(TikTok screencap)

  • thearch@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    peaceful enjoyment is a luxury apparently only afforded to the people actively ruining it for everyone else.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    24 hours ago

    At this point it’s a clear problem of human bias. We love our instincts so much that when we have sufficient power, we’ll assure that people never challenge them, even when the offices we hold require reason contrary to those instincts.

    The whole bit about bullshit jobs serves as an example, because our upper management desire to hold court and have courtiers and garden hermits buzzing about them like components of an orrery (I’m teaching my spellchecker words today).

    In the media industry the process of crunching developers to make deadlines (even though it kills productivity and slows the rate of progress) is another example, and yet all the AAA game development companies do it… or are doing it so long as they exist. Our private equity firms are now doing to the big ones what was once done to Toys 'r Us, leaving a sinkhole of debt and bankruptcy where there was once a reputable company.

    Our inability to see our community past our top fifty Facebook friends (or fellow villagers) prevents us from thinking in terms of cooperating with society, rather we deign ourselves part of the true Americans (or Belgians or Maoists or whatever), and so we fail to recognize personal greed as a mental disorder, rather a moral failing.

    In a Star Trek society, someone who hoarded liquidatable assets would be regarded similar to someone who filled their house with junk (and hopefully not as they are abused on Bravo), we’d intervene, put them in a rehab center for a year, where they learn to exist in the comfort of minimalism. But in our own world, extremely wealthy people are regarded as a a higher strata of person, given power and authority to command PMCs, and eventually swarm-armies of killer robots managed by AI.

    Currently, our tolerance of human billionaires is killing us, and it poses a global catastrophic risk not just of the human species but of 90%+ of all species on the planet.

    • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      we’d intervene

      That’s the problem, we won’t. There is too much now that needs to be done, and your neighbors don’t care. Try telling your neighbor not to use a dirty 2-stroke gas lawnmower, or weed killer on a residential law, they’ll hate you, won’t understand what you’re talking about, and think that you are stupid. Everything then becomes a state intervention with police, courts, laws, jails.

    • bluecat_OwO@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      you should don a hoodie and start something like fsociety, I am ready to lay my life bare for your cause

          • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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            12 hours ago

            Did you enjoy it? I remember quite liking it when it came out, but now I’m finding it hard to rewatch.

            It doesn’t have the near-infinite rewatchability of a Silicon Valley let’s say.

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s a paradox. The people who would use such wealth for good almost never become billionaires in the first place. It takes a significant amount of ruthlessness. No one becomes a billionaire without exploitation. And there are a select few who actually follow through on giving up their fortunes (while still alive, I consider the “giving pledge” upon death to be null and void).

    • That Weird Vegan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I just saw a story about Woz who gave up his apple wealth to fund museums and schools. He probably would have been a billionaire if he hadn’t. But he said that he values more than just his bank account.

      • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Exactly, great example! He could definitely have been a billionaire if he wanted to, but he’s just not that kind of person. Mad respect.

    • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      There are a few billionaires that inherited their wealth through birth or got through a divorce usually aren’t as insane.

    • plyth@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      They mirror the general population. If people would make sure to buy from good people and to vote for good people, good people would be in power.

      Of course people will be good if that is what is rewarded in society. But in general people just do what everybody else does.

        • plyth@feddit.org
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          1 day ago

          Relying on good people is more than meritocracy. There would be ethical considerations to fully balance the accumulation of power. So it’s even more difficult.

          • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            With the first comment, you seem to be making out as if it’s a choice we made, to have the worst of humanity rule over us.

            The reality is, the worst of humanity forced themselves on us and we’ve had little to no choice over the matter. If we voted for good people and only bought from good people, the bad people would simply neutralise them.

            Billionaires do NOT reflect the general population. They manipulate the general population into their preferred image which, I can agree, might look similar.

            • plyth@feddit.org
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              1 day ago

              It’s still a choice.

              The bad people cannot neutralise everybody.

              I don’t fully understand the last paragraph. What is the preferred image?

              • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                21 hours ago

                The bad people cannot neutralise everybody.

                They don’t need to, only to get enough apathetic or foolish people to do it for them. They also don’t neutralize by killing, but by making sure they never hold power or influence

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I think about this every… single… day.

    Why don’t we all just collectively say “no”? What the fuck would these 70–80-year old dick-tators do then?! NOTHING.

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      We’re not unified and we’re incapable to be that organized. The billionaires are rich enough to buy the important infuencial people and to manipulate the masses with propaganda. It’s hard to fight that, as we can see now.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It’s easier to organize a small group of people around a shared common interest than it is to organize everyone else around opposing that interest. Everyone else still has their own individual interests but they don’t all align.

        • angrystego@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Yes, I agree. However, it’s getting harder to do even that because of disinfo campains aimed to make common interests appear controversial.

          • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            That’s one reason. I think there are many more. For one thing, we no longer live in communities. Our sense of belonging, solidarity, and social responsibility is largely gone. We’re now living in a sort of every man for himself type of situation. There are still some groups but they’re political or business based rather than community based.

      • phonics@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        i dont think were incapable. but to be fair i havent put that much thought into it. but i think there is a way we can at least checkmate them into being good.

        for instance. lets say there is some FOSS that is better than any other paid/sub software like spotify. how would it work? i do not know. but lets just say, its possible.

        people will use it, and spotify will dry up unless they change their model. they could try to buy up the foss, but we can just say no.

        maybe a system where the community buy land through taxes. slowly putting it back in the hands of the people/local council. the rich are squeezing us out, but we can squeeze back.

        there could be a marketing campaign similar to ‘diamonds are a girls best friend’ but more inline with ‘community money is worth more than gold’ so that we just stop selling to the rich. ingrain it in the people.

        have people learn that billionaires are actually mentally ill and we should feel sorry for them and offer them therapeutic support to help them with their addiction. make them feel small like they are.

        sometimes people go out to clean up the forest, or comb the beaches for trash and plastic as a way to give back to the community and help the world. similarly we could be using that same kind of effort healing the world from capitalism.

        so not really incapable. but there needs to be a focused effort in specific directions.

        i feel what is holding us back mostly is infighting(which is both an ancient practice of humanity as well as a consistent marketing campaign by the wealthy). once we can get past that, the world is our oyster.

        • angrystego@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          I agree on all points. I believe in the possibility of a positive change, because, after all, we’ve seen it in the past. I just seem to be more pessimistic about the easiness of avoiding infighting. I feel like the bad guys have much better technology and know-how to control the general population than ever before, and so the fight for positive change is getting harder.

        • cabb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          21 hours ago

          Spotify is a poor example since you need to pay royalties to the artists (can’t be free of cost). Operating systems, an office suite, Adobe replacements, game engines, CAD software and more could all in theory be FOSS-first

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      A large percentage of people wouldnt join. And what would the rich do? I imagine that they’d start by hunting down and killing the leaders of that movement. And their families. Society wont protect us. They’ll frame you for “terrorism” or sex crimes, or murder. They’ll hire witnesses and plant guns in your bag-- whatever they need to do.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        If money wasn’t a thing, we could just say “no”, I suppose. If we all had a spine and didn’t bend to the almighty dollar. Would be nice if we could. We are enslaved by money. Forced to kill each other so someone else can get more power.

  • SugarCatDestroyer@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The essence of wealth is to take it from the poor and become even richer by leaving the poor in poverty. Alas, this is reality. The rich are rich because they own someone else’s. Just my opinion.

  • arin@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Pedo island reoccurring patrons were all politically connected. Trump now trying to release the guilty child trafficking member from prison

  • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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    1 day ago

    For me that’s not even the weird part, I have no grand hopes that human goodness could overcome their nature, but the really weird part to me is that we have all of the knowledge on how to fix this and despite that half of everyone everywhere has somehow been convinced that a democratic state which taxes the rich won’t work.

    • xiwi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      Being a psychopatic evil piece if shit is not some innate trait of human nature, they’re sick and twisted creatures

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Not judging your sacrifice, but how would you cut off your 2nd arm? The 1st one I get, but unless you set up a buzzsaw… nevermind that’s probably how.

  • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    So, I’m a terrible person, but im a fun terrible person.

    I propose making me queen of the world, here’s why:

    I woukd fet rid of all the dumb limits

    Unless they’re funny

    Id try to stop bad stuff

    Then id kill myself, because regicide is on my bucket list