Why does it feel that the evil sides globally are winning. Even evil people are winning. Why?
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We need more violent good guys
Capitalism is dying because of unchecked greed and people are turning to socialism. The wealthy choose fascism. Until we have class unity. Once we bring out the guillotines, They will retreat to spending the rest of their lives in the bunkers they have built with their stolen wealth.
people are turning to socialism
Feels like they’re turning more to fascism
I also feel like there is always a constant portion of people who worship power and think they can squeeze a decent life out of siding with the powerful. So if there ever is any war, it definitely won’t be a clear cut class war. And the billionaires will do everything in their power to make sure the war happens within the classes first.
I think they worship opulence rather than power honestly. While it’s true that wealth and power are basically the same thing, many people you bump into in America don’t understand or believe that is the case.
i don’t think it’s so simple as they worship power. i think there’s a very strong inbuilt desire to belong to an “in-group” when you feel insecure and vulnerable
and if unchecked neoliberal capitalism has done anything over the last half century, it’s made average americans feel insecure. financially and emotionally
so sort of the same reason there’s race-based prison gangs is the same reason fascism tends to flare up when the system is going through severe stress. just like when your immune system is weak and the herpes virus manages to break out. we always have fascism possible yet most of the time the immune system is strong enough.
2008 + covid + ukraine + more have left us vulnerable
Fair enough, I agree it is common to go for more authoritative figures during times of stress. Which also creates incentive for authoritative figures to keep the stress factors going. But I think there is also some innate desire in humans to worship powerful figures.
“Once we bring out the guillotines”
Depends where you live.
I hear the hardcore revolutionary libs in the US have found a much more powerful way to defeat fascism… buy nothing for 1 day.The US has a really serious problem on their hands which is that their trade war won’t achieve anything. The US doesn’t make anything, it famously doesn’t make anything, the only reason that they trade with Canada is because Canada is close. Even then it’s mostly just food stuffs which Canada can make themselves.
But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place
I want to agree with you but there are plenty of American products I simply cannot purchase here in Norway. Often there isn’t even an equivalent. I’m not saying what they make is good, but there are things made in USA. Walking in to a Norwegian grocery store the first 20 times had me like, ok but where is like the MAIN, BIG grocery store?
Really?
When Canadians were going on about boycotting American things there was a question on here, or Reddit I can’t remember which, that was asking other people from other countries if they would do the same.
I remember thinking I can’t think of a single American product that’s even available for purchase for me to boycott. Other than quite possibly Jack Daniels but I already don’t buy that anyway.
I cannot think of any food items, clothing, tech products, or materials that originate in the USA that I would normally buy even semi-regularly.
A surplus of food is grown in the US. When you buy anything processed, it’s extremely hard to tell where all the ingredients came from. “Product of Mexico” could’ve been made with x from portugal, y from california.
Also there’s a good chance some of your gas comes from the states too, as they have been an exporter for a decade thanks to fracking.
Thats what concerns me the most. When the US realizes we dont NEED to trade with them, will they try to take our resources with force instead? This is why we need to build strong international relationships built around the US and their dwindling influence.
If anyone in the Trump administration had a brain they would already realize that they have nothing to offer internationally. It’s not exactly a secret.
Trump thinks that if he puts a tariff on imports from, say China, suddenly a bunch of factories will open up in America outputting the same cheap tat that China used to produce. But of course it doesn’t work like that. Attempting to take resources by force won’t help matters because America’s problem is not actually a lack of resources. It’s a lack of infrastructure and a talent pool so shallow that the ground is barely wet.
We’ve seen this with the chip factories that TSMC is trying to set up.
This is not the goal. Their only goal is wealth and power, just like Putin.
The Christian/Corporate Fascist Theocracies method to achieve wealth and power is to bankrupt the government, privatise all public services and land, remove the threat of democracy, and plunge the people back into feudalism… all while lining their pockets, exactly like the Russian oligarchs did post-USSR.
They do not give two shits about bringing jobs back to America or any of the other virtues they vacuously signal. They’re the kind of people who outsourced everything to China begin with.
But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place
I don’t think it’s fair to say that America makes nothing. A big part of that trade deficit (certainly with Canada) is down to the relative size of the consumer markets - America has a population of over 330 million people to Canada’s 40 million so of course America will be a net importer of Canadian goods.
And who you going to put on the guillotines? You own! People are getting so blind with anger
Speak for yourself
The rebels in Myanmar are winning.
There’s a new miracle drug for addictions.
That’s all I can think of.
One aspect is that mass media is overall owned by those people and is propaganda. If you don’t have ways of seeing what’s happening on the ground, you miss a lot of the good news. Even your twitter/bs/mastodon feeds won’t give you the full story, you have to (where possible) get involved in a real community organization.
Because now it is affecting you personally. Before it was in the middle east or some random aftican nation where people dont speak english, and media make sure it is not in the front page. Reading some history of any conflict will show the root starting a while back but no one cares.
The common version of the phrase…
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
The actual version of the phrase…
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
A favourite of mine on that theme is from Boondock Saints (1999)
Now we must all fear evil men.
But there is another kind of evil.
Which we must fear. Most.
And that is the indifference of good men.I should re-watch this again. That a good movie.
Don’t. I did and it ruined it…
You’re not my mom! 😭
What the fuck were you gonna do, laugh the last three to death, Funny-Man?
Yeah I remember this just being ok. It had that 90s Tarantino-ish style, some decent scenes but overall not super memorable.
I think it’s fine if you’re okay with the call from God part of it
Watch* the documentary on it instead.
Overnight. Peak 2000’s fashion and the director is over the top unlikable.
I still love that movie IDC what anyone says lol
Unpopular opinion, but in the west particularly, folk have mistaken writing on the internet for action.
Tweeting resistance rather than performing it.
A lapse into inaction framed as radical rest and self care.
Online they are fierce warriors of justice, offline they go to work in Starbucks, use their apple devices to talk to their families and enjoy the treadmill of streaming services.
And this isn’t to blame them. This is the point of consumerist capitalism. To trap you in a gilded cage.
This is why I’ve stopped reading much of the content I had been reading before. Unless an article is about what someone is doing to stop what is happening, what is the point in reading it? I don’t care so much about the bad, rather in how the rest of us are preventing it.
For all the people complaining, I haven’t seen many talking about what steps they are taking to change the momentum. I get why I’ve may not want to announce what protests they are attending, but I haven’t noticed much new talk about mutual aid or volunteering efforts. I know the recent political climate globally is motivating me to be involved in both.
I’m waiting to hear back in a volunteer position helping local wildlife, and once I get that schedule worked out, I’ve already started looking into local food aid opportunities as well.
If our society is leaving gaps unfilled, as you said, it’s up to us to fill them ourselves before we all fall through.
I used to go to protests, from USA to Australia to NZ and UK… I’m not going to another protest until we start occupying gated communities. I’m sick of standing around looking pathetic occupying some sidewalk and politely leaving when told to by police. And to think that’s the best the so-called “leftists” can do, then I remember to back when things were bad - how the police and FBI would raid groups, murder them, drop bombs on them, and assassinate their leadership - and realize that leftism was defeated long ago. I want to keep it peaceful, and start picketing in places that matter like outside mansions and gated communities. Just stand outside the homes of billionaires to tell them we know where they live, we out number them, I think would be enough to shake things up a bit because they’re cowards too. However, in my heartest of hearts, I believe anything short of an armed overthrow of one dozen billionaires will never be enough. Fuck tinkering and pushing the needle slightly. Loud and armed leftist groups are needed now more than ever and there’s zero of them to be found.
Exactly I budget and limit my time online to get specific kinds of information.
What kinds of information?
Where and when. I will make time to be there.
It’s time for good people to do some association too.
That would make sense except when you realize this is new media and is exactly how the right is warping minds. Elon didn’t buy Twitter because he was bored. We cannot concede all social media to the right and until there is a platform that can’t be bought the people won’t ever have a voice.
Well observed. People pour a lot of energy into political actions. The question is what that energy gets used on.
I think the issue in America, is that the Constitution only addressed political power, but failed to account for fiscal strength. Money is inherently a thing that manipulates the fates of individuals, companies, and nations alike. By not setting down rules, limitations, and expectations regarding economics, the Founding Fathers allowed a key form of power go unaddressed.
The vast majority of Project 2025’s major backers are wealthy people, who have far beyond what any normal person can ever hope to possess. This imbalance means that workers have to sacrifice much time, money, and energy to be barely heard on a single issue, while a rich person can just hire experts to massage every aspect of their many messages and to deliver it everywhere with a mighty voice.
IMO, we will need a Constitution v2.0 that fixes not only assorted political flaws like the voting system, but also prevents wealth from being a microphone that only a few can afford.
The constitution isn’t some Holy Document that has the power to shape reality. You can write in as many legal clauses as you like, but so long as you’re allowing a small class of oligarchs to control capital, they will use that power to influence policy.
I don’t have the source, but I am almost certain the constitution, per the founders, was meant to be rewritten every few years…or at least edited.
It’s not some accident or overlook that a bunch of slavers made a pact to violently enforce their privilege. That was always the point.
Another constitution sounds good until you realize it’s going to be same kind of people making it. And the state will still be an involuntary system of violent coercion.
Because good natured people don’t want conflict so they avoid it.
Bad natured people actively seek conflict and engage with it whenever possible.
Evil never sleeps. Peace does.
- Rampant unchecked capitalism of recent decades has created large wealth disparities akin to the earlier decades of the last century. It is no longer possible for one person in a household with a regular job to support a modest lifestyle for their family. All benefits especially medical for the whole family, being completely intertwined with the current job reduces mobility and further feeds into the wealth gap by keeping wages low. It’s easier to blame the powerless for this state of affairs than the powerful because the powerless cannot object.
- The fear of the other has been accentuated by media and misinformation. Targeted algorithms feeding most of the information that is consumed has created echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and fears. The propaganda state has never had it easier.
- The large military and police has given never before control to the state about what is allowed to be protested. Combined with the day to day struggles, it’s extremely hard to come together for what is right. The ruling class is able to maintain the fine balance between absolute misery and general dissatisfaction that it is still better to struggle through a thankless job than to say fuck it. Failures of recent large uprisings like Middle East and Hong Kong have reinforced the futility of standing up against the rulers.
- Evil has many heads and there’s always one head that you can find alignment with. It could be the deregulation of businesses, lower taxes, anti abortion, racism, but as long as there’s one thing you can align on, the general sense of powerlessness makes it easier to overlook the other heads.
- The line between evil and good has never been murkier, especially with globalization. If you focus on the betterment of your community, it would be considered good, but what if it leads to suffering of others outside the community. Is it also evil? What is community - is it the people in your neighborhood, your religion, your country, fellow business owners? The fuzzier these lines are, the harder it is to untangle them.
I felt so evil this morning that I drove my car. Fuck you Nature, I’m taking climate back
The internet. It led to the following:
- Good social change occurred very rapidly from the 1990s-2010s, causing highly motivated pushback from those who didn’t like the changes
- Rising wealth inequality caused by tech billionaires increased incentives and capability for a small number of extremely wealthy people to seize control of media and political power centers
- Foreign dictator governments became more able to more easily spread pro-dictator propaganda
- Media became more decentralized, leading to some good things but also the hijacking of our psychology to spread fear and disgust for the sake of grabbing attention
I would just like to push back and say that the Internet was an open public project, and it has helped countless people across the world. Every single problematic tech that people are pointing to at the moment are closed-source commercial projects.
That is Capitalism at work.
Because evil is loud and self-important, and people doing good have learned to be mycelial, underground, quietly building the new world in the shell of the old.
I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.
Evil isn’t “winning” as much as it is “on top.” If you look around, talk to your neighbours and such, you’ll see that good and reasonable people are everywhere; good is the overwhelming majority.
That being said, positions of power are chased and coveted by those obsessed with power, and those aren’t good people. Good people need to take charge, but it’s — in a way — against their nature to do so.
good is the overwhelming majority.
Let the overwhelming centrist majority in 1930’s Germany tell you otherwise. People who peacefully ignore evil, even if it’s preserve their own safety, are not good at heart. People just don’t want trouble or disturbance, that’s why people are naturally kind from day to day. But ignoring the piles of bodies while saying “no politics at the dinner table” is literally how the holocaust happened - the majority failed to act.
1930’s Germany at least had the excuse of limited information/education, all they had was radio from which only Hitler’s voice was present. 100 years later with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, ignorance to politics is a choice. Might I say an evil one, all things considered.
I agree, people understimate the amount of assholes in the world
That’s not a very generous interpretation of people… Though I can’t exactly contradict you.
I’ve been lied to, gaslit, and blamed by my self-proclaimed “centrist” family my whole life, been called alarmist my whole life when i’ve been pointing at these very same things coming from a mile away. There are tons of others that did the same, at least alt-right MAGA freaks give you the time of day to argue. Centrists though? They’re the first to say they “dont really care much about politics” yet hold their heads high with masturbatory egotism and confidently proclaim “both sides are wrong, I disagree with extremists of any kind.” They’re betting their childrens lives and future on their own malicious ignorance, like that joke with the priest who denies life saving medication because “Don’t worry, God will take care of me,” but replace God with the Markets and you have the modern day peasant that’ll rat you out to soldiers for “heresy” and have you hung, disembowled, or burned at the stake. A person of self-interest is not a person of reason.
“Centrist” is often a word for unscrupulous fence-sitter… It’s a shame you’ve experienced that. I despise self-proclaimed centrists as much as the next guy.
Do you think they are the majority, though? Maybe it’s my echo-chambers, but that doesn’t feel like it’s the case. I’m not American, mind you.
Pretty much my entire family fit under this category, plus at least 75% of the people i’ve met in my entire life, including schoolmates and work colleagues. Of the 25% that are barely conscious, 80% of them are (somehow and unfortunately) MAGA while 20% have moved into a tiny home or cabin somewhere to grow their own food. The MAGA crowd are at least looking around going “wtf, workers need to seize the means of production” meanwhile the centrist liberals are the ones going “things would’ve been better with Hillary or Kamala.”
MAGA, those voting for a privatizing fascist cutting taxes for the rich working with the richest people in the world to further the goals of the owner-class, are looking around going “wtf, workers need to seize the means of production?” Are you sure?
I can’t tell if you’re joking…
Yeah, those MAGA. The ones you typically see on youtube videos or twitter aren’t your average MAGA supporter, if you actually talk to one and ask them what they want, they start going off on things that even the most far-left Star Trek commie eutopianist could agree with, only to right at the end blame “the libtards!” or “DEI” or “immigrants” etc. They’re uneducated, they’re seeing things aren’t good and rightfully so, but they’re tricked into scapegoating before coming to the right conclusions.
Centrists? They say “You shouldn’t pay attention to these things.”
I was with you until that last statement, I haven’t met a single centrist that supported (voted for) Hillary or Kamala
I haven’t met a single centrist that
supported(votedfor) Hillary or Kamalalet alone attended a protest or demonstration.
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]
-MLK Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail
This depresses me beyond belief.
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
I’ve heard this before, but I had no idea it came from the Hitchhiker’s Guide… Cool :D
Because the return of massive wealth disparity - similar to having kings again - has allowed those with money and power to bend the world in the direction of some form of dictatorship, whether it be fascism, oligarchy, whatever…. The New Kings are carving up society and want to increase control and profit, and an authoritarian governance is the way to do it. Just like how they treat their corporations. They are dictators, the little people are disposable production units to feed their machine.
How did we overthrow Kings again? Something about us becoming ahem “Enlightened” during some sort of era or period? What can we learn from the successes and failures? How did Europeans get ideas of freedom, autonomy, equality, and question of authority from when all they knew about was Kings and Divine Right? Did they perhaps go to some kind of ahem New World with a matchcoat and musket to live and trade amongst the natives for 200 years?! Perhaps there was some sort of ahem Indiginous Critique on European Culture that sorta blew the minds of the French, English, and Dutch alike? Perhaps they wrote some plays about this! That they could disobey or :gasps: impeach their leaders? That pursuasion and reason might be more important? Perhaps over some coffee and pipe tobacco? Oh right, next thing you’d think i’d say is they didn’t trade or so much as look at silver? How they MUST have had a “Market” how else could goods or heirlooms possibly trade hands? Certainly not gifts, quests, or gambling! Jeez, I wonder if we still have something to learn from these ideas that were just too darn complicated for Ben Franklin and Jean Jacque Rousseau!
What you’re saying is true, but we must also remember that construction is always slower than destruction. What this means is that slow, steady improvements are not newsworthy - and thus gets no airtime - compared to destruction which happens over night and is thus newsworthy.
So there is also a lot of slow, steady improvements going on in the world that we never hear about. There’s not enough of it, I don’t think, to offset the big evils of greed, climate change, and fake news. But it is there, and we must not forget it.
