Plus, it’s not like the climate will just snap back into place when the boomers are finally too old for their skeleton talons to cling to power. That shit is going to take generations of sacrifice to roll back, if it doesn’t topple civilization first.
The whole ethos of the majority of baby boomers seems to have been to raze the forest they got to enjoy behind them (as opposed to planting trees whose shade they’d never sit in like most generations aspire to), and they seem to be having remarkable success in that.
Then we will fall to fascism in the near future. Maybe not this election, but soon.
You can’t get people en masse to support you on the message of “Your tangible situation will continue to be horrible, but letting those guys win will cause unimaginably worse horror” cycle after cycle and continue to get them to care, and it is understandable to for them to eventually wash their hands of it, because at the end of the day, voting associates you with this system, and it feels dirty to participate because it makes it feel like you bear responsibility for what a Faustian bargain it is every cycle.
I will keep showing up with a funeral dirge in my heart to vote for the lesser evil and attempt to hold back the bloodthirsty fascist horde yet again without hope for things actually improving, but I’m not the norm. Most sane people will eventually just walk away from it sooner or later because the reality is too unpalatable.
Honestly I wish the proud rigged market capitalists who don’t believe in progressive wealth redistribution, or a society with any equity, would stop calling themselves the “left.”
It’s nice that you support 2 homeless people being allowed to get married regardless of gender identity and live in the same refrigerator box in the same gutter, but the fact remains that no one should be homeless in a society that generates such wealth. This neoliberal mindset shouldn’t pass for left-wing. Our entire effective political spectrum has been reduced to “give rich people all the money and let people do what they want socially” and “give the rich people all the money and torture any non-white conservative Christians socially.”
And yes, i’m voting for Biden to stave off Jerry Lewis Hitler, just as I did last time and Clinton before, full well knowing it solves nothing and only slows the rate of descent into oligarchal madness and dystopia. It’s just voting to keep the water pumps running on the Titanic, it buys time, it is not a path to survival in itself.
Jon is the exception, and I’ve often spoken about how he would be an excellent President.
He knows, has been involved, and most importantly is disgusted in that knowledge of how the sausage gets made. He knows how to appeal for public support to tear down the institutional obstructions.
Also importantly, I don’t think he can be bought. He’s walked away from cash cow gigs after he made enough. He isn’t infinitely greedy, and that’s rare in politics because most of them get into politics explicitly to be bought. I think his combination of institutional knowledge, understanding of today’s social ills, demonstrated empathy, and ability to say no to calls of making moooooaaaaaar money make him the ideal candidate.
That’s also the problem, because I don’t think he’d want it, which makes him an even better choice.
That’s the paradox of power, from police all the way to POTUS, the ones that seek it out and fight for it tend to be the worst possible candidates to possess it.
I think you could drastically minimize any impact by doing the time travel in space and merely observing from high orbit, assuming your time machine has no form of exhaust, which if you have a time machine seems like a relatively small engineering challenge by comparison.
You might displace a few atoms in the void, but it’s the safest way one could go about it.
I mean, technically displacing the air with that time machine on such a massive time scale is just as likely to result in returning to a civilization of dolphin people as riding a dinosaur would.
I made a deal with myself a long time ago, my primary value:
I’d rather know than be happy.
Reality is cold and bleak. We have so many social constructs meant to obfuscate that fact. I wouldn’t change my values, but they aren’t a path to a shiny, happy life, and blissful ignorance values are among the biggest reasons our civilization’s outlook is so bleak.
A CEO has no desire to see how those they laid off are doing months later, or the children they hurt polluting a water source, or their own current employee’s subsistence living conditions despite the revenue they generate. They should have to see the pain they’ve caused to line their pockets, as should shareholders who applied pressure in willful ignorance for maximum profit(bliss), but ignorance is bliss.
Which is why, though alluring, the bliss of willful ignorance is a dangerous and antisocial value to live by.
Kind of tried to tie the star trek vision of common endeavor to the NASA age of common endeavor. The one we sold off to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
The viewers largely didn’t, and now Trek is very pretty to look at, and even arguably more of a fun ride, but doesn’t lean into conveying the message of human aspiration and cooperation as it once had. That kind of ended with Enterprise, and I miss that.
Not to even mention that most social issues are exacerbated by our disgraceful economic inequity, but we’re only allowed to argue the symptoms, as our beloved society market capitalist economy is too perfect and sacred to change to Republicans and Neoliberals alike.
Abortions are often economic decisions, for example, and correctly so when you can’t afford to raise a child. If you want significantly fewer abortions, living wages, paid maternity leave, social supports etc would do that, as just 1 example.
Just an aside, it’s still impressive to me with all the technical limitations they had, they were still able to make Mario feel so damn floaty swimming through the water levels.
I think modern developers are in some ways stifled by an aimless lack of limitations.
A couple of people that drive massive vehicles they don’t need like Escalades have told me (former practicing psychologist) over the years that they know they are bad drivers, but they want to drive a tank so they can walk away from whatever accidents they know they’ll cause.
Because practicing and improving their driving skills is apparently not on the table. The lack of empathy is unsettling. They don’t care who they kill, they just don’t want to be inconvenienced.
We hit one third of boomers being dead in the last few days. (lemmy.world)
incendar.com/baby_boomer_deathclock.php
Dreamcatcher (lemmy.world)
The "Left" (lemmy.ml)
Someone talk to me about Go (the board game). I'm in the process of learning it right now. (lemmy.world)
Do you think Jon Stewart should run for president of the United States?
This is for something else. (i.imgur.com)
My Ex loves to swat (lemmy.world)
Ignorance is bliss (thumbsnap.com)
Biochem (mander.xyz)
Baby oil 🛢️ (lemmy.today)
South Africa is the Legal Arm of _____. (lemmy.ml)
Friday night plans? (startrek.website)
Truly the most important stuff is Culture War (lemm.ee)
Noooooo (lemmy.today)
Higher Vehicle Hoods Increase Pedestrian Deaths (arstechnica.com)
I know, you’re shocked right?
26 January 1979 (sh.itjust.works)