Never forget - war is a racket

Yup. If I actually want to read an article and it isn’t a site I already know isn’t too bad, I’ll right click copy the link and put it in the archive machine to get to a readable version of it. I really don’t think they can blame us at this point for not wanting to click every shitty clickbait headline, nor is it necessarily a bad thing that people aren’t (especially people who don’t use adblock and just accept cookies to make the shit go away. With the quality of reporting on most of these sites, they’re definitely not getting a good deal)

Well, I suppose bending over for a couple of dictators to fuck you (but more importantly, your people, and then who ever those two decide to invade next) is a kind of posture… 🙄

All I can say to this bizarre reply is that the whitewashed version of history (never mind current events, since some of those conflicts are still ongoing, violently, today) you were taught at school, or hear about in the msm isn’t the reality, and that none of those conflicts were fucking peaceful, or came to a conclusion because those in power just decided to give it up.

Pick up a fucking book (or watch a video, or listen to a podcast, however you take information in, go and do that, but only if you can cope with challenging your bias, otherwise it becomes a completely pointless exercise)

E: Like, honestly, do you seriously believe there is any point in talking to Putin? Do you think an open and proud totalitarian known for throwing his opponents out of windows is a trustworthy person who will have good faith and stay true to his word? Do you fucking hear yourself???

Lmfao, where did I even imply that? Talk about projecting… 😂😂😂

I’m not sure who “you people” are, but at no point did I claim to know what’s best, but I sure as fuck know, from knowing history and paying attention, that tyranny doesn’t go away by asking nicely. Never has, never will.

So a better question would be wtf is with you claiming you know anything at all about global conflict or fascism? Its like you’re larping as a wilfully ignorant and overly confident centrist who is happy to lay others lives on the line and let war rage on as long as we aren’t mean to a dictator. 🙄

The idea that it is possible to “diplomacy” your way out of conflict with a dictator is so absurd I want to laugh my ass off, but unfortunately it isn’t funny at all.

Putin will happily send every last Russian in to the meat grinder before he accept defeat, and now that he has his American buddy back in place, now with added musk funds, it is seriously delusional to think the situation is going to do anything other than escalate.

Zelenskyy is being beyond naive at best (I honestly don’t believe he believes in what he’s saying).

Every single one of them is telling on themselves.

LISTEN

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/romeo-kokriatski-respectability-politics-or-you-gotta-be-nice-to-monsters

This is incorrect. Not only did humans used to work significantly less and we (the working class, anyway) in the past few centuries have less leisure time than ever, but if anything, the introduction of what you consider “civilisation”, and especially class and money, harmed art more than anything by giving the power and control over it to those who aren’t creating it, and leaving those who are, starving, like the rest of the plebs, or completely undiscovered due to lack of privilege, opportunity, and access.

“I have the privilege to be completely oblivious to glaringly obvious racism”

They are police

FTFY

There is nothing weirs about it - those that work forces are the same that burn crosses

Yup. I’ve had to stop using ebay because even when you check out with your own card, it goes via paypal, and they have misused my data too many times for me to keep putting any trust in them.

It sucks, because a lot of mutual aid is done over paypal too, but I’m really struggling to justify leaving my account open (and I’m not even in the US where op applies).

I think that’s the point, just like with “a few bad apples”, the original intent of the saying has been subverted to help those in power keep the rest of us down (if you just do this impossible thing, you’ll be just like us! Why don’t you just do that impossible thing already, you useless lazy bastard? And so on. It’s part cognitive dissonance to make themselves feel like they’re “self made”, part gaslighting convincing us we’re just not trying hard enough).

I will remember survivorship bias

The just world fallacy is another one worth remembering, in the context of your post, but also generally.

Also

If hard work led to success, then a poor person working three jobs should be rich.

You got George Monbiot’s quote almost exactly word for word:

He didn’t have to work three jobs to pay rent, but he is set up as a rags-to-riches story, using elbow grease and grit to become the mogul he is.

Lastly, you’re right, but it’s important to remember what he does have, and why - privilege, and lots of it (being a white man from a rich background, with a supportive family to boot? They all put his starting points miles ahead of most others), which he is given by white supremacist patriarchal capitalism, which is why he (and many others, even without the billions, privilege is one hell of a drug) will never work to end those systems and work towards creating a world where everyone has equitable access and opportunity.

Capitalist propaganda.

“Aspiration” to be more precise, it’s one of the ways capitalists convince large segments of the public that they’re temporarily embarrassed millionaires, who just need to pull their bootstraps up hard enough, and they will make it, like the people in the programme did (conveniently they never address things like racism, sexism, queerphobia, ableism, and other barriers that many people have to face just to survive, never mind thrive, and the fact that all of these barriers are artificial and created by people who benefit just as much from dividing society up and pitting us against each other, as they do from selling us rags-to-riches bullshit to get us to work harder to make them money).

And the entirety of Africa is framed as nothing but both of theirs pawn and playground… 🙄

Visitors cannot enter the artwork,

booo

(source:https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/things-to-do/arts-and-culture-on-the-waterways/the-looping-boat)

Still interesting, and nice photo! But being able to go inside would have been so cool…

Depends how well trained/organised they are, I suppose?

The documentary is worth watching if you can access it.