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It’s funny seeing people talk about the decline of America. I can remember the same conversations in the 1970’s, late 2000’s as well.


> I can remember the same conversations…

Do you remember a president from those eras who when asked whether he believed that he was duty bound to uphold the Constitution answered “I don’t know.”?

> It’s funny seeing people talk about the decline of America.

Funny? I’d rather say it’s pretty sad.


Nixon said many things that were nearly as offensive to the rule of law and separation of powers as outlined in the constitution, even if they weren't as ignorant as anything Trump has said


He said the quiet part out loud but that doesn't change the fact that presidents have been ignoring the constitution for decades.

It's a trivial example but Biden trying to unilaterally declare the ERA law was absurd and his student loan forgiveness was obviously going to be found unconditional and he did it anyway.

Those aren't the actions of someone who takes the constitution seriously.

Nevermind the patriot act...


> Nevermind the patriot act...

Whether you agree with it or not, at least the Patriot Act was passed by Congress and not simply Executive Orders because it's too inconvenient to work with Congress on legislation.


I don’t know that the majority of congress choosing to violate the constitution really makes your point.


It passed the house with 357–66 and senate with 98–1. That's well passed the required two thirds for passing an amendment if they wanted to.

I'm as critical as anyone, but GP's point stands.


Amendments need more than Congressional approval


It was passed in 2001, surely there has been adequate time for parties to get a case to the Supreme Court and get it ruled as such.

Especially with how quickly some of the Trump EOs have been turned down.


It's very difficult to challenge because the secret nature of it.

In order to sue, you have to prove standing and in order to have standing, you have to know you were harmed. It's hard to prove you were harmed if everything is top secret.


If we ever hit a point where nobody is talking about America being in decline, that will mean we are entering decline.

I do think we’ve been in a down period when it comes to politics for a while but I am mid to long term optimistic about things getting better. This is not the first time we’ve had crazy massively divisive politics or populist crackpottery. Overall I do not think we are in any kind of terminal decline.

What is happening is that other countries are rising. I think that’s good for us. When America was the only superpower it made us lazy and foolish.

Look at how it works out in the corporate world. Take Intel for instance. They had a near monopoly for about a decade on top performing CPUs and it destroyed the company. Google carved out a monopoly on search and they are complete trash now. Pride cometh before a fall because pride causes the fall.


What other countries are rising? I mean China is an obvious one but seems to be struggling. Europe is in decline. India continues to struggle.

If anything, the US has pulled even further ahead since 1990. Back then the USSR was a near-power to the US, but has fallen significantly since then.

Since all power is relative, you’d need to see the US falling relative to another country. And right now, I don’t really see a country on that trajectory.


China is gaining power as we speak. And USA is abdicating that power. Also, Russia seems to be a big winner currently, America will help them keep parts Ukraine and prepare for another invasion.


It’s certainly an amusing thread to read, the US has more power, no it has less, China is pulling ahead, actually it’s struggling, so is India, or not.

If only there were numbers we could compare.


China is not without problems and had some problems in economy. This situation allows them to get ahead, internally plausiy blame Trump even for issues that existed even before, get new aliances and power.

America is not gaining power, that part is pure wishful thinking.


My optimism for the US is quite limited, because they have kinda knowingly dismantled their own democracy, and are in the process of dismantling it even more, while the president tries as hard as possible to become a Putin-like dictator, and important decisions are made by tech giant owning oligarchs. A while longer and the US might enter a civil war or will simply lose all good will it had directed towards it in the world and will then stand alone, while other countries enable the US' competitors. If Americans do not change something about their trajectory soon, it will not end well for them, and probably not end well for many other countries either.


The US has a history of hitting rock bottom every so often. First constitutional crisis leading to the replacement of the articles of confederation, civil war, Great Depression and the new deal, the Vietnam era, and now the collapse of the post Cold War order.

I am not sure fascism will take here. Americans might think they want it until the fascists start telling them what to do. We are kinda starting to see that.

We will see more. Wait until some stand your ground red blooded American homeowner guns down a bunch of ICE goons doing a warrantless raid on the wrong house. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet. I’ve been checking the news for it daily. Then Trump tries to confiscate guns. I’ve been predicting for years that it’s MAGA who will try to “come for the guns.” That will be a hoot as they say a few hours South of where I am.

Of course they still have the culture war card. For some reason trans derangement syndrome (TDS) still has a hold on people. I don’t understand why that particular thing works so well, even on some people you would not expect.


> For some reason trans derangement syndrome (TDS) still has a hold on people. I don’t understand why that particular thing works so well, even on some people you would not expect.

I think it work as good as it does since there are no trans people around most people at all. It is a TV thing.

Outside of big cities I have never seen anyone. Prevalence measures varies but in my 30k pop county there should be like from 3 to <1.


I live in Fargo, ND. Conservative, small city. I work with 3 people who are trans and know another 3 outside of work and regularly see others around town. It does seem like a trend and I doubt most of them have dysphoria, but they're around and visible even in conservative areas.


Fargo is the main population centre in North Dakota though, right?

But ye the line between bisexual and transsexual have been blurried lately. Or maybe better put, I am not keeping track of the trends since I am no longer a student.


It is and we have 3 colleges, so that probably has something to do with it. Lots of younger people. And maybe it's more visible to me because my girlfriend's kid is gay


>Outside of big cities I have never seen anyone.

It's not their responsibility to present themselves to you for enumeration and measurement, festoon themselves and their cars with trans pride tattoos and flags and bumper stickers, or allow you to sexually assault them by inspecting their genitals before playing sports or taking a shit.

Maybe they're just ordinary every day people, going about their ordinary every day lives, all around you, without you even knowing about it, because it's none of your business.

In fact, maybe that's what transphobic bigots with Trans Derangement Syndrome most fear, that they are surrounded by everyday normal trans people going about their everyday normal lives, but they don't even know it, and that is why they are so obsessed with inspecting other people's genitals and denying them human rights.

Any transphobic bigots with Trans Derangement Syndrome want to chime in and explain exactly why you're so obsessed with other people's genitals, which are none of your business? Or Trump voters who support him and his normative gender role enforcers grabbing women and children by the pussy to judge whether or not they're allowed to play sports or use public restrooms, all in the name of "protecting women", at the same time as they celebrate taking away women's right to abortion? Care to share your browser history, so we know if you're jerking off to the same secret obsession that gets you so hot and bothered in public?

NORTH CAROLINA: Anti-trans Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson called himself a 'Black Nazi,' admitted to liking trans porn:

https://www.advocate.com/election/mark-robinson-black-nazi-t...

>“I like watching [transgender slur] on girl porn! That’s fucking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson wrote in one comment verified by the outlet. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!” -Mark Robinson aka "minisoldr"

Unjustly confronting women, accusing them of being men, and expelling them from the bathroom just because they don't look stereotypically feminine enough for you is not "protecting women". It's as sexist and bigoted as it gets.

WASHINGTON, DC: Lauren Boebert & Nancy Mace confront woman they thought was trans in ‘predictable’ Capitol bathroom incident:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lauren-boebert-nancy-mace-confron...

>A misguided attempt to enforce Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s discriminatory anti-trans bathroom policy at the Capitol led to an embarrassing misstep by GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina who were involved in an incident on Thursday that transgender Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride's office called “predictable.”

>The pair confronted a cisgender woman in the restroom, mistakenly believing her to be the Delaware Democratic lawmaker, who is the first out transgender member of Congress. McBride had previously said she would follow House rules after Johnson banned transgender people from using the bathroom in line with their gender identity. The incident has reignited criticism of Johnson’s anti-trans bathroom regulations, which critics say endanger and harass all women.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Woman says Boston hotel guard told her to leave bathroom because she ‘was a man’:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/boston-hotel...

>Same-sex couple says they were appalled after being confronted and wrongfully accused in women’s restroom.

>A couple visiting Boston says they were left confused and appalled after being forced out of the Liberty Hotel during a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday, following what they describe as being confronted and wrongfully accused in the women’s restroom.

>Ansley Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, both cisgender women, said a hotel security guard entered the women’s bathroom and demanded Baker leave the stall she was using, claiming she didn’t belong there.

>“All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” Baker recalled to CBS News.

>“I pulled my shorts up. I hadn’t even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the women’s bathroom. I said: ‘I’m a woman.’”

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: Cis Woman Mistaken as Transgender Records Being Berated in Bathroom:

https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/11/01/cis-woman-mistaken-...

>A woman in Las Vegas says she remains shaken from her experience last week when another woman berated her in a public restroom for being transgender. The problem is that she's not trans, and, as she puts it, regardless of whether she had been, the entire situation was plainly wrong.

>In Las Vegas, Jay, a 24-year-old cis woman, was driving with her boyfriend on Thursday when she said she had to use the restroom.

>Jay says the couple stopped at Rampart Casino after being out all day to fix a seat belt on their car.

>Because she knew she would take longer, she gave her boyfriend some money to gamble while he waited and she went to the bathroom.

>"As soon as I got in, I went straight to a stall," Jay tells The Advocate. "About a minute or so in, I start to hear a woman being extremely aggressive. At first, I wasn't hearing exactly what she was saying until I started hearing her say, 'Trans, figure out your identity at home ... they better not come out of there. .. that's not allowed ... that's a boy, [and] they think this is [OK] because it's being taught in schools.'"


> It's not their responsibility to present themselves to you for enumeration and measurement, [...]

Come on. That is not what I meant. I recognise almost everyone my age that went to school here. People talk.


>People talk.

Yeah, they do, don't they? And because of that, it's really tough to be trans or gay or whatever in a small town. And that drives people into the closet, and drives them to leave.

How much do you really know about those people you never saw again after high school?


Yes? I am not arguing otherwise.


> I don’t understand why that particular thing works so well, even on some people you would not expect.

When you engage these sorts of people and ask the right follow-up questions, there's some common underlying concerns that underpin the polite fictions.

I've found that for men, they are scared that the next woman they look at covetously might have been AMAB. Even if they understand that there is a difference between sex and gender, they are scared that their acquaintances aren't, and are terrified of the prospect of being "tricked" into being attracted to someone who they see as a man. For women, I've found that they see men as biologically and intrinsically dangerous, and that a tiger doesn't change its stripes just because they are alienated from masculinity.

Not that I agree with either viewpoint. Being worried about being "accidentally gay" speaks more to underlying insecurities surrounding masculinity, and "men are inherently dangerous" is just misandry. But I'm no longer surprised by TDS.


I don't think this is happening organically. Trans people are such a small percentage of the population but we've been getting a ton of media coverage. There's a concerted effort on the right to demonize us and that filters down into the culture.

I can't speak to men but women are so much more comfortable around me since I came out. Most of my partners and friends have been cis women. One of the best parts of transitioning is random women will come up and talk to me when I'm running errands. This started happening early in my transition when I was very much visibly trans. People can be weird around me if they haven't met a trans person before but the people who are hostile tend to be terminally online.


I'm not trying to downplay the inordinate amount of media coverage transfolk are getting.

However, effective propaganda needs an audience willing to listen and accept the things they're being told. I don't think that propaganda turns good people hateful. Instead, I believe it gives people predisposed to certain hateful beliefs a socially acceptable excuse they can repeat for feeling the way they do.


> For women, I've found that they see men as biologically and intrinsically dangerous, and that a tiger doesn't change its stripes just because they are alienated from masculinity.

This is demonstrably true in many scenarios. Such as, males being transferred to women's prisons because they say they are women. As a consequence, female prisoners have been sexually assaulted and raped by these men. Drawing attention to this isn't misandry, it's reality.


So...there's a funny little consequence of putting in the work to have those real-life conversations, and that's that one starts to be able to see "past" post-hoc justifications like yours.

Trying to argue the "facts" with anonymous internet denizens is pretty much useless, because especially in today's post-truth landscape, you can find justification for any horrendous opinion if you dig deep enough. That is even assuming the person you're talking to is even real and not an AI, a bored sociopath on an alt account, a paid shill or otherwise.

Thankfully, spaces like these are very much not representative of real life, where most individuals are nice, decent people minding their own business, and "saving face" isn't seen as such an imperative away from the public scrutiny of the internet.


Depends who you talk to, I suppose.

In the real-life conversations I've had about this issue, most people are horrified when they find out that men, transferred to women's prisons due to trans activist policy, have been sexually assaulting and raping female inmates. Keeping in mind that this isn't a hypothetical about what might happen but is a direct result of harmful policy, and involves documented cases and real victims.

It tends to prompt a rethink about this whole topic.


>Google carved out a monopoly on search and they are complete trash now.

Google search is only trash to the tech savvy user base, but the normies have no issues with it.


Aren't the normies using ChatGPT to generate something closely resembling plausible answers now, exactly because Google's quality has dipped? Jeez, the normies I know sure are, to a man...


Back then we didn't have a fascist for president or a court full of people who will make up anything to get the results that they want.




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