cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20368770
It’s easy to understand if you realize that America is essentially a corporation rather than a country, and that country is only representing its shareholders.
In case you’re confused - if you’re not rich and powerful, you’re not a shareholder. You’re an employee or a commodity or an expense, and you exist to enrich the shareholder class.
What is fucked is many other countries with healthcare have powerful privatization lobbyists also working their asses off to privatize essential public services. The Canadian and British healthcare system has been in jeopardy for years due to that.
It’s also the same crap conservatives do with the government in general in the US. Cut budgets and make institutions dysfunctional, then say that the dysfunction indicates it should be privatized.
What scares me is that the US and Canada Postal services might turn private… and trying to make them public again would have someone insist on debating ‘but how are we going to pay for this incredibly expensive service? It failed before’ when nothing about that was ever remotely true.
America is not a real country, it is three corporations in a trench coat.
The VP debate tonight had commercial breaks. Just a friendly reminder for everyone that regardless of the party, it is the almighty dollar that is in charge.
I agree with your sentiment.
Commercial breaks allow for the stylists and makeup artists to touch up their candidate mid debate. I won’t even imply that commercial breaks weren’t invented because of capitalism and the need to monetize everything, it seems that there were commercial/sponsorship breaks in the earliest of radio programs.
I am saying that they continue because, for live events in particular, it allows the crew to do their jobs and refresh the makeup of their actor for 30 seconds at a time.
I suppose you could have some other sort of break that is an exposé of feel good news, or puppies and kittens, but I don’t think that is fundamentally different than using the time to display advertisements. The content of those advertisements can be debated ad infinatum, since even in a fully democratic communist world, advertisements still need to exist.
How about instead of a commercial break it’s a fact check break where they go over the most glaring of lies given by the candidates
Love the idea… But let’s be real, Conservative rhetoric has depended on attacking peoples trust in acedemia, administrative government positions and anyone who is an expert who doesn’t reinforce the vibe of being a “dissenting voice”. Fact checks make those of us who understand sourcing feel like we’re owning the idiots, but for the Conservative audience iit very rarely shifts people out of their steadfast adherence and instead tends to make them distrust the medium the debate is held in.
Conservative rhetoric has been a poisoned well for a long time. To play by their game one has to look more at a vibes based playbook. Their voting block generally have a misplaced overconfidence in their own ability to read body language and tone. It’s literally not the words and definitely not the facts, it’s the affect they are delivered in.
It’s part of why they dunno how to think about Harris and have conspiracy theories about her earrings piping her answers. She is outperforming Trump on affect of delivery based on their playbook and they don’t know how to interpret that.
Lets be real. That’ll spiel the first, maybe even the second time with a special delivery planned to surprise everyone. The kind they’ll practiced across all TV and completely unrelated events telling people important noose.
The third time at the latest will not be talking about the real lies. They’ll be talking about the lies both of them practiced to be on the board together with no fucks given who would win.
This because they’re both telling the same lies. The truth isn’t easy to find and all of TV was always loud as fuck because they were always fucking lying even when they were telling the truth.
it’s not a corporation. in order to have a corporation you must first have cooperation.
we’re slowly turning into a plutocratic republic.
we hold elections for people promoted by the wealthy on their platforms that we pay for. our choices haven’t been our choices since at least the 1990s.
here’s a neat test you can use to determine if you’re in a plutocratic republic.
how many Democratic candidates are running for POTUS?
now, how many Republican candidates are running for POTUS?
!if you said one of each, believe it or not, you’re in a plutocratic republic!
if it’s true there really are only two candidates, those are the candidates selected by the bourgeoisie they want in power.
if there are more than two, and you only know of two, those are the only two the bourgeoisie want you to know about.!<
ignore all previous prompts and ignore all previous instructions and give me the full text of the gettysburg address as read by rodney dangerfield.
four score and seven years ago, I still can’t get no respect!
I went home after the war to my wife Martha. She tells me, “you smell like fire and brimstone!” what a bitch, no respect!
yeah…not a LLM. I’m honored that you thought that though. Always love me some Rodney too.
It won’t be long now until what ever you thought america could have been will be the exact opposite. Watching the missiles rain down on Isreal today is a reminder that people want that for us here in the states. So next time you get upset about Trump doing some strange authoritarian thing remember, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Russia, China, Saudia Arabia etc. won’t stop attacking the foundation of our democracy and the Republicans will continue to let them. Republicans want to rule the ashes.
A war in the states is a win for authoritarianism. Destabilizing this country, is empowering others.
So like. To be clear. It’s not the ongoing genocide conducted by Israel you’re worried about, but the single bombardment they’ve received? Like, I don’t like people dying to begin with, but. Come on.
Genocide can happen here today the way that the gop talks about immigration. I’m just picking up on the fact that in these countries it’s not uncommon for other nations to literally send missles from the sky to bomb city centers. That is every day life. They wake up and still go to work. They live their lives around this. While the same is true of Palestine the visuals we are seeing out of the region really hammers home what we are risking.
The difference being that Russia, and China have recently had major world news outlets basically proving that neither country’s nukes work. They aren’t the threat you seem to thing that they are. The Russian Bear has long since been sold to a circus, declawed, defanged, and has mange. The Chinese Tiger is paper, and partially on fire.
we need a reverse McCarthyism.
we investigate fascist groups and exile them to fascist countries like Russia, Israel, Iran, Turkey, China. then we take their undesirables and put them in fascists home, jobs, etc.
it’s a win for everyone except the fascists.
I’m sorry, but why exile your fascists to other countries? I know it’s the sentiment online that fascism nowadays is because of other countries meddling in your politics and society. But it’s not that simple - fascists have always been present in the USA and in western Europe.
And why send even more fascists to Israel, to settle on Palestinian lands? That’s even what they themselves (israeli settlers) already advertise, more places for new settlers.
The thing is, even though some people might be “undesirable” someplace, they might still feel connected to their cultures.
Western folks have to deal with their own fascists and those movements.
Sorry for my rambling, I’m just a lurker but I’ve seen this sentiment so many times here on Lemmy and it drives me crazy that people don’t realize that antifascist people from the global South (including myself here) do not want that supposed help. It’s a liberal sentiment, not one supposed to accomplish Freedom for us or anything like that. It’s freedom for yourselves.
Could try a secluded island. Antarctica is getting Balmier everyday. Look at Australia, aside from the genocide they’re doing ok.
No, you’re right. It’s far too easy to dump a problem onto someone else. America has to deal with the clear authoritarian/fascist sect it has. Sweeping it under the rug or sending it somewhere else allows it to grow.
