honestly surprised no one has tried this before? or have they?
like for once the man is selling an actual product with sort of mass appeal instead of weird niche stuff with low utility like sneakers or NFTs. and like $60 is expensive, but not orders of magnitude expensive? correct me where i’m wrong
$60 for a public domain bible, public domain constitution, public domain pledge of allegiance, and public domain declaration of independence? Sounds like an infinite order of magnitude expensive to me.
Yeah but not that much money. First run hardcover novels cost like 15-25 bucks and it's my understanding they earn the publisher the most money of any printing run and that's even with the cut going to the author. So unless they're producing these things with some high quality materials, which seeing who's hawking these I doubt it, I think it safe to assume these things are earning at least 40 bucks in profit per sale.
Which, even assuming a generously low run of 100k, is still $4 mil. That assumes that Evangelical churches won't buy these by the millions - and I assure you, many will.
You'll also get megachurches getting in on the action - there are a scary amount of mega pastors who are just waiting to be the new face of propaganda for a theocratic regime.
landlords are part of the issue. they dont simply provide a public service and get payed for their work and risk.
they sit on a vital resource that ppl need to survive and exploit that. landlords, especially big ones, extort as much as they can, consitently raising rents without good reason, while doing even less than the minimum amount of work.
no one is saying that everyone should own their own house but the landlord/renting model is exploitative shit.
really most of capitalism is like that but ig we notice it more when its so close to us.
I mean, they can only do that, because people are willing to pay that. Just increase the supply and prices should go down. If they artificially keep them high, government should step in.
I mean, they can only do that, because people are willing to pay that. Just increase the supply and prices should go down
You could make the same argument about medical care in the US. Shelter is a survival need. You can't just go without it if it's too expensive. So (like medical care) it makes no sense for there to be no public option to exert downward pressure on the market. Really it makes no sense for so much of the stock to be in a market at all, but at the very least there should be a viable public option. (Public housing stock in the US is incredibly insufficient and there are decade-longs waitlists for housing vouchers.)
However, a large number of policymakers in this country (and probably most countries) are landlords and very few are renters. Expecting a class to act against their own interests because it's the right thing to do is naive.
OP: debunks magical thinking about landlords by pointing out that the law of supply and demand is a thing
You: "but but but whatabout my magical thinking about landlords???!"
Frankly, I'm starting to get real sick and tired of people refusing to get on board with solving the real problem -- zoning density restrictions -- because they insist on looking for some outside villain to scapegoat instead of admitting that the villain is us and the consequences of our own shortsighted NIMBY demands!
you do realise that supply and demand are just the enabling factors that cause landlords to be able to extort as much they want, right?
magical thinking about landlords?
what magical thinking? that they are greedy and unethical and try to make the most profit out of their control over a vital resource? what is magical about that? how exactly did op debunk that?
do you know why we have scarcity of housing? because capitalists profit from it. by keeping the supply lower than the demand, they can ask for more while doing less. its not in their interrest to construct more housing. the more they build the less profitable it becomes.
thats why i am advocating from moving away entirely from a profit oriented financing model and private ownership model for housing.
yes, my landlord is not individually responsible for the issues with housing. its a systemic issue. my landlord is still a leech that extorts me.
here's an unpopular opinion in basically every circle: supply and demand is a meaningless tautology in its only "useful" form.
it is a post-hoc explanation for price discovery, but it lacks all predictive value. as scientific theories go, it's widely debunked and discredited, and lacks all predictive value. i would go so far as to say there is no economic theory that is more than post-hoc explanation and, so economic theory is indistinguishable from storytelling.
i agree with the thrust of the position that landlords are leeches. i would never try to use an quantifying economic theory to justify that.
this is the first time that i hear this but i am willing to consider it. i already know that there are a lot of "exceptions" where the supposed law of supply and demand does not propperly explain reality.
could you pws link me some resources that support or further elaborate your claim?
you do realise that supply and demand are just the enabling factors that cause landlords to be able to extort as much they want, right?
Of course I do; that's the fucking point.
The question is, do you? If you want to stop landlords, you do it by fixing the supply problem so that landlording stops being lucrative!
do you know why we have scarcity of housing? because capitalists profit from it.
No, that's a lie. We have scarcity of housing because the government literally prohibits expanding supply by law, because the NIMBYs demand it. The vast, overwhelming majority of those NIMBYs are not landlords, but instead merely owners of the single property they live in who want to eat their cake and have it, too.
thats why i am advocating from moving away entirely from a profit oriented financing model and private ownership model for housing.
You're advocating for bullshit fantasy that will never happen, at the expense of any solution that's actually realistic!
What kills me are the people whose preferred form of government is not currently the most popular form of government somehow think that after a revolution that their preferred form of government will win out. They're delusional. In most cases the government gets worse, much worse, before it gets better.
Yeah because the guy promising to end democracy and bring about Christian nationalism is exactly the same as the moderate we have now. I hope you’re getting paid to be that stupid.
”I won’t vote to support genocide!”
At the end of the day someone becomes president, and spoiler alert the other option is still worse. It’s cute you think your principles are more important than the safety and security of at-risk groups domestically (and frankly abroad as well). Short-sighted and idiotic.
”We might not even get ice cream!”
Okay well organize and protest that after we’ve avoided the cliff.
”Haha Americans are stupid for the entrenched political system that they find themselves in”
Hope you enjoy your five minutes of smugness, because a Christian nationalist USA doesn’t benefit anyone in the world in the long run.
a lot of the individuals ITT are here in good faith i believe. i’m more trying to get meaningful change to happen than sow discord by calling them morons.
i feel like sometimes people forget the little username in their phone represents a living breathing life that may or may not have had breakfast this morning :(
Well.... with the amount of bots confirmed to be out there.... and some of those living breathing lives are out to convince Americans that what they actually want to do is hand Dr. Fascismo the presidency by not voting or protest voting third party.
You need to communicate with people. Berating them is entirely self serving. No one ever said "you know what? I am a moron, thanks for pointing out my worldview is entirely wrong and I'm an asshole in those exact words."
You can get people to realize they're wrong, but calling them names is exactly the wrong way to do it.
I say "talk to a conservative in conservative language" and they'll understand you. Avoid "trigger" words like redistribution, socialism, LGBT+, etc... use words like "Liberty, freedom of expression, government overreach (when discussing infringement of LGBT+ rights) etc..."
It's so weird to see it framed as an either/or. Voting is the absolute bare minimum you can do to participate. So yeah go vote, and also organize your friends and network with like minded people around you and work towards the change you want. I doubt any of the ideologically pure abstainers here have even ever turned out to vote much less actually worked on a campaign.
People frame it as an either/or because the reality is that voting doesn't hold the personal power you think it does.
Due to how our elections work your vote just might be worthless. Add on all of the other issues at hand, and the prospective of voting is absolutely depressing for some of us.
This still doesn't really make it an either/or situation, but one situation gives you the ability to potentially make a positive difference in the world, whereas the other, not so much.
That Christian Nationalist USA is already present. It's emboldening is inevitable due to the inaction from Democrats and especially Biden: the alleged "moderate" president.
Biden is also actively arming a genocide in Gaza. A move I would say is extremely far from moderate in any position. Trump is a horrible choice for president. It was true in 2016 and it's true now. But if Biden refuses to do even the barest of minimums to defeat him in an election what does that say about Biden?
So sure, call it smugness, call it idiotic or whatever bullshit; continue to vilify those tired of voting for bullshit candidates and inaction. I'm sure that will help prove your point; as Biden does literally nothing to combat any of increasingly tense situations rising in the US under his tenure.
Please don’t misunderstand me: I’m not thrilled about the situation either.
But I’m also not going to coddle anyone that thinks making things significantly worse for untold millions to maintain some kind of ideological purity makes them somehow superior or less culpable.
I wouldn't water opposing genocide down to "ideological purity". It's opposing genocide, and that's objectively right every time.
And that's before getting into Joe's inaction on pretty much any important issues during his term. If Trump wins the 2024 election then outside of the GOP that's entirely on Joe Biden for failing to oppose genocide and run any sort of compelling administration.
The reality of the shitty political system of the US means that it comes down to two bad choices.
However one of the bad choices would see the genocide of the Palestinian people accelerated. Not only that, but Trump has tried to oppose aid to Ukraine, which would allow for genocide of the Ukrainian people to occur unabated.
So if your actions to oppose one genocide results in the continuation of that genocide plus one more, is what you did objectively right every time?
Yes, it is still objectively right. Anyone deciding not to vote for Biden isn't automatically culpable for any Trump victory unless they voted for him personally.
Again, Biden has had plenty of time to prove that he's against genocide. To take any sort of major action to try and stop this genocide from continuing the way that it has. Or at the very least taking away all US military funding from Israel. He has done none of that while approving additional military funding for Israel.
This is of course before bringing up the electoral college and how the majority of states don't even get a say in the presidential election outside of their states predetermined answer.
I will not vote for anyone funding genocide. Again, if Trump wins that's entirely on Biden and the Democrats for failing to do anything. The signs have been here for months if not years in terms of voter disatisfaction: and they continue to do fuck all.
Yes, it is still objectively right. Anyone deciding not to vote for Biden isn't automatically culpable for any Trump victory unless they voted for him personally.
This is an incredibly naïve and privileged perspective, clearly held by someone who has nothing to lose if Trump were to win.
All the anarkiddies that think the revolution is right around the bend forget that the reason vulnerable groups dont typically get any better treatment post revolution is bc they are the first to be destroyed when the revolution kicks up and the fascists double down.
These sorts of takes kill me. There is nothing stopping you from taking revolutionary courses of action right fucking now. The doors wide fucking open. Youll find that those doors will inch closed real fucking quick under trump.
The Spanish anarchists still have a political party active in Spain whose history runs right back to the civil war in which they fought. The very second of their posted tenets is (paraphrasing), making conditions under the current agenda more tolerable.
Meanwhile, russia has a single communist party formed in the 90s. Why? Bc all others were singularly crushed. They left the one that offers least opposition to the status quo.
That situation hasnt arrived yet. You are free to organize, you are free to aggregate in groups. You can spread your own propaganda, just as you can form or join labor unions, and you are free to try and create new communities of mutual aid. Those are all viable (read: necessary) steps to take.
Good luck taking them when the boot comes crashing down harder than this country has ever seen or was ever prepared for. Voting for Status Quo Joe isnt an endorsement of him, his policies, or the neoliberal status quo. Its just that, a vote. You can use it strategically to buy more time to make evasive maneuvers, or u can forfeit ur vote and lose it all. Then theres always throw it to the dogs via third party the way the american libertarians tried in 2012 when ron paul didnt get the repub nom the way they wanted. Guess what happened then... Johnson still get way under the 5% of the vote needed to give third parties greater tv time next time around. And this time, if dump wins, thats probably going to be the last ur able to vote for a third party president anyway.
We (the left) have been hit by foreign astroturfing the way the right was in 2016. The influx of youth that was supposed to save us by their leftward skew is running away from the political process bc they think theyre going to be revolutionaries. Sorry boys and girls, anarchy/communism wont be brought about by memes, sitting at home, or pretending that you can convince ppl to join ur cause after trumps elected when their lives are going to be all the more consumed and their free time dwindles away as we all work heavier and heavier hrs and the retirement age slips further and further away.
reason vulnerable groups dont typically get any better treatment post revolution is bc they are the first to be destroyed when the revolution kicks up and the fascists double down.
It is a strategic decision. Same as the past however many elections.
For the first time 2 years ago, however, i got the opportunity to vote for a candidate that i actually really liked to represent my voting district. And guess what, she won! My vote for her wasnt my endorsement of her, however. My spamming her name and cause to anyone in the area that would listen and donating money was.
The problem is that "moderates" are very conservative and fascist-leaning as well. The Biden administration is still funding genocide, still turning away asylum-seeking migrants, hell Biden hasn't even followed through on releasing prisoners convicted of marijuana convictions.
And people ARE protesting now, but not as much as under Trump, and these things haven't changed. Biden allows barely engaged liberals to think everything is okay, but Biden is still AWFUL he just has better optics to liberals.
Yeah, I agree that it’s a shit situation and an undesirable choice. But the unfortunate political reality we currently live in is that it’s either Biden or Trump.
Yes, the Biden administration is supplying weapons to Israel that are being used for genocide. Trump has commented that Israel needs to “finish the problem.”
Yes, the Biden administration is turning away asylum seekers on our southern border. Trump has said that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of our nation.
But I will again will contrast that Trump rescinded the Obama-era policy of not pursuing marijuana charges at the federal level in states where it was legal. A clear and significant step backward.
It’s not ”just optics”. Per your source he did pardon 6,500 individuals, which the Last Prisoner Project described as “progress for those eligible for relief.”
Now they do argue that the Biden administration should go further by pardoning 3,000 additional people, which I agree with. But to call this step forward “just optics” is at best disingenuous.
He is funding Israel's genocide, that is fascist. He is president of one of the most incarcerated nations in the world. Has he done anything to eliminate the prison industrial complex? He leads the most powerful army in the world.
Democrats do just enough to make it so that liberals don't feel icky about their day to day lives.
Biden should be criticised for not demanding Israel stop unnecessary civilian deaths.
It seems like by this logic every western nation leader who hasn’t directly intervened to stop Israel is a fascist.
Plenty of countries have trade relationships with Israel and are funding their war indirectly.
What I have seen though is that as pressure is applied to Biden on this issue he is more likely to ratchet up pressure on Bibi to rein it in. The same could not be said if Trump were in office.
Again though I ask you, who are you voting for if not Biden?
Yes!!! They are all fascist countries! And there are a few that are taking steps to end it.
Biden is not "failing to stop unnecessary civilian deaths" - this is a Zionist framing that paints the genocide as a just war. It is a genocide and Biden is ARMING the military commiting genocide. Biden is actively involved.
Biden is not pressuring Bibi in any real way whatsoever.
Let me ask you how Biden and the Democratic party are supposed to be held accountable, how are they going to change if people keep voting for them? Because so far they have NOT changed. The strategy of continually voting in lackluster candidates has not gotten us anywhere.
If the United States does not seem like a fascist country to you, you are probably very privileged and politically undereducated. We are funding a genocide for an ethnostate. We have a hugely inflated prison population for whom slavery is legal. No country even comes close to the amount of money we spend on the military, look it up it's not even close.
Sure, we have democratic elections, but so does Russia. When the "good guys" win the presidency, the United States is still doing all those things I mentioned.
Here’s the fucking frighting thing, the moderates I know(relatives mostly) hate Biden because of the price of gas and groceries, that he isn’t killing everyone trying to cross the southern border, and believe Trump will be better for America in these crazy times. It’s fucking depressing to hear
This is what I'm saying - the moderates fucking suck and it's not worth trying to win them over. Move the party left, the zombified vote-blue-no-matter-who Democrats will vote for a more leftist candidate just like they vote for a more moderate candidate.
I agree with your goal and the spirit of what you’re saying completely, but we’re kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Unless something completely unexpected like multiple age related deaths or a violent revolt happens there are only two candidates with any chance of attaining the office. Which means we have to make a choice. A choice I hate making but I want to continue to make choices in the future so it’s one I have to make.
I do understand that take and desire for harm reduction. I am a trans person and my and my friend's rights are constantly politicized by both parties. But even under Biden, trans people are actively being targeted in certain states, and under Trump, trans rights were strengthened in other states. The president can only (or chooses to only) do so much. But things the president can change include foreign policy, military actions.... so I think refusing to vote for Biden over the issues he has the most direct power over is absolutely appropriate.
I believe that voting third party could enable long term change, and that voting for Biden is perpetuating the system that is already causing so much harm.
Ok so, Trump and the GOP are marching head first into genocidal fascism and you’re naive to think you’ll ever get to vote again if he’s elected. The president only has so much power because it’s checked, that won’t happen this time as the courts are stacked to allow christofascim and both houses of Congress are hamstrung with infighting. Some state govs will resist and I applaud that but it leads us into constitutional crises and in my mind civil war. As a trans person I think you should understand the threat to your very life if Trump regains power in this current political world we exist in. Biden fucking sucks all around but we buy more time with him, which is a shitty comprise, but Trump term two, signals the end of the United States and puts the final nail in the coffin of doing anything to mitigate climate change. Not to mention the dissolution of nato which he’s verbal said he’s inclined to induce, which means the end of Ukraine as a nation and likely a Chinese takeover of Taiwan, is also suspect a rollback in workers rights and more tax cuts for the rich.
A third party vote only matters when the message sent matters to the recipients. The only way it MIGHT is if Biden wins and democracy continues. Because Trump won’t give a good goddamn.
We don’t have the luxury of that right now and I hate it too, but it’s the lot we’ve all fucking drawn.
I think you're thinking fatalistically when we have the capacity to try to change things.
a civil war sounds overall good? realistically, I don't think there will be a peaceful dissolution to the United States (has this ever historically happened?), and if some states could escape and self-govern, the people in those states might be better off. a constitutional crisis is long overdue. also justifying a vote for the candidate who is funding genocide by saying you want to avoid civil war is kinda hypocritical right? war for thee but not for me?
SOME people are buying time under Biden, other people in many states are not doing well at all!
the most he can do is defund the military, which would weaken the United States ability to enact NATO obligations. And defunding the military seems good?? If he wants to do that for that weird roundabout reason.
also, the United States is only one of many countries in NATO. the states of Taiwan and Ukraine wouldn't instantly crumble. and you're so concerned about the right to statehood, but you're willing to throw Palestinians under the bus?
the idea of the third party vote isn't that Trump would care, it's that Democrats would run more leftist candidates in the future and start trying to appease leftists instead of moving more and more to the right.
a second American civil war would be the most horrific, violent, and bloody war in all of human history and the species let along civilization would have very little chance at surviving again. Secondly if you think trump will stop Israel from genociding I have a bridge in Arizona. Biden hasn’t been funding Israel for 70 years we the American people have. Trump funded Israel when he was president. Yeah we’ll all be better off when there are insane Christian warlords sacrificing people to the Lord in Tennessee. Totally makes it seem like you have a foot in the reality of what a war within the US would look like
so are those people that aren’t going to be saved by Trump? Things will get better if you spite vote?
all Trump has to do is order the US military out, the rest of nato won’t do shit to enforce that because the US has the largest military and without it nato is horribly undermanned and would collapse in a domino fashion. You’re fooling yourself here. These are all things written on paper, fascists don’t give a fuck about shit like that
What the fuck does that matter if Dems never gain power again, which Trump will ensure doesn’t happen, as he’s pledged to go after his enemies
I’m done here and you’re blocked. I don’t have anymore energy to spend on someone so hopelessly deluded about the gravity of our current situation. I honestly hope you’re just a bad faith actor. Go to hell, I love you
The cliff drivers aren't getting off the bus, even if we vote them down this time, if we don't change the system that allows them equal opportunity to drive us off a cliff they will eventually force it off the cliff.
Biden has long supported the system that allows it, prides himself on being able to find a middle ground with them, and though he talks about not going over the cliff has no long term plan for dealing with those that do, because again he believes in the system that allows them to want to drive off the cliff.
I believe I've stretched this metaphor about as far as it will go, but I'm going to try stretching it further.
There are actually two cliffs, fascism and climate change, even if we pull the bus away from one cliff we've still got the other in front of us and basically no one is even pretending to deal with that.
And to leave the broken bus scenario, I'm just going to say if you believe that a trump win will destroy American democracy, that we can't defeat his corrupt, senile version of fascism then the next republican demagogue will have no problems.
People keep acting like we have forever to make change. Meanwhile we are in the midst of a literal climate crisis, and people are literally starving to death with the help of U.S. dollars.
Honestly that's probably me. But not what you think. In the process for long-term self sponsor visa to France rn. I made the decision in July 2022. Lived there a while to test it and now am in process to make perm. I'll still vote absentee if possible.
I don't really see any reason to be here anymore though. The experiment has failed and I no longer have any desire to try to protect it like generations of my family who moved here for equality of life and better economic opportunities. So, like them I'm moving, to a place that has the baseline of treating 52% of its population as humans and opportunities for my profession. There's plenty wrong there too, but the way I look at it, might as well have good wine while watching everything burn.
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