notice the neoliberal paradigm being used against you every fucking time: just switch jobs, just work harder, just use public transport, just don't order from amazon, etc. this is incredibly shortsighted and ignores any effective solution for just about everything
you should all keep doing these things if it's possible/convenient for you of course, they help. but the trick here is to put the blame on the working class, deflecting from the necessary systemic changes,which protect the profits&interests of large corporations & their investors
there are massive amounts of money to be lost for power structures if they are scrutinized,that's why it's in the interests of lobbyists to push politicians so the working class takes the burden,that's true for the financial crisis, climate change, healthcare,&just abt everywhere
take social media. liberals are quick to remind you of your "own choice", that if you have a problem with how fb handles privacy, you can just leave the platform. there are so many problems with this approach
or take climate change. people are quick to point to your own responsibility, that you are the reason the big fossil fuels companies make their profits. it's a very effective tactic, because there is some truth to that.but of course, it's a highly abused truth with a clear agenda
by not making systemic changes, you protect a whole incentive system:there is no pressure to divert research to alternatives with less profitability, profits of conglomerates are protected,end consumers down the line cannot afford to switch because of alternatives being expensive
not to mention monopoly power: 100 companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions, all business partners down the value chain are dependent on just a few suppliers, conditions are set highly in favor of those monopolies, investors profit off monopoly rents
same with the tech industry. where does the developer go to publish their app after google/apple tells them to fuck off? as a developer, you are done, there's no help for you. there are no alternatives, choice in capitalism is mostly a myth.
if we want real change, we need both: providing and switching to alternatives, AND pushing for systemic change. neoliberal dogma forces us to focus on the former in the hope that we forget about the latter. beware of it whenever you see it, and make others aware of it
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just replace the king with politicians, add celebrities/entertainment/corporate media & self-help gurus to the priests, and replace the gendarmerie with the police, and you have today's pyramid. same shit
to be fair, there needs to be a level below the businessmen for the bourgeois politicians
one thing the left needs to learn: when i criticize you, i'm not necessarily canceling you. every important issue is highly complex and requires lots of constructive feedback. if you never want to be criticized, just don't bother with accomplishing big things.
is most critique on social media in bad faith and not constructive? yes. is there a bad way and a bad time to criticize smth? yes. but we need to stop acting as if we've already figured everything out. our causes are too big and important to not srsly engage with them
if i ever say stupid shit, or stuff that is not entirely correct, i want people to call it out, criticize me in a respectful way. not even the greatest genius in the word has everything figured out.
this was an enormous opportunity she missed out on, even the green new deal is too slow considering what we need to do to prevent the climate catastrophe.
but because people said she represents a movement beyond party politics (which is a bizarre argument), i cut her some slack (which i shouldn't have, cause it's about the fucking planet). but now, out of all possible timings, she decides to chime in for the war and fracking guy
it's rly tragic how powerless we are in the face of big platforms like twitter or facebook. our voices are not safe, their algorithms and decisions are barely transparent. they say twitter is not real life, but big tech is a real, and very underrated danger to society
but of course it is not big tech per se that is the source of these problems, it's a symptom. the real cause is accumulation of wealth & power in fewer hands. it's not technology that is the problem, it's power. who owns and controls the technology?
another important fact is the large transformation of capitalism towards an IT driven economy, software is eating the world, data is the new core resource. it's less important who controls the means of production, it's more and more about the control of the means of distribution