this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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[–] wpb@lemmy.world 11 points 2 hours ago

Well I try to do my part by telling the protestors that they're doing it wrong.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 10 points 4 hours ago

Keep the peasant happy and they will not revolt.

[–] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

This isnt unique to the first world. In fact, I'd argue it's even more prevalent in many developing countries where government incompetence and corruption is more appearant.^1^ In places where things like war and famine are in living memory, a shit government can seem like an acceptable tradeoff.

  1. A relative rule of course, the current US executive branch would give any tinpot dictator a run for their money.
[–] Retrograde@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

This guy cites

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

You know sometimes when you're in bed, and it's the middle of the night, and you're thirsty, and you'd love a glass of water, you need a glass of water, you know you're not going to be able to go back to sleep if you don't get up and get some water... but you still lie there for awhile, comfortably uncomfortable, cozy and warm and parched and suffering?

Anyway, stay hydrated.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Casually subversive poetry is hot

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

No, since I keep a bottle of water next to my bed. Who doesn't do the same?!

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure! Small but consistent proactivity can make life much more tolerable than big but infrequent reactivity.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 105 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Voting doesn't change anything.

*doesn't vote*

Things get worse.

*surprised pikachu*

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

When local elections only have a 20% turnout we actually don't know if voting works or not

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

tbf the lower the turnout, the more powerful your vote is, so that should be a good reason to vote on its own

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah unfortunately that's how minority views (racist bullshit) gets pushed through easily

[–] teslasaur@lemmy.world 26 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Yup. Thats why i say to people, vote locally or run locally. If you actually want change.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 18 points 21 hours ago

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town.
I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter

There are two lessons here:

  1. Start local. This will have a greater impact on your life anyway. The desire to have a large, world-affecting impact is more likely motivated by a desire for attention and recognition than it is by a desire to help other people.
  2. You cannot force other people to change, and in fact you have no moral ground on which to expect that other people will or should behave the way that you personally think they ought to.
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 18 hours ago

I wouldn't recommend running unless you're really invested in municipal issues. Most people cannot be arsed about road maintenance schedules and budgeting.

[–] Signtist@bookwormstory.social 2 points 22 hours ago

Whether or not people care enough to do something is the first and most important factor in determining whether it works or not.

[–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 27 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

*voted*

Things get worse anyway.

*cat shrug*

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 18 hours ago

Unfortunately, lots of people who don't vote need to for this to work.

[–] 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 22 hours ago

I hate my government but I'm too disabled to do anything about it

[–] PixelatedSaturn@lemmy.world 29 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Living too comfortably is not the main problem. There problem is when you are struggling. When you are struggling you don't care about anything else but your immediate circumstances. You are in constant triage. And now and more people are forced into that .

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Happy cake day, but comfortable and satisfied are two very different things, and most people in the West are still very comfortable. What you're saying might apply to Gaza. Here, 90% of people honestly haven't considered that they're part of history and bad things could happen.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 30 points 23 hours ago

Have you tried vacillating between comfortable indifference and acute outrage on an hour-by-hour basis?

[–] ScottThePoolBoy@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And that is why they succeed.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 28 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

That and all of us just scraping by each day with no capacity left to spare.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago

Also the voter suppression, gerrymandering, court shopping, SCOTUS stacking, propaganda channels...

[–] Caesium@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

yeah, I really want to do something. I want to fight back. but my job has taken everything out of me and it's barely enough to skirt above the line of a depressive state nowadays. I hate how I can't will myself to fight

[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 4 points 21 hours ago

Which is by design.

[–] RadicalEagle@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ScottThePoolBoy@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

100%. As long as we have 2 day shipping and streaming services, we'll just let it all burn.

[–] TheThrillOfTime@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 day ago

Damn didn't have to come for me like that

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 1 points 16 hours ago

thank past governments for that

[–] DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago