It's a dark, cold, empty place...

To be in a country where sociopathy, selfishness, and heartlessness are not just accepted, but celebrated.

Welcome to du

We were talking about Italy and we might be heading into that direction. And I mentioned the hundreds that are dying daily from Italy and her response was "well, good" (in a very upbeat and happy tone). I mean, we have to accept the unfortunate outcome but we also don't have cheer it on.

I don't know if it's her true feelings or it's just that she tries to turn me off since she knows I will complain about her savior lord Trump.

There are few cases, the mindset is different. America is like many different countries. Places where the outbreak is high, Seattle, NYC, ect- different precautions are more acceptable than in possum hollow, TN.

and 40 years of the attitudes he purshed that greed is good, the only person who matters is ME, and we have no responsibility to each other or our communities.

in this country and others. It was already there but smartphones, Fakebook and Twitter have made it worse.

If they should need hospital care due to an accident it won’t be available. Their grand baby who is born 2 months early will be receiving care in a hospital brimming with Covid and being treated by staff that hasn’t stopped working since the shit storm started. Their spouse who has a heart attack or stroke? Their teenage child involved in a deadly traffic accident? Thy will all receive a lower level of care because that’s what happens when the system breaks. Sadly, they are such selfish assholes they can’t see that far ahead.

This is what happens when individuals place themselves above the community. American culture is all about that.

who just left is taking my "stop and listen to me" insistence on hand cleaning and social distancing very seriously, even though I seriously had to keep the news off for 5 days because everything that doesn't fit his conservative notions is very upsetting to him, which seems to be almost everything. Maybe he realized his parents could be in danger and that's it? He had already assured me without being asked yesterday he'd go into a market so my almost-80-year-old husband wouldn't have to.

And my husband told me that today, when the friend stopped at a gas station for a bag of Fritos to eat while he drove 700 miles home, the cashier handled the bag unnecessarily, so he went and got another. She also then brushed his hand at some point, which he had an appropriate problem with. He wiped everything down with the antiseptic wipes I sent with them when he returned to the car. Unfortunately, my husband couldn't tell me where the out-of-area business was so I could report it to the manager.

Case 2: Lifelong rural, very conservative friends back in rural north Georgia told us tonight that their Baptist church had suspended services as part of social distancing and that they wouldn't have gone anyway because they were taking it very seriously and were mostly self-isolating.

Case 3: Our daughter and SIL decided they wouldn't have to cancel their ski trip with their sons to Durango, CO because they could drive across country, 14 hours each way, instead of flying.

This all of course doesn't exactly run in line with the misanthropic tone of this thread so far. Blame the media. Reporting on people who defiantly dance cheek to cheek on a crowded floor makes a lot more sellable copy than the far larger numbers who are sensibly staying home for the right reasons and mostly as they would have anyway. Working people tend to get tired and want to get home. People with children have to get home. Old people have limited energy for going out and dancing all night. And no one wants to die or lose loved homes. We can figure out what's likely to be true.

Now, gotta admit all those kids who went off to traditional spring break partying are mostly selfish assholes. That's likely because they're still adolescents who are still, as a lifelong habit, leaving issues of morality and societal duty to their parents to handle for them. When they someday become parents themselves, even most of the more "developmentally delayed" should finally mature big time, manifested by things like washing their hands and voting.

Yes, those who went on trips for Spring Break are selfish or in denial, but, as thread after thread has shown, the young are actually taking this far more serious than older Republicans. I just talked to one older Republican who thinks this is ridiculous.

Always.

As for people on a Democratic forum reporting that young people they know are taking this seriously, though, and concluding that therefore "the young" of all political orientations are taking this far more seriously than older Republicans, uhuh. Don't forget to adjust for selection bias and then check for confirmation bias.

probably far more, are reacting more as they should. Or at least fairly close considering the tragic lack of national leadership. The OP is very unjust and lacking in insight.

There's a thing about threats to self and loved ones. They get people's attention. I've noticed a fair number of people on this forum frequently talk as if they're alone in the world, very "self-ishly," but most Americans have at least some family, friends, community important to them.

No one who has children is going to imagine that parents everywhere are selfish assholes thinking only of themselves. Just looked that up 40% of all Americans.

I'd say the same for those with parents (and how about grandparents, brothers, sisters, and so on). Most people should still have parents and even care a bit on hearing they could die from this.
But not the dysfunctional coworkers in the OP's strange workplace, who were apparently all raised by wolves.

... I don't think it is most.

But there are a hell of a lot of them.

just look at his hate rallies

That really the essence of modern conservatism: The asshole who spends years voting to abolish welfare and punish the "lazy takers"... and then one day loses his job and explodes in rage at the government because he's not able to collect welfare.

That's the crux.

the worst of our primitive instincts for self preservation.

Those of us raised to be unselfish and caring are able to quench those primitive urges....to a point. Yet, we always reach out to help our fellow-man.

However, those of us raised to be greedy and self-centered show anger and selfishness quickly with the slightest of threat.

I think what you were hearing was those subconscious fears erupting to the surface from a variety of personalities.

Did any of them discuss what they planned on doing to help others during this crisis?

Expressions of humility, empathy and caring for others is a sign of a true progressive....

A number of Americans have reached it.

And that's going to be within the next couple of months.

Is the fruit of decades of Republican's cuts to education funding. People are gullible because they no longer have functioning bullshit meters that are tuned by the study of history, philosophy and literature. The Republicans have been working on turning education to teach people the tools they need to serve the rich. The less they know, the easier they are to lead.

Trump is a prime example. A man who never read any books other than books on how to make money from the fruits of other's labor. I man who knows nothing of history, literature or philosophy or social sciences. He is an uneducated boor, someone totally unfitted to lead a three man parade, much less a nation. Trump is person who was lacking the tools that education provides to make good decisions. A man who worships only money and power. As we have seen, in this medical crisis, Trump has focused on the economic impacts more than the root cause of the problem. He is more concerned on who will lose their money over who will lose their lives.

We have to break the Republican attacks on education and start educating our children properly or we as a nation are doomed to electing Trumps from now forward.

homelessness, hunger, car accidents, and we'd stop airing anything with the work Kardashian in the title.