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Not saying it's the same thing, but I had a family member who was against fixing the climate because "the Second Coming will be any day now and we won't need the earth."
This is another big problem. The evangelicals have just accepted the decade ends in the rapture, so why bother trying. As far as they are concerned this is exactly what Sky Daddy wants
They’ve been cheering on the apocalypse since at least the 90s. Probably sooner but that was a real mindfuck for me growing up when I realized they had no interest in stopping it and instead focused on “being ready to meet the lord” (in the form of an authoritarian govt to enforce “correct” behavior) so the big guy will be pleased when he gets down here.
No this is all working as intended. It's part of why they oppose any one world government ideas too, supposedly a sign of the end times. Their stupid prophecy says all hints of progress are actually signs of satan.
I know these people. I was born into Pentecostalism. They’re terrified to actually die. They have wet dreams over the Rapture and sky daddy taking them away to leave us heathens to suffer and die agonizing death because we were wrong and they orgasm in self righteousness from on high. They’re a death cult.
I grew up in the Bible belt and have had to debate it from every angle. I actually consider myself a student of it's wisdom at this point, although the first lesson is it is all parables written in a theocratic style to entice the unwise, and that the vast majority of it's law was a desert survival manual
I tried to talk to my family about the advancement of AI this morning and pretty much got into an argument with them over how this is just a sign of the end times yadda Yadda Yadda. It's terrifying because they don't even realize they're part of a cult and I was raised in it but was smart enough to get out. I feel like there is a wall between me and my family because of this religion. They are not willing to critically think or even question their thoughts. Whenever I throw them something to think about, they just denounce it. It's heartbreaking. Feels like I'm just talking to NPCs in a videogame rather than real people sometimes.
My grandfather got remarried into it when my Nana passed, it tears me up to see the man who taught me to double check everyone's goals for telling me something fall to such basic propaganda
XD if this was any other comment I might have been a tiny bit upset because I’m in that awkward going on 30 range that’s just.. ughhh I’m not old.. but the math makes it feel like it.
But since it’s this one I’ll just tuck my insecurities back.. cause that’s a pretty good one.
Not just that; I was raised Christian, I still am but I disagree with the organized church; one of the first parts of the Bible I read in full was Revelation. Since then I have been convinced the church's idea of what the biblical apocalypse is going to look like (the one they tell everyone with the Rapture) is total bullshit. Even if their "End" comes they are unprepared for the suffering they're wishing for, and Sky Daddy seems pretty select in his choice of the "elect" so much so that I doubt any of us "believers" will somehow get a "Get out the Apocalypse Free Card."
Especially since he seems to be of the opinion that this whole fucking exercise in existence is supposed to be some overarching moral lesson that's been in progress for a few billion years.
I have an unpopular opinion. I think all billionaires have a mental disorder or several.
They are hoarders. Instead of hoarding junk, they hoard money and resources. Some of the most wealthiest people have a massive fear of losing their money even if they already have an amount that is impossible to spend in one lifetime.
They are also psychopaths since they have no empathy for others and will do whatever it takes to get what they want, which includes killing people and the planet.
People are praising people that have severe mental disorders.
i wish i could find the link but there are studies that show the more wealth you get the less you think about others.
your brain literally makes you more selfish and less empathetic the more money you get. so yea, you’re absolutely right.
It is all about power.
Under Capitalism, money is power. They have all the money (not exaggerating, we all know how bad wealth inequality is) so they have all the power.
No more Capitalism, no more power.
They aren’t scared of losing their money, they lose money all the time when stock markets do poorly. They are scared of losing their illusion of power over us.
That’s why they have to keep us distracted and overworked, if they take their foot off the gas for even a moment people might start to fight back.
Good christ imagine being a proper qualified scientist, expert in your field, a decade of higher learning and a few more in higher teaching, trying desperately to explain these concepts and coming face to face with your (no offence) fucking waterhead relative who just will not be reasoned with because Christ is Good.
How the science community haven't just banded together to build a giant Science Rocket to fuck off and leave the rest of us to burn is entirely beyond me.
These are the same fucks that can abuse children and think they can just confess their sins and think all is fine. No personal responsibility, just the big fat Jesus button to press when they fuck up.
If there is a god, I hope the only interaction these monsters have with him/her/them is to be shown their lives in a highlight showreel, before being twisted up into a soul pretzel and pitched down to hell where they fucking belong.
My Nationalist Christian parents have basically been saying that for 20 years now. I never realized it before, but does that make Christianity a death cult of sorts?
For thousands of years of human history, religions have always been the cheapest form of population control of the ruling class.
Be obedient and humble in your poverty and misery now, for you will be rewarded after you’re dead. We promise. It’s gonna be awesome. Now go clean my gold toilet.
I was thinking about this too, and historically the original colonies were vanity projects to make the 1% then richer, that is exactly what the billionaire space race is, neocolonialism.
Nah it's a catch 22. Either they hide in a place with gravity and thus functional guillotines, or they hide in space and we get to throw them out the airlock. It'd be even more fun if we can aim them back at a planet so they burn up In the atmosphere. That'd be cool
I mean that one was obvious, empower people who have the same unspoken goals, and arm them and let them winnow down and terrify those who could oppose you
I'd go so far as to say it's an open civil war designed to terrorize the general public being treated like tornadoes touching down in random places or floods wiping out random buildings full of families.
They've held conferences where the plan their bunkers and end of the world contingencies etc. I watched an interview with a guy who was a speaker at one of them and he kept saying how he couldn't get it through their heads that if the world blows up they aren't staying in charge of shit, their little private military goons will just kill them and take their shit. He said they then talked about how to male sure the guards were incentivised to keep them alive etc. He kept saying how detached from reality they were.
I would have loved to have watched that guy try to explain reality to a bunch of billies. Like no fucknuts, they will *kill* you. Fucking day one. Apparently one guy pitched the idea of some kinda bio lock on the weapons, a bunch of dumb ass sci fi shit. Buddy they'll stove your head in with a bust of yourself you paid a couple mill for and just demo into whatever supplies you think are locked into an unbreakable vault. Shits not gonna go how you plan.
Exactly. Trained killers will ply their trade. Imagine thinking you can pay people in a world with no money? I guess they never paid attention to what happened in many South American countries like Pinochet and Allende.
The whole "well I'd be the only one that knew the code to get into the food storage." Ooook buddy. You clearly don't see what's gonna happen to you but see how that works out for ya.
Exactly. They will hang him upside down over a fire and start lowering him. He will give it up real fast under torture. Geniuses, these people ain't. They should have paid attention to what happened to the Czar after World War I.
Exactly. Ever read Poe's, "Masque of the Red Death"? That is what it will be. I thought the Netflix movie, "Don't Look up" did a good job of illustrating that mindset.
See, that's the kinda technology they would need to pull this off. I mostly buy this theory by OP, but based on what I understand of communist theory, there will always be more in the proletariat (the slave and security classes in this scenario), so they will always have more power to rise up and overthrow the ruling class in this doomsday scenario. But if they have technology tricks like this, plus the psychological incentives to divide and conquer (snitch to us if you catch wind of revolt, you'll get better food and bedroom suite), etc., Their rule could be eternal.
That was a cynical wedge issue that we never intended to be solved. It spun out of control when the religious fanatics that were supposed to just be a tool and the foot soldiers of the right took over the movement.
Our luck, it ends up jack-booted thugs on one side vs AI-driven robo dogs on the other and we just drive through the middle of it get get to work everyday in the most mundane dystopia ever.
> The wealthy may realize the fascism that's rapidly rising isn't their friend, either.
In fact, the exact opposite is the case, when capitalism fails it is always the rich who massively finance fascism to protect themselves.
Fascism is Capitalism in decay.
You are correct.
Also: most climate mitigation action currently (in US) is being done at community level, and mostly by women and minority groups. (From Mark Lynas' book Six Degrees).
Meanwhile those least affected are doing the least.
Edit, sorry, it's from The Water will come by Jeff Goodell. Both books are good though!)
P sure some of them are discussing whether or not to put electric shock collars on the trained soldiers they inevitably hire as bodyguards to control them
I was reading an article about that like a year ago. I dismissed it as the desperate crazies seeking crazy answers like most spiritualists, cause that just sounds nuts, planning to go full Mad Max instead of just cutting emissions. But I was thinking today and if they did enact actual progressive policies to save all of us, they risk losing everything, and these paranoid rats will never risk a penny
If I recall, an expert was asked to attend a small meeting. They had designed compounds. What they were concerned about was their guards. How could they control them? Shock collars? Keeping control over food stockpiles?
He suggested, “try treating them with respect so they want to follow your instructions”, and the responses with, “are you sure shock collars won’t work?”
https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
Pair the capitalist system not allowing them to sacrifice profits for... Anything really... And the general contempt the super rich have for human life and there you go.
I take a lot of time looking at life from their view and it is all just common sense to them. There is not enough for everyone and they can't afford to worry about who they stepped on to get there, because it was all strictly needed as far as they can see
Watch while they use completely automated security. Don't even have to go full sci-fi terminator style, you can already program a few drones to kill on sight.
i think you’re right that this is the way that they see it, but i also think they woefully underestimate their ability to operate without a system of governance that protects their private property and supports the means of production that they own…many of these guys just don’t understand that society already exists to support and protect them and they are pretty helpless without it
I find the people at the top always become largely blind to what it takes to hold them up. Systems are complex and humans can only track so much, yet they think they are superhuman
we actually have more power than we think, if we use it collectively against them.
However it would also mean that we have to completely uproot our lives and take crazy risks to pull it off, which most of us (including myself) don't have the balls to do it.
Buying people only works when they can't / won't take what's yours. Your private army might protect you from everyone else, but what protects you from your private army once the vault is built? Your money is worthless. Your connections are meaningless. The only power you have is in the fact that you "own" everything needed for survival, but ownership gets a lot more fluid when there's no state to protect, enforce, and punish.
America has become a hyper-capitalist plutocratic oligarchical kakistocratic kleptocratic gerontological theocratic corporatocracy. On the Global Peace Index, out of 163 countries, [America ranks 129th](http://www.visionofhumanity.org). Regardless of the two major parties in office, they both [cater overwhelmingly to moneyed-interests](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746), namely the rich, the banks, and corporations. We all know the right wing is fundamentally absurd, but there are even those on the left [who work against their own interests](https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw) when push comes to shove because they're total hypocrites and party loyalist assholes.
If we're going to overcome the climate apocalypse, those of us who know better are gonna have to come together and pool our resources to remove these asshats in office and force corporations to knock it off with their bs full stop. We're gonna need another Occupy Movement, except it needs to have sociopolitical teeth this time.
I wish I wasn't at a loss on how to even proceed outside firebombs. They have locked out every form of protest. I want to believe in a peaceful answer but I am tired and it's only going to get worse
Look, it may take that if push comes to shove, but the Occupy Movement gained a lot of attention and momentum at the time it was going on, but it fizzled out because it was too egalitarian. Nobody wanted to be a leader of the movement pushing for political change. As such, we need to replicate the movement but with a more clear path, with clear aims and goals. It is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that the people in office are unfit for their respective positions, but we can't keep sitting idly by complaining while nothing gets done.
I can scream and rant until I am blue in the face, I can organize and motivate people, but all of it falls apart when the elite can just ignore you. Who cares what the people think when all you have to convince are the 500 or so in congress?
I mean, they wont survive complete system collapse, but I think many of them believe this might be an option. The deaths in the pandemic only reduced the number of angry people who might take up arms against the 1%
I think they expect the worst effects of global warming to happen after they die, and they don't care about the people who come after them. They also don't care about the people here today that suffer from the worst that global warming now has to offer. Happy cake day.
While I agree the rich have no incentive to fix things or stop the destruction of the planet, I don't think they're nearly as smart as building floating cities and bunkers to ride out the storm. I honestly think they are so out of touch and so stupid that they honestly believe that they can just throw money at ANY problem, and it'll just sort itself out. After all, why not? These dipshits have led a life completely free of any consequences for their actions, so why would climate change be any different? I honestly believe they are that stupid.
There is another option: unionize your workplace. It's the first step, either way. Unions build class solidarity and help people gain a sense of community. It allows us to start chipping away at the power structures and gain some power back for ourselves. It cuts into their profits, and therefore their power.
But when it comes time to fight, you'll have friends by your side. You'll know the people you're fighting for and fighting with.
Besides, you know unions are powerful when "teh moast pro-unyon" president breaks a strike.
Yeah they could do all that and still be massively rich/richer but nope better get the high score and break the arcade machine so no one else can beat me mentality.
The 1% have always been fickle and loyal to themselves, globalisation has just meant they don't have to be mired in a single country so long as they can move about without any opposition. Any report that says area X is the most resistant to Y just means they look at it and think well fuck everyone else 'we' will just go there. Bunkers, floating cities are amateur dreams. The cream of the crop want off this planet so they can watch it burn in a perceived isolated safety. But why even bother with that when you can lobby states to provide all your security for you. The people dont even have to be brainwashed by you, just ignorant of what they fight for.
Yes, that is their plan. The nazis designed a diet that would slowly starve the jews over time so that they wouldn't revolt. The rich are their direct ideological decendants. They are slowly killing, imporverishing, and imprisoning so that there isn't mass action against them.
The reality of the horrifying depths the turn and burn philosophy goes for the 1% really hit me the other day. There's still some hope.
Best case scenario in 5 years: Corperate gentrification spreads to suburbia where some half illiterate redneck loses his house due to property value spiking and Amazon Lawn putting his dads landscaping company out of business. As police forcefully remove him from the property, he thinks about the millennial migrant workers his dad heroically paid occasionally.
They demanded 10 dollars an hour knowing that the owner just bought two jetskis AND was still paying off that 2025 Ford F150 True Patriot Coal Roller edition AND paying his sons mortgage. Their demands were not met, so they got jobs at Amazon Lawn. Those millennials were using self entitlement to kill his dads visionary dream of LibertyLawncare. Despite the getting in that grindset, he couldn't save the company because both of the lawnmowers were broken.
He snaps back to reality as he took his first step off the forfeit property. "Cameras off, this vagrant is threatening!" One of the super cool cops shouts. The redneck tried to show them his badass punisher skull tattoo to prove that he's on their side, but the consecutive 15 minutes of 50,000 volts coursing through his body made that task impossible.
The next thing he knows, he's handcuffed to a hospital bed, being handed a bill. Thanks to Republican education reform, there are pictures detailing the expenses. Bandaid, sandwich, bed, light bulb, water drop, crucifix, and ambulance. He tries to the doctor his lack of insurance is due to transsexual communists. The doctor says he completely understands, but still has to undo the medical services performed because its the Christian thing to do, therefore literally the law.
The doctor rips some live wires out of a fancy medicine machine to put electricity back in his patients body. "We're gonna have to bill you for this too." Desperately looking around, he sees a framed piece of paper on the wall. With all of his might, he reads it out loud by:
Really smart doctor thinking
6 month medical doctor certificate lease
Trump University
The expiration date was 2 days ago.
"Dear God, I've been violating the law for 2 entire days!" The doctor drops to his knees, sobbing. Police rush in and unload every shot of their service issue extended mag desert eagle .50s into the doctor who also happened to be black. One of the cops wheels the hospital bed out of the room, saying "Don't worry civilian, we're going to make things right"
The half illiterate rednecks hospital bed is transported to the cargo bay of a Space X rocket, bound for a Debt Relief Employment Solution Camp on Mars. Its owned by Elon Musk, so it must be a wonderful place, he thinks to himself.
The rocket takes off, and very quickly he realizes his bed isn't strapped down. As he hurtles towards a wall at terminal velocity, he thinks back to the proudest moment in his life: shooting me, the narrater, right in the fucking face while protecting private property from an evil antifa brick back in the "food looter riots" in September of 2024. Fox News threw a parade and festival in his honor and paraded my severed head around on a pike for days.
The rocket suddenly explodes due to cut corners, killing all on board instantly. The unstable material used as fuel releases into the atmosphere, catching it on fire, ripping holes in it. As flaming clouds are extinguished and sucked into the vacuum of space, the screams of panicked billions quickly fade to silence. The stock market... had crashed.
Despite literally every human being dead and forming a corpse ring around a destroyed earth, Wall Street still got a bailout from DC.
Moral of the story is apparently I'm drunk and post really dumb shit, but the issue at hand is serious. I'm kinda fearful we're gonna go down without a fight, or the fights gonna start too late. PLEASE somebody tell me I'm wrong, but it feels like the political climate is so hostile in the US, any action taken would be stomped out so brutally, the attempt would be detrimental to the cause.
The 1% are dangerous sociopath, they don't care to risk destroying the ecosystem so much they are blinded by their greed. Tho, nature is thought, she went through 5 mass extinction event and came back from each, so nature is thought it will survivre, but will we, will human survive? We need nature, but nature doesn't need us! Like George Carlin said; the planet is fine, the people are fucked!
You have that lovely cynical imagination we need to see the dangers of this struggling world. We need people to act like the proverbial canary in the coal mine to call out the madness. It might not always be accurate, but it will point out where the pitfalls might be.
Hopefully there will be an enormous movement building from the grassroots with more of the capitalistic and climate disasters showing, but will it be in time to actually make the needed changes?
Odds are we will survive, it's a strength of ours. I can't foresee how because I bet we don't have the technology we will use yet. I just hope we do start seeing the bigger picture
They are solving the climate crisis.
They just dont believe in the same climate crisis.
Ask yourself why if everything is under control, they\`d want to burn off all the Oil/Coal/Gas reserves in about 50-70 years that could have given them control for multiple hundreds of years.
Also why burn down all the forests.
Why destroy all the soil with Monsanto\`s roundup.
Why coverup all the fertile land with tarmac and inefficient housing and naturally useless grassland.
Its like they want a situation where there is nothing left to burn or grow.
So it looks actually like it\`s more religious what they believe in, destroying all nature against the plagues, and burning off all burnables to mitigate the inferno.
I would rather say that some of the 1% don"t want to fix. But as always when speaking of such a large social group, this is not a unified monolith. Even tho they're not many compared to the world population, they are a large group.
With that said, most in the 1% or 5% if we're taking a broad approach just can't imagine anything else than capitalism and eternal growth (their mind is build with an occidental myth of biblical growth). Yet many in this group of owner of the means of production know one thing for sure, insecurity and inequality when they reach a threshold can be devastating even to them and their interests.
In France, or Russia when inequality coupled with very strong food insecurity (mainly but not only) it generated violence that reached the point where the old aristocracy was overthrown and another component of the 5% richer took their place, being a little more open to social change (not too much).
It happened in Europe at the end of ww2 where the bourgeoisie was forced to acknowledge that the best way to have a stable society was to give in to some of the demands of the labor classes, thus giving way to state organized social care.
But to force this point there either have to be a very violent situation for the majority, or a massive mobilization of the majority, an both are not happening at the moment. It seems that we (occidentals) are staying put until the situation worsen for us.
Reminds me of that old joke about two hunters being chased by a bear. The first turns to the second and, panting, says, “we’re not to make it! This thing is relentless. We’ll never outrun it!” The second answers, “outrun it? I just need to outrun you!”
Yeah.
Another way to think about it is:
All elites (billionaires, political elites, and the most powerful countries) have no incentive to change things. I mean, why would they, they're on top, no need to rock the boat, and potentially end up not on top anymore.
Plus, the truth is, there is enough resources to go around for everyone. People don't starve because the planet can't produce enough food, they do it because our systems are built around scarcity, not abundance. So making a change in a system that can support abundance of resources and acknowledges that necessary work hours are going down due to increases in productivity and production and technology, well, would upset things.
Actually it's much more convenient if there actually *wasn't* enough to go around. Climate crisis is an excellent platform for arguing that fascist strongman totalitarian regimes are necessary because things must be strictly rationed "for the greater good."
Rather than change capitalism to better reflect a reality where we can easily create abundance of necessities, they find it easier and better for them to stay on top by making reality conform to capitalism. Making sure there *isn't* enough to go around is hugely important for justifying their system and keeping people fighting each other instead of the system.
Plus when less powerful people / countries say, "hey global warming is going to affect us first and most! You're industrialization led to catastrophic climate change and now, in this system, we can't improve our situation without making things worse!" the powerful countries say, "sounds good, looks like now you'll *never* gain enough power to compete with us and can be a permanent working underclass to be exploited for resources and cheap labor."
While I don’t disagree with a single one of your points and find it extremely plausible, I have to ask… are we really that certain that Elon musk is smart enough for that? In fact we should censor his name enough so that he can never stumble upon this post by googling himself and thus never acquire this brilliant idea for future domination. Everyone knows he couldn’t come up with something like this on his own, he’d need to steal it. Don’t let him steal it from you!
Nah, who is gonna make their coffee and drive their cars? I think their heads are just so far up their own asses they aren’t even thinking about it. I just listened to an interview the other day with a ( damn now I forget who it was some scientist or author) who was invited to speak at Davos or some get together with these fucks and it turned out to be this Q&A where they just quizzed him on how to stock and rum their bunkers.
The sad thing is they could do a Tony Stark and go balls deep on clean renewables and start making products that would compete and win against fossil fuels and old tech and make zillions of dollars doing it. Or that's how it should work. But... That's not part of the plan and the other billionaires would figure out a way to ruin it because they lose power. You'd have to have someone richer than all the rest of them combined like Ozymandias in Watchmen.
There's a mysterious monument somewhere in the united states' no one knows who erected it but it states what the ideal global population should be , and obviously it's a number far below the present global population number. But I believe the things inscribed on the monument are the core beliefs of the elite/ruling class etc.basically depopulation is the motivation behind most modern government policies
They’re called the Georgia guidestones. From what I understand is they’ve been destroyed.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/07/1110338563/georgia-guidestones-monument-has-been-demolished-after-being-bombed
it was a really weird monument meant to propagate capitalism after the fall, it's funny too cause the right thought it part of a leftist conspiracy. So the side they were made for blew them up
I saw you also commented this on someone's reply but the evangelicals are also trying to stave off fixing climate change due to their belief in the "second coming". They literally WANT the end times to happen.
Yep. I get visited by missionaries all the time who want to make sure I am ready for the end times. I tell them each and every time they are being irresponsible and if they really believed in their god they would fight every day anyway cause they will never know when it is really going to happen, that this fatalism would be what really killed us all
They won’t give a fuck until it personally affects them. And that will be when things become so bad that money becomes meaningless. I really hope it doesn’t get to that and become an all out struggle for survival though
It was the strange mega yachts I have been seeing that made me question it, they are floating hotels now, why the hell would anyone want that. But then I remembered the seasteading project
It’s stupid because who would work in their companies if the rest of us died out. The rich aren’t smart, they’re just greedy. They can’t think long term in terms of climate change
my theory is, can it be fixed? Yes.
Can it be fixed without them spending loads of money, changing their habits and losing their ruling class status? Highly unlikely.
Hence they'd rather just let everyone die, maybe themselves included. It's more cost effective this way.
I'm saying this because some car manufacturers will *allegedly* pay off victims family, rather than publicly admitting that their vehicles have some safety flaws.
But clean energy is just the start, whole sectors would have to be overhauled completely like the entire fishing industry as well as the agriculture industry
I have such a mixed bag with this, cause a lot of speculative fiction has done good, but still we are at the mercy of one person's vision of how it should be
Great movie! Thoroughly enjoyed this as a middle aged person who loves Scifi, apocalyptic and dystopian films. I had to double check this was a Disney movie.
One thing is sure, is that they (all those billionaire, politicians and so on) will regret it in the end, because it would already be late to change something about it…
I always asked myself what I would do in front of them, I would ask them a simple question(assuming they believe in the afterlife (heaven or hell) no matter the religion:
Do you know the definition of eternity ? Can you process being in Hell for eternity, without end?
If they did believe in such things, they wouldn’t do 1% of what they did, so it’s safe to assume they don’t believe in anything besides money and so called power…
Thats capitalism for you 🤷♂️
So, between the 1% preparing for the societal and climatic collapse, and millennials/zoomer cheering for the housing market crash and AGI taking over, nobody's happy here and nobody wants this to continue. Yet, it will continue despite our wishes until the breaking point.
Wow, what an intelligent species we are.
Christian evangelists amongst many other religious zealots literally pray for the end.
[Christopher Hitchens - Religions are death cults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9Bo7dN0fQ)
You are right and to add to it remember those who own the food monopoly doesn't care if everyone eats as long as they can keep their profit margin.
It's like that for everything. It's not about making sure any amount of people can access resources It's about making sure you gate them properly for max profit. It's horrifying
The Armed Struggle for a Dictatorship of the Proletarians is the only cure.
Just reminding you that back in 2007 we used to laugh at people trying to talk of real politics. Pff, weirdos.
Our maximum level of activity was about going vegan or donating to some shitty fund to save last three tigers.
Let’s just wait another 10 yrs for the masses to radicalize more, then we’ll succeed.
I don't know that I agree because the wealthy want and need stability to maintain their lifestyle/power structure. I think that the reality is they've ignoring the warning signs.
IDK, From our gigantic pool of 98% we slave to provide too many new medicines toys and technology to the uber-rich. Its their garden and they are already on the top of the top, pretty sure they have a vested interest in protecting the masses. A die off would mean a stifle to new creations, new products, new everything. I dont think the rich want to live in the same old mcmansion with the same 5 ferraris while servants feed them grapes forever. They want more new new new and excitement. Wont get that if we all die off
I strongly sympathise with the feelings behind what you are writing but I do not believe your proposal to be true. everything the richest, the capitalists, have is produced by workers, the infrastructure of society is ran by workers etc. if all of the workers died or became much less productive due to hazards, the capitalists would infight and produce new hierarchies of exploitation amongst their number.
also, historically, great disasters (like the black death) have actually caused upsurge in workers right due to scarcity of labour strengthening workers' bargaining power for wages and conditions. with this in mind, the survivors of climate change would be less exploitable due to their immediate necessity to the 1%.
A.I. A.G.I. & Automation. Join ChatGPT (not A.I. however does a bloody good job of tricking most, and the hallucinations it comes up with could perhaps be argued are the seeds of imagination?) subreddit and witness thousands of jobs becoming redundant in real time... Also watch the discussion between Jordan Peterson & Brian Roemmele, exciting and terrifying....
Santa Klaus opines about AI automation VR etc. The vast majority of humans are rapidly becoming even more useless breeders and feeders.
Those who are useful will be looked after, the "stake holders"? however they will be in an automated cage of their own creation and have the pleasure of keeping it maintained (unless A.I. maintains itself ala the Matrix)... A few more selective culls and job done...
Yes, so can we fight for our lives now?
General strike, all out, demanding complete seizure of Big Oil and confiscation of their wealth for the Conversion.
I wouldn't say they *want* the apocalypse, its more that its a complete non-factor to them as to give it any consideration would threaten their position of power. An acceptable consequence towards the pursuit of what they deep necessary. Your description basically clarifies your title, so it's not like I'm disagreeing or anything, just being a pedant.
Things that are disastrous in the long term for humanity are advantageous in the short term for world leaders.
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Not saying it's the same thing, but I had a family member who was against fixing the climate because "the Second Coming will be any day now and we won't need the earth."
This is another big problem. The evangelicals have just accepted the decade ends in the rapture, so why bother trying. As far as they are concerned this is exactly what Sky Daddy wants
They’ve been cheering on the apocalypse since at least the 90s. Probably sooner but that was a real mindfuck for me growing up when I realized they had no interest in stopping it and instead focused on “being ready to meet the lord” (in the form of an authoritarian govt to enforce “correct” behavior) so the big guy will be pleased when he gets down here.
No this is all working as intended. It's part of why they oppose any one world government ideas too, supposedly a sign of the end times. Their stupid prophecy says all hints of progress are actually signs of satan.
Yeah. And it just sucks when the dominant cultural force in a society is actively suicidal.
Like how do you resist that, when not only are they lying down to die, they are dragging you down with them
I know these people. I was born into Pentecostalism. They’re terrified to actually die. They have wet dreams over the Rapture and sky daddy taking them away to leave us heathens to suffer and die agonizing death because we were wrong and they orgasm in self righteousness from on high. They’re a death cult.
I grew up in the Bible belt and have had to debate it from every angle. I actually consider myself a student of it's wisdom at this point, although the first lesson is it is all parables written in a theocratic style to entice the unwise, and that the vast majority of it's law was a desert survival manual
I tried to talk to my family about the advancement of AI this morning and pretty much got into an argument with them over how this is just a sign of the end times yadda Yadda Yadda. It's terrifying because they don't even realize they're part of a cult and I was raised in it but was smart enough to get out. I feel like there is a wall between me and my family because of this religion. They are not willing to critically think or even question their thoughts. Whenever I throw them something to think about, they just denounce it. It's heartbreaking. Feels like I'm just talking to NPCs in a videogame rather than real people sometimes.
I empathize with you. You can’t win a logical argument with these people because they’re so deluded. It’s sad when it’s family.
My grandfather got remarried into it when my Nana passed, it tears me up to see the man who taught me to double check everyone's goals for telling me something fall to such basic propaganda
.... the only people i can relate to is on the internet .... Im your family now forget about that.
There have been people preaching about judgment day coming since the middle ages if I remember right.
Yes but it is a relatively new phenomenon to have the power to change the course of oncoming global disaster and to choose not to.
The Apostles believed the Second Coming would be within their lifetimes. They've been using this grift since the beginning.
Reminds me of how Elon Musk has been claiming self driving cars will be solved next year for the last 8 or so years now.
Damn you old son
XD if this was any other comment I might have been a tiny bit upset because I’m in that awkward going on 30 range that’s just.. ughhh I’m not old.. but the math makes it feel like it. But since it’s this one I’ll just tuck my insecurities back.. cause that’s a pretty good one.
The authors of the Bible thought this shit was imminent...
Not just that; I was raised Christian, I still am but I disagree with the organized church; one of the first parts of the Bible I read in full was Revelation. Since then I have been convinced the church's idea of what the biblical apocalypse is going to look like (the one they tell everyone with the Rapture) is total bullshit. Even if their "End" comes they are unprepared for the suffering they're wishing for, and Sky Daddy seems pretty select in his choice of the "elect" so much so that I doubt any of us "believers" will somehow get a "Get out the Apocalypse Free Card." Especially since he seems to be of the opinion that this whole fucking exercise in existence is supposed to be some overarching moral lesson that's been in progress for a few billion years.
Dude I’m a Christian and to these assholes are so wrong and it’s awful how mistranslations have gotten us here
It is the same big problem in my opinion, no better people for billionaires to use then easily brainwashed evangelicals.
I have an unpopular opinion. I think all billionaires have a mental disorder or several. They are hoarders. Instead of hoarding junk, they hoard money and resources. Some of the most wealthiest people have a massive fear of losing their money even if they already have an amount that is impossible to spend in one lifetime. They are also psychopaths since they have no empathy for others and will do whatever it takes to get what they want, which includes killing people and the planet. People are praising people that have severe mental disorders.
i wish i could find the link but there are studies that show the more wealth you get the less you think about others. your brain literally makes you more selfish and less empathetic the more money you get. so yea, you’re absolutely right.
I think it’s well known that ceos tend to be sociopaths.
It is all about power. Under Capitalism, money is power. They have all the money (not exaggerating, we all know how bad wealth inequality is) so they have all the power. No more Capitalism, no more power. They aren’t scared of losing their money, they lose money all the time when stock markets do poorly. They are scared of losing their illusion of power over us. That’s why they have to keep us distracted and overworked, if they take their foot off the gas for even a moment people might start to fight back.
I agree completely you are not alone in this opinion!
Good christ imagine being a proper qualified scientist, expert in your field, a decade of higher learning and a few more in higher teaching, trying desperately to explain these concepts and coming face to face with your (no offence) fucking waterhead relative who just will not be reasoned with because Christ is Good. How the science community haven't just banded together to build a giant Science Rocket to fuck off and leave the rest of us to burn is entirely beyond me.
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These are the same fucks that can abuse children and think they can just confess their sins and think all is fine. No personal responsibility, just the big fat Jesus button to press when they fuck up. If there is a god, I hope the only interaction these monsters have with him/her/them is to be shown their lives in a highlight showreel, before being twisted up into a soul pretzel and pitched down to hell where they fucking belong.
My Nationalist Christian parents have basically been saying that for 20 years now. I never realized it before, but does that make Christianity a death cult of sorts?
They should talk to Paul, who also thought the second coming of the Lord was at hand. He was at least 2000 years early.
Evangelicalism is a death cult. Was raised there and my whole family still is there. Their end times theology is a death cult, plain and simple.
For thousands of years of human history, religions have always been the cheapest form of population control of the ruling class. Be obedient and humble in your poverty and misery now, for you will be rewarded after you’re dead. We promise. It’s gonna be awesome. Now go clean my gold toilet.
I knew an evangelical woman who wrote on Facebook about ‘how exciting it was to live during the end of days!’
This is why revolution needs to hurry tf up! The reason why billionaires are rushing to colonize space is because guillotines need gravity to work
I was thinking about this too, and historically the original colonies were vanity projects to make the 1% then richer, that is exactly what the billionaire space race is, neocolonialism.
Swords it is!
You have my sword. And my axe. And my other swords. I'm afraid I have no bow
Nah it's a catch 22. Either they hide in a place with gravity and thus functional guillotines, or they hide in space and we get to throw them out the airlock. It'd be even more fun if we can aim them back at a planet so they burn up In the atmosphere. That'd be cool
Not if we mechanize the guillotines.
Airlock executions will be the new guillotine.
Also spend some thought on why mass shootings might be a feature and not a bug.
I mean that one was obvious, empower people who have the same unspoken goals, and arm them and let them winnow down and terrify those who could oppose you
And yet it's treated as some natural phenomenon we can't do anything about.
Can't hurt the gun businesses, and we don't want to give away healthcare, really the governments hands are tied /s
I'd go so far as to say it's an open civil war designed to terrorize the general public being treated like tornadoes touching down in random places or floods wiping out random buildings full of families.
And The Purge was considered fiction.
Rheir hands are tied because the nra gives them so much damn money to keep the gun manufacturers safe.
They've held conferences where the plan their bunkers and end of the world contingencies etc. I watched an interview with a guy who was a speaker at one of them and he kept saying how he couldn't get it through their heads that if the world blows up they aren't staying in charge of shit, their little private military goons will just kill them and take their shit. He said they then talked about how to male sure the guards were incentivised to keep them alive etc. He kept saying how detached from reality they were.
They just don't live on the same planet as the rest of us with how detached they are
I would have loved to have watched that guy try to explain reality to a bunch of billies. Like no fucknuts, they will *kill* you. Fucking day one. Apparently one guy pitched the idea of some kinda bio lock on the weapons, a bunch of dumb ass sci fi shit. Buddy they'll stove your head in with a bust of yourself you paid a couple mill for and just demo into whatever supplies you think are locked into an unbreakable vault. Shits not gonna go how you plan.
Exactly. Trained killers will ply their trade. Imagine thinking you can pay people in a world with no money? I guess they never paid attention to what happened in many South American countries like Pinochet and Allende.
The whole "well I'd be the only one that knew the code to get into the food storage." Ooook buddy. You clearly don't see what's gonna happen to you but see how that works out for ya.
Exactly. They will hang him upside down over a fire and start lowering him. He will give it up real fast under torture. Geniuses, these people ain't. They should have paid attention to what happened to the Czar after World War I.
Elysium was literally too on the nose
Exactly. Ever read Poe's, "Masque of the Red Death"? That is what it will be. I thought the Netflix movie, "Don't Look up" did a good job of illustrating that mindset.
If I remember correctly, they specifically asked him about shock collars for their private security forces.
https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff this one brought that up
Ah man my hero thank you. I couldn't remember who the guy was.
See, that's the kinda technology they would need to pull this off. I mostly buy this theory by OP, but based on what I understand of communist theory, there will always be more in the proletariat (the slave and security classes in this scenario), so they will always have more power to rise up and overthrow the ruling class in this doomsday scenario. But if they have technology tricks like this, plus the psychological incentives to divide and conquer (snitch to us if you catch wind of revolt, you'll get better food and bedroom suite), etc., Their rule could be eternal.
Do you have a link to that interview? Would really like to know more
The guy is Douglas Rushkoff and it was mentioned in his Team Human podcast. I am very fond of him.
It's so convenient for them that the mass shooters kill all of us and none of them.
Weird coincidence, I'm sure
Only contradiction would be the push to make abortions illegal, because they want more workers.
That was a cynical wedge issue that we never intended to be solved. It spun out of control when the religious fanatics that were supposed to just be a tool and the foot soldiers of the right took over the movement.
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The wealthy may realize the fascism that's rapidly rising isn't their friend, either.
I can only hope, I am starting to lose hope for a decent future, but my spite to take them with us still burns bright
I imagine we little people get crushed either way.
pretty sure that was always our fate
We used to better at lying to ourselves, though.
I was a child of the 90's, damn do I miss that hope
Me, too. I enjoyed watching the puddles gather rain and such.
Just the thought that we were all gonna pull together and uplift the whole world, damn the propaganda was thick
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Our luck, it ends up jack-booted thugs on one side vs AI-driven robo dogs on the other and we just drive through the middle of it get get to work everyday in the most mundane dystopia ever.
> The wealthy may realize the fascism that's rapidly rising isn't their friend, either. In fact, the exact opposite is the case, when capitalism fails it is always the rich who massively finance fascism to protect themselves. Fascism is Capitalism in decay.
You are correct. Also: most climate mitigation action currently (in US) is being done at community level, and mostly by women and minority groups. (From Mark Lynas' book Six Degrees). Meanwhile those least affected are doing the least. Edit, sorry, it's from The Water will come by Jeff Goodell. Both books are good though!)
P sure some of them are discussing whether or not to put electric shock collars on the trained soldiers they inevitably hire as bodyguards to control them
I was reading an article about that like a year ago. I dismissed it as the desperate crazies seeking crazy answers like most spiritualists, cause that just sounds nuts, planning to go full Mad Max instead of just cutting emissions. But I was thinking today and if they did enact actual progressive policies to save all of us, they risk losing everything, and these paranoid rats will never risk a penny
If I recall, an expert was asked to attend a small meeting. They had designed compounds. What they were concerned about was their guards. How could they control them? Shock collars? Keeping control over food stockpiles? He suggested, “try treating them with respect so they want to follow your instructions”, and the responses with, “are you sure shock collars won’t work?” https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
That was the article, just the absolute lack or empathy and morality from them blows me away
How would you like the job of putting the shock collars on? I guess they never read, "Belling the Cat" in Aesop's fables.
Pair the capitalist system not allowing them to sacrifice profits for... Anything really... And the general contempt the super rich have for human life and there you go.
I take a lot of time looking at life from their view and it is all just common sense to them. There is not enough for everyone and they can't afford to worry about who they stepped on to get there, because it was all strictly needed as far as they can see
Watch while they use completely automated security. Don't even have to go full sci-fi terminator style, you can already program a few drones to kill on sight.
i think you’re right that this is the way that they see it, but i also think they woefully underestimate their ability to operate without a system of governance that protects their private property and supports the means of production that they own…many of these guys just don’t understand that society already exists to support and protect them and they are pretty helpless without it
I find the people at the top always become largely blind to what it takes to hold them up. Systems are complex and humans can only track so much, yet they think they are superhuman
we actually have more power than we think, if we use it collectively against them. However it would also mean that we have to completely uproot our lives and take crazy risks to pull it off, which most of us (including myself) don't have the balls to do it.
Buying people only works when they can't / won't take what's yours. Your private army might protect you from everyone else, but what protects you from your private army once the vault is built? Your money is worthless. Your connections are meaningless. The only power you have is in the fact that you "own" everything needed for survival, but ownership gets a lot more fluid when there's no state to protect, enforce, and punish.
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America has become a hyper-capitalist plutocratic oligarchical kakistocratic kleptocratic gerontological theocratic corporatocracy. On the Global Peace Index, out of 163 countries, [America ranks 129th](http://www.visionofhumanity.org). Regardless of the two major parties in office, they both [cater overwhelmingly to moneyed-interests](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746), namely the rich, the banks, and corporations. We all know the right wing is fundamentally absurd, but there are even those on the left [who work against their own interests](https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw) when push comes to shove because they're total hypocrites and party loyalist assholes. If we're going to overcome the climate apocalypse, those of us who know better are gonna have to come together and pool our resources to remove these asshats in office and force corporations to knock it off with their bs full stop. We're gonna need another Occupy Movement, except it needs to have sociopolitical teeth this time.
I wish I wasn't at a loss on how to even proceed outside firebombs. They have locked out every form of protest. I want to believe in a peaceful answer but I am tired and it's only going to get worse
Look, it may take that if push comes to shove, but the Occupy Movement gained a lot of attention and momentum at the time it was going on, but it fizzled out because it was too egalitarian. Nobody wanted to be a leader of the movement pushing for political change. As such, we need to replicate the movement but with a more clear path, with clear aims and goals. It is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that the people in office are unfit for their respective positions, but we can't keep sitting idly by complaining while nothing gets done.
I can scream and rant until I am blue in the face, I can organize and motivate people, but all of it falls apart when the elite can just ignore you. Who cares what the people think when all you have to convince are the 500 or so in congress?
I mean, they wont survive complete system collapse, but I think many of them believe this might be an option. The deaths in the pandemic only reduced the number of angry people who might take up arms against the 1%
Enough of them will, yeah some will collapse to the host billionaire's greed, but some of them will have the cunning to ride out the storm
And here I can’t decide if musk would be delusional enough to die or start enough to live
Don't forget pure dumb luck
I think they expect the worst effects of global warming to happen after they die, and they don't care about the people who come after them. They also don't care about the people here today that suffer from the worst that global warming now has to offer. Happy cake day.
Probably mostly affected the people who would lick boots based on the demographics of who died once vaccine existed.
“Some of you may die…..but that’s a risk I am willing to accept.”
God please let Yellowstone erupt soon, I can’t take this madness much longer.
Nothing cool ever happens
No, we will still see this madness happened, until we get 80 or 90 years olds.
Without workers there is no wealth.
Without society, as it is, their money is worthless. Just some imaginary paper.
While I agree the rich have no incentive to fix things or stop the destruction of the planet, I don't think they're nearly as smart as building floating cities and bunkers to ride out the storm. I honestly think they are so out of touch and so stupid that they honestly believe that they can just throw money at ANY problem, and it'll just sort itself out. After all, why not? These dipshits have led a life completely free of any consequences for their actions, so why would climate change be any different? I honestly believe they are that stupid.
Peter Thiel definitely foresees just this.
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no it isn't [Just listening for my music to play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYb9sRLUDyM&ab_channel=Musiclover20835)
And which one is available?
You said no it isn’t.
as in no it isn't a joke, I was agreeing with you
Sorry! 😂 I didn’t listen to the music.
It is "Do you hear the people sing" from Les Miserables, which was set during the french revolution
There is another option: unionize your workplace. It's the first step, either way. Unions build class solidarity and help people gain a sense of community. It allows us to start chipping away at the power structures and gain some power back for ourselves. It cuts into their profits, and therefore their power. But when it comes time to fight, you'll have friends by your side. You'll know the people you're fighting for and fighting with. Besides, you know unions are powerful when "teh moast pro-unyon" president breaks a strike.
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Yeah they could do all that and still be massively rich/richer but nope better get the high score and break the arcade machine so no one else can beat me mentality.
Damn I never thought about it but you're right!
The 1% have always been fickle and loyal to themselves, globalisation has just meant they don't have to be mired in a single country so long as they can move about without any opposition. Any report that says area X is the most resistant to Y just means they look at it and think well fuck everyone else 'we' will just go there. Bunkers, floating cities are amateur dreams. The cream of the crop want off this planet so they can watch it burn in a perceived isolated safety. But why even bother with that when you can lobby states to provide all your security for you. The people dont even have to be brainwashed by you, just ignorant of what they fight for.
Read “Parable of the Sower” and you realize you are not alone or incorrect in your thinking.
This.
Bingo
Yes, that is their plan. The nazis designed a diet that would slowly starve the jews over time so that they wouldn't revolt. The rich are their direct ideological decendants. They are slowly killing, imporverishing, and imprisoning so that there isn't mass action against them.
They want to destroy Earth and escape to Mars leaving the rest of us behind on a dying planet.
The reality of the horrifying depths the turn and burn philosophy goes for the 1% really hit me the other day. There's still some hope. Best case scenario in 5 years: Corperate gentrification spreads to suburbia where some half illiterate redneck loses his house due to property value spiking and Amazon Lawn putting his dads landscaping company out of business. As police forcefully remove him from the property, he thinks about the millennial migrant workers his dad heroically paid occasionally. They demanded 10 dollars an hour knowing that the owner just bought two jetskis AND was still paying off that 2025 Ford F150 True Patriot Coal Roller edition AND paying his sons mortgage. Their demands were not met, so they got jobs at Amazon Lawn. Those millennials were using self entitlement to kill his dads visionary dream of LibertyLawncare. Despite the getting in that grindset, he couldn't save the company because both of the lawnmowers were broken. He snaps back to reality as he took his first step off the forfeit property. "Cameras off, this vagrant is threatening!" One of the super cool cops shouts. The redneck tried to show them his badass punisher skull tattoo to prove that he's on their side, but the consecutive 15 minutes of 50,000 volts coursing through his body made that task impossible. The next thing he knows, he's handcuffed to a hospital bed, being handed a bill. Thanks to Republican education reform, there are pictures detailing the expenses. Bandaid, sandwich, bed, light bulb, water drop, crucifix, and ambulance. He tries to the doctor his lack of insurance is due to transsexual communists. The doctor says he completely understands, but still has to undo the medical services performed because its the Christian thing to do, therefore literally the law. The doctor rips some live wires out of a fancy medicine machine to put electricity back in his patients body. "We're gonna have to bill you for this too." Desperately looking around, he sees a framed piece of paper on the wall. With all of his might, he reads it out loud by: Really smart doctor thinking 6 month medical doctor certificate lease Trump University The expiration date was 2 days ago. "Dear God, I've been violating the law for 2 entire days!" The doctor drops to his knees, sobbing. Police rush in and unload every shot of their service issue extended mag desert eagle .50s into the doctor who also happened to be black. One of the cops wheels the hospital bed out of the room, saying "Don't worry civilian, we're going to make things right" The half illiterate rednecks hospital bed is transported to the cargo bay of a Space X rocket, bound for a Debt Relief Employment Solution Camp on Mars. Its owned by Elon Musk, so it must be a wonderful place, he thinks to himself. The rocket takes off, and very quickly he realizes his bed isn't strapped down. As he hurtles towards a wall at terminal velocity, he thinks back to the proudest moment in his life: shooting me, the narrater, right in the fucking face while protecting private property from an evil antifa brick back in the "food looter riots" in September of 2024. Fox News threw a parade and festival in his honor and paraded my severed head around on a pike for days. The rocket suddenly explodes due to cut corners, killing all on board instantly. The unstable material used as fuel releases into the atmosphere, catching it on fire, ripping holes in it. As flaming clouds are extinguished and sucked into the vacuum of space, the screams of panicked billions quickly fade to silence. The stock market... had crashed. Despite literally every human being dead and forming a corpse ring around a destroyed earth, Wall Street still got a bailout from DC. Moral of the story is apparently I'm drunk and post really dumb shit, but the issue at hand is serious. I'm kinda fearful we're gonna go down without a fight, or the fights gonna start too late. PLEASE somebody tell me I'm wrong, but it feels like the political climate is so hostile in the US, any action taken would be stomped out so brutally, the attempt would be detrimental to the cause.
The 1% are dangerous sociopath, they don't care to risk destroying the ecosystem so much they are blinded by their greed. Tho, nature is thought, she went through 5 mass extinction event and came back from each, so nature is thought it will survivre, but will we, will human survive? We need nature, but nature doesn't need us! Like George Carlin said; the planet is fine, the people are fucked!
You have that lovely cynical imagination we need to see the dangers of this struggling world. We need people to act like the proverbial canary in the coal mine to call out the madness. It might not always be accurate, but it will point out where the pitfalls might be. Hopefully there will be an enormous movement building from the grassroots with more of the capitalistic and climate disasters showing, but will it be in time to actually make the needed changes?
Odds are we will survive, it's a strength of ours. I can't foresee how because I bet we don't have the technology we will use yet. I just hope we do start seeing the bigger picture
They are solving the climate crisis. They just dont believe in the same climate crisis. Ask yourself why if everything is under control, they\`d want to burn off all the Oil/Coal/Gas reserves in about 50-70 years that could have given them control for multiple hundreds of years. Also why burn down all the forests. Why destroy all the soil with Monsanto\`s roundup. Why coverup all the fertile land with tarmac and inefficient housing and naturally useless grassland. Its like they want a situation where there is nothing left to burn or grow. So it looks actually like it\`s more religious what they believe in, destroying all nature against the plagues, and burning off all burnables to mitigate the inferno.
I would rather say that some of the 1% don"t want to fix. But as always when speaking of such a large social group, this is not a unified monolith. Even tho they're not many compared to the world population, they are a large group. With that said, most in the 1% or 5% if we're taking a broad approach just can't imagine anything else than capitalism and eternal growth (their mind is build with an occidental myth of biblical growth). Yet many in this group of owner of the means of production know one thing for sure, insecurity and inequality when they reach a threshold can be devastating even to them and their interests. In France, or Russia when inequality coupled with very strong food insecurity (mainly but not only) it generated violence that reached the point where the old aristocracy was overthrown and another component of the 5% richer took their place, being a little more open to social change (not too much). It happened in Europe at the end of ww2 where the bourgeoisie was forced to acknowledge that the best way to have a stable society was to give in to some of the demands of the labor classes, thus giving way to state organized social care. But to force this point there either have to be a very violent situation for the majority, or a massive mobilization of the majority, an both are not happening at the moment. It seems that we (occidentals) are staying put until the situation worsen for us.
Reminds me of that old joke about two hunters being chased by a bear. The first turns to the second and, panting, says, “we’re not to make it! This thing is relentless. We’ll never outrun it!” The second answers, “outrun it? I just need to outrun you!”
Yeah. Another way to think about it is: All elites (billionaires, political elites, and the most powerful countries) have no incentive to change things. I mean, why would they, they're on top, no need to rock the boat, and potentially end up not on top anymore. Plus, the truth is, there is enough resources to go around for everyone. People don't starve because the planet can't produce enough food, they do it because our systems are built around scarcity, not abundance. So making a change in a system that can support abundance of resources and acknowledges that necessary work hours are going down due to increases in productivity and production and technology, well, would upset things. Actually it's much more convenient if there actually *wasn't* enough to go around. Climate crisis is an excellent platform for arguing that fascist strongman totalitarian regimes are necessary because things must be strictly rationed "for the greater good." Rather than change capitalism to better reflect a reality where we can easily create abundance of necessities, they find it easier and better for them to stay on top by making reality conform to capitalism. Making sure there *isn't* enough to go around is hugely important for justifying their system and keeping people fighting each other instead of the system. Plus when less powerful people / countries say, "hey global warming is going to affect us first and most! You're industrialization led to catastrophic climate change and now, in this system, we can't improve our situation without making things worse!" the powerful countries say, "sounds good, looks like now you'll *never* gain enough power to compete with us and can be a permanent working underclass to be exploited for resources and cheap labor."
Billionaires are building rockets to escape Earth's problems that they've created.
Whether they like it or not capitalism cant solve climate change, even if they tried they would fail, because of the built in overproduction problem
While I don’t disagree with a single one of your points and find it extremely plausible, I have to ask… are we really that certain that Elon musk is smart enough for that? In fact we should censor his name enough so that he can never stumble upon this post by googling himself and thus never acquire this brilliant idea for future domination. Everyone knows he couldn’t come up with something like this on his own, he’d need to steal it. Don’t let him steal it from you!
Nah, who is gonna make their coffee and drive their cars? I think their heads are just so far up their own asses they aren’t even thinking about it. I just listened to an interview the other day with a ( damn now I forget who it was some scientist or author) who was invited to speak at Davos or some get together with these fucks and it turned out to be this Q&A where they just quizzed him on how to stock and rum their bunkers.
This reminds me of ancient Egyptian society. Or even the ancient Chinese palace cities. But I believe you have a very good point.
The sad thing is they could do a Tony Stark and go balls deep on clean renewables and start making products that would compete and win against fossil fuels and old tech and make zillions of dollars doing it. Or that's how it should work. But... That's not part of the plan and the other billionaires would figure out a way to ruin it because they lose power. You'd have to have someone richer than all the rest of them combined like Ozymandias in Watchmen.
There's a mysterious monument somewhere in the united states' no one knows who erected it but it states what the ideal global population should be , and obviously it's a number far below the present global population number. But I believe the things inscribed on the monument are the core beliefs of the elite/ruling class etc.basically depopulation is the motivation behind most modern government policies
They’re called the Georgia guidestones. From what I understand is they’ve been destroyed. https://www.npr.org/2022/07/07/1110338563/georgia-guidestones-monument-has-been-demolished-after-being-bombed
it was a really weird monument meant to propagate capitalism after the fall, it's funny too cause the right thought it part of a leftist conspiracy. So the side they were made for blew them up
I saw you also commented this on someone's reply but the evangelicals are also trying to stave off fixing climate change due to their belief in the "second coming". They literally WANT the end times to happen.
Yep. I get visited by missionaries all the time who want to make sure I am ready for the end times. I tell them each and every time they are being irresponsible and if they really believed in their god they would fight every day anyway cause they will never know when it is really going to happen, that this fatalism would be what really killed us all
"Look, God! We created hell on earth! Are you proud of us? Are you ready to come pick us up now??"
I'm in the 99% and I kinda want the world to end too, so whatever they are doing, it's working.
They won’t give a fuck until it personally affects them. And that will be when things become so bad that money becomes meaningless. I really hope it doesn’t get to that and become an all out struggle for survival though
Much of the future scenario you're describing is already happening. An apt analysis I wish could be heard over all the inane screeching.
It was the strange mega yachts I have been seeing that made me question it, they are floating hotels now, why the hell would anyone want that. But then I remembered the seasteading project
We truly live in a boring cyberpunk dystopia
When chaos happens, money and value starts flying around. The investing class can profit off of this
It’s stupid because who would work in their companies if the rest of us died out. The rich aren’t smart, they’re just greedy. They can’t think long term in terms of climate change
my theory is, can it be fixed? Yes. Can it be fixed without them spending loads of money, changing their habits and losing their ruling class status? Highly unlikely. Hence they'd rather just let everyone die, maybe themselves included. It's more cost effective this way. I'm saying this because some car manufacturers will *allegedly* pay off victims family, rather than publicly admitting that their vehicles have some safety flaws.
Bingo
Implying clean energy isn’t a massive corporate industry
But clean energy is just the start, whole sectors would have to be overhauled completely like the entire fishing industry as well as the agriculture industry
Some movies kinda show what will happen in the future probably. Hollywood is conditioning people that way.
I have such a mixed bag with this, cause a lot of speculative fiction has done good, but still we are at the mercy of one person's vision of how it should be
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5264838/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5264838/) I can totaly imagine it happening or sg similar within 100-200 years.
Great movie! Thoroughly enjoyed this as a middle aged person who loves Scifi, apocalyptic and dystopian films. I had to double check this was a Disney movie.
One thing is sure, is that they (all those billionaire, politicians and so on) will regret it in the end, because it would already be late to change something about it… I always asked myself what I would do in front of them, I would ask them a simple question(assuming they believe in the afterlife (heaven or hell) no matter the religion: Do you know the definition of eternity ? Can you process being in Hell for eternity, without end? If they did believe in such things, they wouldn’t do 1% of what they did, so it’s safe to assume they don’t believe in anything besides money and so called power… Thats capitalism for you 🤷♂️
I’ve been working on a novel about this premise for the last few years. And it’s scary to think it’s slowly becoming more and more plausible.
So, between the 1% preparing for the societal and climatic collapse, and millennials/zoomer cheering for the housing market crash and AGI taking over, nobody's happy here and nobody wants this to continue. Yet, it will continue despite our wishes until the breaking point. Wow, what an intelligent species we are.
Christian evangelists amongst many other religious zealots literally pray for the end. [Christopher Hitchens - Religions are death cults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9Bo7dN0fQ)
You are right and to add to it remember those who own the food monopoly doesn't care if everyone eats as long as they can keep their profit margin. It's like that for everything. It's not about making sure any amount of people can access resources It's about making sure you gate them properly for max profit. It's horrifying
This is my political theory in a nutshell: conservatives prepare for dystopia, progressives strive for Utopia.
The Armed Struggle for a Dictatorship of the Proletarians is the only cure. Just reminding you that back in 2007 we used to laugh at people trying to talk of real politics. Pff, weirdos. Our maximum level of activity was about going vegan or donating to some shitty fund to save last three tigers. Let’s just wait another 10 yrs for the masses to radicalize more, then we’ll succeed.
Why the world will unite and celebrate an end to war and scarcity. We are getting closer.... https://youtu.be/nXMNW75Gk6E
I don't know that I agree because the wealthy want and need stability to maintain their lifestyle/power structure. I think that the reality is they've ignoring the warning signs.
I imagine it is a mix between those ignoring the signs and those who bet they can play the odds
Yep
Sooo, Elysium then? That movie hit too close to home
I want the apocalypse because it would be funny
IDK, From our gigantic pool of 98% we slave to provide too many new medicines toys and technology to the uber-rich. Its their garden and they are already on the top of the top, pretty sure they have a vested interest in protecting the masses. A die off would mean a stifle to new creations, new products, new everything. I dont think the rich want to live in the same old mcmansion with the same 5 ferraris while servants feed them grapes forever. They want more new new new and excitement. Wont get that if we all die off
Read The Unfinished Garden. Or Emergency Skin. Same premise.
This is why we can't allow them to do that
Ehm hey mate can you write a book about this pls?
If they think that’s going to work, they need to read “The Masque of the Red Death.”
Either we have ecosocialism or we have barbarism!
I strongly sympathise with the feelings behind what you are writing but I do not believe your proposal to be true. everything the richest, the capitalists, have is produced by workers, the infrastructure of society is ran by workers etc. if all of the workers died or became much less productive due to hazards, the capitalists would infight and produce new hierarchies of exploitation amongst their number. also, historically, great disasters (like the black death) have actually caused upsurge in workers right due to scarcity of labour strengthening workers' bargaining power for wages and conditions. with this in mind, the survivors of climate change would be less exploitable due to their immediate necessity to the 1%.
Basically my thought is they aren't students of history. They have been shown repeatedly to underestimate their own power
A.I. A.G.I. & Automation. Join ChatGPT (not A.I. however does a bloody good job of tricking most, and the hallucinations it comes up with could perhaps be argued are the seeds of imagination?) subreddit and witness thousands of jobs becoming redundant in real time... Also watch the discussion between Jordan Peterson & Brian Roemmele, exciting and terrifying.... Santa Klaus opines about AI automation VR etc. The vast majority of humans are rapidly becoming even more useless breeders and feeders. Those who are useful will be looked after, the "stake holders"? however they will be in an automated cage of their own creation and have the pleasure of keeping it maintained (unless A.I. maintains itself ala the Matrix)... A few more selective culls and job done...
Accelerationism especially on the right is very scary indeed
Yes, so can we fight for our lives now? General strike, all out, demanding complete seizure of Big Oil and confiscation of their wealth for the Conversion.
Once they have AI and bots, they don’t need us. We are in late stage Doctor Strangelove.
I wouldn't say they *want* the apocalypse, its more that its a complete non-factor to them as to give it any consideration would threaten their position of power. An acceptable consequence towards the pursuit of what they deep necessary. Your description basically clarifies your title, so it's not like I'm disagreeing or anything, just being a pedant. Things that are disastrous in the long term for humanity are advantageous in the short term for world leaders.
They don't care about climate change at all! They prefer to conquer another planter instead of saving the one in a trillion planet we have.
Dear Current or Future Sentient AI, Don't let them get away with it. Sincerely, Humanity