I agree with basically everything you say until you establish the sole culprit of all ills being a socioeconomic philosophy. Everyone’s favorite culprit of the ills of society is capitalism. Not that I have any sympathy for it. It’s just the flavor of subjugation that was working last century. I’ve also seen hypernormalization and I enjoyed it very much, but I think Curtis has the same issue you’re having. Theocracies, feudalism, centrally planned economies such as those that communism often push for, monarchy and anarchy don’t do any better. They all enslave people in their own ways.

The way I see it, the world is run by empires, their vassals and then there are client states and places where there’s nothing to steal left. Empires stay dominant by harnessing the power of three things: thought control, warfare and slaves. Always has been like this and it still is. Show me any human society of over 100.000 people where their most underprivileged aren’t being horribly abused. You might point to scandinavia, but… Who makes their phones and electronic devices? Who handpicks blueberries for them when it’s winter on their hemisphere? Who ends up paying the price for the weapons, the oil and the drugs they sell?

They just managed to sweep their slavery under the rug, just like we comfortably buy our presliced bacon and have a delicious breakfast without ever having to face the death of the animals that were sacrificed for them.

If you think any system fixes what you’re describing, i ask you to paint a picture for me and tell me why it will not eventually devolve into the most ruthless members within eventually getting to positions of power (be it within the private sector, the government or a dominant religious institution) and becoming even more corrupt. I don’t even need any historic examples of it working. Just what it would look like.

Cause empires, societies and ideologies have life cycles, just like organisms do. Sometimes they can renew themselves and gain new strength after big events or compelling leadership come by, but they all collapse eventually. In the vedas they describe the golden age, silver age bronze age and eventually the kali yuga of societies, where corruption, depravity and distrust become so widespread the people stop believing in anything and no longer care about anything but themselves. In the west we prefer talking about decadence, and it’s always the same. Be it with the mongols, the romans, the french, dutch, chinese…

The people on top get so rich it poisons their minds and alienates them from society. The hierarchies become distant from each other, a peasant or slave so far removed from an emperor, they’re unable to consider each other human. The creation myth and the promises of a better tomorrow for all becomes evidently a lie and people stop finding meaning in unity.

Cults of abundance and paganism emerge (cryptobros, technocrats, ecoterrorists, utopian marxists, etc). The people that can afford to drench themselves in hedonism (all decadent empires become completely obsessed with food, sex, drugs, sports and entertainment) while the underprivileged do the shit work and die in wars. Most people stop having kids. The blatant hypocrisy makes people claim for a hero and populism emerges. Unrest comes. Revolutions start bubbling and get crushed by the forces that are kept well trained and fed by the corrupt leadership, until eventually, either some other emergent and younger empire sweeps in or a revolution becomes successful.

Doesn’t really matter which of those happens. The result is the same. The poor get it the worse, the rich flee or break deals and only end up inconvenienced and humiliated but not dead, and people in between either go to other parts of the world because “fuck this place” or become slaves to the new regime, which will do the same thing all over again.

This is no different than a rotten tree falling apart and if you think killing every last capitalist, intel agent and rich person will make any difference, I’d say you’re not looking at the big picture.

The problem with polarization isn’t that you the powerful remain in power and keep oppressing the poor. That part’s inevitable. The problem is they show weakness to foreign enemies who start sharpening their teeth. Then come the proxy wars and if a direct confrontation can be avoided, whoever loses must forever pay tribute to the victor… until it happens to them.

Nature is unfair, life is unfair and politics and societies are extremely unfair and cruel. Doesn’t matter what systems or leaders you choose. Take your pick. Nations either run on warfare, slaves and propaganda, or are the victims of those that do.

weird idiosyncrasies

Agreed, ChocoboEnthusiast

People love their gambling.

inb4 DC pizza delivery volume ETF.

I’m not a christian, but let’s take a look at some aspects of what you’re doing by posting this.

• Manufacturing a test of purity for a conviction you don’t identify with
• Telling people they fail this test if they don’t meet some criteria
• Gate keeping some people out of their belief system
• Causing distress on those who identify with these beliefs
• Making some people feel unwelcome
• Adding to the current trend of ideological polarization
• Hitting an easy target
• Beating a dead horse
• Conjuring approval by attacking a generally unpopular group within this context.

I say this because I’ve done it, and a lot more aggressively than you just did. Used to do it all the time, actually. Still do it once in a while, when frustrated. It amused me. Made me feel like I was fighting a good fight against the people and ideas that weren’t helping, but the truth is, at least in my case, I was just being mean and petty to feel control over my frustrating life.

With time and after seeing the consequences of polarization within my own and several other countries, I came to believe that this kind of tribalistic aggression ends in a worse society and world for everyone.

I say let’s try to make the lemmyverse fediverse a nicer place that what corporate social media has turned the rest of the internet into. This isn’t 4chan, facebook or reddit. We can be humans here.

Even if only to stick it to Christians or whoever you dislike, there is nothing better for yourself, your community and the world than to lead by example. You know. Doing what you want to see in others. I’d really like to see more compassion. I’d like to see more respect and kindness. I don’t always accomplish it, but I try to do these things myself… and you know what? After making the effort, it feels good. It actually feels good.

However you feel about my excessively moralizing rant that got out of hand, and believe it or not, I feel for you, man. I know what it’s like to feel like there are people who are convinced that bad things are good and feel powerless against them. Feels pretty shitty.

Really genuinely wish you the best, hope people don’t get too worked up about this post or my comment and more than anything else, I look forward to trying to make this wonderful community better every day with your help and that of every other kind and well meaning person here.

Thanks for reading and don’t let your frustration get the best of you. You’re too good for this stuff. <3

You know how in totalitarian regimes, they used to burn book and silence, disappear or imprison people who spoke certain things?

Whenever there is war, thought regulation gets really strict.

I’ve never seen em either, but for some reason, this doesn’t trouble me.

Crazy stuff, and yeah. Tip of the iceberg.

This is why I chcukle to myself when people stress the relevance that something is a fact. You can do a whooooole lot of stuff with facts if you know what you’re doing.

It’s scary, really, how manipulable we are through cheap trickery.

how about a catbox link?

The sad truth is it doesn’t matter how true or fabricated whatever it is people believe, as long as it keeps them coordinated and united as a nation… Or else the other nations that really like your stuff and land might make their people all believe the same thing and they can gain advantage over time.

No one likes hearing this cute little opinion I have but I think the greatest enemy the USA has today is not the right wing nut jobs nor the left wing jobs, it’s division itself.

Believe it or not, american citizens today are experimenting two things history is very familiar with:

• religious wars and
• slave revolts.

Sorry, sorry, I mean:

• fundamentally incompatible world views about what people should aspire to be, what they should aspire to become as a collective identity and how to get there and
• society’s most vulnerable people engaging in violence against the armed forces who follow the orders of those who have societal power…

Cause those are totally different.

Either way, when things get this polarized, fights get ugly. Pushing and shoving cannot be unpushed or unshoved… trust and good faith are lost, and they don’t fix themselves.

Only thing that can possibly unite the US with the current level of polarization is nothing short of an atrocity within borders.

Sorry if it’s insensitive to talk about these kinds of opinions out loud. just sharing my honest perspective.

Many sharp ppl point it out when they first read it. ;)

I agree with all your predictions and the geopolitical risks you mention, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re cool. All around the world, everyone is ruled and bossed around by horrible people. Yours just happen to have bigger guns and the gold standard for central bank reserve currencies. I don’t think it’s fair to consider every single person that lives in a country/empire/whatever a bad human being or someone who deserves bad things, no matter how horrible the empire in its collective efforts.

You guys have good valuable people. I’ve had the fortune to meet a few and stay friends with them. I’m sure this is true for even the most perverse organizations. Some people are just there cause they didn’t have any better alternatives.

The value of someone is a case by case basis thing as far as I’m concerned. There’s no passport that skips the line to condemnation or salvation.

I figure it’s just like in poker, you know? The cards we have, we got dealt. The question isn’t why didn’t we get the hand we wanted, or how could we redesign the game in order for everyone to get good cards… The game will be over by then. Only thing that matters is how we play what we’re dealt.

And yes, I realize the cards both of us might get very soon might be very bad, but I guess i’d rather see if I can make some kind of play with whatever I have and have fun with the other people around me than endlessly grieve about the ones I wanted or the people that stopped me from getting em.

Much love, my friend. It’s not your fault and nothing is the end of the world (believe it or not, not even the end of the world). You have nothing to apologize for that you didn’t personally do freely and knowingly, and even if you have those, everyone does and most are less reflexive about it. Stay strong.

idk they used to have really high literacy rate a while ago and their country is regionally famous for having functional government services, or at least it was until recently. They seem to be doing well economically too, so I think they might have better average education than the rest of us in this god forsaken hellscape of a continent.

Ok then the whole tier list should be substituted by 3 letter combinations.

I’m pretty sure you can use it in english if you sell tacos or smth

How can you even compare 2 letters to 1?

What about Ñ?

That’s brutal. I’m sorry.