We all saw this coming from a mile off.

It has been known to happen.

Yes, part of the authoritarian playbook is to train the populace to disengage from politics.

Here’s a poster for the party Elon Musk is supporting in Germany. Do we still give him the benefit of the doubt? I don’t see much doubt to be had.

…crickets…

Sorry, too busy genociding.

That was the first one, and then another one a few seconds later. Nothing accidental here.

You know, like that irritating Mr. Hitler.

Jebus.

Last time I looked they were (seriously) blaming Native Americans for the LA fires.

Masculine energy is a large part of what makes our corporate and political world feel so shitty in the first place. Specifically, the energy of these swaggering blowhard men who need to impose themselves on everyone else and accumulate power and wealth in order not to drown in their own insecurity.

This is definitely his getting-blown-by-an-ostrich face.

If I saw serious attempts anywhere from right-wingers to advocate for their views as an actual political philosophy I’d be more concerned by this. But we need spaces where people actually discuss how to build a better society, and simply because of that concern these spaces lean left. It’s rare to find right-wingers who are even seriously interested in that question, except as a pretext to vent their unexamined prejudices and personality issues.

If, on internet forums, you push for everyone to have equal say even when their views are not well considered, everyone’s energy gets used up arguing with the most offensive right-wing posters. I think it’s a good thing to have spaces where that isn’t how it goes. As for centrists, I think there’s a place for engaging with them because there’s more of a chance that they just haven’t examined their views but can be brought to. But I’m not going to miss them if they’re so put off by a left-leaning space that they won’t participate, and I don’t think every left space needs to spend its time arguing with liberals.

Frankly, my view of the right wing these days is that there’s no particular need to treat a mishmash of selfishness, greed, lust for power, deceit, gullibility, ignorance, insecurity and hatred as if it’s a political philosophy at all. Left versus right isn’t a helpful picture. Serious vs unserious would be a better one. If someone has serious arguments for a right-wing position made in good faith, then they’re not just wasting people’s time. But that’s not usually what you see, and I suspect it’s because there’s a lack of serious arguments to be made for it.

I don’t miss the right-wing voices. For the most part they just dominate, disrupt and obstruct serious discussion. That said, it’s important we don’t forget how unrepresentative our online discussions are of society as a whole, and how little impact merely talking about them here has.

The 13th Amendment to the US constitution makes slavery illegal except for prisoners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States

Society invests in the education of its people, and the return is a general benefit to society from its people being more educated. It is not necessary for every single individual to give something tangible and obvious back in order for society to benefit from an educated populace. If you apply the criterion that every individual must give something back, it always turns into a requirement that they give back something tangible, usually money or labour, and the next step is to abolish education in philosophy, the arts, and possibly the more theoretical or exploratory parts of science. The result of this is an impoverished society, not an enriched one.

For it to be a good deal for society to pay for education there only needs to be on balance a benefit to society. That leaves room for the arts and all kinds of human curiosity and creativity that doesn’t yield an immediate tangible benefit. We contribute together, not individually, and some contributions are very indirect. Still, societies benefit from the arts, philosophy, and people with curiosity. And this system can tolerate some people not contributing anything much at all. The investment is in quality of life for the society as a whole.

The clue is in the term “Human Resources”. I can’t believe people just accept the existence of this phrase.

Yes, it wouldn’t have occurred to me until I saw this sign.

Maybe what I’m doing right now? I mean, it could be.

Agreed and proboosted.