saving this for later, thanks
stopdropandprole
joined 9 months ago
the Cold War was a free printing money machine for 50 years. creating a new one against China makes sense if you're an oligarch whose wealth rides upon govt contracts and endless military industrial expansionism.
and it kinda explains why Putin is manipulating Trump to make him believe they'll choose the US over China in a game of saber rattling. Russia is positioning itself to be the tie-breaker so it can play both sides against one another in lucrative energy/arms deals. maybe they'll even get some real estate out of it.
facts are increasingly irrelevant. allegiances to lies are far more powerful today. and blind belief in lies is perhaps the most dangerous and powerful mechanism of totalitarian control.
Hitler, in accusing Jewish people of lying, outed himself instead and laid out what would become his lifelong political strategy; ie, pretending to be leftist populist, while making deals with right wing capitalist, in order to gain power.
... thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to largescale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
- Mein Kampf
"You can discourse and quote-dunk and fact-check until you’re blue in the face, but at a certain point, you have to stop and decide what truth you believe in. The internet has conditioned us to constantly seek new information, as if becoming a sponge of bad news will eventually yield the final piece of a puzzle. But there is also such a thing as having enough information. As the internet continues to enshittify, maybe what we really need is to start trusting each other and our own collective sense of what is true and good."
having more examples of collapse won't hold back collapse or help you prepare for it.
and in a "post-facts" world, it's more important to build strong connections with other people who share your BELIEFS and less important to respond to every new supposed "fact" (claim) being shoved into our faces by an unreliable media.
beliefs are increasingly more potent in the world of political organization than facts/new information, just look at how easily our country has been overtaken by millions of voters who believed in blatantly false promises and simple answers to complex problems.
threats to federal workers across the entire government - 'you have 10 days to turn in your colleagues or else you're fired' - went out January 20th. Remote workers were threatened with firings the day or so after. people currently being hired but not yet finalized were given notice the same week, and people hired but on probationary status (doesn't mean what youre thinking it's just a designation for people in good standing who haven't secured permanent position) - were told to fuck right off around January 23rd.
the amount of chaos and fear generated in the first week alone was staggering. but you're right, the actual FIRINGS took a couple more days. the threats came IMMEDIATELY.
not saying it caused the crash entirely, but there's reasonable evidence the administration at least contributed to the high levels of stress ATCs already experience. especially since they're nationally short staffed from retirements linked to Reagan.
better question is, why the fuck should military helicopters be doing exercises right the fuck beneath flight paths of commercial airlines? there's literally thousands of military bases where they can pRaCTiCe and do military shit. gtfo civilian air space.
on a sorta related note: the Enclosure Movement was one of the most transformational developments in western history responsible for shaping the modern world as we know it today, giving rise to land-based power dynasties central to feudalism, aristocratic control, and eventually definitions for what we understand today to be "private property" as enshrined in common law in civil society.
it was essentially the biggest land grab to ever occur at the time under the pretense of Law, and it under pins the Industrial Revolution and transition to wage based economies (ie, capitalism). it also established much of the legal precedent used by colonizers for hundreds of years to take away land from native peoples and the poor living off unenclosed lands.
anyone interested in some of the earliest examples of anti-landlord resistance in European history, it's worth diving into.
Billy Bragg - The World Turned Upside Down
🎶🎶🎶
In 1649 To St. George's Hill A ragged band they called the Diggers Came to show the people's will
They defied the landlords They defied the laws They were the dispossessed Reclaiming what was theirs
"We come in peace," they said "To dig and sow We come to work the lands in common And to make the waste grounds grow This earth divided We will make whole So it will be A common treasury for all
The sin of property We do disdain No man has any right to buy and sell The earth for private gain
By theft and murder They took the land Now everywhere the walls Spring up at their command
They make the laws To chain us well The clergy dazzle us with heaven Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship The God they serve The God of greed who feeds the rich While poor men starve
We work we eat together We need no swords We will not bow to the masters Or pay rent to the lords We are free men Though we are poor You Diggers all stand up for glory Stand up now
TIL
based af
the 2016 and 2020 coverage of Bernie Sanders and their pushing of centrist anti-progressive agendas in the editorials was enough for me to unsubscribe forever. after what they've done in recent years, there's no way I'll ever trust them to represent working class interests.
here's an example just a couple weeks ago of them laundering Republican party talking points into man on the street style "people are saying" interviews about how 'aktually I'm black and I'm glad DEI is being ended.' receipts showing stealth edits made to cover their tracks in the linked article.
this is a brilliant observation honestly. every accusation or criticism levied against the fascists gets reversed in a "I know you are but what am?" sneer. it works for many reasons, and it's part of the right wing playbook.
obviously none are equivalent in scale or scope, but they have truthiness to them at first glance. and just as importantly, like in your purse thief example, they redirect attention and create doubt... just long enough to avoid getting caught or face the wrath of the crowd.
it also works, esp in America, partly because the so-called opposition party is actually kind of a piece of shit and has been for generations. Dems profess to hate the extreme consequences of capitalism, but love capitalism itself and benefit from it. so they ultimately can't condemn it or offer long term solutions to the problems it creates. conservatives at least offer simpler solutions which all boil down to "hate who you're told" and "obey your God King and you'll someday be rewarded".