Thread by @mhbx

So much unbearable suffering.

So much of that so utterly unnecessary.
More than just the normal sorrows of life, the suffering inflicted on the country (& world) due to such illicit use of power, implementing policies & programs that incubate this suffering.

The Tr/GOP legacy.

https://twitter.com/jenzchang/status/1362418786222153729

Have we had enough of the endless catalog of "Trickle Down" failures?

Enough of having policies targeted to accumulating wealth (not just money) toward the top? Violating a basic principle of letting people live?

Enough of this foolish idea that "I alone can fix this"

Enough of this idea that "everyone else are just lazy people trying to take my money".

A troupe that shows up in various forms throughout our history. And is showing up again now in a time of COVID.

Blame the citizens who are trying to navigate the endless new rules...each

more restricting than the prior. Each continuing to extract wealth from the people who work to live. Who are forced by the system we have constructed to work endlessly, perpetuating the problem generationally.

While the rich take in many Billions of unearned wealth. It is a

strange system.

It does not have to be this way.

It is this way because of the systems and structures, the 'axioms' of our system that have been put into place that not only enable it, but demand these outcomes.

The answer is not to be found in the old battles & attack lines

of "you're a socialist" (as if the accusers of that line have the slightest idea what they are talking about)
"you’re a capitalist pig...": Same.

We are battling over outcomes, when we need to learn about underlying @systemic structures.
We need to decide, all over again,

who we are. And who we think we are.
Understand the gap, and go to work.

As it is we are stuck battling outcomes. Like TX power systems. Like our inability to deal w COVID in a way that would not have cost trillions. (a fine legacy of the Trumpian era)

We need to ask better questions, and be willing to hear the answers and act upon them.

We have to escape the nonsensical oppositions & classifications that divide into inaccurate, and deadly, divisions.

It is not Right v Left. Conservative v. Liberal.

It is typically described as Republican v Democrat. But this is also a false distinction. It is the operative one. But it is false, and perpetuates the suffering rather than dealing with it.

It is the wrong question.
And thus can only deliver errant, bad, & wrong answers.

Time to return to first principles.
And the first principles of our society, our country, are embedded in the Constitution. Not the structural parts. But the values, ideas, principles that underly how we are organized.

Time to think and rethink how those principles apply

in this complex world. As it is the many decisions that have been layered on these first principles make it difficult to attend to our basic needs.

So we get presidents inspiring insurrection. Wealth forever sliding upward, creating a new peasantry. Energy systems that

are designed for profit, not service to the needs of the public. Thus are fragile, and unable to cope with extremities.
In general systems we have systems that cannot get resources to where they are needed without extreme measures.

We are asking the wrong questions.
And thus implementing the wrong answers.
One question that underlies a lot of misfit is : How can I maximize profit?
It may be asked "How do we create a useful service/product that serves the general weal, in a way that also generates a profit?"

To much. To much for a twitter thread to engage. It is the ancient argument restated for our times.
The end of it is the beginning of this thread:
There is too much unnecessary suffereing.
There is plenty of suffering in the best of times. Our systems of survival ought not be

so structured/designed to augment the suffering, but alleviate it. Not as an extreme reaction. But as a design consideration.

The first question is
What problem are you trying to solve?

I don't think we are honest in our answers.
Thus we end up with irrational solutions.

Like this. Where families die just trying to stay warm.
Or where the former prez thinks to politicize a pandemic.
Or where the working class is pressed to where there is nothing but work just to barely stay alive.

None of this is demanded or required. It is all decided.

First principles.
Preamble to the Constitution is a good start.
Ask the question more deep than we have been able to, or willing to:
What problem are we actually trying to solve?

Seems creating/rethinking a country where the systems support our quests would be a good start.

ps.
The original post got pulled down.

Here is the story. But it could have been any of a thousand stories. This one is just particularly poignant. The suffering caused by seemingly unrelated decisions made years ago.

&etc.

khou.com/article/news/l…