I think you may be right. I just hope we can get them to move left instead of right. Nate Bear’s recent post really gave me pause, because I know a lot of people who want to maintain their treats above all else. I want to have some faith in humanity, but we’re definitely going to have our work cut out for us, I think.
While that’s true, I do think that neither of those camps is willing to so much as slide back into a welfare state (even with extra imperialism on the side). The DNC doesn’t want any more Mamdanis (even though he’s a socdem at best), and if they think this’ll prevent that, they’ll let it happen, no matter how much they claim to oppose it. If there were any possibility of an actual socialist being elected, we’d see way worse than this.
The US has always been a project of the elite; US democracy was only ever a facade.
American politics is kayfabe. If it hadn’t been Lieberman, it would’ve just been someone else.
If they thought we could vote our way into socialism, they wouldn’t let us vote.
The story of abolition or the civil rights movement is not the story of America, even though the bourgeois establishment may have tried to tame MLK Jr. posthumously. All concessions given to labor were for the bourgeoisie to maintain its power, not out of any change of heart. If they thought they could get away with maintaining slavery they would - oh wait, they do, it’s called the prison system.
Not today, not next year. I’m uncertain about the mid-to-long range projection, like 5-10 years or beyond. I think either people will wake up and revolution will be a real possibility as our living conditions deteriorate, or we’ll be completely enclosed by the panopticon and the Jakarta method will come home. It all boils down to socialism or barbarism, at the end of the day.
I think it’s a self-reinforcing cycle - isolation leads to anxiety, which leads to further isolation. The anxiety that drives people into cars is the same one that dries them to live in the suburbs: the idea that no one can be trusted, and that the unknown masses of humanity are dangerous. From that perspective, public transit is risky, and a car is a fortress. That anxiety may be even further heightened if you already feel at risk for one reason or another (like being a racialized or sexualized individual).
Oh, sweet summer child. The Democrats don’t even have an interest in reforming the system, which is why nothing changes even when they have a majority in congress. Reformism is dead. Only a revolution can save the working class from the stranglehold of capital.
Now, is a revolution in the US forthcoming? Unless conditions change dramatically, I would say not. But we have entered the weeks where decades happen and left the decades where weeks happen. If you want to be prepared, organize and read theory; having a reality-based perspective will help you regardless of where we’re headed.
Indeed. It’s all a shell game to crush the power of labor (particularly in the tech industry) and pump up stock prices. It’s definitely enshittifying work for a lot of people, but an apocalypse it is not. All the nigh-eschatological talk comes from the mouths of specious tech CEOs trying to keep the scam going.
The USA was built over the past century for the profit of oil companies. Most USians probably don’t realize that it’s possible to do things differently, and at this point it’s probably not possible to change without land reform, given how much of US farmland has been consolidated under corporate ownership.
Like I said, things will get worse before they get better. There will have to be the political will to build the needed infrastructure, and that won’t come about without immense suffering. I never claimed it would be an easy or even peaceful transition.
Covid. I’ve read studies showing the cumulative effect that repeated infections have on the immune system, and it’s not good.
I think that USians live in a state of constant, subconscious anxiety due to how incredibly atomized they are. There will need to be major cultural shifts before we’ll ever have the wherewithal to build needed public transportation infrastructure.
Things will have to get a lot worse before they get better. I am hoping that gas prices will rise enough to provoke some changes; the next six months will be telling.
And Tel Aviv.
With some sites, forcing the desktop version will bypass the login screen, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last at this rate.
With the whole internet enshittifying including search, I think it’s time to start putting out our own websites and creating web rings again.
The collapse of brick and mortar specialty stores in favor of online shopping has left a lot of people with few alternatives, and fewer still after Amazon came along and wiped out a lot of online stores. Unless you can find something locally, you’re usually stuck using some big tech platform or other. eBay isn’t ideal, but if it’s between that and Amazon, I’d pick eBay.
I want to get the Motorola GrapheneOS phone, but it’s rumored to be coming out next year. If I can’t get GOS before they stop being supported, I’ll limp along with the web browser until I do.
Posteo markets itself on being green, if that’s important to you.
Agreed. The DNC is bought and paid for.
Edit to add: I think I was unclear. In my previous comment “them” referred to the general public, not the Democrats.