Legislation and the rest of that bullshit isn’t gonna save you from weapons like Pegasus. States, and the political cabals that run them, have one goal in life: to maintain and grow their power. If you get in the way of that, they will do whatever they want to do to you. Laws or morality mean nothing to them. The United States is no exception to this rule. It set the example in the first place, after all.
gravity-mends_raises-tides-rain-quenching
– achrilock (2019)
Representative, electoral democracy has failed because capitalism has strangled it. We are on a collective trajectory toward a time when only political violence can dismantle the power of the oligarchy.
People assume that because you try and do the right thing, or try and control yourself in difficult situations, that you aren’t a monster. We should set the record straight. I am a monster, inside. I’m more twisted up and broken inside than most of you could comprehend. I don’t get angry like normal people. I get Old-Testament-God angry, and I have a long memory. I don’t run around squealing about the evil in the world or trying to do good things because that’s how I feel all the time. I do it because it’s the right thing to do. And I don’t control myself because I fear some external punishment or reprisal. If I hold back it’s for the benefit of the antagonist(s). Never forget that.
I mean, hitherto most generations only had hand-fucking the nasty hole in their kitchen sinks each night to look forward to. Us? While capitalism destroys itself by knocking over socialist governments and destroying the actual biosphere, we get to look forward to our retirement as aged warlords commanding armies of child soldiers who will fight over the basic necessities of life. This is fine. Our betters are very wise. I have been a fool to oppose this plan. I recognize that, now.
No, but, seriously. All I’ve ever known is betrayal. I’m wearing jeans with holes in them that I don’t have the money to replace. I’m wearing glasses that don’t work right because healthcare is for-profit rather than for people. I live in a shitty house I can’t really afford. I’ve spent the last few years fighting off monsters while paragons put knives in my back, and made me into a monster that no one could love. I spent my childhood, and what was left of it, fighting off monsters because a piece of paper said that fools should have the freedom to destroy. I survived, this long, only to be let down again by our glorious system. I’ve died from more malicious lifetimes than most people will ever live. And you think I still give a shit about what happens, to any of us? That’s adorable. Burn. In. Hell. ☺
Let me explain. No. It would take too long. Let me sum up. Capitalism is simply the reorganization of feudalism under scientific, rather than theocratic, means. Like feudalism, capitalism requires both ever-expanding extraction and systemic violent coercion in order to survive. Capitalism is a totalitarian system in disguise, that is antithetical to democracy. Capitalism is built on asymmetric power relationships. It is built on violence. All right-wing politics facilitate this. You may select, both as a consumer of products or politics, from the products or ideas offered by the oligarchy. If you attempt to select something else, or if you refuse to offer up what is demanded by the system, you are punished with violence (be that structural, legal, or physical). Fascism is the extreme totalitarian compensatory reaction to increasing attempts to reform (and ultimately defeat) the system of capitalism. Thus, no democracy will ever be safe from totalitarianism, or from fascism, so long as capitalism exists. We must embrace a socialist paradigm. Not a faux entitlement system built upon continued corporate dominance. Genuine socialism with the widespread deconstruction of hierarchical power relationships. Capitalism must ultimately be destroyed. And, if we choose not to do this in the short term, the climate will do it for us, taking our species and many others with it.
Every conflict is a dance. Always remember that. Only the inexperienced, or the foolish, leap when they ought to twirl, or twirl when they ought to leap. And you’ll only know if you’ve made the right moves when the music stops. Which is complicated, because it never really does.
Never just take it, kids. Our culture teaches us that to be attacked is to be shamed, and that to fight back is untoward and unbecoming. That’s bullshit. Don’t let weak people dictate how you live. Somebody bothers you, you make noise about it. Be as disruptive as you need to be, and fight back however you need to. Never hesitate to enlist allies if you need them. There’s no such thing as a clean fight, really. They say pride is wasted effort, but that shit ain’t true. You have value and you deserve not to be bothered. Act like it. Hold what’s yours and keep your head up.
whispers It thinks it’s the scariest monster I’ve ever seen. o.o
Like. A. Piñata.
What this holiday truly is, when you get right down to it, is a weaponization of the ignorant and powerless against genuine dissent. The powerless are allowed to do things they would not otherwise be allowed to do, to make noise, to dominate social space that they ordinarily cannot dominate, to make the ground tremble, all to induce a kind of nationalist manic hysteria in support of a system over which these people have no real power or control. It’s a safety valve that serves the interests of oligarchs and empire. Nothing more.
But, I mean, just as a general observation of objective fact? Improvised explosive devices are cheap and easy for almost anyone to manufacture. And, if you will forgive an interjection of subjective observation, the ratio of assholes-to-non-assholes is so high in the world that the odds of justice are alright.