The sad part is we could actually solve this problem, humanity could indeed solve this if we put our minds to it and unified.
Unified? With those disgusting foreigners? The degenerate leftists? The weird religious wackos? The MAGA chuds? The neoliberal shills? The Tankies? The know-nothing hoy paloy? The Epstein-loving bourgeois? The Hollywood sickos? The losers? The haters? The freaks? And some, of course, who I assume are nice people?
There’s a lot of natural social divides that are difficult to surmount. But more frustrating and complicated than that, we have a certain number of scammers and opportunists who will step in and seize the banner of a popular front for self-promotion.
We saw this during OWS, during BLM, during the Climate marches, and during the Tea Party protests. Lots of would-be celebrities simply rush in and start hawking their brands under anything with serious mass appeal. Whether its a Sanders socialism or a Trump fascism or a Buttigieg radical centrism, I regularly see media jammed up with the same clown car of Hawk Tuah Girl promotionals that quickly drown out any kind of serious organizing.
This, combined with the heavy hand of corporate/political censorship that lands on the back of the more sincere and credible activists, disrupts the organic popular movements and obscures them with layer after layer of scam. AI is supercharging the process.
Case in point, any time I say something positive about Gaza or critical of Israel on Bluesky, my mentions fill up with generic 2-day-old accounts showing vaguely Arab-looking profiles asking for donations to relief organizations I’ve never heard of. Organizing in an environment that’s overflowing with these kinds of scams - and, consequently, cultivating a ton of cynicism in the audience - is very difficult.
I’ve long wondered if we could ever rally humanity to a goal worthy of it’s efforts - above economics and nationalism and racism and colonialism - can humanity be galvanized to defend itself when the threat is made clear.
We’ve done it before. Eradicating smallpox, eliminating CFCs to avoid carving chunks out of the ozone layer, globalizing the food supply to curb faminie, building and maintaining an international space station.
Unified? With those disgusting foreigners? The degenerate leftists? The weird religious wackos? The MAGA chuds? The neoliberal shills? The Tankies? The know-nothing hoy paloy? The Epstein-loving bourgeois? The Hollywood sickos? The losers? The haters? The freaks? And some, of course, who I assume are nice people?
There’s a lot of natural social divides that are difficult to surmount. But more frustrating and complicated than that, we have a certain number of scammers and opportunists who will step in and seize the banner of a popular front for self-promotion.
We saw this during OWS, during BLM, during the Climate marches, and during the Tea Party protests. Lots of would-be celebrities simply rush in and start hawking their brands under anything with serious mass appeal. Whether its a Sanders socialism or a Trump fascism or a Buttigieg radical centrism, I regularly see media jammed up with the same clown car of Hawk Tuah Girl promotionals that quickly drown out any kind of serious organizing.
This, combined with the heavy hand of corporate/political censorship that lands on the back of the more sincere and credible activists, disrupts the organic popular movements and obscures them with layer after layer of scam. AI is supercharging the process.
Case in point, any time I say something positive about Gaza or critical of Israel on Bluesky, my mentions fill up with generic 2-day-old accounts showing vaguely Arab-looking profiles asking for donations to relief organizations I’ve never heard of. Organizing in an environment that’s overflowing with these kinds of scams - and, consequently, cultivating a ton of cynicism in the audience - is very difficult.
I’ve long wondered if we could ever rally humanity to a goal worthy of it’s efforts - above economics and nationalism and racism and colonialism - can humanity be galvanized to defend itself when the threat is made clear.
So far I’d say: Not likely.
We’ve done it before. Eradicating smallpox, eliminating CFCs to avoid carving chunks out of the ozone layer, globalizing the food supply to curb faminie, building and maintaining an international space station.
valid points all.
None of them threatened the largest, politically manipulative interests, but maybe there is hope.
I want there to be I just don’t really see it.