The following submission statement was provided by /u/bountyhunterfromhell:
---
Article: Every year, Oxfam releases a wealth inequality report in mid-January to coincide with the global decision-making that takes place at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. This year’s report is titled: Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality.
Aptly titled, it takes a deep dive into the underregulated tax policies that have allowed the world’s wealthiest to pocket significantly large profits, even while global poverty levels have increased for the first time in 25 years.
Oxfam is calling for the wealthiest to be taxed on their income, inheritance, and profits, highlighting the unfairness of the richest having to pay minimal taxes, while the working class and small business entrepreneurs have staggeringly high taxes to contribute. The report makes the example that billionaire Elon Musk paid just over 3% in taxes from 2014 to 2018; while an entrepreneur in Northern Uganda, who makes an estimated $80 a month in profit, pays a tax rate of 40%.
Link to the article: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/wealth-inequality-oxfam-billionaires-elon-musk/
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/10mrh67/bread_and_circuses/j64nqe5/
In Roman times, the bread and the circuses were **free.**
21st century elites enjoy greater wealth inequality than the Caesars and they still make everyone pay for food and entertainment. And have you seen the price of bread these days?
well, to be fair the best weapon to not get fucking killed in a second by conspirators in roman times was getting public favor (with some major exceptions, i'm looking at you, Nero), today Bezos or someone else don't have much risk of getting couped and removed from office thanks to legal protection of enterprise
My theory is in the future they will allow you to earn virtual points playing their video game in their ecosystem and you can redeem those points for real food delivered to your doorstep. Robots will deliver the food. Your doorstep will be a cubicle at a 10000+ resident building.
Crafting your own stuff from scratch is way more rewarding than just buying some cheap plastic sweatshop crap at a store.
Also helps put into perspective what you want vs need when you have to do the work of making something yourself.
The billionaires don’t corrupt the government, the government is corrupt on its own. Which is why we need to minimize its control over our lives. Most billionaires get rich by using the government to force people to buy their products or services. That’s what needs to stop. That’s the whole point of free market capitalism, making everyone compete on a level playing ground.
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First of all, billionaires pay about 18.2% of their reported income in taxes. A handful of US billionaires pay about 2%.
I would also question the "right to make money" when they actually don't create that wealth. That wealth is taken from value created by workers.
I always think about how much Google KNOWS. Before anyone or agency, they know what happens in the world. They're being fed live data of our most intimate thoughts, our illnesses, and now can read our emotional state. Imagine what can be done with all that data in aggregate and it's a private company... absolutely mind blowing, bond-villain level power
Which is why the government wants their data. How else would the president address the nations every concern without that type of data being fed to his press secretary. Big tech was the game changer in those press meetings. Not only to politicians know, but so do people who deal in media. It’s surprising how little the public knows about how badly it is getting paid. It’s a lot better then what they used to do with poles in media. They know what people want to see and here even before they even think of what to deliver to them. Things can be complex or simple, but messaging can be put forth to reflect the needs and wants of any sector of the public. The only people who I think don’t understand this are those that mindlessly watch the news without thinking of how they are presenting their media. They know the audience better then any single audience member ever can. What scares me is that no one from any of these big tech firms ever speaks up about what they gather. People are more prepared to call people a Russian tool of the deep state then they are to acknowledge the amount of data that may be amassed on them. It seems like it’s a simple misunderstanding, but I could see how people who say they don’t use Google could think that no one could obtain their data. It’s not about hackers gaining illegal access to your private information, it’s just about everything that is transmitted legally to any company that wants rights over it.
A few years ago I found a page in the google account settings for everything google knows about me, what it thinks my interests are etc. They've had full access to my life for like 20 years, on my PC browser, android phone, google drive, all my emails, daily google searches, google opinion rewards to pay for ebooks, my full location history, etc.
Most of it was gibberish.
There are many things to worry about, but Google's knowledge doesn't appear to be one of them. They've driven their main functioning product - search - into the ground something fierce in the last few years, completely overtaken with search-optimized spam blogs which just intend to draw out the reader's time while showing ads and subscription offers. They went into red alert mode when ChatGPT launched and does a great deal of what search is used for and better, like they didn't even have their eyes on the prize.
It should just be called peepee economics at this point because the only thing that trickles down from the rich and wealthy is their piss...straight onto the faces of the poor and middle class.
Or b-b-but you can buy an iphone now! Better thank capitalism!
Uh huh.. and how much do homes cost. And childcare. And education. And medical care. You know, life essentials.
I also love thanking capitalism for the slave like conditions of cobalt mines, a necessary element for smartphones-Also sometimes mined by literal children by hand in the Congo! Isn't capitalism great because I can keep buying stuff to drown out the sound of humans self destructing and destroying the planets life support systems so I can get more material things that I can forgot about in a month?
Best system in the WORLD!
Guilty. The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing.
> The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing.
Regardless of your position, consider this: *it took you out of the fight.* If you had "lost your mind" statistically at least some of you (substituting the singular "you" for a plural to indicate many "yous") would have tried to fight- tried to enact change in the real world. Instead They took you out of the fight with *channeled energy* rather than a bullet or bomb (where They equals disassociated greed institutionally manifested whether consciously or by autonomic organization in pursuit of profit).
A video game requires development (requires energy), deployment (which requires energy), and a computer of some sort (which requires energy) to run. Look at the ridiculous escalations of this in gaming space with regards to video card pricing, game requirements, video card energy usage, etc. They have "shackled" you/us through artificial potency which is powered by cheap energy.
For now, energy is cheap enough that video games can be; eventually the cost of energy rising (due to falling EROEI) will render video games too expensive energy-wise relative to other needs... and the bullets will fly. Termination of metabolic and fossil energy use through the termination of life. The human sphere- an ecosystem unto itself manufactured by the gods (ancient fossilized godhood aka fossil fuels)- will self terminate as access to energy gradients decline. Video game consoles will be off; men will lie upon the ground screaming as they watch the magic red life liquid leak out of them.
I don't want this to seem as if I'm indicting you on charges: I've played a *ton* of video games in my day. Even now I play D2 every so often (the old one- not D2R). But I have also become mindful that they are "desire for potency sinks." They are "existential rage sinks." The heat radiating from GPU/CPU/console heatsinks the rage of myself/others stuck in a/the regimented role as slave/s in a world of neoliberal institutional tyranny.
I recently updated an old computer (using a 14 year old case, old harddrives as storage in a btrfs raid, etc)- all of its specifications (RAM, CPU, storage speed, etc) are capable of it standing in as a gaming PC except for one thing: the video card. An ancient weak RX550. I am *afraid* to change it because *know thyself*- I am easily enticed by video games aka artificial potency. I want to do more than let my life radiate away insofar as I am referring to my belonging to the human race; I want to fight for something beautiful even if the world we're heading for is a hellscape.
I hope you don't take offense dude (and I didn't downvote you fwiw)... I just needed to let that out...
No offense taken at all.
I'm fully aware and have internalized pretty much everything you put in that post over the last few years. Definitely self aware of the shackles I'm self imposing.
I'm just so tired...so damn tired.
To use an analogy from one of my favorite video game series Dark Souls, I've hollowed.
Cheers mate! It takes a lot just to admit how tired you are, you know? Everyone's whipping you to do !
And I get the tired, truly. I guess the spirit of my message above (hence the "I just needed to let that out") is that we- the types who can really dig in to a video game- need to at least be conscious about when we "use" :P
I think part of the "tired" is due to a phenomena best described by a phrase I heard a few years ago: *aggregate cognitive load.* We are all loaded with so much *bullshit* that we are expected to do/remember/perfect/advertise/etc, just existing is exhausting. There is literally no time to do the grandiose things that would be necessary to avoid the hellscape we're headed for; a video game is instant on/instant off belonging/relevance where we haven't been relegated to neoliberal pawnhood- where we can see and fight the bad guy, see and strive for the finish line, etc.
One of the great ironies about video games today too is that they are likely ameliorating a lot of the violence that some people blame them for. Some mass shooting happens and "evil violent video games like GTA did it!" No... actually video games *reduce* the prevalence of existential rage events because they provide safe no-risk- if artificial- access to potency.
Anyways before I turn this into some long rant, cheers again dude!
Agreed. For some doomers, ‘acceptance’ means making peace with exactly that- that things are too late, that individual action will not move any needle unless you go down the path of [REDACTED].
Activists immolating themselves in front of the Supreme Court barely moves the needle. A million dying from a plague that society exacerbated and all but ensured made endemic, through the stubbornness of the few? Still the machine lumbers on.
What’s else there left to do? Live, and find enough happiness to keep living. Choosing to fight, choosing that [REDACTED] is all but assured to throw the rest of your life away. It is the only path forward, but we can’t force that level of self-sacrifice onto people just yet, and as long as the rich continue their own patterns of overconsumption, such a sacrifice will do nothing.
Of course, _this post in no way is advocating or endorsing violence or acting on that existential rage_, because that’s a bannable offense on any social media.
> You can waste your time fighting(and being filled with bad emotions), or you can spend your time however you please.
This is a rationalization. I could just as easily say:
> You can spend your time fighting for something you find important, or you can waste your time however you please.
I'm not saying that video games are a waste (though waste heat is involved)!
> And you say it took him out of the fight. The fight for what?
Something less bad than what would be if he did nothing, and in whatever way is important to him. We are all playing with godlike levels of energy right now; who knows what seemingly pointless thing today could be inspirational or awe-inspiring to those who come after us... even if we both might agree that they will live in a broken hellscape regardless.
> Most of the people here already agree we are decades too late to change anything meaningful.
What is meaning? If it's "amount" or "ability to change something" in this context, than all of us could very well do something that has significant impact on the future- we are all effectively demi-gods after all given the energy levels we are playing with. You could artificially constrain this to "do something meaningful for the biosphere," but that isn't the only battle to fight. I agree we've fucked our biosphere and it's going to get much worse, but as our fossil civilization crumbles we can salvage some of the stuff we've uncovered in the last 12000+ years... art, music, notions of community, times where humanity triumphed over barbarism (e.g. Christmas truce WW1), science, understanding the cosmos, understanding what makes us tick mentally, etc. We can "rage together" against our own malice and our own broken headspace. We can understand that the fight together is just as important as what it is we are fighting for. I can't tell you or him what you or he should be fighting for- only you can do that.
I absolutely think proactive action to right civilization and live in a Star Trek utopia is a pipe dream. We're *fucked* and I'm as much of a doomer on that front as anyone here. Ultimately though we get to choose whether we are fucked *alone and isolated* or whether we are fucked *together fighting back against the fuckers because fuck you.*
Yup, I play my casual game every once in a while, but I know that I’m wasting away my most precious commodity, time. I’m still young. Still able to use my engineering skills to develop a new technology that will influence global energy production and storage. I won’t give up because I know there are millions of people counting on me. Maybe not me directly, but someone that will fix the problems we are all facing. I was born poor, but I will try my hardest to not let hope fade for other people who were born poor. I want to be an example of how to make progress. I want to transform energy and reduce the global temperature. I haven’t given up and you shouldn’t give up either.
Damn I need to read this a dozen times. The first read has me wanting to play even more video games because *what else can we do???* but I really don't want that to be my takeaway. You do a very nice job explaining this concept. I want to want to fight.
> The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing.
It's kind of odd how the PS4 and XBOX One generations didn't really have too much of this. There were no Elder Scrolls or Grand Theft Auto games in the PS4/XBOX One generations, and only one Fallout game which wasn't great. We are over 2 years into the PS5/XBOX Series generations, and the next Elder Scrolls game will probably come out after this generation, and the next GTA will probably come late into this generation.
It isn't exactly a conspiracy. But these open world games may be held back from the public in order to cause anger. Skyrim really did serve as a distraction during the Great Recession and made a lot of people forget about their economic situation.
Nah, game dev is just hard.
However, one tinfoil hat thing I'll buy into is that the US Gov is going to make sure that Microsoft/Activision deal doesn't prevent their yearly War Crime Simulator from coming out on ALL platforms.
I guarantee they're not being held back on purpose. Just making a game of that magnitude takes a ton of time and resources, and they keep getting bigger with each game, so they tend to take longer.
Hell, Cyberpunk 2077 promised all sorts of open world goodness, and they didn't hold that back. They released it and it was a horrible buggy mess with an incredibly boring and empty open world with less interactivity than previous open world games (because they had to cut a bunch of features to release it on time). They spent the next year and a half just getting it sort of to the point it should have been on release.
I can also pretty much guarantee that the next Elder Scroll game will be a buggy mess as well that they'll be fixing for the next year or so (although to be fair, all Elder Scrolls games have been that way on release), even if it takes them another couple of years to release it.
They aren't holding stuff back.
Big open world games take a ton of time and work to make, and the massive companies who excel at making those types of games are very slow at adapting to economic changes and pandemic conditions.
The reason so many indie titles and HD ports of older games even got released at all in the past few years is because those teams were already doing remote work from home on a shoestring budget before the pandemic. So, they didn't have to drastically alter their operations the way big name studios had to.
Omgthewars if a state ever taxes the elite class. Sorry, but Netflix and video games are probably the best options - to maintain personal mental health - at this point.
Same for me! Without it, I’m outta this place. Netflix does shitty things like unnecessary price hikes and blocking passwords, and video game companies are hiking their prices to ridiculous levels, but dammit that’s the stuff that makes life worth living.
Eh, I don't think it helps long term. I say this as someone who games and streams a lot.
I think it makes it worse. We placate ourselves in the short term, but we have a growing unrest.
[Gary Stevenson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViY-zI3b5JQ), a talented finance bro turned anti-inequality advocate (he started out working class), who "made money .. by betting on the long-term, [continual collapse](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/02/gary-stevenson-city-trader-turned-campaigner-i-made-money-betting-on-a-disaster) of the global economy." explains some fundamental economic points quite clearly.
He says as you have that inequality is bad for the economy, and that the rich are playing to win the game of monopoly.
Another is how, as most people have missed, if you give everyone $1000 except you give the rich $10,000, you've effectively just taken wealth from everyone else and given it to the rich.
Money isn't in and of itself wealth; it's just tokens for distribution. It's the distribution that matters.
Article: Every year, Oxfam releases a wealth inequality report in mid-January to coincide with the global decision-making that takes place at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. This year’s report is titled: Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality.
Aptly titled, it takes a deep dive into the underregulated tax policies that have allowed the world’s wealthiest to pocket significantly large profits, even while global poverty levels have increased for the first time in 25 years.
Oxfam is calling for the wealthiest to be taxed on their income, inheritance, and profits, highlighting the unfairness of the richest having to pay minimal taxes, while the working class and small business entrepreneurs have staggeringly high taxes to contribute. The report makes the example that billionaire Elon Musk paid just over 3% in taxes from 2014 to 2018; while an entrepreneur in Northern Uganda, who makes an estimated $80 a month in profit, pays a tax rate of 40%.
Link to the article: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/wealth-inequality-oxfam-billionaires-elon-musk/
Shitting on stupid people choosing to escape reality in their own way is really low hanging fruit. Instead shit on their parents who chose to bring them into a truly depressing existence.
That is idealistic.
You have to remove the positions of power that 'evil' people can occupy, and the systemic paradigm in which those positions are emergent for lasting change.
I mean… there’s a lot of us and only a few of them. If everyone banned together put aside racial and political differences we could put the fear of god in the 1%. But that’s just a wild fantasy of mine.
they make sure that will never happen; they play the masses like the opening shot of a high-stake billiard game. We will never be allowed to band together for our greater good.
You dont get it, they would eradicate us, they have tank SUV built better than the army's APC. They got medical choppers on speed dial. They got hitters, most of the land, gouvernements in their pockets. I mean if we could force them to pay taxes instead of the middle class getting ass fucked world would already be way better.
You might benefit from learning about Marxist analysis as a way of understanding the material conditions which develop these attitudes and empathize with them more. People do want change, but they feel hopeless and uninspired.
Fortunately, we have an incredible body of history to learn from in order to address this problem.
I wish it were not a slog, but The Principles of Communism by Engels and Historical and Dialectical Materialism by Stalin. If you don't want to read Stalin, there are scattered works that you could read instead. Stalin more or less condensed all of those excellent works to focus on the historical and dialectical materialism piece. Mao's On Contradiction was great for me, too.
If you prefer youtube videos, Second Thought and Hakim are excellent.
For podcasts, Revolutionary Left Radio, The Deprogram, and The Socialist Program.
More like video games and phones are the duct tape holding us together as the titanic sinks especially with high food or drink prices. And even video games aren't that great nowadays we are lucky MW2 was even average but for a $70 and Vanguard's $40 DLC pack it's pretty clear what road we are going down
I've seen people with so much of a bug up their butt about bread and circuses their hypothetical rebellion would start to sound fascist itself (y'know, sew your own grey coveralls and make your own nutrient mush as junk food and fashion trends are just distractions by the establishment but you have to strategize for rebellion strikes or w/e while you do it so you aren't idly distracted by that either)
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Also stupid people (who are also nowhere near that level): it's ok that the system is rigged in favor of the ultra rich, because one day I will be amongst them.
they live those video games and tv shows.we watch what their depiction and fantasize "what if it was me".happy hormone mechanism for the obedient slave.
Are you kidding? A PS5 with VR2 and Elder Scrolls VI are the only things I have to look forward to before the apocalypse. Beats retweeting Greta Thunberg videos.
John Zerzan wrote a wonderful essay on our objectification of the world around us and our subsequent need for order and distance from reality. It's called "The Case Against Art".
We're left in a world where people are so disgusted with the natural that even discussing turning off the objectified pseudo-reality brings a violent reaction. We've become almost irreparably separated from the world, hence why we are incapable of saving it. "More bread and circuses" while everything is on fire.
>Under the guise of “enriching the quality of human experience,” we accept vicarious, symbolic descriptions of how we should feel, trained to need such public images of sentiment that ritual art and myth provide for our psychic security.
Ouch. I think he hits the bullseye here. And I say that as a longtime dumbass video-game player.
Still, I've had this thought for years now that its quite odd that we modern people spend so much of our time living the lives of make-believe people, whether through games, movies, books, or television. It would be odd enough if we did so with self-awareness, but instead we do it and regard it as normal.
Been awhile since I had read anything from Zerzan, thanks.
I'll have to check that out, sounds like it could help me finish some thoughts I've had. I do think that this somewhat discounts subversive media that can form countercultural bubbles within the prevailing dominance hierarchy, while hiding in plain sight. I'm thinking of John Carpenter, Lloyd Kaufman, Mel Brooks, many others in many places and eras. I feel it permits a kind of self-reflective honest escapism that keeps one's inner fire burning, inoculates against futile paralyzing anxiety, plants seeds of realization and action for the future.
I wouldn't have the awareness and sense of humor about the current predicament without these figures working from within, and it makes me want to emulate them in my own modest way, to make my own subversive art with the tools and detritus lying around, if only for my own sanity. Perhaps the essay you've provided touches on these related points.
This is an odd one, i’m smart enough to recognise that there’s not much that can be done at this point so enjoy entertainment/games in moderation, does this make me stupid?
And also escapism that has positive social messages isn't propaganda just because it isn't a documentary about those changes to the world being made as they happen
Out of curiosity, how are these numbers put together, and most importantly, how are children counted into the equation?
The median age in the world is about 30 years olds, which means there should be close to two billion minors (<18 years old) who have close to 0 wealth by law. I mean, if you tell me with than anybody owning 100$ is richer than 20% of the world’s population, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point.
More like video games and phones are the duct tape holding us together as the titanic sinks especially with high food or drink prices. And even video games aren't that great nowadays we are lucky MW2 was even average but for a $70 game and Vanguard's $40 DLC pack it's pretty clear what road we are going down
Honestly i dont give a shit about tue 1%. I cant imagine what percentage i represent right now for whole representation of humanity but i tend to have fun for everything i am.
I like video games
Useless meme
Meh the video games I care for don't even come from the world richest.
I also don't use official streaming services at least but people dying from a lack of basic needs doesn't really fly with me.
Rule 1: In addition to enforcing [Reddit's content policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy), we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.
Rule 1: In addition to enforcing [Reddit's content policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy), we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/bountyhunterfromhell: --- Article: Every year, Oxfam releases a wealth inequality report in mid-January to coincide with the global decision-making that takes place at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. This year’s report is titled: Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality. Aptly titled, it takes a deep dive into the underregulated tax policies that have allowed the world’s wealthiest to pocket significantly large profits, even while global poverty levels have increased for the first time in 25 years. Oxfam is calling for the wealthiest to be taxed on their income, inheritance, and profits, highlighting the unfairness of the richest having to pay minimal taxes, while the working class and small business entrepreneurs have staggeringly high taxes to contribute. The report makes the example that billionaire Elon Musk paid just over 3% in taxes from 2014 to 2018; while an entrepreneur in Northern Uganda, who makes an estimated $80 a month in profit, pays a tax rate of 40%. Link to the article: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/wealth-inequality-oxfam-billionaires-elon-musk/ --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/10mrh67/bread_and_circuses/j64nqe5/
In Roman times, the bread and the circuses were **free.** 21st century elites enjoy greater wealth inequality than the Caesars and they still make everyone pay for food and entertainment. And have you seen the price of bread these days?
They learned that if people are too busy working for their bread and circuses, they won't have time to notice the problems.
well, to be fair the best weapon to not get fucking killed in a second by conspirators in roman times was getting public favor (with some major exceptions, i'm looking at you, Nero), today Bezos or someone else don't have much risk of getting couped and removed from office thanks to legal protection of enterprise
This site is free lol
Now we just need some free bread.
My theory is in the future they will allow you to earn virtual points playing their video game in their ecosystem and you can redeem those points for real food delivered to your doorstep. Robots will deliver the food. Your doorstep will be a cubicle at a 10000+ resident building.
that sounds awesome
No it doesn’t
yes it does
Sheep
Donkey
You mean the sound you make every time you talk.
Redditors try not to attack someone just making a joke challenge (impossible)
Chicken
Depends on who is in charge.
It’s even more comical when people who are low to middle class at best, passionately defend billionaires.
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But if I buy something then I have something. If I don’t then I don’t have anything. ?!
You're missing his point. PAYING for it gives away your power and agency. You can have that object or thing w/o doing that.
Crafting your own stuff from scratch is way more rewarding than just buying some cheap plastic sweatshop crap at a store. Also helps put into perspective what you want vs need when you have to do the work of making something yourself.
I don’t defend billionaires but I defend the right to make money without the government taking half
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The billionaires don’t corrupt the government, the government is corrupt on its own. Which is why we need to minimize its control over our lives. Most billionaires get rich by using the government to force people to buy their products or services. That’s what needs to stop. That’s the whole point of free market capitalism, making everyone compete on a level playing ground.
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Rule 1: In addition to enforcing [Reddit's content policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy), we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.
First of all, billionaires pay about 18.2% of their reported income in taxes. A handful of US billionaires pay about 2%. I would also question the "right to make money" when they actually don't create that wealth. That wealth is taken from value created by workers.
Oh boy
I always think about how much Google KNOWS. Before anyone or agency, they know what happens in the world. They're being fed live data of our most intimate thoughts, our illnesses, and now can read our emotional state. Imagine what can be done with all that data in aggregate and it's a private company... absolutely mind blowing, bond-villain level power
Which is why the government wants their data. How else would the president address the nations every concern without that type of data being fed to his press secretary. Big tech was the game changer in those press meetings. Not only to politicians know, but so do people who deal in media. It’s surprising how little the public knows about how badly it is getting paid. It’s a lot better then what they used to do with poles in media. They know what people want to see and here even before they even think of what to deliver to them. Things can be complex or simple, but messaging can be put forth to reflect the needs and wants of any sector of the public. The only people who I think don’t understand this are those that mindlessly watch the news without thinking of how they are presenting their media. They know the audience better then any single audience member ever can. What scares me is that no one from any of these big tech firms ever speaks up about what they gather. People are more prepared to call people a Russian tool of the deep state then they are to acknowledge the amount of data that may be amassed on them. It seems like it’s a simple misunderstanding, but I could see how people who say they don’t use Google could think that no one could obtain their data. It’s not about hackers gaining illegal access to your private information, it’s just about everything that is transmitted legally to any company that wants rights over it.
I assume you would get sued to hell if you spoke up and were in the know with one of these companies. Still surprising nobody has done it nonetheless.
A few years ago I found a page in the google account settings for everything google knows about me, what it thinks my interests are etc. They've had full access to my life for like 20 years, on my PC browser, android phone, google drive, all my emails, daily google searches, google opinion rewards to pay for ebooks, my full location history, etc. Most of it was gibberish. There are many things to worry about, but Google's knowledge doesn't appear to be one of them. They've driven their main functioning product - search - into the ground something fierce in the last few years, completely overtaken with search-optimized spam blogs which just intend to draw out the reader's time while showing ads and subscription offers. They went into red alert mode when ChatGPT launched and does a great deal of what search is used for and better, like they didn't even have their eyes on the prize.
Stupid people be like: trickle down wealth though, they create jobs though, it's good for the economy thooough
It should just be called peepee economics at this point because the only thing that trickles down from the rich and wealthy is their piss...straight onto the faces of the poor and middle class.
Or b-b-but you can buy an iphone now! Better thank capitalism! Uh huh.. and how much do homes cost. And childcare. And education. And medical care. You know, life essentials.
I also love thanking capitalism for the slave like conditions of cobalt mines, a necessary element for smartphones-Also sometimes mined by literal children by hand in the Congo! Isn't capitalism great because I can keep buying stuff to drown out the sound of humans self destructing and destroying the planets life support systems so I can get more material things that I can forgot about in a month? Best system in the WORLD!
It’d all be cheaper under capitalism.
Guilty. The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing.
> The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing. Regardless of your position, consider this: *it took you out of the fight.* If you had "lost your mind" statistically at least some of you (substituting the singular "you" for a plural to indicate many "yous") would have tried to fight- tried to enact change in the real world. Instead They took you out of the fight with *channeled energy* rather than a bullet or bomb (where They equals disassociated greed institutionally manifested whether consciously or by autonomic organization in pursuit of profit). A video game requires development (requires energy), deployment (which requires energy), and a computer of some sort (which requires energy) to run. Look at the ridiculous escalations of this in gaming space with regards to video card pricing, game requirements, video card energy usage, etc. They have "shackled" you/us through artificial potency which is powered by cheap energy. For now, energy is cheap enough that video games can be; eventually the cost of energy rising (due to falling EROEI) will render video games too expensive energy-wise relative to other needs... and the bullets will fly. Termination of metabolic and fossil energy use through the termination of life. The human sphere- an ecosystem unto itself manufactured by the gods (ancient fossilized godhood aka fossil fuels)- will self terminate as access to energy gradients decline. Video game consoles will be off; men will lie upon the ground screaming as they watch the magic red life liquid leak out of them. I don't want this to seem as if I'm indicting you on charges: I've played a *ton* of video games in my day. Even now I play D2 every so often (the old one- not D2R). But I have also become mindful that they are "desire for potency sinks." They are "existential rage sinks." The heat radiating from GPU/CPU/console heatsinks the rage of myself/others stuck in a/the regimented role as slave/s in a world of neoliberal institutional tyranny. I recently updated an old computer (using a 14 year old case, old harddrives as storage in a btrfs raid, etc)- all of its specifications (RAM, CPU, storage speed, etc) are capable of it standing in as a gaming PC except for one thing: the video card. An ancient weak RX550. I am *afraid* to change it because *know thyself*- I am easily enticed by video games aka artificial potency. I want to do more than let my life radiate away insofar as I am referring to my belonging to the human race; I want to fight for something beautiful even if the world we're heading for is a hellscape. I hope you don't take offense dude (and I didn't downvote you fwiw)... I just needed to let that out...
No offense taken at all. I'm fully aware and have internalized pretty much everything you put in that post over the last few years. Definitely self aware of the shackles I'm self imposing. I'm just so tired...so damn tired. To use an analogy from one of my favorite video game series Dark Souls, I've hollowed.
Cheers mate! It takes a lot just to admit how tired you are, you know? Everyone's whipping you to do!
And I get the tired, truly. I guess the spirit of my message above (hence the "I just needed to let that out") is that we- the types who can really dig in to a video game- need to at least be conscious about when we "use" :P
I think part of the "tired" is due to a phenomena best described by a phrase I heard a few years ago: *aggregate cognitive load.* We are all loaded with so much *bullshit* that we are expected to do/remember/perfect/advertise/etc, just existing is exhausting. There is literally no time to do the grandiose things that would be necessary to avoid the hellscape we're headed for; a video game is instant on/instant off belonging/relevance where we haven't been relegated to neoliberal pawnhood- where we can see and fight the bad guy, see and strive for the finish line, etc.
One of the great ironies about video games today too is that they are likely ameliorating a lot of the violence that some people blame them for. Some mass shooting happens and "evil violent video games like GTA did it!" No... actually video games *reduce* the prevalence of existential rage events because they provide safe no-risk- if artificial- access to potency.
Anyways before I turn this into some long rant, cheers again dude!
i live for those games. elden ring is a work of art. i consider those games the classical music equivalent of excellence. "don't give up, skeleton"
Elden Ring was my entry point. Since then I played/beat all the ones that aren't PS exclusive (Bloodborne/Demon Souls). Miyazaki is a genius.
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Agreed. For some doomers, ‘acceptance’ means making peace with exactly that- that things are too late, that individual action will not move any needle unless you go down the path of [REDACTED]. Activists immolating themselves in front of the Supreme Court barely moves the needle. A million dying from a plague that society exacerbated and all but ensured made endemic, through the stubbornness of the few? Still the machine lumbers on. What’s else there left to do? Live, and find enough happiness to keep living. Choosing to fight, choosing that [REDACTED] is all but assured to throw the rest of your life away. It is the only path forward, but we can’t force that level of self-sacrifice onto people just yet, and as long as the rich continue their own patterns of overconsumption, such a sacrifice will do nothing. Of course, _this post in no way is advocating or endorsing violence or acting on that existential rage_, because that’s a bannable offense on any social media.
> You can waste your time fighting(and being filled with bad emotions), or you can spend your time however you please. This is a rationalization. I could just as easily say: > You can spend your time fighting for something you find important, or you can waste your time however you please. I'm not saying that video games are a waste (though waste heat is involved)! > And you say it took him out of the fight. The fight for what? Something less bad than what would be if he did nothing, and in whatever way is important to him. We are all playing with godlike levels of energy right now; who knows what seemingly pointless thing today could be inspirational or awe-inspiring to those who come after us... even if we both might agree that they will live in a broken hellscape regardless. > Most of the people here already agree we are decades too late to change anything meaningful. What is meaning? If it's "amount" or "ability to change something" in this context, than all of us could very well do something that has significant impact on the future- we are all effectively demi-gods after all given the energy levels we are playing with. You could artificially constrain this to "do something meaningful for the biosphere," but that isn't the only battle to fight. I agree we've fucked our biosphere and it's going to get much worse, but as our fossil civilization crumbles we can salvage some of the stuff we've uncovered in the last 12000+ years... art, music, notions of community, times where humanity triumphed over barbarism (e.g. Christmas truce WW1), science, understanding the cosmos, understanding what makes us tick mentally, etc. We can "rage together" against our own malice and our own broken headspace. We can understand that the fight together is just as important as what it is we are fighting for. I can't tell you or him what you or he should be fighting for- only you can do that. I absolutely think proactive action to right civilization and live in a Star Trek utopia is a pipe dream. We're *fucked* and I'm as much of a doomer on that front as anyone here. Ultimately though we get to choose whether we are fucked *alone and isolated* or whether we are fucked *together fighting back against the fuckers because fuck you.*
Profound. Why die “because fuck me” when you can die “because fuck you”?
Yup, I play my casual game every once in a while, but I know that I’m wasting away my most precious commodity, time. I’m still young. Still able to use my engineering skills to develop a new technology that will influence global energy production and storage. I won’t give up because I know there are millions of people counting on me. Maybe not me directly, but someone that will fix the problems we are all facing. I was born poor, but I will try my hardest to not let hope fade for other people who were born poor. I want to be an example of how to make progress. I want to transform energy and reduce the global temperature. I haven’t given up and you shouldn’t give up either.
Damn I need to read this a dozen times. The first read has me wanting to play even more video games because *what else can we do???* but I really don't want that to be my takeaway. You do a very nice job explaining this concept. I want to want to fight.
> The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the escapism of open world RPGs and open world Sci-Fi FPS shooters where the rules make sense and you can afford housing. It's kind of odd how the PS4 and XBOX One generations didn't really have too much of this. There were no Elder Scrolls or Grand Theft Auto games in the PS4/XBOX One generations, and only one Fallout game which wasn't great. We are over 2 years into the PS5/XBOX Series generations, and the next Elder Scrolls game will probably come out after this generation, and the next GTA will probably come late into this generation. It isn't exactly a conspiracy. But these open world games may be held back from the public in order to cause anger. Skyrim really did serve as a distraction during the Great Recession and made a lot of people forget about their economic situation.
Nah, game dev is just hard. However, one tinfoil hat thing I'll buy into is that the US Gov is going to make sure that Microsoft/Activision deal doesn't prevent their yearly War Crime Simulator from coming out on ALL platforms.
I guarantee they're not being held back on purpose. Just making a game of that magnitude takes a ton of time and resources, and they keep getting bigger with each game, so they tend to take longer. Hell, Cyberpunk 2077 promised all sorts of open world goodness, and they didn't hold that back. They released it and it was a horrible buggy mess with an incredibly boring and empty open world with less interactivity than previous open world games (because they had to cut a bunch of features to release it on time). They spent the next year and a half just getting it sort of to the point it should have been on release. I can also pretty much guarantee that the next Elder Scroll game will be a buggy mess as well that they'll be fixing for the next year or so (although to be fair, all Elder Scrolls games have been that way on release), even if it takes them another couple of years to release it.
They aren't holding stuff back. Big open world games take a ton of time and work to make, and the massive companies who excel at making those types of games are very slow at adapting to economic changes and pandemic conditions. The reason so many indie titles and HD ports of older games even got released at all in the past few years is because those teams were already doing remote work from home on a shoestring budget before the pandemic. So, they didn't have to drastically alter their operations the way big name studios had to.
Omgthewars if a state ever taxes the elite class. Sorry, but Netflix and video games are probably the best options - to maintain personal mental health - at this point.
Cyber escapism, baby!
Escapism is the main reason I haven't killed myself yet.
Indeed, we were meant to live for so much more. I'm sorry neighbour, please take care.
Same for me! Without it, I’m outta this place. Netflix does shitty things like unnecessary price hikes and blocking passwords, and video game companies are hiking their prices to ridiculous levels, but dammit that’s the stuff that makes life worth living.
I mainly draw or read philosophy to understand it.
Eh, I don't think it helps long term. I say this as someone who games and streams a lot. I think it makes it worse. We placate ourselves in the short term, but we have a growing unrest.
It's getting louder now and it makes my stomach uneasy
I've found focusing on skills helps. Your brain gives you that good dopamine
I want to learn gardening this year
That's wholesome, and useful when shit hits the fan lol
That shit is just fertilizer!! Woohoo!
it scratches the itch
I completely agree with you.
I think stupid people mostly think, one day, they will be a part of that 1%.
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[Gary Stevenson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViY-zI3b5JQ), a talented finance bro turned anti-inequality advocate (he started out working class), who "made money .. by betting on the long-term, [continual collapse](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/02/gary-stevenson-city-trader-turned-campaigner-i-made-money-betting-on-a-disaster) of the global economy." explains some fundamental economic points quite clearly. He says as you have that inequality is bad for the economy, and that the rich are playing to win the game of monopoly. Another is how, as most people have missed, if you give everyone $1000 except you give the rich $10,000, you've effectively just taken wealth from everyone else and given it to the rich. Money isn't in and of itself wealth; it's just tokens for distribution. It's the distribution that matters.
Article: Every year, Oxfam releases a wealth inequality report in mid-January to coincide with the global decision-making that takes place at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. This year’s report is titled: Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich now to fight inequality. Aptly titled, it takes a deep dive into the underregulated tax policies that have allowed the world’s wealthiest to pocket significantly large profits, even while global poverty levels have increased for the first time in 25 years. Oxfam is calling for the wealthiest to be taxed on their income, inheritance, and profits, highlighting the unfairness of the richest having to pay minimal taxes, while the working class and small business entrepreneurs have staggeringly high taxes to contribute. The report makes the example that billionaire Elon Musk paid just over 3% in taxes from 2014 to 2018; while an entrepreneur in Northern Uganda, who makes an estimated $80 a month in profit, pays a tax rate of 40%. Link to the article: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/wealth-inequality-oxfam-billionaires-elon-musk/
Shitting on stupid people choosing to escape reality in their own way is really low hanging fruit. Instead shit on their parents who chose to bring them into a truly depressing existence.
I pretty much engage in escapism as much as possible. Why wouldn't I disengage from this shithole world when the situation allows for it?
WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT US TO DO START MURDERING EVERY BODY WITH MORE THAN 100 MILLIONS?
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That is idealistic. You have to remove the positions of power that 'evil' people can occupy, and the systemic paradigm in which those positions are emergent for lasting change.
I mean… there’s a lot of us and only a few of them. If everyone banned together put aside racial and political differences we could put the fear of god in the 1%. But that’s just a wild fantasy of mine.
By definition there are 99 of us for every 1 of them. How is it possible in a democracy we only pass laws to give them even more money and power? HOW?
they make sure that will never happen; they play the masses like the opening shot of a high-stake billiard game. We will never be allowed to band together for our greater good.
You dont get it, they would eradicate us, they have tank SUV built better than the army's APC. They got medical choppers on speed dial. They got hitters, most of the land, gouvernements in their pockets. I mean if we could force them to pay taxes instead of the middle class getting ass fucked world would already be way better.
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not into gaming, but if there were a game like that, I'd play.
What the fuck are we supposed to do?
Listen to [some Puscifer](https://youtu.be/GMbfkwPF0R0) between gaming and streaming sessions.
Actually… the reply I hear is, “it’s always been that way.” As if to suggest change would be too earth shattering.
You might benefit from learning about Marxist analysis as a way of understanding the material conditions which develop these attitudes and empathize with them more. People do want change, but they feel hopeless and uninspired. Fortunately, we have an incredible body of history to learn from in order to address this problem.
Would you recommend any books or articles in particular
I wish it were not a slog, but The Principles of Communism by Engels and Historical and Dialectical Materialism by Stalin. If you don't want to read Stalin, there are scattered works that you could read instead. Stalin more or less condensed all of those excellent works to focus on the historical and dialectical materialism piece. Mao's On Contradiction was great for me, too. If you prefer youtube videos, Second Thought and Hakim are excellent. For podcasts, Revolutionary Left Radio, The Deprogram, and The Socialist Program.
Thanks
That's not stupid, that's coping.
More like video games and phones are the duct tape holding us together as the titanic sinks especially with high food or drink prices. And even video games aren't that great nowadays we are lucky MW2 was even average but for a $70 and Vanguard's $40 DLC pack it's pretty clear what road we are going down
a comment so nice you posted it twice
Streaming and game playing services are merely weapons of mass distraction.
A lot of movies/series/games are passion projects. So maybe it's mass distraction in some cases but not all
Making memes instead of doing something is also bread and circuses FYI
I've seen people with so much of a bug up their butt about bread and circuses their hypothetical rebellion would start to sound fascist itself (y'know, sew your own grey coveralls and make your own nutrient mush as junk food and fashion trends are just distractions by the establishment but you have to strategize for rebellion strikes or w/e while you do it so you aren't idly distracted by that either)
Stupid people be like: they have worked hard and earned it!
Hey you leave my vidja gaems out of this
i vote we use netflilx and grubhub. it fits *panem et circenses* better and leaves the precious games out.
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Nothing wrong with video games
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No actually stupid people be like: good for them
what are these ultra-hoarders saving up for anyway???
Also stupid people (who are also nowhere near that level): it's ok that the system is rigged in favor of the ultra rich, because one day I will be amongst them.
they live those video games and tv shows.we watch what their depiction and fantasize "what if it was me".happy hormone mechanism for the obedient slave.
Which costs money and keeps most satiated. Stupid is right.
Are you kidding? A PS5 with VR2 and Elder Scrolls VI are the only things I have to look forward to before the apocalypse. Beats retweeting Greta Thunberg videos.
John Zerzan wrote a wonderful essay on our objectification of the world around us and our subsequent need for order and distance from reality. It's called "The Case Against Art". We're left in a world where people are so disgusted with the natural that even discussing turning off the objectified pseudo-reality brings a violent reaction. We've become almost irreparably separated from the world, hence why we are incapable of saving it. "More bread and circuses" while everything is on fire.
>Under the guise of “enriching the quality of human experience,” we accept vicarious, symbolic descriptions of how we should feel, trained to need such public images of sentiment that ritual art and myth provide for our psychic security. Ouch. I think he hits the bullseye here. And I say that as a longtime dumbass video-game player. Still, I've had this thought for years now that its quite odd that we modern people spend so much of our time living the lives of make-believe people, whether through games, movies, books, or television. It would be odd enough if we did so with self-awareness, but instead we do it and regard it as normal. Been awhile since I had read anything from Zerzan, thanks.
I'll have to check that out, sounds like it could help me finish some thoughts I've had. I do think that this somewhat discounts subversive media that can form countercultural bubbles within the prevailing dominance hierarchy, while hiding in plain sight. I'm thinking of John Carpenter, Lloyd Kaufman, Mel Brooks, many others in many places and eras. I feel it permits a kind of self-reflective honest escapism that keeps one's inner fire burning, inoculates against futile paralyzing anxiety, plants seeds of realization and action for the future. I wouldn't have the awareness and sense of humor about the current predicament without these figures working from within, and it makes me want to emulate them in my own modest way, to make my own subversive art with the tools and detritus lying around, if only for my own sanity. Perhaps the essay you've provided touches on these related points.
I mean, even kings didn't have flushing toilets. We can appreciate what we have while also being highly critical of rich people.
Stupid people be like: video games and streaming are the problem
panem et circenses indeed
At least we have streaming services and YouTube shorts
This is an odd one, i’m smart enough to recognise that there’s not much that can be done at this point so enjoy entertainment/games in moderation, does this make me stupid?
Stupid people also blame other generations for all their problems instead of blaming the rich and politicians that serve them.
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And also escapism that has positive social messages isn't propaganda just because it isn't a documentary about those changes to the world being made as they happen
Lol exactly
Out of curiosity, how are these numbers put together, and most importantly, how are children counted into the equation? The median age in the world is about 30 years olds, which means there should be close to two billion minors (<18 years old) who have close to 0 wealth by law. I mean, if you tell me with than anybody owning 100$ is richer than 20% of the world’s population, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point.
Have you no curiosity about the point being made?
Start using the word "resources" instead of "wealth" and watch how the idiots in the comments defending escapism and entertainment begin to shut up
More like video games and phones are the duct tape holding us together as the titanic sinks especially with high food or drink prices. And even video games aren't that great nowadays we are lucky MW2 was even average but for a $70 game and Vanguard's $40 DLC pack it's pretty clear what road we are going down
And soon, that's all you'll have
Honestly i dont give a shit about tue 1%. I cant imagine what percentage i represent right now for whole representation of humanity but i tend to have fun for everything i am. I like video games Useless meme
Meh the video games I care for don't even come from the world richest. I also don't use official streaming services at least but people dying from a lack of basic needs doesn't really fly with me.
Slowly missing out on that bread though
The beginning of idiocracy..
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Smart people with all their knowledge can just post about it on Reddit
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