• WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 days ago

    That’s how all wealthy civilizations end.

    The central problem is that hierarchical systems reward and thus select for psychopathy.

    People with principles, morals, ethics, empathy and/or integrity will have choices they will not make - courses of action they will not follow, no matter the potential rewards. Psychopaths and sociopaths are not similarly constrained - they’re willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to succeed. So they will always have an advantage in hierarchical systems.

    Additionally, once they gain power, they will generally arrange things such that it’s easier for them to hold power, which not coincidentally makes it easier for other psychopaths and sociopaths to gain and hold power.

    Of course, with psychopaths and sociopaths in power, the civilization begins to decline. At that point, there are two broad choices - to reform the system or to warp the system to protect the privilege of the psychopaths. Naturally, the psychopaths choose the latter.

    So they find themselves in a situation in which the civilization is in decline due to their actions and they’re determined to keep doing what they were already doing. So they need a diversion so that they avoid the blame for the damage they’re doing. And that’s actually fairly easy since there are a great many people who can sense thst the civilization is in decline, but who are too stupid and angry to sort out who really deserves the blame. And all the psychopaths have to do then is isolate some unpopular fringe group(s) and tell the stupid and angry peiple that it’s all their fault, then the psychopaths can stay their destructive course while the stupid and angry people fight with whichever group(s) they’ve been pointed at.

    And that’s exactly where the US is today.

    • UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 days ago

      I agree with all the points you’ve made, but I vehemently disagree with your rhetoric in calling people stupid.

      A large portion of the people you are denigrating have been raised in areas with poorly funded and under-valued education. Some are willfully ignorant, yes, but most of those people have never been given the opportunity to learn or to appreciate the value of education.

      Calling people stupid is an insult that will alienate and propagate the “us vs them” mentality we need to overcome. They are humans that have had many disservices done to them by the government and thus distrust it. We have to figure out how to work with those who have been failed, those who haven’t fallen into hate but are ignorant or apathetic. Teaching literacy would go a long way.

      • Øπ3ŕ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        23 days ago

        Splitting hairs on blame and feelings will not keep the stupid MAGAts from shooting you in the street, citizen. Don’t apologize for Nazis, whether they’ve been indoctrinated or they’re goose-stepping by choice. ✊🏻

        • UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          23 days ago

          those who haven’t fallen into hate

          You appear to need help with reading comprehension as well, or at least a math lesson. Please, take a seat.

          Officially, Trump received ~77,000,000 votes and Harris received ~75,000,000 for a total of ~152,000,000 out of ~174,000,000 registered voters. If you must insist the 77,000,000 who voted for Trump are all Nazis, that still leaves ~22,000,000 apathetic registered non-voters.

          Those numbers do not take into account the ~90,000,000 disenfranchised or apathetic otherwise eligible voting-age population. That’s ~112,000,000 eligible voters who did not explicitly lick the boot. If you’d like to count all 112,000,000 eligible non-voters as Nazis that means the USA contains ~189,000,000 Nazis, or about 2.5 times those who either support the neoliberal status quo or acknowledged the effectiveness of harm reduction over purity tests.

          A more reasonable take on the eligible non-voter number is to assume apathy or ignorance over bigotry. Bigotry is indeed a hard beast to fell. Apathy or ignorance, however, can be overcome by promoting literacy and by extension critical thinking as valuable and necessary skills.

          These people are not stupid. They have been failed by an educational funding paradigm designed to educate the wealthy while the impoverished are left behind. Do you really believe they are all Nazis?

          Also; referring to anyone as ‘citizen’ is an explicit alienation of a group of humans. Alienation and dehumanization are major tools of fascism. Do better.