Post

Congressional DSA members voted as a block against the Clean Energy Jobs & Innovation Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (both contained provisions of the Green New Deal), the Capitol Police & Afghan Refugee bill, & the Assest Seizure for Ukraine Rec Act among other bills.

This seems helpful to the project of breaking the right.

Sometimes I disassociate and catch myself thinking that maybe it would be nice if I could be a little stupid and immoral for a quick windfall but then I slap myself awake and the red hot ember of rage inside me makes me wish they were all dead so the rest of us could exist.

😔

America 🇺🇸 today is a torture chamber for smart, decent, honest people

You have to also be a Right Wing billionaire in order to ascend in spite of being a stupid immoral asshole though. MAGA motto: Rules for thee but not for me. Responsibilities for thee but not for me.

The problem is that there’s no way to lean into it, maybe be just a little evil as a treat. The closest I could ever get would be shoplifting from target and I’d do a terrible job at it and besides I don’t need socks right now

I had a catch-up call with one of my very favorite colleague/friends yesterday after way too long without chatting because opposite coasts and it quickly became omg you're still sane and fighting the good fight, WHEW.

History supports this concern.

Pressure, a campaign issue, and a threat to the corrupt in Congress now, but if people press for this it can happen. Calls make a difference: 202-224-3121 ☎️📞📱 Use @resist.bot and back up your call Text ‘sign PYTVHX’ to 50409 or write your own. resist.bot/petitions/PY...

We have plenty of conservative libertarian dipshits walking our streets already

Living in the DC area, full of people with grad degrees who committed to careers helping people, feeding the hungry and protecting civil rights, all fired and floundering

Look to Ronald Reagan as your answer. Trickle down economics is the engine of the destruction most are now starting to see more clearly.

agree! (& trying to bring the good folks together to discuss in person - gelconference.com )

I am not going to let the bastards win nor lower myself to their level and those who are so willing to do so value greed more than anything, and that is one thing that makes people Republican.

They were careless people

I’m sure you’ve pointed it out before, but this also is why so many people think the “economy” sucks. You’re supposed to work hard and get rewarded. Instead, we’re watching the laziest, grossest, dumbest people to ever be, rake in billions.

Been really struggling with this lately. I recently had to take a new job, making close to the same salary I was making fresh out of college in 2009. A $40,000 pay cut. I'm staring at my personal financial spreadsheets and feeling really fuckin despondent. 🇺🇸

Let's just say that it becomes very challenging to teach kids the value of honesty, hard work, thoughtfulness, and so forth, when they're all swimming in a sea of "Mr. Beast is doing the Squid Games! Get rich by betting on it now!"

thegrimhistorian.substack.com/p/has-americ...

I've always said that becoming rich and influential isn't even that hard, you just have to be willing to hurt other people on purpose. Since, other than inheriting wealth, that now seems to be the only way - it just makes it easier to disrespect rich people by default.

We are training kids that grinding it out running scams and fraudulent enterprise (or just gambling) is a respectable way to make a living

The part that scares me the most is it isn't just us. Like if it was JUST the US I could be like maybe we could rebuild to something better when it all falls down. But other countries have been influenced by and fear opposing us too much to not be dragged along with us and I fear for humanity itself

“You’re a schmuck for following the rules“ is how we badly damage society. “Rich and/or famous people can escape accountability forever” is how we destroy it for good.

With the creative/writing commons and the seed commons now pretty much all stolen and enclosed, they have basically won. They are free to entirely impudent and self indulgent. Tho where they go next is anyone's guess. If there's nothing more to steal how will they get their precious wealth growth?

Decision time: Is it Stupid Immoral Asshole Pedophiles, or Stupid Immoral Asshole Pimps? Either way, SIMPs works for me.

And it’s only stupid immoral straight white boys assholes at that. It’s also why of late I find it hard to enjoy even fantastical portrayals of corrupt societies through a romantic lens. I just keep thinking how actually that kind of world sucks even with magic!

A fish rots from the head

Problem is much deeper than Trump. It is tied to how easy it is in the US to exponentially increase one's wealth via investment once you've obtained certain level of capital. So some stupid immoral ones got lucky and rich, then they become even more so and now using their wealth to destroy society.

It's just the same media perception problem as the body image stuff, though, I think. The immoral assholes who actually succeed should be well under a few % of the population. A percent that is still higher than it should be, but to me the real issue is I have to see more of them/more often.

What's messing me up so badly is that a lot of the stupid asshole success also comes with them constantly punching themselves in the face by doing things in the stupidest way possible. So it just turns into "you could be making *more* money if you weren't such a fucking idiot all the time."

our guiding light as a society, is grift and it always has been theft, grift, exploitation, corruption these are the American ideals

This is my every waking moment.

😭😭😭 it’s true

Corruption. Corruption is bad. Also why, one man rule is bad.

Im trying to turn it into a polisci history lesson but it will only be useful if something fucking changes and the last 10 years are giving "the hundred years war lasted more than 100 years"

i have felt like this for my entire working life, which began in 1996

How do we fix it

yup

I imagine the Gilded Age felt a lot like this.

I would be rewarded by society for becoming so much worse

It’s like Atlas Shrugged except (quelle surprise) it’s the non-sociopathic segment of society that’s perilously load-bearing.

Watching them attack Fauci really highlights it. Why should the next Fauci try to save them?

That’s absolutely what’s happening

Its not even a good work of fiction if you take the politics out of it.

The worst book I ever finished

Yes, the problem with a mafioso state is that ultimately it destroys creativity and research. Only coercion remains to get anything done. All eyes look to Ukraine for the future.

its been that way for a bit. rewarding psychopaths with huge stock bonuses or media attention. it has just opened up to the a broader group of miscreants the economy is just gambling and grifting circle jerking each other

bsky.app/profile/fore...

My friend and I used to joke that we were too smart to get rich. Eventually we realized we're too moral.

In fairness, most of the stupid and immoral are being punished too. The successful ones you're seeing are successful for other reasons that rhyme with fust trund.

Competent professionals, rise up! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

We have to restore social norms, but with teeth

Capital ultimately has to follow creativity and confidence in the system for securing the rewards of creative effort. Capital flees as confidence dwindles. As it flees, interest rates must go up to offset the riskiness of staying in the system.

Most succinct encapsulation of what is happening. The naked, unadorned, & frankly baseless accumulation of power for no reason yet perhaps an odd attempt to embody meaning. It has the appearance of a death cult in its effect.

This is what I feel every day at work. We’re doing cool and valuable to the world stuff in the electrification push and it feels like we’re being crushed by state economic policy and our investment is being redirected to AI data centers and gambling apps. Impossible not to feel bitter about it.

This is what Americans apparently wanted: This is what people voted for. Ultimately the people are to blame.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity

I see you're familiar with my resume.

Why do we keep getting the socio-economic setting wrong? [brain cramp]

It’s both heartbreaking and infuriating and not enough people understand how much is going seriously and irreparably wrong in so many fields and it’s really hard to know what to do.

Phew. I feel this. 🤦‍♀️

As I sit here in Canada getting snarkier every day, this thread really hurts my brain. There have been an endless supply of great books written about the problem of trying to get a paycheck. These soulless bastards have figured out a way to make humans redundant, and our investments are helping them

I mean just look at how they treat Fauci. Feels like such a bizarro world we live in

I call it 'Generalized American Public Stupidity' <- GAPS

I felt that with this last election, what Americans were voting for (whether they knew or not) was the end of the rule of law, and the end of the mind. The first is bad enough. But without the mind, and an intelligent society, nothing will survive or last.

Oh yeah, I’ve very much heard this about the Soviet Union

I feel like William Randolph Hearst is the closest analog for the kind of insanity that Elon displays these days. Have you ever been to Hearst Castle?

Being educated, intelligent and honest are a huge handicap in this society.

“What are your qualifications?” “Fuck you.” “Great, you’re hired.”

It definitely feels to me that "it has got worse". the noise level seems higher. Even when I am off social media (and this is my only social medium!) and barely looking at news from any source, the Bollocks Factor feels higher. I emphasise "feels to me" because I have no good evidence to hand!

I am honest; I am not sure whether I am smart or work hard enough. However, when I read about the FBI consulting the 81-year-old podcaster and convicted mobster Sammy "the Bull" Gravano on a matter of semantics, I recognize immediately that I am not the one taking the crazy pills.

Every damn day.

Absofuckinglutely

Rape, you mean.

Brilliant comment (no sarcasm at all). It also includes the word "reflecting" which will AI everyone to the White House pool fiasco, and please help me how can anyone ever discuss anything again on online media plz help🥺 m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSw...

I was just thinking about this. When I’m feeling optimistic I think we can, as a society, move on and heal from some is the damage of this time. With a lot of work. But I personally don’t know how to recover from seeing how many people stood ten does down in favor of the Stupid Immoral Assholes.

Not in any way Smart or anything but everytime I put effort into doing something or doing something without being directly told I feel like I'm doing something wrong

I see a told of posts about "why don't Americans DO something!", but we're also having to relearn how everything works, what's effective, what institutions can still be relied on- all while navigating our day to day lives. The game's changed and we don't know all the rules yet.

thank you for your service