GrandDuchessTaco (she/they) Oct 6, 2023
Bread and Circuses

Our capitalist rulers, and the politicians they own, are playing the long game. Since the 1950s they have been working steadily to shift the Overton window, to reduce the influence of labor unions, to boost consumerism, and to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few.

A large part of that strategy involves privatizing services that used to be (and should be) public.

They're playing the long game, and they are winning — much to the detriment of you and me and the environment we live in.

#Politics #Capitalism #Environment

Oct 6, 2023 at 1:00pmWeb
Show threadZeke 🇨🇦Oct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses Terrific graphic.
Show threadMark BurtonOct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses
In the USA it started earlier, see Alex Carey's work.
https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p066160
UI Press | Alex Carey | Taking the Risk Out of Democracy

Show threadRichard Michael BlaberOct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses That is self-defeating, & the environment & the climate will have the last laugh. Capitalism needs to grow, & needs an ever-growing population to consume its products, even if it doesn't need more workers in this age of automation & AI. But resources are finite, as is the planet's capacity to absorb waste & pollution. We are already consuming beyond the limit, & further economic & demographic growth is unsustainable. A crash is inevitable, & capitalism is doomed.
Show threadNoel KellyOct 6, 2023

@breadandcircuses

In parallel, rebranding Great Depression discredited [Classical] Liberalism as Neoliberalism.

Show threadBenOct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses Government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. It's apallling
Show threadSCHOOLCOACHsince1997Oct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses LOVE THE GRAPHIC. IF we are not careful, destruction of public services will continue until the GOP/DNC “EUGENICIST -PRACTITIONER thugs and playground bullies adolescent clique” will have destroyed public school systems and or any chance to solve the USA’S socioECONOMIC crises. Your thoughts, USA?
Show threadPixÉlysé ReclusOct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses there should be an extra step early on: add bureaucracy and inefficiency under the pretext of controlling spending. Easy win, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy
Show threadxyz123Oct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses I suspect that we'd disagree about a great many things, but you're basically right about the degradation and privatization of public services. You could go on to discuss the corruption in the contracts with those private providers and you'd still be right. You're also right about the role of government in concentrating wealth.
Show threadTheSwiftDojoOct 6, 2023

@breadandcircuses it worked at Stonehenge... it's working now in America...

We need new leadership in the USA...

Taylor Swift for President!

Show threadSashinOct 6, 2023

@breadandcircuses We need to seize the overton right back and make it apparent to all how much we've all been robbed of.

We mustn't let them win at any cost.

Show threadLewisOct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses Britain is about to look like LA in terms of homelessness.
It's 'fine'.
Show threadKim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷Oct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses The fatal flaw in their plan is that the parasitic oligarchs have been dumb enough to under-invest in their private services too soon, so it’s becoming obvious that privatisation is worse than public services.
Their greed is always their undoing .
Show threadAndy MouseOct 6, 2023

@breadandcircuses

You know who else has played the long game? #Anarchists.

Do you know who have a long-standing hatred for #anarchism? Billionaires, cops, military, and the government.

And with long-standing hatred, I mean serial genocide.

I mean, it's not as bad as with Native Americans, or black folks. But still, we're talking brutality, violence, and mass graves.

(Note: I mean real anarchists. Not anarchocapitalists or doomsayers or whatever other category they have invented so as to make us fear, despise, and reject anyone who bear the mark of these ideas so mortally dangerous to the psychopaths you describe.)

Show threadHouse Panther Oct 6, 2023
@breadandcircuses Privatization of these public service just hastens the decline of them. It's one big circle jerk.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormOct 6, 2023

@breadandcircuses

Explains the reality of fascism quite well.

Show thread心扬Oct 7, 2023
@breadandcircuses they won't win and they won't fail too.
Show threadTim GatewoodOct 7, 2023
@breadandcircuses Exactly 💯
Show threadAethelstanOct 8, 2023
@breadandcircuses another part here is the centrist “liberal” policies that weigh down the public programs with means testing and complex forms until those who need it are deterred from using it.
Show threadJamellicaOct 9, 2023
@breadandcircuses People complain there is no long term planning, but you're right, the problem is the opposite. After the Great Depression, the rich set out to make sure the public would never again unite enough to wield great political power. They became social engineers, building a machine designed to be dysfunctional. So there is long term planning, but it is by people too arrogant and stupid to realize that the downfall of civilization will bring them down as well.
Show threadTwee JackNov 23, 2023
@breadandcircuses
The cleverest part that they have done with the NHS is to privatize much of the service which has led to the inevitable massive cost increases and service quality reduction and then blame the resultant excessive costs and poor service that has resulted from privatization on the fact that it is public.
Show threadDr. SobekNov 23, 2023

@breadandcircuses on the other hand, some public organisation are capable of shooting themselves in the foot, repeatedly, by death through bureaucracy. (Hours of work to control each 20€ spent).

Or a minister awards budget to give a raise to certain high-demand jobs (and align their pay on the inter-ministry grid). The HR instead spreads it over everyone and the high-demand jobs suffer massive attrition and recruitment failure.

Good public service is better than privatised, bad public service…