Why does it feel that the evil sides globally are winning. Even evil people are winning. Why?
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The common version of the phrase…
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
The actual version of the phrase…
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
A favourite of mine on that theme is from Boondock Saints (1999)
Now we must all fear evil men.
But there is another kind of evil.
Which we must fear. Most.
And that is the indifference of good men.I should re-watch this again. That a good movie.
Don’t. I did and it ruined it…
You’re not my mom! 😭
What the fuck were you gonna do, laugh the last three to death, Funny-Man?
Yeah I remember this just being ok. It had that 90s Tarantino-ish style, some decent scenes but overall not super memorable.
I think it’s fine if you’re okay with the call from God part of it
Watch* the documentary on it instead.
Overnight. Peak 2000’s fashion and the director is over the top unlikable.
I still love that movie IDC what anyone says lol
Unpopular opinion, but in the west particularly, folk have mistaken writing on the internet for action.
Tweeting resistance rather than performing it.
A lapse into inaction framed as radical rest and self care.
Online they are fierce warriors of justice, offline they go to work in Starbucks, use their apple devices to talk to their families and enjoy the treadmill of streaming services.
And this isn’t to blame them. This is the point of consumerist capitalism. To trap you in a gilded cage.
This is why I’ve stopped reading much of the content I had been reading before. Unless an article is about what someone is doing to stop what is happening, what is the point in reading it? I don’t care so much about the bad, rather in how the rest of us are preventing it.
For all the people complaining, I haven’t seen many talking about what steps they are taking to change the momentum. I get why I’ve may not want to announce what protests they are attending, but I haven’t noticed much new talk about mutual aid or volunteering efforts. I know the recent political climate globally is motivating me to be involved in both.
I’m waiting to hear back in a volunteer position helping local wildlife, and once I get that schedule worked out, I’ve already started looking into local food aid opportunities as well.
If our society is leaving gaps unfilled, as you said, it’s up to us to fill them ourselves before we all fall through.
Exactly I budget and limit my time online to get specific kinds of information.
What kinds of information?
Where and when. I will make time to be there.
It’s time for good people to do some association too.
That would make sense except when you realize this is new media and is exactly how the right is warping minds. Elon didn’t buy Twitter because he was bored. We cannot concede all social media to the right and until there is a platform that can’t be bought the people won’t ever have a voice.
I’ve noticed no one actually wants to change their habits. I know so many people who will spout off about the environment, then think nothing of flying thousands of miles multiple times per year on the flimsiest of pretexts. Think nothing of eating meat with every meal. Will look at you with horror when you suggest public transport.
When it comes down to it the vast majority of people are selfish af. They’ll justify whatever their greedy little hearts desire, then tell themselves they’re the hero of the story.
I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.
Evil isn’t “winning” as much as it is “on top.” If you look around, talk to your neighbours and such, you’ll see that good and reasonable people are everywhere; good is the overwhelming majority.
That being said, positions of power are chased and coveted by those obsessed with power, and those aren’t good people. Good people need to take charge, but it’s — in a way — against their nature to do so.
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
I’ve heard this before, but I had no idea it came from the Hitchhiker’s Guide… Cool :D
I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.
I worry this is just rationalizing ones passivity as just an inherent part of ones assumed “goodness.”
There was more to say than that quote. Still, it does feel that good and bad (“good” and “bad”) people have a different rulebook, and it’s not as simple a fight as who wants things more, but rather who’s willing to do more for them, and evil simply has more tools.
It’s not that good people don’t try or don’t want to make a difference, but rather that their scrupulous nature doesn’t allow for the means necessary for rule, in the majority of the cases.
Plenty of good people do succeed in reaching and using power to do good, or at least I do hope and think that that is the case. Higher the stakes, though, or more the power, less likely it is.
Because the return of massive wealth disparity - similar to having kings again - has allowed those with money and power to bend the world in the direction of some form of dictatorship, whether it be fascism, oligarchy, whatever…. The New Kings are carving up society and want to increase control and profit, and an authoritarian governance is the way to do it. Just like how they treat their corporations. They are dictators, the little people are disposable production units to feed their machine.
We need more violent good guys
Everytime we talk about violence being the only way to create change, limp-dick liberals bitch about how peaceful protests are the only way.
Liberalism helped build this hell, and it’s determined to maintain it.
Leftist need to get guns. Now.
Liberals have good intentions at times, but they are ultimately toothless because they are pussies. I just have to roll my eyes at the people who you tell you to contact your representatives, but has never spent a minute at the range.
Do you know how you get people to listen to you? Let them know that you and people with similar views know how to operate a rifle.
Some good that’s done us. Country taken over by an unelected foreigner and nothing done. No shots fired, no defense of the constitution, no military honor, all those years of patriot bullshit and fugly flag and camo clothing for nothing.
Or you could just come up with a coherent argument to persuade them, rather than intimidating them with implied force. You’re not as tough as you think you are, shooter.
It’s not about being tough, it’s about saying, “no I will not be raped”. Apparently that’s something you struggle with.
So the republicans were right all this time? Wow
The idea of being armed as a deterrent to authority is historically true. You don’t even need to use violence, just being capable of it is enough.
Republicans worshipping cops while encouraging mentally ill teenagers to own 15 guns is not, however.
Republicans also utterly fail to realize corporate power and government power are the same thing.
You don’t even need to use violence, just being capable of it is enough.
This right here. Reminds me of a quote:
“Being incapable of violence doesn’t make you a pacifist, it makes you harmless.”
Choosing to be civil, and being capable enough to deter would-be oppressors, are not mutually exclusive values.
Republicans also utterly fail to realize corporate power and government power are the same thing.
This one ALWAYS bothered me. I don’t understand it! They freak out about income taxes and regulations and wax nostalgic about fantasy-1776 and scream about “freedom”, but their daily lives are more shaped and worsened by their hierarchy of petty bosses, who they’ll simp for and hold them blameless at every turn, even while grumbling about how their job is getting worse and then turning around and bragging about their “work ethic” and how little they slept this week.
It’s gotta be stressful holding so many mind-tearing contradictions together. It’s an entire ideology of corporate sock puppeteering.
I don’t understand the deterrent thing. The US dominates the globe militarily and the corporations responsible for the anthropocene extinction enjoy property rights enforced by that military. How is being armed going to stop them from continuing?
The US military hasn’t done shit but lose to irregular combatants for decades.
Yeah. When they invade and occupy countries for decades, they kill hundreds of thousands of people and eventually go home. So the plan then is for everyone to form irregular militias and engage in decades of guerilla warfare?
No, they weren’t… because they never made any effort to stop authoritarianism, and now are begging for it. The GOP will be coming for their guns.
The Second Amendment wasn’t always a party dividing issue, it was a solemnly held responsibility of American culture. Being a helpless subject to violence from others is a violation of personal liberty.
It became yet another convenient “two party issue” once neoliberalism’s effects on the human psyche manifested into shootings, and the GOP and NRA decided to make “gun culture” into an obsessive “loud toys for boys” fetish. This might have been around the time Gingrich was pushing to radicalize the Republicans to be as comically, ridiculously opposite of the Democrats as far as possible, doesn’t matter why, only that they were loudly opposed and won at all costs. That man is an absolute monster clearly going for a top score for when he finally makes it to Hell.
The other side of the aisle decided to go the complete opposite direction to create more “brand contrast”, so they decided to fear-monger and miseducate about firearms as much as possible so their most dedicated voter base became smug, hoplophobic disarmament absolutists, and pushed for wild ban bills and government registration lists and all sorts of other nonsense everybody knew wouldn’t pass…but it differentiated them from “Those other guys.”
(Seen starkly in the meaningless term “assault weapon”, or that many people believe you can just walk into any gun store and buy a fully automatic weapon, and CNN’s now-infamous “This gun is fully-semi-automatic” clip.)
This was convenient for the parties because it was yet another hot button “single issue voter” issue, which helped capture voters who wouldn’t even think about voting for the other party depending on how they now felt about guns. (See also: healthcare, unions, abortion, LGBT rights…)
It was great fun for those playing the game of politics (read: Not the vast overwhelming majority of us.), but as usual, it’s warped into an artificially polarized tribalism that’s wreaked chaos on general society.
So now we have a disproportionate amount of potential violence on the side of the big red bullies who are now so deeply entrenched in gun fetishization, prepping based on conspiracy theories, and toxic individualism…
And the official stance of liberals is “Um…a harsh reprimand and honest discussion about our feelings?”
Still, there are leftists who quietly take their responsibility seriously, (see: Socialist Rifle Association), but can we be organized enough to make an autocrat and his violence-obsessed pawns think twice? That leaves room for worry.
I would encourage people to at least have basic training in how to defend themselves, because things are both wildly unpredictable and repeating very dark history at the exact same time…
LUIGI
Because good natured people don’t want conflict so they avoid it.
Bad natured people actively seek conflict and engage with it whenever possible.
Evil never sleeps. Peace does.
Have you ever cheated at a game, cut corners on work or purposefully did something unfair to get better from it yourself?
Yeah it’s much easier to win without any pesky ethics or a strong moral compass.
Good folks have been struggling uphill since the Ancient Greeks as long as there are folks trying to win with a different rule book.
People are scared and angry and want action without thinking about the long-term gains only the short term. Creating fear is fascism 101 and how many rise to power
I think the issue in America, is that the Constitution only addressed political power, but failed to account for fiscal strength. Money is inherently a thing that manipulates the fates of individuals, companies, and nations alike. By not setting down rules, limitations, and expectations regarding economics, the Founding Fathers allowed a key form of power go unaddressed.
The vast majority of Project 2025’s major backers are wealthy people, who have far beyond what any normal person can ever hope to possess. This imbalance means that workers have to sacrifice much time, money, and energy to be barely heard on a single issue, while a rich person can just hire experts to massage every aspect of their many messages and to deliver it everywhere with a mighty voice.
IMO, we will need a Constitution v2.0 that fixes not only assorted political flaws like the voting system, but also prevents wealth from being a microphone that only a few can afford.
Capitalism is dying because of unchecked greed and people are turning to socialism. The wealthy choose fascism. Until we have class unity. Once we bring out the guillotines, They will retreat to spending the rest of their lives in the bunkers they have built with their stolen wealth.
people are turning to socialism
Feels like they’re turning more to fascism
I also feel like there is always a constant portion of people who worship power and think they can squeeze a decent life out of siding with the powerful. So if there ever is any war, it definitely won’t be a clear cut class war. And the billionaires will do everything in their power to make sure the war happens within the classes first.
i don’t think it’s so simple as they worship power. i think there’s a very strong inbuilt desire to belong to an “in-group” when you feel insecure and vulnerable
and if unchecked neoliberal capitalism has done anything over the last half century, it’s made average americans feel insecure. financially and emotionally
so sort of the same reason there’s race-based prison gangs is the same reason fascism tends to flare up when the system is going through severe stress. just like when your immune system is weak and the herpes virus manages to break out. we always have fascism possible yet most of the time the immune system is strong enough.
2008 + covid + ukraine + more have left us vulnerable
Fair enough, I agree it is common to go for more authoritative figures during times of stress. Which also creates incentive for authoritative figures to keep the stress factors going. But I think there is also some innate desire in humans to worship powerful figures.
I think they worship opulence rather than power honestly. While it’s true that wealth and power are basically the same thing, many people you bump into in America don’t understand or believe that is the case.
“Once we bring out the guillotines”
Depends where you live.
I hear the hardcore revolutionary libs in the US have found a much more powerful way to defeat fascism… buy nothing for 1 day.The US has a really serious problem on their hands which is that their trade war won’t achieve anything. The US doesn’t make anything, it famously doesn’t make anything, the only reason that they trade with Canada is because Canada is close. Even then it’s mostly just food stuffs which Canada can make themselves.
But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place
I want to agree with you but there are plenty of American products I simply cannot purchase here in Norway. Often there isn’t even an equivalent. I’m not saying what they make is good, but there are things made in USA. Walking in to a Norwegian grocery store the first 20 times had me like, ok but where is like the MAIN, BIG grocery store?
Really?
When Canadians were going on about boycotting American things there was a question on here, or Reddit I can’t remember which, that was asking other people from other countries if they would do the same.
I remember thinking I can’t think of a single American product that’s even available for purchase for me to boycott. Other than quite possibly Jack Daniels but I already don’t buy that anyway.
I cannot think of any food items, clothing, tech products, or materials that originate in the USA that I would normally buy even semi-regularly.
A surplus of food is grown in the US. When you buy anything processed, it’s extremely hard to tell where all the ingredients came from. “Product of Mexico” could’ve been made with x from portugal, y from california.
Also there’s a good chance some of your gas comes from the states too, as they have been an exporter for a decade thanks to fracking.
Thats what concerns me the most. When the US realizes we dont NEED to trade with them, will they try to take our resources with force instead? This is why we need to build strong international relationships built around the US and their dwindling influence.
If anyone in the Trump administration had a brain they would already realize that they have nothing to offer internationally. It’s not exactly a secret.
Trump thinks that if he puts a tariff on imports from, say China, suddenly a bunch of factories will open up in America outputting the same cheap tat that China used to produce. But of course it doesn’t work like that. Attempting to take resources by force won’t help matters because America’s problem is not actually a lack of resources. It’s a lack of infrastructure and a talent pool so shallow that the ground is barely wet.
We’ve seen this with the chip factories that TSMC is trying to set up.
This is not the goal. Their only goal is wealth and power, just like Putin.
The Christian/Corporate Fascist Theocracies method to achieve wealth and power is to bankrupt the government, privatise all public services and land, remove the threat of democracy, and plunge the people back into feudalism… all while lining their pockets, exactly like the Russian oligarchs did post-USSR.
They do not give two shits about bringing jobs back to America or any of the other virtues they vacuously signal. They’re the kind of people who outsourced everything to China begin with.
But they have virtually nothing to offer internationally hence the trade deficit, that trump is so upset about, in the first place
I don’t think it’s fair to say that America makes nothing. A big part of that trade deficit (certainly with Canada) is down to the relative size of the consumer markets - America has a population of over 330 million people to Canada’s 40 million so of course America will be a net importer of Canadian goods.
Doesn’t explain Europe though. European market in the American market are almost identical in terms of population size.
And who you going to put on the guillotines? You own! People are getting so blind with anger
The internet. It led to the following:
- Good social change occurred very rapidly from the 1990s-2010s, causing highly motivated pushback from those who didn’t like the changes
- Rising wealth inequality caused by tech billionaires increased incentives and capability for a small number of extremely wealthy people to seize control of media and political power centers
- Foreign dictator governments became more able to more easily spread pro-dictator propaganda
- Media became more decentralized, leading to some good things but also the hijacking of our psychology to spread fear and disgust for the sake of grabbing attention
Because now it is affecting you personally. Before it was in the middle east or some random aftican nation where people dont speak english, and media make sure it is not in the front page. Reading some history of any conflict will show the root starting a while back but no one cares.
My opinion on this generally boils down to that the system has been set up to reward evil/antisocial behavior, and this part of the system is so entrenched and well established and organized that it has not been effectively and completely toppled or eradicated in so long, it has been able to consolidate power and resources to a point where very few extremely evil people are personally in charge of so much of what happens that it seeps into everything. Actually “seeps” is the wrong word, it’s injected into everything. It’s like has been said many times in recent memory, the cruelty is the point.
For a simplified example, evil executives reward evil behavior by their managers, who in turn punish their employees, who lose control of so much of their lives to these companies and managers that they end up hurting their families and friends out of confusion and anger and other complex emotional reactions, and harm is perpetuated in every area of life.
It’s self sustaining, and even worse it replicates itself. In some ways I think of these systems as viruses. Also as cults. We all buy in to some degree.
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Evil is willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to win. As long as good keeps fighting with one hand tied behind its back, evil will keep gaining ground.
It’s less that good has one hand tied behind its back, and more that good is fighting with a sword while evil brought an attack helicopter
Well, I think it’s more that we’ve spent decades building up cultural narratives of good that emphasize heroes who win through proselytizing, converting, and redeeming villains rather than just fucking stomping them. “If I do a bad thing for the right reason, I’m just as bad”, etc. In media, it works out because cosmic justice steps up to do what the hero won’t if the villain refuses to relent. In reality, it means that you get tut-tutted and told that the most you can do to stop ecocide and mass murder is peacefully protesting in such a way as not to even upset or inconvenience anyone, and it’ll all come right if you’re in the right. You might as well just go yell into a closet for all the good it’ll do, ofc.
Class solidarity among the rich. Rich people want willing servants. They want people to fear disobeying them.
