We're not stretched thin to finance these changes. Taxes aren't holding us back. This is what those with true power in society and their cronies say to not do anything. This is the whole point.

No one is only blaming "billionaires." This is you patronizing them, portraying yourself as a genius and the person you're responding to as too naive and stupid to understand how life really works.

And no, we don't have agency. We have a deluded sense of agency where we think we can vote and change the system from within.

[–] trailing9@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are levels. Voters don't have agency. But if voters would coordinate they would have agency.

The difference is believing in agency.

I am aware how stupid I sound. But how else can I phrase it that there needs to be a believe in change to create change? Right now I just hope that readers ignore the stupid part.

[–] KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What you're saying can happen has literally never happened in human history though, right?

There's a reason why the nonviolent revolution Wikipedia article is essentially empty, right?

(I'm not downvoting you BTW, I upvoted.)

[–] trailing9@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the upvote.

There hasn't been internet for most of history, nor global warming, nor automation.

The joke is that people don't want a fair revolution because the situation will be worse at first if resources are shared globally. People don't want agency because they would be responsible for all problems.

[–] DerKriegs@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love what you said about believing in agency: knowing what power is ultimately in our hands would change the world for the better.

[–] trailing9@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you. Judging by the downvotes and objections, people deeply don't believe it. I had expected some technical issues that prevent UBI but reading those replies makes me sad.

This is Lemmy. People on Reddit will feel even more disenfranchised. But it could be the other way round because Marxism states that capitalist democracy doesn't work and that a revolution is needed.

[–] bear@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't like this logic because it's predicated on an nondescript "they" with unlimited shadowy power. It leads to unhelpful conspiratorial thinking bordering on the magical. It obfuscates the real problems we face, and if we don't understand them, even a violent revolution to defeat it would eventually replicate the system we destroyed because we didn't understand how it came to be in the first place.

The reason it's hard to change the system is because the system is self-reinforcing through individuals acting in their own immediate best interests and not acting as a class, not because "they wouldn't let you change it, they'd just [rig the elections/not let you vote/kill you with a space laser]". But that's a complex answer, and it's much easier to believe in the latter and call it a day.

[–] KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Holy shit, what an anti-Semitic piece of shit you are. Absolutely classless.

It doesn't matter that you think this sort of "logic" leads to conspiratorial thinking. There is a "they" and it's the ruling class. The ruling class, and its defenders, is made up of a lot of people and institutions who create, dictate, and govern the systems that keep them and their power firmly in place. Sorry that society is a bit more complicated than you want it to be. Reality is a hard pill to bite sometimes for you racists.

And if you knew anything about anything, you'd know that democratically elected leaders are toppled by their ruling classes and/or outside forces (i.e. US) when something doesn't go in the interest of the ruling class. To think somehow the US is immune from this is absolutely delusional thinking. Not surprising you're into Western exceptionalism with your views on race.

And again, I just want to reiterate how much of a bottom barrel racist scum you are.

[–] bear@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have no idea who you are talking to. Did you respond to the right comment? None of this makes sense as a response to anything I just said.

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

It makes perfect sense. What are you confused about? Are you going to try to "it's just an OK hand symbol" your way out of this? What else would "space lasers" mean in the way you meant it?

[–] bear@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

My entire post was warning against gesturing towards a vague power controlling everything because it leads to conspiracism. One major example of that conspiracism is antisemitism. I have literally no idea how you can read my comment and come back thinking I'm arguing in favor of antisemitism. Yes, the space laser thing was a jab at the infamous "Jewish space laser" conspiracy, and I was explicitly saying avoid that kind of thinking.

The problem with our society isn't that there's a nonspecific ruling class directly dictating everything. There doesn't need to be. We proletariat as a class are fractured instead of united. There's no need to rig elections or prevent us from voting because we don't act as a threat against power in the first place. The system amorally chugs along unimpeded as we go about our individual lives instead of acting together. Our daily compliance is what sustains it, and the system is designed to punish noncompliance automatically.

The scary truth isn't that there's a puppetmaster pulling our strings, it's that there's nobody at the wheel at all.