masquenox

joined 1 year ago
[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

In your opinion where did it go wrong?

1985... when the National Party decided to commercialise and deregulate everything in the hopes of causing socio-economic chaos in the country - which it did. They, for instance, knew perfectly wll deregulating the taxi industry would cause chaos - they literally commissioned White Papers to research the outcomes - and they did it not in spite of the findings of that research, but because of it.

Same thing with Eskom - commercialised in 1985, and by 2002 Eskom was disconnecting more households than they were connecting - I literally have the UKZN research papers on my desktop to prove it - because Eskom was now being "run like a business." The outcome we see today shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but because the media has been lying to us about the root cause of our problems we are all making surprise Pikachu faces while whining about "corruption" and "incompetence."

The ANC took one look at this state of affairs and went, "Oh, we're fine with this" and they've been doing the bog-standard "living it up while the rich gets richer and the poor get poorer" neoliberal shuffle ever since. Don't get me wrong... the ANC is as corrupt as fuck - but that doesn't make them unique here in South Africa or the rest of the world. But they are not the root cause... it's the socio-economic system that enables this shitfuckery that is.

What should the government/country do to get out the current crisis?

We already know how... the same people that now applaud the DA or ActionSA every time their talking heads use the word "privatisation" are the very people who remember (or rather, selectively forgets) how well our public infrastructure worked when they were actually run as public infrastructure and not profit-making "businesses." That's what the country needs to do - reclaim our public infrastructure. But don't expect the snivelling racketeers (whether they be ANC, DA, EFF or any of the parasites squatting in parliament) in our political establishment to push that idea any time soon...

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

ANC short sightedness

What ANC short-sightedness? They're doing what all the rich people wanted them to do, aren't they? Running everything "like a business?" I guess South Africans are now seeing for themselves how short-sighted running "everything like a business" was always going to be, huh?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Laughs hysterically in South African... where we now have no choice but to use gas for almost everything because our electrical grid is collapsing due to IMF-approved neoliberal shitfuckery.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Regulated capitalism. Prosecuting corruption.

Right, regulate capitalism... by regulating the capitalists that have all the money and can buy the regulators any time they feel like it.

Sounds legit.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

They don't bat an eyelid when you accuse Israel of being an Apartheid-state - it's like water flowing off a duck's back. Call Israel a kapo state, however, and they lose their shit. That they can't ignore.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I recently came back to Lemmy from reddit to escape the batshit pro-Israel censorship happening on there right now and I have to say that the quality of the content and discussion has just gone up.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know, sorry… Can’t help but be honest about these things.

It's fine... it's not your responsibility to come up with answers to these things.

But we're going to have to find ways if we don't want our children and grandchildren growing up in bombed-out open-air prisons as well.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Okay... that's a pretty bleak picture.

Sooo... how do we beat AI surveillance?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In other words, these laws are not “fighting pedophilia”. They are enabling child abuse.

So no different than all these laws that (supposedly) "stop sex trafficking" which only exist to clamp down on sex work while... drumroll... making absolutely no dent in actual sex trafficking?

Yeah... that tracks.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's never just been the US - Israel doesn't just have a whole bunch of enablers... said enablers also back the very idea of a modern-day Israel.

France, the UK, Germany, Australia, Apartheid-era South Africa all played their part in helping with all this - I guess the fact that it's all countries with histories that are deeply entwined with white supremacism, antisemitism and colonialism is purely coincidence, eh?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When they remove old.reddit it's over for me - there is no browser I've tried that new.reddit hasn't managed to crash within a few minutes of using it.

But I'll stay on old.reddit for as long as possible... there are just too many nazis and fascists waiting in the wings to hijack the communities I've put a lot effort into. It's better to just milk them for as long as possible.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Hmmm... most interesting. Thanks!

 

I've been informed that I'm not the only one that has been unable to see the context of the discussions I've been participating in - it pretty much makes having anything other than the most basic conversations impossible. Does anyone know if there has been some progress on this front?

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