Why outrage doesn't matter anymore

Here's the thing. We, as Americans, have lost the ability to lash indignant hellfire at those who violate our collective sensibilities. Cops outright murder Black people almost every day, and we get mad, but nothing changes. Our politicians lie, cheat, steal, and send dick pics to minors, and we get mad, but nothing changes. Companies like Facebook, Google, Uber, the entire oil industry, the entire pharmaceutical industry, the medical establishment sell each of us for $12 a year, tricks hundreds of thousands of people into indentured servitude, skirt the law with impunity, and price gouge with lip-licking voraciousness, and nothing changes. Banks, housing, dialysis, the battle for a living wage, the death of education, the abandonment of the separation of church and state, and much, much more is killing us all every day.

And nothing changes.

Sure, we get mad, we harangue people on the internet, we watch "news" programs that are little more than shills for an ideology, and nothing changes. That's because, those who benefit from the status quo have discovered a simple truth. As long as there are enough Americans making enough money to maintain a decent credit score and there's enough "white" noise in the media, nobody gives a fuck. 

Americans have their interests predetermined. Get born, go to school, get a job, buy a house, raise two and a half kids, buy a few cars, take a vacation every year on your tax return, enjoy blockbuster movies at your local cinema, keep the riff raff out of your neighborhood, keep your head down and go to church every Sunday, or at least on the major Christian holidays. Most of all, however, is don't question anything outside of your little sphere of reality.

We've been conditioned to be selfish and think that's okay. There are many, many, MANY things wrong with American society, politics, education, social justice, healthcare, and a billion other things, but one of the biggest, simplest pieces is this grab, grab, grab ideal we have (that was an intentional reference to capitalist in chief, Trump). If we cared, stopping rape would matter. If we cared, women would have the same chances and choices as men. If we cared, we would make real reparations to native Americans and the descendants of slaves. If we really cared, we'd recognize that all of us are descended from immigrants, except the people we stole this country from in the first place, of course.

So, until we decide we aren't going to be selfish and share just a little with everyone else, things won't change.

And that really sucks.