• @UnderpantsWeevil
    0•1 month ago

    the real reason why american has gone down the shitter, ironically, is the existence of political parties.

    I don’t know if I’m going to pin a failing economic model on the existence of organized political groups. That’s a hair’s breath shy of blaming poor economic policies on the existence of governments.

    If we weren’t so fucking laser focused on calling people idiots for no reason

    Its rarely for no reason. Mystifying the political process by asserting you have to be a Smartie to understand it is a method of Other-ing and alienating people from any kind of activism or intervention. Its a deliberate rhetorical technique intended to push people out of government.

    we just fucking eat it up like pigs

    We eat it up like pigs when the denouncement is aimed at the opposition. We recoil in offense when its aimed at us.

    One of the big hopes of social media was to better organize and empower large groups of people by rapidly getting them up to speed on how political systems and effective interventions work. But Web2 and Web3 centralization of media, combined with a bunch of COINTELPRO style harassment of larger outside groups, has destroyed the foundations that local communities tried to build up in the 90s/00s.

    This gets us back to big corporate interests simply owning everything. If you need to suck Elon’s cock in order to get any kind of positive media exposure on Twitter, the only political organizers with any effective purchase are going to be the current batch of white nationalists and tech bro sychophants Elon loves. Same with Facebook/Instagram/Threads and Google search results and Microsoft’s pet AI project ChatGPT.

    If it looks like we’re eating like pigs, it might be because all we’re ever fed is slop.

    • KillingTimeItselfEnglish
      1•1 month ago

      I don’t know if I’m going to pin a failing economic model on the existence of organized political groups. That’s a hair’s breath shy of blaming poor economic policies on the existence of governments.

      let’s have a think on it, why would the economic model be failing? Because it’s profitable for the people with the money, and those in government. Why would the government be busy not preventing this? Why would companies be pushing for this? And why wouldn’t the general public be pushing AGAINST this? Because we’re too busy complaining about how trump deregulated the economy, making things harder, as well as the other side complaining about how joe biden fucked up the economy by [insert argument here]

      Its rarely for no reason. Mystifying the political process by asserting you have to be a Smartie to understand it is a method of Other-ing and alienating people from any kind of activism or intervention. Its a deliberate rhetorical technique intended to push people out of government.

      exactly, and it’s also why we keep fucking falling for it, because we’re idiots that can’t see the hook through the bait. You think the parties are productive when the vast majority of their time is spent on completely irrelevant shit? No, they’re not. That’s not why they do it, they do it because if they do, then they don’t have to fucking do anything, because we’ll all be preoccupied bombing abortion centers or churches or whatever the fuck we’re supposed to be doing.

      We eat it up like pigs when the denouncement is aimed at the opposition. We recoil in offense when its aimed at us.

      One of the big hopes of social media was to better organize and empower large groups of people by rapidly getting them up to speed on how political systems and effective interventions work. But Web2 and Web3 centralization of media, combined with a bunch of COINTELPRO style harassment of larger outside groups, has destroyed the foundations that local communities tried to build up in the 90s/00s.

      This gets us back to big corporate interests simply owning everything. If you need to suck Elon’s cock in order to get any kind of positive media exposure on Twitter, the only political organizers with any effective purchase are going to be the current batch of white nationalists and tech bro sychophants Elon loves. Same with Facebook/Instagram/Threads and Google search results and Microsoft’s pet AI project ChatGPT.

      If it looks like we’re eating like pigs, it might be because all we’re ever fed is slop.

      pretty much this exactly.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
        1•1 month ago

        why would the economic model be failing? Because it’s profitable for the people with the money, and those in government.

        The capitalist economic model is failing because of the law of diminishing returns coming into contradiction with the demand for higher next quarter profits. Individual sectors of the economy with the most leverage can raise their rents, but only at the expense of other areas of the economy. So Boeing can sell shittier airplanes by purging its staff of skilled engineers, but this creates downturns in neighborhoods where those engineers live. And it also scares people away from flying commercial airlines.

        This was immediately profitable for Boeing (10 years ago). But its been awful for Boeing right now. And even worse for a government that needs Boeing’s airplanes to maintain both commercial and military aviation roles. Folks with money in Boeing stock also aren’t thrilled with this turn.

        Why would the government be busy not preventing this?

        Because government officials surrendered their role in manufacturing and regulating aircrafts to Boeing itself, on the theory that Boeing management would not behave shortsightedly. Oops!

        Now the engineers who are blowing the whistle are showing up in court rooms (when they aren’t killing themselves in the middle of a deposition) and government agencies are scrambling to figure out how to do jobs they haven’t had to do in decades. But its a big ship and slow to turn.

        we’re idiots that can’t see the hook through the bait

        We’re blind men feeling at an elephant. Its a big problem and when one guy’s got the tail and another’s touching the tusk, it may not seem like the same thing to everyone.

        That’s not because we’re all stupid. Its because the problem is big and the solution is hard. But the process to solving the problem requires teamwork. That’s where Americans tend to suck hardest.

        Because we all assume the other guy is stupid, I describe the tusk and you describe the tail, and we both accuse one another of not knowing what we’re touching.

        • KillingTimeItselfEnglish
          2•1 month ago

          The capitalist economic model is failing because of the law of diminishing returns coming into contradiction with the demand for higher next quarter profits. Individual sectors of the economy with the most leverage can raise their rents, but only at the expense of other areas of the economy. So Boeing can sell shittier airplanes by purging its staff of skilled engineers, but this creates downturns in neighborhoods where those engineers live. And it also scares people away from flying commercial airlines.

          This was immediately profitable for Boeing (10 years ago). But its been awful for Boeing right now. And even worse for a government that needs Boeing’s airplanes to maintain both commercial and military aviation roles. Folks with money in Boeing stock also aren’t thrilled with this turn.

          and squeezing as much money out the people of a community is useful to those who have the money to then buy up that community. Gentrification. This all inevitably leads to economic collapse being profitable to rich people, and those who enable them. I.E. corporations and the government.

          Because government officials surrendered their role in manufacturing and regulating aircrafts to Boeing itself, on the theory that Boeing management would not behave shortsightedly. Oops!

          Now the engineers who are blowing the whistle are showing up in court rooms (when they aren’t killing themselves in the middle of a deposition) and government agencies are scrambling to figure out how to do jobs they haven’t had to do in decades. But its a big ship and slow to turn.

          probably also related to lobbying money, i’m almost certain that boeing lobbied for this, so that they could make more money, possibly even gave money directly to politicians. Boeing is probably in the middle of lobbying right now even.

          That’s not because we’re all stupid. Its because the problem is big and the solution is hard. But the process to solving the problem requires teamwork. That’s where Americans tend to suck hardest.

          it’s probably because we allow corporations to lobby the government and decide shit for us instead of doing it ourselves. But that’s another problem.

          Because we all assume the other guy is stupid, I describe the tusk and you describe the tail, and we both accuse one another of not knowing what we’re touching.

          you’re assuming that i’m calling anyone specifically stupid, i’m not. My point is literally that WE, us, me and you, are sitting here, yelling about the technicalities about the actual problems, which we both agree exist. Rather than simply doing something about it. I assume that’s also your point however. In which case, stalemate?

          • @UnderpantsWeevil
            0•1 month ago

            Rather than simply doing something about it.

            Do you have any recommendations?

            • KillingTimeItselfEnglish
              1•1 month ago

              yeah idk, maybe get people to jointly hate the government, and how aggressively they overstep on our rights.

              We just passed a funding bill for three different countries, two of which are actively at war. There’s absolutely the possibility that we can do this but for basic economic shit.

              Everybody hates tax, find a way that cleans it up such that both republicans and democrats like it. I’ve proposed moving income tax from the individual to the company, which means individuals no longer have to deal with income tax (though they still technically pay it) and that also makes it much easier for the IRS to go after income tax fraud.

              • @UnderpantsWeevil
                1•1 month ago

                maybe get people to jointly hate the government, and how aggressively they overstep on our rights.

                The Nine Scariest Words In The English Language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

                ~ Ronald Raygun

                We just passed a funding bill for three different countries, two of which are actively at war. There’s absolutely the possibility that we can do this but for basic economic shit.

                We passed a Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the tune of $1.2T in federal spending less than three years ago. But the money is primarily focused on propping up private businesses friendly to the goals of the current administration.

                Everybody hates tax

                If you want to live in a country that doesn’t have any taxes, try North Korea. 😆

                But the preponderance of wealth makes the tax burden very uneven. We also spend absurd amounts on a military that’s proven itself ineffectual and unreliable and a transportation system that’s expensive and wasteful. This while draining money away from education, health care, and pensions. We’ve practically zeroed out our spending on public housing.

                Folks don’t mind kicking in to make their communities grow. But I’m living on a street that hasn’t been repaved in over 10 years, using utilities that haven’t been upgraded in at least 20, and I’m being told my property taxes are going up because my house’s market rate keeps climbing. Where is my money going? That’s the thing that annoys me more than anything.

                I’ve proposed moving income tax from the individual to the company

                Sure, fine, cool. But where will it go? To my local school system? To some border prison for migrants? To the newest payload of a bomb detonated over Rafa?

                • KillingTimeItselfEnglish
                  1•1 month ago

                  The Nine Scariest Words In The English Language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

                  ~ Ronald Raygun

                  notoriously right wing governmental figure, and actor with no political background*

                  We passed a Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the tune of $1.2T in federal spending less than three years ago. But the money is primarily focused on propping up private businesses friendly to the goals of the current administration.

                  that’s a governmental problem, and also a corpo influence in government problem. I don’t know what you want me to do about it. A lot of that funding went to critical infrastructure, roads, water utility, electric utility, internet, etc. A lot of those could be passing through private hands, but that’s just the state of the market.

                  If you want to live in a country that doesn’t have any taxes, try North Korea. 😆

                  i mean yeah, you could also just not exist. That’s also a solution to taxes, great blanket statement there.

                  But the preponderance of wealth makes the tax burden very uneven. We also spend absurd amounts on a military that’s proven itself ineffectual and unreliable and a transportation system that’s expensive and wasteful. This while draining money away from education, health care, and pensions. We’ve practically zeroed out our spending on public housing.

                  i mean yeah, that would have been why i proposed pushing it onto corpos, They control most of the money flow anyway.

                  Folks don’t mind kicking in to make their communities grow. But I’m living on a street that hasn’t been repaved in over 10 years, using utilities that haven’t been upgraded in at least 20, and I’m being told my property taxes are going up because my house’s market rate keeps climbing. Where is my money going? That’s the thing that annoys me more than anything.

                  i mean yeah, that’s fair. That’s certainly a valid complaint, but don’t come swining at me, go swinging at your local representatives.

                  Sure, fine, cool. But where will it go? To my local school system? To some border prison for migrants? To the newest payload of a bomb detonated over Rafa?

                  it’s the exact same, except that you don’t fucking file it. Because the entity you work for does now. It’s not like companies control where their taxes go, unless they commit tax fraud, which is a big no no.