this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 89 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Make no mistake, that is the future that we were entitled to, but which was stolen from us by capitalists and despots.

The old sci-fi writers weren't wrong in their aspirations for us, we were wrong for letting our futures be taken away from us.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (2 children)

They thought automation would drastically reduce the amount of work someone needs to do to survive, instead of just increasing corporate profit and leading to layoffs.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

and it should have reduced the work as predicted

The only reason we aren't approaching Star Trek utopia is because of the unchecked greed fostered by our systems of capitalism.

There is no reason that, in a world of finite necessary work, increased automation shouldn't have freed us from the constraints of some of that work.

The fact that it hasn't isn't indictment of automation, it's indictment of unchecked capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Star Trek's utopia came after economic collapse and a third World War, in that order. So we actually seem to be on track so far.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

No war but class war (and preventing genocide)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, sure, valid, but I am specifically speaking of the end state and don't personally believe that is the only pathway there, though I do fear much the same as many of us that it might be the most likely.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

At this point war and revolution is probably the only way forward. How else do we get rid of things like capitalism and nationalism?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Real talk, aside from walking into a voting booth every few years, what actual real world effort have you put into changing the world and system?

Because I'm gonna be honest, I hear this defeatist sentiment a lot, and it's almost always from people taking other's word on the matter, not from the people who are out on the ground enacting real change every day.

Change isn't impossible, it's just hard. You just have to ask yourself if you care enough to put in the effort or if you're just waiting for revolution because it's the easy answer.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

I actually used to attend protests, meetings, try and convince people to join back when I was part of a marxist organization. From my perspective all the people on the ground wanted a revolution. I think if you actually looked you would find plenty of people like this. I left for several reasons, including not agreeing with the actions of Leninists in the past, but also because I couldn't sustain the required time and energy to the cause.

What do you do to create change? What is your plan? I don't have a plan anymore, perhaps because I don't know enough. I am not sure it's even possible.

I am not suggesting I have all of the anwsers. I actually think there is a good chance things won't work out even after a revolution or civil war (see the soviet union for example). I don't think it's realistic to expect anything to change without one though. Almost all great leaps forward and changes in regime through history has been through violence and war. This didn't always improve things either.

Revolution isn't an easy answer at all. It seems impossible from my perspective no matter how much I try to tell people it might be necessary. Actually convincing people is extremely hard work and that's just the start. There are plenty of cases where revolution didn't work, and plenty of revolutionary ideologies to battle it out. None of this is simple and easy. It might be our only shot though, if we have a shot at all which I doubt very much. Honestly though I think if we do nothing things will collapse eventually anyway. The worst option is things become stagnant and stuck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

as horrible as it will to live through that (as many of us may), one can only hope

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I think if you peer behind the curtain of that utopia, I see the shadowy outline of an authoritarian government controlling it all. And Star Fleet is the iron fist in the velvet glove. The utopia seems to exist to simply keep the masses fat, happy, and controllable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Yep. Kill your masters, or youre killing yourself (and also literally every other living thing becauae climate change)

There is no third option. I mean, you could ask shitty Jeff to give it all up and srop, just fucking stop, and be an aging beach himbo and fuckerberg to just run a cringe mma gym and maybe contribute to an obscure Linux GUI a couple times a year. But they won't. Don't think they can.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It reduced the number of laborers who were necessary. The rest outlived their usefulness.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I wish we were exploring space more!

The monkey paw curls. We get entitled pricks, destroying labor protections to build so much wealth they've bought everything worth owning on the planet and still yearn for more.

I wish we had robots to do our work!

Another finger curls. Wealth inequality cripples the working class. Corporations consolidate to the point that everything is profit driven... locked behind paywalls or subscriptions. The only publicly available art and literature are made by robots.

I wish we could all communicate with each other!

The last finger curls, and paw crumbles to dust. Democracies around the world flounder as their populations are brainwashed by greedy CEOs in the news and media...taught to fear their neighbors and mistrust those politicians who haven't been bought and paid for. Online, they're bombarded by misinformation campaigns on every topic until they live in different realities. Diseases and pestilence once vanquished through science and cooperation return when science isn't trusted and cooperation with your fellow citizens is viewed as betrayal to your tribe. The world now burns, and it, too, crumbles to dust.

This timeline sucks, yo.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ummmm does anyone know what painkiller heals soul damage?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Yeah, that's knowledge available to you for 12.99 per month, or if you prepay for the whole year, only 129.99!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Excuse you, i was a child when all of that was happening 😭

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Hey everyone, this child fucked it up for us all!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Let's look at which legislators have held progress back since we landed on the moon and it's almost exclusively one party...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Facts. "Both parties" might definitely suck, but the scale and scope to which that suck remains entirely non-comparable. The democrats are incompetent and ineffective, yes, but the republicans are openly and enormously diabolical and hostile.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

No. One is worse. This does not absolve the other.

Fight the worst bastards, but if you only fight them to the bosom of the less awful but still very awful bastards? Youre not winning. Youre not even surviving long.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Democrats would rather lose to Republicans than risk a third party gaining traction. Make no mistake, there's a mustache-twirling villain capitalist party, and a "I swear I'm trying, please vote for me on this most important election evar" capitalist party.

Our most recent chance at lasting real change was the rail strike. Before that it was Bernie Sanders. They're doing it on purpose and playing leftists for fools.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

This both sides are the same shit is so old now

If you truly can't tell the difference between them, I don't know what will help you now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

They're different, but they're good friends at the end of the day. One wants to kill me, the other doesn't care and wants to make their friends happy. I die either way.

They're not the same, but they aren't trying to be different.

If the dems wanted to win, there would have been a primary, and anyone but biden on the ballot. They care more about perpetuating genocide and sucking billionaire dick than they do about stopping fascism at home, and they're not willing to risk the former ending to do the latter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I just told you the difference.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Not leftists. Libs. No overlap.