Cryophilia @ Cryophilia @lemmy.world

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25

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5,114

Joined

2 yr. ago

Ok there's a point when you get so obsessed about shoving colonialism into EVERY conversation it just gets funny. It's like you're a fresh faced college kid who just learned a New Thing and it blew your mind so now you have to talk about it all the time.

I disagree. I think it IS a generational thing.

how idiotic can a person be?

People are always surprised at the answer to this question. People are really, really, really, ridiculously stupid.

Now here's the really fun question: why are you only just now hearing about this?

I agree with the point you're making about moneyed interests influencing the system we live in. All I take issue with is the philosophical idea that every bad thing that happens was explicitly intended to happen by some evil "them".

Sometimes that's true (prison industrial complex, for example) but more often it's not. Often it's bad actors undermining a system set up to do good, or taking advantage of a system that arose organically without anyone designing it.

Basically, I think the phrase "the purpose of a system is what it does" is both objectively wrong in almost every case, and a dangerous thought-terminating philosophy. Any time I see it, I call it out. If you can be convinced that "they" are intentionally harming you through some nebulous, nefarious means...it's only a couple more steps to convince you who "they" are. Jews, immigrants, "terrorists".

I disagree slightly (maybe pedantically) about our political system. That was explicitly designed by men we can name. It has since been influenced by other forces, and much of its original intent has been subverted. But it didn't spring into being all by itself.

Economics I agree. While there are and have been forces attempting to guide and influence the economy, it's always been generally out of the control of any person or group of people, short of command economies.

Both cases put the lie to the phrase, "the purpose of a system is what it does".

First, I would SLEEP SO FUCKING MUCH

You act like them being politicians gives you the right to spread propaganda.

If you can get pissed off enough to vote for literal fucking Nazis, you deserve the attacks.

Kind of, yeah. I don't think the analogy holds up though. Half the population doesn't think neolibs are fake news.

Well, this is a bit of a tangent, but the effectiveness of calling out disinformation actually correlates inversely with effort imo. It's the typical sealion asymmetrical warfare thing. It's a lot easier to say a lie than it is to disprove one. Mocking and insulting a disinfo statement is far more effective. Parity of effort.

In terms of "the purpose of a system is what it does", I'm not quite sure how to start. Believing such a statement requires a level of disassociation with reality that makes intelligible discussion difficult. You're flatly disallowing the entire possibility of someone setting up a system with a purpose, and the system failing to achieve that purpose.

The dangerous part of the theory though, is the implied malevolent intent. It's like the evil inverse of religious "everything happens for a reason". If a scientist comes up with a new strain of drought-resistant corn, and the corn develops a previously unknown mutation and crops fail and millions starve, well clearly that evil scientist intended to kill millions of innocent people. It's absurd.

No one likes neoliberals

51% of voters consistently vote for Democrats.

Barack fucking OBAMA was a neoliberal.

If you think neolibs are unpopular, you're in quite a bubble.

If "did not vote" was a candidate, it would have won every presidential election in modern history.

Centrists are scum, but the truly disengaged "oh I don't care about politics" people are much worse imo.

...which is the true goal of these "hello there, fellow leftist" bastards who exclusively attack Democrats.

Calling out dangerously foolish rhetoric is a civic duty.

And as I FUCKING EXPLAINED, it does not work like that in the US.

Primary elections never stopped being a thing

The purpose of a system is what it does

There's a lot of stupid shit in philosophy, but this is one of the dumber beliefs.

Maybe if you read more than literally the first 3 fucking words of my post, you'd realize how utterly stupid you're sounding right now.