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Cont: 2024 Election Thread part 3

We're a society of noise, entertainment, and novelty. Destruction is easier than creation. Lies are easier and faster than truth. Ignorance is easier than knowledge. Trump is horrendous but it's not just Trump, it's all the grifters and wanna be authoritarians and the majority of voters who support them. They control it all now and there will be no blind stumbling, no barriers to stopping them and they will remove enough who oppose them and replace with loyal followers. Followers who in future elections will find the votes needed to maintain power, who will do everything they can to hide the corruption and horrible things to come. It likely won't all occur in these 4 years but it will happen. Humanity as a whole is wrapped up in a giant snowball barreling down a hill heading for a cliff and no one can stop it. Various people and groups vye for control but no one is really steering and there are systems in society that are detrimental and will lead to our destructing but are nonetheless self reinforcing and no one will be able to change course.

TLDR: There is no real hope for a better future for humanity in general. Society in is doomed and we're not able to stop it. I've thought this for quite a while now and Trump winning back the Presidency and now the popular vote is just another nail in the coffin.

This is very true. Even a Harris victory would only have slowed the inevitable decline by a little bit. A Trump presidency will only hasten it a little bit.

The bottom line is we are past the peak of civilization. Its hard to say when it occurred, maybe toe 80s, 90s or even early 2000s but we are most definitely on the down slope now. The liberal order established after WWII is hanging by a thread. The days ahead are very dark indeed. I wouldn't encourage anyone to have children in this day and age. There is really very little to look forward to.
 
Apologies if it has already been linked but this seems like the most cogent analysis I've seen, NSFW obviously:
 
TLDR: There is no real hope for a better future for humanity in general. Society in is doomed and we're not able to stop it. I've thought this for quite a while now and Trump winning back the Presidency and now the popular vote is just another nail in the coffin.

Sorry to say I agree with you.

I have 30-40 years left on this planet. I think I'm going to watch it burn. (figuratively and literally)
 
"Economic anxiety" is just an excuse. They disregarded the Orange weakling's abysmal record in his personal, business, and government ventures. He gave them someone to look down on. To blame for...something. have no idea what white-collar suburbanites in New Jersey, Long Island, and Hudson Valley are upset over. At least, what they think he can fix.
 
So now everyone gets a tax cut, corporation tax scrapped, no tax on overtime, credit card interest capped at 10%, $2 trillion of the budget cut, 15 million migrants deported and the Ukraine war over in 24 hours followed by peace in the middle east by Christmas?
 
We're a society of noise, entertainment, and novelty. Destruction is easier than creation. Lies are easier and faster than truth. Ignorance is easier than knowledge. Trump is horrendous but it's not just Trump, it's all the grifters and wanna be authoritarians and the majority of voters who support them. They control it all now and there will be no blind stumbling, no barriers to stopping them and they will remove enough who oppose them and replace with loyal followers. Followers who in future elections will find the votes needed to maintain power, who will do everything they can to hide the corruption and horrible things to come. It likely won't all occur in these 4 years but it will happen. Humanity as a whole is wrapped up in a giant snowball barreling down a hill heading for a cliff and no one can stop it. Various people and groups vye for control but no one is really steering and there are systems in society that are detrimental and will lead to our destructing but are nonetheless self reinforcing and no one will be able to change course.

TLDR: There is no real hope for a better future for humanity in general. Society in is doomed and we're not able to stop it. I've thought this for quite a while now and Trump winning back the Presidency and now the popular vote is just another nail in the coffin.
It's always right to do the right thing, so this election is not going to stop me from working for things that are right.
 
I remember when the maga weirdoes said that the dems would fight the election results when they lost. I wonder when that's going to start.


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It's always right to do the right thing, so this election is not going to stop me from working for things that are right.
I agree and I personally will continue to do what I think is right as well. I just don't think it will matter.
 
It's always right to do the right thing, so this election is not going to stop me from working for things that are right.

Agreed. Even though I personally believe the fight against climate change is mostly lost, I will continue doing what I can to reduce my carbon footprint for example.

It will just feel all that much more futile now.
 
TLDR: There is no real hope for a better future for humanity in general. Society in is doomed and we're not able to stop it. I've thought this for quite a while now and Trump winning back the Presidency and now the popular vote is just another nail in the coffin.
You need to read the book I'm reading. It deals with (among other things) exactly this kind of catastrophizing, among other things, and it does a great job at deconstructing and debunking it.
Oh, and it's really funny, engaging, and a great read overall.
 
The Earth still rotates around its axis, it still orbits the Sun, the Sun still goes around the center of galaxy and universe still expands at around 72 km/s/MPc.
That's really nice and all, but it did that during WWII too. Just saying.
 
The single most destructive effect will be the sweeping denialism of global warming by the ruling oligarch class the USA has now fully bowed to, just when concerted action is most needed. An added 4ºC will cause global famine and mass species loss.

The second most will be the extermination of the Palestinians. And then, Trump and Netanyahu will toast a great new dawn of Free Dumb, skulls and crossed bones underfoot.

The third will be the loosening of all rules, as the world's former cop is now its chief perp, certified.

Not sure if the post-Jan25 2025 ◊◊◊◊ show in the USA will be a bad thing. There is such a thing as a shocking, sobering spectacle.

Quick, there's a run on knee pads and Vaseline down at Walmart.
 
Absolutely. There's an understanding in American (and probably other) politics of 'It's the economy stupid' in terms of what voters care about and that indeed seems to be what has given the result to Trump except bizarrely the US Economy is in pretty good shape but people have been convinced it's dreadful.
I think that's because there are a lot of people who feel worse off. Many are genuinely worse off due to the US's levels of inequality, others are comparing now to some distant, possibly imagined, past.

The whole economy may be doing OK but people working minimum wage jobs are much worse off.

Of course it's not Biden or Harris' fault and Trump won't fix it, he'll likely make it worse, but angry people want to blame and punish someone.
 
The single most destructive effect will be the sweeping denialism of global warming by the ruling oligarch class the USA has now fully bowed to, just when concerted action is most needed. An added 4ºC will cause global famine and mass species loss.

The second most will be the extermination of the Palestinians. And then, Trump and Netanyahu will toast a great new dawn of Free Dumb, skulls and crossed bones underfoot.

The third will be the loosening of all rules, as the world's former cop is now its chief perp, certified.

Not sure if the post-Jan25 2025 **** show in the USA will be a bad thing. There is such a thing as a shocking, sobering spectacle.

Quick, there's a run on knee pads and Vaseline down at Walmart.


Don't forget that Iran and NK have threatened us with severe consequences, so right now, I wouldn't want to be in a republican's shoes, even though, I'm one of the reasonable ones.


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America might be ◊◊◊◊◊◊ but that is not the same as the end of civilization, that's the sort of American exceptionalism that Trump indulges in. Also the economy may be doing well on paper but how much of that is translating to the living standards of ordinary people.
 
Irony is despair plays into the hands of Trump and Company.
I hope a lot of this is just shock, and as it wears off people will not give up.
 

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