This could be this decade’s Citizen’s United. Neo-liberalism especially among the court has been whittling away at the economy of regular people and the ability of the government to regulate business since at least the 70’s. Privatization never stopped or even abated, regulatory capture has been common, and businesses themselves write the bills for the congresspeople whose campaign they bankrolled to pass quid pro quo. We already have a severe lack of regulation and now we’re going to have no regulation. We just handed the entire country over to a class of gangsters whose morals are exactly the same as Donald Trump’s but wield a much greater degree of violence domestically and worldwide.
The Luddites should have been dismantling capitalists if they wanted to solve their problem.
The GDP is completely irrelevant to the vast majority of people. The difference between perception of economic barometers like this one is that people used to have more faith in capitalism and it has become so painfully clear that this faith is unwarranted. In the past, people in desperate financial situations could easily delude themselves that they were temporarily embarassed while everyone else in the same situation was probably just lazy. Now people are starting to realize the system is causing it and are much less willing to eat the table scraps thrown to them during times of “economic prosperity.”
Whenever I hear this I always feel it takes a lot more guts to understand why not to but continue to choose to live anyway. Death is a comforting certainty while living is the way we know it to be. Hope you and I will be able to feel differently and be more comfotable with the idea of continuing through this world.
I’m intending to build a more frequently enjoyable life. I may have to do some surgery before I’ll be able to forget things in the moment though.
This is actually my primary motivation. I have some morbid curiosity about what we’re going to do to ourselves next.
I’m here too and in my case I’m damn sure it’s something other than cowardice. I know I’d sacrifice myself in less than a second given the opportunity and I even know how I would, but I haven’t. There’s a reason we’re still around even if we don’t know it consciously.
Thanks for the reminder. I’ll make sure they know my body belongs in the trash can (in a few decades).
I’ll be getting a dog soon. Thanks for this, it’s too easy to forget how cool dogs are when you don’t have one.
I feel you on this. I often feel I’m living for pure spite.
I’ve always felt that my note would make anyone who read it glad that they no longer have to deal with someone as indignant and sanctimonious as I am. The fact that most would react to need this way is part of my reasoning against continuing in this world, but in spite of the failings of my species I like other people regardless whether they’re safe or not. I’d like to see what happens for my personal interest, but I completely understand anyone who wouldn’t be able to tolerate this life at all.
I’m not sure whether I’m too stupid one way or the other, but at least I know I’m stupid.
Cheers, mate.
Choosing the default is still a choice. Why is the default better than the alternative in your opinion? Please don’t answer that question or even consider it unless you already have an answer. I would rather not have to ask this myself to be honest.
I have been reflecting recently that I was not learning the same lessons about the Holocaust as some of my classmates. I got the impression nothing like it should ever be allowed again and we should do everything we can to stop it when we see the signs. I assumed everyone got that impression but I’m realizing that was not the case.
Tabletop in person. I miss it. Secondly, in-person co-op. These are two mediums are being extinguished because of how difficult it is to profit from humans relating to one another in person and giving each other things for free.
Songbirds fascinate me. I hope we can decode some crow oral history one day.
Criticism of Capitalism is big business. Being against big business is big business. Laying out an actual plan to abolish the ability for massive organizations to leech off of the majority of people is much more difficult to establish as a stable market commodity.
Rats are known to be more intelligent than us. When it comes to problem solving in as short a time as possible they win. Humans are not the samrtest animals, we are the animals capable of learning through abstract means. Our brains can encode lessons and decode them with nothing more than language. That’s what separates us. We thankfully have less need of intelligence than other animals. Despite appearances, we are the wisest animals rather than the smartest.
I would like to see this poll again with “no one” as an option. No one won anything at this debate. Anyone pleased by Trump’s performance would have been pleased no matter what, and everyone else is horrified.