# Resolved: America is a dystopian shithole. Also, leopard hijacks **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 20, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330 "2025-08-20T17:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/61 "2025-08-20T23:37:04Z")
I just turned 69 and have a few health issues. I live alone and my daughter and grandchildren live nearby. I am forced to work to make ends meet and I just don’t know what to do. I can’t go anywhere, but at least I’m in California. I feel a strong need to do SOMETHING! Look what the hell they’re doing in Texas to the Democratic Representatives. The list of things terrible things that are happening is so fucking long, I can’t remember them all anymore. Every day it’s a new thing. I’m very tired of it all. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/62 "2025-08-20T23:45:39Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It’s a valid point, and all you can do is plan and hope. I just find life here draining and depressing. I get that. Every day that I see a development with distinct parallels to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and rise of Nazism (or some similar autocratic regime), with Republicans just shrugging or actively embracing it and mealy-mouthed Democrats mostly doing nothing even notionally oppose it, all I can think is “How did people become this obtuse?” But then, I’ve spent the last fifteen years learning about climate modeling and measurement to discover that the mainstream consensus is actually far more rosy than the models and data really suggest and yet the world essentially doing fuck-all to try to meet even totally inadequate mitigation and adaptation measures—led, of course, by the United States which could, if there were political consensus, take a leadership position in sustainability and transition from most fossil fuel use except that it would eat into the profits of ‘traditional’ (petroleum, gas, and coal) energy—and realize that nobody with any power is capable of real foresight and authority to make and implement better decisions. So…I wish you well, and I hope things work out well for you. But we’re all still stuck on this planet that we’re rapidly consuming and polluting with an end (for industrial civilization) coming increasingly in sight. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/63 "2025-08-20T23:46:34Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I can’t go anywhere, but at least I’m in California. That’s not nothin’. I find it helps to talk about it and find it soul crushing to pretend it’s not happening. I think for a lot of people, it’s the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/64 "2025-08-21T00:08:20Z")
Well, you’d be wrong. Millions are worried. Instead of sitting around gnashing your teeth. It pays to help. If you can’t actively protest. Donate. Do a soup kitchen stretch. Give to your local PBS. Vote! Encourage others to vote. There were enough people who didn’t vote this past election I’m convinced if every one who voted just brought one extra person to poll with them we’d be singing a new song. Complacency will get us all. We’ve had it great for a long stretch in the US. And folks got lazy. Or you can run and live in a place where you’re treated like a second class citizen. No rights. Limited help from any official group. And half the year you’re separated from your spouse. Say you do get out, your wife comes for her 6 Mos. stay but they send her back. What then? Where’s the dog? Are you gonna come back to the US to get her? What if you’re stopped at the border? This ain’t the 1930s-40s. There’s tech that will tell exactly who you are. There’s no Rick in Casablanca to get you some forged papers for a price. You are SOL. No wife, no dog, no extended family. In a country that would rather you not be there. I assume you’ll know the language. Enough to go to the PTB and get help? You’re taking a giant risk. Trying to keep one foot in each country. I’m not against you. I think you’ve lived abroad enough to know some things. But seriously get your ducks in a row. Make a clean break. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/65 "2025-08-21T00:30:06Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You are SOL. No wife, no dog, no extended family. In a country that would rather you not be there. What are you talking about? We’re all going, also I’ve live outside of the US much of my adult life ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/66 "2025-08-21T00:35:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Or you can run and live in a place where you’re treated like a second class citizen. No rights. Where the fuck is this exactly? I presume that anyone who is considering what countries to emigrate to has the God-given sense to NOT select a country that gives recent emigrants NO RIGHTS, and treats them as second class citizens. I realize you have limited world experience, but Jesus, give your head a shake before you post. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/67 "2025-08-21T01:08:45Z")
Sorry if I misread. I thought you said your wife would come home every 6mos. I guess you meant not to stay. My bad. @Euphonious_Polemic shake your own noodle, the world hates Americans. You don’t get “rights” in another country simply by moving there. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/68 "2025-08-21T01:16:10Z")
This might be a good time for you to detail your international travel and living abroad experience – dates, times, locations, months/years. That sort of thing. It might provide useful context for those of us who are occasionally a bit puzzled by your posts on the subject. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/69 "2025-08-21T01:22:29Z")
I don’t understand what this pitting is. If we’re all on a sinking ship, it’s admirable to stay behind and try to bail out the water, but what if half the people in the boat are poking more holes in the hull while mocking you for trying to keep the ship afloat? Fuck that noise. Hit the life raft and get the fuck out of there. You don’t have an obligation to live in maliciously created misery if you have an option to escape. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/70 "2025-08-21T01:27:56Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I realize you have limited world experience, but Jesus, give your head a shake before you post. That’s not her style. But hey, we can fix all of this downward slide toward authoritarianism by supporting your PBS station, ladling out food at a soup kitchen, and voting in increasingly gerrymandered elections which Trump and his backers have made increasingly clear they intend to challenge and invalidate if they don’t go his way, right? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/71 "2025-08-21T02:23:58Z")
…people in that other thread are really fucking weird. If you don’t mind hijacking this one, if anyone else responds to me over there, I’ll respond to them here. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/72 "2025-08-21T02:24:42Z")
> [@Surprises coming for voters for the Leopards-Eating-Faces Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/4297): > > > [@Surprises coming for voters for the Leopards-Eating-Faces Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/4292): > > > > Nope, I showed how uncharitable he is with the ones that will fight. > > No you didn’t. You said he implies that no one should fight anymore. That “a way to say in reality: don’t bother to fight.” You aren’t actually arguing with things they _actually_ said: but things that you _think_ that they said. Nope, that is now an attempt at gaslighting about what accelerationism is and what madmonk28 was not only implying. (Posted here to stop the hijack in the other thread, really, trying to stop the ammo being pile up in that thread that we will need to counter the coming propaganda fight, is also the “hand grenade” I was talking about, because what madmonk28 did there was a hijack too) > [@Surprises coming for voters for the Leopards-Eating-Faces Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/4254): > > But I disagree, I think that in order for America to be fixed it has to be completely torn down and rebuilt. Vibrant societies don’t elect insane fascist game show hosts and winning an election by 51% is not going to fix anything. The sooner that collapse happens, the better for the majority of people including future people born in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/73 "2025-08-21T02:40:22Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Nope, that is now an attempt at gaslighting about what accelerationism is and what madmonk28 was not only implying. …I don’t disagree with them at all. That’s the only way for America to be fixed. It’s institutionally bankrupt and morally corrupt. America was founded on white supremacy, and you let the white supremacists win. Its going to collapse. It _has_ too. And it would be better to collapse sooner than later. Because the later it collapses: the more dead bodies you are going to have. But that doesn’t mean _stop fighting_. Because that could mean _revolution_. It could mean _balkanisation_. There are many different ways a “collapse” could happen. And many of those involve fighting to the last breath. But what isn’t going to happen is that the Democrats are going to win again, and we are all going to go back to Obama era optimism. MAGA isn’t simply going to go away. And the Democrats aren’t coming to save you. Banquet Bear’s chaos theory holds true here: systems are _predictably unpredictable_. A collapse is on the cards. What happens next is what is important. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/74 "2025-08-21T02:47:27Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …I don’t disagree with them at all. > > That’s the only way for America to be fixed. As I cited, you are an ignorant about how the left does see the Democrats, many and I already new that. As for his nonsensical acceleraration wish, most here don’t care about now. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Banquet Bear’s chaos theory holds true here: systems are _predictably unpredictable_. A collapse is on the cards. What happens next is what is important. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” -Alan Kay We organize, and we should fight.. .. Thank you very much. What you miss too is that when we fight we are also fighting to make the fascism to be weak, not strong. Or to make it fall as it should be. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/75 "2025-08-21T02:55:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > As I cited, you are an ignorant about how the left does see the Democrats, many and I already new that. As for his nonsensical acceleraration wish, most here don’t care about now. …I don’t care about what you imagine “the left see about the Democrats.” The “left” aren’t a monolith. I don’t see how any of your cites show that I’m ignorant. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > What you miss too is that when we fight we are also fighting to make the fascism to be weak, not strong. What you miss is that _I’m advocating for fighting_. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/76 "2025-08-21T02:57:56Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > the world hates Americans No, the world does not hate Americans. We hate the fascist government your currently have. Most of us are not so stupid as to conflate the two. You appear to consuming propaganda. If you visit my country you will be treated very kindly, unless you’re sporting MAGA attire and act like an entitled asshole. Then you’ll be treated like an entitled asshole. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/77 "2025-08-21T03:18:01Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > What you miss is that _I’m advocating for fighting_. No, I already noted that (this is like my wife, she likes to fight for things that _we already did agree with_, I humor her 🙂 ). I did say that you are better then **madmonk28 for that** , learn to read the room and the country too. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/78 "2025-08-21T03:32:03Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > learn to read the room and the country too. …what does this even mean? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/79 "2025-08-21T03:44:36Z")
[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/read-the-room](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/read-the-room) > **read the room** > phrase > If you say that someone reads the room, you mean that they understand their audience and adapt what they say to suit it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330/80 "2025-08-21T03:56:18Z")
I’ve only skimmed much of this. Has Mr. Monk divulged where he plans to scurry off to? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-america-is-a-dystopian-shithole-also-leopard-hijacks/1022330.md?page=5)