So...I think America is a very sick nation. Something is WRONG here. Donald Trump is not an accident. Donald Trump is a product of the system, as well as the lack of a decent safety valve to release pressure related to it.
I think it's simple. "It's the economy, stupid." But why? You say. The economy is doing great. Unemployment is down, inflation is down, we got full employment, what's the problem?
And...that's the thing. And this is where I develop MY views. The economy is about as good as it gets..."by the metrics", but maybe the metrics aren't measuring the right things and what makes life worthwhile.
I called it in 2016 like that. As far as I was concerned, we were still in the great recession. Now, by the numbers? WERE WE? No. Well ackshully unemployment is down and the economy is good. But is it really good? Are people happy with the economy as it is? And that's the thing. They aren't.
Andrew Yang got it right when he ran in 2020 and released his war on normal people. There IS a war against normal people going on in this country. Automation, outsourcing, etc., have come for our jobs, and uprooted our lives, and I think people are starting to realize that maybe life in this full employment capitalist economy isn't all it's cracked up to be. We keep talking "jobs jobs jobs!" as the book I'm reading says (and I also say, as I've noticed that as well. But no one seems happy with the jobs that are produced. Most jobs today are produced in the service industry. They pay very little. They have inconsistent schedules. They're anything but dignified, they're the kinds of jobs we put down as for high school kids and losers with no skills, but they're all that's available. Our lives center around these jobs. Every day, we gotta get up, go to work, put up with a crappy oppressive boss we wish we could just tell that they can take this job and shove it, but instead, because we're threatened with poverty we can't quit, and we just sit there, putting a smile on our face, pretending to be happy. Maybe share some facebook memes about living the dream to mask the idea that deep down...we aren't happy.
But then...due to decades of brainwashing from the powers that be, we just....don't make the connection that maybe employment in this full time full employment capitalist economy is all it's cracked up to be. Deep down, we hate our lives. We resent spending so much time at work. But our society has so brainwashed us and so dulled our senses, that we don't even understand that the problem is. It's like a cult. And recognizing that employment itself may be the problem is like a religion. Everything in you tells you that something is wrong, but when you think it through, you just don't get it. Nothing makes sense. And because nothing makes sense and you don't get it, it's easy to take our your anger on others. You start going on about the immigrant that takes your job. You might go on about neoliberalism sending the jobs overseas. You might go on about the layabout who sits around not working when YOU HAVE TO WORK SO HARD! That layabout, who does he think he is? If I have to work, everyone should have to work, RAWR! GET A JOB YOU FRICKING LOSER!
But at the end of the day, all of this anger is really a problem with you...and with the system you live in. It's a problem with you because you're the one who isn't happy with your lot in life. It's a problem with the system because the system tries to pretend it's fair on paper, but you dont really know enough to know how to question or challenge the system. You know SOMETHING ISN"T WORKING, but you can't quite put your finger on it. So you just bounce from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump to Joe Biden and back to Donald Trump again thinking that someone, somewhere will change things and make your life better. But you don't seem to realize, that neither of these parties have the solutions.
Me, personally, I believe I understand the issues greater than most Americans. And I say this for two reasons. First of all, I'm educated in politics, sociology, and public policy. I can think my way around the problem and articulate the issues like most people can't. I mgiht be an unemployed loser in the eyes of society, but this unemployed loser understands what the issues actually are and how to fix them.
And second, I'm also someone who has done the hard thing. I left a religion. I literally tore down my entire worldview and all of the illusions associated with it, and built up a new worldview based on rational thinking. And I did grapple with the problems of society, having had the illusions of it fall before my very eyes. And I do understand the issues. I believe I understand them better than the average American. And I've spent years studying them and designing my own solutions.
When Andrew Yang ran in 2020, he basically ran on a version of my ideas. Not saying he didn't come up with a lot of the same ideas himself, he certainly has. I keep saying it. He got his ideas from Scott Santens, even using language that he came up with. And I would know that, I was there. I was there when it was written so to speak. Because I helped write it. Now, I didnt come up with the slogans, that's scott santens. But I was on the basic income subreddit, and my humanism did greatly influence my politics at the time, and I was able to break through society's BS and brainwashing. I have a shared worldview with many other users on that subreddit, including those who inevitably influenced yang, and I've internalized them to my very being. And I'll tell you this much. For all the talk about how jobs are the end all be all of life, and what makes people happy, I'll respond by saying jobs arent the answer.
They can't be. Because jobs dont exist for the fulfillment of human beings. They exist to make rich people money. We're forced into the labor market as functional slaves, having to jump through all of the hoops and doing all of the right things to prove our worth for an employer. And then they hire us, use us and abuse us, and dump us when they're done. It doesn't sound very nice, does it? Because it isn't nice. There is nothing dignified about work. There's nothing glorious and meaningful about a job. It's all bullcrap. It's all propaganda.
But...the brain is an interesting organ. It can rationalize things and try to cover up contradictions that exist in society and one's worldview, where ultimately, people become blinded to the truth, and they can't understand what is wrong. They just know something is wrong, and they keep going from thing to thing hoping someone will fix it.
To me, 2016 represented the realignment where people started becoming aware of these contradictions in their brain, which the left will call "the contradictions of capitalism." I dont agree with leftist solutions, and most people are brainwashed against them anyway. To be fair I think the brainwashing has a point. Leftism isn't the solution either. And it is dangerous. And there is truth to the idea that it's brought suffering whenever it's been tried. BUT...that doesn't mean the critiques of capitalism aren't valid. And I do think that to some extent, if we wanna understand things, we gotta think like a leftist would, in uncovering the flaws of capitalism anew, and in a 21st century context, and develop a new ideology that is less harmful, around them. And that's what I've done. My version of human centered capitalism is my attempt to fix capitalism, and also fix the problems that plague the human spirit. Ultimately, i think something deep down and primal about us is rebelling against a system that we're brainwashed to just accept. And because of that contradiction between our brain and our inner instincts, we just dont understand what the problems are and how to fix them.
And that's where I become passionate about my views and my vision. Because I've sat down, thought this stuff out, and can articulate exactly what I despise about the current system. And I also know what solutions would fix it. I know it sounds cultish and just "trust me" ish...but meh...feel free to go through the same process yourself. Unlike donald trump, I'm not trying to use and abuse you to give a madman who won't help you power. Nor will I serve capital while giving you policy theater like the democrats do. And you know what? Some people just want the world to learn. And I personally advocate for free thinking and free thought where people can come to the conclusions that they want to come to. Even if you disagree with me, you're allowed to. I cant make you think a certain way. I'm not a cult leader. I want to free minds, not enslave them. I might disagree and give reasons for it, and maybe have different core values in the core of my own being than you have in yours, but at least I'm honest about what I think, and I think I'll say something about society that most people aren't willing to say. That work sucks, full employment sucks, jobs are the problem, not the solution, and we need to re-envision life in the 21st century. We need to free people and free their minds from this matrix or plato's cave of a society and do better.
And only through being informed free thinkers, can we resist the allure of demagogues like donald trump who offer nothing but their own brand of tyranny and cruelty and actually put our minds to work in actually fixing things and coming up with a vision of the 21st century that works.
And I know the brainwashing will say "dont do it", but yeah, most solutions do come from the left, because only the left is willing to critique capitalism as it is and offer solutions for it. Now, not all lefties are on the same page. You got your liberals, you got your socialists, you got whatever wierd brand of social libertarianism or human centered capitalism that I am. And none of us agree. Left wing infighting is a way of life. And I'm just as passionate in bashing both mainsteream liberals and leftists as I am in bashing everyone else. But unlike the right, at least we're thinking of solutions that improve the world, darn it. More productive than voting for the guy who will "make america great again" by destroying it and being American hitler, you know?
Anyway, I just had this rant in my head and wanted to get it out.
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