I wouldn’t say core problem but it’s definitely a critical component missing from any ernest attempt at actual democracy.

Big if do.

Actually it makes sense to me that denial is getting stronger and more aggressive as the decay accelerates.

I can’t wait for all this to be long forgotten when we’re being loudly told all over again how important voting (and nothing else) is.

After the ‘4’ incident my calibration for guessing if something like this is a joke is completely broken.

Start? We’ve been embracing the Great Filter like a long lost friend.

No answer to them being paid off by the same people because there cannot be one.

To be fair to them the default with “user friendly” phone UI makes it difficult to have any idea where things are. You often really have to go out of your way to open a file manager.

pre colour film announcer voice

The worker of the [year] 2000 will work just 20 hours per week

Oops, we forgot to account for employers existing.

People die if they are killed.

Well met, the-answer-is-thought-terminating-cliche-what-was-the-question.

I hope you’re having a lovely day.

It’s not naive, it’s their excuse to switch their brains off.

If uncomfortable thoughts only come from faraway malicious others trying to undermine your “democracy”, you can dismiss them guilt-free.

Now you can simply drop a piece of paper in a box and call it good. Nothing scary needs to be done or considered to arrest the decade long freefall into overt fascism that you wait no stop you’re thinking again.

and that finally – and this goes for the capitalists too –

an inhuman power rules over everything.

The comment was on the fecklessness of the ‘resistance’, not downplaying the brutality of the established order.

Americans have been taught “the right way” to resist by their class enemies. At this rate they’ll frog-costume-dance all the way into the camps holding hands and chanting “this is the way”.

Every company feels like they need to get faster.

Well yeah, they’re capitalist institutions. If they’re not growing exponentially, they’re failing.

That’s not a snarky mockery of the attitude of leadership, that’s the logic of capital.

Looking at it coldly going by the selection pressure of the market, they almost certainly are more fit for survival than a company that isn’t finding an excuse to spy on you (even more) and sell your data.

If I’d only put off de-googling a bit longer before I saw the news I could have skipped this hop. Oh well…

I’m eyeballing Tuta. Anyone have other recommendations?

Give it a few generations for the selection pressure of the market / the temptations of new leadership to take over.

Ah, the classic thought-terminating strawman.

Now if I’m careful not to think about it, or look at their policies, or how the “”“left”“” party deals with popular upstarts, or how they respond to their constituents, I can imagine the two party system isn’t deliberately maintaining an Overton window far outside what any actual democracy would tolerate.

Let’s all just forget how many of these ghouls make sizeable contributions to both parties.