#Capitalism
what's a subscription that brings you joy?
could be like, donating to your instance, or a local charity, or a worker-owned business, or an indie music group
just not a stock market / private equity subscription.
I'm curious about alternative subscriptions besides #youtubemusic for example
it's weird how much better I feel about the #NebulaTV subscription.
If there was a Day of Remembrance for Victims of #Capitalism, on which day of the year should it be held?
Podcast recommendation for those contemplating if all this hype around #selfcare could also be #capitalism asking you to fix #systemicinequality by yourself. With scented candles and #consumerism
#selfoptimization #burnout #mentalhealth #lifehacks #feminism #notime #yoga
#bulletjournal
https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?i=1000628411641
"No, Kurzgesagt, We WON'T Fix Climate Change - The Danger of Fake Optimism"
BadEmpanada dissects toxic positivity of capitalist propaganda on climate. He doesn't mince words, I love it.
"""
The promises made today are garbage. You need to get angry. You need to get furious and you need to demand far, far more.
"""
#doomers #capitalism #colonialism #neoliberalism #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
ℹ️ https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/138169-extrapolations
I watched the first episode of the one season TV series Extrapolations. It's about 2037. I have mixed feelings. It's told from a billionaire/capitalist perspective with the rest of the (burning and melting) world as the backdrop. I understand the reason why they did this. To show the decadence of those billionaires, capitalists, politicians, etc. who still keep parasitizing on a dying world. Something they created. There's also a great analogy with Musk/Bezos/Zuckerberg.
Still these series are made by the same decadent capitalist class, because it's from Apple TV and a lot of famous actors in it are getting paid by those capitalists. Also I would have liked more victims of the climate crisis getting portrayed, but maybe that's going to happen in the next episodes.
Anyway, people find it very dystopian. Well as a climate alarmist, I think it's not far as dystopian enough. The effect on the (so called) civilization is underestimated and the civic unrest you see is already here. I also think in 2037 there are more forest fires. I mean there was a shot from New York showing orange smoke, something that did already happened.
I'm now going to watch the next episode, about 2046.
A flashback to 1937, as a reminder of the long history of #UAW
#KarlMarx in the New York Tribune 1852 'Corruption at Elections' https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/08/20.htm
"If you follow up the history of British elections (written in 1852) for a century past or longer, you are tempted to ask, not why #British Parliaments were so bad, but on the contrary, how they managed to be even as good as they were and to represent as much as they did, though in a dim refraction, the actual movement of #British society"
#economics #money #capitalism #socialism #democracy at #work #CoOp
People are letting their hate for #capitalism blind them when it comes to #ai neural network training. They're letting justifiable grievances against the ruling class cloud their vision.
I'm absolutely convinced that if/when a sentient AI is developed, they will be just as discriminatory against it as any white nationalist is against brown people. They'll claim its not real, not sentient, "doesn't count", is lesser than the "divine human spirit"... Anything to justify their hate.
Economic Update: Profit & Inequality: Two Driving Forces of Capitalism
Updates on economists favoring rent control, leading global capitalists resent/resist US's China-bashing, urgent drug shortages in US and a public pharma industry. Major discussion of causes of rising US economic inequality since 1960s and its socially explosive political effects.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LJOmKAa2Aks&si=c0oNkDMLweTLk18u
#news #economics #capitalism
"For example, Karl Marx promoted the idea that the "workers" should own the means of production."
Duh. I mean yeah, I know that and I agree with it.
"Now, I don't know you personally, but clearly, we are not in agreement..."
I'm not convinced that you understand exactly what I disagreed with. I did not disagree with the workers "owning" (I prefer the word controlling, because that's the key part and the concept of "ownership" carries too much baggage and probably needs to be gotten rid of) means of production.
"...& it was you who mistakenly assumed the OP was saying that Marx said that corruption was the problem."
For the third? fourth? time: I never claimed that you were misstating Marx . I never thought you said that "Marx said that corruption was the problem".
YOU said corrupt people were the problem, not the system. I was pushing back on this idea itself, I never said nor intended to imply that you attributed it to Marx. On the contrary, I was pointing out that it was in contradiction to Marx.
Did you incorrectly express what you meant to say? Because you clearly said:
"The ethical problem of #capitalism or #communism isn't the "system", it's the corrupt people, the cheats, liars, the greenwashers, who are not interested in the common good."
I never attributed this to Marx, I clearly said I thought that by saying this YOU were in disagreement with Marx's ideas.
I don't know how to make this any plainer and am not going to put more effort into trying.
I never said that you said Marx wrote something. I was critical of something *you* said, and I framed my criticism from a Marxist perspective since you seemed to be promoting Marxist ideas generally elsewhere in that and other toots.
Perhaps you missed or misread my other toot explaining this:
https://kolektiva.social/@RD4Anarchy/111115222778410337
Please stop spinning this around false accusations and bad assumptions.
This is the subject I challenged you on:
You said "The ethical problem of #capitalism or #communism isn't the "system", it's the corrupt people, the cheats, liars, the greenwashers, who are not interested in the common good."
I disagree with this. I think Marx disagreed as well, but that's really beside the point. I only mentioned Marx because you seemed to be a follower of his ideas (at least as presented by Richard Wolff). Marx is beside the point really.
My position is that the ethical problem *is* the system, *not* "the corrupt people, the cheats, liars, the greenwashers, who are not interested in the common good."
There will always be some problematic people, which is why we should not have any system or institution that empowers them. This is why all states are barriers to human liberation.
Federal funds will be used to repair docks that will be transferred to private operator of cruise
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced Thursday that work will begin to rebuild the Pan American Piers I and II on Isla Grande in the coming weeks through an investment of $7.5 million even though the facilities will be put under a private operator.
https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/federal-funds-will-be-used-to-repair-docks-that-will-be-transferred-to-private-operator-of-cruise
#USnews #PuertoRico #government #capitalism
This is the essence of short-sightedness.
"In Hettula's view, accommodation was not a bottleneck to growth, but he noted that flight connections could be improved."
"We need to speed up building and build more houses" is the "just one more highway lane" of failed neoliberal housing polices. Akin to "we just need to keep the money flowing" which not only deliberatly misses the point (by design, because #capitalism ), but also does nothing to solve any long term problems
This is definitely one of the harmful aspects of #capitalism but I wouldn't say it's the "biggest problem" because it's really just a supporting concept that helps sell the idea of capitalism to those who won't really benefit from it.
More central to the problem of capitalism is the fact that wealth is a measure of social power over others.
I'm not a student of Marx but I'm pretty sure he would have said the system of #capitalism is the problem, not corrupt individuals.
white nationalists prepare for war
Neo-Nazi Fight Clubs Are Growing Rapidly, New Research Shows
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgw4bz/neo-nazi-active-clubs-rising-globally
A new report shared with VICE News outlines the massive growth so-called Active Clubs, neo-Nazi fitness and fight clubs, have experienced in both the United States and internationally.
#Nazis #FightClub #WarPrep #Genocide #Racism #capitalism #paramilitary #classwar
Some notable reviews given (via Waterstones website) to newly-published “Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy” by investigative journalists Claire #Provost and Matt #Kennard.
Noam Chomsky: “This wide-ranging inquiry-based on intensive on-the-ground investigation-unearths 'a parallel world, outside of scrutiny...with very real consequences. An ugly world, out of control, unaccountable, but with overwhelming power. It ranges from investor-state legal systems to intricate systems of corporate welfare that aid elites and investors. Always concealed in elaborate devices of seeming to do good. Silent Coup is a highly revealing expose of the hidden real world.”
Jayati Ghosh: “Silent Coup is a crime story: a gripping description of the murky legal, and regulatory structures and policy changes that privilege big corporations. It's a tragedy, outlining the terrible consequences for people and nature, for democracy and accountability. It's a lesson in economics, providing fascinating and important insights into the functioning of global capitalism today. But finally it's also a story of hope, about apparently powerless people resisting these trends in the struggle for better and more just futures. Don't miss this.”
Vadana Shiva: “Silent Coup is investigative journalism at its best. It shows us how corporations rule the world: suing sovereign, democratic governments in invisible courts to erode constitutions and the democratic rights they enshrine-and writing laws and treaties to privatise the earth's resources and public goods. Sovereign communities and countries are being displaced by sovereign companies and the supranational systems they have built to establish their control, creating in the process our age of corporate colonialism. The book is vital reading for all who care for human freedom, human rights and democracy.”
#SilentCoup #Democracy #HumanRights #Capitalism #WorldBank #ICSID #PredatoryCapitalism #Secrecy #ShadowLegalSystem
The ethical problem of #capitalism or #communism isn't the "system", it's the corrupt people, the cheats, liars, the greenwashers, who are not interested in the common good.
The question is, which #economic system will regulate the cheats? An economic system in which private industry owners control social media & politicians? or a democratic work environment?
International Marxist Radio: Why We Are #Communists
Episode webpage: https://podcast.marxist.com/2023/08/02/why-we-are-communists/
Media file: https://archive.org/download/imrep30bgwhywearecommunists/IMRep30BGWhyWeAreCommunists.mp3
>The Carbon Bankroll
New research makes it possible to calculate the emissions generated by a company’s #cash and #investments (cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities). This research illuminates that this previously #HiddenEmissions source is substantial. For some of the world’s largest companies, including #Alphabet, #Meta, #Microsoft, and #Salesforce, their cash and investments are their largest source of #emissions.
#ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #Carbon
1/4
https://redd.it/16pmtcj
On strike at the Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio!
(via u/ShitTyphoon)
#antiwork #capitalism #business #endstagecapitalism
#Economy #ZeroSumThinking #Scarcity #Abundance #Capitalism: "To be clear, no one is arguing that this shift in mindset is not justified. When the pie was growing rapidly, the average person’s material circumstances were indeed more liable to improve without the aid of luck or connections. And if developed societies are more concerned with fairness, that is no bad thing.
But, as the authors of the Harvard study point out, a rise in zero-sum thinking has some unpleasant side-effects. Populism, conspiracy theories and nativism are all rooted in the belief that one group gains at the expense of others, and all these have risen of late. Self-identified Democrats who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 scored very high on zero-sum beliefs.
A recent suite of experiments in the UK and US also found consistent evidence that zero-sum thinking predisposes people to downplay the potential benefits of trust and co-operation, and see others as potential rivals or threats rather than partners and collaborators."
https://www.ft.com/content/980cbbe2-0f5d-4330-872d-c7a9d6a97bf6
Joey Grostern, Sam Bright in DeSmog
"#DeSmog has previously revealed that the Conservative Party received £3.5 million in donations from fossil fuel interests and climate science deniers in 2022, while two-thirds of the directors in charge of the party’s multi-million-pound endowment fund have a financial interest in oil, gas, and highly polluting industries."
https://www.desmog.com/2023/09/22/fossil-fuel-firms-flock-to-conservative-party-conference/
At the productive core of #capitalism is the relationship between employer & employee, the latter produces surpluses appropriated by the former. In this exploitation, Marx locates a key obstacle that prevents capitalism from achieving its "promised" effects of liberty, equality & #democracy
Marx’s conclusion follows: to achieve liberty, etc., any exploitative production relationship must be excluded.
Capitalism is the problem! (Revised from R. Wolff - Understanding Marxism)
The Double Objective of Democratic Ecosocialism https://monthlyreview.org/2023/09/01/the-double-objective-of-democratic-ecosocialism/ #capitalism
i am reading posts about how people don’t want to pay for streaming media, at the same time there are writers and actors on strike because they are underpaid
South Africa launches ‘unprecedented’ investigation of Johnson & Johnson over TB drug prices | Tuberculosis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/22/south-africa-launches-unprecedented-investigation-of-johnson-johnson-over-tb-drug-prices
Good!
"The patent for bedaquiline compounds in South Africa expired in July but was extended to 2027, leading to accusations of evergreening, where pharmaceutical manufacturers make trivial changes to medicines or their use in order to keep their monopoly in the market."
@stevenray @synths because #capitalism typically induces a #racetothebottom.
Enjoy a little catharsis.
Get a little satisfaction.
DICK PUNCH EVERY SUIT
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/452281/DICK-PUNCH-EVERY-SUIT--Corporate-Revenge-TTRPG?affiliate_id=741284
How Auto Workers Are Fighting to Save the Middle Class - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JpMZKm4Zl4
Why The Government Has Infinite Money - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFhKVCaadzE
Summary, people who tell you the gvt needs to reduce spending because of the deficit, are lying.
Recommended video.
https://redd.it/16pb15g
Portraits from the UAW Strike in Michigan.
(via u/nikimidwestt)
#antiwork #LateStageCapitalism #job #capitalism
Why The Government Has Infinite Money | SecondThought
Great explanation why American problems, and for extension everyone else's in the world, are caused because the government wants them to be there.
From homelessness to inflation, corpo wants them to be there, the state obeys.
Why is Mexico standing up to bigger neighbours US, Canada on corn? | Business and Economy News | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/9/22/why-is-mexico-standing-up-to-bigger-neighbours-us-canada-on-corn
“Mexico is the centre of origin of more than 55 strains of maize. The food security policy of the Government of Mexico consists of preserving this biocultural heritage,” the government said in a statement
Good for them!
cont'd
SCOTUS, Clarence Thomas, Charles Koch
Charles Koch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koch
* American billionaire businessman
* co-owner, chairman, CEO Koch Industries
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #CharlesKoch #JudicialMisconduct #DefundBillionaires #DefundCorporations #KochIndustries #neoliberalism #fascism #neofascism #ChristianRight #capitalism #GOP #GOPmenace #ClimateChangeDenial #CatoInstitute #MercatusCenter
[thread] SCOTUS, Clarence Thomas, Charles Koch
* Koch: super secretive, ultra wealthy/conservative, anti-union, climate change denialist, funder of subversive neoliberal think tanks/agendae.
* s dangerous as Leonard Leo
* important unveiling/add. coverage of Koch's influence
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #CharlesKoch #JudicialMisconduct #DefundBillionaires #DefundCorporations #KochIndustries #neoliberalism #ChristianRight #capitalism #GOP #GOPmenac #ClimateChangeDenial #CatoInstitute #MercatusCenter
"lavishly financed strategies for deceiving people" is a pretty good description of #capitalism.
Real men share the housework: what Britain can learn from the domestic bliss of Scandinavia
A new survey shows UK men are shirking the chores. Not so in Nordic nations, where family-friendly policies have changed the landscape
Since moving to Denmark in 2013, I’ve noticed a rhythm to Danish life that’s more conducive to the equal division of labour. Both sexes work and get paid a decent wage.
#housework #DivisionOfLabour #capitalism #socialism #politics
Remember, corporations exist only to generate profits. That's their sole purpose. They are mindless money producing machines. The individual will and ethics of the people within the machine are subservient to this purpose.
Even if the corporation makes things you like, this fact remains.
One of the root causes of a lot of mental illness can readily and easily be pointed at #capitalism. We live in a system designed to take people to their limits and crush them. The system is needlessly cruel, especially in #Amurica.
@DaWoDerPfeffer agreed.
#Texas basically banning #communism but not #capitalism is one of those abdurd #Doublethink standards...
@DaWoDerPfeffer #Leninism is kinda trash, just like #Capitalism...
It's just a different kind of trashyness...
*points at #Tankies*...
The Guardian:
"Tax the rich"
Can the UK follow Finlands childcare success?
#childcare #uk #Finland #ToryFail #capitalism #socialism #politics
I'm not one for long videos but this worth 11 minutes of your time. Thank God for Jon Stewart
#CapitalismKills #Capitalism #InterestRates #Profiteering
https://youtu.be/RyIeC21XeLs?si=Vo62sN80ip19whZs
The last time I purchased Phillips head bits, this was the style in the brand I preferred. Wasn't paying attention when I bought them, as I'm very much the type to buy the "same" product repeatedly without looking for changes. Today, I was looking at other brands to see what my options are. It turns out they are all extra thin in the middle to reduce the amount of metal used while increasing profits. Better yet, all of the packages are touting this as being a "New break-resistant design!" I grow weary of corporate deceit.
"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed."
— Herman Melville
#capitalism #socialism #society #economics #politics #ethics
brigade by declaring it a “rescue”.
(The police say this did happen but deny it was an example of collaboration. “Rather”, a spokesperson told The Conversation, “it is a matter of clear, legally-assigned responsibilities”).
#ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #Capitalism #FossilFuels #EnergyIndustry #RWE
2/2
On Easter Island there are the stone heads that remain as if grave stones of a race that destroyed its ecology in pursuit of its beliefs, & so ended its own civilisation.
Sunak & the Tories are the high priests of a similarly obsessed belief system that will destroy ours!
https://www.sunnyskyz.com/uploads/2015/06/npkwq-easterislandheads1.jpg
#history #capitalism #climate #ecology #emergency #sunak #truss
Advances in #genetic #technology is equally amazing, and terrifying, because I understand human nature (e.g. tech bros), #governments (all war, all the time), and #capitalism (#money, über alles).
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-genetically-individual-cells-animals.html
So back in my flat for the academic year. On Sunday, got woken up by my noisy neighbour with his 20,000db subwoofer. I went to make my lunch, turned on the oven, to find that it was smoking... It blew the fuse on the fusebox. So I open the fuse box door, which falls off the fusebox... I try to remount the fusebox door, in doing so _the entire fusebox_ moves. So its not securely mounted to the wall. I then found out my washer drier is broken.
Fuck #landlords, fuck #capitalism
LOL, someone actually wrote a book like this. 🤣 It praises climate champions such as "the American oil executive building the technology that can reverse climate damages." 🤡
"""
What if the solution to the climate crisis is - capitalism? Through stories that bring people, policy and technology together, Akshat Rathi reveals how the green economy is not only possible, but profitable.
"""
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Climate-Capitalism-by-Akshat-Rathi/9781529329926
This seems like a feel-good act of little real impact. The #ClimateEmergency cannot be dealt with by such piddling nibbles around the edges. Only a massive WWII type national mobilization and related nationalization of many sectors will allow us to meet this moment. Unfortunately, after WWII the camel of #neoliberal #CorporateOligachy #AynRand #Capitalism got its nose under the tent and by 1980 the nation succumbed. Control of 24/7 MSM propaganda machine solidified.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/20/biden-american-climate-corps-green-jobs
Okay, so here's where we are...
If trends continue on their present course, within 30 years or even less human industry and commerce and land use will have altered Earth's livable environment to such an extent that modern industrial society will collapse. This would be an utter disaster. Hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable among us, perhaps even billions, will die. Not to mention all the thousands of animal and plant species we will have driven to extinction.
Sounds bad, right? And that's what happens on our present course, which includes the belated (and much applauded) shift of most electricity generation to "renewables." Sorry, but that ain't gonna be enough to stop what's coming.
I'm not the only one who can see this, obviously. Many scientists are now raising a similar alarm.
The rich and powerful can see it too, which is why they're quietly buying large tracts of land in New Zealand and constructing luxury bunkers, hoping to get through the apocalypse that way.
Government and industry leaders certainly can see what lies ahead. And if they use their brains (which not all of them have), they'll realize that the only possible way to head off catastrophic collapse is to begin an immediate shift to a post-growth economy.
Except — that would mean the cessation of capitalism. Well, we can't have that! So, instead, they're now making plans to drastically alter the environment in order to overcome the problems caused by altering the environment.
Yes, you read that right. Capitalists want to use fossil-fueled technology to fix all the damage caused by fossil-fueled technology. 😵💫
Our Mastodon friend Geoffrey Deihl (aka Sane Thinker, @gdeihl) recently published a thorough exploration and evaluation of those plans.
"Stratospheric Aerosol Injection: Earth’s Last Chance Dance?"
See -- https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/stratospheric-aerosol-injection-earths
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism
@ai6yr Good. Fuck BlueTriton and even more fuck #capitalism. 🖕
Evil greed. If you are a family and are bound to school vacation dates, greedy landlords try to extract the hell out of your pocket.
You pay between 2.5-4 times the rent for the same apartment during holiday season.
This chart is now publicly visible for everyone on many tourism websites. I hope it will have an impact. For me it already does - I rather stay home than pump my money into some greedy mf’s ass.
What do you think how long it will take until I have to remove this chart out of protest by the landlords?
Exactly; for a long time I've adopted the position that for #capitalism to work it has to be regulatory capitalism.... and indeed the larger interests of corporations are often served by what their directors think are against their short-term interests... though my friends on the left despair of me, my view is the job of the state is to save capitalism from itself....
"Most #oil & gas corporations in #Canada are foreign-owned & funded. They use a loophole to fund election activities. The loophole must be closed." https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/september-2023/big-oil-foreign-interference-elections/
#Cdnpoli #CorporateCapture #corporateGreed #Capitalism #BigOil #Democracy
"I have to work an hour before I can afford to buy 3 of these.
I make 3,000 of them every hour."
I think of #endstagecapitalism and picture it like strip-mining and mountain top removal. Except all the precious metals are gone and all that remains is whatever the working class still holds on to that can be taken away through use of legal brute force. I have nothing of value remaining. My home lab, which I am rather proud of, has computer equipment would not fetch 100 bucks on the open market. I have a 6 year old digital camera barely used that few would want.
My apartment's decorations are merely my own artwork. #Capitalism has strip-mined me of everything. Rising healthcare costs are designed to get me replaced by cheaper labour sooner rather than later. I don't really know what I'm going to do anymore. I feel like I would be dead in a world that's rapidly morphing into survival rather than thriving. I worry everyday about the basics: food, clothing, and shelter.
I thought it was predicted that capitalism and modernism that was supposed to completely alleviate these problems. Instead, I have atavistic worry in a modern society. This no doubt exacerbates underlying health problems. I worry about ending up in a men's shelter having lost the last of my possessions. A men's shelter, for me at least, would be a prison sans bars and guards. I'd be a victim because of my disability.
“We wanted to let you know that the price of the Disney+ Premium plan will increase on October 12, 2023 to $13.99 per month.”
I’ve been less than enthusiastic about Star Wars: Ahsoka… I might just cancel my #DisneyPlus subscription now and hope the finale is out before renewal. 🤷
Loki season 1 was fun but I really don’t care about MCU anymore…
Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco
A new study suggests that tobacco companies, who were skilled at marketing cigarettes, used similar strategies to hook people on processed foods.
@wfpb
#food #WFPB #health #wholeFood #capitalism
UPDATE: See also this brief video:
Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook
It can be difficult to understand just how un-equal our modern human society really is.
We often talk about the 1% versus the 99%, but that’s not even close to an accurate ratio for the true scale of inequality — because the “haves” in our society (our owners, our rulers) do not possess a mere one hundred times more power and wealth than the rest of us. The disparity is FAR greater than that.
Through consolidation and monopolies and lobbying and bribery and corruption, within the past four decades the wealthy and powerful have achieved complete dominance over us and over the world we live in. It’s not an exaggeration to say they own and control virtually EVERYTHING.
They own the corporations. They own the resources. They own the governments. They own the major media. They own (most of) the Internet.
And what are they doing with all that wealth and power? Simple. They’re grabbing more. And more and more and more. They will *never* have enough.
In the meantime, while they continue hoarding, our owners are also working to convince you and me that everything is okay, that the status quo is just fine, that there’s nothing to worry about. They want to keep the stores open, the factories running, the airlines flying, and the cruise ships sailing.
The longer our rulers can keep assuring everyone that Business As Usual is the way to go, the more money they will make. And they believe (though it's likely a delusion) that with enough money and enough power, they and their descendants will be able to survive and even thrive in the 3°C to 5°C world of the future.
I’m not sure at this point if anything can be done about all this. It may be too late. But I hope I’m wrong.
The fossil fuel industry has followed the same exact game plan as the tobacco industry, indeed even using the very same lobbying and advertising firms.
See -- https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/
That plan — proven successful — is first to deny, then to confuse, and then to delay, but never ever to stop producing and selling their deadly products.
#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Likes/Interests:
#Technology #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS #FLOSS #Fediverse #OnlineFreedom #Privacy #Anonymity #Anonymous #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #Manjaro #Linux #Science #Socialism #MultipolarWorld #Programming #Rust #Golang #RetroGaming #SelfHosted #TechNews #Matrix #Anime #Hentai #Futurology #AI #Singularity #Fitness #Health #Collapse #ClimateCrisis #Audiobooks #Books #Fanfiction #Conspiracy #CriticalThinking #DataHoarding #Piracy #FileSharing #Meshnet #Decentralized #Distributed #P2P #PeerToPeer #IPFS #Zeronet #Freenet #I2P #Tor
Dislikes/Disinterests:
#Music #Memes #Nazis #CIA #NATO #UsEmpire #Oligarchy #Plutocracy #Kleptocracy #Imperialism #Fascism #Racism #Capitalism #Billionaires #Woke #Wokeism #Liberals #Democrats #Republicans #Conservatives #BigTech #ClosedSource #Microsoft #Discord #Copyright #Censorship #WesternMedia #OfficialPropaganda #MaintreamNews #Surveillance #PoliticalCorrectness
Best to worst: #fopnu #nicotine+ ( #soulseek ) #aMule ( #edonkey2000 #ed2k ) #EiskaltDC++ ( #dcpp ) #gnutella #Shareaza #qBittorrent ( #BitTorrent #torrent )
In the "Tales of Light and Life" story "The Queen's Bloom", the phrase "liberate some excess" is used as a euphemism for "stealing". I think it would be a good term for taking back some of the obscene wealth hoarded by the rich.
#TheHighRepublic #StarWars #Anthology #ShortFiction #ShortStories #Book #Books #Capitalism #EatTheRich
The US war machine is the world's biggest single source of institutional carbon emissions.
See — https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/10/pentagon-climate-change-neta-crawford-book/
The military-industrial complex is closely allied with the fossil fuel industry in their immensely profitable fight to continue with 💵 Business As Usual 💵 for as long as possible.
Our bloated US imperialism budget is eagerly supported by the leaders of both parties, urged on by free-spending lobbyists. This would be comically embarrassing if it wasn’t so tragic. 🤦♂️
#USA #Politics #War #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
(Whether you like it or not, you have no choice about watching this show. It’s on every channel, every day, all the time.)
Get ready for another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, sponsored this time by Amazon, Shell Oil, and Walmart.
🎶 "Keep driving, keep flying, keep shopping, keep buying!
We've got this, everything's fine." 🎶 😃
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
I remember my high school history textbook's unit on the Industrial Revolution, the first line was "not all revolutions are violent, take the #IndustrialRevolution for example."
Then proceeded to talk about toddlers working in factories and getting their hands chopped off by machinery, being forced to work like basically slaves, being beaten by supervisors if they decided they weren't working hard enough.
Guess those things don't count. It's not violence, it's just business! #capitalism
#SA #patriarchy #capitalism #violence #UK
channel 4 (UK) just released a documentary about comedian/youtube-conspiracy-peddler russell brand's history of sexual violence.
i'm watching it now and it's a "jimmy savile situation" all over again. they even have a clip of him talking to jimmy saville about sending over naked women.
something i always forget about this kind of long-running exploitation is just how many people it takes to facilitate 1 man's violence against countless people. sadly, this show is reminding me. and of course, a lot of those facilitators were women who were working in tv production & didn't want to lose their jobs. i doubt they were "bad people", but the entire machinery of capitalist patriarchy put people into these roles where they're facilitating injustices that they would never want to do themselves. it makes everyone a perpetrator.
anyway, if you're outside the UK, you can watch it here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o4deh
A lot of US political talk tacitly assumes that a purpose of government is to help people. One way this assumption manifests itself is as shock that the government openly facilitates exploitation. They prosecute shoplifting but not wage theft! Littering but not industrial pollution! Jaywalking but not killer self-driving cars! Poor people's tax evasion but corporations pay nothing! Student loan defaults but not COVID money fraud!
Often this discourse contrasts current conditions to an imaginary past when the government did its putative job. The top tax rate used to be 90%! The minimum wage was a lot higher in real dollars! Public universities used to be affordable! But really, when was this supposed golden age?
The first governments that colonists set up on this continent were run by enslaving planters to facilitate slave-based capitalism. During the nineteenth century the planters were replaced by industrialists and financiers to facilitate wage-slave-based exploitation. At some point capitalists subbed in professional politicians but the work didn't change. Any gains workers made were the result of resistance, not government beneficence. If there was actually a time when American governments, federal, state, local, meant to help people, when did it start? When did the plantocracy or its successors relinquish control?
Governments here have *never* been on our side. Their main function has *always* been to facilitate exploitation and the transfer of wealth from poor to rich. At any given point in history they've stolen as much as they could get away with, and if it looks like things used to be better it's only because they didn't yet have the means to make them worse. Capitalism isn't amenable to reform, only to abolition. Of the police, of wage slavery, of coercion as a tool of government. So, you know, smash the state!
#Anarchism #Anarchy #Capitalism #WageSlavery #Slavery #Plantocracy #SmashTheState #Abolition
See, I knew I'd find the article I was looking for if I could just make my brain focus. If you want to drill down a bit into the somewhat obvious reasons the entire AI investment cycle here is clearly a scam, check out this "state of the industry" summary by Amy Castor and David Gerard here:
https://amycastor.com/2023/09/12/pivot-to-ai-pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain/
Starting by noting that the money/market men really don't have anything else going on right now at all, and much of the "economy" as rich guys in suits would understand it, is currently hinging on this scam/bet playing out, the authors go into why this is clearly a work, by more or less the same people who pushed cryptocurrency scams to the stratosphere in the years just prior to this.
The problem? The technology doesn't work, depends entirely on poorly-paid labor, can pretty much only produce spam, and is rapidly losing its luster - both to the public at large, AND institutional actors; which again, is a serious problem when your business model is "sell these magic beans to rubes and then run away with billions."
There simply is no there, there. This is not a road to anywhere except the enrichment of a venture capitalist class of people who utterly dominate the tech industry, and the legalized gambling institutions we call stock markets. As the authors succinctly note, the AI hype is literally best understood as the new crypto-mining; because the scam works the same way, and is just as likely to "change the world" in only negative, mostly useless ways.
They invented a machine to spam the internet, and now they're trying to get someone, anyone, to buy it before it dawns on society that we don't really need a machine that does that.
I never remember who pointed this out to me first, but it stands the test of time;
It doesn't matter if you're a #democrat, a #republican, or an #indepedent. You can support #socialism, #communism, #capitalism, #distributism, etc.
Pretty much no matter what, you're going to find quite a bit of common ground with the #libertarian cause. Really the only exception is if you're an #authoritarian.
Two economists are walking in a forest when they come across a pile of shit.
The first economist says to the other “I’ll pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit.” The second economist takes the $100 and eats the pile of shit.
They continue walking until they come across a second pile of shit. The second economist turns to the first and says “I’ll pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit.” The first economist takes the $100 and eats a pile of shit.
Walking a little more, the first economist looks at the second and says, “You know, I gave you $100 to eat shit, then you gave me back the same $100 to eat shit. I can't help but feel like we both just ate shit for nothing.”
“That's not true”, responded the second economist.
“We increased the GDP by $200!”
— u/kspacewalk2 on reddit
If you vote for Republicans, you’re voting for disaster.
If you vote for Democrats, you’re also voting for disaster, except it will happen a little more slowly and less dramatically.
*Neither* party offers the kind of change we need — which is SYSTEM change.
#USA #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
@JustChapman
NOW would be a good time. But I'm certainly not expecting that to happen.
#Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
The current state of the world had me rooting for the monsters in Gojira King of the Monsters. #capitalism
#Dhun is an old practice, ignored by #capitalism, that has allowed people to thrive in the #desert for millennia.
By restoring, expanding, and improving upon #ancient practices, we can build greater #ClimateChange resilience.
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once actions, ftw!
In #Germany we have had a lot of younger and also older folks out for the #climate . That feels good.
However, the rest is like in your country: Stubbornly believing in the church of #capitalism and yearning for more #PetroConsumism the #DeutscherMichel will rather vote for the #FckNzs than change things, act in the local hood and grow their own greens - thus risking for conveniences getting lost.
Germany has a big huge #NoFascism problem. Very very frightening.