this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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This is deliberate
Keep people on the edge of ruin, and threaten their healthcare if they dare leave an exploitative employer
Slavery never went away in the US, it merely expanded to include more people and was rebranded as "the free market", or "rugged individualism" or some bullshit
And this is also why nobody is willing to actually rock the boat in the US. Everyone is too scared to lose what they have, our employers have us by the balls for our paychecks and healthcare, the banks have you by the balls because of debt and if you own a home and lose your job you could lose the home too.
The US has been turned into a giant company town. As soon as you get paid the money gets taken away.
Everything has been designed to extract the maximum money from people. From all the middlemen stealing convenience fees to subscription services to your increased medical premiums.
This is MORE of a reason to disrupt, get violent, and get destructive, not less
But this argument always sounds so weird to me.
All throughout human history, in every part of the world, there have been revolutions, uprisings, riots, strikes and protests, not despite terrible living conditions, but because of them. Or do you imagine all these people had job security, great quality healthcare and public safety nets? Of course they didn't, because then they wouldn't have had to rise up.
Only in America are the bad conditions used as an excuse not to act.
yeah but all throughout human history, people have had meaningful human connections to each other. meanwhile, in the western world today, it feels like you can be accused of sexual harassment for looking at somebody too long.
Well, you just outed yourself as a part of the problem
If you're constantly being accused of being a creep, I'm going to go with the simple answer
You're a creep
It's amazing how I've never had this problem, and have many meaningful connections with all sorts of people
i'm going to go with the simple answer
"I've never had this problem" sounds a lot like "it works on my machine". or "there's not a police problem because i've never been targeted". it really just means that you're part of the favored part of society with favored traits and characteristics.
I'm a little confused. Are you saying people are not rioting because they're scared of being accused of sexual harassment? Or do you think that sexual harassment used to be seen as something harmless and 'meaningful?'
Do you believe that people would be more likely to act if sexual harassment was (still) accepted? I guess I just don't get your point.
It's horrific, and my heart goes out to the people in the US who genuinely deserve better
It works only while alternative options of employment remain available. Even if they are lower paid. In fact that’s better for them. However, when the employment rate drops, that’s when people get desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.
People are already dying because they're rationing insulin
People are dying from perfectly treatable illnesses
People are dying of malnutrition
People are dying because of needless violence
People are dying at the hands of the law enforcement who are supposed to be protecting them
I think the people are so beaten down that they are utterly cowed, and will do nothing
America was never brave, it was always a bully, within and without.
Many people are beaten down, physically, financially and metaphorically. However, at a certain point, they fight back.
When everyone else seems OK but you're not, you dkbt fight back as you'll get arrested. When everyone else is fighting too, you join in! There becomes a tipping point.
I don't have your faith in the American people
I see that tragic poem of "first they came for" unfolding in real time
I see a nation who like you say, are beaten down
But I also see a society which celebrates being selfish, so I don't think you're capable of banding together, even when it's obvious that you should (ie. a few decades ago when Regan was in power)
It doesn't help that America is a deliberately stupid country
I lost faith in people’s goodness around Covid times. I think it’s purely self interest, just like Covid. If they can’t eat and are angry, violence ensues. We’ve seen it throughout history. It’s why bread and circuses exists as a meme. The circus part is meant to satisfy blood lust or redirect anger.
Unfortunately for trump, the only circus is him and his cronies. Food prices are going to rise around the same time jobs are lost. Usually job losses leads to lower inflation, but in this case, it’s going to be caused by the reduced oil and thus reduced fertiliser. That’s the slow burn that will take a year to play out.
Citation needed. Otherwise yes.
I gave what I think I should to my family, they should be able to make it with that. If they fuck up, I don't really feel that I must continue to support them. I will go full AWOL in that case. Anything is better than spending your life for someone else's family.
(I have no partner/child, just parents and brother. Idk what to do about my brother, I give him 2k allowance a month to teach him financial literacy).
Between my parents and my sister-in-law I have 3 adults I'm anticipating I might have to financially support at some point in the future.
My sister in law is entirely financially supported by her partner who's 40 years older than her, but they have no savings to speak of, and she's spent her entire adult life scraping by and hasn't worked a single job for more than a year and has been fired from every job she's held. Their primary income is her partner's social security disability payments and a small amount of retirement income from when he was working. Whenever he dies (which it's honestly incredible that he's still alive because he's done nothing to help his body and everything to hinder its continued survival) she's going to be completely SOL, so we've already accepted that she will have to move in with us.
My parents might have finally started actually budgeting, and that was only after I bought their plane tickets to a funeral without it being a major financial hit for me and then they heard me talking finances and long-term financial planning with another relative and realized it's past time for them to shape up. I don't know whether or not they have actually been budgeting, and I don't know if they have a stable retirement to look forwards to. I also can't stand them for more than a few hours at a time so we absolutely can't share a house with them.
Right now my medium term plan is to get a house that's more appropriate for 5 people, then later construct an ADU in case my parents need it (and I'd probably rent it to a friend in the mean time) and later on one or both of my kids can probably rent the ADU from us to help them build independence and real world living skills. I'm not thrilled that I have to be the financially responsible one, but here I am so I might as well make the best of it
I play this role in my family too, have for a long time. I have a "good" job, and I'm extremely grateful, but even with that we've been solidly losing ground for a few years now. Had to make increasingly kinda desperate moves to retain the required stability to be able to just predictably house myself and my loved ones, both the present folks under my roof and keeping an eye toward the future.
All signs (to me) point to this situation getting much worse, and I see no concrete expectations of improvement on the horizon. Can't think of one hopeful signal. And I know very, very well that my family and I are clearly among the more fortunate, all things considered.
Wtf, 40 years older. He is not even rich by the sounds of it.
What happened here?
To be fair, my family is probably going AWOL also, knowing them. But I'd like to spend most of my time in peace and solitude to unfuck myself.
Of course, I'm talking about a situation where I think I will probably die.
EDIT: My grandpa spent his life supporting us and building a massive house, only grandma left to maintain it, and no one actually wants to live there...he died just before he got his rights to a pension.