In other words, a concentration camp.
We took away your home, off to the forced labour camp.
Hop skip and a jump to a death camp.
Forced Labor is just a euphemism for enslavement.
BASHIR: What is this place?
SISKO: A Sanctuary District.
BASHIR: Twenty-first century history is not one of my strong points. Too depressing.
SISKO: It’s been a hobby of mine. They made some ugly mistakes, but they also paved the way for a lot of the things we take now for granted.
BASHIR: I assume this is one of those mistakes.
SISKO: A bad one. By the early twenty twenties there was a place like this in every major city in the United States.
BASHIR: Why are these people in here? Are they criminals?
SISKO: No. People with criminal records weren’t allowed in the Sanctuary Districts.
BASHIR: Then what did they do to deserve this?
SISKO: Nothing. They’re just people without jobs or places to live.
BASHIR: So they get put in here?
SISKO: Welcome to the twenty-first century, Doctor.
That whole story is so unrealistic.
I mean of course the part where Sisko said it led to better things.
Our species will not have the stars. We are not going to have a post-scarcity future. We are too primitive and we don’t have the mental tools to even understand when we’re being manipulated, much less all work together to create a socialist utopia without wealth-hoarding and exploitation.
I unfortunately agree.
GUINAN: Some may argue that a diamond is still a diamond, even if it is one amongst millions. It still shines as brightly.
SAMUEL CLEMENS: Someone might say that, dear lady, if someone thought that the human race was akin to a precious jewel. But this…increasingly hypothetical someone…would not be me.
we don’t have the mental tools
One of the exceptional traits of humans is their ability to build and create tools. Language, reading and mathematics are some of the most powerful tools humans have and they’re all mental tools. Unfortunately that tool making skill is a double edged sword as it’s capable of both creating tools of information/education/etc. and tools of manipulation/misinformation/etc.
It wouldn’t be as much of an issue if there weren’t decades of cultivating mental tools of disinformation and manipulation, marketing/propaganda/public speaking/etc. and if humans can create those tools they can create tools that do the opposite.
Unfortunately, the “evil” tools are currently winning and will take quite a bit of effort to dismantle and healthy/productive tools built in their stead. Hoarding and rampant exploitation are not inherent laws and could be reversed. Seems rather unlikely at the moment, but teetering on the brink of extinction tends to cause pretty radical shifts.
Bell Riots comment; I came here for this. 10/10.
When people say, “we should just house the homeless” this is not what they meant!
Sadly, it kind of is what some of them meant…
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, so I can enslave them, as they are the easiest, most vulnerable parts of society and nobody will defend them.”
-Donaldo Trumpus
This will be fun. When should I report to my labor camp? **🌈🫠
With the phrase “arbeit macht frei” just above the gates!
The historical parallels are so parallel that they’re the same picture. Yet some people still can’t see it.
Or they DO it and are all “hell the fuck yeah!”.
Greetings from the UK, our dear US friends:
