Vibe check · 12:59am Sep 12th, 2020
So, it's 11th of September, which means I get to remember that time the US supported a brutal dictatorship here in Chile, that lasted seventeen years, and which fallout we're still dealing with.
But unlike my previous annual freakouts over the situation, I want to try something different. I'll just put a list of opinions here and you guys can decide what to do. Comment, ask, PM, ignore, stop following me... Your call.
Capitalism ran its course. Any good that could have come out it got outweighed by the ridiculous concentration of riches we see nowadays.
Socialism as the oposite of capitalism isn't the end-all solution either. But given the choice, I do prefer a nation that puts people over money.
Science is real, but not unbiased. Be critical.
Critical means think it through and check for sources. It doesn't mean to reject everything.
One's freedoms end with the rights of the other person.
Civil rights have to be intersectional. It makes no sense to fight against one type of discrimination and ignore another, or worse, support it.
Black lives matter.
No human is illegal.
Love is love.
Trans rights are human rights.
Yes, nihilism makes all the sense. But that's not an excuse to give up.
And I'm bi, by the way.
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As I think about my nephew and two nieces, I am worried about the world that they will become adults in. It's like a car on a slope, with no brake on and whose occupents are arguing and fighting, and nobody notice the slow but constant shift of the car rolling down... I am worried.
It is a slogan that was countless times abused, manipulated and thrown around like a buzz word. but... I still feels that it is a great slogan and expression what should be...
Liberté, égalitté, fraternité!
In order:
1: The ideal economic system is at a nexus between individual gain and collective gain; as a matter of efficiency, overprioritizing either end of the spectrum of individual to collective ownership results in greater costs to sections populace which results in those sections of the population either, falling outside of the system/being pushed out of the system entirely as the system becomes forced to ignore swathes of the populace in order to maintain some arbitrary standard of living for those who can afford to advocate for themselves, or living in a perpetual state of poverty from which they cannot escape. This does still apply to socialist systems, but frequently the costs to system are concealed until the state can no longer support its own subsidies. This is what I think anyway, but I am only basing this on what I have read, I haven't taken economics classes.
2: Socialist states, like capitalist states, endorse economic systems which appear to please the relevant voter base upon which their systems run. A capitalist system cares more about pleasing the rich few, a socialist system cares more about pleasing the many, but in either case political power is the only thing those who run the system cares about. Morals and ethics are excuses the system uses to obtain legitimacy.
3: Science approaches a lack of bias as if it is an asymptote; the truth is acquired through mass acquisition of data and analysis, more often than from singular brilliance in discovery. A scientific study can be wrong, but a collection of scientific works are usually something approaching right.
4: Critical thinking is everything you said, but often a person would rather be told what is right than see for themselves because doing so requires energy and time they may not want to spend.
5: Unbalanced civil rights are more a result of xenophobia which is rooted in fear of loss, either of position/job or income, due to 'the other' getting what you had coming to you instead because they are more willing to work for a lower wage. This is directly responsible for the general right-ward trend in some nations politics in Europe, which is triggered by the migration of refugees out of the middle east. It isn't an inaccurate view, in some senses, but something to think about is how likely someone from those countries would have taken those jobs in the first place. Here in U.S.A. a similar complaint is levied against people from south of our southern border coming up here, but people frequently forget that the jobs that they take, in meatpacking plants, farmland, etc. are jobs which, for whatever reason, the average person won't take.
Anti-feminist arguments in the early 1900's were rooted in the fear of losing political power, regardless of any statements of an ethical or moral basis. A little more than half of the U.S.A. is female, and that proportion was similar at the head of the 20'th century, so enfranchising women resulted in a significant change in the political power calculations. And political parties hate big changes to the political power calculations. That's part of why the Republican party up here is so against the idea of statehood for Puerto Rico.
Of course, the justifications usually take on a life of their own, and the need to dehumanize 'the enemy' usually makes suppressing that enemy a cause in its own right.
7,8,9 & 10: The Golden Rule. Everyone should use it. 'Do unto others as thou wouldst have done unto you'.
5353731
I have two too. A niece and a nephew. The worst part there is that there is a side who's advocating for stomping the brakes, at least. We just need to pay attention, and help however we can. Here in Chile, for example, months of protest led to a plebiscite to get rid of the dictatorship's constitution. It's one small step, and it took decades to get it, but it's something.
I remember a slogan too. Or maybe the right word is motto. There's an operative difference, but it's on who's saying it at the moment;
El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido.
5353802
On your first point, I think the discussion escaped the boundaries of the abstract a while ago. It's not about the ideal economic system, or what it proposes as an ideology. Economy being the one social study that's all about ignoring society, it all boils down to how something works on practice and what happens next. So far, the current brand of capitalism (neoliberalism) has taken too much from people. Hiding behind averages and per capitas, it has created a society of extreme riches for a few at the cost of extreme poverty for too many, while putting the divide between both as an integral part of its system.
Either way, I do agree that a sociopolitical and socioeconomic system can't run on the honor system. There needs to be regulations and decentralization.
Science is the academic approach, but it isn't without its bias. Specially among the specialized circles. On the grounds a person is exceptionally good at a certain discipline, they tend to feel they know enough and ignore anything else. Hence why an expert programmer may miss why their face recognition program has troubles with people of color, on the grounds that testing the damn thing on people of color to begin with didn't occur to them until the fault created a bigger problem down the line.
One thing is to know, and another, surprisingly different is to understand. Someone who's taken so much effort in knowing can't say understanding is more than they can afford. Therefore, education must come with a critical approach. The cold numbers and data are just insufficient beyond the paper they were written on.
And besides the whole Kant approach of treating each other as one wants to be treated, it's just the one thing we have. What ese is out there but each other?
5354419
What's a motto?
5358993
A phrase that resumes what someone follows o believes in. Kinda like a creed.
5359124
Lol, I know. I was just hoping someone would make the Lion king joke between timon and pumba
5361098
Ah! In my defense, I watched it in Latin Spanish.
5362712
Aaahhhh lmao, that makes sense. And honestly, I wish I could learn other languages. I'm trying to learn Danish and Irish at the moment but that is very slow going using free apps lol.
5362836
All the support.