this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 126 points 1 year ago (32 children)

At the risk of sounding like a class reductionist (I'm not), even things like racism and LGBTphobia are exacerbated by this, because the only reason we don't just eat those ten guys is we're always hating each other. The reason there's so much racism in the US, for example, has a lot to do with slavery -- and guess who benefitted from slavery? Guess who benefitted from the genocide against Native Americans? Who benefits most from calling refugees and undocumented workers "illegal immigrants"?

It's not me. If you're reading this, it's probably not you. It hurts us. It hurts our communities, while these ten people keep brainwashing us into actually defending them and their system while hating each other.

(Ok now I'm going to have my coffee, and I wish to the gods that I could disable inbox notifications after posting this.)

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." -- Lyndon Johnson

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in the Bible belt and people 100% think a trans kid socially transitioning with a new haircut and different pronoun is a more direct threat to their livelihood than their boss giving them a 1% raise in a 5% inflation environment.

Same. We are surrounded by abject poverty and massive social problems. We could work to address those issues... But no. Bullying and maligning librarians for bullshit reasons is more important.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do you fear that lol?

Divide and conquer is a thing older than a sum of this thread's ages. If there's no constant infights and smaller issues, we'd figure things out and switch to them. When a poor white guy covers himself in blankets and burn crosses, they laught and applaud, because hating other poor guys is what would occupy him for life. They fund hatred for it lets them stay in power, it brings them easy wins against 'the mysterious other' people fear or don't understand. It props them up alright.

Take insanely long copyright holders and LLMs from the thread I've read previously. We start to take sides and defend overwhelmingy rich companies from which none of them would probably suffer, and both of these suck ass. That'd hold us from regulating each at the same time, if anywhen.

Even coke and pepsi sold and sell us their rivalry as a way to up loyalty to their brand. Generating unrest is a good tool in their box. And I don't think it's a controversial opinion. Especially in economics and politics.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It may not be as bad here, but there are a shit ton of people who defend inherently destructive systems like capitalism, or who excuse systemic racism or transphobia. I've encountered them a lot, even here in the fediverse.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And now I understand you. I've seen persons fanboying for my fucking state, and I'm still open to switch places with them. They aren't so enthusiastic about it after I propose that.

Either way, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I get it. Personally, I live in the US, but we're not so great either.

Personally, I think all states and hierarchies are destructive, but I'm willing to talk to people online who at least agree that oppressive systems like capitalism and authoritarianism are bad, as a baseline. In real life, I'm more open to conversing with people and debating ideologies, but being online is my escape from this fascist hellscape where I live.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same here. It seeds some hope when you doubt either you or everyone gone insane.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wishing the best to you. I keep trying to make things better, and maybe at some point after I'm gone, they will. I like what I'm seeing and hearing from a lot of younger people, so at least there's that.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

True to you. Best of luck too.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I am very much a class reductionist. Or a class-first leftist, as I prefer to call it. It is absolutely the most important issue, by a colossal margin.

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[–] Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Sort of true. The rich also expand their dynasties. For example, Walmart now supports 10 billionaires instead of 1 as they are the children of the founder. I am sure we have all noticed the lowering of quality in our purchased goods.

[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago

but laws

oh they bought those

oh

[–] KpntAutismus@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

SUPPORT. SMALL. BUSINESSES.

you might not get very price competitive products, but these companies often still have the consumer in mind.

small online shops, phone companies like fairphone (or even nokia), video streaming platforms like floatplane (dankpods is hilarious).

voting with our wallets is pretty much all we can do.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

TIL Nokia still makes phones

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, although I'm not sure why they're calling Nokia a small business. They're a publicly traded corporation and my searching tells me their revenue last year was $25 billion.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was a bit surprised by that statement as well. When someone says "small business," the first thing I think of is a mom and pop shop.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm not sure about 'online small business' either. Most of the ones that are not actual corporations are selling via Amazon or eBay or Etsy, so you're still supporting megacorporations. If you're lucky, your town still has small businesses you can support with prices you can afford.

And that last part is a big part of the problem. The person above says you might not get very price competitive products. When so many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, you have no choice but to get the most price competitive products.

Consumers should not be shouldering the blame here.

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[–] SonnyVabitch@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I read it as

small ones, or even bigger ones like Nokia

So I think it's not saying that Nokia is small, but that Nokia is not in the same category as the few big big corporations.

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[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They don't.

I thought so too so I bought one.

They are made by HMD Global which is a bad company that uses generic Foxconn smartphones designs with bad battery life, the worst cameras on the low-mid market, and terrible USB ports, puts shitty unsupported software on it, then licenses the Nokia name to sell to people who can't afford a mid-tier and don't know any better because they trust the name.

I had to manually replace the USB-C port on my Nokia 7.1 5 times in 2 years because they refused to offer any support at all when it broke 6 months after I bought it because they quite literally use the cheapest components possible.

Screw HMD Global. Do NOT support them. They are as bad or worse than any big phone company. Buy a Fairphone.

[–] jopepa@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Before you the only time I had heard people “say vote with your wallet”, were from right leaning family members who are now upset about “cancel culture”

Even entertaining that cancel culture is a thing and not just a reductionist view of accountability in general, then what they’d be describing is voting with your dollar on a larger more organized scale.

Pardon my tangent and I completely agree with you.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

In addition to this, try to support co-operatives, unionized workplaces, and FOSS development! Even go out of your way to try to reject corporations as much as you can, reduce consumerism, and focus on local organization.

All of these help Workers have more power and build up your community.

[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Tyler Durden had the right idea. Project Mayhem is what we need.

[–] averagedrunk@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

I'll be out of debt by the end of this year. I'll outright own everything that I've been calling mine. So given my luck this will happen just after I pay off everything.

And I'll still celebrate for the same reason I'd celebrate if everyone's student loans in the US were forgiven even though I paid mine off a while ago. Because it's the best thing for all of us.

[–] porcariasagrada@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago (8 children)

unfortunately the backups are global. and banks have a lot of backups.

[–] Cosmicomical@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But the 10 guys only have one head each

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[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tyler Durden's plan would have only been a reset. The system still remains.

[–] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

But a reset of a faulty system gives times to re-evaluate and makes it at least work again. Temporarily.

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[–] RORSCHACH@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

But the elliot alderson way

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[–] recapitated@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a question. Is this figure accurate?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

No. It's an exaggeration. But the truth is still obscene:

A 2021 Oxfam report found that collectively, the 10 richest men in the world owned more than the combined wealth of the bottom 3.1 billion people, almost half of the entire world population. Their combined wealth doubled during the pandemic.

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

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do not understand why not a single politician has talked about THIS. Not in the US, not in Europe, I don't hear any politicians about this. If they do, they're whispering because this should be top 5 news next to climate change every day.

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[–] TodaviaTyler@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

1 billing USD (in one-dollar-bills) weighs 2,204,622 pounds. How much fiber does that add up to???

[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

About 2,204,622 lbs of fiber.

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