It seems that everywhere you look we are seeing cultural changes in the United States.
Billboard has been publishing a Hot 100 list of the most popular songs since 1958.
For the first time in history, the top 5 on the list are all Country songs
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| Source: https://variety.com/2026/music/news/country-songs-billboard-hot-100-ella-langley-stella-lefty-1236826778/ |
Here are the top 5 songs.
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| Source: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/ |
Country music in the last several years has been gaining in popularity while Rap has been in decline.
From 2020-2023 Rap music songs made up 34% ot the Billboard Top 10 and Country only 7%.
The last two years Country has made up 27% on that list and Rap only 17%.
Right now there is not one rap song in the Top 10,
In fact, there has not been a Hip-Hop/Rap song in the Top 10 in over a year.
Yes, we are seeing a major cultural shift in music.
Those cultural changes also extend to the use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.
More Americans now use marijuana daily than drink or smoke.
Many argue that people should have the freedom to do what they want to do.
However, at what point do societal costs get factored in?
Consider a few of the negative effects of marijuana usage.
Higher risk of developing depression and anxiety?
Is the increase in anxiety disorders in younger Americans just a coincidence?
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| Credit: https://jonathanhaidt.com/anxious-generation/ |
Impaired ability to process complex information?
These people are also voting.
I wonder what percentage of Democrat Socialists are daily users of marijuana?
Every complex issue can be solved simply according to their platform.
For example, the DSA's solution to the high cost of living?
You should not have to pay any bills or have any debt.
The government should pay for everything you need.
It's simple.
The DSA says you won't have bills anymore if you vote for their candidates.
The cultural changes also extend to population changes in the nation.
Consider this recent Census Bureau population data on Georgia.
Whites in Georgia are no longer a majority of the population in that state.
People of color are now the majority of Georgia's population.
This is Georgia that used to be considered the heart of the Confederacy.
Non-Hispanic Whites now make up only 48% of the population of the state of Georgia.
International immigrants alone added 500,000 to Georgia's population in the last five years.
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| Source: Grok |
In 2024, Trump received 71% of White voters in Georgia
Kamala Harris received 77% of non-White voters.
That is a very large cultural divide.
It is as if the two groups are living in two different universes.
Republicans in Georgia are swimming upstream against that demographic current.
The cultural divide is even more pronounced in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn is now over 50% Muslim.
Residents now wake up to the Muslim call to prayer.
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| Link: https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/2086109427577532581 |
At the same time, Muslims in Dearborn now want to ban the ringing of church bells in the city.
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| Link: https://x.com/1109Patricia/status/2057418160756711828 |
Yes, cultural changes wherever you look.
The United States has a long history of being a melting pot and a refuge for people seeking a better life.
We often hear that diversity is a strength and immigration is one of the things that has made the United States greater than any nation in the world.
This is undoubtedly true. However, this assumes common values, beliefs, goals and objectives.
It also assumes that those who immigrate to the United States want to assimilate and fully commit their future and faith to their new country---not the country or culture that they left.
If these foundational principles are not shared uniformly, diversity is a weakness, not a strength. In point of fact, diversity is a fatal flaw if the foundational principles and cultural framework are not aligned.
It can lead to a cataclysmic clash of cultures.
The big question is whether the United States will be able to bridge all of these cultural changes and divides and continue to be UNITED?
That remains to be seen.
You do realize that Jonathan Haidt's study was focused on the smartphone use correlation with anxiety, not cannabis?
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that there are far more dangerous intoxicants yeah? Alcohol kills hundreds of thousands a year.
Everything else in this article is just a list of non sequiturs: country dethrones rap, marijuana use climbs, the stoned supposedly can't think, "these people are also voting," the Democratic Socialists talk nonsense, Georgia slips below half white, Dearborn tilts Muslim, a church bell goes quiet.
Haidt's thesis in his book was that smartphone use was correlated with anxiety in young people. However, it is equally possible that cannabis use is responsible when you correlate the data. Of they are both responsible in combination for the increase in anxiety in younger Americans.
DeleteAlcohol does kill but so does cannabis. How many highway deaths due to being under the influence of cannabi?. Have you seen how heavy cannabis use is highly correlated with many of the mass murderers?
You dismiss everything else as non sequiturs. However, you ignore the bigger point that there are huge cultural divides in the country today. Perhaps much larger than the nation has ever seen.
Societies don't often survive such divisions. These cultural divisions need to be healed or it is going to be difficult for the country to be anything like it has in the past.
That is a fact that you do not seem to want to address.
Roughly 40% to 48% of all convicted murderers were under the influence of alcohol or had alcohol as a major contributing factor during or right before their crimes. Should we restart prohibition?
DeleteYou are looking in the rear view mirror. That stat is from when alcohol was the primary addiction. It has been replaced by cannabis and the stats will soon reflect that reality in all likelihood..
DeleteAs to prohibition, that was an example of failed policy because cultural attitudes were too baked in. There were actually a lot of positive outcomes from prohibition but they were overwhelmed by the cultural backlash.
On the other hand, we are now seeing the disastrous effects of legalizing marijuana in many states. Many of the positive effects that were promised have not come true. The two leading states in liberalizing drug laws (Colorado and Oregon) have both had to backtrack due to adverse effects.
So your plan is to wage war on cannabis while 73% of murders were carried out not with a joint, but with a gun.
DeleteNo way for the once wonderful experiment in society called the USA can ever recover the unity.
ReplyDeleteIslam is intolerant of any other religion and will be a constant trouble maker.
Socialism always ignores the question who pays for all the freebies.
They will degenerate USA to the usual broke and dismal third world status. Probably before I die. I’m 89.
Communism will finally take over due to ANTIFA AND BLM SOCALISM.
INDOCTRINATED AND IGNORANT CHILDREN ALL THE UPCOMING LEADERS. THEY WILL BE THE FINAL STROKE OF THE PEN.
SOCIETY WILL GET WHAT THEY DESERVE.
UNFORTUNATELY A SMALL PERCENTAGE WILL PAY FOR THEIR WILLINGNESS TO GO ALONG.
Good back and forth on this topic. The bottom line for me is simply this: Come on in. We need good people. But you have to assimilate, and you have to, for example, fly the American Flag above the flag of the home country that you came from. You must speak English. If you won't do these simple things....... well.... we'll make it difficult for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't understand is why we don't just go ahead and replicate Ellis island and build maybe a 100 mini Ellis Islands all over the country (2 in each state) so that when people land there, they have 2 places to go to to check into their state's Ellis Island. Each state's Ellis island I would employ. Let's say 10000 agents to check on the new immigrants situation a couple of times a year. To make sure they're coming along, help them assimilate, talk to their neighbors. If that's what it takes And then after 10 years of that, they'd get full citizenship.
Thank Christ, I don't live in Dearborn Michigan.