This is the second time this exact meme has been posted to this sub, so I suppose this is the second time I have to say this.
Socialism does not inherently guarantee collective worker protections, nor was socialism itself designed specifically to provide them.
At its most basic level, socialism is an economic and political framework centered on social or public ownership and control of the means of production. Worker protections, labor rights, workplace safety regulations, unions, minimum wages, and social welfare programs are separate policy choices. They can exist under socialist, capitalist, and mixed economic systems.
More importantly, there is very little historical basis for claiming that socialism, simply by virtue of being socialism, guarantees the protections this meme is describing. In fact, many governments that have implemented socialist economic systems have had extensive records of suppressing independent labor organizations, restricting worker autonomy, and disregarding individual civil and political rights.
You can argue for those protections. You can argue for socialism. But conflating the two doesn’t make the historical or economic argument any stronger.
Old but still relavent.“But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never, ever, EVER be fixed. It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got. Because the owners, the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now, the BIG owners! The Wealthy… the REAL owners! The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want: They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests. Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that! You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you….they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you. They don’t care about you at all… at all… AT ALL. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream,because you have to be asleep to believe it. George Carlin
The fight isn’t left vs right, it’s down vs up. That’s what they spent their money on, making sure we lowbies keep on fighting against each other. None of it works, except to make sure powerful people remain powerful and rich.
And remember that they got rid of your third spaces so you couldn’t discuss any of it (and made common affordable gathering options like concerts and sporting events out of reach for the same reason). Threw you into algorithms so you felt like you were only preaching to the choir or conversely that nobody held your same opinions/aspirations for something more - either way a formula for you to get exhausted and give up.
And you do feel exhausted.
algorithms that have devolved into echo chambers and amazon recommendations. yeah and anyone who creates is a third space is usually labelled an evil person or a conspiracy theorist and put on an FBI watch list. now they have, “an aging problem,” at concerts, clubs and events because no one can afford them except for those in their late 40’s early 60’s, 2012 was the last affordable year for any of those things(, that’s conservative it’s more like 2014.) you’re never preaching to the choir because there’s a bunch of hive minds and if you’re not adhering to them, you’re the odd man out so having an opinion doesn’t even fucking matter anymore.
just like this, this doesn’t matter, right now what i am typing doesn’t mean jack shit but at least you can put it out there. you can put your opinion and your voice out there. I guess that matters more than anything
This really bothered me when I visited the USA (East coast). In retrospect I feel like I had the right to the highway, as long as I was driving. But no town square with a bench where I could just sit, no park where I could lean against a tree, no parcel of nature where I could just go for a walk. Cafés and restaurants were expensive and uncomfortable, clearly designed to push you out once the nominal transaction was complete. No wonder people eat in their car, alone.
I’m sure I missed a lot of good places during my visit, but I felt like the pattern was very quite obvious. Highway, Walmart, highway, Walmart, highway, Walmart. The forests aren’t wild parts of nature, they’re closed-off as-yet undeveloped land, awaiting their appointment with the axe. The town centers now have fewer options to linger than a classic mall. The suburbs are endless rows of freestanding houses, with no padding - no library, no shop, no playground, no outdoor gym, no football field. Maybe some pro-social resident set up a box for exchanging books between neighbors. That’s it.
Not saying the rest of the world is perfect by any means. But in Sweden where I live, I feel like the I’m seeing positive changes over time, with new third spaces being added every year. In my town the city center is now car-free during summer time to make space for outdoor furniture, and the nearby cafés and bars thrive. They’re adding grills for cooking to parks, making nature trails more accessible, and peppering the place with playgrounds and outdoor gyms. There’s a long way to go to perfect but at least it’s moving in the right direction.
Absolutely. But also remember that the concept of Third Places coined by Oldenburg focused on the wrong thing. A lot of the examples of “welcoming and leveling” places were actually pretty deeply exlusionary, which makes a lot of the Third Place rhetoric a white, male, heteronormative fantasy.
And importantly, it’s starting from a contradictory place to build a theory of pure civic community around spaces that rely on capital. A business’s primary goal is profit. The moment a patron stops spending money or takes up a table for too long, the illusion of “neutral civic ground” dissolves. By focusing on establishments (where the primary activity is conversation and consumer lingering), his theory ignores the Commons, the true public infrastructure like plazas, parks, and sidewalks. The argument can be made that instead of trying to revive Oldenburg’s nostalgic storefronts, society should focus on the “right to the city” in the shared public ownership of physical space where citizens don’t need a consumer identity to exist.
Ultimately, maga’s unhealthiness is they refuse to adapt to reality, whether that’s climate science, economic data, or global best practices. Their policies actively make life worse for most Americans while enriching a tiny elite. The tragedy is that many of their own voters would benefit from the very systems they oppose, but corporate propaganda, tribalism and proudly choose to stay in dualism, keep them voting against their own interests repeatedly. Until that changes, the US will continue to lag behind nations that prioritize people over profits. Real truth sets us free!
also co-opting anti-vaxxing too.
Amongst each other, the billionaires are the biggest socialists of all. They are simply greedy and do not want to share their ill-gotten gains. “C’mon poors! Fight each other for my pleasure and profit!”.
Of course, when things start to go sideways, they are the first to scream for government assistance. The very definition of socialism.
As much as possible just stop participating in capitalism.
Grow your own food. Share what you can’t use.
Connect with your neighbours. Offer to help with anything you’re good at. Share tools with them.
Hyper individualism is capitalism’s best friend. You can’t borrow a chainsaw from someone you don’t know. You have to buy zucchini from the store because you don’t know anyone with a garden. You have to pay a plumber for a simple leak instead of someone you know being able to help. And so on.
The powers that be will shit themselves if we all start cooperating instead of fighting. Why do you think they stoke the anti-trans flames so hard? Why make up that they’re eating the dogs and eating the cats?
They don’t want us getting along. That’s bad for business. You can do your part to fuck them up simply by remembering how to be a real human. Not a consumer.
Grow your own food. Share what you can’t use
I started a jalapeño pepper plant two years ago that’s been popping out peppers like crazy. I hate peppers, so I give them to anyone who wants them around town.
I do not share tools though, they never seem to come back. If you need a tool or something I have, as long as you don’t mind a furry foul mouthed Canadian I’ll gladly come help though and bring them along.
most of all - ignore the last 100 years of socialist history detailing what a useless, inhumane disaster it’s always been
Who is talking about socialism? Are you OK?
You heard it here first kids, plumbers exist because of capitalism.
For-profit plumbing businesses, yeah.
I know you’re trying to be snarky or whatever.
That’s an embarrassingly stupid thing to say.
I know!
We need more Luigis
** Luigi intensifies **
I don’t hate socialism. I hate socializing.
Same. Let me pay taxes and enjoy quality public services, but don’t make me talk to the neighbors.
The Epstein class must held to account for the rat fuckery they’re doing
If only they stuck with rats
In my case, they wasted their money.
But, yeah, too many people have been duped.
That’s why the Epstein class can also be called parasites.
Absolutely. Strong community bonds and local resilience should be a foremost corcern, and ideally come before ideology, heritage, or tradition.
The corporate fucks of the world are great at dividing us up and watching us fight each other over ideological and traditional differences, then laughing while they rob everyone blind.
