Anyone know why americans are relatively unconcerned about dying to totally preventable stuff like disease?
Anyone know why americans are relatively unconcerned about dying to totally preventable stuff like disease?
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.
5th stage of grief... Acceptance.
We know we're fucked and the government believes it's role is to wield power, not help people.
You can't be concerned about things you don't know...
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.
HATE: They are willing to accept anything as long as the people they hate suffer.
Anyone know why someone would think being in a house fire means you're relatively unconcerned about dying in a fire?
We're actively disinformed. That's why. It's really that simple.
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!
Honestly, I just block the people who keep repeating that kinds of BS. They aren't worth my mental energy.
Does that mean I miss out on a bunch of discussions on .world? yes, but not wasting my mental energy on bad-faith arguments is worth it.
It's all very culty with partisan people of both stripes.
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
The leading cause of death is the same. The leading cause of death of poor Republicans is the same as that of wealthy cardiologists: preventable forms of heart disease. There is so much toxic masculinity and superstition about food in the USA, even people who know better conform to the cultural norms, and kill themselves with unhealthy food.
Because, quite frankly, Americans are idiots. They would rather scarf down misinformation given by their news anchors than open a book and/or think for themselves.
Amen. A country of trash.
d e s p e r a t i o n
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.
And yet every state has the same leading causes of death. Nearly any two states are more alike than either of those states and another country.
How Not To Die in only 17 minutes
How Not To Die from Heart Disease, the leading killer of Americans
The leading causes of death of Americans are all preventable, and none of them are viral infections. (Though COVID might have moved the numbers somewhat.)
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
Because
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taxing the rich is a partisan stance
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people are unaware that the government would spend less on singlepayer than it spends currently dealing with middlemen
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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.
Congressional democrats have no interest in actual taxing the ultra wealthy either. It’s bipartisan to not “bite the hand that feeds.”
Well the last tax bill was written and passed by the GOP in 2017, it got 0 DNC votes in the house the first time and it passed but with 3 congressional violations which would otherwise protect budget bills from filibuster at the time and so it was filibustered, then it passed the house again with changes and then the Senate 51 to 48 with 0 DNC votes and this time was immune to filibuster.
Now they get to write the new bill again this time because it is about to expire.
We DO have an idea of the DNC tax plan from the Kamala Harris Campaign promising to tax unrealized gains over 1M and to remove the upper limit that rich people pay to Socia Security Taxes, while also keeping or lowering taxes on anybody who made less than 400k.
We also know that the previous Biden Administration supported the IRS and gave them every resource and incentive to Audit the Rich, which they absolutely did.
So I guess if you ignore literally everything that happens then you can make that claim. Take your pick: ignorant or liar, which do you claim to be?
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Many Americans are exactly as the stereotypes about them say they are, loud and stupid.
Because we also die from totally preventable school shootings too.
Sad thing is that I don't think gun restrictions would work cos criminals get their guns unlawfully
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.
Cool anecdote?
I confirm this anecdote. Just got my booster yesterday, and I know I am not alone.
With god as my armour I need no vaccines
But we hanged that dude on a cross, did you miss the news?
Yes but that was so he could absolve us of our diseases! Maybe. I'm not so knowledgeable of Christianity, I'm Republican.
Christ man, we're screaming about it and have been for decades. Nobody will listen.
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.
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.
Intentionally infecting black airmen with syphillus and giving them placibos instead of treatments so they could track long term effects.
As an example.
They weren't intentionally infected, they were just deliberately not given the cure. It doesn't make a difference at the end of the day, but it is important to distinguish because that is probably part of how those involved in the study justified their actions.
E.g.,
"I didn't give them the disease, so I'm not responsible for what happens to them"
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.
I know your pain. Well, no, but I know a similar pain. Years of getting root canals at the dental school. Years and years of untreated adhd lending to my poor impulse control which would get me in even more trouble. It wasn't until I became profitable to society that society would invest back into me. Great society you have there. Really.
They want us to be poor and sick so we're easier to control.
The leading cause of death is not viral infection, it's heart disease. And heart disease is 100% preventable through diet that is cheaper than the SAD. There are more examples. Just go down the leading causes of death of Americans, they are largely preventable.
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.
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.
Just for the record I hate they gran pappy and he was not fine, the syphilis addled fuck.
i hear ya. it's a major fucking bummer knowing that most of the people around me are fucking stupid
This is a much bigger part of it than a lot of people in this thread seem to think. A lot of these diseases were extinct or close to it in the US and people have forgotten how deadly they are. The worst viral infection a lot of these people have ever seen is either a bad cold or a mild case of influenza. A good number of the younger ones have never even seen chickenpox.
It's like people who try to pet wild animals because they've only ever interacted with domesticated ones and thought they were all like that.
"preventable disease" and "Americans" are very broad terms
We're concerned, we just can't afford health care
So why do Republicans like Jesse Watters say things like, "I'm offended that Canada wouldn't want to be a part of america."
Because they're not used to people saying no to them.
To own the libs!
YEA!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
'MURICA
Please send help
Help ? You mean prayers ?
Not just americans. this started in the uk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
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The people who aren't idiots are already vaccinated so they'll be fine.
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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.
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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.
People who are vaccinated are 100% going to die from mutated versions of diseases their idiot neighbours have been incubating.
*surviving idiod neighbours
This is not true. Vaccination is not an all or nothing thing. Vaccines don't work the same for everyone. Many vaccinated individuals rely on herd immunity for full protection. That is why vaccination of as many people as possible is so important. Vaccinated individuals will die due to weakened herd immunity.
If only we had an HHS secretary able to educate us on these matters.
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I’m concerned but I don’t know what I can do about that other than make sure my whole family is vaccinated.
That's all you can do, really. Should give you a bit of satisfaction, too, knowing you did something incredibly simple that could prevent a ton of hardship.
This will make you see red. My nephew cannot get vaccinated for legitimate health reasons. His parents were always pro-vax until it came time for the Covid vaccine. Then they became all “mRNA is a new technology, we don’t have enough research.” We basically stopped talking to them after my husband yelled at his brother (nephew’s dad) that he is risking killing his own son if he gets Covid. So fucking stupid. Yes, they are conservative although they claim not to support Trump.
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.
They are fully willing to take completely unproven "Orange man good" recommended alternatives like bleach and horse dewormer. A good deal of them are chronic smokers as well. They don't give a shit about nor any recognition of poisons, there's something far stupider going on
In a way, they're right that there's an alternative. But the alternative is death, and most sane people wouldn't prefer that.
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.
Edit: I would also like to point out that these communities exist in the US because their ancestors likely fled religious oppression in YOUR country. Assuming you live anywhere in Europe there's a high chance that is true.
For a disease to be prevented from spreading, you need a certain percentage of people to be immune. It's different from disease to disease and also depends on the vaccine itself. Some diseases like Covid can still be spread to people who are vaccinated (though obviously the worst of the symptoms are mitigated).
For the sake of example, let's say you need 90% immunity for a disease to not spread. Maybe 5% of the population cannot be vaccinated due to immune conditions, being too young, etc. That gives 5% of wiggle room.
Then there are acolytes of the fraudster, Andrew Wakefield, who faked data to get a flashy headline to get published in a prestigious journal. That includes RFK jr., Jenny Mccarthy, mayim bialik, etc. Clinging to their views for so long makes them unable to change them even if you show them proof that they are wrong. That might be another 1% of people.
There are a very small percentage of people who shun vaccines for lets say "true" religious reasons. Most of the people who try to claim religious reasoning for refusing vaccines are members of religions that are completely fine with vaccines. They are usually just really stupid people who are scared of needles and/or don't think it's that big of a deal with modern medicine. That's probably another 1% of people.
Then there are people that are homeless or otherwise outside of the system. Vaccines are one of the most cost effective methods to improve health of a country, so despite the nightmare that is our healthcare system, you typically should never have to pay for a vaccine. It may be a bit more work than someone who is homeless and/or has substance abuse or mental health problems can prioritize. That might be another 1%.
All together, that would put us at 92%, above the threshold for a widespread epidemic, but all of those categories of people who don't get vaccinated tend to be in communities, and so we can have outbreaks in those communities.
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.
Except the benefits of rejecting vaccines and modern medicine are 🤷.
Honestly, again, the same reason many people drink and smoke.
Social activity, cohesion, etc
Most people don't do most things rationally
Lack of education?
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.
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.
Because we are so far removed from poor conditions that some of us don't even think they exist. And since they've never seen it, misinformation can just slide right in.
Because, in spite (or perhaps because of) the 'rough individualist' propaganda, most Americans have a strong sense of powerlessness and that all they can do is keep their head down and hope for the best. It veers into some really absurdist fatalism at times.
t. leftist American from a conservative area who still keeps tabs on family
who still keeps tabs on family
Oof.
Luckily, the family member I'm closest to, my mother, is religiously fundamentalist and nationalist in a way that vaccinated her against MAGA, bizarrely. So talking to her is like having a 10+ year window into the past.
But yeah, for the rest, oof.
we have a domestic cult that doesn't listen to anything outside of the cult. for the people not in the cult, most are not against medicine and other modern things. some of us are actual scientists and feel like we just live here.
People only care about narratives, and a side effect of having a scientific/naturalistic worldview is that things like disease become narratively inert.
People used to care a lot more about diseases when they could be given narrative causes like witchcraft or demons.
Questions like this seem stupid, or they just need to be phrased in a more reasonable way.
What is there to live for? Collective pain and misery. Be a mensch and let go.
