Occupy Wall Street happened 10+ years ago. A large social movement that honestly didn't get very far or do much of anything to raise awareness about the wealth inequality of the united states/the western world. People were already frustrated 10+ years ago and it hasn't gotten any better. Rising inflation, rising housing prices making it harder for people to start their own family or participate in a system that's slowly getting more and more out of reach for the average individual.
Corporations/Governments have figured out (maliciously/intentionally or unexpectedly) that it's easier to placate and distract people from how hard they're getting screwed by integrating their corporate identity with social causes in countries they operate in like Pride (companies LOVE the LGBT community in June in the west, but they're somehow forgotton when they're operating in countries like China, Africa, etc.), co-opting country's identities ("You're not a TRUE citizen unless you buy Y Beer!"), or pretending that they "care" about tragedy and disasters that happen in our world. Corporations don't have emotions so they like to try and manipulate others' feelings for the corporations own benefit.
They're faceless monoliths (machines) ran by millions of people (cogs) that have had their jobs compartmentalized and trained to follow instructions without thinking for themselves - only to follow orders from authority figures because if you don't, you're going to be poor and it'll be all your fault - you should have done what they told you!
Identity politics is used in lieu of class conflict. For various reasons, the US does not perceive itself as having classes… difficult to foment a Revolution if the ‘proletariat’ all think they can grow up to be President someday (or at least a gazillionaire.)
It was determined that race might be a sufficient proxy. Time will tell.
There’s definitely a burgeoning undercurrent of “no political solutions exist that can solve our problems”.
It doesn’t seem exclusively limited to the “very online” folks: anecdotally I’ve had it expressed to me irl from people on both the right and the left here in Portland. Primarily the right but, since the abortion SCOTUS leak, the frequency from the left has increased tremendously.
And if the federal government is truly facing actual questions of legitimacy from both sides, they seem to be doing all they can to make the problem worse.
We needed a Transparency Board and instead got a Disinformation Board.
We need less transparency when it comes to lawmaking. Quit enabling corporations and constituents to buy and coerce our representatives' votes like they have since the 70s (sunshine laws).
The disinformation comes because its an effective way to coerce those populations into influencing elected representatives. You take away visibility of voting (secret ballots, like real elections) and now nobody holds power over how an individual representative votes. No more fixed party line votes. Reduced public backlash to minimize shitty discourse. Its the only way to allow representatives to really align their votes with the people because otherwise we cant afford a seat at the table.
