SkyNTP

Yes and no. A lot of people are misinformed. It's easy to say not being misinformed is the responsibility of the individual, just like recycling plastic is the responsibility of the individual consumer. Reality is a bit more nuanced. Misinformed people often simply don't have access to good information or critical thinking skills to not be duped. Many others are straight up vulnerable to manipulation, through fears etc.

Democracy only works if people are informed. I think the American system has failed catastrophically to inform ordinary people.

Governments are the product of the people. There is no divine or natural laws that triggers "an election". A government is simply created from thin air when a group of people (any group of people) get together and say: fuck the old system, we are putting that in the trash and signing a new social contract.

Of course, there's virtually never unanimity of agreement over this social contract in one geographic area, so that social contract is only as binding as the force used to put it in effect.

Realistically, 6 months+ of government shutdown in the US will likely cause a collapse of the USA as a single unified federal entity, since the federal government effectively rots. At that point, all bets are off. A fracture of the US is very possible.

Broadly speaking this is probably true. In a smaller context, though, there are tons of counter examples. The internet for example, from just 10 years ago, was unquestionably better. AI slop, bots, enshitification, social media and browser monoculture...

The anti science trend of MAGA over the last few years...

Etc. Regression does happen, and we should not take things for granted.

I hear they are a solution to the problem of increasing mileage/efficiency. I am no fan of Tesla, but we have to admit, there is some merit to that argument, however debatable the efficiency benefits are.

That's not to say safety isn't a serious issue. The biggest problem is the reliance on electronics. Now if someone can reinvent the design with a highly reliable mechanical system, with multiple redundancy.

Real life example of being blinded by "can we" instead of "should we". This society needs a great deal of introspection.

Define "never". Never in as in never in the history of 21st century America? Pretty tame assertion. Never in the anthropological sense? That would be completely farcical.

Reality check: you don't make boatloads of money for having useful skills everyone has (or should have). You make boat loads of money when you have useful skills that few people have.

Why stop at appliances? By that logic, humans are nothing more than self-propelled heaters. The whole universe is nothing but shifting pockets of heat like the ripples of a pond bouncing back and forth until they all disappear.

Such nihilism.

Sounds like the Narcissist's Prayer to me.

This is how the United States of America turns into the States of America.

A few hundred billionaires own more than the majority of Americans.

I think your assertion is factually incorrect. Or at least significantly overestimates how much ordinary Americans actually get to participate in America.

I think for most people, America has already collapsed, and that is exactly why they voted for Trump.

Here's the thing. Y'all sitting around waiting for the institutions to do their job. Y'all waiting for the institutions to do the right thing. But y'all institutions have been corrupted, so they ain't gonna do anything. It's up to you, the people to clean up house now, by sending a strong message. And it doesn't take that much to take action. There is incredible power in the people and in collective action. But for now it is locked away in tepid comfort. That comfort won't last though. It never does under tyranny.