Never ask a man his salary
Never ask a woman her age
Never ask what George Orwell was doing in Myanmar in the 1920s
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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
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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.
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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
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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?
How do you do that, specifically in the US?
Revolution. Rebellion in organized fashion
I got the book 1984 for $1 on Kobo a couple months ago
Still haven’t read it. (Surely next year)
Ooh that’s a good one
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…
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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.
