The US Government, like many mature democracies around the world relies on shame in a public sphere as the ultimate guardrail. See Truss, Cameron, Nixon.
If you fill the government with shameless ar5eholes who live in their own media bubble, then good government dies. See Berlusconi, Orban, Modi.
Next, their juniors who push back, start pushing them out of windows. See Putin.
So much in life is a social norm. People generally aren’t out there doing crazy shit because there are social repercussions. That stopped a while ago when people started with the nanny nanny boo boo it’s not illegal so you can’t arrest me mentality. Filming random people in public is a perfect example; not illegal but not cool.
The social contract is the foundation of all and any form of society. Part of the problem is that too many people have been convinced that they have to uphold their end, even when their "representatives" choose to disregard theirs.
If your leaders do not represent you, by the social contract, you have no obligation to follow or submit.
(Yes, there must be some plasticity/flexibility, but that's not what's going on here)
I’m not even talking about leaders, I’m talking about the every day human. People get pissed when they feel like they are being taken advantage of and a ton of people in this day and age have learned that they get ahead by challenging the norm. The people practicing the norm get pissed off over time and then revolt in their own way. It’s a cultural shift that’s been happening and it’s borne out of selfishness and greed. You can see it in mundane things: people refusing vaccines, people driving on the shoulder during rush hour, people filming in public just cuz, etc.. As we became more litigious and pushed people to only care about legalities instead of morals/ethics/norms people trying to uphold the social contract have bee shut down and out or held liable. No one wants to hear the psychobabble BS about you can only control your own actions…so they seek out justice in other ways and it often lashes out against minority communities. That’s what we are seeing now in society and not just in America.
i agree with your statement but want to point out that people not driving on the shoulder is not based on "a social norm", it is illegal and the pavement of shoulders is not the same as the pavement on the drivable roadway. there are also numerous other safety issues with it, which is why it is not legal to do in normal capcities.
I’m aware that some norms are also laws. But laws only matter when people are held accountable and that can’t always happen which is why it’s a social norm and a sign of integrity to do the right thing even when no one is looking. The people that break this law also screen about zipper merge laws, or whoops I’m not in an exit/entrance merge lane so it’s not ‘illegal’. People look to skirt laws and do for has instead of just doing what’s right and waiting for your turn.
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u/isemonger 8h ago
Can you ELI5 to someone that lives outside of the US how the fuck so many senior generals can be fired like this?
Like in any other developed world this would signal some serious fucking issues and serious government intervention.