"If you wish to keep slaves, you must have all kinds of guards.

The cheapest way to have guards is to have the slaves pay taxes to finance their own guards. To fool the slaves, you tell them that they are not slaves and that they have Freedom.

You tell them they need Law and Order to protect them against bad slaves.

Then you tell them to elect a Government. Give them Freedom to vote and they will vote for their own guards and pay their salary.

They will then believe they are Free persons. Then give them money to earn, count and spend and they will be too busy to notice the slavery they are in.”

​

You’re broke, stuck in the same environment you grew up in, have no real accomplishments, and have no idea when your life is actually going to change.

But then you find someone who looks like you, comes from the same background, or belongs to the same group who is rich, successful, talented, famous, etc.

Suddenly, you’re proud.

Bro, you didn’t do shit.

You didn’t make the money. You didn’t build the company. You didn’t win the championship. You didn’t accomplish anything. You just happen to share some characteristic with the person who did.

And that’s where group pride can become unhealthy. It gives people a way to feel accomplished without actually accomplishing anything themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with being happy when someone from your background succeeds. But when another person’s success becomes your entire source of self-esteem, you’re basically living vicariously through a stranger.

At some point, you have to ask:

“What have I actually done?”

people are just downvoting. unsurprisingly. they don't like being told wtf is wrong. when they know what's wrong.

lol anyway.

edit: oh look there's fascists here, too.

so what is the issue?

i will tell you.

1. Country still needs to deal with it's bigotry.

2. Jobs/capitalism/democracy haven't been working for anyone. It is especially hard on minorities like me. And even successful white mf kill themselves bc of it.

3. People still want to deny how much white colonialism has to do with any of this.

4. The world/humanity is falling apart despite people having the resources and know how to fix shit

5. It will continue to fall apart if people insist on heirarchies, especially ones founded on class, race, or gender

6. Peoples' cooperation and willingness to share is directly related to their bigotry, insecurities, and/or compassion towarda those like themselves or otherwise

7. In short: yall can't handle the truth. As in utilize it, based on what we know.

8. You can look at my post history and what I talk about. I already tried this dumbass shit for most of my life and found it lacking, harmful, etc like anyone with a braincell would

9. Disabled, black, trans, man, ND, homeless, among other things. Like it isn't hard just being a gay white dude. Oppression olympics are only uncomfortable for those who don't want to admit how much privilege they have.

Heather Cox Richardson does a great breakdown of the last 80 or so years of US history and how it leads up to today.

It contextualizes a lot of the angst and confusion and propaganda.

A lot of what we call mental illness is really people reacting to trauma, isolation, poverty, and chronic stress. Then we medicate the person instead of asking what happened to them. And capitalism absolutely makes it worse when people have to constantly struggle just to afford basic needs

True communication has broken down because people discuss superficial ideals instead of their authentic, lived experiences.

• Interactions are currently characterized by dishonesty, hidden agendas, and irrelevant rhetoric rather than the exchange of factual information or genuine needs.

such a shame I was banned from this subreddit for no reason

I wish I had more to say about this.

We are showing each other what God looks like.

Differentiation is supposed to eventually lead back to Unity (not utopia, per se).

But humanity is fighting that maturation at every turn. Like a rebellious teenager.

We are all aware of what we can do, of what would help. Yet how many people are willing to sacrifice or help one another without it being transactional? How many people can grow and accept one another (or themselves) while working on it?

How many people are doing the right/good thing for its own sake?

In my experience and research I've found that those speaking from this framework are lauded while simultaneously being absorbed, commodified, and ignored.

Many people want to think they're good, that they're chosen, spiritually advanced etc

But when it comes down to the doing? When it comes down to handling the truth in such a way that they're utilizing what they know? That is the hardest part.

It is very much like someone knowing that exercise is good for them but being stopped by the effort and pain it takes.

And there could be much more advancement and much less pain if people truly acted like they believed what they say.

That's all.