Political Memes

Just the other day there was a writer that explains a phenomenon in her new book (can't remember her name off the bat).

She describes the fact that people always say "it starts with you", promoting individual action. Like, "if you want to stop climate change, why don't you become a vegetarian." But few people actually do.

She argued that it's not that people don't want to, however what's never taken into account is that the cards are stacked against the individual by corporations and (in many cases) government.

There are laws, marketing machines, price points and supply chains that set the virtual boundaries within which people can maneuver.

People still have enough individual freedom to keep a sense of free will, but under the hood, this free will is heavily influenced by what's affordable, normalized or in supply.

It's a pretty bleak view, and only solved by a change in politics where politicians actually want to work for the people and for democracy rather than for corporations.

The people can provide them with votes, corporations with money. This can lead to a government that benefits from lying to their voters while profiting from corporations.

If I didn't have a small lake to go to and cry on my lunch breaks, I think I'd have completely broken and quit my job while screaming at everyone around me to fucking do something.

Thank God I can just stare at some birds and water and remember what life is.

I spend a lot of money of booze and weed for this reason.

We aren't, we are simply adapting and continuing on with our human existence. It's not normal but humans will always adapt. We invented air conditioners and populate a literal desert in opulence. We literally created flying machines to get from one side of the world to the other in 24 hours. None of that stuff was normal either. We are inventive and adaptive.

Nope. Been a shadowrealm in the background for me forever. This added shitstorm has yet to play a part but I expect it to change soon enough

Story of my life! 😁😂😭

When has it ever been any better? There’s plenty we can say about class exploitation, racism, lack of healthcare for the poor, low wages, war… but was any part of that better in any other era of history? You could make a tenuous argument that some of these were marginally better a decade or three ago, but in the grand schemes of things, the only thing that’s gotten worse during our history is environmental devastation. And even on that score, we are rookies. The cyanobacteria fucked this ball of slime UP long before it was cool.

I’m not saying everything’s great. I’m saying it’s only been worse as you look back.

The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad. He introduced the word which describes paradoxes of life during the 1970s and 1980s in the USSR. He says everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, the mass delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy with everyone accepting it as the new norm rather than pretend.

Bro, I have just seen so much bad shit happen for months and all my girlfriend will say is, "Something's gonna happen, something is coming, I'm believing and praying and everything is gonna work out and be okay" and inside, I'm screaming like Atreus from God of War (2016), "HOW DO YOU KNOW?!"

"We should boycott Amazon for firing all their workers in my province."

"Why bother, boycotts do nothing."

How is that the default response and not "FUCK THIS COMPANY"