepayer than it spends currently dealing with middlemen

  3. a non-negligible number of people don't believe in micro-organisms, nutrition, or cancer as it is understood by doctors

TLDR: decentralized education with zero funding makes a whole country of dumb assholes.

[–] remer@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Congressional democrats have no interest in actual taxing the ultra wealthy either. It’s bipartisan to not “bite the hand that feeds.”

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 45 points 2 days ago (30 children)

Because we also die from totally preventable school shootings too.

load more comments (30 replies)
[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 44 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Americans are not a monolith. Tons of Americans are concerned. Tons are not. Also many Americans have lives where these issues the news typically stirs up don't really actually impact their daily lives. Others are dramatically affected. It really depends on location and status, among so many factors.

Various news and online channels might have you thinking all Americans are basically the same and experiencing things the same, but they are definitely not.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Most of us are concerned.

The minority are concerned because the US government has done unethical and malicious medical stuff to minorities, which makes some level of hesitancy for those groups understandable. Not the cod oil instead of vaccines bullshit white middle class and up promote, that is pure snake oil propaganda.

[–] singletona@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Intentionally infecting black airmen with syphillus and giving them placibos instead of treatments so they could track long term effects.

As an example.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] guy@piefed.social 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

With god as my armour I need no vaccines

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

But we hanged that dude on a cross, did you miss the news?

[–] guy@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago

Yes but that was so he could absolve us of our diseases! Maybe. I'm not so knowledgeable of Christianity, I'm Republican.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I think a lot of Americans have the option that these contagious diseases aren't really dangerous anymore and that THEY won't be affected by any fallout. THEY will be able to survive it so THEY don't care.

In reality, lots of people live in small communities and even though they might go on the internet, they don't go very deep. So unless it's in their face, they don't know much about it. And "my gran pappy had the mumps and he was fine!" mentality.

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Just for the record I hate they gran pappy and he was not fine, the syphilis addled fuck.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

i hear ya. it's a major fucking bummer knowing that most of the people around me are fucking stupid

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BJ_and_the_bear@lemm.ee 22 points 2 days ago (4 children)

We're concerned, we just can't afford health care

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 21 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

50 years of cuts to the education system and the demonization of the Liberal Arts (history, sociology, etc...)

A country that would rather keep a football program than an arts program is always going to suffer.

[–] JackLSauce@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

"preventable disease" and "Americans" are very broad terms

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

Science showed things like climate change, which was hurting the bottom line of giant corporations who donate huge amounts of money to Republicans, so Republicans convinced their base that science is against God, and that it's all part of the evil woke liberals thing. So now anything that comes from science, including vaccines, is tainted.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 20 points 2 days ago

Not just americans. this started in the uk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

[–] veniasilente@lemm.ee 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] cm0002@lemmy.cafe 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

YEA!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

'MURICA

Please send help

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

Christ man, we're screaming about it and have been for decades. Nobody will listen.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is one of those scenarios where it may be better to look at fiber detail

  • life expectancy by state has an 8 year range, from 72 to 80 years
  • our nightmare of health coverage … In 2018, …coverage rates ranged from 82.3% of people in Texas to 97.2% of people in Massachusetts.
  • average income almost doubles, from $87,063 down to $46,511.

You can go down a list of stats related to quality of life, and see similarly large ranges by state, and the ones on the low end correlate strongly with people who voted Republican. These are poorer people with worse education, worse health, much less income, voting for disrupting the status quo without understanding what that means

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] peregrin5@lemm.ee 16 points 2 days ago (3 children)
  1. The people who aren't idiots are already vaccinated so they'll be fine.

  2. The people who are idiots think they are safer without vaccination. They are the ones who will die (or their children) but they aren't aware of it.

  3. The people who can't get vaccinated but aren't idiots are kind of just screwed but this is an incredibly small minority of the population.

[–] BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

People who are vaccinated are 100% going to die from mutated versions of diseases their idiot neighbours have been incubating.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)

If you're referring to the gains in the anti vax movment

It's the same reason why a large portion of Americans are anti environment.

It got politicized and instead of using critical thinking one side wants to win and thinks the other is lying to them about everything

[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Anyone know why someone would think being in a house fire means you're relatively unconcerned about dying in a fire?

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Asking Americans why they are like they are is just going to result in a bunch of denial, obfuscation, rationalization, and misdirected aggression.

This is what kills Americans the most: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/ And almost all of them are preventable.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Because "totally preventable" is financially unaffordable for most of us. My insurance won't help pay for vaccines unless I get them done during a PCP appointment, but those are scheduled months in advance. I normally go to my local pharmacy and pay $20 for a flu shot, but covid vaccines are like $100-300 without insurance.

I've had gastro problems for a few years now, but because insurance and bureaucracy, I JUST got a scope done yesterday and they found a bunch of ulcers in my intestines that I've just been living with, untreated, because there's no option to speed things up without money. It COULD have been caught years ago, but getting prompt medical care is too bougie for me.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago

Many Americans are exactly as the stereotypes about them say they are, loud and stupid.

[–] kalimbra@l.hostux.net 11 points 23 hours ago

HATE: They are willing to accept anything as long as the people they hate suffer.

[–] EightBitBlood@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Our educations system has been in decline for the last 20 years. Instead foreign money has combine with private interests to blast us with complete made up bullshit propaganda 24/7. Almost all of our major news sources are now owned or operated by MAGA donors, who care more about money than public well being. Basically, half this country is now too stupid to determine if the information they're viewing is corporate propaganda, or foreign government propaganda. Both are exploitative, and both want Americans sick because it's profitable to them. So despite having a president that publicly threw out our pandemic response killing more Americans than in all the wars we've ever faught in combined - 4 years later we reelected him. That's how bad the propaganda is here. Combined with poor education, we can no longer agree on how basic cause and effect works.

TL:DR - We're now too stupid and hopped up on propaganda to understand how preventing diseases works.

[–] Float@startrek.website 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Almost every person I know got a measles booster in response to the recent outbreaks (all were vaccinated during youth).

Perhaps turn an eye on your biases.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because we hate our lives and want to die.

👍

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Probably the same reason Europeans drink and smoke too tbh

The risk seems worth it. Either because the see it as lower than it is or that the loss of life less valuable than others see it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] coolkicks@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

We also have a chronic disposition toward optimism. You know “the American dream” and all that.

So a disease with a 10% mortality rate has a 90% survival rate. And 90% is bigger than 50%, so when you factor in chronic optimism it’s basically a 100% survival rate in our brains.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you think there are no anti-vaxxers in your country, you've got another thing coming.

Many of the anti-vax groups at the center of outbreaks are members of religious minorities. Menanites, Amish, and Hasidic Jews. The reason it's become more of a problem is that some upper middle class families have joined in and created more unvaccinated pockets in communities in the last decade.

For decades the conservative movement in the US has fostered a distrust in government and it has permeated just about everything.

[–] dmalteseknight@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean anti-vaxxers believe vaccines to be essentially poisen, hence why they are opposed to them. They believe there are other remedies to cure diseases.

So to answer your question, yes they are worried but woefully misinformed.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] JHD@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Lack of education?

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago

5th stage of grief... Acceptance.

We know we're fucked and the government believes it's role is to wield power, not help people.

[–] ickplant@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’m concerned but I don’t know what I can do about that other than make sure my whole family is vaccinated.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] psyspoop@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

I think many of us don't realize that there's a better option. As in, this is just the way it is. Many who do learn there are alternatives then fall to propaganda about how the alternatives are worse or communist, etc.

load more comments
view more: next ›