• Freeposity@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Fuck Ralph Nader. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have had Dubya and the Iraq war. Hell, we might not have even had 9/11 and the Afghan war because the administration would have heeded the intelligence that showed Al Qaida was planning the attack.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Guns were a protection from the government in 1800s, not anymore. Arm the unions with missile launchers.

  • trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf
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    4 days ago

    To assume that humans en masse are weak is quite foolish, but I suspect their intent is more prodding for people to ‘do something’.

    We’re aware of the issue most of us didn’t cause. Just as other countries are currently dealing with their own artificially placed authoritarians (à la epstein and bannon).

    To attempt change in the public eye immediately puts you in danger and as such is unwise. Furthermore, many people are not made for such things.

    Eventually there will come a time for most of us where a normal life cannot exist, but it’s a slow burn, not an explosion.

    • JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      We need to put this into perspective and compare it to how Hitler turned an entire country into dumbly complacent followers & murderers & enablers. We look back at that and ask, “Why didn’t somebody stop him? Why was everybody following his orders?”

      • Napster153@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        “Why didn’t Feudal Peasants rise up against theie Feudal Lords? Were they stupid?”

        -asks the modern day corporate indentured serf from his company-provided cubicle residence.

  • ViceroTempus@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Well yeah. It takes violence to stop violence, and we’ve been brain washed in schools with the “Zero Tolerance Policy” that retaliating is worse than being a bully. Kids who defended themselves from aggressors often were either the only ones punished, or punished far worse than the instigator. That’s been going on for at least 2-3 decades in said schools. It has obviously made a bunch of adults too afraid of doing the right thing.

    It’s why we hold parades instead of protests with the threat of escalation. If we really wanted to make changes, Republicans and their minions(ICE) would not have homes to live in, or comfortable lives. Same for their enablers.

    We would have taken them off the board and held special elections as populace. Still can, and will still need to when we have finally had enough. That or a foreign power will do it for us, but then they get to make the rules instead of “We The People”.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      4 days ago

      You’re very much on the right track, but I think it goes much much deeper than violence. It goes to self-reliance.

      Go back to the time of the Framers. If you wanted something to happen, literally anything at all, you had to do it yourself. Criminal stealing your shit? By the time you get to town to ask for help he’ll be gone, so either say goodbye to your shit (and maybe your wife too) or grab your rifle and confront him. Government not doing what you want? Grab your pitchfork and head to City Hall, or run for office yourself. Feeling hungry? Better start cooking. Want to have meat this winter? Better start raising a cow today. Bully picking on you? Better learn to fight his ass. Your house is broken? Better grab a hammer and a saw because nobody else’s gonna help fix it.

      Over the last 100ish years, that attitude has been slowly changing. Individual self-reliance has given way to a sort of mutualist service society where self-reliance is no longer the norm, it’s no longer the exception, it’s become almost an outlier.

      Criminal stealing your shit? Call the police and hide until they arrive. Government not doing what you want? Write a letter or whine about it online. Feeling hungry? Grab your phone because food’s an Uber Eats order away. Your house is broken? Call a repairman or a carpenter.

      What’s missing there? Any kind of self-reliance, self-empowerment to solve your own problems. Every problem involves asking or paying someone else to fix it for you.
      I argue that the result of this is a society of people who’ve forgotten that they DO have the power to solve their own problems.

      I don’t blame malice for this, I blame a combination of laziness along with a LOT of well-meaning people and policies that only further disenfranchise the populace from their own agency, usually in the name of safety. You mention zero tolerance for bullying, that’s certainly one as it teaches the victim not to fight back. Police say the same thing though- police always say if confronted with a threat just give the criminal what they want and run away when you can.

      There’s pockets of resistance to this sort of attitude, but they are largely isolated and focused on their own agendas without real connection. The most obvious might be gun owners and the concealed carry movement. But there’s plenty of others- the open source community, the right to repair movement, the maker community, the free range parenting movement, and just about any other DIY community. They’re all focused on their own individual niche, but the attitude is the same-- you CAN do ____ yourself, you DON’T need someone else to do it for you.

      We need more of that. And I think it starts with school curriculum. If I was in charge, I’d take one academic semester out of high school (or at least a few credit hours) and devote it to purely empowering and constructive practical lessons. Wood shop, auto repair, plumbing/electrical, coding, cooking, industrial design, financial planning, etc. I don’t think this should be optional electives to bypass, I believe these lessons are just as important as reading writing and maths, because if we create kids that are book smart but life stupid, we’re doing them a disservice. And that’s what we’re doing now.


      For our society to find our way out of this, we (the population) need to empower ourselves, recognize that we are NOT helpless, and take back agency over our lives.

      Unfortunately I think that won’t happen until either a. a real leader comes along who can energize people- think Obama before his first term, but with actual balls to FIGHT rather than watering everything down. Bernie could have been that. But I think we need another MLK type person. Or b, things get a good bit worse, for the population to stop desperately trying to stay afloat in a rigged game and instead doing a table-flip rejection of the rigged system.

      • balsoft@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        Au contraire, a truly “mutualist” society would never fall for the bullshit that is happening.

        If everyone had trust and a good working relationship with their neighbors and solidarity with their working class comrades, the US capitalist class and therefore the government in its current form would quickly cease to exist.

        The problem is specifically that the US capitalists inserted themselves as unavoidable middlemen into every aspect of US life. Notice how you’re not getting food from your community kitchen, you’re getting food from Uber Eats. You’re not usually calling a repairman from your local community, you’re calling a company that sends one out to you. You’re not getting help from your community militia, you’re getting it from an armed wing of the bourgeois government.

        (ironically, this was possible to do through years or “rugged individualism” propaganda, that you are repeating here; other things like car dependency also made things worse)

        This lack of local community is a big part of why there is so little organized protest. It’s very difficult to rile up your neighbors to take up arms and meaningfully protest when you barely even know them. This would apply even more in your imagined scenario of everyone becoming individualists who raise their own cows - people wouldn’t even have time to protest because they would spend all of it on their own survival, and those who stick their head up are easily arrested and thrown into jail, with noone to protect them.

      • ViceroTempus@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Everything you have written here, I agree with. I think the self-reliance or even community reliance is what’s missing here. That service reliance is a big factor in our learned helplessness.

        It truly is just a giant mess, with many confounding factors. I hope others take the time to read what you wrote.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    fraid so. tv and electronics in general have led to a society of couch potatoes only suitable for mashing and smothering in butter and chives

      • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        the “over policing” could’ve been a nonissue if there had been sufficient resistance and proper accompanying legislation to curb it and enact better training programs for cadets. scapegoats can be named to anything one chooses depending on which side one sympathizes with, but for my own part i see no scapegoating beyond that thst the executive branch has instituted

  • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Realistically, Trump hasn’t done much that negatively impacts my life. Due to reduction of overtime tax and his executive order on marijuana, my life has marginally improved.

    The only thing the Democrats have done to improve my life in the last decade was to give me a bunch of money during the pandemic, but it’s hard to say if that helped me in the long run. The resulting inflation was a pretty big catch.

    • Erna_muse@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      If your material conditions were your primary concern the president passing an illegal regressive tax should’ve been a red flag. In my life Bush and Trump started wars while cutting taxes.

      To me the dead giveaway is the new deal era coalition. The economy failed so it created an ideology antithetical to conservatism and the results speak for themselves.

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I’ll admit this is a useful observation in terms of pure facts.

      Like, I read up on the news; so I’m constantly horrified and want immediate change. But being a white male with a job, in terms of personally observed situation, I’m hardly affected (and hardly received Democratic benefit either, in part because I don’t need it) - it’s my societal awareness that makes me want to take action, and that’s not often guaranteed of so many people.

    • bthest@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      lol, I guess you don’t buy anything that that’s imported and carried on a vehicle that runs on oil products.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        This should be an indictment of the Biden administration.

        Continuously embarrassing that Republicans have (functionally) become the party of Giving People Money, while Democrats continue to obsess over a National Debt that clearly doesn’t matter

      • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I don’t know, man. I-a single adult -recieved over $700 in food stamps for over a year. I ran out of my saved food stamps in 2025. I was also diagnosed with COVID over the phone and received over $5000 in unemployment per month.

        Giving this much money to low income workers has a disproportionate impact on inflation. The skyrocketing prices of frozen meals and gourmet animal products, for example, was a direct result of the food stamps.

        It helped both me and the shareholders, but it came with a long-term cost. Everyone who had a job during the pandemic paid the price.

        • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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          5 days ago

          Giving this much money to low-income workers has a disproportionate impact on inflation

          That’s not what the data seemed to say - every actual study showed that inflation came from supply shocks, and then companies using that excuse to raise prices.

          What DID pose a problem was you saw people not scared to starve if they lost a job. And that was causing big worries for employers, and that’s what couldn’t continue.

          • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            What data? I have a hard time believing that people didn’t increase their spending in response to increased disposable income. Food especially since food stamps could only be spent on food. If you post your source, I’ll objectively review it.

            When demand outstrips supply, people began bidding. A 1% difference between supply and demand leads to a more than 1% change in prices.

            This doesn’t even mention the fact that the supply of domestic products was interrupted by high unemployment benefits. I sure as hell quit my job because of them. It was a no-brainer.

  • GhostFace@lemmy.today
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    5 days ago

    I don’t understand why people are acting like half the country didn’t want him. Present them with any other option and they will still choose him even today.

    • Freeposity@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      If you didn’t vote then you may as well have voted for him regardless.

      You can’t convince those people of this. Similarly, it’s damn near impossible to get people to understand that you can vote your conscience in primaries but you need to be strategic in the general.

    • Freeposity@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Not half. Only 65% of the population who was eligible to vote, did so.

      That means a majority of Americans rejected Trump.

        • Freeposity@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Many reasons. Stupidity being the main one. According to the US department of Education, 54% of American adults cannot read or write prose beyond a sixth grade level. I have also read that almost 20% of the adult American population are functionally illiterate.

          Even when you take those people out of the equation you’re still left with a majority of people who are not paying attention to politics or current events. Some of those people will performatively vote during presidential elections, patting themselves on the back for being a good citizen while making choices they do not understand. All of the people I have described are not sophisticated consumers of media and are easily swayed by mass media.

          And this doesn’t even get into the problem of voter suppression and people working multiple jobs having a difficult time finding time to vote.

    • NerdyTimesOrWhatever@lemmy.today
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      5 days ago

      Im still trying to figure out how people like you think half the population voted for him. He won a plurality, which means more than his opponent. A majority is over 50%.

      Only <65% people of voting age even voted (including 3rd party candidates). He didnt even win a majority amongst only those who voted. And who of the remaining 35%+ is fascist or anti-fascist? They’re pretty vocal, now.

      Any other option lmao. Dude, he’s the least popular president in history. What are you huffing?

      • Mommy Longarms@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Not to mention, during Trump’s first two races, him and his cronies did everything they could to meddle with the results. Do we all think they just gave up on that the third time around?

      • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        because 2/3 of voters did not vote against him, therefore they are either okay with it or were unable to vote

        my assumption is that the size of the latter group, while significant, is not 15% of voters

                • NerdyTimesOrWhatever@lemmy.today
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                  4 days ago

                  It literally is. Your argument is that people who didnt vote for Trump wanted him to be president. All people who didnt vote for Kamala are somehow pro-Trump. If that wasn’t your intent, you need to work on how you phrase things.

                  All I did was say precisely what you said lol just the other way around. Thats because people who didnt vote… did not vote! Ascribing a desired candidate to people who didnt participate is … not how it works!

                  Everyone that doesnt go to subway hates subs so they absolutely must like burgers! See? Silly.

                  A lot of people felt disenfranchised and abstained due to a sense of moral superiority to be sure. That doesn’t mean they voted for Trump or felt like Trump was the superior candidate. People who dont pay attention to politics didnt vote for or against either candidate, people who didnt vote also didnt vote for or against either candidate.

      • BouteilleBrune@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Only <65% people of voting age even voted

        That’s because democrat voters couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman.

        They said her problem was that she smiled too much… Then the country chose the rapist who’s destroying them as we speak.

        American voters from both sides are responsible for all the death and suffering caused by their president.

        And somehow it’s never their fault.

        he’s the least popular president in history

        Still he was elected by the american people, after being a convicted rapist and trying to overthrow democracy in the USA.

        Americans should be ashamed that he even was a candidate.

        Don’t try to make excuses, americans did this.

        • NerdyTimesOrWhatever@lemmy.today
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          4 days ago

          Trillions being spent on a curated entertainment system (and protecting it) really does that. Fox Entertainment News (the real name of the show) is just allowed to misrepresent themselves as a non-satirical platform, though thats what they argued they were in court to try to get around lying constantly. They got sued due to election lies propogated by them on behalf of Trump. We know why now, its the threat of public humiliation (not even prison time) for wealthy people. If people find out Bezos eats babies, that wont stop Amazon from being profitable. People will just be repulsed by him to a further degree.

          There needs to be a genuine mechanism for punishing media outlets for spreading malicious lies that literally resulted in a terrorist attack on the capital of the country. Like, what?

          Yes, the laziness and assumed victory due to volume of people who were anti-Trump, and people who felt safe being anti-Kamala while voting for moral grandstanding reasons, thinking they wouldnt get punished by Trump winning because it seemed impossible, definitely fucked us over immensely. Propoganda is just better when you have a system that exerts absolute control over everything you see, hear, and read.

          I live in a small republican town. They literally have no idea whats happening in the world around them. I spread the knowledge of what ICE is doing, and a tiny bit of change has happened. There are a LOT less redcaps and more people half-joking about ICE. Someone literally made a joke about calling them for a mexican standoff. I live around some racist people who dont care about deportations, until you describe and prove the conditions those poor people are forced to live in. Everyone they know watches fox. Everywhere has it playing on a tv in the corner, even a lot of stores do. Its hard to crack that egg because they’re just SO FREAKIN INSULATED FROM REALITY. These are people who vote, but only hear about politics and the world outside their lives through their kids, when they listen to them.

          These cudgel wielding, clay tablet carving asspickers are why we’re here. Rupert Murdoch is a large part of why we’re here. Poor education is 100% at fault for this. Im just around average intelligence and the people in this town think Im a genius. Great for my ego, terrifying for our future. Im not smart enough to make decisions about our future, or to completely understand what we’re living through. If thats smart, we’re fucked.

          Yes, the people are definitely to blame. I fully agree. Anti-Kamala moral grandstanding and refusing to vote ruined us. I hope everyone who didnt vote for moral reasons sleeps well, knowing they incited and supported multiple genocides, including the one they were a widdle angwy about. We couldve fixed that with public opinion. We cant fix a dictator who has a psychotic koolaid following of people who genuinely think he’s never done anything wrong. Some people here think 1/6 was a hoax or a protest, if they even know about it. Im not saying it isnt the fault of the people, but there was definitely a lot of money and cheating (as per usual) put into that election.

        • senorseco@lemmy.today
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          5 days ago

          Correction, voters couldn’t bring themselves to vote for an incompetent candidate. The Democrats had years to find someone electable and failed. Biden was a self-stated bridge candidate. Orange Julius was elected because the Democrats failed.

          • BouteilleBrune@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            She was and still is objectively the most competent candidate, saying otherwise is exactly what enables trump. His propaganda works with you.

            • senorseco@lemmy.today
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              4 days ago

              If she was competent she would have won the election. Just look at what she was running against. A clearly deteriorating Joe Biden was able to beat him in 2020 and buy the DNC some time to get their shit together. Why are some unable to see that the Democrats own a big chunk of where we are today?

              • Freeposity@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                Are you aware that the Biden administration, as a condition of Joe stepping aside, insisted that Kamala not deviate from the administrations policy positions at all? She was hamstrung from the beginning.

                You may be unaware that when Joe stepped aside the only person who could legally replace him on the ticket was Kamala Harris.

                • senorseco@lemmy.today
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                  4 days ago

                  If true, this information makes her even less competent. Only a fool would agree to be hamstrung by the policies of the prior administration.

        • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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          5 days ago

          If you honestly thought that was true, aren’t you saying it was irresponsible of the Dems to run a woman when the election was supposed to be an existential matter?

            • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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              4 days ago

              They obviously don’t, which is why they didn’t run a primary.

              But let’s pretend that it was sexism that kade Harris lose. Isn’t failing to anticipate that a huge error by Democratic leadership, who anointed Harris?

      • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Almost half of the voting population clearly saw the possibility of him becoming a president again, and decided that preventing that is not worth an afternoon of their time. That’s a choice. That’s a direct, active action that those people did.
        Most of americans were either in favour or a pedo becoming their king, or didn’t see anything wrong with it.

        • NerdyTimesOrWhatever@lemmy.today
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          4 days ago

          “Didnt have time because they were working to avoid homelessness” is also an option. That isnt a direct, active decision. Voting and getting your ballot thrown out isnt your fault, either.

          A lot of ancient people who dont need to work are the ones voting against their, and our, best interests. Voter suppression, throwing out millions of valid democratic ballots, extra ballots with only Trump on them, a lot of interesting things happened in 2024.

          Most people didnt vote for Trump. Most people who didnt vote who would have, actually abstained due to the success of the anti-Kamala Palestinian propoganda. It was a whole ultra-liberal BS thing that I saw a ton of. Some people certainly didnt care, but your phrasing makes it sound like you believe a majority of people wanted Trump in power. That is simply untrue.

          Our country did what it usually does when it gets too comfortable: Get extremely angsty and shoot ourselves in the foot because we think one candidate is so obviously evil they cant win. We are (and this is true) as smart as a headless ostrich. Overconfidence and a lot of moral grandstanding got us where we are.

          Hope you’re happy, idiots. Thats not directed at you, just annoyed the comparison between eating gross tasting food vs trying to eat shards of glass resulted in people choosing shards of glass. George Carlin had a piece on something very similar, I just cant remember the exact quote.

        • traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 days ago

          I wouldn’t say that. There’s a lot of disenfranchisement going on with many people across the country. They could still be able to vote but for a myriad of reasons simply be unable to.

          • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I guess so, but I don’t think even with those people included, the statistics will change a lot. Unless there is way more people who were barred from voting, like, millions more. Which means there is so much deeper issue underlying all that, and nobody really talks and knows about it. Which will be so much worse.

      • monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        But Kamala wanted to eat babies (Palestinian babies at that!) she wanted to grab every single Palestinian by the neck and personally strangle them. I couldn’t be bothered to vote for her because nothing would be different right now! Biden was senile and I insisted they changed the candidate. When they did, I just knew Kamala would start a war with Iran! I am just glad I stayed home and let things spiral out of control. Any day now things will get better thanks to me staying home!

        — some idiots here who I am more and more convinced are bots or paid trolls.

          • monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            You can primary whoever you want. Go for it. Progressive policies are always popular with the youth, but those fuckers don’t vote.

            Mandami kinda gives me hope, but I’m not going to hold my breath. If you can’t get the votes with progressive policies, don’t be surprised you end up with Pelosi, Clintons, etc. That’s politics. Or you can pretend your way is the only way and do whatever you want. Not like there haven’t been progressive candidates. They just don’t get votes.

            Carter tried to treat the US like adults and run progressive policies, and we decided to boot him and go with Trump lite.

            When someone is offering you fascism, you go with the non-fascist every time. Or not, I guess.

  • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    One dude shoots a ceo and literally millions treat the incarcerated one as a hero. In a country with hundreds of millions of people.

    It’s the “I’m gonna do something about this” dude while everyone else just remains seated.

    And there’s like hundreds of millions of you vs a handful of billionaires.

    I know cows with more rebellion than this. Flies even.