Why does it feel that the evil sides globally are winning. Even evil people are winning. Why?

  • adam_y@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Unpopular opinion, but in the west particularly, folk have mistaken writing on the internet for action.

    Tweeting resistance rather than performing it.

    A lapse into inaction framed as radical rest and self care.

    Online they are fierce warriors of justice, offline they go to work in Starbucks, use their apple devices to talk to their families and enjoy the treadmill of streaming services.

    And this isn’t to blame them. This is the point of consumerist capitalism. To trap you in a gilded cage.

    • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Well observed. People pour a lot of energy into political actions. The question is what that energy gets used on.

    • anon6789@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      This is why I’ve stopped reading much of the content I had been reading before. Unless an article is about what someone is doing to stop what is happening, what is the point in reading it? I don’t care so much about the bad, rather in how the rest of us are preventing it.

      For all the people complaining, I haven’t seen many talking about what steps they are taking to change the momentum. I get why I’ve may not want to announce what protests they are attending, but I haven’t noticed much new talk about mutual aid or volunteering efforts. I know the recent political climate globally is motivating me to be involved in both.

      I’m waiting to hear back in a volunteer position helping local wildlife, and once I get that schedule worked out, I’ve already started looking into local food aid opportunities as well.

      If our society is leaving gaps unfilled, as you said, it’s up to us to fill them ourselves before we all fall through.

      • in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        I used to go to protests, from USA to Australia to NZ and UK… I’m not going to another protest until we start occupying gated communities. I’m sick of standing around looking pathetic occupying some sidewalk and politely leaving when told to by police. And to think that’s the best the so-called “leftists” can do, then I remember to back when things were bad - how the police and FBI would raid groups, murder them, drop bombs on them, and assassinate their leadership - and realize that leftism was defeated long ago. I want to keep it peaceful, and start picketing in places that matter like outside mansions and gated communities. Just stand outside the homes of billionaires to tell them we know where they live, we out number them, I think would be enough to shake things up a bit because they’re cowards too. However, in my heartest of hearts, I believe anything short of an armed overthrow of one dozen billionaires will never be enough. Fuck tinkering and pushing the needle slightly. Loud and armed leftist groups are needed now more than ever and there’s zero of them to be found.

  • gon [he]@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.

    Evil isn’t “winning” as much as it is “on top.” If you look around, talk to your neighbours and such, you’ll see that good and reasonable people are everywhere; good is the overwhelming majority.

    That being said, positions of power are chased and coveted by those obsessed with power, and those aren’t good people. Good people need to take charge, but it’s — in a way — against their nature to do so.

    • in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      good is the overwhelming majority.

      Let the overwhelming centrist majority in 1930’s Germany tell you otherwise. People who peacefully ignore evil, even if it’s preserve their own safety, are not good at heart. People just don’t want trouble or disturbance, that’s why people are naturally kind from day to day. But ignoring the piles of bodies while saying “no politics at the dinner table” is literally how the holocaust happened - the majority failed to act.

      1930’s Germany at least had the excuse of limited information/education, all they had was radio from which only Hitler’s voice was present. 100 years later with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, ignorance to politics is a choice. Might I say an evil one, all things considered.

      • gon [he]@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        That’s not a very generous interpretation of people… Though I can’t exactly contradict you.

        • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]

          -MLK Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail

  • ofcourse@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago
    1. Rampant unchecked capitalism of recent decades has created large wealth disparities akin to the earlier decades of the last century. It is no longer possible for one person in a household with a regular job to support a modest lifestyle for their family. All benefits especially medical for the whole family, being completely intertwined with the current job reduces mobility and further feeds into the wealth gap by keeping wages low. It’s easier to blame the powerless for this state of affairs than the powerful because the powerless cannot object.
    2. The fear of the other has been accentuated by media and misinformation. Targeted algorithms feeding most of the information that is consumed has created echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and fears. The propaganda state has never had it easier.
    3. The large military and police has given never before control to the state about what is allowed to be protested. Combined with the day to day struggles, it’s extremely hard to come together for what is right. The ruling class is able to maintain the fine balance between absolute misery and general dissatisfaction that it is still better to struggle through a thankless job than to say fuck it. Failures of recent large uprisings like Middle East and Hong Kong have reinforced the futility of standing up against the rulers.
    4. Evil has many heads and there’s always one head that you can find alignment with. It could be the deregulation of businesses, lower taxes, anti abortion, racism, but as long as there’s one thing you can align on, the general sense of powerlessness makes it easier to overlook the other heads.
    5. The line between evil and good has never been murkier, especially with globalization. If you focus on the betterment of your community, it would be considered good, but what if it leads to suffering of others outside the community. Is it also evil? What is community - is it the people in your neighborhood, your religion, your country, fellow business owners? The fuzzier these lines are, the harder it is to untangle them.
    • DNS@discuss.online
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      6 months ago

      I felt so evil this morning that I drove my car. Fuck you Nature, I’m taking climate back

  • Vinny_93@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Have you ever cheated at a game, cut corners on work or purposefully did something unfair to get better from it yourself?

    Yeah it’s much easier to win without any pesky ethics or a strong moral compass.

    Good folks have been struggling uphill since the Ancient Greeks as long as there are folks trying to win with a different rule book.

    • Makhno@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Everytime we talk about violence being the only way to create change, limp-dick liberals bitch about how peaceful protests are the only way.

      Liberalism helped build this hell, and it’s determined to maintain it.

      Leftist need to get guns. Now.

      • chickennuggies@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Liberals have good intentions at times, but they are ultimately toothless because they are pussies. I just have to roll my eyes at the people who you tell you to contact your representatives, but has never spent a minute at the range.

        Do you know how you get people to listen to you? Let them know that you and people with similar views know how to operate a rifle.

        • Welt@lazysoci.al
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          6 months ago

          Or you could just come up with a coherent argument to persuade them, rather than intimidating them with implied force. You’re not as tough as you think you are, shooter.

          • chickennuggies@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            It’s not about being tough, it’s about saying, “no I will not be raped”. Apparently that’s something you struggle with.

  • Akiko@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    People are scared and angry and want action without thinking about the long-term gains only the short term. Creating fear is fascism 101 and how many rise to power

  • demizerone@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Capitalism is dying because of unchecked greed and people are turning to socialism. The wealthy choose fascism. Until we have class unity. Once we bring out the guillotines, They will retreat to spending the rest of their lives in the bunkers they have built with their stolen wealth.

    • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      “Once we bring out the guillotines”
      Depends where you live.
      I hear the hardcore revolutionary libs in the US have found a much more powerful way to defeat fascism… buy nothing for 1 day.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        6 months ago

        The US has a really serious problem on their hands which is that their trade war won’t achieve anything. The US doesn’t make anything, it famously doesn’t make anything, the only reason that they trade with Canada is because Canada is close. Even then it’s mostly just food stuffs which Canada can make themselves.

        But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place

        • havocpants@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place

          I don’t think it’s fair to say that America makes nothing. A big part of that trade deficit (certainly with Canada) is down to the relative size of the consumer markets - America has a population of over 330 million people to Canada’s 40 million so of course America will be a net importer of Canadian goods.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            6 months ago

            Doesn’t explain Europe though. European market in the American market are almost identical in terms of population size.

    • Ithorian@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      And who you going to put on the guillotines? You own! People are getting so blind with anger

  • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Because now it is affecting you personally. Before it was in the middle east or some random aftican nation where people dont speak english, and media make sure it is not in the front page. Reading some history of any conflict will show the root starting a while back but no one cares.

  • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    My opinion on this generally boils down to that the system has been set up to reward evil/antisocial behavior, and this part of the system is so entrenched and well established and organized that it has not been effectively and completely toppled or eradicated in so long, it has been able to consolidate power and resources to a point where very few extremely evil people are personally in charge of so much of what happens that it seeps into everything. Actually “seeps” is the wrong word, it’s injected into everything. It’s like has been said many times in recent memory, the cruelty is the point.

    For a simplified example, evil executives reward evil behavior by their managers, who in turn punish their employees, who lose control of so much of their lives to these companies and managers that they end up hurting their families and friends out of confusion and anger and other complex emotional reactions, and harm is perpetuated in every area of life.

    It’s self sustaining, and even worse it replicates itself. In some ways I think of these systems as viruses. Also as cults. We all buy in to some degree.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Class solidarity among the rich. Rich people want willing servants. They want people to fear disobeying them.

  • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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    6 months ago

    I think the issue in America, is that the Constitution only addressed political power, but failed to account for fiscal strength. Money is inherently a thing that manipulates the fates of individuals, companies, and nations alike. By not setting down rules, limitations, and expectations regarding economics, the Founding Fathers allowed a key form of power go unaddressed.

    The vast majority of Project 2025’s major backers are wealthy people, who have far beyond what any normal person can ever hope to possess. This imbalance means that workers have to sacrifice much time, money, and energy to be barely heard on a single issue, while a rich person can just hire experts to massage every aspect of their many messages and to deliver it everywhere with a mighty voice.

    IMO, we will need a Constitution v2.0 that fixes not only assorted political flaws like the voting system, but also prevents wealth from being a microphone that only a few can afford.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      It’s not some accident or overlook that a bunch of slavers made a pact to violently enforce their privilege. That was always the point.

      Another constitution sounds good until you realize it’s going to be same kind of people making it. And the state will still be an involuntary system of violent coercion.

    • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      The constitution isn’t some Holy Document that has the power to shape reality. You can write in as many legal clauses as you like, but so long as you’re allowing a small class of oligarchs to control capital, they will use that power to influence policy.

      • Freefall@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I don’t have the source, but I am almost certain the constitution, per the founders, was meant to be rewritten every few years…or at least edited.

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    One aspect is that mass media is overall owned by those people and is propaganda. If you don’t have ways of seeing what’s happening on the ground, you miss a lot of the good news. Even your twitter/bs/mastodon feeds won’t give you the full story, you have to (where possible) get involved in a real community organization.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Well, I’d say it’s because they don’t even hide it anymore. They know they can do whatever they want, and get away with it.

    Enshitification is a real thing, and companies and evil people are being blatant about it, because they know they don’t have to hide it because they know they can’t be stopped.

    It sucks. I hate it. I wish we could do something about it.