Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
-G. K. Chesterton
A related quote that I also like:
Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise, you are making their destiny not brighter, but darker.
It’s been proven over and over again that if you give people at the bottom more money, they buy more things, which makes the economy stronger, which increases industry, which makes more money for the top 1%.
Yet, instead of upping pay for their workers, billionaires fight as hard as possible to do the opposite.
These people have been dreaming for years of a ‘new world order’, with them, the glorious techbros, leading their own kingdoms free of all that pesky ‘government influence’. Their plan is to wreck the world and build their little bunkers, and then all of us plebeians will be begging at their door to be let in, because the world outside will be unlivable.
They write manifestos about all this. It’s their wet dream.
At press time, several states had introduced legislation that would require the turtle-apartment theory to be included in high school biology textbooks.
Yeah, nothing’s ‘plunged’ at all. He’s still in the 45-49% approval rating he’s had since taking office. Hell, any ‘dips’ are statistically insignificant enough to possibly be rounding errors.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This isn’t politics; it’s a matter of morality.
There is no place in a civilized society for behavior that unpersons fellow human beings. Ever. Full stop. We do NOT need to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of people who want to be cruel to others for no damn reason. We need them to change, or leave.
It’s racism. In America the answer is almost always racism.
Basically, with a GoFundMe, or ‘churches taking care of the poor’, or whathaveyou, you can make sure your money goes only to the poor Good Christian white folks, and none of it gets used to help those icky brown folks. Unlike government programs which have to help everyone equally.
Because true respect is something money can’t buy.
They say money can buy you whatever you want, but really it can only buy you items and appearances. But rich people spend so much time just throwing money at various desires and issues that they tend to confuse appearances with substance. Note Musk buying ‘skill’ at video games, and the push for AI—because it allows them to pretend to have skill at something they don’t.
So they endlessly chase appearances, and are confused when all they end up holding is empty air. An unsatisfying feeling, to say the least.
When you have everything else, and you’re still not happy, and throwing money at the issue is your only skill, you keep trying that, no matter how often it doesn’t work.
And just because you didn't vote for a racist sexist committed felon, means you're better?
Yes.
Because your party is so great and wants you to prosper? Or is it just controlled by corporations and billionaires with the same agendas?
Don’t know when I said anything about parties or what I think of Democrats. Pretty sure that’s an entirely different topic. (I think they’re the controlled opposition party, for what it’s worth.)
Ones that are so endemic to Japanese culture and so central to their cultural identity that I doubt they will actually address them.