Why does it feel that the evil sides globally are winning. Even evil people are winning. Why?
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The common version of the phrase…
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
The actual version of the phrase…
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
A favourite of mine on that theme is from Boondock Saints (1999)
Now we must all fear evil men.
But there is another kind of evil.
Which we must fear. Most.
And that is the indifference of good men.I still love that movie IDC what anyone says lol
Unpopular opinion, but in the west particularly, folk have mistaken writing on the internet for action.
Tweeting resistance rather than performing it.
A lapse into inaction framed as radical rest and self care.
Online they are fierce warriors of justice, offline they go to work in Starbucks, use their apple devices to talk to their families and enjoy the treadmill of streaming services.
And this isn’t to blame them. This is the point of consumerist capitalism. To trap you in a gilded cage.
This is why I’ve stopped reading much of the content I had been reading before. Unless an article is about what someone is doing to stop what is happening, what is the point in reading it? I don’t care so much about the bad, rather in how the rest of us are preventing it.
For all the people complaining, I haven’t seen many talking about what steps they are taking to change the momentum. I get why I’ve may not want to announce what protests they are attending, but I haven’t noticed much new talk about mutual aid or volunteering efforts. I know the recent political climate globally is motivating me to be involved in both.
I’m waiting to hear back in a volunteer position helping local wildlife, and once I get that schedule worked out, I’ve already started looking into local food aid opportunities as well.
If our society is leaving gaps unfilled, as you said, it’s up to us to fill them ourselves before we all fall through.
I used to go to protests, from USA to Australia to NZ and UK… I’m not going to another protest until we start occupying gated communities. I’m sick of standing around looking pathetic occupying some sidewalk and politely leaving when told to by police. And to think that’s the best the so-called “leftists” can do, then I remember to back when things were bad - how the police and FBI would raid groups, murder them, drop bombs on them, and assassinate their leadership - and realize that leftism was defeated long ago. I want to keep it peaceful, and start picketing in places that matter like outside mansions and gated communities. Just stand outside the homes of billionaires to tell them we know where they live, we out number them, I think would be enough to shake things up a bit because they’re cowards too. However, in my heartest of hearts, I believe anything short of an armed overthrow of one dozen billionaires will never be enough. Fuck tinkering and pushing the needle slightly. Loud and armed leftist groups are needed now more than ever and there’s zero of them to be found.
you might want to look into socialism
I haven’t seen any socialist or anarchists show up with guns to protect protestors from police with guns, nobody has since the 60s.
theyve been definetly doing stuff like this sometimes in the us.
Exactly I budget and limit my time online to get specific kinds of information.
What kinds of information?
Where and when. I will make time to be there.
It’s time for good people to do some association too.
Well observed. People pour a lot of energy into political actions. The question is what that energy gets used on.
That would make sense except when you realize this is new media and is exactly how the right is warping minds. Elon didn’t buy Twitter because he was bored. We cannot concede all social media to the right and until there is a platform that can’t be bought the people won’t ever have a voice.
I’ve noticed no one actually wants to change their habits. I know so many people who will spout off about the environment, then think nothing of flying thousands of miles multiple times per year on the flimsiest of pretexts. Think nothing of eating meat with every meal. Will look at you with horror when you suggest public transport.
When it comes down to it the vast majority of people are selfish af. They’ll justify whatever their greedy little hearts desire, then tell themselves they’re the hero of the story.
I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.
Evil isn’t “winning” as much as it is “on top.” If you look around, talk to your neighbours and such, you’ll see that good and reasonable people are everywhere; good is the overwhelming majority.
That being said, positions of power are chased and coveted by those obsessed with power, and those aren’t good people. Good people need to take charge, but it’s — in a way — against their nature to do so.
good is the overwhelming majority.
Let the overwhelming centrist majority in 1930’s Germany tell you otherwise. People who peacefully ignore evil, even if it’s preserve their own safety, are not good at heart. People just don’t want trouble or disturbance, that’s why people are naturally kind from day to day. But ignoring the piles of bodies while saying “no politics at the dinner table” is literally how the holocaust happened - the majority failed to act.
1930’s Germany at least had the excuse of limited information/education, all they had was radio from which only Hitler’s voice was present. 100 years later with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, ignorance to politics is a choice. Might I say an evil one, all things considered.
That’s not a very generous interpretation of people… Though I can’t exactly contradict you.
I’ve been lied to, gaslit, and blamed by my self-proclaimed “centrist” family my whole life, been called alarmist my whole life when i’ve been pointing at these very same things coming from a mile away. There are tons of others that did the same, at least alt-right MAGA freaks give you the time of day to argue. Centrists though? They’re the first to say they “dont really care much about politics” yet hold their heads high with masturbatory egotism and confidently proclaim “both sides are wrong, I disagree with extremists of any kind.” They’re betting their childrens lives and future on their own malicious ignorance, like that joke with the priest who denies life saving medication because “Don’t worry, God will take care of me,” but replace God with the Markets and you have the modern day peasant that’ll rat you out to soldiers for “heresy” and have you hung, disembowled, or burned at the stake. A person of self-interest is not a person of reason.
“Centrist” is often a word for unscrupulous fence-sitter… It’s a shame you’ve experienced that. I despise self-proclaimed centrists as much as the next guy.
Do you think they are the majority, though? Maybe it’s my echo-chambers, but that doesn’t feel like it’s the case. I’m not American, mind you.
Pretty much my entire family fit under this category, plus at least 75% of the people i’ve met in my entire life, including schoolmates and work colleagues. Of the 25% that are barely conscious, 80% of them are (somehow and unfortunately) MAGA while 20% have moved into a tiny home or cabin somewhere to grow their own food. The MAGA crowd are at least looking around going “wtf, workers need to seize the means of production” meanwhile the centrist liberals are the ones going “things would’ve been better with Hillary or Kamala.”
MAGA, those voting for a privatizing fascist cutting taxes for the rich working with the richest people in the world to further the goals of the owner-class, are looking around going “wtf, workers need to seize the means of production?” Are you sure?
I can’t tell if you’re joking…
Yeah, those MAGA. The ones you typically see on youtube videos or twitter aren’t your average MAGA supporter, if you actually talk to one and ask them what they want, they start going off on things that even the most far-left Star Trek commie eutopianist could agree with, only to right at the end blame “the libtards!” or “DEI” or “immigrants” etc. They’re uneducated, they’re seeing things aren’t good and rightfully so, but they’re tricked into scapegoating before coming to the right conclusions.
Centrists? They say “You shouldn’t pay attention to these things.”
I was with you until that last statement, I haven’t met a single centrist that supported (voted for) Hillary or Kamala
I haven’t met a single centrist that
supported(votedfor) Hillary or Kamalalet alone attended a protest or demonstration.
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]
-MLK Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail
This depresses me beyond belief.
I agree, people understimate the amount of assholes in the world
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
I’ve heard this before, but I had no idea it came from the Hitchhiker’s Guide… Cool :D
I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don’t feel the need to dominate others.
I worry this is just rationalizing ones passivity as just an inherent part of ones assumed “goodness.”
There was more to say than that quote. Still, it does feel that good and bad (“good” and “bad”) people have a different rulebook, and it’s not as simple a fight as who wants things more, but rather who’s willing to do more for them, and evil simply has more tools.
It’s not that good people don’t try or don’t want to make a difference, but rather that their scrupulous nature doesn’t allow for the means necessary for rule, in the majority of the cases.
Plenty of good people do succeed in reaching and using power to do good, or at least I do hope and think that that is the case. Higher the stakes, though, or more the power, less likely it is.
Because the return of massive wealth disparity - similar to having kings again - has allowed those with money and power to bend the world in the direction of some form of dictatorship, whether it be fascism, oligarchy, whatever…. The New Kings are carving up society and want to increase control and profit, and an authoritarian governance is the way to do it. Just like how they treat their corporations. They are dictators, the little people are disposable production units to feed their machine.
How did we overthrow Kings again? Something about us becoming ahem “Enlightened” during some sort of era or period? What can we learn from the successes and failures? How did Europeans get ideas of freedom, autonomy, equality, and question of authority from when all they knew about was Kings and Divine Right? Did they perhaps go to some kind of ahem New World with a matchcoat and musket to live and trade amongst the natives for 200 years?! Perhaps there was some sort of ahem Indiginous Critique on European Culture that sorta blew the minds of the French, English, and Dutch alike? Perhaps they wrote some plays about this! That they could disobey or :gasps: impeach their leaders? That pursuasion and reason might be more important? Perhaps over some coffee and pipe tobacco? Oh right, next thing you’d think i’d say is they didn’t trade or so much as look at silver? How they MUST have had a “Market” how else could goods or heirlooms possibly trade hands? Certainly not gifts, quests, or gambling! Jeez, I wonder if we still have something to learn from these ideas that were just too darn complicated for Ben Franklin and Jean Jacque Rousseau!
- Rampant unchecked capitalism of recent decades has created large wealth disparities akin to the earlier decades of the last century. It is no longer possible for one person in a household with a regular job to support a modest lifestyle for their family. All benefits especially medical for the whole family, being completely intertwined with the current job reduces mobility and further feeds into the wealth gap by keeping wages low. It’s easier to blame the powerless for this state of affairs than the powerful because the powerless cannot object.
- The fear of the other has been accentuated by media and misinformation. Targeted algorithms feeding most of the information that is consumed has created echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and fears. The propaganda state has never had it easier.
- The large military and police has given never before control to the state about what is allowed to be protested. Combined with the day to day struggles, it’s extremely hard to come together for what is right. The ruling class is able to maintain the fine balance between absolute misery and general dissatisfaction that it is still better to struggle through a thankless job than to say fuck it. Failures of recent large uprisings like Middle East and Hong Kong have reinforced the futility of standing up against the rulers.
- Evil has many heads and there’s always one head that you can find alignment with. It could be the deregulation of businesses, lower taxes, anti abortion, racism, but as long as there’s one thing you can align on, the general sense of powerlessness makes it easier to overlook the other heads.
- The line between evil and good has never been murkier, especially with globalization. If you focus on the betterment of your community, it would be considered good, but what if it leads to suffering of others outside the community. Is it also evil? What is community - is it the people in your neighborhood, your religion, your country, fellow business owners? The fuzzier these lines are, the harder it is to untangle them.
I felt so evil this morning that I drove my car. Fuck you Nature, I’m taking climate back
We need more violent good guys
Because good natured people don’t want conflict so they avoid it.
Bad natured people actively seek conflict and engage with it whenever possible.
Evil never sleeps. Peace does.
Have you ever cheated at a game, cut corners on work or purposefully did something unfair to get better from it yourself?
Yeah it’s much easier to win without any pesky ethics or a strong moral compass.
Good folks have been struggling uphill since the Ancient Greeks as long as there are folks trying to win with a different rule book.
Capitalism is dying because of unchecked greed and people are turning to socialism. The wealthy choose fascism. Until we have class unity. Once we bring out the guillotines, They will retreat to spending the rest of their lives in the bunkers they have built with their stolen wealth.
People are scared and angry and want action without thinking about the long-term gains only the short term. Creating fear is fascism 101 and how many rise to power
Because now it is affecting you personally. Before it was in the middle east or some random aftican nation where people dont speak english, and media make sure it is not in the front page. Reading some history of any conflict will show the root starting a while back but no one cares.
I think the issue in America, is that the Constitution only addressed political power, but failed to account for fiscal strength. Money is inherently a thing that manipulates the fates of individuals, companies, and nations alike. By not setting down rules, limitations, and expectations regarding economics, the Founding Fathers allowed a key form of power go unaddressed.
The vast majority of Project 2025’s major backers are wealthy people, who have far beyond what any normal person can ever hope to possess. This imbalance means that workers have to sacrifice much time, money, and energy to be barely heard on a single issue, while a rich person can just hire experts to massage every aspect of their many messages and to deliver it everywhere with a mighty voice.
IMO, we will need a Constitution v2.0 that fixes not only assorted political flaws like the voting system, but also prevents wealth from being a microphone that only a few can afford.
My opinion on this generally boils down to that the system has been set up to reward evil/antisocial behavior, and this part of the system is so entrenched and well established and organized that it has not been effectively and completely toppled or eradicated in so long, it has been able to consolidate power and resources to a point where very few extremely evil people are personally in charge of so much of what happens that it seeps into everything. Actually “seeps” is the wrong word, it’s injected into everything. It’s like has been said many times in recent memory, the cruelty is the point.
For a simplified example, evil executives reward evil behavior by their managers, who in turn punish their employees, who lose control of so much of their lives to these companies and managers that they end up hurting their families and friends out of confusion and anger and other complex emotional reactions, and harm is perpetuated in every area of life.
It’s self sustaining, and even worse it replicates itself. In some ways I think of these systems as viruses. Also as cults. We all buy in to some degree.
There is no ethical consumption while living a capitalist way of life.
The internet. It led to the following:
- Good social change occurred very rapidly from the 1990s-2010s, causing highly motivated pushback from those who didn’t like the changes
- Rising wealth inequality caused by tech billionaires increased incentives and capability for a small number of extremely wealthy people to seize control of media and political power centers
- Foreign dictator governments became more able to more easily spread pro-dictator propaganda
- Media became more decentralized, leading to some good things but also the hijacking of our psychology to spread fear and disgust for the sake of grabbing attention
I would just like to push back and say that the Internet was an open public project, and it has helped countless people across the world. Every single problematic tech that people are pointing to at the moment are closed-source commercial projects.
That is Capitalism at work.
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Evil is willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to win. As long as good keeps fighting with one hand tied behind its back, evil will keep gaining ground.
It’s less that good has one hand tied behind its back, and more that good is fighting with a sword while evil brought an attack helicopter
Well, I think it’s more that we’ve spent decades building up cultural narratives of good that emphasize heroes who win through proselytizing, converting, and redeeming villains rather than just fucking stomping them. “If I do a bad thing for the right reason, I’m just as bad”, etc. In media, it works out because cosmic justice steps up to do what the hero won’t if the villain refuses to relent. In reality, it means that you get tut-tutted and told that the most you can do to stop ecocide and mass murder is peacefully protesting in such a way as not to even upset or inconvenience anyone, and it’ll all come right if you’re in the right. You might as well just go yell into a closet for all the good it’ll do, ofc.
I guarantee you that a jury of good people would throw a good person in prison if they tried to do the good things that need to be done.
