I read a wonderful short story once about mankind venturing into the stars where they become a symbol of hope, friendliness, and community across all physical and psychological barriers. They would be the ones you turn to in times of crisis, to deliver aid and make repairs, to mediate in times of conflict and to bring joy in times of celebration.
However, occasionally, the humans would see one of their own ships adrift in the sea of stars, and they would stop at nothing to destroy it. The abrupt and merciless hostility would always shock onlookers and associates. “Why” they always ask. The answer was always the same; “when the earth was suffering, they used up our resources and left us behind.”
Got a link or a name for this story? I’d like to read it.
Second
“If the billionaires are so determined on quitting humanity, perhaps it would be best to give them what they want and sponsor a mission to Mars so humanity can rid itself of them.”
+++
Think about how much empathy your parents generation has for yours. They kind of sympathize, wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand the wealth gap or your day-to-day.
Think about how much empathy you have for a 3rd world exploited labourer. You kind of sympathize, definitely wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand on how they live on less than a dollar a day.
Billionaires aren’t just one or two levels removed from understanding your situation. They are whole planets apart. They cannot comprehend our daily struggles. They do not see it except through summarized news reports that pander and reframe it to their lifestyle.
Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet
Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet
If we all do our part, they could be removed further
Your generalizing re your parents and the previous gens sympathy.
Especially those of us who were poor as kids.
We know how hard it is. In 1968 a house was about twice a persons average yearly income, now? Forgot it. My son probably will never have the option. The. Again, I really didn’t either.
My son will probably never be able to own a house, may not live in a free country, will face runaway inflation and much more
I faced much in my time. Some way worse than anything my son will see
But those were instances. Moments I. Time. Hard, difficult, but fleeting after a while
What we are living in now is pervasive, all consuming and total greed stifling the younger generations and pulling what little safety nets we have for the old.
I grew up harder. But I also grew up easier. For instance I. The early seventies , you could get a full weight set for 18 bucks ( don’t ask how I know that )
Today that weight set is 300. I mean wages were WAYYYYY. Lower.
But when a house could be got for 20 grand , they didn’t have to be.
I feel like we are in agreement
Let them be cake
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
I think they already do, hence the private islands and Bond villain style lairs.
That’s too generous.
If every piece of MAGA trash you know isn’t afraid of you, you’re a coward and a failure.
The Billionaires are a bunch of Degenerate Morons who diddle children, much as the ruling class has always been. They’re funneling the world’s wealth upwards thinking capital will insulate them from the coming climate crisis they’re exasperating. How I wish I could be there when they realize that it won’t.
Thiel has worried that Western civilization had entered a period of long-term stagnation in the 1970s which will continue unless there is a radical shake-up. This stagnation has many dimensions: lower economic growth, fewer world-changing scientific discoveries, and a general cultural malaise.
Imagine looking back at the proud of time where there was literally the most advances in the wildest technology and thinking it’s stagnation. It was from a time period where people remembered refrigeration as new and exciting to the time where your phone has more computing power than the ones that put people on the moon, and it’s in your freaking pocket, and say that technology stagnated.
As for the lower economic growth and the “stagnating” culture, that’s squarely on the shoulders of corporations, and therefore, billionaires.
interestingly, i get the sentiment that the economy has stalled since the 1970s from a surprising number of people, and i figured out that it’s probably because blue-collar jobs have stagnated since the 1970s, and that’s what most people feel. That sentiment coming from Thiel, who invests in software, is very weird though.
The thing is that while people struggle harder and harder for a smaller chunk of scraps, they still have a lot of quality of life improvements over the standard of living back in the 70s.
You almost certainly have decent access to passable air conditioning, which was far from a given back then. Even if you can’t afford decent health care, the sporadic health care you can get is still better than the standard of care then. You can have a 60 inch television and more content provided to it than you could imagine… You can instantly engage with people all over the world.
On the scientific discoveries, we have gotten the low hanging fruit. The twentieth century was remarkable, but the limitations of physics are harsh. A lot of excitement as we went from barely pulling off heavier than air flight to a moon landing in under 50 years. Media naturally imagined space exploration to be just a matter of time. Alas everything is exponentially harder and any further loopholes are supremely elusive.
Probably the one area with a great deal of unrealized potential would be biology, because the ethical easy forward is slow.
They never had any humanity to begin with. It is the only way to become a Billionaire.
and there i was standing on the crossroads of destiny, choosing to keep either my enterpreneurial spirit, or my humanity …
Have they not learned from Mario’s brother?
Removed by mod
Luigi
Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species.
Hard to argue with that actually. I’m going to go with they’re some terrible type of worm, slug, or parasite rather than human beings.
hey, don’t insult insects like that :D
A second time.
The first time was stealing from everybody to become billionaires in the first place.
well yeah, it seems to be a karmic thing. the pattern repeats life after life, age after age, until it splits off the main-stream and becomes its own thing, independent, permanent.
Maybe it is required to be inhumane to be a billionaire?
If so, then
Maybe it is required to be inhumane to
bea billionaire
And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.
William Gibson, Count Zero (Sprawl, #2)
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/126076-and-for-an-instant-she-stared-directly-into-those-soft
Like the torment Nexus tweet, I feel like some rich idiots read stuff like that and think it’s a good idea.
Always have been
Always will
