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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Today I Learned
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Racism in the United States is astonishing. As a non-American, until Obama’s time, I used to think that, there was just some institutional racism left over from past decades and a few extremists in the South—but not much else. After Obama, it’s incredible how most white people have become extremely right-wing extremists, all because of a single president of mixed descent. Now, the problem seems enormous, and a solution doesn’t appear to be anywhere in sight.
I’m a white American from the northeast and I felt the same way. When trump won the first time, it felt like I’d just discovered that the floor underneath my bed was rotting away.
I was blind to it because I didn’t need to see it, but it was always there. My relative privilege insulated me and ensured that I contributed to the problem
As an American I feel exactly the same. There absolutely were holdouts of racism, but I felt we were moving forward and leaving them behind. Obama’s presidency set the stage, then trump and covid set everything on fire and the mask came off. “Draining the swamp” just meant revealing the scum at the bottom of it and setting it free. I was shocked at how many racist, petty, selfish, aggressively ignorant people there are in the US.
Not sure I've heard that version of the slogan exactly that way - drain the still somewhat clear water so that all that is left is scum.
Watched a video recently where when making the California aqueducts they drained some lakes and the resulting silt clouds were some horribly destructive and dangerous dust clouds.
We were racist long before Obama.
And what country are you from where racism is not an issue?
Racism is just tribalism evolved.
This is reductive.
No really, where, because a non-racist place to live sounds fantastic, especially nowadays.
That hasn’t been my anecdotal observation. Obama’s election definitely freaked out the existing White racists and motivated them to get more politically active, but I haven’t seen non-racist Whites suddenly become racist because a Black man finally got elected president. Where are you seeing this? Better yet, is there research or polling data documenting it?
I think it's more that a lot of racists hid it rather than openly reveling in it like they do now.
Ding ding ding we have a winner. Trump emboldened them to crawl out of their hidey holes and air their grossness in public.
What? Republicans trash the economy then leave the next Democrat to fix it.
But because the changes in policy take time to affect the economy, it looks like the democrat caused it.
But every time, the Democrats end with an improving economy and the Republicans end with a declining economy.
What democrat has improved "the economy"
All of them. It's a very clear pattern to anyone who bothers to look.
It's more like they start to unfuck the things that Republicans fuck up, but never completely before the next Republican rolls in to continue the tear down. And they never quite get to the part where the wealthy have to give up their tax breaks or limit political spending ...
You think Ds have ever fixed the economy?
New Deal was a long time ago, they've fucked it up ever since, hand in hand with Rs.
Coincidentally, the leadership and a sizeable chunk of BoTh PaRtIeS are filthy rich! And their families! For generations...
I wonder why their wealth grows substantially after taking office? It is a mystery ¯_(ツ)_/¯
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth (this doesn't count all of their wealth of course, see Panama and Pandora papers for proof of how they hide money with shell companies)
Tell me you haven't looked at any data on the subject without telling me you haven't looked at any data on the subject.
Seeing Americans label Obama as the most “divisive” president was eye opening…
Meanwhile, Trump was saying Obama isn’t even a US citizen! All while specific persons are saying Obama is dividing the nation…
It’s disgusting…
Don't get me wrong, he did plenty of divisive things. Pioneering the idea that the president can just call in a drone strike without the approval of Congress if he can get a quick kill in, for example.
But that's just an 'improvement' on the same shit that every US Prez has done since the Gulf of Tonkin. Literally every single one has authorized the use of extrajudicial authority to silence their critics or exercised military clout without approval. The War Powers Act of 1973 functionally gave away the most important power the representatives had. They've just invented a casus belli and gone to town, every god damn time.
Obama wasn't divisive, not by comparison. He was an improvement. At the very least he acted like there was some kind of civilized intent behind the enormous war machine he was driving. Recently, we just haven't had the luxury of a President that is polite enough to let us ignore how brutal this hellhole really is.
As an American reading what you said is encouraging, at least knowing that when this whole place burns to the ground humanity can carry on in a meaningful and useful way. Not sure the area I live in can even be salvaged at this point.
I don't know about "most" white people, but other than that, yeah
Whoah whoah whoah there. Not most, just a very loud, very visible minority which receive signal boost from the Epstein class's media consent manufactories.
What's astonishing to me, as an American who grew up in white conservative rural and suburban areas, is that the racism is just one facet of a much larger shitty state of existence.
I see the same things IRL from ordinary people, like extended family, that I see from the people in the media who seem like hyperbolic caricatures trying to test Poe's law.
It's just an existence based in negativity. Every request has a hurried frustrated tone. Every discussion is composed entirely of complaints. The complaints about others are bigoted sure, but also very focused on money and material possessions which those other people never deserve and the speaker is neverrrrr jealous about. Personal identity is built from all the things you don't like.
I have a good relationship with my family, but they are still miserable and draining to be around.
Why would you tolerate this?
I find the balance. They are less than a half hour drive away and we don't see them all that often.
My kid has grandparents and cousins he likes. Fortunately at most of the get-togethers at grandma's house, we tend to separate into two floors of the house. So I get to hang with my nieces and nephews and spend most of the time with walls between me and the old miserable people.