Even he knows this won't be fixed by political discourse.
I am also weary of Bernie's endless calls to do this or that while not specifying any way of doing it. I certainly don't expect him to do anything more, he's already made a much larger impact than most individuals ever can or will. But that entire tour with AoC kind of felt like only half of a useful thing. We all know it's a problem. We all want to put a stop to it. But nobody knows how, that's what's missing. What do you want us to do, Bernie?!? Vote in the primaries, I guess? Would be nice if the next steps were included in the message to take action. Like an instant macaroni box whose instructions just say "You must make the macaroni!", it feels a bit silly.
I get this feeling when I watch Jon Oliver. Jon's really good at identifying the problem, demonstrating why its a problem, and making you kind of upset about it.
God forbid you ever watched Jon Oliver back to back because you'd go mad with the immediate understanding that you live in bizzaro world.
So, it would be nice if HBO had a second show which was more like myth busters where people championed each of the problems Jon pointed out and left the viewer with a clear understanding what they can do or at the least, what can be done.
I feel like Jordan Klepper would be perfect for that, he does great on the street engaging with folks and trying to explain their ignorance slowly
(FYI Jon is the frazzled old mensch, John is the increasingly frustrated Brit)
He does try to give a solution. It's just that there is little to nothing the average viewer can do to make it happen. Sadly, that is just the way it is. Same with Bernie. We actually can't make the solutions happen. But both are raising public awareness, which "can" impact policy. So I guess watching and listening is what we can do.
I do think that "the system" (not any particular person or group of people, but the more abstract social meta-organism) is evolved, all systems are, to integrate and channel possible destabilizing forces into neutralized or even system-reaffirming forces. The system does not "platform" people who would legitimately threaten the system as a general rule. Jon Oliver is a pressure release valve, if he was to propose solutions that threatened to alter the system too much (systems see significant alterations as akin to death), he would be deplatformed organically. Again, I must stress that it is not an actual person or organization explicitly setting out to do this, like some sort of shady Comedy Central Illuminati. It's just the same as how our body has a bunch of independent organs and cells that all work together without exactly trying to or knowing that they're doing so.
Unfortunately Bernie is largely the same sort of thing. We can be assured of this by the fact that he is influential. Almost without exception, the more influential someone wants to be, the more pro-systemic they must be. In Bernie's case he may not even realize how pro-systemic he is, he likely sees himself as more anti-systemic. But he is anti-systemic in the same way as a white blood cell is anti-systemic - that is, not at all, and only in appearance without inspection of the bigger picture. I suspect this is why he ends up not proposing any clear course of action. His role, although again I think he is unaware of this, is to create the sense that establishment dissent exists and is possible, that change and reform is possible. I say this without taking a stance on whether it is actually possible or not. Both in a system where it is possible and in a system where it is not possible, there would still be a flag bearer for that possibility regardless of its actual existence.
What I mean to say is that the system self-selects for the type of people who acknowledge problems but not the type of people who make proposals to fix them. It wants to appear to be investigating the desires of its constituents while not actually doing so - the system only cares about its constituents in so far as its constituents lead to the system's well-being as a whole. The system does not intrinsically care for its constituents well-being. So while systems do indeed evolve and legitimately investigate ways to improve their own well-being, they will only appear to investigate ways to approve the well-being of their constituents, if they can help it.
All just my impressions of course, I hate talking in an authoritative voice about my ideas, but it's better than prefacing every sentence with "I think", "it seems like", etc.
If he said what needs to be done, he'd be imprisoned immediately for inciting violence against the president, and for planning a coup. Until he has troops on his side, he can not tell you what actually has to happen.
We already know what needs to be done, we just aren't allowed to talk about it.
The Tree of Liberty is thirsty.
Hear hear. When I look at the state of American democracy from outside, what I find really distressing is that it's not just Bernie; no mainstream person or organization with national reach is giving concrete advice and/or instructions on how to depose the oligarchy, so you have people's energy going to angry tweets and meaningless parades.
Damn it, now I am going to put on a Bernie voice and shout “you must make the macaroni!” next time I’m making some mac and cheese.
Bernie needs to set up an alt account on Twitter where he pretends to be a Republican but reposts all these same messages.
The issue is left wing agenda gets de-prioritized (buried) or outright blocked since all social media is owned by billionaires and they want to maintain the current status quo.
We need to set up an indefatigable bot army to do all that and similar...
Bets on how likely that is? We haven't even shown the ability to start anything simpler, so far...
That chick should be mad. 3-months salary for him would be like $27 billion.
That's a DeBeers diamond cartel propaganda rule of thumb.
If you assume 7% annual rate of return on that $230 billion, then 3 months "salary" would be a little over $4 billion.
That being said, as others have pointed out, the "3 months salary" guideline is just propaganda from DeBeers and no one in their right mind should ever spend that type of money on a piece of jewelry.
He should've used antimatter as a ring
Not to defend this thug or any other billionaire, but it isn't about salaries but fortune.
The thought of running around with a 5 million dollar ring gives me heart palpitations.
You should have never trusted them, the country.
The fact that a ring can be worth more then it would cost to provide financial independence for hunderds of people, is kinda jarring.
I know, I know, pretty rock and metal worth paper value notes.
So really that ring is pure loss.
No one owned that gem when it was just sitting in the ground. It took millions of years to create.
Some capitalism claimed it when one of his workers mined it. Calculated how much energy and labor it has costs to obtain it.
Then sold it for a massive markup compared to their own costs.
The machines have spend energy to get it (loss)
The workers spend life time and life energy to get it (loss)
Bezos his works spend their life time and energy to make him the money he now loses on this ring. (Loss)
The planet lost one of its rare gems. (Loss)
No lives are going to be saved using that rock, its not going to be used for breakthrough science, its not in a museum where we the people can admire our planet and learn from the its amazing processes. (No profit)
Instead its to decorate a hand so one person can be perceived as having value. Ironic.
5 million dollar ring for that wife?
Sir Mix Alot would be ashamed. Silicone parts are made for toys
This roast is criminally underrated.
So he only spends 0,0087 % of his wealth for the wedding? Sounds pathetic. Most normal people even go in debt for it.
I like this comment even though I can’t actually confirm it’s sarcasm. I think it’s be great if we all spent 0,0087% of our wealth on engagement rings.
I could afford the finest plastic ring in all of Poundland. It's a shame the founders didn't opt to name their venture Poundtown, though.
BuT hE's A sElF mAdE mAn !
Then it's time to unmake the man.
I'm sorry 5 million? For a ring? I'd feel insane amounts of guilt wearing a ring that cost that much
I imagine if these people were capable of feeling guilt, much of their behavior would be different
The richest people in world don't feel guilt.
That's difference
They don't have guilt
So, while I agree with the "vote away Fascism" being bull shit I do still think that working class momentum can be built through wins like Mamdani.
I see so many comments saying "voting won't work", "protesting won't work" etc. Anything that has any visible result, works. Because the majority of people follow the herd to a greater or lesser extent. You need to mobilise that majority in order to make a difference. The more you have a movement, the bigger, louder and more visible that is, the more people will join you. People need to feel which way the wind is blowing.
"that doesn't work" people are just better educated versions of the my-anecdote-disproves-science types. Those people usually need more local engagement because of fuckin-course you can't tell if voting is working when the gap between the individual voter and federal level reps is so huge. Anyone who's paying attention to their local elections knows votes matter.
Good thing they implemented even more tax cuts for the rich, coming soon™...
But obviously not too soon, otherwise they can't blame the dems for it.
They don't need to blame the dems anymore
All I ever get asked for by the politicians I vote for (the Democrats) is money.
Maybe I’m subscribed to the wrong things.
If he doesn't plan to create a new party he better be silent. Democrat made it clear what they stand for, and their voter also happy with it. So unless he create a new party then nothing will change.
New parties are useless at the federal level so long as elections are First-Past-The-Post. Even the Ross Perot's Reform Party in 1992 and 1996 only served as a spoiler for the Republican party, and his was an immensely strong attempt at forming a new party, featuring a reasoned platform which Perot showcased with charts every night on television.
This is why Musk's America party is laughable, even if he really, really meant it, and offered a platform of sound governance.
While Sanders caucuses with the Democratic party, and they make him sit at the kids' table with AOC and the other Socialist Democrats, he has been able to get a lot of legislation in or blocked with skilled use of Senate procedure.
But the current situation is well beyond even his powers of procedural mischief. We can't rely on officials or left-wing news media to save the US from oligarchy and eventually monarchy.
Violent or non-violent, we'll have to do it ourselves, and it's almost certain that if we pressure them nonviolently (say with massive demonstrations or with a general strike), then Trump will try to do January 6th once again, probably with more guns and explosives. He'll certainly bring out his ICE Stormtroopers (now in fancy armor) and try to invoke the military.
So we need to expect a fight, and preferably do what the lords did with John of England, make it super clear that he is out-manned and out-armed and will be given no quarter, if it comes down to violence. (Even the Magna Carta took a few tries)
27+ dead little girls at Camp Mystic has shown us it's ugly already, but non-violence makes it more difficult for bystanders to dismiss the resistance as terrorists. (FOX News, etc. will paint us as terrorists anyway.)
I don't know how we get to an organized general strike at speed (usually it takes years, and we don't have years), and there are groups like indivisible that are trying. I don't know if it's enough, especially once ICE gets its massive infusion of equipment, manpower and fancy trenchcoats.
Democrat made it clear what they stand for
Their meltdown over Mamdani is pretty damning
I hope we end it with violence.
Newsflash: it already is ending with violence.
We're losing. Handily.
This is the part so few people understand.
There's very little chance it ends otherwise to be fair. Talking and negotiation didn't work, peaceful protest didn't work.
Apathy prevents violence, and will continue to do so until the vast majority of people are in constant pain and fear with absolutely no alternative. When the people have nothing to lose they will act.
Even the most politically aware and ethically minded among us can't drop their daily lives in favor of standing up for the oppressed when standing on the razor edge of working every day to avoid homelessness.
Those who are not on the razor edge have "more to lose" by toppling the system
Checks com instance
Ideally the kind that doesn't first have like death camps for the "undesirables", famine, and disease. But given how many maga-hats are cheering for ICE even as their spouses get disappeared, I don't know how things are going to go.
Also some lemmy moderators are such pearl clutchers they'll take action about the slightest hint of violence, no matter how justified.
Bernie is controlled opposition. He is a grifter that is just there to push revolutionary energy back to the democratic party to prevent people from joining an actual communist party.
Boo! This is such a purity-test. An imperfect ally is still an ally. If you're angry that the establishment actively shoots down communist parties, that's valid, but don't blame it on Sanders.
That's a take
Friendly reminder that bernie is, in fact, not a democrat.
im surprised he dint go there in his super yacht which was around 750million-1billion.
Let's vote for....it.
Well this is awkward
AFAIK in comparison to the median income the wedding only cost him 18,50$ relatively
THIS IS SPARTA!!!!
