LaffyThe party of Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, CDU, is projected to win the NRW municipal vote, with the far-right AfD making major gains. -- DW News
Alex P Roe 
@GottaLaff So poor people are happy to keep exceedingly rich people excessively rich by voting for the lies of the #FarRight?! #facepalm
@alex_p_roe Canada is edging into it too. Way too fast.
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺@GottaLaff
Just about the whole world is. The disgust of capitalism is expertly weaponized and we're poised to slide through fascism into 21st century feudalism. And the media are along for the ride.
@alex_p_roe
Just about the whole world is. The disgust of capitalism is expertly weaponized and we're poised to slide through fascism into 21st century feudalism. And the media are along for the ride.
@alex_p_roe
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff That the media is along for the ride is a major problem about which nothing is being done. A certain Silvio Berlusconi used his control of the media to paint the pictures he wanted. Same recipe has spread beyond Italy and it’s pretty clear the #FarRight are very well coordinated.
@alex_p_roe
Yep. It's really blatantly obvious once you start to see it. What frightens me is that everything seems so perfectly meshed.
@GottaLaff
Yep. It's really blatantly obvious once you start to see it. What frightens me is that everything seems so perfectly meshed.
@GottaLaff
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff And extremely well funded too. Very hard, if not impossible, to counter this kind of power. Seems politicians have been bought off or blind sided by what is happening too.
@alex_p_roe
It takes a while to realize it's a huge steam roller coming at you. And once you realize, you have precious little time to work out a plan. Although I refuse to give up hope that it can be done.
@GottaLaff
It takes a while to realize it's a huge steam roller coming at you. And once you realize, you have precious little time to work out a plan. Although I refuse to give up hope that it can be done.
@GottaLaff
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff Well, first you’ve got to wake people up and politicians could do this though no longer through much of the media. And the message needs to be coordinated. It’d be good to back things up with facts but even they don’t tend to work so well today.
@alex_p_roe
Yes, that's what I mean by well-meshed. It's hard to drown out a few hundred megaphones blaring out a propaganda message in unison, especially with the way the opposition is (being kept) divided.
@GottaLaff
Yes, that's what I mean by well-meshed. It's hard to drown out a few hundred megaphones blaring out a propaganda message in unison, especially with the way the opposition is (being kept) divided.
@GottaLaff
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff Well meshed because it’s very well funded! It’s not easy to overcome so many megaphones. Nobody has managed it so far.
@alex_p_roe
That's the whole point, isn't it? The stakeholders in this obscene scheme are already so rich that they control all the megaphones. And whoever manages opposition strong enough to be noticed is immediately crushed. Litigation against moguls of this caliber is, to all intents and purposes, impossible.
@GottaLaff
That's the whole point, isn't it? The stakeholders in this obscene scheme are already so rich that they control all the megaphones. And whoever manages opposition strong enough to be noticed is immediately crushed. Litigation against moguls of this caliber is, to all intents and purposes, impossible.
@GottaLaff
@alex_p_roe
Re. the media: complacent or complicit? More often than not the latter, I fear.
@GottaLaff
Re. the media: complacent or complicit? More often than not the latter, I fear.
@GottaLaff
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff The media is largely complicit because it is owned by the obscenely rich and used to attack anyone who might threaten their dominance.
@Eetschrijver @GottaLaff I’ve been compiling a list - not in order, feel free to add to it - it has a UK bias. Cc @ChrisMayLA6
Thanks to the political #right #neoliberalism and the #farright:
We can no longer afford kids
We no longer have stable employment
We have a polluted earth
University is too expensive for those who could benefit from it
Cars and motorbikes have become too expensive for most
Housing has become too expensive for most people
Healthcare services are failing… (1/3)
We have fewer doctors
We have very expensive dental care
We have to retire later
Hate is widespread
Immigrants and migrants are demonised
We’ll have no jobs and little income in the future
Food quality is falling
Energy costs are rising
Beaches and rivers are polluted
Investment in education and training has virtually dried up
The rich are getting richer
We now have “working poor”.
World war 3 is getting ever closer. (2/3)
We have very expensive dental care
We have to retire later
Hate is widespread
Immigrants and migrants are demonised
We’ll have no jobs and little income in the future
Food quality is falling
Energy costs are rising
Beaches and rivers are polluted
Investment in education and training has virtually dried up
The rich are getting richer
We now have “working poor”.
World war 3 is getting ever closer. (2/3)
List update: Public transport quality has been eroded. National companies have been offshored thus reducing their benefit to local economies.
Trans people are being persecuted for no reason, as are #LGBTQ and others, for colour or whatever.
The media has become little more than a propaganda arm for the right and the rich.
- This list is not applicable to all nations yet but, please, keep voting for the right 😉 #politics (3/3) #FarRight
Trans people are being persecuted for no reason, as are #LGBTQ and others, for colour or whatever.
The media has become little more than a propaganda arm for the right and the rich.
- This list is not applicable to all nations yet but, please, keep voting for the right 😉 #politics (3/3) #FarRight
Emeritus Prof Christopher MayWell, that's a pretty comprehensive list of out trials & tribulations (boosted!)
@ChrisMayLA6 Comprehensive but by no means exhaustive. Thanks for the boost 🙂
List revision:
(Thanks to the political #right #neoliberalism and the #farright:)
We have fewer police on the roads
Weaker policing (UK)
Authoritarian policing (USA and UK)
The #privatisation myth. Instead of saving everyone money, it is costing everyone more.
(Thanks to the political #right #neoliberalism and the #farright:)
We have fewer police on the roads
Weaker policing (UK)
Authoritarian policing (USA and UK)
The #privatisation myth. Instead of saving everyone money, it is costing everyone more.
List update:
The over 60s in the UK cannot afford housing: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/03/growing-numbers-over-60s-homelessness-charities-warn #neoliberalism #FarRight
The over 60s in the UK cannot afford housing: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/03/growing-numbers-over-60s-homelessness-charities-warn #neoliberalism #FarRight
Another couple of topics to add to my already long “damage caused by the political #right and #farright" list - fewer people are working much longer hours for proportionally less pay.
Corporations place profits and keeping shareholders content way above making society better for one an all. #greed rules, alas.
Corporations place profits and keeping shareholders content way above making society better for one an all. #greed rules, alas.
PointlessSpike@alex_p_roe Public transport is ceasing to exist. Buses and trains are obviously far more efficient than cars but conservatives hate them because they aren't individual, and have made them so much more expensive than they need to be.
@PointlessSpike Good point - added 🙂
pookiesorcery@alex_p_roe some call it the culture wars... quote from the same man that said that the only "mistake" from Orwell's "1984" was placing in the future a reality that was already here (the book was launched around (1948-1949)....
@pookiesorcery Orwell was undoubtedly prescient and no doubt took into consideration the nazi and communist regimes. The USSR at the time resembled Orwell’s big brother. Actually, with today’s tech, 1984 is getting closer! I don’t think we are quite there yet but events in the US are nudging us ever closer.
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑@alex_p_roe
The American Dream, 21st century style.
A dream for billionaires, a living nightmare for others.
The American Dream, 21st century style.
A dream for billionaires, a living nightmare for others.
@brouhaha That appears to be where we are headed but they may well be killing the geese that lay their golden eggs 😉
@alex_p_roe
The billionaires believe that by investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI research, that they will get AGI that eliminates their dependence on human labor. They want the science fiction post-scarcity economy, but only for themselves. Once the billionaires have AGI, they have no interest in the rest of us, and would gladly eliminate us if we get uppity.
The billionaires believe that by investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI research, that they will get AGI that eliminates their dependence on human labor. They want the science fiction post-scarcity economy, but only for themselves. Once the billionaires have AGI, they have no interest in the rest of us, and would gladly eliminate us if we get uppity.
@alex_p_roe
The fly in their ointment is that they're not going to get AGI for a very long time, if ever. Most of the money is going to LLMs, which are not on a path that leads to any intelligence, let alone AGI. Sam Altman promises otherwise, so they keep throwing money at it, and accelerating the destruction of the ecosphere in the process.
The fly in their ointment is that they're not going to get AGI for a very long time, if ever. Most of the money is going to LLMs, which are not on a path that leads to any intelligence, let alone AGI. Sam Altman promises otherwise, so they keep throwing money at it, and accelerating the destruction of the ecosphere in the process.
@brouhaha Ha! It appears that quite a few billionaires believe LLMs are #AI! They are not (but I will admit to thinking they were initially). Machine learning is AI tech that helps build LLMs but there’s that #hallucination issue!
@alex_p_roe
Yes, AI companies keep claiming that they will remove the "hallucinations" from their LLMs, but it's bullshit. An LLM is, by definition and by construction, a hallucination machine. If you could remove the hallucinations, there would be nothing left.
People are fooled easily into thinking there is intelligence in an LLM because the hallucinations often seem quite plausible on the surface, and they are stated in such a seemingly authoritative way, as if they were solid facts.
Yes, AI companies keep claiming that they will remove the "hallucinations" from their LLMs, but it's bullshit. An LLM is, by definition and by construction, a hallucination machine. If you could remove the hallucinations, there would be nothing left.
People are fooled easily into thinking there is intelligence in an LLM because the hallucinations often seem quite plausible on the surface, and they are stated in such a seemingly authoritative way, as if they were solid facts.
@brouhaha Spot on - the hallucinations are extremely convincing and it can be extremely difficult to tell truth from invention. It’s probably only a matter of time before expensive litigation is brought over the reliability of LLM output.
@alex_p_roe
Like the Air Canada incident, but bigger.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know
Like the Air Canada incident, but bigger.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know
@brouhaha One example. I wonder whether this might lead to issues legal liability issues: KPMG wrote 100-page prompt to build agentic TaxBot https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/20/kpmg_giant_prompt_tax_agent/
@brouhaha The billionaires will end up with an extremely dull world in that case! We need a few more humane billionaires if they can even exist! I can only think of Soros!
peterF@alex_p_roe @Eetschrijver @GottaLaff @ChrisMayLA6
What to make of this long list?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is how it got like this - I see three options:-
1) it's far too difficult for even the greatest minds to run a country
2) we elect incompetent politicians
3) they never intended to make it good for us at all
I don't think it's 1)
@PeterF @Eetschrijver @GottaLaff @ChrisMayLA6 Number 2 and number 3 - this 'direction' was chosen by a small number of people who wanted to protect their extreme income and wealth - they have more than succeeded. But for everyone else, the political #right is the #wrong direction to head in and it’s also led to the lunatic in the US.