Your (and your parents', and your peers') real and perceived economic circumstances and opportunities have a lot to do with what you'll value and prioritize as an adult - how invested and loyal you'll be in society.
Every poor person we generate due to greedy decisions has a very high likelihood of being a destructive force back to us.
Now consider how many poor people were generated by black slavery, segregation, and explicit racism in America, and how, in a society, we all just swim around in the same trauma soup, deflecting pain towards one another.
Imo greed is an lack of education. As education is ideally schooling +life experience. Part of that critical thinking section needs to be taught by experience and society in the us at least didn't give anyone enough time to see the world before deciding what to do, how to live and what kind of person you want to be.
Now consider how many poor people were generated by black slavery, segregation, and explicit racism in America, and how, in a society, we all just swim around in the same trauma soup, deflecting pain towards one another.
Public education wasn't necessarily "taken over". It was only ever "allowed" by the rich because they needed trained people to count their fucking money (oversimplifying. Sort of).
Teachers push actual critical thinking in their classrooms and the oligarchs hate that, which is why they try to crush teachers at every turn.
Almost none of my well educated professional-managerial class peers have developed class consciousness. They seem to be even more class clueless than blue & pink collar workers.
Next year will mark my 16th year voting for democrats, all they do is kick the can and move the line. While I don't think there is anything wrong with saying don't vote conservative, I do think it's a bit like saying "CLOSE YOUR WINDOWS" when a tornado is coming. We're screwed regardless of who we vote for, the only thing that changes is the rate at which we're screwed; that is why Anon is sick of life.
Democrats are also conservatives.
If you allow the oligarchs and aristocrats to choose who represents you then they will always choose candidates who rule in their interest.
You can't change this system by playing within the ruleset you're given.
Democratic power can only ever be wielded by unions of workers and communes of citizens. Those organizations combine and concentrate the power of regular people and can effectively wield this against the ruling class.
It’s not even a matter of “Democrat vs Republican” - do you know what they all have in common? They’re all part of the same ruling class you mentioned, and they’re all also helping the corporate owners of America push their agendas.
Like… it’s pretty damn blatant who the GOP are rooting for when you consider what rich asshats like Elongated Muskrat want, and then look at some of the policies they passed and go “oh shit.”
The FPTP voting system means everyone is held hostage voting for the party they hate the least. If you vote for a third party you just make it more likely the party you hate most will win because the vote is split.
Obviously things still wouldn't be perfect with a proportional voting system but I think it would take some power away from capitalist oligarchs because we will be able to vote for a party we like without just making the fascists more likely to win. The issue is the only two parties you can realistically vote for are highly incentivised to not change the voting system because they will lose a lot of the power they have.
Or how about everyone who wants to vote 3rd party, votes 3rd party?
I know it's a little different because my country has proportional voting system, but the first two elections the party I vote for was below the limit to be in a parliament. I still voted for them as did others and now it's one of the stronger parties.
If everyone who doesn't like both the parties starts voting 3rd party, you have a chance.
Think about it on the constituency level, say you have a constituency with 100,000 people. One year, 60k people vote for party A and 40k for party B so party A wins. But during during the years before the next election people become disenfranchised with party A so they start voting for party C who they like more. In the following election, party A gets 30k votes, party B gets 40k votes again and party C gets 30k votes. Because FPTP is a "winner takes all" system, party B is now takes that constituency which is the the party A and C voters dislike most, even though party B got less votes than those other two. This is called the spoiler effect. When this is happening all over a country, sure maybe some constituencies will flip but for each that does like 30 will have the vote split leading to a probable landslide victory for party B.
Sure in your country, your vote was also "wasted" if your party of choice never entered parliament I suppose (although if you get to choose multiple parties in order of preference where it defaults to your second if the first doesn't get enough votes then it isn't wasted) but the ecosystem will be much more favourable to new parties growing because the way the voting system works makes it actually possible for them to do so. So the vote isn't wasted like it is in FPTP.
CGP Grey has some great videos about FPTP on his channel if you're interested in a better explanation that I can provide.
Give the Democrats a 4 person majority then 5 conservative Democrats will Hum and Haw about fiscal responsibility to their voters.
It is really up to hard progressives to get in and vote as a block to keep the Dems from passing watered down policy by forcing them to earn the blocks vote with real policies the public already want.
Medicare for all, free college, 20 dollar minimum wage and more all all supported by way more than 50 percent of the country.
The Dems want to lose these fights for their donors they need to be forced to do their job against their donors wishes.
We started with hating the gays, then we accepted gays, now we hate straights. See, backwards. "Conservitves", have been progressing in their own direction, which is not actually conservative but a branch of liberalism that focuses on things like anti abortion and more government control over that as well as border control and anti lgbt. One side of liberalism wants more government control over social things, the other wants government control over economic and state things. By things I mean.....whatever those retards are bickering about ATM I'm not sure, thats just my own conclusion.
No one cares about straight people enough to hate us. Spare me your fox news talking points about why we're actually the most persecuted group in the universe. It's old hat bullshit.
The reconstruction of the south shouldn't have ended until 1960, giving near a hundred years to set things right. Instead chickenshit halfhearts let the south return to political power and return to treating POC like slaves. Then they let their grandchildren build fucking monuments and statues to slavemongers.
I wonder if US insistance on the Nuremberg Trials was a result of seeing the results of failing to hold their own fascists adequately accountable after the civil war.
from what I've read, not really. it was so hard to get many held and charged in the first place, the trials were very much a race against time to see how many the could convict before sentiment in germany turned.
I wasn't aware that countries in South America ever rebelled against the US constitution, insisted on the enslavement of their fellow citizens and then lost a war about that issue, requiring their slaveocracies that we burned to the ground to be reconstructed....
There's a whole generation that fought and died to retain our right to stand up to fascism, xenophobia, etc. With this in mind, it would be bad form to stop defending freedom and democracy, don't you think?
I do like how your comically suggested solution to fascism is "become a fascist" though :-P Not everybody thinks like them.
Despite the fact that many people think like fascists, thankfully due to the results of fascism they often don't possess the wealth and power to enforce their self imposed authority and don't need killing. But don't let that nuance get in the way of a big ol' swig of rageahole.
so many people are getting to the point that they can identify that capitalism has caused human society to self-digest and go to shit, yet so many will give the most asinine dog-brained reasons as to why. It's reassuring to see people starting to wake up but frustrating to see them groggy, incoherent, and still half-asleep. 95 times out of a hundred they'll blame "corporatism" or welfare queens or race mixing or overpopulation or some shit and it's just exhausting
And when they say "corporatism", rather than the capitalist aspects of corporations draining the life from society, they'll instead be referring to whenever a company does something they consider "woke".
Not a fan of capitalism myself, but I'd take western (somewhat) liberal capitalism over the authoritarian alternatives (kleptocratic, imperialist oligarchy in Russia or fake-communist dictatorship in China) that are being pushed here on Lemmy.
Welcome to being poor .... I mean poor poor ... not the kind of poor where you can't afford a Lamborghini ... the kind of poor where you no longer have any luxuries like being able to go to the movies.
Where life is a constant hassle and struggle to survive. And where you constantly have to fight to stay above water. A kind of life where someone is constantly either trying to screw you, is screwing you or has screwed you. A kind of life where you no longer trust the people you see, the people you meet, or the people you live with. A kind of life where you know from the time you are born that everything and everyone will be hard.
I grew up like that and it became a normal part of life.
I learned to make a bit of money and survive and I've done good but not great ... good enough to travel the world. It gave me the insight that the majority of the world is poor ... I thought that before but after traveling, I realized just how true that really is.
The world we're complaining about now is the world that most of the world already knows.
I think this is less about being poor or struggling to survive, more about the struggle to find meaning in modern life.
I'm doing well in life. Could certainly be doing better (who couldn't), but my bills are paid, and there's food on my table. I don't worry about these things, and I don't struggle. But there have certainly been times when I've felt the sentiment of the OP. When your needs are met and you feel a sort of emptiness, trying to fill the boredom with the next best dopamine hit. I almost feel like I'm just floating through life, not yearning for, yet waiting for the day it all ends.
10.2% of US households aren't food secure in the richest country on the planet with limitless food accessibility. I'm pretty sure it is about being poor and struggling to survive.
You know you're poor when you realize how bad powdered milk is compared to real milk.
You know you're really, really hungry when powdered milk tastes good.
Yes it should, but modernity also made us less reliant on the group and I think it made use more introvert and more social risk averse. This is something that can be worked on with reasonable cost.
Human experience isn't just hanging out with other people. It includes going to other places, experiencing what the world has to offer. You can't do much of that, if any, when you're living paycheck to paycheck like most people.
And then there's the idiots who try to use this reasoning to glorify a nonexistent nostalgia based version of "the good old times" when really capitalism is the problem
Of course, the big question with the line "I'm tired of being told to hate my fellow man" is whether they're referring to the constant fearmongering being pushed by conservative news and politicians against everyone who isn't in their in-group.
Or are they referring to non-conservatives calling out the bigotry being pushed by conservatives and doing that calling out is "pushing hatred on your fellow man" in this person's eyes?
Since a lot of 4chan is the latter while actively being a part of the former.
Oh new account made 5 minutes ago, please do tell what the "fearmongering" is on the left. Climate change? Needing to actually do the minimal effort to prevent Covid spread?
I've found that disconnecting helps. Leave your phone at home and go out. Chat with the guy you see every day at the grocery store. Go play chess or pétanque in the park with a friend. You don't have to do this too often, and you'll feel less like a product yourself.
Especially the elderly in my experience. The generation that used to tell us not to believe everything we see on the internet is now glued to Facebook.
Is this supposed to be a "the world has turned into shit" take, even though it's been like this for ages (way before the 4chan poster, or anyone alive for that matter, was born)?
Yeah, this is a common fascist recruitment tactic. "The world has gone to shit, things were better before."
This is the call to return to the golden past, a perfect time before "they" took it away from "us." In reality, as you point out, that golden past never existed. However, once people have it framed in their minds that their chance at utopia was "taken" from them, there's almost nothing they don't feel justified in doing to take it back.
That was a very limited boon made possible off of the backs of the cumulative dead of several modern wars. Prior to that, the notion of "home ownership" wasn't even a thing for the most part.
I’ve gone through a lot of crap to learn and really believe that happiness and contentment can only come from within. The outside world has a lot to offer, but it will never give you that.
Unfortunately the outside world and circumstances CAN make it pretty damn difficult or impossible.
It’s a cliche to think of a monk or philosopher saying stuff like “if you want to be happy, be happy,” but that’s a lot of how I I’ve come to see it. And obviously it’s not that simple, we are pretty damn complicated, but that’s the spirit behind it.
It's been far too long since the sociopaths were put in their place. Now they have all the money in the world and can hire sycophants to be their personal armies.
My family wasn't rich and I didn't have many luxuries, but I still claim to have been much happier than many children who live in this hectic world where everything is so superficial. 90% of ordinary people don't even dare to have an opinion anymore if it's not exactly what the mainstream represents.
More like "don't stick your head in a pile oft shit", ignoring these platforms is not ignoring the world, it's changing your point oft view, you won't miss anything of importance.
That's may be true for you, but a lot of these type sites are a great source for news and information about the world. Ignorance is bliss as they say, but the world keeps spinning whether or not you pay attention to it. I'm not saying you HAVE to get news from social media, but that's what I primarily use it for.
If it doesn't cause you to act, then the news is just entertainment
Covid vaccines made available was the last news that actually changed my behavior. That was like years ago. The rest is just entertainment written to make people scared and angry
Bullshit. Responsible news consumption is how we make informed decisions about the world. It's a critical part of any democracy which is why Burke called it "the fourth estate."
this. A lot of news is kind of inactionable too; what are we supposed to do from knowing about some dictatorship half way across the world having a coup? The thing that actually started lifting me out of passive observation and into action was reading political analysis and political theory. Strongly recommend some introductory political theory for anyone who feels a responsibility to keep up with the news but then finds that all doing so does is make them exhausted and depressed.
That sounds like a ‘you problem’. I change my behaviors and my attitudes accordingly based on what I intake and digest. When McCain first ran against Obama, he was a moderate with decades of experience who had seen the dark side of war and wouldn’t thrust us into one senselessly.
Thanks to the news I saw the rapid conversion of a formerly moral politician into someone who would say anything for power.
When the situation in Maui came up I donated as I have in the past to people affected by disasters.
Should you assume information that doesn’t affect you personally is irrelevant or are you willing to step down from your Main Character title card?
Sorry in advance for the unsolicited advice, but if you’re a news junkie (like me), try out an RSS feed reader (Feedly, Inoreader, Newsblur is a FOSS option).
You get to bypass the comment section of social media while still being aware of what is going on around you. I use Ino because it’s cross platform. It makes it super easy to subscribe to anything from Nature to Vogue to my local news affiliate, and it has a trending section, as well as curated groups for hobbies/interests and your work industry as well.
You don’t have to stop caring about the world in order to live without social media.
I've considered fishing, but the equipment is expensive, and all the closest locations are pretty far. When I need to chill I just play a game or go for a smoke.
I appreciate the concern and know about the potential negative consequences. But with all due respect, you don't know me or the type of news I seek out or how I feel about it. I prefer to know what's going on around me and the world so I can work towards making impactful changes. That doesn't mean everyone else has to but it works well for me.
Social media is for social interaction. There are better alternatives for news. I'd rather invest some money in good journalism than picking relevant news in the flood of garbage click and rage bait articles. There is also good, free of charge journalism out there. For example the guardian
This is so honestly so true. Once I moved my news sources onto an RSS app and left my social media interactions for my hobbies or catching up with people my pessimism decreased dramatically.
News on social media is filled with bad actors, misinformation, and bots deliberately to drive up engagement through outrage. 99% of the time it’s not worth the mental blowback.
A healthy diet, if you will. Fastfood is okay once in a while but eating it all the time just as tiring to one's body as clickbait information to one's head.
Is not being on most social media sticking your head in the sand now? I still read the news and try to stay informed. It's just not in my face as much anymore. I would consider that a win.
Arguably that's one of (though not all of) the reason for so many people not voting. They think if they disengage, then that'll fix the problem. When in reality they're just allowing the problem to get worse and pretending there isn't a problem.
I did the same thing. I still am on social media such as lemmy and discord but its mostly to talk to people. And I havent watched the news since I was a child. Important things come your way eventually and I dont see it as being ignorant. Now I only receive information I can actually do something about if I want to.
We consume pseudo-food, watch pseudo movies and participate in pseudo sports, heck even pseudo politics. Why pseudo? Because everything is made as cheap as possible and to distract us from the suffering that capitalism brings us so that we won't rise up.
Examples:
Our vegetables are genetically modified so that they grow bigger but they can't reproduce anymore and the seeds are copyrighted.
The movies that are watching are catered to the mainstream and don't even really get a message across. Marvel movies try to tell us that rich people with power will save the world
Football games are there to distract people "give them bread and games and they will never revolt"
The people at power, through massive propaganda, seperate our people into left and right. These two parties will then fight eachother instead of realizing who is really opressing us
I think capitalism isn't the problem nor is liking and consuming a product or experience. We have great products turned into entire experiences here in the US, and I'm not terribly upset anymore about it.
The problem is the late stage unchecked capitalism running rampant. I think allowing individuals the freedom to pursue their ideas and allow others to even build livelihoods from it works great. But there's gotta be checks and balances, its what the USA was founded on.
a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community
So regulation of the market by the people (aka people democratically deciding where capitalism should be limited/regulated).
If there is another word that fits better though please let me know.
Sometimes it’s fun to try doing things differently, but I sort of agree with you. As time goes on it’s harder and harder to break ourselves of our habits
This is when you get off social media and live life with your family. It's so easy to fall into that mindset when you're going to areas where people crowd together since it ends up with large scope views and ideas.
Hit the gym and touch grass every so often. It's that simple to feel better. The hardest part is finding consistency. But being chronically online and doom scrolling is what makes the world feel so bleak.
Edit: gonna copy and paste my other comment
I mean, I'm simplifying it for me, but I realized at one point I'm just tired of being tired. Doesn't have to be physical activity, but it's really just finding your niche and not getting into your head too much. Easier said than done, but I really just woke up one day and decided that change is only going to come if I force myself to get up and do something. Otherwise I just get depressed and all "woe is me, woe is the world". If life sucks anyways, I'm going to find ways to enjoy it my own way.
I hate to break it to people but when it came full circle to me, it became as easy as "I'm a depressed right now, well I don't want to be so I'm going to put a little effort into something. That way, I can at least be proud of myself if not the world".
I can keep complaining about the world, or I can toughen myself up for myself and be proud of the person I am. I wouldn't call it ignorance to the rest of the world, I just don't give a fuck anymore. It never gave a fuck about me in the first place. I'm doing it all for myself.
While yes, being physically fit is a good thing generally. Going outside especially within the US just makes me feel worse. Everyone is just as miserable as me, it's too hot, it smells like smoke and gas, I can't hear shit because the 4 lane road's noise is deafening, and those who aren't miserable are blissfully ignorant towards the horrible shit people go through in a country that doesn't give a shit about them.
I've managed to disconnect more, work on my hobbies, and find the will to live. My diet in improving and my fitness is also improving, but I just fucking hate the place I live and do not have the means to pick up and leave. The MOMENT I look into it I'm berated with product after product, and expense after expense. We as a society have cultivated an unsustainable model of operation and it's finally falling apart. Like the oil fields, we too are being sucked dry.
I wish I could be ignorant. But I just can't bring myself to that point.
I mean, I'm simplifying it for me, but I realized at one point I'm just tired of being tired. Doesn't have to be physical activity, but it's really just finding your niche and not getting into your head too much. Easier said than done, but I really just woke up one day and decided that change is only going to come if I force myself to get up and do something. Otherwise I just get depressed and all "woe is me, woe is the world". If life sucks anyways, I'm going to find ways to enjoy it my own way.
I hate to break it to people but when it came full circle to me, it became as easy as "I'm a depressed right now, well I don't want to be so I'm going to put a little effort into something. That way, I can at least be proud of myself if not the world".
I can keep complaining about the world, or I can toughen myself up for myself and be proud of the person I am. I wouldn't call it ignorance to the rest of the world, I just don't give a fuck anymore. It never gave a fuck about me in the first place. I'm doing it all for myself.
Eventually you have to. It sucks, I get it. But if you're not going to do it for yourself, no one else will. If you need help, you have to make that first phone call to the therapist yourself. Otherwise you can easily get stuck in the comfortable spiral of depression.
Ironically it's not even that anymore. Since these are recommended as the answer so much they are the same as any zeitgeist-chase. Act on your own selfishness for your own enjoyment. Go swim, chill out with that show you think you'll enjoy that everyone hates, try cook something new.
People can get stuck in the rut of information overload with the internet but its still an incredibly useful tool to use. Some people just need to learn to use it rather them let it use you.
Making yourself feel good enough to ignore the shithole our society has become doesn't fix anything. Denying reality is foolish as fuck and actively makes it worse.
When literally every expert and every shred of credible evidence agrees that it's hopeless, pretending it isn't hopeless is just going to leave you unprepared, and you'll end among the first of the dead when the collapse happens and leads to long term global famine.
It takes an incredibly childish and naive view of the world to believe that the entire world is going to suddenly come together to meaningfully reduce emissions in the forseeable future. That's very literally the only possible solution, and it cannot possibly happen.
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best are not mutually exclusive.
Even if they were, I'd rather live with hope for a shorter time than "live" without hope for a longer time.
Also, since the whole issue of emissions comes from production of resources, how do you think gathering resources to outlast a global famine is going to affect that?
No one is denying anything. It's just a question of whether you get up to fight or give up and die. That's the part that's in your power, and taking care of your body is the first step toward getting up to fight.
It really is, but i only understood after i started taking care of my body.
As stupid as "taking care of the body" sounds, our body is an organic machine. It only works correctly, if properly maintained. Learning how to listen to the body and giving it what it needs, releases lots of dopamine. You end up learning to enjoy more single moments, moments without anxiety, stress or fear.
But the clearness of mind also lets you see that the situation is actually worse than perceived before, the world is fucked and as the years pass by, it seems that there's a global effort to fuck of it as fast as possible.
Start out with small steps, like 20 minutes a day, 20 minutes is nothing. But 20 minutes being conscious of your movements, breathing and focusing, means a lot for your health and mind.
The important thing is to shake that booty until the spirit is high.
Hot take: corporatism and infotainment. You control money and information, you control the world.
Capitalism
Nope education is the downfall. Teach critical thinking well and you won't have such a malleable idiotic population that buys into either of those.
That's maybe a part, but not the whole story.
Your (and your parents', and your peers') real and perceived economic circumstances and opportunities have a lot to do with what you'll value and prioritize as an adult - how invested and loyal you'll be in society. Every poor person we generate due to greedy decisions has a very high likelihood of being a destructive force back to us.
Now consider how many poor people were generated by black slavery, segregation, and explicit racism in America, and how, in a society, we all just swim around in the same trauma soup, deflecting pain towards one another.
Imo greed is an lack of education. As education is ideally schooling +life experience. Part of that critical thinking section needs to be taught by experience and society in the us at least didn't give anyone enough time to see the world before deciding what to do, how to live and what kind of person you want to be.
That's a nice thought 😳
That’s an interesting way to frame things.
Education was destroyed by the same people who forced corporate news down our throats.
Correct, but one had to go before the other.
Public education wasn't necessarily "taken over". It was only ever "allowed" by the rich because they needed trained people to count their fucking money (oversimplifying. Sort of).
Teachers push actual critical thinking in their classrooms and the oligarchs hate that, which is why they try to crush teachers at every turn.
Almost none of my well educated professional-managerial class peers have developed class consciousness. They seem to be even more class clueless than blue & pink collar workers.
https://lemmy.world/comment/2823137
Pitchshifter warned us.
Man I used to have the dopest pitchshifter wife beater when I was 18
The 90s industrial/nu metal band?
Industrial then switched genres to Industrial Punk, but yeah.
Neat. Just was not at all expecting to see Pitchshifter in this discussion. (sorry I called them nu metal, felt strange to me too)
Yeah, I guess they did warn us. I didn't really grasp the lyrics when I was younger. Even RATM was lost on me until I hit my 30s...
I'm safe in the knowledge that we'll all be saved.
? By who?
The question "Where did we go wrong?" being asked on 4chan in /b/ is funny to me.
Cue John Travolta looking around gif
This was my feeling as well. Hey Anon, go look in the fuckin' mirror if you want to know where we went wrong.
Don't vote Conservative
Next year will mark my 16th year voting for democrats, all they do is kick the can and move the line. While I don't think there is anything wrong with saying don't vote conservative, I do think it's a bit like saying "CLOSE YOUR WINDOWS" when a tornado is coming. We're screwed regardless of who we vote for, the only thing that changes is the rate at which we're screwed; that is why Anon is sick of life.
Democrats are also conservatives. If you allow the oligarchs and aristocrats to choose who represents you then they will always choose candidates who rule in their interest. You can't change this system by playing within the ruleset you're given. Democratic power can only ever be wielded by unions of workers and communes of citizens. Those organizations combine and concentrate the power of regular people and can effectively wield this against the ruling class.
It’s not even a matter of “Democrat vs Republican” - do you know what they all have in common? They’re all part of the same ruling class you mentioned, and they’re all also helping the corporate owners of America push their agendas.
Like… it’s pretty damn blatant who the GOP are rooting for when you consider what rich asshats like Elongated Muskrat want, and then look at some of the policies they passed and go “oh shit.”
The FPTP voting system means everyone is held hostage voting for the party they hate the least. If you vote for a third party you just make it more likely the party you hate most will win because the vote is split.
Obviously things still wouldn't be perfect with a proportional voting system but I think it would take some power away from capitalist oligarchs because we will be able to vote for a party we like without just making the fascists more likely to win. The issue is the only two parties you can realistically vote for are highly incentivised to not change the voting system because they will lose a lot of the power they have.
Or how about everyone who wants to vote 3rd party, votes 3rd party?
I know it's a little different because my country has proportional voting system, but the first two elections the party I vote for was below the limit to be in a parliament. I still voted for them as did others and now it's one of the stronger parties.
If everyone who doesn't like both the parties starts voting 3rd party, you have a chance.
I made the mistake of voting 3rd party in 2016. Massive fucking mistake.
That's the good 'ol spoiler effect in action lol
Think about it on the constituency level, say you have a constituency with 100,000 people. One year, 60k people vote for party A and 40k for party B so party A wins. But during during the years before the next election people become disenfranchised with party A so they start voting for party C who they like more. In the following election, party A gets 30k votes, party B gets 40k votes again and party C gets 30k votes. Because FPTP is a "winner takes all" system, party B is now takes that constituency which is the the party A and C voters dislike most, even though party B got less votes than those other two. This is called the spoiler effect. When this is happening all over a country, sure maybe some constituencies will flip but for each that does like 30 will have the vote split leading to a probable landslide victory for party B.
Sure in your country, your vote was also "wasted" if your party of choice never entered parliament I suppose (although if you get to choose multiple parties in order of preference where it defaults to your second if the first doesn't get enough votes then it isn't wasted) but the ecosystem will be much more favourable to new parties growing because the way the voting system works makes it actually possible for them to do so. So the vote isn't wasted like it is in FPTP.
CGP Grey has some great videos about FPTP on his channel if you're interested in a better explanation that I can provide.
The spoiler effect was very evident when Ross Perot ran during the 1992 presidential election which put Clinton in office.
Well yes, that and the epic sax skills effect haha.
Well, at least you've got a heads-up and some choice on how fast you get screwed.
We just got a guy we didnt choose who just suddenly and royally f🇷🇺ks everyone over every few years or so
The Dems can't do anything without a majority. Give them a true majority where Sinema and Man Chin can't hold things up. Then stand the fuck back.
Give the Democrats a 4 person majority then 5 conservative Democrats will Hum and Haw about fiscal responsibility to their voters.
It is really up to hard progressives to get in and vote as a block to keep the Dems from passing watered down policy by forcing them to earn the blocks vote with real policies the public already want.
Medicare for all, free college, 20 dollar minimum wage and more all all supported by way more than 50 percent of the country.
The Dems want to lose these fights for their donors they need to be forced to do their job against their donors wishes.
America is the world.
Lots of places have conservatives for which one should not vote
Can say the same for progressives! They progressed us so far, we ended up going backwards!
Ohh that would almost be clever if it weren't conservatives dragging the world through their unga bunga bullshit.
We started with hating the gays, then we accepted gays, now we hate straights. See, backwards. "Conservitves", have been progressing in their own direction, which is not actually conservative but a branch of liberalism that focuses on things like anti abortion and more government control over that as well as border control and anti lgbt. One side of liberalism wants more government control over social things, the other wants government control over economic and state things. By things I mean.....whatever those retards are bickering about ATM I'm not sure, thats just my own conclusion.
No one cares about straight people enough to hate us. Spare me your fox news talking points about why we're actually the most persecuted group in the universe. It's old hat bullshit.
who the fuck is we? why do you hate the straights? explain how this is progressive's fault that you 'hate the straights'
No idea who hates straight people, but that line alone is telling me you need to touch grass.
No, no, I’m fairly certain you do. Please elaborate on what things you’re talking about in this context.
Some people think of politics as a circle instead of a spectrum, if that's what you mean.
From what I can tell gay people are getting a lot of hate sent their way lately. Didn't someone just get shot and killed for having a pride flag.
Yes, an old granny who ran an art gallery.
Can you? Examples, please.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the system we've built to buy and sell products, owning, trading and hoarding capital? No, that can't be it...
Eat the rich
Too fatty. Better to use them for biofuel.
Converting them to fuel takes too long, just make a bonfire.
Toss another rich on the barbie.
Hate your fellow man not the guys unconsentually gang banging your chocolate starfish
Somewhere around 20 years ago/b/ was one of the first aggressively "us vs them" communities I was ever exposed to, and it only got worse from there.
You’re crazy, /b/ wasn’t around 20 years ago… I mean, it only recently started in the early ‘00s!
…oh no
Where did we go wrong? We stopped killing fascists. Appeasement never works when one party has no interest in concession.
BINGO.
The reconstruction of the south shouldn't have ended until 1960, giving near a hundred years to set things right. Instead chickenshit halfhearts let the south return to political power and return to treating POC like slaves. Then they let their grandchildren build fucking monuments and statues to slavemongers.
I wonder if US insistance on the Nuremberg Trials was a result of seeing the results of failing to hold their own fascists adequately accountable after the civil war.
from what I've read, not really. it was so hard to get many held and charged in the first place, the trials were very much a race against time to see how many the could convict before sentiment in germany turned.
The nazis did base a lot of their hateful shit on crimes the state and other racists perpetrated against americans tho. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influenced-hitler
I wasn't aware that countries in South America ever rebelled against the US constitution, insisted on the enslavement of their fellow citizens and then lost a war about that issue, requiring their slaveocracies that we burned to the ground to be reconstructed....
Oh my god. Do you people ever stop.
If only you could make a list of all the fascists and go door to door and drag them out into the street and execute them.
Then everything would be OK!
There's a whole generation that fought and died to retain our right to stand up to fascism, xenophobia, etc. With this in mind, it would be bad form to stop defending freedom and democracy, don't you think?
I do like how your comically suggested solution to fascism is "become a fascist" though :-P Not everybody thinks like them.
Right? the greatest generation sacrificed tens of millions to stop these assholes but our generation is just gonna let them stroll back into power?
And these fascists can't even muster the weak competence the 20th century fascists had, it's half-assed fuckwits like Trump.
Thank our lucky stars they aren't competent, or we'd be in camps.
It's easier than lobotomy so really a no brainer
Despite the fact that many people think like fascists, thankfully due to the results of fascism they often don't possess the wealth and power to enforce their self imposed authority and don't need killing. But don't let that nuance get in the way of a big ol' swig of rageahole.
Damn straight, homie stumbled upon alienation and commodity fetishism all at once
Capitalism is tearing me apart Lenin!
so many people are getting to the point that they can identify that capitalism has caused human society to self-digest and go to shit, yet so many will give the most asinine dog-brained reasons as to why. It's reassuring to see people starting to wake up but frustrating to see them groggy, incoherent, and still half-asleep. 95 times out of a hundred they'll blame "corporatism" or welfare queens or race mixing or overpopulation or some shit and it's just exhausting
And when they say "corporatism", rather than the capitalist aspects of corporations draining the life from society, they'll instead be referring to whenever a company does something they consider "woke".
Not a fan of capitalism myself, but I'd take western (somewhat) liberal capitalism over the authoritarian alternatives (kleptocratic, imperialist oligarchy in Russia or fake-communist dictatorship in China) that are being pushed here on Lemmy.
Yes😎
I mean, probably.
We don’t get tortured and re-educated though! Gotta count your blessings!
We're fucking our planet and all its species regardless, and arguing about the amount of lube being used.
Welcome to being poor .... I mean poor poor ... not the kind of poor where you can't afford a Lamborghini ... the kind of poor where you no longer have any luxuries like being able to go to the movies.
Where life is a constant hassle and struggle to survive. And where you constantly have to fight to stay above water. A kind of life where someone is constantly either trying to screw you, is screwing you or has screwed you. A kind of life where you no longer trust the people you see, the people you meet, or the people you live with. A kind of life where you know from the time you are born that everything and everyone will be hard.
I grew up like that and it became a normal part of life.
I learned to make a bit of money and survive and I've done good but not great ... good enough to travel the world. It gave me the insight that the majority of the world is poor ... I thought that before but after traveling, I realized just how true that really is.
The world we're complaining about now is the world that most of the world already knows.
Welcome to being poor and hopeless.
I think this is less about being poor or struggling to survive, more about the struggle to find meaning in modern life.
I'm doing well in life. Could certainly be doing better (who couldn't), but my bills are paid, and there's food on my table. I don't worry about these things, and I don't struggle. But there have certainly been times when I've felt the sentiment of the OP. When your needs are met and you feel a sort of emptiness, trying to fill the boredom with the next best dopamine hit. I almost feel like I'm just floating through life, not yearning for, yet waiting for the day it all ends.
10.2% of US households aren't food secure in the richest country on the planet with limitless food accessibility. I'm pretty sure it is about being poor and struggling to survive.
I don't disagree with food insecurity being a major issue in the US, I just don't get the vibe that that's the topic of the OP.
I once described this to someone as:
You know you're poor when you realize how bad powdered milk is compared to real milk. You know you're really, really hungry when powdered milk tastes good.
Human experience is still there, everywhere. You have to make the effort to get out of your burrow and do things outside with physical people.
It's hard to make an effort when all your energy goes into survival. Wasn't the point of "civilization" to not have to worry about all of that?
Yes it should, but modernity also made us less reliant on the group and I think it made use more introvert and more social risk averse. This is something that can be worked on with reasonable cost.
Alienation is a product of Capitalism, not 'modernity.'
Human experience has been almost entirely privatized. If you're poor, you're denied most of it.
Human experience isn't just hanging out with other people. It includes going to other places, experiencing what the world has to offer. You can't do much of that, if any, when you're living paycheck to paycheck like most people.
In social countries, they give you money for hobbies if you have low salaries.
Holy shit. One more little reason to hope the civil war comes quickly so I can flee as a refugee to a semi-civilized country.
Are non-profit associations rare in your place? They are very present around me, all my hobbies are covered.
Where do I go? I have no idea what to do
Try to find an association near your place, sports, arts, gardening, nature exploration, table top games, whatever you like.
As a default, a spouse and kids will rope you into decades of regular social interaction.
Like we can afford burrows.
Your local gardening association should have shovels.
And then there's the idiots who try to use this reasoning to glorify a nonexistent nostalgia based version of "the good old times" when really capitalism is the problem
Of course, the big question with the line "I'm tired of being told to hate my fellow man" is whether they're referring to the constant fearmongering being pushed by conservative news and politicians against everyone who isn't in their in-group.
Or are they referring to non-conservatives calling out the bigotry being pushed by conservatives and doing that calling out is "pushing hatred on your fellow man" in this person's eyes?
Since a lot of 4chan is the latter while actively being a part of the former.
I hate you, my fellow man.
Whatever the content of your post I'd recommend taking a break from politics for a while. Take care of yourself fellow man.
Oh new account made 5 minutes ago, please do tell what the "fearmongering" is on the left. Climate change? Needing to actually do the minimal effort to prevent Covid spread?
Their account says "Joined 7 minutes ago" for me and the above is their only comment.
I also see that their account is 3 weeks old
Oh my God shut up
No.
I think it's pretty clear which of the two examples you fit.
I've found that disconnecting helps. Leave your phone at home and go out. Chat with the guy you see every day at the grocery store. Go play chess or pétanque in the park with a friend. You don't have to do this too often, and you'll feel less like a product yourself.
Especially the elderly in my experience. The generation that used to tell us not to believe everything we see on the internet is now glued to Facebook.
Addiction is a lot easier when you make the surroundings more hellish and thus the substance more palatable
Dear Faust. I'm not sure what worse.
I don't use any of those, but if you are not in China and will never visit it, then Wechat maybe fine for you. Build your own threat model.
Is this supposed to be a "the world has turned into shit" take, even though it's been like this for ages (way before the 4chan poster, or anyone alive for that matter, was born)?
Yeah, this is a common fascist recruitment tactic. "The world has gone to shit, things were better before."
This is the call to return to the golden past, a perfect time before "they" took it away from "us." In reality, as you point out, that golden past never existed. However, once people have it framed in their minds that their chance at utopia was "taken" from them, there's almost nothing they don't feel justified in doing to take it back.
That was a very limited boon made possible off of the backs of the cumulative dead of several modern wars. Prior to that, the notion of "home ownership" wasn't even a thing for the most part.
Then we must start WW3 then
There was also a time where we killed someone who disagreed with us instead of being sad about it on the Internet too.
I’ve gone through a lot of crap to learn and really believe that happiness and contentment can only come from within. The outside world has a lot to offer, but it will never give you that.
Unfortunately the outside world and circumstances CAN make it pretty damn difficult or impossible.
It’s a cliche to think of a monk or philosopher saying stuff like “if you want to be happy, be happy,” but that’s a lot of how I I’ve come to see it. And obviously it’s not that simple, we are pretty damn complicated, but that’s the spirit behind it.
Ignorance is bliss. It's also the problem.
It was leaving the trees that did it, really.
Nah we should have stayed in the water.
Personally, I blame the amoeba that decided he wanted to have more cells than everyone else. All of human greed stemps from that selfish bugger.
It's been far too long since the sociopaths were put in their place. Now they have all the money in the world and can hire sycophants to be their personal armies.
My family wasn't rich and I didn't have many luxuries, but I still claim to have been much happier than many children who live in this hectic world where everything is so superficial. 90% of ordinary people don't even dare to have an opinion anymore if it's not exactly what the mainstream represents.
Turn off the news, and stay away from anything online that lets you or other people comment.
Lose Twitter, Facebook, reddit (or reddit alternatives) and the world will look like a much different place.
Sticking your head in the sand will do that. Nothing will actually change but it’ll feel like it’s not there.
More like "don't stick your head in a pile oft shit", ignoring these platforms is not ignoring the world, it's changing your point oft view, you won't miss anything of importance.
That's may be true for you, but a lot of these type sites are a great source for news and information about the world. Ignorance is bliss as they say, but the world keeps spinning whether or not you pay attention to it. I'm not saying you HAVE to get news from social media, but that's what I primarily use it for.
If it doesn't cause you to act, then the news is just entertainment
Covid vaccines made available was the last news that actually changed my behavior. That was like years ago. The rest is just entertainment written to make people scared and angry
Bullshit. Responsible news consumption is how we make informed decisions about the world. It's a critical part of any democracy which is why Burke called it "the fourth estate."
this. A lot of news is kind of inactionable too; what are we supposed to do from knowing about some dictatorship half way across the world having a coup? The thing that actually started lifting me out of passive observation and into action was reading political analysis and political theory. Strongly recommend some introductory political theory for anyone who feels a responsibility to keep up with the news but then finds that all doing so does is make them exhausted and depressed.
That sounds like a ‘you problem’. I change my behaviors and my attitudes accordingly based on what I intake and digest. When McCain first ran against Obama, he was a moderate with decades of experience who had seen the dark side of war and wouldn’t thrust us into one senselessly.
Thanks to the news I saw the rapid conversion of a formerly moral politician into someone who would say anything for power.
When the situation in Maui came up I donated as I have in the past to people affected by disasters.
Should you assume information that doesn’t affect you personally is irrelevant or are you willing to step down from your Main Character title card?
Sorry but I don't have the ability to stop caring how the world is doing
Sorry in advance for the unsolicited advice, but if you’re a news junkie (like me), try out an RSS feed reader (Feedly, Inoreader, Newsblur is a FOSS option).
You get to bypass the comment section of social media while still being aware of what is going on around you. I use Ino because it’s cross platform. It makes it super easy to subscribe to anything from Nature to Vogue to my local news affiliate, and it has a trending section, as well as curated groups for hobbies/interests and your work industry as well.
You don’t have to stop caring about the world in order to live without social media.
Nah you're right, but I'm always curious what people think too haha
I've considered fishing, but the equipment is expensive, and all the closest locations are pretty far. When I need to chill I just play a game or go for a smoke.
I appreciate the concern and know about the potential negative consequences. But with all due respect, you don't know me or the type of news I seek out or how I feel about it. I prefer to know what's going on around me and the world so I can work towards making impactful changes. That doesn't mean everyone else has to but it works well for me.
Social media is for social interaction. There are better alternatives for news. I'd rather invest some money in good journalism than picking relevant news in the flood of garbage click and rage bait articles. There is also good, free of charge journalism out there. For example the guardian
This is so honestly so true. Once I moved my news sources onto an RSS app and left my social media interactions for my hobbies or catching up with people my pessimism decreased dramatically.
News on social media is filled with bad actors, misinformation, and bots deliberately to drive up engagement through outrage. 99% of the time it’s not worth the mental blowback.
I think it's more just reducing the overload, not really hiding. An information vacation.
A healthy diet, if you will. Fastfood is okay once in a while but eating it all the time just as tiring to one's body as clickbait information to one's head.
We'll have a Dalmatian plantation!
Is not being on most social media sticking your head in the sand now? I still read the news and try to stay informed. It's just not in my face as much anymore. I would consider that a win.
This is like you breaking up with a toxic girlfriend and she tells you “oh yeah well other people are still gonna date me idiot!”
Arguably that's one of (though not all of) the reason for so many people not voting. They think if they disengage, then that'll fix the problem. When in reality they're just allowing the problem to get worse and pretending there isn't a problem.
I did the same thing. I still am on social media such as lemmy and discord but its mostly to talk to people. And I havent watched the news since I was a child. Important things come your way eventually and I dont see it as being ignorant. Now I only receive information I can actually do something about if I want to.
Can confirm this. I've been trying to set my life up to be as internetless as possible.
We consume pseudo-food, watch pseudo movies and participate in pseudo sports, heck even pseudo politics. Why pseudo? Because everything is made as cheap as possible and to distract us from the suffering that capitalism brings us so that we won't rise up.
Examples:
Comments like this always make me think of this film. One of my favorites.
https://youtu.be/cCeeTfsm8bk?si=Dn8CwEEMV9Lpt27u
Thank you for sharing that interesting watch, cool music
Elegia by New Order.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Hmm.
I think capitalism isn't the problem nor is liking and consuming a product or experience. We have great products turned into entire experiences here in the US, and I'm not terribly upset anymore about it.
The problem is the late stage unchecked capitalism running rampant. I think allowing individuals the freedom to pursue their ideas and allow others to even build livelihoods from it works great. But there's gotta be checks and balances, its what the USA was founded on.
What you are referring to is called socialism. And yes, it's a good thing.
Yeah buddy.
Capitalism with checks and balances is not socialism.
It literally is.
So regulation of the market by the people (aka people democratically deciding where capitalism should be limited/regulated).
If there is another word that fits better though please let me know.
He’s not wrong
I am with Anon. It’s all kinda surreal now. But I’m gonna live it up the way I know how.
Sometimes it’s fun to try doing things differently, but I sort of agree with you. As time goes on it’s harder and harder to break ourselves of our habits
This is when you get off social media and live life with your family. It's so easy to fall into that mindset when you're going to areas where people crowd together since it ends up with large scope views and ideas.
Give into the hate, anon. Join the sixth.
We live in a simulation
Escapism in the 21st century.
Nothing is real
bury head in sand
Sleep
Until you realize simulated pain still hurts.
*World we evolved to survive in...
Votes for trump
It is about politics when these people can't see the hole they dig for themselves when an obvious authoritarian like Trump has populist support.
Quacks like a duck
This guy needs to go to a music festival and do Molly with his best friends
Hit the gym and touch grass every so often. It's that simple to feel better. The hardest part is finding consistency. But being chronically online and doom scrolling is what makes the world feel so bleak.
Edit: gonna copy and paste my other comment
This carries "Just don't be sad bro" energy
While yes, being physically fit is a good thing generally. Going outside especially within the US just makes me feel worse. Everyone is just as miserable as me, it's too hot, it smells like smoke and gas, I can't hear shit because the 4 lane road's noise is deafening, and those who aren't miserable are blissfully ignorant towards the horrible shit people go through in a country that doesn't give a shit about them.
I've managed to disconnect more, work on my hobbies, and find the will to live. My diet in improving and my fitness is also improving, but I just fucking hate the place I live and do not have the means to pick up and leave. The MOMENT I look into it I'm berated with product after product, and expense after expense. We as a society have cultivated an unsustainable model of operation and it's finally falling apart. Like the oil fields, we too are being sucked dry.
I wish I could be ignorant. But I just can't bring myself to that point.
I mean, I'm simplifying it for me, but I realized at one point I'm just tired of being tired. Doesn't have to be physical activity, but it's really just finding your niche and not getting into your head too much. Easier said than done, but I really just woke up one day and decided that change is only going to come if I force myself to get up and do something. Otherwise I just get depressed and all "woe is me, woe is the world". If life sucks anyways, I'm going to find ways to enjoy it my own way.
I hate to break it to people but when it came full circle to me, it became as easy as "I'm a depressed right now, well I don't want to be so I'm going to put a little effort into something. That way, I can at least be proud of myself if not the world".
I can keep complaining about the world, or I can toughen myself up for myself and be proud of the person I am. I wouldn't call it ignorance to the rest of the world, I just don't give a fuck anymore. It never gave a fuck about me in the first place. I'm doing it all for myself.
This is dangerously close to telling people that are depressed go pull themselves up by their boot straps like you did.
Eventually you have to. It sucks, I get it. But if you're not going to do it for yourself, no one else will. If you need help, you have to make that first phone call to the therapist yourself. Otherwise you can easily get stuck in the comfortable spiral of depression.
Ironically it's not even that anymore. Since these are recommended as the answer so much they are the same as any zeitgeist-chase. Act on your own selfishness for your own enjoyment. Go swim, chill out with that show you think you'll enjoy that everyone hates, try cook something new.
People can get stuck in the rut of information overload with the internet but its still an incredibly useful tool to use. Some people just need to learn to use it rather them let it use you.
How bout we tear it all the fuck down!? I've got the nukes.
Find some help man
It seems to me that Anon is a whiny little bitch.
bet a month's rent anon doesn't exercise and their sleep is fucked. I was this doomy too, before I fixed my shit.
Making yourself feel good enough to ignore the shithole our society has become doesn't fix anything. Denying reality is foolish as fuck and actively makes it worse.
Being a doomer doesn't fix anything. Telling people it's all hopeless is foolish and actively makes it worse.
When literally every expert and every shred of credible evidence agrees that it's hopeless, pretending it isn't hopeless is just going to leave you unprepared, and you'll end among the first of the dead when the collapse happens and leads to long term global famine.
It takes an incredibly childish and naive view of the world to believe that the entire world is going to suddenly come together to meaningfully reduce emissions in the forseeable future. That's very literally the only possible solution, and it cannot possibly happen.
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best are not mutually exclusive.
Even if they were, I'd rather live with hope for a shorter time than "live" without hope for a longer time.
Also, since the whole issue of emissions comes from production of resources, how do you think gathering resources to outlast a global famine is going to affect that?
No, it’s really just “be the change you want to see.”
Wish “the world” worked? Start with your own life.
No one is denying anything. It's just a question of whether you get up to fight or give up and die. That's the part that's in your power, and taking care of your body is the first step toward getting up to fight.
It really is, but i only understood after i started taking care of my body.
As stupid as "taking care of the body" sounds, our body is an organic machine. It only works correctly, if properly maintained. Learning how to listen to the body and giving it what it needs, releases lots of dopamine. You end up learning to enjoy more single moments, moments without anxiety, stress or fear.
But the clearness of mind also lets you see that the situation is actually worse than perceived before, the world is fucked and as the years pass by, it seems that there's a global effort to fuck of it as fast as possible.
Start out with small steps, like 20 minutes a day, 20 minutes is nothing. But 20 minutes being conscious of your movements, breathing and focusing, means a lot for your health and mind.
The important thing is to shake that booty until the spirit is high.
Talking a big game but you're only really healthy if you can accept the good and the bad for what it is.