Apparition of Jack

It takes an unwavering soul and upright spirit to be a truly principled person in this world. Even someone who can believe so strongly in justice and human freedom like Chomsky can have their blind spots if the situation allows for it. Another factor that doesn’t get discussed is how powerful denial can be. Like, by all metrics Epstein was a fairly sociable and charismatic man. If you knew him personally, and he made you feel good about yourself, odds are your mind would come up with reasons to either downplay or avoid dealing with the severity of his crimes. “Maybe he fondled a few younger girls, but so what? He just liked the opposite sex”, or even “Surely it couldn’t have been that bad? I’ve known him for years, there’s no way he’s capable of something like that. I better stop thinking about this, it’s too dark.” What Epstein did is so horrific it can literally defy comprehension for many people. I considered myself pretty willing to investigate the darker nature of reality and even I have a hard time comprehending it. Sometimes people just don’t want to face the truth.

Unironically yeah. Mamdani has mastered the art of agreeing with someone without actually agreeing with them. Bernie knows how to do it too. Why it’s not a more common skill among politicians I don’t know, but it can make you super effective in getting your message across without being dragged down into the valid culture war bullshit of usual political discourse.

Odds are this meeting with Trump took off some of the political pressure from New York. It’s likely there are migrants in New York, today, who won’t be wrongfully deported in the coming months because Trump will take it easier on the city after Mamdani soothed his ego. Trump is a megalomaniac retard, but being able to use his impulses to protect people’s lives is a W in my book. Besides, like I said, Trump is going to go right back to attacking Mamdani once he realises Mamdani actually believes in his principles and will demand Trump actually the govern the country properly, which he won’t do. This shit is obvious.

Mamdani played Trump. He convinced Trump to suck up to him on camera so that he could get some temporary concessions from Trump, who’ll go back to hating Mamdani in a few months for being “woke Islamic communist.” Mamdani knows what he’s doing.

https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-congress-trump-641e7e2324f261da72395b604d9540e8 Not sure what to make of this. On one hand, it’s basically a political win for the Republicans, because it lets them gut healthcare without offering anything in return. On the other hand, things like FAA workers not being able to direct flights was really messing with the country so the shutdown had to end at some point. Also, even though it’s coming to an end, the discourse has been around how bad the Republicans are on healthcare from what I’ve seen, so the damage is done. Thoughts? Did the Dems cave too early? Is it time to get rid of the old guard of Dem politicians who keep letting the Republicans ruin America, or was this agreement justified?

People hate on Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Theresa etc because in our rabid, cynical, hyper-consumerist age, the idea of actual human benevolence feels threatening to us, so we go to great lengths to convince ourselves good people are actually bad people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they didn’t do bad things, like someone else said all humans have a dark side. But the sheer amount of truth, goodness, love, compassion, altruism, kindness, healing, growth etc these figures brought to the world outweighs whatever racist thoughts or slightly perverted things they may have done. Gandhi alone saved MILLIONS of lives through avoiding a bloody insurrection against the British, as well as legitimised non-violence, reconciliation and humanist compassion as a legitimate force on the political world that still influences decision-making to this day. The man was a fucking saint, lmao.

Fucking LARPers.

Justice is coming. Thank GOD.

I’m confused, how is this poisoning your psyche? Could you elaborate a bit more? I’m curious about your perspective.

Elon Musk is a man deeply blind to his own biases who uses projection as a defence mechanism to avoid all blame or self-analysis. He accuses leftists of wanting violence, but then stokes “race war” narratives in Europe and elsewhere. He goes on interviews saying “the Democrats are supported by corrupt billionaires”, while… well, I don’t have to say it. He calls “woke” a mind virus whilst promoting the most low-conscious, ethnonationalist BS out there. In his head he seems to be some innocent, middle class “classical liberal” who is constantly persecuted by some nebulous all-powerful progressive elite, totally deluded to the fact he’s the richest man in human history, with the ear of the president, constantly pushing dangerous and corrupt rhetoric about political opponents and minorities. Just a very deluded man all round. It’s a mark against our civilisation that we let people like this rise to the heights he has.

Looking at the reactions a bit more, I still think it’s the right time to get rid of the aging establishment Dems and turn the party into a genuine, economically-progressive movement again. Whether this specific instance was the right move for the Dems or not I can’t quite say, but the fact that the Dems felt comfortable enough letting America getting into such a shitshow that people’s fucking HEALTHCARE payments are now going to be cut is proof enough that they’ve long since gone past their use-by date and we need some actual pro-worker energy in the country. Schumer and the rest need to go. They just don’t have the sauce to provide a meaningful resistance to Republican insanity as well as to provide an actual positive, humane vision for the future that isn’t just “desperately try and keep the current system afloat.” We deserve better.

Basically, that’s my entire political philosophy in a nutshell. Republicans don’t seem to grasp this. Money is only a tool for improving life; it is not life itself. We have created more money than ever - by some many millions of multitudes - but what good is all that if your roads are crumbling, your people are starving, your workers are homeless, and everyone is stressed to the brim? Money is useful, yes. It helps distribute resources. But it’s only ever subservient to the main of goal of human survival and flourishing - what good is a society worth trillions and trillions of dollars if your average citizen dies of cancer because they can’t afford chemo? Once you’re dead, you can’t bring your money with you. We need to put people before profit. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

The Biden administration wrote up a comprehensive immigration bill last year that would provide both amnesty for migrants already in the US, whilst reducing the number of available visas and providing funding for border enforcement. Donald Trump shot it down EXPLICITLY for the purpose of making re-election of the Dems harder. These people believe in NOTHING but their own power. I cannot stress the depths of the evil they will succumb to for their own pathetic, selfish whims. They have zero credibility on this issue, or any other. Fuck em. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_policy_of_the_Biden_administration?wprov=sfti1#Bipartisan_Border_Security_Bill_(2023-2024)

Leo uses the noob tube

What’s there to refute? You’re a conspiracy loon so lost in the sauce of cynical politicking and his own self-identity that you will poison the waters of any genuinely populist upswell in American politics. I bet you also think the AfD in Germany is a “centrist” party too, huh? 🤣

I stand by my previous statement.

@MightyMind Bro you have brainrot. Get off of conspiracy twitter.

Billionaires didnt fund Mamdani. The vibe shift is real. This plus the countless millions of Americans suffering under cut social services, inflation, tariff insanity, Republican chaos, lack of healthcare, rent insecurity, low wages, toxic environments, and countless other entirely-avoidable social woes means that people are finally starting to wake up. Don’t sell yourself short. Billionaires are not omnipotent. They’re not god-kings or masters. Ultimately the only thing that matters at the end of the day is truth, and the truth is that corporate greed and Republican arrogance are what brought us into this mess. The light will shine through.

Trump is going to get more desperate moving forward. The Republicans have lost control of the narrative and now the walls are going to start closing in. He’ll try to promise the world to voters one moment, then try to crack down hard and rage against any dissenters the next. Don’t let this distract you, the goal is to destroy the MAGA movement for good and ensure a humanist, pro-democracy Blue Wave in 2026/28. Democracy is being reborn.

I think now is when the real work begins. We’ve just achieved a major victory, but there’s going to be a major backlash from all the rotten corporate, nationalist, fascist etc interests that benefit from the status quo of fear and oppression. Basically, we can’t let up. We need MORE protests, MORE activism, MORE grassroots campaigns. Let people know what we stand for. Let people know there’s an alternative. Let people know this isn’t just the “way things are” and that there’s actually some hope in this world. More and more people are going to be convinced to turn on MAGA. Good. I believe now is not the time to reject anyone who may have supported Trump in the past but now sees him for what he is. The tides are turning, and our victory is in sight, but we have to keep fighting for it. We can’t let the authoritarians try and spin this as some sort of loss for America or democracy. Too much is at stake here. But we can do it. Let’s celebrate, take the massive moral W, gloat / sleep / freak out with hopium, then get right back to it. We’ve got a world to save.

MAMDATE OF HEAVEN LETS GOOOO 🔥 🔥 This is a good day for America and democracy worldwide. Finally some actual pushback against the rank corporate corruption that has been siphoning wealth from society for decades We have a long road ahead of us full of hard work and discipline, but for now, let’s reveal in the hopium ❤️ 🇺🇸 🗽🚩 🎆

I already do. So do you. It’s fantastic

@Ishanga This is why I see expanding democracy as so important. The more accountability, the more oversight and public scrutiny to our governments, corporations, militaries etc. the less likely corruption will take hold and the less likely private interests will be able to capture our systems for their own ends. In some sense, what we need is a cultural shift, not just a political one. People need to start valuing their own communities, societies, political rights, health, education etc more than they care about some hypothetical mansion or yacht that, let’s be real, we all know is never going to come. If we valued growth, integrity, survival, culture, art, family, romantic relations etc more than we valued consumerism, cheap highs, social status, sports cars etc we wouldn’t be in this mess. But here we are. The problem is, the systems that uphold these materialistic pursuits are breaking down. Stage Orange consumerism might have worked in the 70s, when an average job could get you a decent house and it was genuinely much easier to work your way up to high wealth, but with the changes in population, corporate power, spread of materialism and status-seeking through social media, etc this “dream” has basically turned into a fantasy. We need to reconnect with our basic humanity. Our basic sense of connection to each other, to art, to intimacy, to the earth, to philosophy, etc. Absolutely no one is happy with our current set up (even billionaires suffer from high rates of depression.) We need to stop seeing the purpose of life as some hypothetical future where we’re all millionaires in Dubai with an army of sex robots to satisfy our every pleasure whilst we upload our consciousness to rocket ships to Mars, and instead recapture our sacred connection to earth, to food, to wisdom, to growth, etc. The way we’re living is slowly killing all of us, for the benefit of no one, yet under our current paradigm we can’t see a way out. We need a shift in consciousness and heart as much as we need a shift in policy and lawmaking.

Do you really complain about every time you drive on a highway that isn’t full of holes (or worse, armed bandits)? Do you really complain every time your house catches on fire and the firefighters show up within minutes, saving all your possessions, completely free of charge? It’s like Benjamin Franklin said, the only inevitability in life is death and taxes. Taxes aren’t the problem, it’s how they’re distributed. And in this case, they’re funded to give corporations even more and more power over our lives, while the things they’re supposed to do (you know, actually provide for us) goes completely ignored. For what it’s worth, I’m not saying our tax system is perfect. Believe it or not, I actually generally support cutting income taxes for low and middle-income workers, precisely because they’re the ones who need more of their own money to pay for necessities. My goal however is to completely upend the current financial system dominated by labyrinthian, unelected private entities whose interests aren’t aligned with humanity as a whole’s. The money exists, it’s just most people never see it.

To add to this, if society isn’t a charity, what is it?