If there is one thing that empires are good at, it is creating clear lines for acceptable groups, basically armies, and those who are considered “enemies to the cause.” Another thing that is important to remember is that not all armies will look the same because physical and/or obvious violence are not always the goals. Extracurricular activities are one thing, but large groups of people who were raised the same way is the crux of why people are having trouble wrapping their minds around injustice at this time. The suburbs created armies of people who were raised in seclusion from most of the world’s ills, and are willing to fight to the death to preserve their delusions of normalcy.
Before anything else, people who grew up in the suburbs often believe that everyone has two parents and lots of money, which means that nobody should want for anything. Public school could have addressed this misunderstanding if it had been integrated both racially and socioeconomically, but many suburban parents made sure that was avoided. Not even all suburban households had reasonable amounts of money or happy marriages, but the image was crucial to spreading the beliefs of “happy families.” This is one of the hardest lessons to unlearn in adulthood because childhood was such an impressionable time to develop these beliefs.
Also, because of the idea of “plenty of money,” most suburban offspring tend to believe that everyone has plenty of opportunities, which is why there are a lot of suburbanites who believe that we can all start businesses, save for houses, own cars, and retire in comfort. These are the “bootstrap” people, and those who honestly will not let go of Puritanical “virtues” despite growing up centuries after that time period. For these individuals, no amount of evidence will sway them from their belief that all the good jobs and investments will be there if everyone “tries” hard enough. It was always such a ridiculous notion, yet so strong that people are finally starting to back away from those who believe this ideology without question.
Unfortunately, these same people avoid looking at reality, and they firmly believe that people make choices that cause indefinite suffering. These are generally the people who city governments protect by shielding them from all the infrastructure like power plants and waste disposal. All the schools, parks, and libraries are well funded, so nobody has to figure out how to get to good resources because there were never any other options. Almost none of these people consider the effects of experiencing city infrastructure and underfunded public resources, so they tend to believe that anyone dealing with poverty and/or poor health made choices. It has been almost impossible to explain that people around marginalized individuals made choices to deliberately alienate much of the population while forcing people to compete.
Finally, the most devastating belief of many suburbanites is that all the bad things happen in other countries, not in the empire. Since imperial history is often propaganda and libraries refuse to expand their collections, these people fail to understand how the United States could be the antagonist in any story. They understand, in theory, that horrible things happened, but they cannot make the connection between what happened in the past to how the empire functions now. Moreover, they fail to respect that the empire has enacted violence all over the world, which is why people avoid us or prevent our engagement at this time. I believe that this is one of the reasons there has been such an emphasis on “niceness” as opposed to genuine substance of character.
It was fascinating to me to see that advertising and sitcoms have failed to evolve past the images produced in the 1960s, with married people largely mocking each other and everyone having lots of spare time to pursue a myriad of activities. However, I understand that the ideas that everyone has lost discretionary income and become disconnected are devastating to people who took away the society where those things could have been true. For much of the population, it was much too easy to believe the lies that the United States were “great,” and that is why the MAGA cult has lasted as long as it has. Isolating people and indoctrinating them leads to people being vulnerable to influence, not thinking for themselves.
