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1 yr. ago

  • you're right, unfortunately, we live in a time when people won't take action until they either experience the consequences personally or they're pushed beyond a breaking point.

    perpetual gradual harm reduction and backsliding is imperceptible and slow enough to be normalized. but sudden changes cannot be ignored and often radicalizes people in response (or at least forces them to 'take sides' in a battle).

    one of the major challenges of liberatory movements is not enough people join the cause and instead wait things out. these so-called centrists and moderates only have this option because they have socioeconomic privilege compared the most oppressed groups.

    therefore we must then consider strategies to capture their support, including shocking their sensibilities with outrage, or even potentially stoking fears that they could be next. "what if they close my alma mater too or what if my kids' college gets shutdown also?" etc etc

  • I have a different view. he had two bad choices available and he chose the worse one.

    he and the establishment Dems (hehem, Biden) as well as turncoats like Lieberman/Sinema/Machin/Fetterman who were inexplicably allowed to caucus with the party) are precisely why we're here today watching the rise of fascism and oligarchy. from failing to seat a supreme court justice under Obama, sabotaging Bernie (twice), fielding awful presidential candidate after candidate, allowing the military to expand endlessly, not codifying Roe (and doing nothing in response to it's overturning), to censoring Al Motherfucking Green...

    the entire "opposition party" looks weak and disorganized and incapable of fighting every time a crisis arises. the party needs more progressive leadership and they need to realize that sometimes it's appropriate to break a few rules and take risks on big power plays. and forward popular plans that will actually energize the base.

    these 'play it safe' supposedly harm reducing tactics are why we're here today. they had 8 years since 2016 to come up with ways to combat trumpism and the best they could do, after flopping on the election and then peacefully handing over power to a sociopath and a nazi billionaire - was... write an op ed in the New York Times.

    I'm done with this group of shit heads. there are better senators who should be in charge. we need people getting mad and breaking shit, not another patronizing speech about having patience until the next midterm.

  • supporting a cause in person shouldn't be underestimated. freedom of assembly is our constitutional right, it is a powerful way to connect with others and sends a message that you won't just hide in your house while our communities are being attacked by the ultra wealthy.

    thank you for having the courage and determination to make the drive and participate by yourself. hope you're able to convince some friends and family to come with you next time there's a chance to stand up and exercise your rights.

  • when entire world economies and hundreds of millions of lives can be destroyed by the childish petty illogical whims of a single man, we need to start banding together to figure out how to stop that man.

    multiple generations of people will lead immensely more brutal, unhappy lives because some fucktard is throwing a tantrum that there might not be enough slaves to toil in his factories and mines someday.

  • i think the commenter is just baffled at how drastically overvalued (over hyped) so many stocks are - a well known problem where speculative over investment can and does distort the whole economy and has power over the whole population. see for example, speculation bubbles like the dotcom overvaluation or subprime mortgages, or Theranos, or Bitcoin, or even how Tesla stock was being traded higher than the next 6-8 major car companies combined.

    in other words, stock prices are a bunch of bullshit.

    stocks arent exactly the same as "money" in the common sense so it confuses people when headlines say money was lost or wiped out. but stocks are similar to money in that they are placeholders for value, however much more susceptible to wild devaluations. because ultimately they're just speculative bets on what something is worth and can fluctuate rapidly, as rapidly and suddenly as human emotions.

  • it's so much more than stocks. stocks are mostly vibes and short term get rich schemes for already wealthy people. they're Pokemon cards for the finance class, creating almost nothing tangibly beneficial to society. hype and FUD in an endless cycle.

    you can't eat stocks. you can't warm your house with stocks. you can't manufacture solar panels with stocks.

    real wealth, the serious fuck you Big Money, depends on the ownership and distribution of real resources: real estate, agricultural land, factories, pipelines, commerical buildings, capital infrastructure. these are what the ultra wealthy buy up during recessions and then charge rents and leases for everyone else to pay, forever. forget about owning land or a home, your kids can't compete with someone paying cash on a 600k house or snatching up entire portfolios of hundreds of rentals in a single purchase.

    bailouts and blank checks given out as PPP loans to "business owners" during Covid redistributed wealth from the taxpayers (government) into the hands of the wealthiest people in the world. they can then convert their Pokemon collections into real wealth generating resources. government bailouts to corporations become an engine for not just making the rich richer but the types of assets they then acquire using that money cements them at the top of the wealth generation food chain forever.

    Trump 2.0 is engineering another massive redistribution, even bigger and more focused on real estate than before. he made his fake reputation on real estate. loyalist oligarchs who bank rolled dark maga will be handsomely rewarded with the newly emptied government office buildings and public lands.

    and your kids and grandkids will be homeless.

  • agree completely. I've been thinking a lot lately about why this simple defiance is so difficult for some people. I figure it's because they fear social consequences (what will people think of me as a rule breaker?!) or they fear economic consequences (I could lose my job and ability to support my family!).

    what's interesting is that the solution to both reasons/excuses is having a strong social support network and solidarity with others who would help you when you stumble. modern individualism and desperation has made people so isolated and fearful of being mis-perceived and has made us less powerful to stand up for what we (collectively) know is the right thing to do.

    if someone in my circle gets fired or shamed because they said "No" to a fascist, theyre going to get a lot of help if they need it. and i make sure to tell them that.

  • the Cold War was a free printing money machine for 50 years. creating a new one against China makes sense if you're an oligarch whose wealth rides upon govt contracts and endless military industrial expansionism.

    and it kinda explains why Putin is manipulating Trump to make him believe they'll choose the US over China in a game of saber rattling. Russia is positioning itself to be the tie-breaker so it can play both sides against one another in lucrative energy/arms deals. maybe they'll even get some real estate out of it.

  • the 2016 and 2020 coverage of Bernie Sanders and their pushing of centrist anti-progressive agendas in the editorials was enough for me to unsubscribe forever. after what they've done in recent years, there's no way I'll ever trust them to represent working class interests.

    here's an example just a couple weeks ago of them laundering Republican party talking points into man on the street style "people are saying" interviews about how 'aktually I'm black and I'm glad DEI is being ended.' receipts showing stealth edits made to cover their tracks in the linked article.