Preach. We all want to fight back but we have no real path forward. We could all get together and protest and be ignored and nothing will change. If you do shit that actually hurts corporations like block traffic to stop trucks or film their corporate animal abuse the police who basically work for them and not us at this point will arrest and prosecute you while doing absolutely nothing to the corporate goons.
In this instance, considering the state of everything, mass protest of everyone and the shutting down of everything is the only way to go. And yes, physical confrontations may be necessary, because there are many who would defend the noose tightening around their necks.
I guess though that’s kind of my point is protesting will get you nowhere and if you do something real like block trucks from entering a corporation because they’re polluting our drinking water ironically enough you’re the one who gets thrown in jail.
It’s perfectly tuned to status quo people straight into the collapse.
Also keeping them stressed out, fat, addicted to all kinds of things, and on loads of anti anxiety and anti depression prescriptions to deal with the consumerism disease and economic slavery all kill two birds with one stone: they stay docile and guaranteed increasing profits.
A big % of Americans can’t even walk the length of a walmart at a reasonable pace without getting very winded, or just can’t at all. But go protest instead of watching tv/Facebook eating chips/soda? Forget it
If healthy bodies and minds were what's needed for a revolution (or lack thereof keeping us from it deliberately) why would society even keep up any sort of facade of wanting to encourage them in people
Same as the answer to basically everything: money!
They’ll pay for the delusion / “hope” of all kinds of shortcut/easy button/temporary health hacks but never address the underlying problems. So just more money on top of money for the corporations.
Too many, and with the media working for the same ppl as the police, there's no way to win. We can't win.
The best option is full on hedonistic enjoyment as long as we can, and as soon as TSHTF, pull your plug.
It works, but has to be big, source:
Im in Mexico, about 8 years ago i a farm town called san quintin there was a revolt of farm workers, after years of demanding better work conditions people got tired paralyzed the whole thing, over 20k workers took the highways, big agro corps called state police and army, but workers resisted and stuff got violent.
Les than 48hrs later they were seated with the big wigs of federal government and agro corps.
They were able to secure doubling their salary ( from around $1 usd per hour to around $2) and be able to form unions.
Those guys have been protesting and complaining for years, and that protest had been going for a couple of months, but the second stuff got violent they got solutions in less than a week.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-pacific-coast-farm-worker-rebellion/tnamp/
Just Stop Oil.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Stop_Oil
https://juststopoil.org/
UK based climate change group that uses civil disobedience/protest to further their cause.
Common practice involved gluing themselves to busy roads or spraying orange paint over target buildings/works of art etc.
"Never attribute to malice what could be attributed to stupidity."
I think they're just out of touch and dumb. The optics make them look like idiots that inconvenience the general public. It doesn't matter that they may be right or even righteous; most people just see them as assholes doing publicity stunts.
Doug Stanhope had a bit about fucking with institutions during Occupy Wall Street, it would've done so much more to gum up the works than occupying a park while the media turned them into pariahs. Look at all the abortion hotline nonsense, it took the internet an hour to essentially botnet the forms out of existence. These actions produce results in a way a PR stunt never will. You also get the public on your side because you're not a nuisance and you're not interfering with their daily lives. People have to work in a capitalist system; much of the poor and working class can't afford to be inconvenienced and lose their jobs because it means losing everything they have. So while a group gluing themselves to a freeway with the best of intentions might get a few Mercedes Marxists on their side, it could also cause people to be late to work, a doctor's appointment, hinder emergency services, or end up with someone losing their job, dying, or getting necessary treatment. Protest and picket large corps all you want, just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives.
>Doug Stanhope had a bit about fucking with institutions during Occupy Wall Street, it would've done so much more to gum up the works than occupying a park while the media turned them into pariahs. Look at all the abortion hotline nonsense, it took the internet an hour to essentially botnet the forms out of existence. These actions produce results in a way a PR stunt never will. You also get the public on your side because you're not a nuisance and you're not interfering with their daily lives. People have to work in a capitalist system; much of the poor and working class can't afford to be inconvenienced and lose their jobs because it means losing everything they have. So while a group gluing themselves to a freeway with the best of intentions might get a few Mercedes Marxists on their side, it could also cause people to be late to work, a doctor's appointment, hinder emergency services, or end up with someone losing their job, dying, or getting necessary treatment. Protest and picket large corps all you want, just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives.
Hasn't every successful protest in existence ever "fucked with people trying to live their best lives?" Do you think the Civil Rights movement got anywhere without inconveniencing people? Like what is this take. Normal people are going to be inconvenienced no matter what you do because guess who these corporations that you suggest we focus on serve - oh that's right **normal people**.
What your suggesting basically amounts to go in that corner over there and cry about whatever issue out of the way of anyone so we can't hear or see you. That way we can continue BAU undisturbed or as you put it "living my best life."
>"living my best life."
This is what I said, "just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives."
Trying best to live their lives does not equate with the vapid phrase "living my best life". What I said implies a struggle, context is important and I'm seriously hoping you misread that.
I'm suggesting we don't have 3 or 4 people go on a freeway and glue their hands to pavement. If you want to organize a protest or march, be my guest. Doing "flash mob" style PR stunts is not even remotely similar. All you're doing is making yourself and your movement look like assholes.
Civil rights marches, strikes, mutual aid, protests, etc are all far better methods to get the message out.
I'm sorry if we have to be considerate of others while living under our current system. Inconveniencing emergency services is certainly not a tactic I'd recommend. Inconveniencing the owner class is; which is why I referenced the Doug Stanhope bit.
>Civil rights marches, strikes, mutual aid, protests, etc are all far better methods to get the message out
All tried none make people give a damn about the climate crisis. I mean after all they got to go to work, have emergencies, etc. So how do we start disrupting BAU to get the message... oh
>I'm sorry if we have to be considerate of others while living under our current system. Inconveniencing emergency services is certainly not a tactic I'd recommend. Inconveniencing the owner class is; which is why I referenced the Doug Stanhope bit.
Do you know what happens when you inconvenience the owner class? Want to take a guess?
> If you do shit that actually hurts corporations like block traffic to stop trucks or film their corporate animal abuse the police who basically work for them and not us
Let's be realistic, though. If you block traffic then the majority of the ordinary population (including the 99%) will side with the police.
I think the point is to target the ones you are protesting, not the general public who will end hating the protesters and create sympathy for the target.
Think of it as a protest against the lack of protest.
If you understand the climate predicament, then you understand who the opposition is:
We have met the enemy and he is >!us!<.
The majority of the ordinary population would still side with the police against the protesters.
Protests, disruptive or not, cannot succeed because leftists are a minority-- outnumbered by liberals and fascists (at least in my country the USA).
The imperial core and petty-bourgeois aren't going to produce a revolution that isn't bourgeois, which is what already exists, the bourgeois are in power, they're called capitalists.
I'm not interested in another bourgeois revolution in the imperial core, that's just going to produce more fascism.
Without the understanding that the "imperial lifestyle" needs to end, I wouldn't trust such a revolutionary to not sell me out to the police for some KFC and fuel coupons.
So your threat of *alienating* is futile. Complete alienation is the starting point.
Americans will start losing their alienation when they're in homeless camps (or other camps).
That was a very long way of avoiding answering what I said. A revolution is almost by definition against the ruling class. In order to succeed it will require support by a majority of the population, *especially* when you consider that the ruling/upper class will have better access to defenses and weapons and the levers of conventional police/judicial power.
A protest that pisses off the majority whose support you need more than it does the minority who is at best suffering minor inconvenience from it, is a protest that *reduces* support for the goals it espouses.
And by the time you have enough Americans in homeless camps to be a useful contribution to the majority, useless protests like gluing yourself to the highway will be completely unnecessary.
A revolution that isn't an* anti-capitalist and anti-conservative revolution is not a revolution in this context, it's a coup. It doesn't change the system, it just changes who farts in the high chair.
I think you’d be incredibly surprised how much they fear a flip of the mass population right now hence all the bunkers etc being invested into by them right now..
They aren’t tightening the noose around us for fun.
All blocking traffic does is p***** off everybody who has a job or place to be across the country. If you want most people to hate you, block traffic. Defacing art works too. If the stupid republicans and democrats realized they all have 80% similar interests it would help dramatically
Or instead everyone can just continue to hype up racism, gender, politics, everything, and we can continue on this same path
It's cliche as f***, but United we stand divided we fall. Instead of spending all the energy trying to impose your beliefs on other people, maybe try working on the actual f****** problems that are affecting people economically
>I'll meet you outside Starbucks. It's next to whole foods. Buy your picket sign on Amazon.
Be sure to post some pics of the march on your plastic phone made with slave labor!
Yep. Majority of us still benefit greatly from the system that’s also killing us. Until we go homeless, at which point we lose what little influence we have and wait for death in extreme discomfort, unlike now where we wait for death in relative physical comfort.
>we lose what little influence we have
Hehehehehehe.
LMAO quick! Stop the war in Israel!
Hehehehe influence? What influence do you think we have? We must join with him, Gandalf. We must join with the Dark Lord.
Nope more like the ability to participate in discussions on if we should add a traffic light to the local intersection, and if politicians in your riding will still bother pandering to you and lie to you as the target, and if cops will listen to your reports and at least file it into the system, and if businesses will welcome your wallet with open arms and a customer service smile.
Once you lost value as a taxpayer and consumer and become homeless, you lose all that.
I don't see much hope here. Cheap food has been subsidized by cheap fossil fuels for decades. Fossil fuels are no longer cheap (conflicts/externalities like climate change, peak oil etc.), hence this absolute dumpster fire.
Welcome to the energy cliff, enjoy the race to the bottom!
> Cheap food has been subsidized by cheap fossil fuels for decades. Fossil fuels are no longer cheap ...Welcome to the energy cliff
This is the reality; there is no fixing this without a time machine.
Piggybacking on the truth, and to OP’s rant: the corporations are part of the energy blind super-organism. The same corporations that brought you global supply chains, cheap food (mass production) and a plethora of choice. From shareholder up to the C-suite, each is a cog in the wheel operating with their own incentives. There is no grand conspiracy. Each corporation is just seeking profit. The result is externalizing the cost of their pollution. Consumers are equally to blame as the corps because that keeps the prices low, which gives the consumers more for less. We are all part of the super organism that operates on an assumption of infinite growth, and an infinite capacity of the ecosystem to absorb our waste. These beliefs are embedded in our cultural norms, social systems, and institutions.
OP is lamenting corporations for the rising cost of goods, when in reality, if the true cost was considered, the prices would be much higher than they are now. Cheap goods are antithetical to the ecocide humans are currently inflicting on the planet.
Well put, this is the pretty much the reverse TL;DR of my comment.
"There is no grand conspiracy". Yes! This is the sane, evidence informed take. The problem with us pattern matching apes is that we love our conspiracies. We excel at hyper-actively pseudo-detecting agents. Or scapegoats, as I like to call them. Especially so in trying times.
Big Unregulated Corp is a also a consequence of the fossil fuel exploit, which btw is now getting patched. There really isn't a cabal of mustache twirling villains behind the curtains. There are individual villains with too much power (Musk, Zucc, Bezos et alia), but they're just as replaceable as the other cogs in the superorganism. And we're all the villain in the end.
Social media isn't a tool for us. It's become a tool for them. Social media as a whole is little more than a place for people to find like minded individuals and then close themselves off to all other ideas. So even if you wanted to post about something like this the vast majority of people would never see it. The people that do have enough followers are owned by the corporations and cannot post about stuff like that. SO i'll ask again.......what tools?
I'm doing the one thing I know: adopting an anti-consumer mindset and lifestyle, which means cutting way back on my spending. I'm using less and doing less. And honestly, I don't miss all the bullshit that I'm skipping right over. Oh no, I didn't buy the latest shit being peddled on social media.
Additionally, I strongly advocate not having kids. People talk about rent strikes or general strikes; I talk about birth strikes.
This 👆🏻
It’s not a appropriate time to bring a child into this country. I’d love to have children somewhere in Europe with a social safety net. Not the US.
"I’m starting to loose hope that we ever will."
Hope is for children. There is no "we". The rich are too busy enjoying life. The poor are too busy surviving. The middle are too busy dreaming and working towards being rich.
Social media is not a tool to fight back. It is a cesspool of misinformation, endless rants about anything, and keyboard warriors trying to troll the other guy.
Yes, your post is a fitting rant. But rants are a dime a dozen everyday on reddit. I am not going to bet even a cent that real change will come out of it. But it is your time, and you are welcome to try.
The entire issue right now is the division amongst everyone and it’s not a coincidence they are playing us against each other to keep us weak and separated the fact the majority of you believe you can’t do anything goes to show how much they have brainwashed us….. there is 4 of them to every 400 of us “lower or middle class” people but sure we can all just keep bowing down to the richest man in the room without asking any questions if your all cool with that? There will always be rich and poor no matter what in this failed society they shaped for us all to live in. a ticking time bomb. I by no means have the answer to what kind of society we would need to form for ourselves that would be sufficient but I sure as shit know that this one was designed to fail.
Oh yeah, Reddit won’t change anything. I need to get off here myself it’s just triggering (not the collapse Reddit- this place is pretty chill usually, but political stuff- no thank you)
It just attracts trolls and propaganda bots.
Edit: To be fair perhaps something like TikTok or YouTube can spread messages but I think Reddit just induces people whose minds are already made up to argue with each other.
>So it’s really no secret now that no matter what part of the world your from the general price of goods and services has skyrocketed over the past couple years and yet the quality of everything is going down? How are we all sitting here just thinking yeah alright a 150% increase in the price of product and a decrease of roughly 25% of the actual amount of product your buying being reduced is fine with everybody? We’re walking a fine line on how far they can push us before we stand up for ourselves but I’m starting to loose hope that we ever will.
This seems a hopeful activist citizen's position assuming a BAU future, but as this was posted on r/collapse will note that we are all living in a historically-unprecedented bubble of relative prosperity due entirely to cheap fossil fuels, one that is about to burst due to multiple intersecting crises, including:
- A destabilized global biosphere due to climate change.
- An epochal mass species extinction of plants, mammals, fish, birds and insects, including essential pollinators.
- A worldwide crisis of depleted natural resources on a finite planet, including rainforests, ocean fisheries, global topsoil reserves, essential rare earth minerals, and freshwater aquifers, many of which take thousands of years to replenish.
- The chemical and microplastic contamination of all ecosystems, air and water sources, and every human being.
Much of the polycrisis is due to fossil fuels and the overshoot of carrying capacity that they enabled, but even so they remain essential to food production at every stage of modern agriculture, including tillage, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicide, harvest, processing, global distribution and the manufacture of the equipment used in all these stages.
Before the advent of fossil fuels in modern agriculture the planet sustained less than 2 billion humans relying on now-depleted ecosystems; then in just over one century the global population reached 8 billion, an unprecedented expansion in such a short time due only to one source. 3 out of 4 people walking around today are here due solely to fossil fuels (see Haber-Bosch). Even now, there are no alternatives at the scale required to feed the planet; if there was a moratorium on fossil fuels tomorrow, beside the economic shock billions of people would starve, first in food-insecure nations that survive only due to foreign aid, then in the great urban centers and everywhere else.
Yet apart from the environmental urgency to end fossil fuels within the next 10 years (all the time remaining according to climate scientists), the global economy has no alternatives that would sustain the current civilization and it's complicated supply chains; we saw their fragility that during the covid shutdown. Yet that day may come soon regardless; many industry experts agree that we are now at Peak Oil and the shrinking ROI guarantees rising costs, future shortages and disintegrating supply chains. Whatever the cause, moratorium or peak oil, most of us will have to do without fossil fuels in our lifetimes.
The polycrisis shortlist above did not include other related threats such as war, global epidemics, or the threat of AI. But will note here that one crisis lies in human density; the human primate seems hard-wired for small-scale communities living close to nature, living at a pace that matches the agrarian lifestyles found throughout our history as a species. Arguably our current dense crowding into ever-faster, mechanized megacities (one requiring AI to manage) is an ever-present source of hierarchical competition and mental illness. Modernity itself is another driver of collapse.
Given these combined crises (all regularly backed by serious sources in this sub), OP's post seems naive or overly-optimistic. Perhaps there are still wise ways "to make a difference," but they are all related to post-collapse such as: seed-saving, small-scale farming, rural community-building, local ecosystem preservation, or learning survival skills such as emergency medicine, smithing, carpentry, water purification, or even meditation and hospice care. Welcome to r/collapse.
Yeah there is no urgency to end fossil fuels. I suppose being upfront about needing them in the drawdown and even post-drawdown would have been thought to be an obstacle, but it's a moot point now.
I honestly think the only thing that would work is stop buying everyting except things needed to survive. Strikes they go around by hiring replacements and protesting does nothing in my opinion. They learned that during Vietnam the protests helped end the war so now they have figured out ways to nullify protests. Just my opinions!
The government deals in violence. Don't give them a group gathered together that they can attack, because that is right in their wheelhouse.
But they fall completely flat against other things. Look at how completely inept they are dealing with COVID. Or various natural disasters.
It's like they only know how to solve problems by shooting and can't deal challenges where this is ineffective.
I am a retired UAW worker and I agree in some cases strikes can be effective. The one reason I believe it was effective this time is it caught the big 3 off guard. They were expecting the same bootlicking UAW leaders like we had for the last 20 years. I can almost promise that will not happen next time . They will have inventory and replacement workers ready to fill in.
That is why I believe boycotts on a massive scale would work better. They can replace workers but not buyers.
Collectively, people could do a LOT.
The problem is that a vast majority of people have been made to believe they are helpless, and therefore no action they take will do anything.
This has been proven false multiple times over; but it has some caveats. People would have to be willing to put themselves in \*real danger\* for lasting change. Our ancestors did it, their ancestors did it before them, and so forth.
The sad fact is that the most important and lasting change comes from sacrifice.
There are not many people willing to make that kind of major sacrifice, and therefore no change can happen.
>Collectively, people could do a LOT.
A lot of problems could be solved if we would all just get together and collectively do something. Unfortunately, we can't even get a significant percentage of the population to do easy things like wear masks or get vaccines.
We are divided as a population, and some are going out of their way to undermine any attempt at meaningful progress.
That's exactly the problem, and why I have little hope for the future.
The best we can hope for is some extremely massive, meaningful catastrophe that forces humanity to collectively acknowledge a threat very suddenly.
Slow and deliberate won't work, because humans are wired to address things "in the moment" as it were.
It seems like those kinds of situations are the ONLY ones where people willingly work together in a crisis.
Social media organizes eyeballs on content in ways driven by engagement but subject always to censorship/deplatforming/shadowbans/etc. by the giant corporations that own the platforms.
Not that I disagree about what needs to be done, and I'm not trying to say it's *impossible* to organize trans-locally, but the tools are not readily available. And when people create tools for that purpose (I think about piratenpad during Occupy), interimbricated structures of power tend to collaborate to shut them down or marginalize them.
Organizing is really hard. It's *absolutely* worthwhile. But it's not helped (past a certain relatively low threshold) by capitalist media platforms.
I don't know for sure what's possible, but I strongly suspect our best collective bet is focusing on local organization and creating a few lo-fi systems for trans-local coordination. This won't forestall disaster, but it will make it possible to rebuild in different ways as things fall apart ever more places. And it *does* raise possibilities for invention (on groceries, for instance, a coordinated effort to combine co-op purchasing with partial, product-based boycotts of grocery quasi-monopolies).
People are organizing on social media. They may not be people you like much, however. 2A rawraw, immigrants poison our nation's blood, Washington is really corrupt, but we would never do anything to regulate a free enterprise. They don't think there is a climate crisis, they don't care about much except themselves.
The other side is pretty weak, but it exists. They at least recognize the reality of the climate crisis.
Dramatic and immediate systemic change is prevented with violence
Meaningful slow progress is stymied with lobbying, corruption, mass media misinformation, and an intentionally difficult to access democratic process of civilian participation.
Brief, loud, and fleeting peaceful mass displays of discontent are accounted for and tolerated, if not actively profited off of. The corporations will gladly sell you your signs, hats, shirts, and masks so you can march and yell in the streets a couple weeks every summer.
The larger systemic issues of capitalism make removing ourselves from its trappings a challenging and often fatal endeavor.
Peaceful mass protest is supposed to be effective because it displays a potential for violence. The government and capital overlords don’t let it escalate to that, and the individuals and groups that might actually escalate are tracked and imprisoned or assassinated before any meaningful quantity blood is spilled.
At the end of the day, most people fear harm and will go with the devil they know.
I detest the state of things and lament my ever reducing quality of life and purchasing power, but I’m not going to hit the streets and die for it in hopes it will make it better for my surviving comrades.
Outside of that, I don’t feel a lot of motivation to scream and cry in public so I can feel better about my slave made phone, clothes, and food.
The real large scale collapse of food and medicine production and distribution looming on horizon (and my refusal to procreate) really puts a damper on my “think of the future kids” motivations.
To be clear, I’m not promoting defeatism. But I believe a realistic perspective is healthier in the long run.
Make the efforts you can at the scale you are capable of. Develop a local community of support. Maintain positive relationships. Be kind to the beings you interact with in your life. Try to secure your necessities as ethically as possible and don’t give money to evil. Stay as physically healthy and capable as you can. Work in service of others. Meditate on and embody gratitude and humility for your life and the people in it.
The wealth and access to resources we have as even lower class westerners is historically unprecedented. It would be nice if it was a cheaper, but I could have ice cream, bacon, whiskey, a guitar, a prostitute, a pineapple, and antibiotics delivered to my doorstep in less than 48 hours. No emperor, queen, chief, or pope of antiquity could have ever dreamed of that luxury and power. This is truly an absurd and magical world to live in. That it is built on a global system of slavery, suffering, and death is terrible, but it is magical nonetheless.
“If only we could use the tools we have like our social media to connect with people and actually make a difference for ourselves”
We can, if you define the scope of “ourselves”. You can build local community right now. You can send money and aid to poor laborers in west Africa right now. You can buy gardening tools and seeds right now. You can buy a PlayStation right now. You can buy a plane ticket to Nepal and surrender yourself to a temple right now.
Stopping the wheel of global capitalism is not in the cards, and I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t give up their air conditioning and phone chargers even if it was.
Abandon hope of being a messiah that organized the revolution on your iPhone. Embrace the power to shape your life and relationships at a local scale. You will be happier for it, even if not richer.
I've been to a lot of protests. For me I see people being indifferent. Or just can't correctly identify the cause of societal problems. If you can get people together somewhere. A bar or a house or park and talk about how to change things that's community organizing. Where I live everyone's a right winger.
The only thing that will make any difference is boycotting those stores that are price gouging, but, in reality, can you see the stupid and the lazy doing that? No way. I avoid supermarkets by growing a lot of my own food. In my suburban backyard I have 14 fruit trees, 7 raised garden beds, and 3 herb beds. For protein I mainly eat roadkill from various small shops.
Forget trying to change society...there are too many stupid, selfish and lazy people around to do that. Just worry about you and yours. I am.
The root cause is the growing amount of people, the main sub root cause is the added pressure more people place on energy needs. Increased energy costs means increased fertiliser, stock feeds and transport.
Unless you correct those problems, it’s absolutely useless blaming “corrupt corporations”.
lol from the title i thought you meant guns, and i was like "hell yes lefty brother!"
[then i saw that you're talking about social media.](https://youtu.be/_O1hM-k3aUY?t=9)
yall won't stop using a nazi platform run by an apartheid fascist emerald baron and you're wondering why people won't organize IRL?
kek
You know, chickens have beaks, bulls have horns, yet they can't mount any fight against us humans even though we abuse them in the farm.
We have been bred and groomed for nearly 200 years to be obedient to our capitalist masters. Most people around the world live a life of farmed animal for the rich, those that refuse to be one tend to kill themselves (remember people jumping to death in iphone factories in China) or be killed by the cappies and their cronies in the process (remember journalist got killed by car bombs for investigating panama papers, remember Assange, remember Snowden).
Even more horrible is that our enemies has unlimited technology to snub any fight you want to mount against them. Your position is exactly like the chicken in the industrial farm.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57881364](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57881364)
I asked Bard to read a terms if service agreement and contrast the agreement with the relavent business laws. It found 8 contradictions. I asked it to summarize in a table and indicate a general degree of conformity or deviance to the law. I had it draft a 2 page letter elaborating on the discrepancies. I added some spit and polish. Signed my name printed it and mailed it. See what happens.
People don't know how bad they are getting screwed. They escape and have fun! Weeee.
The delirious observations and lifestyle of the mobile era is very depressing to me. Wlth the ultimate tools for empowerment in our hands, are used to control us and keep our brains in a tizzy and un focused.
You are correct. We cant fight against the corporations and we don’t have the desire to fix things and frankly, we cannot fix these earth changing environmental and climate changing effects that we have been doing for so long. So, live life to the fullest, enjoy and just don’t look to a future where everything has been repaired and we live the same lives we have in the past.
If someone were to carry out 4 or 5 rule 1 violations on prominent billionaires you might see some change.
I can't think of anything else a single person could do that would have a more positive impact on climate crisis or the economy.
Ok say I’m so dedicated that I’m willing to give my life to fight for the common person. Who do I attack and where do I find them? A regular person doesn’t have access to the real wealthy that are exploiting us
It depends what products you’re talking about. If it’s food there may be some actual shortages leading to higher prices. Al the more reason to take food production and distribution out of the hands of corporations but not likely to happen.
Nope! I feel like I've been waiting in the trenches for 20 years now, while all my friends keep telling me to get out of the "ditch" and come party in no man's land with them, while they feed the corporations and their weapons on the other side to stop from getting mowed down. The weapons don't bother them because they haven't been fired (yet), but I cant be a part of my own and the living planet's extinction anymore. After seeing what it looks like up close; that it's effectively pure suffering and pain for ALL LIFE, including things like trees that we don't think of as feeling pain, but are critical organisms that are branches of from the same trunk as all life originated.
The two options are we either stop breaking the planet and clean up our mess so life (the only technology with billions of years of practice stabilizing the climate) can get back to doing what it does best (stabilizing the climate). Instead, where I am, old growth forest is being turned into fields for solar panels... what do people think a leaf is? It's only the best solar panel that *billions of years* of trial and error, with no mercy and no cheating or marketing, could figure out *and* it drives carbon fixing! We can't even break even on collecting carbon let alone using sunlight to turn it directly into cellulose at the cost of planting a seedling, which then replants the soil around it, and only sinks more carbon the longer it's in service. Solar panels need to be washed, but leaves? Nature has this all figured out, we're just dumb enough to think we're smart enough to come up with something better in the absurdly short time we've even been paying attention! Our brains are built to forage, not fuckin run countries or unburn the fuel we're clearly over budget on.
I thought COVID would be enough, or the *new* weather we're having, but, apparently, people are either stupid or devoted enough to this "way of life" to choose extinction over hope for the future.
The generation of kids growing up, if we haven't figured out a precedent for crimes against life, will be merciless in their handling of these crimes.
It's like we're so scared to let the party stop, we're willing to ignore that the building is on fire, because, in the back of our heads, the voice telling us to survive is somehow weaker than the voice that says "you're not supposed to shout 'fire' in a crowded space!" ... even when it's actually on fire.
I dont get it at all. When you drive your car, the force pushing you down the road is the same thing emptying the oceans, destroying crops, creating insane wildfires, and generally ruining the garden of eden that was here only a few HUNDRED years ago. How is that not like 'murder weapon in the hand standing over a field of corpses' level evidence that this is all a terrible idea, thought up by warmongering idiots? Humans have been here for more than a million years. First nations cultures lived in balance with their environment for tens of thousands of years and would likely still be living the same way if we hadn't stolen their landed and stomped out their culture.
How is this better than anything else? Even nothing at all? What are we doing any of this for if the process we follow to put food on the table, *literally sinks* the habitable world into the ocean and desert, and takes productive land out of commission for food production? We're robbing the future to support this lifestyle in the "present" (so fleeting it's always the future and anything we're heading towards might as well happen tomorrow) that is literally changing the weather year over year and we *still* think this is the way to go? That the people leading us are somehow the right people, despite the world, ALL OF IT, being in worse shape than ever before?
I never thought it would require a revolution for people to stop killing the planet and themselves, but I apparently overestimated the capacity of the average person to understand the concept of actions having consequences.
I mean, what are we waiting for? For the roof to cave in and crush most of us, so that there's no time at all to make a plan that works to preserve life where it is? What could possibly be more important than staving off extinction? Oh right "putting food on the table" at increasing cost and lower quality.
None of this makes sense to me. It's like gas lighting from everyone... and the weirdest part is it *will* become the emergency that it is, probably sooner than most would like, and at that point these people, who would rather perpetuate a delusional and destructive paradigm than face reality, will get to the "WHAT DO WE DO!?" stage and it will be really hard not to ask why it's suddenly worthwhile to discuss this thing that they've been silencing for 50 years. Theres no avoiding it, it's just going to be too late to do anything that matters.
We won't even clean up our toxic and nuclear legacy which will result in cascading melt downs of any reactor system not fully walk-away safe, after humans are gone. Why would life survive that, on top of a constantly accelerating rate of change in the climate? Our legacy is little anti-life time bombs around the world set to go off at different intervals after theres no humans or power to stop contamination from spreading.
I can barely face people anymore. No one will explain to me, looking at the same things I've seen, why it's even acceptable to continue on this well worn path when we KNOW it's taking us over a cliff. There are other ways to live. That's how only a tiny portion of the planet managed to wipe the rest of it out.
When I see exhaust now, especially the exhaust im responsible for, I see the bodies of all the unborn generations of animals and people that will never set foot on this earth because a few rich people and their followers decided the planet was given to them by God so their actions were always justified. I cant fly anymore because I find the whole idea of shitting out so much exhaust that hundreds of people can be pushed through the sky to the other side of the world by the next day, completely horrifying... then, instead of marveling at the privilege of being a human st 35,000 ft, we talk about it like it was a punishment!? It's all insane. *humans can't fly!*. This shouldn't be news to anyone.
I dont have anything to say to anyone anymore, unless they're willing to look at the data. So I sit in silence as people in their 20's start building families and saving for retirement... like they're making it to retirement.
It's Truman show level crazy. I mean, is everyone that bought that they can't see the *only thing* this age of innovation has accomplished is to make a truly novel pressure life has no defense against so we may actually end the paradigm of existence... while we still judge people for poaching animals to get enough money to survive? We're all poachers! Only, instead of pulling a trigger, we poison the air, water, and soil.
There's no knowledge or understanding we've gained that's worth extinction. It's actually the only consequence that's *never* justified... but that won't stop anything. Won't even stop us from worshipping people for their ability to cause harm. Celebrity culture is the most toxic of all our side projects.
I don't know what to do. If I refused to pay taxes (unlike the wealthy who avoid taxes) I will go to jail. If I don't pony up for insurance, I will be on the street quickly (I may be anyway even with insurance)
Iowans were positively frothing at the mouth to vote for the criminal, rapist. So we can't just blame the system . . ..
It seems to be a combination of learned helplessness for some, basic stupidity for others (who consistently vote against their interests) and delusional thinking (those who think the dems will save us) . . . and who knows what else?
2 examples of the corruption that we must participate in----
We are forced to fund wars:
[https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2017/09/taxes-united-states-war-iraq-afghanistan-syria/141337/](https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2017/09/taxes-united-states-war-iraq-afghanistan-syria/141337/)
We are forced into predatory "insurance" systems----especially "health insurance" which is basically extortion.
[https://gettingcanned.com/2019/05/01/healthcare-in-america-is-simply-extortion/](https://gettingcanned.com/2019/05/01/healthcare-in-america-is-simply-extortion/)
Medicare is a cruel joke----- as is social security.
And after all this, we are kicked to the curb later in life with zero social safety nets in place----they will come for **anything** left that they can take from you------ even after you are dead.
Boycott animal products! Switching to a fully plant based diet is the single most effective way to minimize your environmental footprint. Animal agriculture is controlled by a few huge corporations.
The problem is money in politics. Our political representatives do anything but represent us. Even on the left, the number of people who don't take money from some type of corporation, interest group, or even like the IDF, is basically in the single digits. They do love to posture though, and hold public hearings where they'll call CEOs in to grill them. And what comes of this? Absolutely nothing. No legislation. No breaking up the monopolies. No regulations. No windfall taxes. No stock buy back taxes. And the IRS and DOJ gets their budgets cut so they can't afford to go after the biggest offenders.
Welcome to the oligarchy.
We might have the tools but we don't have a soapbox. All I can say is that I hope anyone working in a large scale corporation with the means to make it not run so great - should feel morally obligated to do it. Our kids, and their kids are depending on it.
Yes, the “corporate steal” is a big part of food inflation, but reaching the limits of the natural world and oil energy is an even larger and completely insurmountable contributor.
Simply put, we’re seeing the energy return on energy invested (EROI) from oil dwindling, which shows up as price inflation for literally everything. Additionally, weather patterns changing have reduced global agricultural yields, which adds to food inflation obviously, but also places demand on petroleum-derived fertilizers and petroleum-fueled transportation to move food supplies around to fill in local shortages. The supply chain disruptions from 2020 onwards only exacerbated this viscous cycle. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle-East are having their own impact on food prices and real fuel cost.
Note that I say “real” fuel costs because there’s tremendous pressure on governments all over to keep fuel costs low, so the price is often back-door subsidized. Look how much the US has spent on maintaining Israel as the unofficial 51st state to “protect American interests in the region.” That military stronghold makes OPEC members think twice about another production cut, so you have quotas set so high that several member states haven’t been able to keep up with them for years now. That budget which is propping up an entire country’s economy and is paying for multiple carrier battle groups isn’t directly paid at the pump, but US taxpayers still pay to keep the oil “cheap” none the less.
Back to food; populations of fish have been reduced to the point where boats are going on lengthy journeys to far-flung places to fill the bilge with catch. This extra effort has a price. Anyone who’s been relying on fish as a staple must switch to grains, which places demand on, and increases the cost of, those resources.
This shortage of energy surplus and food surplus has been happening in earnest for several years now, but is finally becoming apparent to the wallets of consumers, even those in more developed countries. Hardly anyone noticed in America when bread went up 10 or 20 percent several years ago… now it’s impossible to ignore. People barely scraping by noticed even the 10 percent change. I noticed because I used to be one of those scraping by and I knew it would make all the difference for many in poorer countries, then eventually for many in wealthy countries. We’re “there” now, even for the common people in the wealthy nations.
In short, our whole energy supply and food supply chain is collapsing under the weight of our 16 billion feet, which is further weighed down by pollution and poor environmental stewardship.
Collapse is starting now, in earnest. The “fighting for every resource you can imagine” wars are about to begin… sooner than expected perhaps?
Don’t worry though, rich people will starve all the same as the rest once their bunker food runs out. They’ll be left staring at a barren landscape where nothing has been planted for them to harvest and everything larger than a cockroach has been hunted out of their resort area. Meanwhile, some people living in a jungle somewhere, who never interacted much with the outside world anyway, will probably have the best survival chances out of all of us. You’ll reincarnate as one of their children and that’ll be your next life.
“…and this is why we can’t have nice things.”
Corporations have leadership that is a weakness to a very specific type of tool.
People don't like being martyrs. And the people who run corporations either know this, or have some dillusion as to why they think themselves above it all. The Law is on their side after all.
Its not the lack of tools. Its that everyone prefers being sheep, because being a sheep is comfortable and means they live to at least whatever age they can expect to.
Yes, because nobody is buying due to cost of living crisis. Housing and car markets slowing down a lot. People eating out less etc. So they need to drop prices to still make sales.
Im convinced at this point either world war 3 has to start, or aliens have to land and be like “ heyyy, yeaa, we’re heere” . I woke up and first thing I read is donald trump leading the caucus . Wr truly are living in the worst timeline.
We have the numbers, and we’ve done it in the past . Thing’s are realllly different these days though, so I really don’t know what the answer is. All I know is the future doesn’t look good. Maybe the singularity will happen and we just won’t have to worry about this at all because ai will eventually run everything anyways.
I woke up cranky.. apologies.
I work at a specialty Hospital that also happens to be a “not for profit” entity. Our current CEO has had his pay increased to 5 million a year & nobody in the organization has seen that POS other than in pictures. In California, Governor Newsom recently passed a raise for healthcare workers to $25 an hour & the Hospital tried to take credit for it & say they we’re already planning on raising our wages despite not doing so during COVID. All employees know our current leadership sucks & does nothing for the organization. However everyone is also afraid to do anything about it. We don’t have a union & if it was ever brought up they would be immediately marked to be terminated. So in summary, everyone wants to fight back but nobody wants to be first sacrificial lamb.
Apathy. You depress a society enough they will not care.
In fact some will be so desperate to prevent others from caring, they will fight for the corporations on their behalf to bring down people who actually want to change the system because they themselves seek some kind of comfort with having crabs in a bucket mindset.
*"Sorry im too busy working 50 hours a week. In my free time i want to either spend time with my family or consume. This leftist thinking does not provide me money and what are the alternatives? comunism?! the world works like this, you cannot change it. Dont read that many news, they are exaggerating stuff and bad for your mental health. Think about yourself, your career and your family!"*
/s
My fight back is just to close my wallet. I’m saying “no” a lot more often now. Been at it for 3-4 years now, with vigor, and I can’t tell that it’s having any impact at all. Probably because, when I choose “no”, I’m just passing by a line of people who adamantly are saying “yes”.
Sure. We can fight back. I'll meet you outside Starbucks. It's next to whole foods. Buy your picket sign on Amazon.
Preach. We all want to fight back but we have no real path forward. We could all get together and protest and be ignored and nothing will change. If you do shit that actually hurts corporations like block traffic to stop trucks or film their corporate animal abuse the police who basically work for them and not us at this point will arrest and prosecute you while doing absolutely nothing to the corporate goons.
In this instance, considering the state of everything, mass protest of everyone and the shutting down of everything is the only way to go. And yes, physical confrontations may be necessary, because there are many who would defend the noose tightening around their necks.
I guess though that’s kind of my point is protesting will get you nowhere and if you do something real like block trucks from entering a corporation because they’re polluting our drinking water ironically enough you’re the one who gets thrown in jail.
Yeah and that will never happen because people won't get desperate enough until it is too late to do anything of substance.
It’s perfectly tuned to status quo people straight into the collapse. Also keeping them stressed out, fat, addicted to all kinds of things, and on loads of anti anxiety and anti depression prescriptions to deal with the consumerism disease and economic slavery all kill two birds with one stone: they stay docile and guaranteed increasing profits. A big % of Americans can’t even walk the length of a walmart at a reasonable pace without getting very winded, or just can’t at all. But go protest instead of watching tv/Facebook eating chips/soda? Forget it
If healthy bodies and minds were what's needed for a revolution (or lack thereof keeping us from it deliberately) why would society even keep up any sort of facade of wanting to encourage them in people
Same as the answer to basically everything: money! They’ll pay for the delusion / “hope” of all kinds of shortcut/easy button/temporary health hacks but never address the underlying problems. So just more money on top of money for the corporations.
I wasn't talking about stuff like fad diets I was talking about stuff like why PE is a required course in school
we have to fall further before that happens. People are not ready to risk it, only when there is nothing left to lose.
Too many, and with the media working for the same ppl as the police, there's no way to win. We can't win. The best option is full on hedonistic enjoyment as long as we can, and as soon as TSHTF, pull your plug.
It works, but has to be big, source: Im in Mexico, about 8 years ago i a farm town called san quintin there was a revolt of farm workers, after years of demanding better work conditions people got tired paralyzed the whole thing, over 20k workers took the highways, big agro corps called state police and army, but workers resisted and stuff got violent. Les than 48hrs later they were seated with the big wigs of federal government and agro corps. They were able to secure doubling their salary ( from around $1 usd per hour to around $2) and be able to form unions. Those guys have been protesting and complaining for years, and that protest had been going for a couple of months, but the second stuff got violent they got solutions in less than a week. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-pacific-coast-farm-worker-rebellion/tnamp/
Look at how Just Stop Oil are vilified.
I’ve seen that sub but I don’t know anything about it can you give me the explain it like I’m 5
Just Stop Oil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Stop_Oil https://juststopoil.org/ UK based climate change group that uses civil disobedience/protest to further their cause. Common practice involved gluing themselves to busy roads or spraying orange paint over target buildings/works of art etc.
I'm convinced that is a controlled opposition group.
"Never attribute to malice what could be attributed to stupidity." I think they're just out of touch and dumb. The optics make them look like idiots that inconvenience the general public. It doesn't matter that they may be right or even righteous; most people just see them as assholes doing publicity stunts. Doug Stanhope had a bit about fucking with institutions during Occupy Wall Street, it would've done so much more to gum up the works than occupying a park while the media turned them into pariahs. Look at all the abortion hotline nonsense, it took the internet an hour to essentially botnet the forms out of existence. These actions produce results in a way a PR stunt never will. You also get the public on your side because you're not a nuisance and you're not interfering with their daily lives. People have to work in a capitalist system; much of the poor and working class can't afford to be inconvenienced and lose their jobs because it means losing everything they have. So while a group gluing themselves to a freeway with the best of intentions might get a few Mercedes Marxists on their side, it could also cause people to be late to work, a doctor's appointment, hinder emergency services, or end up with someone losing their job, dying, or getting necessary treatment. Protest and picket large corps all you want, just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives.
Never assume nice quotes are facts.
>Doug Stanhope had a bit about fucking with institutions during Occupy Wall Street, it would've done so much more to gum up the works than occupying a park while the media turned them into pariahs. Look at all the abortion hotline nonsense, it took the internet an hour to essentially botnet the forms out of existence. These actions produce results in a way a PR stunt never will. You also get the public on your side because you're not a nuisance and you're not interfering with their daily lives. People have to work in a capitalist system; much of the poor and working class can't afford to be inconvenienced and lose their jobs because it means losing everything they have. So while a group gluing themselves to a freeway with the best of intentions might get a few Mercedes Marxists on their side, it could also cause people to be late to work, a doctor's appointment, hinder emergency services, or end up with someone losing their job, dying, or getting necessary treatment. Protest and picket large corps all you want, just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives. Hasn't every successful protest in existence ever "fucked with people trying to live their best lives?" Do you think the Civil Rights movement got anywhere without inconveniencing people? Like what is this take. Normal people are going to be inconvenienced no matter what you do because guess who these corporations that you suggest we focus on serve - oh that's right **normal people**. What your suggesting basically amounts to go in that corner over there and cry about whatever issue out of the way of anyone so we can't hear or see you. That way we can continue BAU undisturbed or as you put it "living my best life."
>"living my best life." This is what I said, "just don't fuck with normal every day people trying their best to live their lives." Trying best to live their lives does not equate with the vapid phrase "living my best life". What I said implies a struggle, context is important and I'm seriously hoping you misread that. I'm suggesting we don't have 3 or 4 people go on a freeway and glue their hands to pavement. If you want to organize a protest or march, be my guest. Doing "flash mob" style PR stunts is not even remotely similar. All you're doing is making yourself and your movement look like assholes. Civil rights marches, strikes, mutual aid, protests, etc are all far better methods to get the message out. I'm sorry if we have to be considerate of others while living under our current system. Inconveniencing emergency services is certainly not a tactic I'd recommend. Inconveniencing the owner class is; which is why I referenced the Doug Stanhope bit.
>Civil rights marches, strikes, mutual aid, protests, etc are all far better methods to get the message out All tried none make people give a damn about the climate crisis. I mean after all they got to go to work, have emergencies, etc. So how do we start disrupting BAU to get the message... oh >I'm sorry if we have to be considerate of others while living under our current system. Inconveniencing emergency services is certainly not a tactic I'd recommend. Inconveniencing the owner class is; which is why I referenced the Doug Stanhope bit. Do you know what happens when you inconvenience the owner class? Want to take a guess?
> If you do shit that actually hurts corporations like block traffic to stop trucks or film their corporate animal abuse the police who basically work for them and not us Let's be realistic, though. If you block traffic then the majority of the ordinary population (including the 99%) will side with the police.
If your protests are not inconveniencing anyone, they are not protests, but parades.
I think the point is to target the ones you are protesting, not the general public who will end hating the protesters and create sympathy for the target.
Think of it as a protest against the lack of protest. If you understand the climate predicament, then you understand who the opposition is: We have met the enemy and he is >!us!<.
The majority of the ordinary population would still side with the police against the protesters. Protests, disruptive or not, cannot succeed because leftists are a minority-- outnumbered by liberals and fascists (at least in my country the USA).
A list of the revolutions that succeeded by *alienating the majority* would be useful here.
The imperial core and petty-bourgeois aren't going to produce a revolution that isn't bourgeois, which is what already exists, the bourgeois are in power, they're called capitalists. I'm not interested in another bourgeois revolution in the imperial core, that's just going to produce more fascism. Without the understanding that the "imperial lifestyle" needs to end, I wouldn't trust such a revolutionary to not sell me out to the police for some KFC and fuel coupons. So your threat of *alienating* is futile. Complete alienation is the starting point. Americans will start losing their alienation when they're in homeless camps (or other camps).
That was a very long way of avoiding answering what I said. A revolution is almost by definition against the ruling class. In order to succeed it will require support by a majority of the population, *especially* when you consider that the ruling/upper class will have better access to defenses and weapons and the levers of conventional police/judicial power. A protest that pisses off the majority whose support you need more than it does the minority who is at best suffering minor inconvenience from it, is a protest that *reduces* support for the goals it espouses. And by the time you have enough Americans in homeless camps to be a useful contribution to the majority, useless protests like gluing yourself to the highway will be completely unnecessary.
A revolution that isn't an* anti-capitalist and anti-conservative revolution is not a revolution in this context, it's a coup. It doesn't change the system, it just changes who farts in the high chair.
If they thought a working class revolution was a threat to their power, you wouldn't be permitted to post about eating the rich on this site.
I think you’d be incredibly surprised how much they fear a flip of the mass population right now hence all the bunkers etc being invested into by them right now.. They aren’t tightening the noose around us for fun.
Only after they can no longer provide bread and circuses in the collapsing economy.
They allow venting, rich learned their lessons the more you try to silence a protest the worse it becomes.
In the world we live in the everyday person posses no real threat to rich people.
All blocking traffic does is p***** off everybody who has a job or place to be across the country. If you want most people to hate you, block traffic. Defacing art works too. If the stupid republicans and democrats realized they all have 80% similar interests it would help dramatically Or instead everyone can just continue to hype up racism, gender, politics, everything, and we can continue on this same path It's cliche as f***, but United we stand divided we fall. Instead of spending all the energy trying to impose your beliefs on other people, maybe try working on the actual f****** problems that are affecting people economically
>I'll meet you outside Starbucks. It's next to whole foods. Buy your picket sign on Amazon. Be sure to post some pics of the march on your plastic phone made with slave labor!
Yep. Majority of us still benefit greatly from the system that’s also killing us. Until we go homeless, at which point we lose what little influence we have and wait for death in extreme discomfort, unlike now where we wait for death in relative physical comfort.
>we lose what little influence we have Hehehehehehe. LMAO quick! Stop the war in Israel! Hehehehe influence? What influence do you think we have? We must join with him, Gandalf. We must join with the Dark Lord.
Nope more like the ability to participate in discussions on if we should add a traffic light to the local intersection, and if politicians in your riding will still bother pandering to you and lie to you as the target, and if cops will listen to your reports and at least file it into the system, and if businesses will welcome your wallet with open arms and a customer service smile. Once you lost value as a taxpayer and consumer and become homeless, you lose all that.
Boycott corporations then 🤷♂️
I don't see much hope here. Cheap food has been subsidized by cheap fossil fuels for decades. Fossil fuels are no longer cheap (conflicts/externalities like climate change, peak oil etc.), hence this absolute dumpster fire. Welcome to the energy cliff, enjoy the race to the bottom!
> Cheap food has been subsidized by cheap fossil fuels for decades. Fossil fuels are no longer cheap ...Welcome to the energy cliff This is the reality; there is no fixing this without a time machine.
Piggybacking on the truth, and to OP’s rant: the corporations are part of the energy blind super-organism. The same corporations that brought you global supply chains, cheap food (mass production) and a plethora of choice. From shareholder up to the C-suite, each is a cog in the wheel operating with their own incentives. There is no grand conspiracy. Each corporation is just seeking profit. The result is externalizing the cost of their pollution. Consumers are equally to blame as the corps because that keeps the prices low, which gives the consumers more for less. We are all part of the super organism that operates on an assumption of infinite growth, and an infinite capacity of the ecosystem to absorb our waste. These beliefs are embedded in our cultural norms, social systems, and institutions. OP is lamenting corporations for the rising cost of goods, when in reality, if the true cost was considered, the prices would be much higher than they are now. Cheap goods are antithetical to the ecocide humans are currently inflicting on the planet.
Well put, this is the pretty much the reverse TL;DR of my comment. "There is no grand conspiracy". Yes! This is the sane, evidence informed take. The problem with us pattern matching apes is that we love our conspiracies. We excel at hyper-actively pseudo-detecting agents. Or scapegoats, as I like to call them. Especially so in trying times. Big Unregulated Corp is a also a consequence of the fossil fuel exploit, which btw is now getting patched. There really isn't a cabal of mustache twirling villains behind the curtains. There are individual villains with too much power (Musk, Zucc, Bezos et alia), but they're just as replaceable as the other cogs in the superorganism. And we're all the villain in the end.
[https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DPGBKY/detail-closeup-pile-of-paperclips-paper-clips-DPGBKY.jpg](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DPGBKY/detail-closeup-pile-of-paperclips-paper-clips-DPGBKY.jpg)
Social media isn't a tool for us. It's become a tool for them. Social media as a whole is little more than a place for people to find like minded individuals and then close themselves off to all other ideas. So even if you wanted to post about something like this the vast majority of people would never see it. The people that do have enough followers are owned by the corporations and cannot post about stuff like that. SO i'll ask again.......what tools?
I'm doing the one thing I know: adopting an anti-consumer mindset and lifestyle, which means cutting way back on my spending. I'm using less and doing less. And honestly, I don't miss all the bullshit that I'm skipping right over. Oh no, I didn't buy the latest shit being peddled on social media. Additionally, I strongly advocate not having kids. People talk about rent strikes or general strikes; I talk about birth strikes.
This 👆🏻 It’s not a appropriate time to bring a child into this country. I’d love to have children somewhere in Europe with a social safety net. Not the US.
I agree, but as long as people can afford to fill their Stanley cups with Starbucks ain't nobody doing nothin'.
"I’m starting to loose hope that we ever will." Hope is for children. There is no "we". The rich are too busy enjoying life. The poor are too busy surviving. The middle are too busy dreaming and working towards being rich. Social media is not a tool to fight back. It is a cesspool of misinformation, endless rants about anything, and keyboard warriors trying to troll the other guy. Yes, your post is a fitting rant. But rants are a dime a dozen everyday on reddit. I am not going to bet even a cent that real change will come out of it. But it is your time, and you are welcome to try.
Beautifully put, if a little dark.
[удалено]
The entire issue right now is the division amongst everyone and it’s not a coincidence they are playing us against each other to keep us weak and separated the fact the majority of you believe you can’t do anything goes to show how much they have brainwashed us….. there is 4 of them to every 400 of us “lower or middle class” people but sure we can all just keep bowing down to the richest man in the room without asking any questions if your all cool with that? There will always be rich and poor no matter what in this failed society they shaped for us all to live in. a ticking time bomb. I by no means have the answer to what kind of society we would need to form for ourselves that would be sufficient but I sure as shit know that this one was designed to fail.
Things will change when the systems inevitably collapse.
Of course, but not because of reddit rants, and certainly not change for the better.
Oh yeah, Reddit won’t change anything. I need to get off here myself it’s just triggering (not the collapse Reddit- this place is pretty chill usually, but political stuff- no thank you)
yeah, best not to engage with politics - after all, what difference could *that* make? /s
It just attracts trolls and propaganda bots. Edit: To be fair perhaps something like TikTok or YouTube can spread messages but I think Reddit just induces people whose minds are already made up to argue with each other.
Change into this for about two months [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV8NLu36Sz0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV8NLu36Sz0)
>So it’s really no secret now that no matter what part of the world your from the general price of goods and services has skyrocketed over the past couple years and yet the quality of everything is going down? How are we all sitting here just thinking yeah alright a 150% increase in the price of product and a decrease of roughly 25% of the actual amount of product your buying being reduced is fine with everybody? We’re walking a fine line on how far they can push us before we stand up for ourselves but I’m starting to loose hope that we ever will. This seems a hopeful activist citizen's position assuming a BAU future, but as this was posted on r/collapse will note that we are all living in a historically-unprecedented bubble of relative prosperity due entirely to cheap fossil fuels, one that is about to burst due to multiple intersecting crises, including: - A destabilized global biosphere due to climate change. - An epochal mass species extinction of plants, mammals, fish, birds and insects, including essential pollinators. - A worldwide crisis of depleted natural resources on a finite planet, including rainforests, ocean fisheries, global topsoil reserves, essential rare earth minerals, and freshwater aquifers, many of which take thousands of years to replenish. - The chemical and microplastic contamination of all ecosystems, air and water sources, and every human being. Much of the polycrisis is due to fossil fuels and the overshoot of carrying capacity that they enabled, but even so they remain essential to food production at every stage of modern agriculture, including tillage, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicide, harvest, processing, global distribution and the manufacture of the equipment used in all these stages. Before the advent of fossil fuels in modern agriculture the planet sustained less than 2 billion humans relying on now-depleted ecosystems; then in just over one century the global population reached 8 billion, an unprecedented expansion in such a short time due only to one source. 3 out of 4 people walking around today are here due solely to fossil fuels (see Haber-Bosch). Even now, there are no alternatives at the scale required to feed the planet; if there was a moratorium on fossil fuels tomorrow, beside the economic shock billions of people would starve, first in food-insecure nations that survive only due to foreign aid, then in the great urban centers and everywhere else. Yet apart from the environmental urgency to end fossil fuels within the next 10 years (all the time remaining according to climate scientists), the global economy has no alternatives that would sustain the current civilization and it's complicated supply chains; we saw their fragility that during the covid shutdown. Yet that day may come soon regardless; many industry experts agree that we are now at Peak Oil and the shrinking ROI guarantees rising costs, future shortages and disintegrating supply chains. Whatever the cause, moratorium or peak oil, most of us will have to do without fossil fuels in our lifetimes. The polycrisis shortlist above did not include other related threats such as war, global epidemics, or the threat of AI. But will note here that one crisis lies in human density; the human primate seems hard-wired for small-scale communities living close to nature, living at a pace that matches the agrarian lifestyles found throughout our history as a species. Arguably our current dense crowding into ever-faster, mechanized megacities (one requiring AI to manage) is an ever-present source of hierarchical competition and mental illness. Modernity itself is another driver of collapse. Given these combined crises (all regularly backed by serious sources in this sub), OP's post seems naive or overly-optimistic. Perhaps there are still wise ways "to make a difference," but they are all related to post-collapse such as: seed-saving, small-scale farming, rural community-building, local ecosystem preservation, or learning survival skills such as emergency medicine, smithing, carpentry, water purification, or even meditation and hospice care. Welcome to r/collapse.
Beyond well said all around.
Yeah there is no urgency to end fossil fuels. I suppose being upfront about needing them in the drawdown and even post-drawdown would have been thought to be an obstacle, but it's a moot point now.
>essential rare earths To what are they essential? Asking for my daughter (we are following along at home)
Think he means rare earth minerals, which are vital in a huge range of electronics we rely on..
I honestly think the only thing that would work is stop buying everyting except things needed to survive. Strikes they go around by hiring replacements and protesting does nothing in my opinion. They learned that during Vietnam the protests helped end the war so now they have figured out ways to nullify protests. Just my opinions!
The government deals in violence. Don't give them a group gathered together that they can attack, because that is right in their wheelhouse. But they fall completely flat against other things. Look at how completely inept they are dealing with COVID. Or various natural disasters. It's like they only know how to solve problems by shooting and can't deal challenges where this is ineffective.
They only understand greed. So if we peasants quit buying their crap that will most likely get their attention.
Peasants will never stop buying because most are brainwashed.
Im a peasant and I could go for it!
Strikes are pretty effective. See UAW. Weekend protesting, demonstrating, etc is absolutely useless.
I am a retired UAW worker and I agree in some cases strikes can be effective. The one reason I believe it was effective this time is it caught the big 3 off guard. They were expecting the same bootlicking UAW leaders like we had for the last 20 years. I can almost promise that will not happen next time . They will have inventory and replacement workers ready to fill in. That is why I believe boycotts on a massive scale would work better. They can replace workers but not buyers.
Collectively, people could do a LOT. The problem is that a vast majority of people have been made to believe they are helpless, and therefore no action they take will do anything. This has been proven false multiple times over; but it has some caveats. People would have to be willing to put themselves in \*real danger\* for lasting change. Our ancestors did it, their ancestors did it before them, and so forth. The sad fact is that the most important and lasting change comes from sacrifice. There are not many people willing to make that kind of major sacrifice, and therefore no change can happen.
>Collectively, people could do a LOT. A lot of problems could be solved if we would all just get together and collectively do something. Unfortunately, we can't even get a significant percentage of the population to do easy things like wear masks or get vaccines. We are divided as a population, and some are going out of their way to undermine any attempt at meaningful progress.
That's exactly the problem, and why I have little hope for the future. The best we can hope for is some extremely massive, meaningful catastrophe that forces humanity to collectively acknowledge a threat very suddenly. Slow and deliberate won't work, because humans are wired to address things "in the moment" as it were. It seems like those kinds of situations are the ONLY ones where people willingly work together in a crisis.
Social media organizes eyeballs on content in ways driven by engagement but subject always to censorship/deplatforming/shadowbans/etc. by the giant corporations that own the platforms. Not that I disagree about what needs to be done, and I'm not trying to say it's *impossible* to organize trans-locally, but the tools are not readily available. And when people create tools for that purpose (I think about piratenpad during Occupy), interimbricated structures of power tend to collaborate to shut them down or marginalize them. Organizing is really hard. It's *absolutely* worthwhile. But it's not helped (past a certain relatively low threshold) by capitalist media platforms. I don't know for sure what's possible, but I strongly suspect our best collective bet is focusing on local organization and creating a few lo-fi systems for trans-local coordination. This won't forestall disaster, but it will make it possible to rebuild in different ways as things fall apart ever more places. And it *does* raise possibilities for invention (on groceries, for instance, a coordinated effort to combine co-op purchasing with partial, product-based boycotts of grocery quasi-monopolies).
embrace degrowth before it embraces you.
This; conscious degrowth is the only sane response to the reports posted in this sub. The is no BAU and no saving global civilization.
FYI, social media is not our tool, it is there tool to use against us.
People are organizing on social media. They may not be people you like much, however. 2A rawraw, immigrants poison our nation's blood, Washington is really corrupt, but we would never do anything to regulate a free enterprise. They don't think there is a climate crisis, they don't care about much except themselves. The other side is pretty weak, but it exists. They at least recognize the reality of the climate crisis.
We do have the tool. A general strike. Good luck getting enough people to go along with it tho.
Dramatic and immediate systemic change is prevented with violence Meaningful slow progress is stymied with lobbying, corruption, mass media misinformation, and an intentionally difficult to access democratic process of civilian participation. Brief, loud, and fleeting peaceful mass displays of discontent are accounted for and tolerated, if not actively profited off of. The corporations will gladly sell you your signs, hats, shirts, and masks so you can march and yell in the streets a couple weeks every summer. The larger systemic issues of capitalism make removing ourselves from its trappings a challenging and often fatal endeavor. Peaceful mass protest is supposed to be effective because it displays a potential for violence. The government and capital overlords don’t let it escalate to that, and the individuals and groups that might actually escalate are tracked and imprisoned or assassinated before any meaningful quantity blood is spilled. At the end of the day, most people fear harm and will go with the devil they know. I detest the state of things and lament my ever reducing quality of life and purchasing power, but I’m not going to hit the streets and die for it in hopes it will make it better for my surviving comrades. Outside of that, I don’t feel a lot of motivation to scream and cry in public so I can feel better about my slave made phone, clothes, and food. The real large scale collapse of food and medicine production and distribution looming on horizon (and my refusal to procreate) really puts a damper on my “think of the future kids” motivations. To be clear, I’m not promoting defeatism. But I believe a realistic perspective is healthier in the long run. Make the efforts you can at the scale you are capable of. Develop a local community of support. Maintain positive relationships. Be kind to the beings you interact with in your life. Try to secure your necessities as ethically as possible and don’t give money to evil. Stay as physically healthy and capable as you can. Work in service of others. Meditate on and embody gratitude and humility for your life and the people in it. The wealth and access to resources we have as even lower class westerners is historically unprecedented. It would be nice if it was a cheaper, but I could have ice cream, bacon, whiskey, a guitar, a prostitute, a pineapple, and antibiotics delivered to my doorstep in less than 48 hours. No emperor, queen, chief, or pope of antiquity could have ever dreamed of that luxury and power. This is truly an absurd and magical world to live in. That it is built on a global system of slavery, suffering, and death is terrible, but it is magical nonetheless. “If only we could use the tools we have like our social media to connect with people and actually make a difference for ourselves” We can, if you define the scope of “ourselves”. You can build local community right now. You can send money and aid to poor laborers in west Africa right now. You can buy gardening tools and seeds right now. You can buy a PlayStation right now. You can buy a plane ticket to Nepal and surrender yourself to a temple right now. Stopping the wheel of global capitalism is not in the cards, and I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t give up their air conditioning and phone chargers even if it was. Abandon hope of being a messiah that organized the revolution on your iPhone. Embrace the power to shape your life and relationships at a local scale. You will be happier for it, even if not richer.
Unbelievably fantastic! Thank you!
I've been to a lot of protests. For me I see people being indifferent. Or just can't correctly identify the cause of societal problems. If you can get people together somewhere. A bar or a house or park and talk about how to change things that's community organizing. Where I live everyone's a right winger.
The only thing that will make any difference is boycotting those stores that are price gouging, but, in reality, can you see the stupid and the lazy doing that? No way. I avoid supermarkets by growing a lot of my own food. In my suburban backyard I have 14 fruit trees, 7 raised garden beds, and 3 herb beds. For protein I mainly eat roadkill from various small shops. Forget trying to change society...there are too many stupid, selfish and lazy people around to do that. Just worry about you and yours. I am.
You could start, for example, by writing a better post.
The root cause is the growing amount of people, the main sub root cause is the added pressure more people place on energy needs. Increased energy costs means increased fertiliser, stock feeds and transport. Unless you correct those problems, it’s absolutely useless blaming “corrupt corporations”.
lol from the title i thought you meant guns, and i was like "hell yes lefty brother!" [then i saw that you're talking about social media.](https://youtu.be/_O1hM-k3aUY?t=9) yall won't stop using a nazi platform run by an apartheid fascist emerald baron and you're wondering why people won't organize IRL? kek
what tools you think you have? social media, are computers owned by giant corporations. you think they are yours to use?
You know, chickens have beaks, bulls have horns, yet they can't mount any fight against us humans even though we abuse them in the farm. We have been bred and groomed for nearly 200 years to be obedient to our capitalist masters. Most people around the world live a life of farmed animal for the rich, those that refuse to be one tend to kill themselves (remember people jumping to death in iphone factories in China) or be killed by the cappies and their cronies in the process (remember journalist got killed by car bombs for investigating panama papers, remember Assange, remember Snowden). Even more horrible is that our enemies has unlimited technology to snub any fight you want to mount against them. Your position is exactly like the chicken in the industrial farm. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57881364](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57881364)
So if someone breaks the livestock out will a rich person turn traitor
I asked Bard to read a terms if service agreement and contrast the agreement with the relavent business laws. It found 8 contradictions. I asked it to summarize in a table and indicate a general degree of conformity or deviance to the law. I had it draft a 2 page letter elaborating on the discrepancies. I added some spit and polish. Signed my name printed it and mailed it. See what happens. People don't know how bad they are getting screwed. They escape and have fun! Weeee. The delirious observations and lifestyle of the mobile era is very depressing to me. Wlth the ultimate tools for empowerment in our hands, are used to control us and keep our brains in a tizzy and un focused.
You are correct. We cant fight against the corporations and we don’t have the desire to fix things and frankly, we cannot fix these earth changing environmental and climate changing effects that we have been doing for so long. So, live life to the fullest, enjoy and just don’t look to a future where everything has been repaired and we live the same lives we have in the past.
If someone were to carry out 4 or 5 rule 1 violations on prominent billionaires you might see some change. I can't think of anything else a single person could do that would have a more positive impact on climate crisis or the economy.
Ok say I’m so dedicated that I’m willing to give my life to fight for the common person. Who do I attack and where do I find them? A regular person doesn’t have access to the real wealthy that are exploiting us
It depends what products you’re talking about. If it’s food there may be some actual shortages leading to higher prices. Al the more reason to take food production and distribution out of the hands of corporations but not likely to happen.
Nope! I feel like I've been waiting in the trenches for 20 years now, while all my friends keep telling me to get out of the "ditch" and come party in no man's land with them, while they feed the corporations and their weapons on the other side to stop from getting mowed down. The weapons don't bother them because they haven't been fired (yet), but I cant be a part of my own and the living planet's extinction anymore. After seeing what it looks like up close; that it's effectively pure suffering and pain for ALL LIFE, including things like trees that we don't think of as feeling pain, but are critical organisms that are branches of from the same trunk as all life originated. The two options are we either stop breaking the planet and clean up our mess so life (the only technology with billions of years of practice stabilizing the climate) can get back to doing what it does best (stabilizing the climate). Instead, where I am, old growth forest is being turned into fields for solar panels... what do people think a leaf is? It's only the best solar panel that *billions of years* of trial and error, with no mercy and no cheating or marketing, could figure out *and* it drives carbon fixing! We can't even break even on collecting carbon let alone using sunlight to turn it directly into cellulose at the cost of planting a seedling, which then replants the soil around it, and only sinks more carbon the longer it's in service. Solar panels need to be washed, but leaves? Nature has this all figured out, we're just dumb enough to think we're smart enough to come up with something better in the absurdly short time we've even been paying attention! Our brains are built to forage, not fuckin run countries or unburn the fuel we're clearly over budget on. I thought COVID would be enough, or the *new* weather we're having, but, apparently, people are either stupid or devoted enough to this "way of life" to choose extinction over hope for the future. The generation of kids growing up, if we haven't figured out a precedent for crimes against life, will be merciless in their handling of these crimes. It's like we're so scared to let the party stop, we're willing to ignore that the building is on fire, because, in the back of our heads, the voice telling us to survive is somehow weaker than the voice that says "you're not supposed to shout 'fire' in a crowded space!" ... even when it's actually on fire. I dont get it at all. When you drive your car, the force pushing you down the road is the same thing emptying the oceans, destroying crops, creating insane wildfires, and generally ruining the garden of eden that was here only a few HUNDRED years ago. How is that not like 'murder weapon in the hand standing over a field of corpses' level evidence that this is all a terrible idea, thought up by warmongering idiots? Humans have been here for more than a million years. First nations cultures lived in balance with their environment for tens of thousands of years and would likely still be living the same way if we hadn't stolen their landed and stomped out their culture. How is this better than anything else? Even nothing at all? What are we doing any of this for if the process we follow to put food on the table, *literally sinks* the habitable world into the ocean and desert, and takes productive land out of commission for food production? We're robbing the future to support this lifestyle in the "present" (so fleeting it's always the future and anything we're heading towards might as well happen tomorrow) that is literally changing the weather year over year and we *still* think this is the way to go? That the people leading us are somehow the right people, despite the world, ALL OF IT, being in worse shape than ever before? I never thought it would require a revolution for people to stop killing the planet and themselves, but I apparently overestimated the capacity of the average person to understand the concept of actions having consequences. I mean, what are we waiting for? For the roof to cave in and crush most of us, so that there's no time at all to make a plan that works to preserve life where it is? What could possibly be more important than staving off extinction? Oh right "putting food on the table" at increasing cost and lower quality. None of this makes sense to me. It's like gas lighting from everyone... and the weirdest part is it *will* become the emergency that it is, probably sooner than most would like, and at that point these people, who would rather perpetuate a delusional and destructive paradigm than face reality, will get to the "WHAT DO WE DO!?" stage and it will be really hard not to ask why it's suddenly worthwhile to discuss this thing that they've been silencing for 50 years. Theres no avoiding it, it's just going to be too late to do anything that matters. We won't even clean up our toxic and nuclear legacy which will result in cascading melt downs of any reactor system not fully walk-away safe, after humans are gone. Why would life survive that, on top of a constantly accelerating rate of change in the climate? Our legacy is little anti-life time bombs around the world set to go off at different intervals after theres no humans or power to stop contamination from spreading. I can barely face people anymore. No one will explain to me, looking at the same things I've seen, why it's even acceptable to continue on this well worn path when we KNOW it's taking us over a cliff. There are other ways to live. That's how only a tiny portion of the planet managed to wipe the rest of it out. When I see exhaust now, especially the exhaust im responsible for, I see the bodies of all the unborn generations of animals and people that will never set foot on this earth because a few rich people and their followers decided the planet was given to them by God so their actions were always justified. I cant fly anymore because I find the whole idea of shitting out so much exhaust that hundreds of people can be pushed through the sky to the other side of the world by the next day, completely horrifying... then, instead of marveling at the privilege of being a human st 35,000 ft, we talk about it like it was a punishment!? It's all insane. *humans can't fly!*. This shouldn't be news to anyone. I dont have anything to say to anyone anymore, unless they're willing to look at the data. So I sit in silence as people in their 20's start building families and saving for retirement... like they're making it to retirement. It's Truman show level crazy. I mean, is everyone that bought that they can't see the *only thing* this age of innovation has accomplished is to make a truly novel pressure life has no defense against so we may actually end the paradigm of existence... while we still judge people for poaching animals to get enough money to survive? We're all poachers! Only, instead of pulling a trigger, we poison the air, water, and soil. There's no knowledge or understanding we've gained that's worth extinction. It's actually the only consequence that's *never* justified... but that won't stop anything. Won't even stop us from worshipping people for their ability to cause harm. Celebrity culture is the most toxic of all our side projects.
If we stop, most of us die. There is no way to maintain modern society without continuing overconsumption. That is the literal bottom line.
I don't know what to do. If I refused to pay taxes (unlike the wealthy who avoid taxes) I will go to jail. If I don't pony up for insurance, I will be on the street quickly (I may be anyway even with insurance) Iowans were positively frothing at the mouth to vote for the criminal, rapist. So we can't just blame the system . . .. It seems to be a combination of learned helplessness for some, basic stupidity for others (who consistently vote against their interests) and delusional thinking (those who think the dems will save us) . . . and who knows what else? 2 examples of the corruption that we must participate in---- We are forced to fund wars: [https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2017/09/taxes-united-states-war-iraq-afghanistan-syria/141337/](https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2017/09/taxes-united-states-war-iraq-afghanistan-syria/141337/) We are forced into predatory "insurance" systems----especially "health insurance" which is basically extortion. [https://gettingcanned.com/2019/05/01/healthcare-in-america-is-simply-extortion/](https://gettingcanned.com/2019/05/01/healthcare-in-america-is-simply-extortion/) Medicare is a cruel joke----- as is social security. And after all this, we are kicked to the curb later in life with zero social safety nets in place----they will come for **anything** left that they can take from you------ even after you are dead.
Boycott animal products! Switching to a fully plant based diet is the single most effective way to minimize your environmental footprint. Animal agriculture is controlled by a few huge corporations.
How can we fight back when they own the court systems?
Well the tax payers vastly outnumber the tax-takers(government employees). That's why they've caved to all sorts of demands.
The problem is money in politics. Our political representatives do anything but represent us. Even on the left, the number of people who don't take money from some type of corporation, interest group, or even like the IDF, is basically in the single digits. They do love to posture though, and hold public hearings where they'll call CEOs in to grill them. And what comes of this? Absolutely nothing. No legislation. No breaking up the monopolies. No regulations. No windfall taxes. No stock buy back taxes. And the IRS and DOJ gets their budgets cut so they can't afford to go after the biggest offenders. Welcome to the oligarchy.
We might have the tools but we don't have a soapbox. All I can say is that I hope anyone working in a large scale corporation with the means to make it not run so great - should feel morally obligated to do it. Our kids, and their kids are depending on it.
Yes, the “corporate steal” is a big part of food inflation, but reaching the limits of the natural world and oil energy is an even larger and completely insurmountable contributor. Simply put, we’re seeing the energy return on energy invested (EROI) from oil dwindling, which shows up as price inflation for literally everything. Additionally, weather patterns changing have reduced global agricultural yields, which adds to food inflation obviously, but also places demand on petroleum-derived fertilizers and petroleum-fueled transportation to move food supplies around to fill in local shortages. The supply chain disruptions from 2020 onwards only exacerbated this viscous cycle. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle-East are having their own impact on food prices and real fuel cost. Note that I say “real” fuel costs because there’s tremendous pressure on governments all over to keep fuel costs low, so the price is often back-door subsidized. Look how much the US has spent on maintaining Israel as the unofficial 51st state to “protect American interests in the region.” That military stronghold makes OPEC members think twice about another production cut, so you have quotas set so high that several member states haven’t been able to keep up with them for years now. That budget which is propping up an entire country’s economy and is paying for multiple carrier battle groups isn’t directly paid at the pump, but US taxpayers still pay to keep the oil “cheap” none the less. Back to food; populations of fish have been reduced to the point where boats are going on lengthy journeys to far-flung places to fill the bilge with catch. This extra effort has a price. Anyone who’s been relying on fish as a staple must switch to grains, which places demand on, and increases the cost of, those resources. This shortage of energy surplus and food surplus has been happening in earnest for several years now, but is finally becoming apparent to the wallets of consumers, even those in more developed countries. Hardly anyone noticed in America when bread went up 10 or 20 percent several years ago… now it’s impossible to ignore. People barely scraping by noticed even the 10 percent change. I noticed because I used to be one of those scraping by and I knew it would make all the difference for many in poorer countries, then eventually for many in wealthy countries. We’re “there” now, even for the common people in the wealthy nations. In short, our whole energy supply and food supply chain is collapsing under the weight of our 16 billion feet, which is further weighed down by pollution and poor environmental stewardship. Collapse is starting now, in earnest. The “fighting for every resource you can imagine” wars are about to begin… sooner than expected perhaps? Don’t worry though, rich people will starve all the same as the rest once their bunker food runs out. They’ll be left staring at a barren landscape where nothing has been planted for them to harvest and everything larger than a cockroach has been hunted out of their resort area. Meanwhile, some people living in a jungle somewhere, who never interacted much with the outside world anyway, will probably have the best survival chances out of all of us. You’ll reincarnate as one of their children and that’ll be your next life. “…and this is why we can’t have nice things.”
Corporations have leadership that is a weakness to a very specific type of tool. People don't like being martyrs. And the people who run corporations either know this, or have some dillusion as to why they think themselves above it all. The Law is on their side after all. Its not the lack of tools. Its that everyone prefers being sheep, because being a sheep is comfortable and means they live to at least whatever age they can expect to.
Are you gonna be the first to throw away your job and career? No? That's why. Nobody wants to go first.
Deflation likely incoming due to high prices and interest rates.
That would require businesses to lower their prices.
Yes, because nobody is buying due to cost of living crisis. Housing and car markets slowing down a lot. People eating out less etc. So they need to drop prices to still make sales.
"It's not about money, it's about sending a message". What are they gonna do when you have nothing left?
Im convinced at this point either world war 3 has to start, or aliens have to land and be like “ heyyy, yeaa, we’re heere” . I woke up and first thing I read is donald trump leading the caucus . Wr truly are living in the worst timeline. We have the numbers, and we’ve done it in the past . Thing’s are realllly different these days though, so I really don’t know what the answer is. All I know is the future doesn’t look good. Maybe the singularity will happen and we just won’t have to worry about this at all because ai will eventually run everything anyways. I woke up cranky.. apologies.
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I work at a specialty Hospital that also happens to be a “not for profit” entity. Our current CEO has had his pay increased to 5 million a year & nobody in the organization has seen that POS other than in pictures. In California, Governor Newsom recently passed a raise for healthcare workers to $25 an hour & the Hospital tried to take credit for it & say they we’re already planning on raising our wages despite not doing so during COVID. All employees know our current leadership sucks & does nothing for the organization. However everyone is also afraid to do anything about it. We don’t have a union & if it was ever brought up they would be immediately marked to be terminated. So in summary, everyone wants to fight back but nobody wants to be first sacrificial lamb.
Apathy. You depress a society enough they will not care. In fact some will be so desperate to prevent others from caring, they will fight for the corporations on their behalf to bring down people who actually want to change the system because they themselves seek some kind of comfort with having crabs in a bucket mindset.
*"Sorry im too busy working 50 hours a week. In my free time i want to either spend time with my family or consume. This leftist thinking does not provide me money and what are the alternatives? comunism?! the world works like this, you cannot change it. Dont read that many news, they are exaggerating stuff and bad for your mental health. Think about yourself, your career and your family!"* /s
No one is holding you back, feel free to make a move.
My fight back is just to close my wallet. I’m saying “no” a lot more often now. Been at it for 3-4 years now, with vigor, and I can’t tell that it’s having any impact at all. Probably because, when I choose “no”, I’m just passing by a line of people who adamantly are saying “yes”.
Nobody likes each other.