Never ask a man his salary
Never ask a woman her age
Never ask what George Orwell was doing in Myanmar in the 1920s
He literally wrote a novel that was heavily inspired about his time in Myanmar.
You can kinda ask him yourself.
Orwell wrote openly about the things he did throughout his life, both in casual letters and widely read short stories
He certainly wrote a version of it.
Tautologous
Kind of? Many of them, if not most, are also victims of the same system that indoctrinated them. Like an awful, evil feedback loop of victimization.
Not to say that makes it okay ofc, but all people are fallible and all can be cast as fools under the right circumstances, which is just a very important thing to remember at times like these.
Yeah, I view them as catspaws. They are assisting someone working against their interests without understanding how they are being used. You can show sympathy for them while nonetheless opposing them.
And you’re right that everyone should have the humility to accept they also sabotage themselves sometimes. But electing who will lead the country is high stakes and some accountability is fair.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that anybody should not be held accountable for their actions. Just the opposite is how I feel, really. But I also believe that many of them can do and learn better if provided with the right care and resources. That’s not to say I know how to make that work, but that there is always, always, always a better path forward if enough qualified and caring people put their heads together and make it happen.
Very few of us are truly and entirely irredeemable. Some just take a lot more resources and time to be redeemed than others, is how I see it. I believe it is worth it, for the sake of all of our futures as well as those of people yet to be born, to try and see to it that paths like this are taken and doubled down on as soon as is possible.
Despite being a fan of Orwell’s and, more often than not, in agreement with the views he shared, I took his wording to be a bit too absolutist for my tastes on this quote. Understandably, given what we know of his lived experience, but still. There is always a better way as long as there are still people trying to find it. I don’t believe in all of us, but I do believe in the capital ‘u’ Us, you know?
And I’m not familiar with the term “catspaws”. Feel like teaching a stranger something new?
Well said. To be clear, I agree with your outlook on human nature, but I try to check myself on not being optimistic to the point of ignoring people’s history. People do change, but we can’t presume in which direction that will be. We must remember improvement is a hope and a genuine possibility, but not an expectation. On the other hand, Orwell is regarded as insightful for good reason but of course he is also very cynical about people and the future.
A catspaw is just a term for someone who is used as a tool of another to their detriment. It comes from a French fable where a monkey convinces a cat to grab some roasting chestnuts for them to eat, but the monkey eats them all while the cat ends up burning its paw.
Edit: This is the fable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_and_the_Cat
I have been known to think and act with hope-clouded vision at times. It is known. I think you’re right, but will continue to choose to hope for the better of people, because I believe that hope, sometimes even the irrational varieties, is the fertile earth from which necessary changes most often grow. It is sometimes even the only ground that positive change can take to at all. If I keep at it on my end while enough others do the same on theirs, a better future will be made that much more accessible to everyone.
With that mindset, I don’t feel I have the time for cynicism past a certain threshold (on some days, at least), and I am pretty certain that can be an invaluable asset in the right hands. Hopefully myself and enough others have such hands rather than these allegorical paws. Thanks for filling me in on that btw. Your comparison with it was spot on.
In 2016 both Hillary and Trump had a lower than 50% approval rating and yet they were the frontrunners: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/
Congress has a less than 50% approval rating and it’s made up of elected politicians: https://www.statista.com/statistics/207579/public-approval-rating-of-the-us-congress/
We don’t have a democracy, we have a system where you can only choose which representative for billionaires you dislike the least. They’re all corrupt, any that aren’t are quickly drowned out by well-funded opposition.
People tend to approve of their own representatives, and blame others in Congress for unsolved issues. We have become good at identifying problems while minimizing our own contributions to them. And in general, as a country we are very divided on the way things should be changing.
For presidential candidates especially, I’ve found people tend to latch on to reasons to dislike someone and ignore positive things, except perhaps for their favorite candidate. It’s a form of tribalism. But from what I remember Trump and Hilary were both considered distinctly weak candidates at the time.
You are right. Americans are slaves, tricked into thinking their votes count. But people must understand the enemy is the corruption found by members of both parties. Democratic and Republican
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
While the discordant text color makes that a little like reading while driving down a road with potholes, Adams is correct.
All according to plan so farmland can be bought up by large corporations and billionaires. They want to control and commodify every aspect of survival.
On the one hand yeah sure, but on the other hand in the USA youre an accomplice if you didnt vote or if you wasted your vote on a 3rd party.
Vote for baddy, your fault. Vote for less baddy, youre propping up the system. Vote for good guy, you wasted your chance to vote against baddy. Dont vote, you wasted your chance yo vote against baddy.
Everyone gets the boot on the neck, everyone gets the blame, there are no winners
Can you stop with the whole, “if democrats would a won everything would be fine” bullshit?
Is this a shitpost?
I got the book 1984 for $1 on Kobo a couple months ago
Still haven’t read it. (Surely next year)
How do you do that, specifically in the US?
Revolution. Rebellion in organized fashion
Ooh that’s a good one
Removed by mod
Politicians shouldn’t be elected. If they want to rule, they should take control by force like in the old times.
That’s how you cull the useless leaders. They perish
So like… a 1 on 1 fist fight to the death then, yeah?
My vote is sock em boppers
No. Total War against the previous government.
Good thing no disastrously bad rulers came to power in those days…
I’m sorry, but who else is there to vote for?
You don’t vote for the lesser of the two evils. You remove them
Ok go ahead
Do you think we suffer together? I took my resources out that country some while ago. You are on that sinking ship alone. If you don’t do it you will not survive. So I give you a choice human, rebel or be enthralled
I mean props for escaping but you’re still giving advice you would clearly not follow
Every day I do what I can to fuck over the US gov from afar.
Such as?
This includes people who give everyone shit for not voting for the “lesser” corruption. Accomplices all.
There are no good Americans.
Are you American?
Nope.
Well OK, you’re good then.
