A Boring Dystopia

Green Mario time?

/jk... unless?

its fighting an impossible war against the constant propaganda, which the victims are now self-reinforcing.

even if you stopped the corporate stream of lies via places like fox news, it will take decades to reverse the damage via individual counseling as you suggest. were all fucked unless something drastic happens such as a serious recession/depression forcing the views to change faster.

Quite simply, we need a financial revolution. If a company pisses me off, I stop shopping there. Even if it hinders me in the long run.

There is a local grocery store chain in the Cleveland area called Marcs. It's a low budget store. The running joke is that Marc Glassman is selling stolen/counterfeit goods, due to how cheap they are, and how fast they break/rot.

Everyone in my family agrees that I should shop there. It would probably benefit my wallet to shop there.

But in 2003, Marc Glassman was doing a store inspection before I even started my shift. They had NOBODY scheduled in my department before 4pm. They blamed me for why the shelves looked so bad, because I closed the night before, nobody worked the morning shift, and now here I am at 3:45pm, shelfs are a mess, CEO is asking questions, store manager blames me, and I get fired before I even got to the employee area to clock in.

Still to this day, I say that was bullshit. I refuse to shop at a place that took a paycheck away from me whdn I was like 20 years old, living in my first apartment, and needed money the most. They hurt me when I was vunerable. I'd shopped at Marcs since I was a kid. I'd still be shopping there now. Instead, I've never given them a dime since that day.

Here's the thing about people. They have no principals. They will not do whats right if it hurts them. Nestle uses literal slave labor, but here they are, a huge company with so many brands it's hard to keep track. If EVERYONE stopped buying nestle products, nestle couldn't use slave labor because they wouldn't exist.

But that's not gonna happen, because some people just need those cookies, and hot pockets, and a bunch of other unhealthy products that continue to keep us in a disposable human life cycle. Nobody wants to take responsibility. Everyone just wants fast cheap things. Because nobody has any principals anymore. So CEOs will continue to get rich. Enjoy your hot pockets, fuckers.

Repeal citizens United and institute ranked choice voting nationwide (USA)

mutual support networks

Now you've done it, Anarchist rant incoming ...

heh j/k, I'll just say disengage from capitalism as much as you can. Like obviously don't inconvenience yourself excessively but the less you need to pay out the less you need to work for pay the more you can work for your community and help others also disengage from this broken system.

You can't use the state to dismantle the state, vote as harm reduction and build alternatives at the same time. Anarchist Knitting circle at my place.

Vote in your local elections, and never stop educating yourself.

Take up the soap box. When that doesn't work, take up the ballot box. When that doesn't work, take up the jury box. When that doesn't work, all that's left is the ammo box.

The fact that the president elected is a felonious rapist tells you where we are

General strike. Mutual aid networks. Community defense.

Stop trying to fix it at the voting booth. The same people we need to fight control who we get to vote for. A change candidate will never make it through to the ballot.

As someone else in this section said, propaganda is the problem. This election demonstrated that we've flipped, and like in Russia, propaganda is now more powerful than truth. I can think of three potential solutions to this problem (without open conflict):

• Prevent the propaganda from reaching citizens. Enact a truth in news law that both does not allow news reporting to allow falsehoods to be spread without fact-checks at the moment of reporting, and requires digital platforms to uphold similar standards for user-generated content. The likelihood of this happening was nearly zero before Trump got his second term because politicians and businesses were already irrationally terrified of being seen as suppressing right-wing speech, but after Trump, it's infinitesimal without some huge public push (which won't happen).
• Educating the public about civics, fascism, authoritarianism, oligarchy, etc to allow them to individually reject the propaganda themselves. The natural place for this is high school Civics classes. This won't bear fruit for 10-20 years at least, and now that Trump is able to exert nearly unchallenged power, it is also going to be instantly suffocated in the crib as soon as it looks critical of Trump's rule.
• Individually remove the propaganda spread at the ground level. There is also the very remote possibility of focused conversation, where those who are not brainwashed throughout the country act as T-cells rooting out the "infection" of reactionary propaganda. This would be a simultaneous conversation that millions of Americans initiate to try to bring those who are brainwashed back to reality, at a neighborhood level. This won't happen because Trump's supporters explicitly are trained to reject and fight back against any non-white-listed source of information; because we're in our social media bubbles and have no desire to get out of them; and it would require an incredible act of will on non-Trump supporter's parts, which I don't believe we have the capability to do.

So I think we're screwed. My best guess:

Like in Russia, Trump will create a culture that corruption and ineptitude is "normal" so the public stops expecting (and fighting) for anything better; like in Russia, he will control messaging and suppress media to blame the opposition and scapegoats at every possible moment of political weakness; and like in Russia, he will remove election safeguards to the point where elections are no longer reliable ways to act democratically.

The eventual result is that the US's system of government will fail hard and consistently enough that public faith in it will fall apart. But that corrupt, decayed state will probably outlast our lifetimes. Like in Russia, properly managed and with a continued monopoly on violence, a corrupt and undemocratic government even in 2024 can last for decades.

I don't have the right answer. But I've tried to listen to different opinions and here are the take aways so far:

Plant some food. Anything at all. Microgreens in a window, a little garden, hanging tomato plant. Anything. Enjoy the cycle and try to be connected with the seasons, soil, and food.

Talk to people. I'm reading a book called Living Room Revolution that speaks on how important conversation is. Not to convince people of anything right away, but to show people you are part of their community. And to be a positive part of that community just by being willing to talk.

Understand that in all of history, there have been many awful governments. Many challenges that went unanswered for too long. Even now, there are millions, if not billions of people living in very bad conditions or under bad government, and yet, many can find positive parts of their day. We can too. And I hope that will help us make change. Before we figure out how to do that, we need to be nourished with good food and good social interaction.

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/general-strike-2028-unions-labor-movement/

Striking is the only option that has historically accomplished these goals without the violence of a civil war or military coup.

Simple. We focus on having Education, Housing, Healthcare and Food for all. Maybe some kind of UBI or something idk, all I know is we have fucked each other over for too long.

Time to focus our energy on more important things like fucking up our planet /s

Coat everything in neon accents so it's an interesting dystopia.

Throw away last centuries sensibilities for starters.

This ages old 'East v West' thing is bullshit.

Also, begin the class war already. That's a much more important battle.

An effective and Biblically appropriate solution is to tie every health insurance CEO to a boulder, and throw them into the ocean!

Why do you think CEOs like yachts? In their heart of hearts, they yearn for the Sea. They know it is where they belong!

Exciting dystopia.

Read and do everything George Lakoff has ever written and recommended.

First Monday of every month is Silly Hat Day!

(Mandatory, no repeat hats)

Work to replace First past the post voting in your state so people can vote outside the two party system without a spoiler effect

Support Luigi

Nukes, total global reset. Small population manages to survive underground like city of ember. Try again in a few hundred years

I don't think there is a "fixed" version of the world. It's an infinitely complex machine running on entropy at its very core creating the next iteration from the last prompt at each moment and there is literally billions of us pushing the buttons.

We need to just look at the reality around us and do our part for what's in our reach to change. Everyone has an idea of what perfect means to them and it likely doesn't agree with anyone else and may straight up conflict with. The best system would be one that is fair and let's each self actuate as much as they want without hurting others but we are not there and will not get there from our current position without massive upheaval of those that have more than they could possibly want it need. Taking away even a little of their excess will feel like oppression.

So, I don't think we should chase fixed I think we should do what we can for "better"