Americans are, apparently, tired of having every last shred of personal data over-collected, hyper monetized, then improperly secured by a rotating crop of ethics-optional corporations and lazy exe…
  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    114·
    3 months ago

    Republicans have such a fucking easy job.

    Run on “Government doesn’t work! We need less of it!” and then once you have the job, do fucking nothing except obstruct, obstruct, obstruct to make sure jack shit gets done so you can turn around and say “See, the government doesn’t work, we need to get rid of it!”

    And for the cost, they get to retire with nice government pensions and better healthcare than any of their voters will ever see.

    I hate this fucking planet.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      45·
      3 months ago

      This is not just a partisan issue. As the article points out, its been like this for 30 years. The Dems failed to pass any meaningful legislation too.

      It’s because it makes gobs of money that both parties are taking, and it also kind of projects US power to other countries since US tech is doing most of the data collection.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      15·
      3 months ago

      And for the cost, they get to retire with nice government pensions and better healthcare than any of their voters will ever see.

      They get way more than just that if they are good little piggies for the ownership class. They get “advisory” positions and board membership that give massive salaries for doing fuck-all as they already did their “job” in government. Totes not a bribe of course, because technicallyyyyy…

    • The Doctor@beehaw.orgEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Hence, why they call folks who actually want to make government do stuff “rubes” back home.

  • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
    46·
    3 months ago

    Congress is an organ of the ruling class and always has been. When they (rarely) do something seemingly against ruling class interests, it is still a strategem to best keep the capitalism boat afloat (it tries to sink every 5-10 years).

    Sure, Congress is corrupt, but it always has been. The system is working more or less as designed. And if you want to oppose this design, the system is also designed to fight you to the death. And funneling all of your capacity into sheepdog voting is how your masters tell you you should oppose them. So if you want to oppose this system, you must become informed as to how it functions and join up with like-minded individuals to develop actually effective means of resistance.

      • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
        6·
        3 months ago

        Learning media criticism, history, political economy, and how past groups have organized takes a decent amount of time. Namely, socialist theory. So does unlearning the ideological falsehoods that cloud our ability to think and investigate. And so does recognizing what builds power, what actions are effective, what cooption looks like and how to counter it, etc. So I don’t recommend just doing one thing, but instead working from where you are to be closer to a stronger consciousness. I suppose the closest thing to a single recommendation I can give is humility and curiosity around all of the aforementioned topics and to give people grace IRL when you begin working with an organization.

        If you are interested in reading recommendations and info about your thoughts on politics I’d be happy to think of something you might appreciate. Or if you feel like you’re ready for action and are in the US I can recommend some orgs that are reasonably good to “start” with (many stay in them and that is also fine!).

      • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
        6·
        3 months ago

        That’s true! I’m glad I didn’t say anything like, “the system is corrupt because I’m in the minority”.

        PS, the ruling class is a minority.

    • refalo@programming.dev
      8·
      3 months ago

      good luck with that… the bigger problem is that Americans are already demoralized to the point you cannot make the majority of them understand logic and reason, or science and proof for that matter, or they would already have this problem solved.

    • yamanii@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 months ago

      Boycott only works with niche products, you will never make a business stop using microsoft office.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
      10·
      3 months ago

      I mean, it has, a bunch of times. And they haven’t so far.

      But I agree, in principle. When they’re impacted, in a way they actually understand, things may get better.

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    9·
    3 months ago

    84% of Americans want something they are unwilling to vote nor do anything for, but they sure as hell will complain about it.

        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
          9·
          3 months ago

          No they’re made by those who possess economic power. That’s a tiny sliver of the US population.

          It’s elections are nothing than political theatre, with a side goal of creating the illusion of democracy, and building consent for the dictatorship.

          • atro_city@fedia.io
            2·
            3 months ago

            That’s defeatism. You especially should believe in the collective. We are not just innocent little playtoys of powers beyond our comprehension. If that were the case and we had no free will, then what’s the point of living? If you truly believe you control nothing in your life, then why still walk this earth?

            A single ant cannot destroy a tree. It’s the work of countless ants that achieve that.

            • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
              3·
              3 months ago

              Why would the capitalists let you vote away their wealth or power? What incentive do they have to do that?

              That’s defeatism.

              No, it’s a historical reality that voting is not an effective method to undo class society. Even the ancient greeks knew (before the Marxists rediscovered this and dealt their own death blows to representative government in the 1800s) that voting in an aristocracy is nothing more than theatre, because only the rich and entrenched families have the resources to fund campaigns, and get themselves elected (or appoint political puppets to do their bidding).

              Political power is a reflex of economic power, and the rich will not allow you to use the system they control, to undo it.

              single ant cannot destroy a tree. It’s the work of countless ants that achieve that.

              Many socialist / communist parties did just that, and they weren’t deluded enough to try to accomplish it via voting in a system controlled by the ruling classes.

              • atro_city@fedia.io
                2·
                3 months ago

                So you’re completely ignoring the rise of fascism due to voting? The second world war happened because a bunch of nazis stormed the German parliament and took control of it by force? What do you think populism does?

                Of course you can change the system from within. Le Pen, Höcke, Meloni, Wilders, Trump, and so on, they aren’t “part of the establishment”. They latched onto a populist narratives, got financial aid from the radicals in their countries, and gathered votes to get themselves into offices .

                The left-wing parties in France united to pose a unified front against the national assembly (le RN) in France. And it worked. They got the relative majority to vote for them, but as soon as they won, they were beset by infighting. Such is the common reality of left wing parties - they are their own greatest enemy.

                Either you chose to ignore it or you were unaware, but the latter is much less probable, so I’m going to say you chose to in order to fit your narrative of “voting doesn’t matter” and imagine that class warfare (or how Marx would put it “Klassenkampf”) is the only way out.