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Comment by russellbeattie | Hacker News Reader

> huge growing divisions within the united States well before Putin

Of course I'm not saying Russia created our national schizophrenia, which stems literally from the birth of the nation, but they sure as hell helped exacerbate the condition. Russia deliberately amplified and inflamed the culture wars so that they could corrupt and weaken the US from within without being noticed. From fake online accounts, to financing fringe candidates and media personalities to hacking and interfering with the 2016 election.

And it worked.

I respect your cynicism and opinion but maybe part of your feelings are a cause of Russia disinformation as well. Are our institutions really that awful? Or do you think so little of them because of relentless negative propaganda?

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I agree with you. And yes I could and probably am manipulated to an extent.

But... I have noticed this before 2016. Years before.

Example of bad American institutions: physical therapy, high schools, colleges for physical therapists. Food. Look at how horrible people eat in America. You'd expect the best country in the world to have a little bit more education when it comes to their bodies and the filth (food, pollution, information) they put into them. Not to mention how horribly ignorant people are about their physical health. These are the ones I have noticed.

I can't comment on the others.

But also, American kids dont do that badly in international tests. They are not the very bestest best. But everytime there is debate about how bad American schools are, I check the stats and ... they are fairly normal on average for democratic world. The only unique thing is American expectation that they should be totally first in everything and anything less then that is failure.

> Look at how horrible people eat in America. You'd expect the best country in the world to have a little bit more education when it comes to their bodies and the filth (food, pollution, information) they put into them.

America is the leader of the world in talking about food constantly. Obsessing about it. Going to extreme with diets and making up ones again and again. America does not need more of that. It maybe needs to stop assuming it is and must be "best country in the world" in everything and be willing to learn from elsewhere.

> But... I have noticed this before 2016. Years before.

I wrote 'decade' for a reason. :-) The push started during the Obama administration. Before Russia invaded the Crimea, Putin was laying groundwork to soften US resistance.

Study Exposes Russia Disinformation Campaign That Operated In The Shadows For 6 Years: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/878169027/study-exposes-russi...

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