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US: Something Unseen in Decades: Bruce Springsteen Awakened People from Apathy
🇫🇮 Finland /Culture & Society

US: Something Unseen in Decades: Bruce Springsteen Awakened People from Apathy

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • Columnist Susanne Salmi reflects on how the constant stream of events in Donald Trump's America can lead to public apathy, even towards war.
  • Salmi uses Bruce Springsteen's concert in Washington as a starting point to discuss this phenomenon, noting that the war in Ukraine felt like background noise.
  • The piece questions how a nation can forget its state of war amidst the daily deluge of political news and events.

In the United States under Donald Trump, the sheer volume of extraordinary events has become so overwhelming that it takes a figure like Bruce Springsteen to remind people of the nation's fundamental realities. Columnist Susanne Salmi observes that the constant barrage of news can numb the public, making even significant issues fade into background noise.

Oh yes, indeed, the United States is at war.

— Susanne SalmiReflecting on a realization prompted by Bruce Springsteen's concert.

Salmi attended Springsteen's concert in Washington last week, where the opening song, a cover of "War," prompted a stark realization: the United States is at war. This moment of clarity highlights how the relentless pace of political developments in the Trump era can lead to a form of societal amnesia, where even a state of conflict can be overlooked.

How can one forget such a thing?

— Susanne SalmiQuestioning the public's ability to overlook significant national issues.

The columnist questions how such a fundamental aspect of national life can be forgotten. The continuous flow of unprecedented events, from one hour to the next, creates a sense of fatigue and detachment. This environment, she suggests, allows even the fact of being at war to become mere background static, lost in the cacophony of daily political drama.

In Donald Trump's America, it seems, even war can be forgotten.

— Susanne SalmiDescribing the impact of constant political events on public awareness.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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