5 ms·

Glad to see that so many large corporations and billionaires can set their petty differences aside and work towards a common goal of screwing the little people.

by paxys 3y ago

TaylorAlexander 3y ago
It is often said that the wealthy know quite well the value of solidarity, and that’s why they work so hard to prevent it in the lower social classes.
- staplers 3y ago
  "Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth." -Lucy Parsons
infamouscow 3y ago
Corporations don't have voting rights, they just happen to be slightly organized, and even that is highly questionable. Anyone that has worked for a large corporation knows how much of a shit-show they are, staffed entirely by unimpressive and unimaginative people that virtually guarantee mediocrity and terrible communication at every step. What you're implying is a concession the voting population is so pathetic they cannot successfully organize themselves sufficiently to overcome and push back against a handful of people.
- jchw 3y ago
  This reminds me of the "vote with your wallet" argument. Sure, I'll just [pick a candidate|buy a product|...] that suites all of my ideals... as soon as one shows up for the first time.
  - infamouscow 3y ago
    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato
    - jchw 3y ago
      I mean it's a nice platitude, but I've gotta say, if this realization didn't help anyone thousands of years ago when someone extremely influential said it, I don't think it is going to help today, either. It's clear our political systems have systemic issues, and we can even identify them and measure some of them, but nobody really has any pragmatic solutions, so it's all going nowhere. If I take this to the logical conclusion, though, basically the takeaway is "Clearly, you should just become a politician yourself." Well, I think that's not really productive either. Telling people "It's actually partly your fault our society has systemic issues for not helping to fix it somehow" is silly--not really false, but silly in the sense that it doesn't really provide much useful insight--and telling them "You should just be a career politician" is even sillier. At this point, being a career politician is basically a privileged position. (e.g. people with more wealth and connections will always have a default advantage over the commoners. People with 'cleaner' backgrounds have more luck campaigning for more important offices. Not really surprising a lot of politicians are related to other politicians.)
      - infamouscow 3y ago
        This kind of thinking is exactly why they rule over you. Rather than do anything to improve the situation, it's easier to point fingers and argue against a false choice between being a career politician and nothing else. A television game show host won the presidency against a career politician in 2016 and spent about half as much on their campaign. This flies in the face of the all the idiotic rhetoric that money buys elections i.e., Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and that the media can assassinate the character of a candidate. If you're a conspiracy theorist thinking the boogieman got him elected in 2016, the same boogieman certainly didn't help in 2020 when he had four years to prepare and the advantage of already being POTUS. A few years ago the NYT reported about 20% of Congress were outsiders -- double the success rate of startups. And despite the obstacles in front of them, people start businesses and take massive pay cuts every day. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez run a campaign and get elected while waiting tables and tending bar at a taqueria in NYC. These events should inspire readers to start getting involved. It's the only way to change things.
- toss1 3y ago
  Two major problems these days are, first, Citizens United unleashed insane amounts of corporate funding into the election cycle. Second, the news media is 90% owned by six corporations [0] (vs 50+ in 1983), all of which are all-in on preventing administrations that would bring back conditions in which they pay a fair share of taxes. These news operations are marginally profitable at best, are being massively cutback, and their coverage is designed to perhaps appear liberal, but in fact support corporate goals. What major corporation is going to allow a media org to advocate that it be taxed more and face more regulation? [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control... [1] https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/04/the-monopoly-on-your-mind-part-1-six-media-companies-control-90-of-what-you-read-watch-and-hear/ https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/04/the-monopoly-on-your-m...

Glad to see that so many large corporations and billionaires can set their petty differences aside and work towards a common goal of screwing the little people.

by paxys 3y ago

Glad to see that so many large corporations and billionaires can set their petty differences aside and work towards a common goal of screwing the little people.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago

It is often said that the wealthy know quite well the value of solidarity, and that’s why they work so hard to prevent it in the lower social classes.

staplers 3y ago
"Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth." -Lucy Parsons

infamouscow 3y ago

Corporations don't have voting rights, they just happen to be slightly organized, and even that is highly questionable. Anyone that has worked for a large corporation knows how much of a shit-show they are, staffed entirely by unimpressive and unimaginative people that virtually guarantee mediocrity and terrible communication at every step. What you're implying is a concession the voting population is so pathetic they cannot successfully organize themselves sufficiently to overcome and push back against a handful of people.

jchw 3y ago
This reminds me of the "vote with your wallet" argument. Sure, I'll just [pick a candidate|buy a product|...] that suites all of my ideals... as soon as one shows up for the first time.
- infamouscow 3y ago
  One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato
  - jchw 3y ago
    I mean it's a nice platitude, but I've gotta say, if this realization didn't help anyone thousands of years ago when someone extremely influential said it, I don't think it is going to help today, either. It's clear our political systems have systemic issues, and we can even identify them and measure some of them, but nobody really has any pragmatic solutions, so it's all going nowhere. If I take this to the logical conclusion, though, basically the takeaway is "Clearly, you should just become a politician yourself." Well, I think that's not really productive either. Telling people "It's actually partly your fault our society has systemic issues for not helping to fix it somehow" is silly--not really false, but silly in the sense that it doesn't really provide much useful insight--and telling them "You should just be a career politician" is even sillier. At this point, being a career politician is basically a privileged position. (e.g. people with more wealth and connections will always have a default advantage over the commoners. People with 'cleaner' backgrounds have more luck campaigning for more important offices. Not really surprising a lot of politicians are related to other politicians.)
    - infamouscow 3y ago
      This kind of thinking is exactly why they rule over you. Rather than do anything to improve the situation, it's easier to point fingers and argue against a false choice between being a career politician and nothing else. A television game show host won the presidency against a career politician in 2016 and spent about half as much on their campaign. This flies in the face of the all the idiotic rhetoric that money buys elections i.e., Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and that the media can assassinate the character of a candidate. If you're a conspiracy theorist thinking the boogieman got him elected in 2016, the same boogieman certainly didn't help in 2020 when he had four years to prepare and the advantage of already being POTUS. A few years ago the NYT reported about 20% of Congress were outsiders -- double the success rate of startups. And despite the obstacles in front of them, people start businesses and take massive pay cuts every day. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez run a campaign and get elected while waiting tables and tending bar at a taqueria in NYC. These events should inspire readers to start getting involved. It's the only way to change things.
toss1 3y ago
Two major problems these days are, first, Citizens United unleashed insane amounts of corporate funding into the election cycle. Second, the news media is 90% owned by six corporations [0] (vs 50+ in 1983), all of which are all-in on preventing administrations that would bring back conditions in which they pay a fair share of taxes. These news operations are marginally profitable at best, are being massively cutback, and their coverage is designed to perhaps appear liberal, but in fact support corporate goals. What major corporation is going to allow a media org to advocate that it be taxed more and face more regulation? [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control... [1] https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/04/the-monopoly-on-your-mind-part-1-six-media-companies-control-90-of-what-you-read-watch-and-hear/ https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/04/the-monopoly-on-your-m...