Every day I’m finding it harder and harder to disagree with those who say we just need to burn everything in this society to the ground.

They never heard of a plantain?

It is not nitpicking. It’s actually a good point. You think that because you have the perspective of the present conditions. You’re thinking of what you would do with those resources to solve the issues you see with that perspective. Yet, the owning-class don’t; they only have their perspective of what is immediately important in their lives and maintaining it. It fulfills those needs now and that’s what they care about, the rest of their issues they still believe they can solve by throwing at it money and the labor of others while they go stroke their egos; gorging themselves on luxury and decadence assuming they are to powerful to be touched by the problems the masses struggle with.

That is the insidious problem with systemic issues. The princess didn’t tell them to eat brioche out of spite but because she was blinded by her position being so far separated an experience from that of the common masses. They, the owning-class, too are only human and can only see what they see from their individual, limited perspective. The system is working just fine for them and they want to ensure that continues to be. That inherently jades the logic of their internal reasoning. It’s why they don’t think like me and you.

That egalitarian society might seem distant, and it is, that doesn’t mean it is impossible. We know it potentially can happen as anthropologist David Graeber said, “The ultimate goal of our oppressors is to limit our imagination about what is possible without them, so that we might never imagine more for ourselves and the world we live in. We can only imagine what is in front of us because the power structure decrees that there are no alternatives other than what currently exists. We humans have lived the alternative for tens of thousands of years. We are capable of building a free society, a brighter future, because we already have ideas about what that might look like. We know what societies without bureaucracies are capable of.”

It’s just gonna take a LOT of work and we are on the back foot in the present moment. Yet, as Ursula K LeGuin said, “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” We just have to built that society in the here and now, within our communities, in whatever way we can.

Thanks for this delightful back and forth. Keep the hope alive. It’s all we have currently.

IIRC, the governor can’t just name a replacement. They would have to call a special election. This special election would have allowed Thomas Massie to run, and potentially become the incumbent for the midterm election. This is why they have held off on announcing his death for so long

Though, now it is too late to call one, so they have no more reason to keep the charade going. Even if they announce his death, the seat will remain vacant and the midterms will decide who takes the seat.

This is my understanding of the situation.

Just get the facility staff to fudge the paperwork. No need for elaborate nonsense. It isn’t like they are just going to allow any random person to come and check the corpse’s liver temp.

All they have to do is announce it, get staff to fudge the paperwork to look legit, then they embalm the body for the funeral or cremation and the evidence is gone.

There is also the possibility he is clinically dead (no brain activity but still has biological activity) but not physically dead (no biological activity whatsoever) and they are just going to have his wife conveniently decide to pull the plug. Then there is no need to fudge the numbers.

This is just how the system of capitalism naturally degrades into fascism. Eventually they can’t squeeze enough out of the established methods and must tighten their grip. Positive reinforcement only gets you so far, and the owning-class wishes to go further.

And what makes a “good/bad” manager depends on the incentive structure. To us, the way they manage things is considered bad by our interests but, to them, they see it as good management because it is still fulfilling their interests.

But in the sense that they are holding the “wrong beliefs”, I guess you could call them delusional, with their delusion being of the owning class. It is just very unfortunate our society is built to reinforce that delusion.

But why do that when you can wantonly exploit your workforce for obscene profits? /s

See, they don’t need the best workers, isn’t like they are going to be partaking of the services or products they are shoveling, they just need obedient workers who will meet a minimum threshold of quality; anyone who falls below the threshold can be used as an example to ensure the rest keep working.

They aren’t delusional, they are owning class capitalists and their incentives are fundamentally different from ours as working class people.

Ding ding. We have a winner.

And that’s how I hurt myself xD

I could eat that entire board in maybe two sittings. One if I wanted to hurt myself.

Not that simple. They love carbs. Yet, not just any simple carb like starches or sugars but a specific, complex carbohydrate: cellulose, i.e. fiber, which they break down into sugars that our body can use.

So only brown rice, whole wheat bread, and the skin of potatoes. Potatoes are actually bad for your gut because they are so high in starches.

Otherwise, they love nuts and greens. Ya know, other foods that are high in fiber content.

Rose-tinted nostalgia that was purposely manufactured through pervasive mass-media and institutionalized propaganda. The US population has been heavily indoctrinated ever since the 1950s and the second Red Scare/McCarthyism.

People are nostalgic for something that didn’t exist because they grew up on stories and teachings that were utter fabrications of events which overplayed the US’s role in WW2 and downplayed the atrocities we committed to our own people and those abroad in our Imperialist quest to cement capitalism as the global economy and stifle the growing wave of communist sentiment that was on the rise during the early-to-mid 1900s.

Gastroenterology and nutritional science is complicated, yo. Who knows what could be causing it. Unfortunately getting the tests to figure it out is timely and, for some, prohibitively expensive.

This just ignores that being concerned about spoilers has existed for longer than modern marketing strategies. People have been concerned about having their first-time experience with a piece of media spoiled since at least the 50s. The end credits to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1955 film Les Diaboliques includes a card with an early anti-spoiler message from the director. Similarly, Alfred Hitchcock asked audiences not to reveal the ending of his 1960 thriller Psycho, saying “Please don’t give away the ending, it’s the only one we have.” The term “spoilers” itself in that context has been around since the 70s.

People still cared about having the story of certain story-rich games spoiled way before games were able to be patched after the fact and it became normal to ship out a buggy, unfinished mess.

It’s simply that some people care about having an untarnished first experience and feeling that wow moment of a plot twist being revealed in the way it was intended. That’s all there is to it. It isn’t some hairbrained conspiracy

And , I’ll be the first for you. I’ve only read Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit once because I find it incredibly boring to re-read a story that I have already read before because I know how the story goes already. I would much rather read something new than go back and re-read something.

K.Flay mentioned. Hell yea.

Same.

I’m almost positive that decades of poverty meals with almost zero nutritional value has decimated my gut microbiome.

Those nice aspects were fake performances that only existed to obfuscate any suspicions that we might have been the bad guy all along.

Now that everything is out in the light and our objectors have been proven right maybe we can be forced to change or be ostracized until we do. Our friends and allies are better off without us until then.

Only sticking point is the use of “demonic”.

It’s a silly term based on fairy tales and is needlessly dehumanizing rhetoric that not only makes the piece feel childish but also opens up the piece to criticisms that will distract the audience from the point that is trying to be made.

Why not just use “Imperialist Captors” and actually sell the anti-imperialism angle? That seems like it would be much more effective at getting the point across.

Can’t disagree, as someone who suffers in the US South.

Getting any sort of help is a pipedream. Once our support systems inevitably fail us, we are basically fucked.

Right back at you.