Fundamentalism is certainly a contributing factor, but there are others. Conservatives have been working to cut back on education since the early 80's. Removing critical thinking training was one of the objectives.. Conservative policies are unpopular and are often supported with misrepresentations and outright lies. To succeed, they need a public without the knowledge or skills to realize their arguments are invalid. Unfortunately, they have gone a long way toward accomplishing that.
If people weren't stupid they would not put up with having the highest medical costs in the world while achieving the lowest quality of care in the first world. Health Insurance Companies exist because too many people haven't figured out that their purpose is to limit, or prevent, actual health care.
I don't have a general answer for you, but I did want to say that you should not rule out depression as a major component of what's going on with you. I have a genetically-based cyclic depression that's been with me more than four decades. Despite that, I have managed to remain employed. It has sometimes been very difficult, but it is possible to remain somewhat functional even when severely depressed. I have had to change jobs a few times because of it, but I've been able to make a steady living.
Depression can leave you with very little energy or volition, but very little is different from none. The worse it gets, the more you have to focus on your most critical necessities, which is not pleasant, but it can keep you going. Small victories like that can actually help counteract it. I think a lot of depression is "living to fight another day".
If you do have depression, there are many things you can try. Therapy, medication, exercise, meditation, mindfullness, support groups, volunteering, hobbies, etc. Start by talking with a doctor.
The big problem is that those billions of dollars in savings would cost billions of dollars in profits for energy companies. As long as Citizens United remains in place, we are unlikely to see any legislation to encourage people to switch.
I don't think we're going to gain any traction until we override Citizens United and make bribing public officials illegal again. That would allow us to take back the legislative process and begin passing bills that the super rich are not going to like.
I agree with you that Citizens United has almost completely corrupted our political system, but the problem with corporate governance goes back a lot further. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read that the landmark case was against Henry Ford as the CEO of Ford Motor Company.
You are absolutely right. Our current laws (and precedents) require CEOs and Directors to produce the best results possible for their shareholders. They can and have been sued for failing to do that. It effectively means they have to screw their employees and customers.
If corporations are people, then nearly all of them are sociopaths. The law requires it. (So it isn't surprising that the people who prove most effective at running them lean strongly in that direction as well.)
I'm not sure how far along it is, but the EU has been working on a change to their corporate laws that would require corporations to balance the good of their shareholders against other factors, such as their employees, their customers, and the public at large. Among other things, it would make them liable for how they deal, or fail to deal, with their companies' effects on climate change.
The EU has been steadily passing laws that actually help its citizens and provide protection against corporations. Those of us elsewhere in the world are also benefiting from their efforts. Being required to do the right thing in Europe often makes it less expensive to do it everywhere, than to make special efforts to exploit the areas where that is still allowed. The EU laws also encourage people elsewhere to push for better protections of their own.
Education is not going to solve our immediate problems, but it is essential to solving our long-term problems. For the short-term, organizing means finding ways that large number of people can apply pressure. Shifting our spending habits may be the most effective. The super wealthy and their corporations still rely on all of us handing over our money to them in exchange for good or services. Working to change local and state-level voting patterns is also viable, since a lot of the enablers are politicians who want to keep their jobs.
Nothing we do right now is going to stop Trump from hurting a lot of people, although we may be able to limit the damage. The early stage of most fascist takeovers counts on broad public support. There are already enough of us to make that harder for them. And there will be a lot more of us fairly soon, once Trump's supporters begin to suffer directly because of his policies.
Even when there is nothing immediate to do, we need to keep looking for opportunities. There will be some. And the better advantage we take of them, the less damage will be done. And the sooner we can remove the oligarchs from power.
I loved A New Hope and thought The Empire Strikes Back was brilliant. I never recovered from the Muppets in the opening act of Return of the Jedi. None of the movies since then have gotten as high on the scale as "good". The series have been a mixed bag, but none of them have had the grandeur of the first two movies.
Curious Canid @ Curious_Canid @lemmy.ca Posts 9Comments 627Joined 2 yr. ago
I wish I could upvote this more than once.