Microblog Memes

That reads a little bit like victim-blaming, because the worship of billionaires only applies to one segment of the working poor. Another big part of the problem is billionaires corrupting the political system to the point where whoever gets elected immediately gets love-bombed by the richest people in the world who promise them a share of the loot. Convincing people that voting "for the other guy" won't solve the systemic problems of our political systems is a tremendously difficult job and the billionaires and their bought lackeys know this.

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

-Commissioner Pravin Lal, 'U.N. Declaration of Rights'

I think this take misunderstands the political reality: in the U.S. we have what could charitably be called a flawed democracy. Just because laws are passed or policies enacted doesn't mean there is majority support.

The house of representatives is elected under rules which are determined state by state. Many states have gerrymandered districts, which is just legal cheating.

Each state receives two senators, regardless of population. Places like North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, each get two senators even though they have smaller populations that individual cities in other states.

The president is selected by the electoral college, not the popular vote.

Supreme Court justices are appointed for life - random chance of when they die determines how many justices one party or the other gets to appoint (before we get to Republicans cheating Democrats out of an appointment).

All of which sounds and is grim, but I take a little encouragement from the fact that the majority of Americans do support many reasonable policies and improvements.

Oh, laws were broken.

"If they didn't want it, they shouldn't have dressed that way." Yeah, no.

Difficult to not vote against your own interests when there are only two viable parties and both are owned by the rich.

Same goes for almost every other western country

One empire to collapse, but for another few to rise to fill the void it leaves.

And those few are not so much more merciful. I'm trying to imagine what the world would look like if it's only Russia and China on top, while the US implodes like the Balkans.