Dorj740
Richard LittlerAliens: "We don't understand why 8.2 billion humans are just standing by while a tiny (tiny!!) fraction of narcissistic, flagrantly benighted terrestrial fucknuggets ruin the planet and risk the future of the species. It makes no sense."
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@Richard_Littler humans: we don't understand it, either
Jamez Barrett 🜃 ॐ Ⓐ@Richard_Littler I would argue that it's more about a system of value than what individual people do or have accumulated. In turn it is a system that directs all that we do and how society is organised. Perhaps the most obvious measure of value in this system is money. But there are other measures of value. To borrow from Pierre Bourdieu, these measures include social, cultural and symbolic capital. All these forms of value drive the hierarchical division of humanity and unequal distribution of resources and wealth. Aliens are more likely to see us as prisoners of our own childish desires and irrational fears, than as simply slaves to a privilege class. The wealth isn't so much the issue as the ridiculous and cruel system that produces it (along with hunger, homelessness, war, militarism, nationalism, poverty, wage slavery, colonialism, child labor, mass consumption, resource exploration, professionalism, the manosphere, environmental destruction, global warming, hoarding, body dismorphia, influencers, super yachts, gated communities....... and so on).
JackMex
numanumayey@JackMexa4 @didgebaba @Richard_Littler
biggest problem with wealth is that it inherently disincentivizes doing anything that promotes self worth - why cook your own food when you can hire a chef and have it delivered to you by a butler?
problem with getting someone else to do it, and it's getting quite salient with LLM usage, is that it induces cognitive and physical decline. you didn't use it, so you lose it.
the privilege of not having to do it anymore quickly devolves into the prison of being unable to do it anymore.
soon wealth becomes the only thing that you have, and you're stuck unable to do anything for yourself, especially if you haven't done it before.
the solution is to build a society that promotes learning new skills and life fulfillment as primary values, above how much wealth you have.
nobody feels horribly insecure anymore, and you'll naturally make a lot of wealth with such a society regardless.
furthermore, a nation not tied to wealth as a value and that prioritizes education and skill over it can do a hell of a lot more on the world stage.
(*cough* china *cough*)
@breathOfLife @JackMexa4 @Richard_Littler yeah...wealth is relative. The ways it can seal people off from greater society is interesting. The wealthy can control their own time and space. It's almost like the symbolic value of money defines the material conditions of human interaction ( that's a tautology I realise). I do know some very wealthy people but they are consistently unhappy and frustrated. It's the seperation they experience as well as the pressure that comes with wealth. Being "well off" is easier.
Raven667@didgebaba just like there should be a floor for poverty which the state does not allow anyone to fall under, so their basic living needs are met, there should be an upper limit as well that no individual can claim as their personal property. In a similar fashion, organizations should also have limits on how much wealth can be under their private control before they need to have representation from worker unions and democratic oversight as well as shareholders to steer decisionmaking to be accountable for dowmstream effects, not just profit.
@raven667 the way to think is what is your budgeted resiliency for bad decisions destroying value, how much is one person allowed to screw up, and when do we need to have collective supervison of resources.
@JackMexa4 @Richard_Littler good question. There is a lot that has to be done. I am perhaps of a more radical persuasion. Nation States need to be curtailed. An Indigenous World Council needs to established with executive power. Wealth needs to be collectivised. Surplus should be converted into base production and not more. Tax should be shifted from the Middle Class to Corporate and the Wealthy ( I would argue for the Swedish model as it was in the 1970s). Education should be free. Intellectual Property can last no longer than a creator's lifetime. Psychedelics replace religion. I could go on...
tripleman, a 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪@Richard_Littler Our big brains are pretty buggy.
The aliens never read Darwin.
Steve Holden@Richard_Littler "Conditioning."
Oblomov@holdenweb @Richard_Littler «like, for the hair on your head? Is it a parasitic appendage?»
MostlyTato@Richard_Littler
They do understand. If they have managed to come this far they have navigated the Great Filter so they have been through what we are going through and survived.
They won't contact us until we negotiate the Fermi Paradox: they will let us become extinct and do nothing to help. To do so would be unwise at best.
Roughly a third of the voters wanted Trump.
In the end, we will only become extinct because we, as a species, deserve it.
They do understand. If they have managed to come this far they have navigated the Great Filter so they have been through what we are going through and survived.
They won't contact us until we negotiate the Fermi Paradox: they will let us become extinct and do nothing to help. To do so would be unwise at best.
Roughly a third of the voters wanted Trump.
In the end, we will only become extinct because we, as a species, deserve it.
Nazo@Richard_Littler Jokes aside, I bet they would actually understand that we are a social animal and quite stupid taken as a whole. They might even have gone through some of the same stuff.
But more likely they're just too far away and this segment of "will all advanced life on Earth die in a massive nuclear war soon?" hasn't reached them yet.
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC@Richard_Littler OTOH, the aliens might do themselves in as well. Maybe the Industrial Age is the Big Filter, the reason why we don't see any alien activity in the galaxy: Species never become space travellers because they ruin their home planets' biospheres with the unintended side effect of their Industrial Age, which ends in utter collapse.
LukefromDC@LordCaramac @Richard_Littler Or their early nuclear age
Luna chan
Becca@Luna indeed.
jonathankoren™
Vicenç@Richard_Littler concentració de poder? alienació generalitzada? Indefensió apresa? fal·làcia evolutiva? Diner?
ZenHeathen 🇨🇦@Richard_Littler A lot of humans are already saying the same thing.
Q. Edwards@Richard_Littler Fear of violence and fear of losing what little they people have pretty much does it.
@the_q eh, violence is already a given
the state is going around on a murder and kidnapping spree
there's nothing to be afraid of. we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.
once the bully materializes a threat, the negotiating phase is over, and there's no unknowns left to fear.
there can only be action.
Mïkê 💚 👑🐉🗡️🏳️⚧️@bweller @the_q @Richard_Littler What kind of action are you talking about? When are you going to do it? What are your objectives? How will you achieve them? What resistance can you expect to see? How will you overcome it? What happens once you've won?
Do you know how the action will change your life, in the short and long term? What have you done to mitigate the effects of those changes? How long can those mitigations last once the action starts?
Who are you going to do this action with? What will be your and their roles in the group? What responsibilities do those roles come with? What experience do you have with similar actions in the past?
What tools are you going to use? If you don't already have them, how will you get them? Do you know how to use them safely? Do you know how you're going to maintain them throughout the action? Can everyone else in your group say the same?
Etc etc. It's easy to talk about the necessity of revolution and civil war in the abstract. Once you start thinking about how it would actually go, you'll start to see why it's not happening.
@[email protected] you are a useful idiot. blocked for gishgallop.
HTPC NZ@Richard_Littler maybe cus secretly a large chunk of the watching wishes it was them who were doing it and is in awe and admiration.. .
Flaming Cheeto@Richard_Littler
For a long time....
Aliens: let me get this straight, most of you sleep in one place and work inside during the day someplace else.
Humans: yup
Aliens: 3 orders of magnitude fewer of you don't have homes and sleep outside to the detriment of your mental and physical health.
Humans: yup
Aliens:... while the offices are empty at night, climate controlled, dry, and have clean water?
Humans: ummmm....
@Richard_Littler how often have the nazis tried walking into my BAR?
they have to be in range first, and they spend all their time in..
*checks notes*
Minnesota
Anne Delong (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Open Street Map seems to have some data. https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=north+oaks+minnesota&zoom=17&minlon=-116.60027146339418&minlat=33.285319534122&maxlon=-116.58837318420412&maxlat=33.28991141285622#map=15/45.10027/-93.07805 #mapping #privacy
Ham on WryDid we all forget about David and Goliath? Why is it so difficult to fight back?
Jigen@Richard_Littler There was a time I didn't see how Klingon society could possibly function. Now I think you might need to be a bit more like the Klingons to avoid our current situation.
KanaMauna@Richard_Littler mind control
Violet MadderWell, they've managed to convince an awful lot of us that ganging up on them and taking them out of power would be, um, rude.
@Richard_Littler One person, one vote, one guillotine...
GhostOnTheHalfShell
Futurama - Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five?
notanowl@Richard_Littler for all their talk of freedoms they sure love being subs
@Richard_Littler Then they should seek to understand. If there was no real reason (as you seem to be implying), it wouldn't be happening. But it is happening, so there is a real reason. So what is it?
I think the most compelling explanation (that I've seen so far) is the one from Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher (specifically pages 21 and 22). Virtually everyone with the power to stop that tiny fraction doesn't want to. Not because they approve of what that fraction is doing, but because they don't believe that a world is possible where power is not so concentrated.
They don't know how they could ever participate in society without somehow, at some point, giving a little more money to some capitalist. And so they don't fight for it. If they make any demands at all, they limit themselves to just mitigating the effects of the latest catastrophe. But they cannot imagine a world where such catastrophes would never happen. It's no wonder they don't try to achieve it.
Capt. Tony@Richard_Littler especially when one of the largest populations is armed to the teeth
Axel@Richard_Littler
I guess the 8 billion people are influenced by the media owned by the hundred billionaires.
I guess the 8 billion people are influenced by the media owned by the hundred billionaires.
Carmen Zedler@Richard_Littler
-because as the Bible says: They don’t know what they do! #humans #male #men #patriarchy #idiocracy
-because as the Bible says: They don’t know what they do! #humans #male #men #patriarchy #idiocracy
Leonard H. Deas@rabenmutterschafft @Richard_Littler It really does feel like we’re living through the "Prologue" of Idiocracy sometimes.That "they don't know what they do" line hits hard,it's that mix of intentional ignorance and the sheer momentum of broken systems.t’s wild how a tiny group can hold the steering wheel while the rest of us are just passengers on a very shaky bus.By the way, I’m curious where you’re posting from? It’s interesting to see how these issues feel from different corners of the globe.
Arby@Richard_Littler Because the ones that ruin the planet, are therefore also the only ones who have the military power that would be necessary to fight against it.
John Quentin Heywood@Richard_Littler “flagrantly benighted terrestrial fucknuggets” is a bit long, but I am definitely stealing it
Oooh, forgot “narcissistic”….have to add that
tusk@Richard_Littler because we never steer airplanes into towers, and they know it.
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺@Richard_Littler
Such is the power of money. And while Valentine Michael Smith, protagonist in the much lauded Stranger in a Strange Land and in several ways likewise an alien, was said to be "dazzled by the beauty of money", as a system of distributing influence it definitely has its shortcomings.
@Remittancegirl
Such is the power of money. And while Valentine Michael Smith, protagonist in the much lauded Stranger in a Strange Land and in several ways likewise an alien, was said to be "dazzled by the beauty of money", as a system of distributing influence it definitely has its shortcomings.
@Remittancegirl
Urzl@Richard_Littler We're all acclimated to injustice. Our earlier experiences were with teachers, parents and other authorities whom we were meant to implicitly trust without question.
We were taught that the powers that be always know better and are unquestionably competent to the tasks at hand. Telling them what to do or that they are wrong is at minimum micromanagement and more likely insubordination of the social order.
The Epstein class taught us from birth to be profitable cogs.