Shit I Find Interesting.

And so the onslaught is coming. Get ready, my friends. What is about to be unleashed on American society will be the greatest campaign ever created to get you to feel normal again. It will come from brands, it will come from government, it will even come from each other, and it will come from the left and from the right. We will do anything, spend anything, believe anything, just so we can take away how horribly uncomfortable all of this feels. And on top of that, just to turn the screw that much more, will be the one effort that’s even greater: the all-out blitz to make you believe you never saw what you saw. The air wasn’t really cleaner; those images were fake. The hospitals weren’t really a war zone; those stories were hyperbole. The numbers were not that high; the press is lying. You didn’t see people in masks standing in the rain risking their lives to vote. Not in America. You didn’t see the leader of the free world push an unproven miracle drug like a late-night infomercial salesman. That was a crisis update. You didn’t see homeless people dead on the street. You didn’t see inequality. You didn’t see indifference. You didn’t see utter failure of leadership and systems.

https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0

Large Asteroid Impact Simulation

https://youtu.be/bU1QPtOZQZU

Prisoner 819 did a bad thing.

https://youtu.be/3fmP1wiJdDc

Rent-seeking is the name for what happens when middlemen insert themselves somewhere where they're not needed, but do it just so that they can charge money for the “service”.

Health insurance providers are middlemen in the transaction between healthcare services and people who need those services. But they wouldn't “need” to exist if their homespun and arcane systems of “networks” and “coverage” didn't exist.

At this point, it makes sense to have someone filling that role, but only because of institutional inertia. Single-payer is so great because it doesn't fight against this inertia, but embraces it, telling the insurance companies that sure, they can keep operating as private entities, but in order to do so you may only interact with a single entity through which all payment for services is sent. If they won't make a deal with that single payer (the government), then they get no payers. This reintroduces bargaining power on the part of the people, instead of the case now where we are “forced” to pay the “rent” that healthcare is “seeking” just by virtue of them being in a position to withhold the service if you cannot pay.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EverythingScience/comments/e95uvh/who_wants_medicare_for_all_people_who_value/fahqhrr/

The rat race is designed to get you to yearn for more money at all costs.

It's human nature that those who decide to opt of the race will be questioned by those who didn't.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMenOver30/comments/d5yu96/career_question_will_i_regret_not_moving_into_a/f0ot83h/?context=1000

In my mind's eye, I picture our society plagued by black holes, voids which devour wealth, energy, labour endlessly.

For each black hole, a billionaire.

I'll elaborate; picture McDonalds, a highly profitable enterprise creating food at an incredibly low price due to its ecological footprint (destruction of rainforest for arable land being a notable example) this profitability is at the expense of local communities, paying terrible wages, creating stress, poor nutrition, taking wealth endlessly and giving nothing back.

And I mean nothing, the ownership of all large corporations is incredibly convoluted and exists to obfuscate profits, mechanisation such as reinvoicing services and obscure fiscal laws make the corruption of the first world an entirely legal affair.

There is no limit to the demands of profitability and at a point, the most logical step for an organization is corporate lobbying to secure a monopoly, a day comes for every corporation where the most logical step for maximizing profit is to circumnavigate taxes, and the combined corporate will dominates the legal system, in fact the law is influenced very little by the will of the people, lobbying is lawmaking, laws are made by lobbying, this is corporate interest, any question to this is to question “The national interest”.

And for every brand you can recognise, every corporation in the public sphere a black hole exists, contributing nothing, endlessly hungry. And it is this endless hunger this drive for profit, the necessity of not one, but two 300 foot long yachts in the Carribean that has burn society out, driven us to the edge of insanity.

One of my work colleges loves cars, and I always remember him watching a video of the latest greatest hypercar being released, maybe a $3 million Bugatti or similar, and a statistic given in this youtube video was that the average purchaser of this car already owns 84 other supercars.

It is simply the case that no number will ever be great enough, no cost to society too great, to limit the desire to consume more, and this drive has consumed us all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/ckye0x/millennial_loneliness_poll_22_percent_say_they/evsein7/

Forties here. The people who; “get more conservative” are those who accumulate wealth and have no empathy. There's lots of them. You don't get conservative because you agree with their policies. You get conservative because you don't want to help others.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Political_Revolution/comments/cf6z3z/affordable_healthcare_with_a_side_of_eat_the_rich/eu8d07v/

#economics

Women, in general, have very little patience for men's emotions that don't suit their needs. Our emotions aren't really concerned over, except insofar as they affect women. Literally nobody cares if we're sad, depressed, feeling hopeless, defeated, anxious, confused, uncertain, unsure of ourselves, and so forth unless it affects them, in which case it's usually a problem for them. Nobody wants to hear it. Typically it just upsets them because we are less valuable as emotional outlets for their own feelings, less firm rocks in a turbulent sea, or whatever other purposes our emotions may be recruited for. Men's emotions are not for us, as they are constantly being hijacked for someone else's needs. Sometimes these are broad social goals, but mostly these are the needs of a domestic partner. To ensure men remain useful emotional receptacles, we are punished our entire lives for demonstrating emotion beyond a narrow band of acceptability, typically situational: e.g., we're supposed to be courageous when that is what is required of us, angry when that is what is required of us, loving when that is what is required, and so forth. Anything else is routinely, often brutally shamed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/cb0v65/cmv_in_heterosexual_relationships_the_problem/etcv3xa/

#psychology

I agree but this will never happen. Americans fetishize the ultra rich. We all fancy ourselves as billionaires in the making.

Why, with enough hard work and a little luck any of us could be the next Jeff Bezos, right?

It's a chronic consensual delusion baked into the DNA of American culture. And it's fucking insane.

Imagine what you can buy with a million dollars in one day. Buy a nice house, a few nice cars, almost anything you want. For most people, a million dollars would be life-changing.

Charles Schwab, can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 25 years.

He’s just number 50 on the top billionaires list. Going to the even wealthier:

Mark Zuckerberg can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 195 years.

Warren Buffet can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 230 years.

The Koch brothers can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 242 years.

Bill Gates can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 247 years.

Jeff Bezos can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 306 years.

The Walton heirs can blow a MILLION dollars EVERY DAY for 370 years.

Trump gave the rich over a trillion dollars in tax cuts. If you took that money and went back to 700 BC, before Ancient Rome, and spent a million dollars every single day, you’d finally run out of money now, 2019.

These are very conservative estimates because it assumes that whatever is bought will have zero resale value.

All while we lead the industrialized nations for children in poverty (only Turkey, Greece, Israel, and Bolivia are worse), families are terrified of going to the doctor for fear of financial ruin, we have a massive homeless problem, young people are burdened with huge student loans, families are strained and broken because both parents have to work full time. How many murders, divorces, suicides, and poor upbringings have been caused by financial strain?

It’s TIME to adjust the rules.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/ca5xhc/remember_capitalism_is_working_perfectly/et6i4g9/

#economics

As the years pass by, I realize that I am mortal.

I now know that there is not enough time to explore every branch of study to its furthest reaches.

There is not enough time to read every good book or to slog through the bad ones.

There is not enough time for ongoing toxic relationships or for broken healthy relationships.

There is not enough time to be a good husband and father someday; I must do my best today, every day.

There is not enough time to live every life I once thought I might.

There is not enough time to regret the choices I've made or to be angry about the hand I've been dealt: I must make the best of who I am and where I am.

For as the years pass by, I realize that I am mortal.

Steven Mills http://www.stevencmills.ca/

#mindfulness