I don't read fiction. I rarely watch television. I know alot of people, and work amongst and in contact with alot of people - every day. From shall I say, very wealthy, to dirt poor. I've also been part way and half way around the world and back; for many years at a time. This has confirmed for me, among other things, what ancient historians recorded a long time ago.
Outside of racial differences (the physical), language, cultural trappings, established political structures etc - people are the same everywhere, when it comes to basic human nature and psychology. Watch and analyse a TV commercial made for a product aimed at the U.S. market, and the same product for say, India. This knowledge is not lost on people who are in the business of advertizing, and it has certainly not been lost on those who have been and are running the show, in Europe, Africa, Asia nor here in the Americas.
What has been done in Europa and elsewhere can similarly be done here. There is nothing "unique" about we Americans in the realm of the political science of deception and manipulation, and force. Sure, the United States has been a tougher nut to crack than most for a couple of practical reasons, but things are well underway all the same. The topic of this thread is but one example.
I do not share the view that anyone is going to "rise up" in this country and shrug off the oppressors for many reasons. But one, because many do not seem to realize who their oppressors actually are, and second is that these same people are much too smart to recklessly push the population at large into a state of open rebellion. At least not until they are assured of ample means to contain it. And they are indeed getting to the stage where they will have ample means.
In the meantime, they are quite content to devour any hopefuls piecemeal.
