this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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Mark Zuckerberg made $29 billion this morning after Meta stock makes record surge::Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth increased by more than $28 billion between your morning coffee and your lunch break.

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[–] [email protected] 157 points 9 months ago (12 children)

If you have money you'll make money. It's all bullshit. Valuation and stocks and trends... It's all made up nonsense created to make sure the rich remain rich and Walmart employees remain on food stamps. Why we aren't constantly protesting or better yet destroying this system is beyond me. I guess the bulk of you assume one day you'll benefit from this system of suffering so you keep it in place just in case. Fuck.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Why we aren't constantly protesting or better yet destroying this system is beyond me.

When you're burnt out at your shitty job that barely covers your needs it's hard to revolt. Which is of course by design.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

I think if you're just scraping by then you have more to lose immediately than is worth the risk compared to what you might gain eventually.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I want to destroy it so bad. But my kids are able to sleep peacefully and night and have full bellies. Will the power vacuum we create ensure that survives? Even if I don't?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm glad your kids get the comfort and safety this capitalistic nightmare provides, but many kids don't.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Help me organize against citizens united and I'll follow you into the 10 hells. Until then, its just me versus the capitalists that control my life. Thats the mode we all exist in right now. Because I really do know that doing nothing curses them.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The reason people aren’t protesting in not some fantasy that they’ll benefit from it one day but that they will fall under the weight of capitalism’s heavy hand if they get recorded protesting and get fired or get a sick day and get fired and lose everything. The reason that the wealthy don’t want a safety net is not just because they hate the poor (they do) but because they have control over a population of workers who live in fear of the economic meat grinder. The system is so much more cynical and cruel than I would have imagined possible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

The answer is simpler: things arent bad enough. Also, nobody is protesting because everyone is sitting around wondering why nobody else is protesting rather than going out and protesting.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I think people are afraid to lose what they even, especially when it isn't much.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

This is my opinion, but I think protest is worthless unless the people protesting show that they are willing to give up somethingsomething important to get what they want. I don't think we'll make progress until people are willing to give up the status quo for a better future. The mind hates uncertainty, so even shitty future that's predictable is more desirable than a possible better, but uncertain future.

The middle class came into existence because people that would never be a part of it were willing to give their lives for it. Many did. If we are not willing to sacrifice our safety and secure future for a better life we may never experience, we will make no progress.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think we should skin him alive slowly on television as an example to the rest of them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe a little extreme. He'd have to be naked for that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I guess we could cut his junk off first to avoid being inappropriate. Gotta think about the children.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

The "temporarily embarrassed millionaire."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

We can destroy it but that's also discomfort. Your quality of life will likely go down, and if not you, for many as this battle ensues.

I bet you, like me, enjoy leaving the stress of work behind at the end of the day and turning on Netflix, or whatever your vice is, instead of skipping work, and my extension your pay, and not being able to afford the comfort of eating a dinner and watching Netflix after work.

Not everyone is at a point they're infuriated enough to revolt. A revolution is the only way anything is going to change.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I honestly just think it's ignorance and/or plain idiocy. One of my closest friends who's not dumb by any means, bought a home with his gf when homes were highly overvalued but loan rates were still on a record low (European country). I asked him if it was really such a good idea and if they couldn't just rent or keep living seperately for a while longer - but no.

Well, when everything caught up and their rate doubled all of a sudden it's hard to make their economy work (luckily they get by and are both educated but the rates can't go much higher before shit hits the fan).

He later had to get a new car and could barely afford a 20yo used car and complained that it's hard to have money left after all costs of living and I, like a good (bad?) friend, discreetly (not very much) brought up the fact that I "told him so". His response was "yes I know but those are the rules we just have to play by and it's out of our control".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So, what you're saying is... Is house rates went up on his mortgage right?

And because of that he became poor?

So you're saying your right with the assumption that if he rented his rent wouldn't also double??

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Okay, wow.

You do know rent is just someone with a mortgage on a house too right? (Paid off or not)

And if that landlords mortgage goes up, that will also make the rent they charge go up. ( Often far more than the rent, as it's percentage related. So, if your friend was renting, he'd be even worse off...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

Firstly, apartment complexes and the likes are usually owned by bigger companies with more leverage when negotiating loan rates compared to individuals. Secondly, renting a small apartment while holding on to their down payment money / saving even more is clearly gonna be cheaper than buying a 2 bedroom home in the middle of a city.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because people take the easy way out. They keep their head down and repeat a few lines they heard Hasan say in between piss breaks where he plays someone else's video in its entirety and think they are heroes. Oh, maybe they voted for Bernie.

And.. that does jack all. On the off chance labor DOES manage to unite, you get the usual outcome which is people getting pissy that they can't get a coffee at their local starbucks or angry they have to use the back door to the building. Not to mention people constantly attacking labor themselves (remember how everyone insisted it was rogue fedex drivers stealing their PS5s? All while ignoring that the logistics of doing that when you are monitored to the point of needing to piss in a gatorade bottle while driving...)

And no, Bernie 2016 was not the solution either. He would have been the most ineffective president in the history of the US because congress would have stopped everything he tried.

No, the answer is... what the republicans are doing. No, not insurrection and terrorism and giving out handjobs in between visits from child prostitutes. Actually giving a shit about the entire ballot. Getting people on school boards and in county and state governments. Because a "grass roots" campaign to elect the top seat does almost nothing. A "grass roots" campaign to... actually grow some grass leads to change.

But it is so much easier to just talk about how liberals and democrats are truly the source of all problems and how engaging in the system at all is a fool's errand (and supporting Xinnie The Poo and Putin in the process) than it is to actually get involved with your local democrats (or even similarly aligned third parties) to actually push for the candidates who represent you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Your solution to rampant economic inequality is ... campaign and vote downballot.

I mean, sure, that's a great idea, but your argument essentially boils down to combating apathy (which isn't a new or unique problem), and I guess attacking a hypothetical Sanders administration that never happened because--I dunno, you just wanted to get a jab in at voters who were actually motivated about a candidate for once in a lifetime? Well, good news for you; all the Sanders supporters are back to voting defensively until their kids grow up, if they vote at all. Does that feel like a win to you?

People aren't "taking the easy way out" by not voting the entire ballot. In fact, split-ticket voting is down historically, at least as of 2020, across both parties. Blaming people for not devoting their lives to political activism is akin to blaming minimum wage workers for not walking out: Yeah, maybe things would be better if they did, but people have to survive. Choosing to use what little spare time one has with family instead of participating in local politics isn't a moral failure, and it's not the easy way out. It's just rational. People have limited time and limited means, and there are more important things than who gets to be the constable next year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Thanks for reiterating why there are no revolts or even regular protests

Because, when faced with the actual solution that is already demonstrably effective, you:

  1. Complain you didn't get a nonsensical magic solution.
  2. Say you are busy and people should be ashamed of calling things out

But hey. I'm sure you'll make time to bring food to a striking workforce or bust a cop in the face after you get pepper sprayed and shot at. Just so long as it isn't a new episode of young Sheldon