This is a trolley problem. The trolley is hurtling towards five people on the tracks, and I can choose to participate and pull the lever, diverting the trolley towards one person on the tracks. I can not participate, and I’m at least privileged enough to know that I won’t be in the first or second or third group the trolley runs over, or I can participate and try to stop the trolley from murdering as many people as it possibly can. I’m personally not willing to choose to sacrifice other people in hopes that the empire collapses the right way, and doesn’t go fucking insane on its way out.
I understand what you’re saying, but not participating isn’t going to delegitimize the system. It’s already illegitimate. Ask any american if they think the federal government represents them or their needs, and you’ll find that the answer is no. Faith in the government to do the right thing is at an all time low (for good reason) and voters are looking for anti-establishment candidates because they know the establishment doesn’t have their interests in mind. Bernie would have meant reform. After it became clear that the establishment would not tolerate reform, a lot of Bernie voters switched to Trump because if the machine won’t tolerate reform, then they felt that the machine should be destroyed. And we’re seeing how that played out. The machine they’re trying to replace this one with is a much worse version designed to crush anyone who falls outside of the very narrow window of what they define to be culturally normal.
For my part, I don’t feel comfortable saying that the system should be free to kill anyone who isn’t a white, neurotypical, affluent, christian man so that I can take pride in not participating in the mess we have now.
You can say “oh well, Biden didn’t cure inflation; he only raised wages for most working people to counterbalance it and then some. That’s not nearly good enough for me.”
If there are any undocumented people or anything living near you, try not to focus on it if you hear them screaming or anything, if something happens. It’s basically just the same as what Biden did, you can say. Pretty much the same thing.
I am talking about camps. This was last time, a bunch of people died, they’ve been blocking Biden from doing anything to fix it, and now they’re talking about mass deportations if they get control again.
Real wages have grown quite a bit, even with historic inflation. It’s actually mostly at the bottom end - at the tenth percentile, workers make 32% more (unadjusted) than they did before the pandemic, while cumulative inflation is around 20%.
Median workers (“typical”) have kept pace with inflation, but average and low-income workers have beaten it. That’s the reality, whatever you want to say about it.
I care more about unionizing auto workers / housekeepers / etc than I do about the people who live in my building. Generally they are doing pretty well, but they’re not the most vulnerable lot.
Here are numbers per capita – i.e. not just hourly from everyone who has a job, but total across all the population, going up if someone gets a job who didn’t have one before, which is significant since unemployment is now half what it was at the beginning of 2021.
That actually doesn’t tell the whole story, since as I said, the bottom-end of the wage scale has seen the most growth, while upper-income wages have actually fallen relative to inflation, so the average won’t tell the whole story and the real picture is much better than the average would tell you it is.
Cheers. I realize you’re not in this for good faith reasons. Say what you like. People are better off than they were four years ago. Full stop.
This is a trolley problem. The trolley is hurtling towards five people on the tracks, and I can choose to participate and pull the lever, diverting the trolley towards one person on the tracks. I can not participate, and I’m at least privileged enough to know that I won’t be in the first or second or third group the trolley runs over, or I can participate and try to stop the trolley from murdering as many people as it possibly can. I’m personally not willing to choose to sacrifice other people in hopes that the empire collapses the right way, and doesn’t go fucking insane on its way out.
By participating in the system, you condem everybody to live under it which is what regime expects. They just need legitimacy, not your approval.
Empire is not collapsing lol but maybe we can get some social services?
Although from ruling class perspective that’s is prolly a collapse lol
This is just my opinion tho
I do know that we did two party circle jerk forever and things have gotten worse…
FDR propped it up for three generations and it is about ran out of steam.
I understand what you’re saying, but not participating isn’t going to delegitimize the system. It’s already illegitimate. Ask any american if they think the federal government represents them or their needs, and you’ll find that the answer is no. Faith in the government to do the right thing is at an all time low (for good reason) and voters are looking for anti-establishment candidates because they know the establishment doesn’t have their interests in mind. Bernie would have meant reform. After it became clear that the establishment would not tolerate reform, a lot of Bernie voters switched to Trump because if the machine won’t tolerate reform, then they felt that the machine should be destroyed. And we’re seeing how that played out. The machine they’re trying to replace this one with is a much worse version designed to crush anyone who falls outside of the very narrow window of what they define to be culturally normal.
For my part, I don’t feel comfortable saying that the system should be free to kill anyone who isn’t a white, neurotypical, affluent, christian man so that I can take pride in not participating in the mess we have now.
The only choice is voting third party as protest vote IMHO
Vote for either side is vote to continue this.
i have zero faith in either side producing a candidate to change anything largely to how DNC handled Bernie and now biden.
You are assigned candidate based on your party affiliation. WTF lol
We lived under both biden and trump and it live has become untenable for large swathes of population
Have fun in the camps
You can say “oh well, Biden didn’t cure inflation; he only raised wages for most working people to counterbalance it and then some. That’s not nearly good enough for me.”
If there are any undocumented people or anything living near you, try not to focus on it if you hear them screaming or anything, if something happens. It’s basically just the same as what Biden did, you can say. Pretty much the same thing.
This is not a serious response … But if are talking. About camps, they will fema camps staffed by obama death panels.
Immigrants ain’t going anywhere… Republican owning class needs them in heartland to work slaughter houses. Get real.
Also real wages are down and people have less disposable income… WTF is u smoking
I am talking about camps. This was last time, a bunch of people died, they’ve been blocking Biden from doing anything to fix it, and now they’re talking about mass deportations if they get control again.
Real wages have grown quite a bit, even with historic inflation. It’s actually mostly at the bottom end - at the tenth percentile, workers make 32% more (unadjusted) than they did before the pandemic, while cumulative inflation is around 20%.
Median workers (“typical”) have kept pace with inflation, but average and low-income workers have beaten it. That’s the reality, whatever you want to say about it.
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/06/competing-narratives-on-real-wages-incomes-under-biden/
I don’t like “fact checkers” but here they provide “official” government data.
People can make up their own mind if they care.
But numbers are numbers… What I don’t hear is people saying they are living better lol
Are people around you living large?
I care more about unionizing auto workers / housekeepers / etc than I do about the people who live in my building. Generally they are doing pretty well, but they’re not the most vulnerable lot.
Here are numbers per capita – i.e. not just hourly from everyone who has a job, but total across all the population, going up if someone gets a job who didn’t have one before, which is significant since unemployment is now half what it was at the beginning of 2021.
That actually doesn’t tell the whole story, since as I said, the bottom-end of the wage scale has seen the most growth, while upper-income wages have actually fallen relative to inflation, so the average won’t tell the whole story and the real picture is much better than the average would tell you it is.
Cheers. I realize you’re not in this for good faith reasons. Say what you like. People are better off than they were four years ago. Full stop.