You won’t be getting universal healthcare, decent paid parental leave, comprehensive worker protections, or 4-8 weeks’ holiday pay per year for the foreseeable future.

Three US democratic party is fairly “conservative” relative to European social democracies. That’s all.

My understanding is that it was a Tumblr fad that became viral outside of Tumblr because it’s easy to recognize the absurdity, and it made a great target for ridiculing the woke (back when “woke” was a complement, and we just called this sort of thing being “politically correct”).

Point is, you can’t just impose new words on purpose. Language doesn’t work that way. It’s all about the viral memes taking off. So it’s always best to adapt existing language.

“They” is finally clicking in my mind as a singular gender neutral word, for example. It took a while, I have to admit.

“…for the auto industry” Did they just edit a clickbait ass title?

Disdain Trump, but shitty media isn’t helping.

When you’re a psychopath of one description or another, who knows what might motivate you?

Most of us normal people are content to be free to spend time with friends and family doing the things we love. Imagine if you couldn’t give a shit about that, and that’s basically the world’s most successful people.

Their lineages have spent recent human history honing capitalism to be the vessel for the freedom of their kind. Money buys you freedom from consequences most of the time. That shouldn’t be possible.

The internet opened up their world for us to see, and for a moment it looked like we might sieze control. Instead, we let ourselves be manipulates into thinking they do in fact give a shit, or at least if we tag along we’ll be winners too.

The names we know are the ones who court controversy for the thrill.

Elon Musk is an excellent example. Whatever talents he has are moot next to his moral insanity. All he cares about is having a legacy, and achieving the things he wants. He just pays lip service to any real altruism. I mean, he’s the last person who needs to preside over horrific working conditions. He even bans PPE because he doesn’t like bright colors.

Ironic how the reverse will never happen. Only the right-wing benefit from less people voting. It’s such a shit asymmetry.

That’s honestly just worse if true. How is this not criminal? He doesn’t go to jail unless the state is what he’s ripped off? You know, the one by the people for the people?

It may not apply to this case, but it certainly does apply in a wide way.

There is also this.

What, where?

If you’re poor though they just put you in jail while they figure that stuff out. If they figure it out.

I hope you’re right. The fact all the polling data puts Trump at an almost 50% chance of being re-elected if allowed to run is not encouraging, and it’s almost like the closer we get to locking him up (or out), the more popular he becomes.

His followers lack critical thinking skills. But so does the overwhelming majority of the population. That was really my point.

I do. He needs to go to jail eventually, or at least be made ineligible to run for office, or both. But if law enforcement locked him up tomorrow I think that could be immediately destabilizing of American society and the ensuing riots could cause massive loss of life and destruction, if not all out civil war, frankly. The cult of Trump is not insignificant. I live in New Zealand, and even here I encounter Trump pariahs all the time. We are living in very interesting times.

The asymmetry here is the most frustrating thing, but building things has always been harder than tearing them down. Dealing with Trump and the cult surrounding him, and the phenomena that actually made him possible in the first place (social media and the outrage and misinformation economy that has infected news media and the entire information space), is probably going to be the project that defines this decade, and that all other projects depend on for their success (like dealing with climate change). So it’s one that if we fail, could set us back to the early 1900s or worse in terms of global societal cohesion. I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic when I say this.

That’s a very good point I’ve only just really let sink in. Trump not passing go and going directly to jail will mean chaos and collateral damage, perhaps globally. Things have to be done delicately for all our sakes unfortunately.

The question is what people who conclude the truth will do next. I think we’re stuck between a rock and the hard place that is human nature. I’m growing increasingly cynical about grassroots democracy having any hope of victory in the age of the algorithm controlled internet.

Sam Harris made a good point during the pandemic that is if everyone had just followed the lockdown instructions to perfection for three solid weeks, the virus really would have been eliminated in the US, and the world if we in the global community all followed suit. Millions of lives and trillions of dollars would have been saved. But we fucking suck at acting in our own best interests, and if Covid had been as deadly as we first feared, we’d already be fucked.

I think there’s a reason fascist authoritarians are so seductive to so many, and it’s because most of us are suckers for charismatic leaders telling us what to do. Enter stage right a left-wing populist, and the left will get just as horny for them as the right is for Trump.

This happened in NZ (where I live) over Jacinda Ardern. Turned out she was just in it for her career and the rest of her party was just downright incompetent. Ironically, they did well early pandemic which won them and the left an overwhelming majority in 2020. They honestly just got lucky. Not only did they screw up royally late-pandemic, but in the aftermath, they totally fucking failed to do anything worthwhile with the power they had to move the progressive agenda forward in any enduring way. They just lost the 2023 election in a complete landslide. The only silver lining is the new right-wing three-way coalition is very likely to be even more incompetent, so maybe the left will get another chance in three years.

Point is, populists always win elections because most people don’t vote for policy, or if they do, vote single issue, and rarely strategically. Then, anything that would improve the situation at the grass roots in the short term (e.g. integrating civics and critical thinking into school curriculums) would lead to accusations of progressive bias since science and progressivism are natural allies. Even so, change of this kind might still be possibly perhaps if it didn’t threaten capitalism as a whole which thrives on the left/right oscillations of so-called “representative” democracy.

I think we’re fucked in the near term unless one of the following two miracles occurs:

1. A charismatic left-wing politician more popular than Trump emerges in the US for the 2028 election who is scientifically literate, a competent leader, an excellent sales and business person, and genuinely interested in advancing the UNs “Global Goals” agenda in the most effective ways already known to world leaders in their respective academic and technical fields.

2. Benevolent aliens announce themselves with a power comparable to God of Abrahamic and they strong arm us into adopting a Solar Punk society.

I put (2) as being as likely as God actually existing, which is, basically nil. So… Taylor Swift 2028?