this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
359 points (99.4% liked)

News

32102 readers
3535 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A nation of slaves, irrespective of skin color.

Chattel slavery may have been abolished (in the US), but slavery is arguably still alive and well just in a much more complicated way, with a facade of "freedom".

Most of us generally aren't free. You're "free" to quit the rat race and go live in the forest...? No. If you stop and don't have money or someone else's support, you die.

[–] testfactor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean, that's the case everywhere in the world and always has been. If you go out and live in the woods you're banking on your ability to find food and shelter yourself or you die.

Not defending the current system, but like, saying you're not free until someone pays for your ability to live off-grid seems... silly?

Might as well say, "they say you're free, but if you decide to shoot yourself in the head you just die and there's nothing you can do about it. #WakeUpSheeple"

I just don't see what kind of system you're arguing for I guess.

[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Fair enough, my wording was too simplistic. But I stand by what I said, and try to explain it better.

Generally in the US, you have no choice but to own a car. It's significantly more difficult if you can't except for a few outliers like NYC (public transport everywhere but much higher cost of living?).

It's very difficult not to have a phone and internet, and be able to function in society, finding and keeping a job among other things.

It's extremely difficult to be homeless or live in your car, not to mention very uncomfortable.

Health insurance premiums whether you need healthcare or not.

Most jobs are tied to a 40hr or more workweek. Some of which don't pay enough necessitating second jobs. Overwork and exhaustion resulting in limited ability to gain skills to escape.

Energy industry: try living without oil, gas, electricity, etc. it's impossible.

  • transportation
  • housing
  • energy related, electricity
  • phone, internet
  • healthcare

My argument, is that these are every day extreme necessities, and they account for the vast majority of our expenses. We don't have a choice to do without any single one of these (without severe hardship or external support). This is how we're pseudo-enslaved. All of these things represent billions upon trillions of dollars of profit that mostly go to the elite. All of these above, should be completely socialized/nationalized and have the profit motive removed (as necessities).

Free market capitalism is fine for things like PS5s, BMWs, yachts, mansions, breast implants, and gold plated iPhones. People can work to get luxuries. But having basic necessities met (simple smart phone, clean housing, basic transportation, etc.) should be part of a civilized society. It would mean no more billionaires.

This doesn't mean people should be able to sit around, do nothing, and get free stuff. Everyone should contribute. Some of the most important jobs like teaching kids, construction, nurses, etc. get shit pay, while billionaires play stock market games.

Honestly I think the concept is simple. There's money to do all this. It's just currently going to the wrong people.

For the first few hundred years of the western hemisphere, people literally went into the woods with some provisions and tools, and many of them survived and flourished. Sure plenty died but look at the result. The point is that now you can't do that because someone owns all the land. Even the millions of hectares laying unused - and I don't just mean parks and monuments. There are huge, enormous swaths of land laying unused and held by private owners, corporations, and trusts, because at one point hundreds of years ago, someone climbed a hill, looked at landmarks and decreed, "this land is mine" and went to the closest town to stake their claim. Even if there was land, you still need to buy said tools and provisions, and it'll cost you now.