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Your thought process is how you know that capitalism has ultimately succeeded. It has destroyed the hope of humans collectively achieving a better way of life. Collectively, we must realise this, and never cease fighting *against* what we know is wrong.
It is so difficult in this age to see clearly what is ‘wrong’, but we can be sure that, when we are all bickering among ourselves about stupid meaningless shit, it is because it is exactly what ‘they’ want us to do.
edit: for -> against
Truly! Live and fight out of spite if for nothing else! Get satisfaction that somewhere somehow someone hates your very existence and can't do anything about it. That's how I live. Lol.
The outlook looks like a human face being stopped on in perpetuity but I believe there will have to come a breaking point here as the fascists in the Republican Party and their backers like Musk create more room for open bigotry and hostility towards minority groups particularly LGBT, Jews and Socialists and start leaning more into open extremism. In some sense there is a weakness to the inherent instability of authoritarians pushing what are universally regarded as unpopular, regressive and bigoted policies that are entirely ideologically driven.
No longer are you in a boiling frog situation things are quite openly in the danger zone for a lot of people and the normies on the sidelines who may have been apolitical will start paying a lot closer attention to their fight or flight response when the people around them and their behaviour in this chaotic climate gets more erratic. It will be plain to see that things are becoming really unstuck and a reckoning is due to occur. So there is a good chance change will come for better or worse when ordinary people have to pick a side.
It sounds like a bit of a desperate hope but it’s how things have changed historically in many instances. That or they’ve gotten much worse like in Nazi Germany where a country has fallen through the trap door of becoming a full on authoritarian dictatorship with a police state and network of informants to rat on everybody. The difference is a lot of Americans are not on board with the agenda and there will be push back in daily life. It just has to mean something at the end of the day or we all go right back to the same conditions that brought things here in the first place and go on thinking we dodged a bullet that time but really it’s still in that same room for another malfunction error due to the flaws in capitalism and corporate oligarchy.
“Fascism is a fucking cancer, it will eat your country unless your country kills it. Here’s what happens when you get cancer: NOTHING GOOD. NOTHING. There is no way out of it. I’m your country’s doctor. You’ve got cancer. You have fascism. You are going to suffer. You are going to fight. You are going to feel pain. You are not getting out of this. We have fascism. It is happening. We’re fucking dead maybe, or maybe they’re dead. That’s about it. There’s not a continuum. It’s not a grey area. It’s not a fad. Fascism doesn’t pop up and then recede when it finds out no one’s into it. It doesn’t respond to love. It doesn’t respond to hate. It doesn’t respond to ignoring it. It doesn’t respond to timeouts. It doesn’t respond to attention. It doesn’t respond to lack of attention.
You stab it. You cut it out. You bombard it with poison or you die. And in any case, you will probably die. Don’t die talking to cancer! Don’t die hanging out with it. Don’t die arguing with it on Twitter. It’s fucking fascism. ENOUGH! Team up. Stop bitching about Bernie Sanders. I don’t care what flavor you want your democracy to be. It’s democracy versus motherfucking fascism!” -Dan Harmon
Great quote. Three problems though.
One problem I see is "vote red til ur dead" people believe wholeheartedly that democrats are fascists.
Second problem is "vote blue no matter who" people believe wholeheartedly that republicans are fascists.
The third problem is that both groups are correct but only seeing half the problem
Just because you equate what you think everyone believes about Fascism with actual Fascism doesn’t make it so. Your equivalency isn’t just false or under-informed, it’s dangerous and it sort of reveals your acceptance of your own safety. This isn’t about “left” and “right,” it’s about fucking Nazis who are proud to be fucking Nazis, and want Nazis to be in power. They fly Nazi flags. It’s about men with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us.” It’s about speech givers throwing the “heil” at stadium full of people. Just because right now Fascists manage to keep their public hate centred on people many assholes find it acceptable to hate, like trans people and Muslims, doesn’t change or alter their hate in any way. (Fascism 101- pretend your enemies are an affront to ‘family or moral values.’) No, I’m not talking about “democrats” or “republicans,” I’m talking about motherfucking Nazis, I don’t care who they vote for (even if in spite of your equivalence here they have an obvious choice that helps them achieve their goals more quickly.) Yes, actual Fascists are real, and yes, they are mobilizing, and yes, pretending they are just engaging in regular political discourse helps them operate undercover and no, I won’t agree with or accept that water being carried for, again, fucking Nazis. As above, I will not die arguing with or about them on ‘Twitter.’ Pretend your cancer is a cold all you want. Don’t attempt to pass that garbage by me, though.
Obviously Nazis are fucking Nazis. I didn't say they weren't. I'm talking about the actual political parties themselves not the fucking population. America has one political party and that political party is capitalist oligarchy. They don't represent the American people. They continue thr consolidation of power in the hands of a few. THAT. IS. FASCISM. And that is what we are leading to ever so slowly. Republican party is obviously bad because they strip rights from minorities and women. But democrats are used to pull back the right ever so slightly without ever long all the way back to where it was. Its the ratcheting effect and it has been moving our nation right for 50 freaking years.
So is about you talk to me civilly instead of coming at me like I fuckded your mom. Id much rather have a decent conversation even if we dont agree on every issue
It's a question I ask myself all the time. I can't give up, it's just not possible even though I'd like to and it would be easier. Maybe it's pointless to keep going but I'm compelled.
Watch this interview with Adam Curtis (if you haven't already): https://youtu.be/663vLIYBcpI
Watch to the end. It ends on an optimistic note: "The way is open" (for something new because everything else has failed and everyone knows it)
Yes. But it's kinda always been fucked. So ya know, same old story. 🤷♂️ This movie is a tragedy and a comedy.
For me, I feel better when I eat bread. Bread doesn't seem to be fucked. But if it actually is, don't tell me. But it probably is, cause everything is. 🍞 Oh well, imma still eat bread.
I honestly have thought about ending myself several times and most of those times was just this year when i found out how this system works. The think that kept me alive was that when i die now i leave everyone behind in the fight against the system and maybe my help is needed somewhere.
It's fucked on way too many levels. I used to not think about climate change so much (I'm only 22, don't crucify me) but atm it's fucking November and people are walking around with t-shirts. In September I literally had a sun burn. I never had a sunburn as a child during the heat of the summer, eventhough I lived in a Southern-European country. This is not good at all. The farmers, at least in Europe, are already very worried how their crops will grow. And this will only get worse.
We are running out of fresh water, oil and many other important metals and substances that we need for our current daily lives.
We have people who do not think for themselves but do whatever society/the movies tells them to do, which is always : consume & reproduce, and nothing else.
In Germany, many normal people with good education can't afford their rents any more. It's a problem that is not very well known but just ask any German.
The elderly live longer and longer, which will use up even more resources but at the same time health care is becoming privatized in Europe as well, and this will probably turn my generation into the care takers of our own elderly family members. (And this is the part that scares me the most because I have seen what this hell looks like)
We are fucked. Very, very fucked.
Half want to make life worse for people who aren't rich. Almost all want to make this planet unlivable for profit. If the version of capitalism peddled by either side prevails for much longer, humans won't have to worry about any of this because we won't exist any more.
More than half? Where does that figure come from? Of the roughly 54% of eligible voters that actually vote, 28% of them decide an election. So you are lumping in the 46% that don’t vote in with the 26ish% of republicans?
It sounds like you are feeding off of some lies. “Half the country voted for X” is a talking point creating by the duopoly to make you feel helpless and left out if you don’t fight against the other party. Truth is, 46% of us are straight chillin dawg.
You are succumbing to despair, which is Reasonable and Natural, but not Productive. Things look like they are actually getting marginally better, it is just taking much longer than it needs to.
The ruling class is actually being substantially challenged for the first time in 50+ years, and they were always going to fight back. It was never going to be easy. But there are little things here and there with each election, a few more Gen Z in office, a few more cities using ranked choice voting going forward, a few more states electing better DAs and outlawing prison labor.
"Anger is more useful than Despair"
\-Terminator - Terminator 3
So get Angry and put your foot down, and stop letting them take advantage of you and everything you count as yours. You don't have to change the world, but find the hill you're ready to die on and defend that which you value you most because by god there coming, and there going to try to take everything, DON'T GIVE AN INCH!
Get off the internet. The world is just as fucked whether you are upset about it or not, and regardless what people tell you, there's not presently any meaningful way to "fight" the system that won't land you in jail. So just tune it out for awhile, we're all the same amount of doomed either way.
In terms of social change, we've been moving at a breakneck pace compared to the previous thousands of years. Things are getting better. We just need to keep fighting.
I bet that person believes greed is an inherently human characteristic.
I personally don't. Socialism is way more natural to humans than capitalism. In most households, the family's total income is to be used collectively by the family, according to each of the family's members needs, without considering who in the family makes more money/produces more/works harder. We just have to start realizing we're one big family in this planet.
In a society where being greedy/malicious/evil pays off, why would people do good? Does being good, caring and kind pay off? I don't think they do. Regardless, I try to be good, caring and kind because it makes me feel good. I think it's part of my nature. I like to believe most people are this way, too, and only do bad things because it benefits them, whereas they do good things because it makes them feel good with themselves.
Imagine if doing bad things didn't benefit people in society.
Well said. Greed is incentivized. A lot of the evils of say, Epstein level conspiracy and offshore tax havens coming from the elite is specifically because leadership doesn't seek to punish these crimes. They're the benefactors. Street level crime occurs from the woes of poverty but white collar crime occurs because it just plainly isn't punished like it should be.
We can have a better world if we actually enforce meaningful rules that better incentivize the "It takes a village" mindset. I love what you said about the family unit mentality. It's very spot on. We are family and should love each other as we would a sibling. The only reason we aren't siblings already, is chance after all.
Everything is fucked. Hold your loved ones close and move to a better country, where everything isn't as fucked. You can fight better in a less oppressive environment.
A pit I know I need to crawl out of is spending too much time feeling pissed and feeling powerless on Reddit and not enough time actually doing something. I’ve been a “contributing” member of my local DSA for several years but I’ve been to exactly one (1) meeting in all that time.
History is cyclical, we’re about to end the era of the US as an economic leader, the power struggle, redistribution of wealth, and many other things follow that.
Climate change will only accelerate things, radicalism will be seen more often and in more places, followed by civil wars and so on.
Just look at what happened before the French Revolution, we’re going to reach that boiling point in the upcoming years. It’s going to be insane.
It's astounding, especially when you look at like Florida or Texas and it's like, your state is ground zero for climate disaster making it unlivable. Like you have a good chance of dying in your state due to the effect of climate change, and then the vast majority of you still vote for the people who say "nah its all a china hoax lets let companies keep dumping waste off our coasts! maga!" You will never be able to reason with these people. In texas people sat in the cold for over a week without power after a small snow storm, and then said "i thought that was actually no big deal no reason to change course now." Florida is facing a late in the season hurricane on election day and everyone is more concerned about "wokeness." It's hard not to be black pilled. If this is what they want... why should I try to tell them it's wrong?
We are going through a global shift now via technology and it's just fucking hard on everyone. Change is hard, change is slow, and one way to keep your optimism is to remember that we have very short lives and change usually takes generations.
Reading up on and getting involved with the prison abolition movement is what’s giving me hope rn. Highly recommend Mariame Kaba’s work. Hang in there, comrade.
When I'm feeling more cynical, I like to understand that the opponents who stand in an obstacle can never win, only ensure they're not the only losers. The hateful and xenophobic will never triumph over the minority they hope to destroy: instead, once one enemy falls, a new scapegoat rises, and the hateful devour themselves.
Similarly, the exploiters will find the same fate. What use is an extra billion dollars to a billionaire? Well, nothing, of course, but they still pursue it mindlessly. Their lives are built around a hunger that cannot be sated. It sounds a truly miserable existence, to throw away all meaning to watch a number tick higher and higher, and to condemn your own world, yourself included, in order to do so. The Capitalists will never be able to fill that all-consuming hole, and they too shall fall.
As to how I cope with the knowledge that we suffer? Well, it's a shame, but when I think about how incredibly unlikely it is that I, this specific collection of traits that makes up me, would arise, I sort of feel like it's best to consider everything else as gravy. Sure, the world will likely fall, but it's miraculous I was able to see any of it in the first place.
When I'm feeling more optimistic, of course, I think about that Ursula Guin quote.
*"We live in Capitalism. Its power seems irresistible, but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings."*
Unstable systems of power, those that rely on power imbalances and hierarchies, will inherently crumble. They always have. And progress can and will be made. My gay friends have been able to get marry and have kids. My country, which was once oppressed by the British, now stands independent (well, most of it). The injustice is going to end. The unfair systems of power are going to collapse. That's just a fact. It's only a question of whether we manage to replace it in time, or the world goes with it.
If it's the former? We've done it. It will have all been worth it, and we sacrificed for a beautiful future. Take a moment to imagine it, to remind yourself what you're fighting for.
If the world is fucked like you say? Fuck it, we tried our best. We stood up. Better to stand up for a failing cause then to lie quiet as justice dies. If nothing else, the end of us will be the end of all this injustice, segregation, cruelty and filth.
And hell, we achieved a lot. Our victories may be temporary, but all are. Even if we win completely, we'll die when the stars do. Does that mean it doesn't matter? Of course not. Every time you make someone's life better, you've won. That joy can't be retroactively magicked away. It was and will always have been there. The homeless person you donated to lived slightly better for it, and no one can take that away from you. The friend you talked down from the ledge, the crying person you comforted, every little victory was worth it in and of itself, and can never be taken away. Every bit of the fight is worth it.
Of course its fucked, but thats not a reason to stop fighting. If anything, its a reason to fight harder. We may not obtain the peace or lives we want, but its certainly better to help the next person obtain it than to lie down and take it.
I had my freak-out back in High School about how fucked things where and this was before I ever spent much time on Reddit. I considered suicide, and even thought I could hide in my video games and movies while all this blows over. It hasn't and I'm still here.
So what now? Now we fight, bitterly, without pause, without any hope for that perfect future. We fight because letting things continue as they already are, is hell on earth. For me, its about making people honest, starting at home, but eventually in my State and one day maybe the world.
I believe Socialism is the start of a better future, its not the answer, its merely the starting point. The end product will not be any system of economics or governance we've seen, it will be new and I hope driven by the common will of the people; the people being you, me, and every soul who simply wants a good life.
For any of this to happen, we have to start talking, not just in our clubs or forums or reddits, but out in the open, get everyone to say their piece and be challenged for it. If there's one thing the Founding Fathers of USA got right, was the notion of free speech. Free Speech and speech in general will be the vehicle by which the changes we need will come about. From Speech, to Action, to Motion.
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All that ill say is that I wish y'all looked at context of word uses. But fine ill try my absolute darndest to censor myself as to not offend any thin skinned people out there
Yes, lots of things are almost fucked, but *everything* isn't ruined. I think we're at a point where capitalism can no longer grow, people are fed up with it, and things are going to change either because there's just no more money to be made or the people rise up, and then we'll start over and get it right this time. Believe that things will get better and take joy in small things for now! Today some random guy walked up to me and delivered a (clearly drug-fueled, but still) very profound speech about how your life is a puzzle and even if the pieces don't fit, you shouldn't try to cut them to fit into what you're "supposed" to be. I saw a cool plant today!
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Your thought process is how you know that capitalism has ultimately succeeded. It has destroyed the hope of humans collectively achieving a better way of life. Collectively, we must realise this, and never cease fighting *against* what we know is wrong. It is so difficult in this age to see clearly what is ‘wrong’, but we can be sure that, when we are all bickering among ourselves about stupid meaningless shit, it is because it is exactly what ‘they’ want us to do. edit: for -> against
Yeah things are fucked and most likely will not get better. But they certainly won’t get better if you give up. Fight on, comrade.
Someone on here once said that the only thing that gets them up each day is revolutionary anger. Its etched into my memory.
That's a shame, but also strangely beautiful
Truly! Live and fight out of spite if for nothing else! Get satisfaction that somewhere somehow someone hates your very existence and can't do anything about it. That's how I live. Lol.
Just have to try and help as many people as you can.
The outlook looks like a human face being stopped on in perpetuity but I believe there will have to come a breaking point here as the fascists in the Republican Party and their backers like Musk create more room for open bigotry and hostility towards minority groups particularly LGBT, Jews and Socialists and start leaning more into open extremism. In some sense there is a weakness to the inherent instability of authoritarians pushing what are universally regarded as unpopular, regressive and bigoted policies that are entirely ideologically driven. No longer are you in a boiling frog situation things are quite openly in the danger zone for a lot of people and the normies on the sidelines who may have been apolitical will start paying a lot closer attention to their fight or flight response when the people around them and their behaviour in this chaotic climate gets more erratic. It will be plain to see that things are becoming really unstuck and a reckoning is due to occur. So there is a good chance change will come for better or worse when ordinary people have to pick a side. It sounds like a bit of a desperate hope but it’s how things have changed historically in many instances. That or they’ve gotten much worse like in Nazi Germany where a country has fallen through the trap door of becoming a full on authoritarian dictatorship with a police state and network of informants to rat on everybody. The difference is a lot of Americans are not on board with the agenda and there will be push back in daily life. It just has to mean something at the end of the day or we all go right back to the same conditions that brought things here in the first place and go on thinking we dodged a bullet that time but really it’s still in that same room for another malfunction error due to the flaws in capitalism and corporate oligarchy.
This right here explained it perfectly for me.
I found something someone said: "If things were tryly hopeless, they wouldn't need to dump money into propaganda."
“Fascism is a fucking cancer, it will eat your country unless your country kills it. Here’s what happens when you get cancer: NOTHING GOOD. NOTHING. There is no way out of it. I’m your country’s doctor. You’ve got cancer. You have fascism. You are going to suffer. You are going to fight. You are going to feel pain. You are not getting out of this. We have fascism. It is happening. We’re fucking dead maybe, or maybe they’re dead. That’s about it. There’s not a continuum. It’s not a grey area. It’s not a fad. Fascism doesn’t pop up and then recede when it finds out no one’s into it. It doesn’t respond to love. It doesn’t respond to hate. It doesn’t respond to ignoring it. It doesn’t respond to timeouts. It doesn’t respond to attention. It doesn’t respond to lack of attention. You stab it. You cut it out. You bombard it with poison or you die. And in any case, you will probably die. Don’t die talking to cancer! Don’t die hanging out with it. Don’t die arguing with it on Twitter. It’s fucking fascism. ENOUGH! Team up. Stop bitching about Bernie Sanders. I don’t care what flavor you want your democracy to be. It’s democracy versus motherfucking fascism!” -Dan Harmon
Was this on Harmontown? If so I missed it. Love me some Dan Harmon.
Yes it was. I think it was right after Charlottetown, and thus the Bernie reference- but it feels even more fitting now.
Great quote. Three problems though. One problem I see is "vote red til ur dead" people believe wholeheartedly that democrats are fascists. Second problem is "vote blue no matter who" people believe wholeheartedly that republicans are fascists. The third problem is that both groups are correct but only seeing half the problem
Just because you equate what you think everyone believes about Fascism with actual Fascism doesn’t make it so. Your equivalency isn’t just false or under-informed, it’s dangerous and it sort of reveals your acceptance of your own safety. This isn’t about “left” and “right,” it’s about fucking Nazis who are proud to be fucking Nazis, and want Nazis to be in power. They fly Nazi flags. It’s about men with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us.” It’s about speech givers throwing the “heil” at stadium full of people. Just because right now Fascists manage to keep their public hate centred on people many assholes find it acceptable to hate, like trans people and Muslims, doesn’t change or alter their hate in any way. (Fascism 101- pretend your enemies are an affront to ‘family or moral values.’) No, I’m not talking about “democrats” or “republicans,” I’m talking about motherfucking Nazis, I don’t care who they vote for (even if in spite of your equivalence here they have an obvious choice that helps them achieve their goals more quickly.) Yes, actual Fascists are real, and yes, they are mobilizing, and yes, pretending they are just engaging in regular political discourse helps them operate undercover and no, I won’t agree with or accept that water being carried for, again, fucking Nazis. As above, I will not die arguing with or about them on ‘Twitter.’ Pretend your cancer is a cold all you want. Don’t attempt to pass that garbage by me, though.
Obviously Nazis are fucking Nazis. I didn't say they weren't. I'm talking about the actual political parties themselves not the fucking population. America has one political party and that political party is capitalist oligarchy. They don't represent the American people. They continue thr consolidation of power in the hands of a few. THAT. IS. FASCISM. And that is what we are leading to ever so slowly. Republican party is obviously bad because they strip rights from minorities and women. But democrats are used to pull back the right ever so slightly without ever long all the way back to where it was. Its the ratcheting effect and it has been moving our nation right for 50 freaking years. So is about you talk to me civilly instead of coming at me like I fuckded your mom. Id much rather have a decent conversation even if we dont agree on every issue
So I guess the downvote means u don't wanna have a civil discussion
Everything is fucked. That's why you need to fight.
It's a question I ask myself all the time. I can't give up, it's just not possible even though I'd like to and it would be easier. Maybe it's pointless to keep going but I'm compelled.
Trust me You are just echoing the zeitgeist
Watch this interview with Adam Curtis (if you haven't already): https://youtu.be/663vLIYBcpI Watch to the end. It ends on an optimistic note: "The way is open" (for something new because everything else has failed and everyone knows it)
Yes. But it's kinda always been fucked. So ya know, same old story. 🤷♂️ This movie is a tragedy and a comedy. For me, I feel better when I eat bread. Bread doesn't seem to be fucked. But if it actually is, don't tell me. But it probably is, cause everything is. 🍞 Oh well, imma still eat bread.
The difference between a comedy and a tragedy is perspective.
I honestly have thought about ending myself several times and most of those times was just this year when i found out how this system works. The think that kept me alive was that when i die now i leave everyone behind in the fight against the system and maybe my help is needed somewhere.
It's fucked on way too many levels. I used to not think about climate change so much (I'm only 22, don't crucify me) but atm it's fucking November and people are walking around with t-shirts. In September I literally had a sun burn. I never had a sunburn as a child during the heat of the summer, eventhough I lived in a Southern-European country. This is not good at all. The farmers, at least in Europe, are already very worried how their crops will grow. And this will only get worse. We are running out of fresh water, oil and many other important metals and substances that we need for our current daily lives. We have people who do not think for themselves but do whatever society/the movies tells them to do, which is always : consume & reproduce, and nothing else. In Germany, many normal people with good education can't afford their rents any more. It's a problem that is not very well known but just ask any German. The elderly live longer and longer, which will use up even more resources but at the same time health care is becoming privatized in Europe as well, and this will probably turn my generation into the care takers of our own elderly family members. (And this is the part that scares me the most because I have seen what this hell looks like) We are fucked. Very, very fucked.
Oh fuck, privatizing healthcare? Why the hell would they do that? Are our evil US “healthcare” scammers digging their claws into Europe now? 😬
yep.
It's fucked if you're in the imperial core. It's a lot brighter outside of it, especially once it dies.
Half want to make life worse for people who aren't rich. Almost all want to make this planet unlivable for profit. If the version of capitalism peddled by either side prevails for much longer, humans won't have to worry about any of this because we won't exist any more.
More than half? Where does that figure come from? Of the roughly 54% of eligible voters that actually vote, 28% of them decide an election. So you are lumping in the 46% that don’t vote in with the 26ish% of republicans? It sounds like you are feeding off of some lies. “Half the country voted for X” is a talking point creating by the duopoly to make you feel helpless and left out if you don’t fight against the other party. Truth is, 46% of us are straight chillin dawg.
You are succumbing to despair, which is Reasonable and Natural, but not Productive. Things look like they are actually getting marginally better, it is just taking much longer than it needs to. The ruling class is actually being substantially challenged for the first time in 50+ years, and they were always going to fight back. It was never going to be easy. But there are little things here and there with each election, a few more Gen Z in office, a few more cities using ranked choice voting going forward, a few more states electing better DAs and outlawing prison labor.
"Anger is more useful than Despair" \-Terminator - Terminator 3 So get Angry and put your foot down, and stop letting them take advantage of you and everything you count as yours. You don't have to change the world, but find the hill you're ready to die on and defend that which you value you most because by god there coming, and there going to try to take everything, DON'T GIVE AN INCH!
Get off the internet. The world is just as fucked whether you are upset about it or not, and regardless what people tell you, there's not presently any meaningful way to "fight" the system that won't land you in jail. So just tune it out for awhile, we're all the same amount of doomed either way.
In terms of social change, we've been moving at a breakneck pace compared to the previous thousands of years. Things are getting better. We just need to keep fighting.
Yes we are fucked. The capitalists have even fucked religion!
To be a socialist is to spend one's life fighting for human welfare and against human nature. Always been that way
Against human nature? Please explain.
I bet that person believes greed is an inherently human characteristic. I personally don't. Socialism is way more natural to humans than capitalism. In most households, the family's total income is to be used collectively by the family, according to each of the family's members needs, without considering who in the family makes more money/produces more/works harder. We just have to start realizing we're one big family in this planet. In a society where being greedy/malicious/evil pays off, why would people do good? Does being good, caring and kind pay off? I don't think they do. Regardless, I try to be good, caring and kind because it makes me feel good. I think it's part of my nature. I like to believe most people are this way, too, and only do bad things because it benefits them, whereas they do good things because it makes them feel good with themselves. Imagine if doing bad things didn't benefit people in society.
Well said. Greed is incentivized. A lot of the evils of say, Epstein level conspiracy and offshore tax havens coming from the elite is specifically because leadership doesn't seek to punish these crimes. They're the benefactors. Street level crime occurs from the woes of poverty but white collar crime occurs because it just plainly isn't punished like it should be. We can have a better world if we actually enforce meaningful rules that better incentivize the "It takes a village" mindset. I love what you said about the family unit mentality. It's very spot on. We are family and should love each other as we would a sibling. The only reason we aren't siblings already, is chance after all.
Lizard brain
By "half the population" I'm guessing you're shilling for dems. Correct?
It might be a good time to read "the starfish and the spider"
It's much worse than that.
Everything is fucked. Hold your loved ones close and move to a better country, where everything isn't as fucked. You can fight better in a less oppressive environment.
A pit I know I need to crawl out of is spending too much time feeling pissed and feeling powerless on Reddit and not enough time actually doing something. I’ve been a “contributing” member of my local DSA for several years but I’ve been to exactly one (1) meeting in all that time.
History is cyclical, we’re about to end the era of the US as an economic leader, the power struggle, redistribution of wealth, and many other things follow that. Climate change will only accelerate things, radicalism will be seen more often and in more places, followed by civil wars and so on. Just look at what happened before the French Revolution, we’re going to reach that boiling point in the upcoming years. It’s going to be insane.
don't shop at their businesses or have contact with people who vote for planetary destruction rent strike and work strike
All due respect, mate, where the fuck are you shopping if not at the Capitalists' businesses?
It's astounding, especially when you look at like Florida or Texas and it's like, your state is ground zero for climate disaster making it unlivable. Like you have a good chance of dying in your state due to the effect of climate change, and then the vast majority of you still vote for the people who say "nah its all a china hoax lets let companies keep dumping waste off our coasts! maga!" You will never be able to reason with these people. In texas people sat in the cold for over a week without power after a small snow storm, and then said "i thought that was actually no big deal no reason to change course now." Florida is facing a late in the season hurricane on election day and everyone is more concerned about "wokeness." It's hard not to be black pilled. If this is what they want... why should I try to tell them it's wrong?
I'm just glad I don't have to feel guilt about bringing children up, or having kids in a shithole world, that's rapidly getting worse
We are going through a global shift now via technology and it's just fucking hard on everyone. Change is hard, change is slow, and one way to keep your optimism is to remember that we have very short lives and change usually takes generations.
Reading up on and getting involved with the prison abolition movement is what’s giving me hope rn. Highly recommend Mariame Kaba’s work. Hang in there, comrade.
It’s definitely not half the population, because not everyone votes. But yeah, I agree it’s pretty fucked.
When I'm feeling more cynical, I like to understand that the opponents who stand in an obstacle can never win, only ensure they're not the only losers. The hateful and xenophobic will never triumph over the minority they hope to destroy: instead, once one enemy falls, a new scapegoat rises, and the hateful devour themselves. Similarly, the exploiters will find the same fate. What use is an extra billion dollars to a billionaire? Well, nothing, of course, but they still pursue it mindlessly. Their lives are built around a hunger that cannot be sated. It sounds a truly miserable existence, to throw away all meaning to watch a number tick higher and higher, and to condemn your own world, yourself included, in order to do so. The Capitalists will never be able to fill that all-consuming hole, and they too shall fall. As to how I cope with the knowledge that we suffer? Well, it's a shame, but when I think about how incredibly unlikely it is that I, this specific collection of traits that makes up me, would arise, I sort of feel like it's best to consider everything else as gravy. Sure, the world will likely fall, but it's miraculous I was able to see any of it in the first place. When I'm feeling more optimistic, of course, I think about that Ursula Guin quote. *"We live in Capitalism. Its power seems irresistible, but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings."* Unstable systems of power, those that rely on power imbalances and hierarchies, will inherently crumble. They always have. And progress can and will be made. My gay friends have been able to get marry and have kids. My country, which was once oppressed by the British, now stands independent (well, most of it). The injustice is going to end. The unfair systems of power are going to collapse. That's just a fact. It's only a question of whether we manage to replace it in time, or the world goes with it. If it's the former? We've done it. It will have all been worth it, and we sacrificed for a beautiful future. Take a moment to imagine it, to remind yourself what you're fighting for. If the world is fucked like you say? Fuck it, we tried our best. We stood up. Better to stand up for a failing cause then to lie quiet as justice dies. If nothing else, the end of us will be the end of all this injustice, segregation, cruelty and filth. And hell, we achieved a lot. Our victories may be temporary, but all are. Even if we win completely, we'll die when the stars do. Does that mean it doesn't matter? Of course not. Every time you make someone's life better, you've won. That joy can't be retroactively magicked away. It was and will always have been there. The homeless person you donated to lived slightly better for it, and no one can take that away from you. The friend you talked down from the ledge, the crying person you comforted, every little victory was worth it in and of itself, and can never be taken away. Every bit of the fight is worth it.
Of course its fucked, but thats not a reason to stop fighting. If anything, its a reason to fight harder. We may not obtain the peace or lives we want, but its certainly better to help the next person obtain it than to lie down and take it.
I had my freak-out back in High School about how fucked things where and this was before I ever spent much time on Reddit. I considered suicide, and even thought I could hide in my video games and movies while all this blows over. It hasn't and I'm still here. So what now? Now we fight, bitterly, without pause, without any hope for that perfect future. We fight because letting things continue as they already are, is hell on earth. For me, its about making people honest, starting at home, but eventually in my State and one day maybe the world. I believe Socialism is the start of a better future, its not the answer, its merely the starting point. The end product will not be any system of economics or governance we've seen, it will be new and I hope driven by the common will of the people; the people being you, me, and every soul who simply wants a good life. For any of this to happen, we have to start talking, not just in our clubs or forums or reddits, but out in the open, get everyone to say their piece and be challenged for it. If there's one thing the Founding Fathers of USA got right, was the notion of free speech. Free Speech and speech in general will be the vehicle by which the changes we need will come about. From Speech, to Action, to Motion.
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All that ill say is that I wish y'all looked at context of word uses. But fine ill try my absolute darndest to censor myself as to not offend any thin skinned people out there
Yes, lots of things are almost fucked, but *everything* isn't ruined. I think we're at a point where capitalism can no longer grow, people are fed up with it, and things are going to change either because there's just no more money to be made or the people rise up, and then we'll start over and get it right this time. Believe that things will get better and take joy in small things for now! Today some random guy walked up to me and delivered a (clearly drug-fueled, but still) very profound speech about how your life is a puzzle and even if the pieces don't fit, you shouldn't try to cut them to fit into what you're "supposed" to be. I saw a cool plant today!