this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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If you want, say, a boat; its probably less work to build it from scratch than to 'earn' it for the overwhelming majority.
Which is wild: Even with modern tools, economies of scale, and specialized master craftspeople (or more likely; enslaved teenagers halfway across the world chained to a shop bench, similar effect here) its easier to DIY than go through 'society', unless the thing has been made deliberately difficult to DIY-which more and more things, especially repairs and retrofits, are.
It takes more work, more coordination, and orders of magnitude more time to get the government to raise your taxes to half assedly feed the hungry with food that was gonna get thrown away than it does to just find a patch of land nobody's watching and do it yourself from Fucking scratch. Every Fucking time.
All the big decisions, decisions about Commons, and decisions about the future, including habitability of the planet, are being made in what we can all agree is the dumbest fucking way possible, and regardless of our disagreements, 999/1000 random people off the street would find it difficult to make worse ones.
So, communist or individualist, insurrectionist or moderate, what kind of brain dead fucking moron would participate in this on purpose? Would follow the rules of this on purpose?
So, what the fuck is to be done?
P.S. If you say "vote" I swear I'll fucking scream.
Vote with your dollars and strike at the root.
Slightly less obnoxious, but equally ineffective; vote with your hands, your eyes, your feet. Don't let them steal your labor your attention your time your anything. You can be passive and hold a strike. You van be active and strike back. I think a mix of both would be a lot more effective than just one.
But whatever you do, if its not just useless theatrical bullshit (which isn't to say all theatrical bullshit is useless; just the useless kinds) its going to be illegal, and will face state retribution, even if its explicitly legal and protected in your local constitution.
You can also strike without striking. There's a huge fuss over "quiet quitting"/"work to rule", where people are striking by only doing exactly what they're paid for, rather than adding in the extra that has become the norm. They're not adding extra hours or pulling extra duties.
When I say 'strike back' the labor actions that come to mind all involve machine guns.
Further, this is one case where decidedly not voting (to borrow the analogy) would have an impact.
Reminds me of the short story Enough, by William Ledbetter that I just read.
See also https://bdsmovement.net/ for a practical, targeted example.
For whoever thinks not voting will be any form of good decision. Ask yourself this question.
How can someone distinguish a not vote because your fine with how things are from a not vote out of protest?
Definitely not what I meant. My example would be more like refusing to pay taxes in protest.
Except thankfully it's not illegal to refuse to give money to corporations, just very difficult.
While I did misunderstood the goal of your comment, sry for that, it still holds some truth and might be applied concept wise to what you meant.
Refusing to pay taxes is, as much as refusing to vote politically, a refuse to participate. Why should someone get a say in something that they refuse to be a part of?
We are on the same side, even if it's not directly obvious. You showed that with you second point. By voting with you wallet for corporations that fulfill your values, you choose to give them more power over other corporations that don't.
The same concept applies to voting politically. You give your vote to a party that fulfills your values over a party that doesn't.
I the real world not paying taxes is not an option, as much as it's not an option to not spend any money on any corporation, if your part of the society. We are able to choose in a given context, that for sure has its limitations.
Let's say your not happy with the possible options that you can vote for, be it a financial or a political vote, you are free to fill the niche you think is missing. Start being active politically or economically and if there are more people that think like you and act according to this, things can change.
But if nobody does this, things will definitely move in the direction of the values from people that do the things above.
There is the famous phrase. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
idk maybe ask the people that run the fucking electorate why there isn't a "fuck you this shit sucks" option.
Great example how to not solve anything.
Stay delusional my friend
"go vote, otherwise you're bad"
"ok so make voting better"
"no"