Reminds me that the whole concept of generations is something manufactured of whole cloth and meant to divide us, but more than that, that real people are compassionate and understanding. All that stuff is just fake.
It gives me hope for unity.
What galls me is that we have no means of recourse really.
The minimum wage has been stuck at $7 for almost two decades, and 2/3 of the states use that baseline. Unions have become stronger by necessity, which is great, as prices for everything from food, to gas, to rent have surged and our Federal Government has done nothing meaningful to stop it. Workers are cast as lazy or crybabies for wanting the most basic positive work-life balance. And, short of being a billionaire or being willing to commit a terrorist act (which I 100% do not endorse) the individual is stuck cutting themselves down to the bone in order to survive, even with a full-time job.
The worst part of this is that half the western world seems to be caught by right-wing media that has managed to convince them that the problem is gays, immigrants, muslims, jews, professors, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc. These people believe that the rich are their allies, and so when Jeff Bezos rides a penis rocket into “space”, they cheer instead of wanting to lynch him.
Democracy doesn’t work unless the voters are informed. The right-wing media system has brainwashed people so they can’t even accept basic facts – and that’s before you start diving into the whole conspiracy space with Jewish space lasers, a flat earth, chemtrails, crisis actors, etc.
Because these voters are so misinformed, they advocate against anything that might help them or their children to become more informed. So, the problem just gets worse generation by generation.
If you can’t get people to understand the basic facts of life, you definitely can’t get them to understand the problem. If you can’t get them to understand the problem, there’s no way to get them to advocate for a solution. And, even if it were possible to get a majority to advocate for a solution, the electoral systems of the world are so rigged that it would be really hard to pass the required laws.
We do have recourse, we just aren’t organized and don’t seem to really be that motivated to do anything about it. And a huge number are regularly falling for a massive propaganda machine.
I guess it’s a prisoner’s dilemma. If you’re the first to walk away from your job to protest you’re fucked.
Living in a very economically depressed and propagandized region of the U.S. I really feel this. Have often said, the big problem is that so few people have your back here should you wish to protest in any meaningful way. Ironically, it is a place that once fought hard and bloody battles for labor. If you bring this up, they reckon it is totally unrelated to our present crises.
And, short of being a billionaire or being willing to commit a terrorist act (which I 100% do not endorse)
In a society where healthcare and housing are purchased at market rather than a right, financial exploitation is an overt act of violence against each and every one of us.
Violence begets violence. However, a lack of a sufficiently violent response to an unjustified violent act begets repetition and escalation of that violent act.
What galls me is that we have no means of recourse really.
Guillotines.
Our means of recourse is the guillotine. That we haven’t hauled a guillotine to the door of a billionaire and demanded he reduce his wealth to $999,999,999 is a travesty.
The longer we refrain from using the figurative guillotines of law and order to bring these robber barons into line, the more likely we will need to resort to literal guillotines.
