• Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    6 days 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.

  • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    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.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      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.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    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

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      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.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        That’s exactly the type of stereotype I was refuting. Some states have life expectancy similar to developed countries and some are more like developing, and I’ll bet preventable heart disease is the leading cause of death everywhere.

        • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          And I’m saying that’s looking for a reason to be helpless. The behavioral differences between educated and uneducated are shockingly small. Regardless of your education, you (AA5B) are probably doing the same stupid things, some of which you know you shouldn’t be doing, but you keep doing them because of cultural conditioning. Leading to your own predictable, preventable death. Knowing that is hard to cope with and there are entire industries dedicated to helping people find a reason to be helpless and just accept their situation, when they could easily change. And some do.

          Preventable heart disease is the leading cause of death in every US state, but not of every nation. It is not the leading cause of death in Japan, and nearly that alone enables them to have one of the highest life expectancy of any nation. Any two US states are more alike each other than they are a healthy country.

          Canada is the USA with good (for the sake of discussion…) healthcare. The life expectancy is only slightly better, because they share the “Standard American Diet.” There is only so much medicine can do with people are killing themselves at every meal.

  • mrcleanup@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

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

  • bluegreenwookie@bookwormstory.social
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    6 days ago

    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

  • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

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

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

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

  • Float@startrek.website
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    6 days ago

    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.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    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.

  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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    7 days ago

    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.

    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 days ago

      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.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      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.

      • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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        7 days ago

        And heart disease is 100% preventable through diet that is cheaper than the SAD.

        I need a source on congenital heart disease not existing.

        • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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          7 days ago

          Lol got me. I am of course referring to atherosclerosis, which is on its own the leading cause of death of Americans. Now what?

            • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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              6 days ago

              Note that says reverse, not prevent. This means that if you are on the verge of a heart attack, you may wish to consider additional interventions. CVD takes years of bad behaviour.

              Atherosclerosis is acquired from diet. There is no other way to get it. The components of diet that lead to atherosclerosis are entirely avoidable. They are not just non-essential, they are harmful.

              I have a resource I can check for a source, but I don’t think you’re fully acting in good faith. You keep trying to deny the premise rather than actually engaging with it. Like I’m trying to pull one over on you or something. Or, like 99% of other Americans, you are desperately trying to avoid processing the truth of the matter.

              I get that you are skeptical. I also see that you are not informed. So maybe just take a minute and consider, what if it’s true? What would that discussion look like?

              (Here is a collection of links to research showing that CVD is both preventable and largely reversible: https://pmri.org/research/heart-disease)

              • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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                6 days ago

                I just have trust problems whenever somebody says a medical condition is 100% one thing and nothing else could ever cause or cure it. I’ve had too many doctors tell me that my GI problems are just anxiety and couldn’t possibly be a real thing. I’ve had doctors tell me that my GI problems are actually an eating disorder and I need more antidepressants. I’ve had doctors tell me that I should be happy about my GI problems because a lot of people struggle with losing weight.

                So yeah, diet is a tricky subject for me right now, because all I want to do is eat a normal meal, and the main response I’ve gotten has been “have you tried eating normal meals?”

  • EightBitBlood@lemmy.world
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    7 days 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.