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Why the US is so weird.
quora.com/What-do-people-get-w…

#USpol

…which is why (as I’ve written millions of times before on this platform, and will likely write millions of times more before I’m through) Americans generally fight tooth and nail against things like universal basic income, national healthcare, planned economies, and other things a European considers not only natural but vital to a nation’s happiness and prosperity. Americans have an entirely different conception of happiness, freedom, and good governance than Europeans do. Even if most Americans are unfamiliar with their history and the philosophical basis of their country’s founding, they still share a fundamental belief in individual liberty which pervades every aspect of their culture. Our mindset is individualistic, and our opinion of the role of government is rooted in deontology—in principle, not in social utility. Individual liberty, not collective good, is our ethical lodestar. We do not perceive, as other nations do, government to be an expression of the citizens’ collective will; it is (and should ever remain) a mere night watchman. It doesn’t matter how many people in our society are addicted to drugs, or are dying of preventable diseases, or can’t read or write. It’s not the government’s job to fix any of that. Its only job is to defend our rights—and not for any specific purpose, but purely as a matter of principle. It’s as simple as that.
#uspol
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