At least one US fash has already, Chadwick Seagraves. The rest might need a little encouragement.

It’s a vibe, not an actual analysis of political economy.

People don’t magically change their worldview because they have more money, but a person’s economic relationship (e.g. owning a business, or being an employee) will guide their class interests - someone like Rowling who primarily makes money from ownership rather than work will materially benefit from conservative economic interests. And since capitalism rewards profit over social contribution, those of the business owners who don’t care about other people enough to sacrifice profitability are (generally) more able to build wealth, so there are more right-wing types in mega-wealthy circles, not simply because they have wealth (this also includes those feigning left-wing ideals, like rainbow capitalism and philanthrocapitalism, to exploit real social movements for reputation and profit).

This Wikipedia page gives a quick rundown of how a person’s politics and their role in the economy intertwine, although it’s probably more useful to learn the concept through pamphlets or books which provide historical evidence, examples and related concepts. My recommendation - Not pointlessly academic or dated, relatively general, has nice and neat chapters for specific questions.

You also have to remember these people have a voice because we give it to them.

In some ways, sure, but these people also have a voice because owning-class mass media gives it to them. You can literally buy a figurative microphone. Pay for a platform. We don’t assume people with money are worth listening too, they’re simply the ones talking on every channel.

I think that if the US government is overhauled, guaranteed UBI would be key to allowing for effective strikes.

In the meantime, we use voluntary strike funds for a similar effect.

I care more about where they are spent. My local government is spending it far better than my federal government. If it was half my income and was spent in ways that lower the cost of living and improve quality of life, then I’d have no problem with that.

If I get a tax cut, I think, cool, at least I choose where this money goes, because I actually do give some to non-profits that benefit society. Tax amounts are not something which determines how I vote, I gloss over it in the news, it’s just incidental that the anti-worker parties want to raise my taxes and spend them in worse ways.

The government just says “ok, strike.”

Got any examples? Because what’s first coming to mind for large modern strikes is the train strike that the Biden government explicitly outlawed. (before the environmental disaster in West Palestine, Ohio)

It’s more complex than that, and a protest has more important benefits than a mere direct message (incl. networking), but a ruler or military/police won’t change their mind because a million people said “I don’t like this”. There needs to be some threat, like a strike or even violence, to make them suddenly care about ethics.

There are many, many systems of governance out there and plenty of democratic systems are wildly different from the ‘liberal democracy’ we’re familiar with. Cheran in Mexico is an interesting example, five minute documentary.

Nationalism also works the other way. The wins of the privileged are framed as ‘WE’RE winning!!’. Big companies exploit you more and profit? It’s spun as The Economy is going well. GDP went up. That sounds good for you, doesn’t it?

It’s a common practice, a problem with authentic child actors is they generally change once the original actor hits puberty, so higher pitched adult voices are common.

One of the behind-the-scenes videos on a Ed Edd n Eddy disc had some funny stories of the voice actors meeting fans (e.g. Ed’s VA spotting some kid watching the show on a TV while on vacation in Jamaica and throwing in a “huh huah, thut guy is funneh…”) and Kevin’s VA had to keep doing their voice since kids didn’t believe her whenever she mentioned it.

Putting resources into things simply because someone is willing to pay money for it is a huge problem in our world. Once we put a dent in poverty and other existential crises, then let’s consider paying people millions and billions for simply entertaining people with skills and talent. Entertainment, arts and culture are certainly important, but their industrialization and overemphasis under capitalism comes at a very real cost, both to their art and entertainment itself, and to the rest of society.

Here’s a related hill: I am for the abolition of the professional sports industry. Focus on local competitions, actual participation and sports that encourage socially-useful skills, like the Firemen’s Olympics and its modern siblings.

They weren’t bragging. They stated their situation and experience because it’s relevant to the article, which is about academics.

Europe and China have already succeeded in poaching scientists that way, so not sure why it’d make you laugh.

I see plenty of typical* Americans on the streets who can barely plot their own country on a world map. At some point, it is an actual lack of information, ignorance, whether by their environment or their own disinterest, rather than some racial or nationalist prejudice. It’s offensive and stupid, and shouldn’t be excused, but sometimes I think it isn’t even racism. Or, at least, their own racism - it’s still the effect of a nationalist exceptionalist government and culture, so racism is still relevant to their ignorance regardless of what their own opinions, morals and character might be.

Now, all that said, there are millions who are just racist pieces of shit who know better. So fuck them.

* I know the country isn’t homogeneous and there is no typical American, but I’m not talking about just super rural folk or the centers of cities

I know some people in the building profession who habitually call out everything in mm, as oppose to most people where I am using cm for most household measurements. So I’m not surprised to see measuring tape (esp a carpenting one) ignoring the redundant cm

Democracy is not automatically “good”. Democracy is a tool. When applied in an appropriate way and to an appropriate voter base (one informed and smart enough to, on average, make a correct vote), it’s a great decision-making tool. It also has the ability to empower a larger number of people, which has real tangible benefits. When applied in an inappropriate way… well just look around. Most liberal democracies have just become a pay-to-win competition for the mega-rich to launder their dictatorship though.

I say this as someone who has designed and run democratic projects, and someone who is generally pro-democracy, yet against most existing “democratic countries”.

It’s also important to note historical cases like the 1917 October Revolution, where there became an interesting question of whether a liberal democracy was more important than putting power in the hands of the working class - the second option was closer to the goals of an ideal democracy, despite appearing to be an anti-democratic authoritarian seizure of power. Consider alternative cases, like democracies which have allowed right-wing authoritarians to legally gain large amounts of power (e.g. Hitler, Trump) and whether it was more important to preserve a malfunctioning liberal democracy or to prevent a harmful regime taking over.

no u

Yep, like @JayGray91@piefed.social said. BlueSky is beholden to the same problems that ruined Twitter. It exists as a business, not a community, and at some point it will try to cash in. It’s repeating history

The word ‘enshittification’ is thrown around a lot, but its original meaning is talking about a process that affects venture capital funded tech, and BlueSky is pressured to follow that process, unlike Mastodon, Pleroma and other alternatives.

It’s not politically incorrect at all. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are just too simplistic ways to interpret our complex world. It’s idealistic to try and put people in such simple categories, and it leads to a delutional worldview.

The only ‘politically incorrect’ part is that some people might jump down your throat for pointing out things about Hitler which weren’t terrible, because unfortunately neo-Nazis abuse this rhetoric as a wolfwhistle or for whitewashing. But as long as you’re clearly not doing that, there’s nothing politically incorrect with saying Hitler drank water.