Not much info at time of posting what prompted the man to do so

    • SparBrow@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Sure it sounds crazy, but goddamn have I been feeling like this whole country has been conned lately. Inflation keeps going up, we keep getting poorer, and the billionaires keep making record profits. Like what the actual fuck? This guy may not have gotten everything right, but the idea that we’ve been conned out of the America Dream by a kleptocracy (the billionaires) that actually rules this country and have been taught by media that we’re helpless in making any real change absolutely rings true.

      • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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        8 months ago

        That’s the mission of the people who are trying to tear apart our democracy: make people think the whole system is broken and beyond repair.

        That’s where all these people arguing against voting for Biden and Democratic majorities are coming from. They don’t actually think the two parties are the same (or they wouldn’t if they were honest about them). But they sure as heck think America would be better if not everyone could participate in it’s governance.

        So it’s up to us to work on defending the democratic power we have and work on repairing and improving our democracy. That means completely redesigning the campaign finance system. That means expanding voting access. That means expanding the Article 3 courts from top to bottom. We need to fix our media. Break up monopolies and oligopolies. On and on.

        We can make our democracy better if we work together to fix it.

        • SparBrow@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I mean I get where you’re coming from and I like the spirit of what you’re saying, but how do you fix the campaign finance system when everyone with the power to fix that currently benefits from it? How do you expand voting access, when the people who should be doing that are actually doing the opposite? How do you fix the media, when it’s owned by the billionaires that want to control what you see and hear? And on and on and on.

          I don’t want to be the doom and gloom guy, or the both sides guy or whatever the fuck. But honestly, what part of our democracy has been working lately? Do you feel represented?

          I think all Americans can agree that we want housing that’s affordable, education that isn’t a death prison for our children, medical care that won’t turn us into indentured servants, and an economy that actually reflects the realities of the people and not the fucking stocks owned mostly by billionaires. I think it would be hard to find anyone of either side of the aisle that doesn’t agree. And yet, here we are.

          • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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            8 months ago

            Well just for one example, Joe Biden has been aggressively using the powers he has via the department of education to cancel outstanding student loan balances that were completely legal and very profitable for usurious loan servicing companies.

            No Republican would do that.

            He and the Democrats leveraged their control of Congress in 2021 and 2022 to pass legislation that is going to do more to reduce our contribution to climate change than ever before. Not enough, but way more than any Republican would do.

            I feel like that means our democracy is sort of working.

            In so called “blue” states, they’re expanding voting access.

            I agree that campaign contributions are a serious challenge, but for example Bernie and Elizabeth Warren have done great things without contributions from billionaires.

            We can do this, but we need to stand up in the face of fear and push as hard as we can. The only thing to fear is fear itself!

            Vote Save America can help leverage donations to the most effective campaigns possible for progressive causes.

            https://votesaveamerica.com/

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          We can make our democracy better if we work together to fix it.

          You can’t fix something you never had.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          Democrats haven’t really done anything to stop it. It’s a ratchet where the GOP makes things worse and the Dems prevent things from ever getting better

      • capem@startrek.website
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        8 months ago

        We have been conned.

        Progressives are the solution. Libertarians are the enemy.

        Everyone else is just a useful idiot.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Ancap? Sure. Actual libertarians and anarchist. They’re allies. Ancap love libertarian larping. But they’re just fascists with a thin layer of false neutrality and logic to disarm people who are unprepared.

    • capem@startrek.website
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      8 months ago

      Cryptocurrency is our first planetary multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

      This actually makes a lot of sense if you’ve followed crypto for over a decade and look at the markets.

      Ycombinator is where a lot of the technology that takes advantage of us begins. I think it’s a stretch to say Bitcoin started as a conspiracy, but I would definitely believe that everything that followed could be the result of bad actors pulling the strings.

      The strangest thing in crypto is how uniform the value of currencies are over time. They all go up at the same time. They all go down at the same time. And they do this with near-identical amounts.

      This can only mean that it’s the same people who are invested in multiple currencies.

      Seeing how massive companies like “Red Bull” got popular paying influential people to shill their products, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least that some investors are paying people to make and shill cryptocurrencies.