Dysfunction and Longevity

[Person Man]

Hyperbole? Perhaps. But I think it's an interesting question. I think this could be the beginning of a process that plays out over the rest of the first half and maybe some of the second half of the 21st century.

[courts]

option 3

[Zaybay]

Option 3 for me

[Kodak]

America's borders are not at risk in the near future. Even the nations that wish to replace the United States as top dog are trying to do so without going to war. A civil war is also ludicrous to think about.

However, America's standard of living and hegemonic status are dependent on its relations with dozens of allies. Trump has or will sacrifice every bit of America's soft power, and that won't return until the rest of the world moves on from him. That will take decades. Does America have decades to spare before a crisis breaks the system?

[Devout Centrist]

Trump isn’t the end. He’s a harbinger of what could happen in the future. The system and its institutions will survive this test. It remains to be seen if it survives the next test in 10-15 years

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

It feels like Trump is a turning point as the US has been sliding for a while. Will we fall off a cliff or turn it around?

[Person Man]

Trump isn’t the end. He’s a harbinger of what could happen in the future. The system and its institutions will survive this test. It remains to be seen if it survives the next test in 10-15 years

Someone that Trump looks normal compared to?

[eric82oslo]

Try a more generic poll next time. These options are way too specific.

[Person Man]

Try a more generic poll next time. These options are way too specific.

I have been wandering that direction lately and have thought about things abstractly in the past too much. Now I am more interested in how myself and the things I care about will fare in the future.

[PragmaticPopulist]

I'm a natural optimist, so I picked option 2.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As Obama correctly pointed out, Trump is the symptom, not the cause of America's current dip. But we'll survive.

[Person Man]

As Obama correctly pointed out, Trump is the symptom, not the cause of America's current dip. But we'll survive.

Well, there's the electoral decline that has caused Trump but Trump's un-presidency will produce it's own set of problems.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Well, the dysfunction we're talking about is coming from a number of places.

What's most immediately obvious is that there's a total blowhard in the Oval Office who has no idea what he's doing but all the confidence in the world. He has degraded important alliances, seriously enflamed tensions within the country, and inclined swaths of people against truth and reason. That's bad.

Less obvious but perhaps more pernicious are the traumas we're enduring thanks to American capitalism. The media has a profit motivation, so everything is super sensationalized to the point that there's a degree of legitimate doubt around mainstream news sources in addition to the manufactured doubt Trump has help stir. Add to that the extremely uneven geographic distribution of capital we're currently seeing and it's a recipe for disaster. This is what will take the country down, and it's exacerbated by Trump... but also independent from him, and even from the Republican Party. That's why I don't see things falling off the cliff under Trump, but if trends continue I wouldn't be shocked to see America become a shell of its former self within the next 60 years.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

As Obama correctly pointed out, Trump is the symptom, not the cause of America's current dip. But we'll survive.

A symptom, not the symptom.

[Person Man]

Well, the dysfunction we're talking about is coming from a number of places.

What's most immediately obvious is that there's a total blowhard in the Oval Office who has no idea what he's doing but all the confidence in the world. He has degraded important alliances, seriously enflamed tensions within the country, and inclined swaths of people against truth and reason. That's bad.

Less obvious but perhaps more pernicious are the traumas we're enduring thanks to American capitalism. The media has a profit motivation, so everything is super sensationalized to the point that there's a degree of legitimate doubt around mainstream news sources in addition to the manufactured doubt Trump has help stir. Add to that the extremely uneven geographic distribution of capital we're currently seeing and it's a recipe for disaster. This is what will take the country down, and it's exacerbated by Trump... but also independent from him, and even from the Republican Party. That's why I don't see things falling off the cliff under Trump, but if trends continue I wouldn't be shocked to see America become a shell of its former self within the next 60 years.

What's a "shell"? Some people say it already is.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Well, the dysfunction we're talking about is coming from a number of places.

What's most immediately obvious is that there's a total blowhard in the Oval Office who has no idea what he's doing but all the confidence in the world. He has degraded important alliances, seriously enflamed tensions within the country, and inclined swaths of people against truth and reason. That's bad.

Less obvious but perhaps more pernicious are the traumas we're enduring thanks to American capitalism. The media has a profit motivation, so everything is super sensationalized to the point that there's a degree of legitimate doubt around mainstream news sources in addition to the manufactured doubt Trump has help stir. Add to that the extremely uneven geographic distribution of capital we're currently seeing and it's a recipe for disaster. This is what will take the country down, and it's exacerbated by Trump... but also independent from him, and even from the Republican Party. That's why I don't see things falling off the cliff under Trump, but if trends continue I wouldn't be shocked to see America become a shell of its former self within the next 60 years.

What's a "shell"? Some people say it already is.

Wider-spread poverty, virtually no economic mobility, near total automation of manual-labour and service jobs, total concentration of wealth in the metropoles which have been nearly completely gentrified... Hunger Games without the Hunger Games, and the oppressed majority is way more stupid.

[Person Man]

Well, the dysfunction we're talking about is coming from a number of places.

What's most immediately obvious is that there's a total blowhard in the Oval Office who has no idea what he's doing but all the confidence in the world. He has degraded important alliances, seriously enflamed tensions within the country, and inclined swaths of people against truth and reason. That's bad.

Less obvious but perhaps more pernicious are the traumas we're enduring thanks to American capitalism. The media has a profit motivation, so everything is super sensationalized to the point that there's a degree of legitimate doubt around mainstream news sources in addition to the manufactured doubt Trump has help stir. Add to that the extremely uneven geographic distribution of capital we're currently seeing and it's a recipe for disaster. This is what will take the country down, and it's exacerbated by Trump... but also independent from him, and even from the Republican Party. That's why I don't see things falling off the cliff under Trump, but if trends continue I wouldn't be shocked to see America become a shell of its former self within the next 60 years.

What's a "shell"? Some people say it already is.

Wider-spread poverty, virtually no economic mobility, near total automation of manual-labour and service jobs, total concentration of wealth in the metropoles which have been nearly completely gentrified... Hunger Games without the Hunger Games, and the oppressed majority is way more stupid.

More like Idicoracy, then?