Blurts & Spasms

Some likely reasons for the U.S.A.:

1. The success of neoliberalism has been carefully engineered. ***See essay at the end of this post for more on this.***
2. A majority of mass media has been overwhelmed by well-funded propaganda, so a lot of folks believe in things like trickle-down economics.
3. Because “corporations are people,” and “money is free speech,” huge amounts of money have regularly been expended to get pro-corporate candidates elected.
4. Human gullibility and lack of critical thinking skills persist.
5. A conflation of liberty with greed and selfishness is pervasive.
6. The artful use of the illusory truth effect (i.e. repeating things enough that people think they are true, even if they’re just invented falsehoods) by proponents of neoliberalism.
7. Something I call “the broken brain effect.” You can’t really believe in the ludicrous garbage that Ayn Rand or Milton Friedman or Murray Rothbard come up with unless there is some faulty wiring up there. Unfortunately, there is a not-so-fine line between doubling down on delusional thinking that has zero evidence (i.e. neoliberal economic theory) and a diagnosable mental illness.
8. Incredible affluence compared to other parts of the world — and most of human history. Having so much affluence leads people into feelings of entitlement, and the most entitled folks in the U.S. are the wealthy. Even for the middle class and the poor, America’s above-average affluence has lead to embracing silly mistaken beliefs like individualistic materialism.

There are many more reasons, but here is an essay that offers more detail about how the neoliberal movement — which I call the great deception — has been engineered:

http://www.tcollinslogan.com/resources/The_Rise_of_Demagogues_in_Democracy.pdf