People keep electing conservative fascists like morons
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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America, in particular, doesn’t exactly have an alternative.
To wit,
“Americans are served by three political groups, but are represented by only two political parties.
“The alt-right have a party all to themselves, while the centre-left share a party with the centre-right such that they cannot effectively function.”
You take a look at any president since the Carter administration, and they have all been right of centre. Obama was solidly centre-right. Biden is on the threshold of being fully right-wing.
About the only people who sit anywhere to the left are people like Bernie Sanders and AOC, and in most other countries they would be considered solid centrists and milquetoast moderates. They are not extreme-left in the least.
America has no left-wing politicians, much less any on the far left.
But on the far right? pretty much the entire GOP is sitting there with their asses hanging off the fascist end of the political horseshoe.
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In terms of cost, the cost of doing business likely rose due to inflation over the past few years. Those costs have supposedly plateaued but costs for consumption continue to rise. My two cents are markets will continue to increase prices until demand goes down. Eventually they will lower their prices out of necessity as they compete for those who can still afford their products and services.
Capitalism
Have you read Cory Doctorow’s book on enshitification? I think he focuses more on the Internet but might help answer your question.
Enshittification is just a good concept because it's everywhere! It's basically how business operates on internet platforms. First the good times: you provide value to customers and sellers alike. Then the shitty times for sellers: the business begins to charge sellers where they weren't being charged before and things that were free or easy to access before. Then the shitty times for everybody: customers begin to be extracted for their value as formerly free or easy to access stuff gets paywalled. The Bu
Planned obsolescence is enshittification of manufactured goods and services. Make a name with a strong product that meets customers needs, then focus on profit maximization, intentionally sabotaging the product so that customers are required to come back to you to buy it again.
De-regulation, in many cases, is the enshittification of so many things. The government limits potentially nasty things whole industries can do and then de-regulation comes in and upends all of that. Suddenly, trains are spilling toxic chemicals all over Ohio because of a rolled back law on safety.
It's everywhere and it's all about value extraction.
Late stage capitalism is your answer, my friend.
I mean, graded on a wide curve of history right now isn't complete shit. WW1 saw entire generations of young men slaughtered uselessly at the hands of unelected kings. It was so horrific we actually still try not to use chemical warfare. Absolutely brutal combat with casualties that have hardly been seen since. Absolutely nightmare conditions. We baulk at the deaths of 25,000 over a few months of conflict where WW1 regularly saw those numbers in as little as a day. I do not want to minimize the absolutely brutal conflicts going on now. A newly orphaned child is not comforted by history, but your question seeks context and what else is history for but to contextualize the present?
To me, history shows we have not even begun to experience the the depths of the horror people are capable of. At least in the states decenting voices are not carted away into slavery camps, actively trying to wipe out whole populations with starvation at least has some voices calling out the brutality, I do not see people trying to sell their children to survive like in the depression. These are not far away times where these things happened on a scale they do not now.
Long story short, history has shown the measure of brutality and uncaring to be significantly worse at times. Raw and unquestioned genocide, slavery, persecution, war, child beating, women opressing, and all manner of the lowest acts of evil are the norm of humanity, not the relative peace we have known over the last 80 years. This fact does not make life suck less, but can at least act as a measure for how horrid is has been.
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Leaded gasoline.
Capitalism, etc.
Every generation feels this.
I believe the reason that each generation feels this way is the different ways that each generation is exposed to information about current events, wars, etc. and now more than ever with the internet, it's hard to escape. The internet also makes echo chambers worse than before because not only are they easier to get into, they're much louder and have more influence.
As for products, companies are focused on user/subscriber growth more than ever instead of having a good product. The idea is essentially “why have a good product people pay for when you can half ass it and get people to pay”.
Are things demonstrably worse? I'm reading that they are but I'm not seeing that they are. I don't live in a great area, but people generally seem as they've always been. Some struggle. Most are fine. Life goes on.
Because Nash Equilibriums, prejudice, and freeloaders.