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He's right, and people can see he's right, which is why they voted for him to become mayor of NYC
Meanwhile Republicans are a bunch of oligarchs who are like "No you can't vote for socialists because... look at all this culture war stuff! Please keep us in power!"
Meanwhile ~~Republicans~~ both major parties are a bunch of oligarchs who are like "No you can't vote for socialists because... look at all this culture war stuff! Please keep us in power!"
Fixed it for you. The Dem leadership literally supported the loser of their own primary to avoid Mamdani becoming mayor.
And then when that didn't work or mollify their owner donors, they passed an official resolution condemning socialism. They have never passed any such resolution condemning fascism, in spite of that being the ideology of the ACTUAL enemy.
We all need to focus on building class consciousness with everyone we speakto.
He's right and anyone who doesn't believe it is one of the lucky ones.
It's been that way for a long time. The best way to succeed, maybe the only way, is to be born rich.
Nepo babies are taking every opportunity, and the cute name doesn't change the reality of it.
When enough people realize it, it won't matter how "cool" some of them are.
Generational wealth inequality destroys everything, and it's going to keep getting worse. Not just because the vast majority gets fucked over, but because the people who get to run shit are chosen because how wealthy their daddy was.
The masses can keep shit functional for a while, but once that pattern starts you quickly run into the rich idiots at the top causing so much damage the rest can't keep society moving.
The wealthy are always the ones directly to blame for violent social upheaval, because they were the only ones with the power to fix it without violence. Their iron grip on their parents stolen wealth means there's no other option.
Just a matter of when.
Where are the Carnegie types to build public infrastructure? Y'know, improve the lives of the rest of society that gave them enough power to amass such wealth.
There's no such thing as a "self-made billionaire", it's made off the exploitation of the folks below. Everyone has a great idea or two, but getting lucky isn't just being "God's chosen one" (or whatever nonsense people use to deflect that billionaires existence is unjust). It's full out exploitation in the highest order, but because they toss some breadcrumbs we do the dance for them.
Where are the Carnegie types to build public infrastructure? Y’know, improve the lives of the rest of society that gave them enough power to amass such wealth.
Jesus fucking christ...
They did that stuff so they'd have an excuse to lobby for tax changes
None of that shit was for the good of society, it was to trick idiots into voting for tax cuts for the wealthy.
As soon as they got the tax cuts, the wealthy stopped doing those projects.
Because the sole reason was PR
How the fuck are so many people seeing the broad strokes and not only missing the finer details, but missing who painted the fucking picture.
Gates and even Musk seemed "ok" at one point, they were all pieces of shit their entire lives, they just stopped paying the PR costs
Thing is, I really don't care if it's just PR, so long as that PR involves taking good actions.
It's the same way how a fear of eternal damnation and hellfire does not by default make you a good person, but it can cause you to perform the same actions as a genuinely good person would. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you were really feeling it or not, as long as you acted like a good person.
I feel the same way about the rich. I don't really care if you really want to be a good person or not. If some billionaire's entire philanthropic history revolves around strictly just not wanting to get eaten by the peasants, that's fine by me. I don't really care if you really love trans kids in your heart of hearts, but if you donate some of your money to helping them, it keeps you off my dinner menu for another day.
We can't expect the rich to be good people at heart, because that doesn't really ever happen (with some VERY rare and VERY special exceptions), but we can compel "good" behavior out of them if they fear the unwashed masses. For me, that's good enough for most cases.
Thing is, I really don’t care if it’s just PR, so long as that PR involves taking good actions
But you fucking should, that's the entire point I'm making
If we just fucking taxed them, then the wealth would go back into circulation. If we let them pick where to donate, it just makes idiots think letting billionaires be in charge of billions of dollars might not fuck us all.
It always will Even if takes a generation or two, eventually they'll decide that they really should be in charge because they have the most money. The only way to stop it is to stop letting people accumulate that much, and we do that thru taxation.
You are pining for a past that does not exist. It’s very similar to MAGA and it’s how they all got tricked, except this is the version that Bill Maher wants you to believe.
Again, the philanthropy was a ruse to get their taxes lowered so they would “have more to give back”.
Their taxes were lowered many times, and here we are. Carved up and stagnant since the 1980s, every gain we make erased, every ladder pulled up. Every third place closed and commercialized; even the entire sport of bowling has been fist-fucked by private equity. No more toy stores; the only hobby store is run by fundamentalist Christian nationalists who harbor stolen ancient artifacts as if Lara Croft was in Leviticus. They’re not just gaining power, they’re fucking styling on us.
Now they want us to only rent from them; from land to software and everything in between.
I’m not going back to a time when we fell for their tricks, this has played out so many times over history. This time, we keep the fucking money and build what society needs. No one needs that kind of unelected power. I don’t care what you built, you didn’t earn that.
More than one thing can be true.
I’m just not seeing the goodwill to society from the current billionaires. They’re all ratfucks but at least of yesteryear they tossed us a bone or two.
I’m just not seeing the goodwill to society from the current billionaires
You didn't see it from Carnegie either...
Why the fuck can you not understand this?
They were laying the groundwork so their descendants can say "wealthy businessmen know better than anyone else".
Look at our fucking president, he is the direct and natural consequence of people not understanding what you can't. The difference is most of them didn't have someone desperately trying to help them realize the most basic part of that
But at this point, I'm throwing in the towel on you.
I hope someone can explain this to you later, if not then hopefully you'll at least stop repeating the same billionaire propaganda people have been falling for this time.
Like, you can manage that, right?
If you won't learn how to help us, at least stop fucking helping the billionairez.
Can you do that for the 99.99999% of humans on the planet?
Someone's angry lol.
I mean I'm angry at the billionaires too, but why be angry at me? I'm all about class consciousness and not feeding the machine... but me a) not being American, b) merely suggesting some goodwill from the massive resource extraction by the billionaire class. Why you hating the player and not the game?
I'm just trying to understand where the Epstein class lost their fear? Where are the third spaces like arboretums and libraries being built today by them? I don't see it. Maybe they had fear back then because they had to see their neighbours faces everyday, now we're so disconnected.
But yes, please attack me more it helps us so much.
David Ellison feels attacked.
This is it exactly. It’s not necessarily the form of government you’re running, it’s the elites that are running whatever form of government you have.
The only thing that has ever kept elites in check is a people united and willing to do whatever it takes to fix it.
This is it exactly. It’s not necessarily the form of government you’re running, it’s the elites that are running whatever form of government you have.
That's learned helplessness...
You still can't even imagine a system without elites running everything.
It's not just you, but it's so fucking disappointing it's so prevelant.
Wake the fuck up man, we need all hands on deck and even tho you think you're plugged in your have no idea what you're talking about and youre hurting more than helping.
For fucks sake man, I don't even think you understand what a democracy is. You think u er capitalist wealth inequality is a part of it.
Economy and government are two completely fucking separate things. The vast majority of governmental systems would be fine without the wealth inequality the wealthy always say is a necessary part of every government system
Unless the US gets back to the pre-1980 tax policies (among many other factors), it's going to become even harder to reach.
Have you tried being a useful sociopath in the tech billionaire cabal. Those guys probably have at least a gas guzzler filled up and a white picket fence to pretend to be a normal human behind
If you want the American Dream, you're going to have to get it the same way our grandparents did.
Invade Korea.
Even worse is that having a fair living wage and decent social services is seen as the big meany communism
But those government hijacked American Dream™ capitalism dollars are being spent on bombing brown children and ruining everything that isn't directly benefiting billionaires. Isn't that what you wanted, clearly they wouldn't be in power if that's not what the people wanted
The American dream is a scam. You have a better chance of being bitten by a shark or struck by lightning.
And you would be lucky to get bit by a shark, it’s not as bad as they say, it’s actually pretty great.
The "American Dream" is propaganda. Typical single family home in the suburbs, and a "traditional family values" family.
Every State Lottery Office: "Holy shit we got an ad!"
What is "The American Dream"?
It always seems to be portrayed idealistically as a single family home in a car dependent suburb. A large driveway, and massive front lawn with a white picket fence. Something like in the image below.
Almost all these similar photos have a "traditional family values vibe", white family, stay at home mom, two kids of different genders. Honestly it all just screams propaganda to me.
On top of all that when you "zoom out", that typical "American Dream" becomes a car dependent hellscape ike the one below. With no way to get around.
I don't know, but not everyone has a wish to live in a place like this. Give me walkable transit oriented mixed use neighborhoods with "missing middle" housing types any day.
Throw in "third-place" public areas where I can hang out with friends and family outside of home and work. Give me regional trains between cities, subways and trams, dedicated bus infrastructure. Give me safe cycling networks and dedicated trails. Give me city parks and fresh produce markets I can walk to.
I'm pretty sure the mayor of New York City is not talking about the suburbs when he says, "American Dream." He means a comfortable life, evenings off work, good schools for your kids, fun vacations, and generally not feeling like you're one accident away from financial ruin.
The original American dream was independence and self sufficiency which was realized through land grants and farming. At some point, the dream got switched to owning a house that is only a collection of monthly expenses, and without any income-producing potential which farming granted. I'm not sure how many other shifts occurred along the way.