House Expels George Santos From Congress - eviltoast
  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 months ago

    I don’t disagree, but you’re skipping a lot of steps of how we fucking get there, man. You’re not going to start the revolution tomorrow by being an asshole on the internet. You’ll just get a lot of people quoting Lebowski at you: “You’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an asshole.”

    Sorry I’m busy living in the world as it currently exists instead of expending all my energy on lofty ideas that sadly most Americans are too toothlessly uneducated in understanding, yet supporting. I’d rather work on building coalitions, talking about how we can change things, and working within the system as it exists at the moment because we don’t have a lot of other choices.

    But sure, be angry that you can’t magically snap your fingers to make it better overnight, that really helps us get there. It’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater type stupidity.

    It’s not like non-profit journalistic outfits don’t exist, but they need funding. NPR used to be Publicly funded, but last I checked, the public funding dried the fuck up, because people don’t call to pledge money in telethons anymore, and surprise, now they’re corporate funded instead.

    Where do you think the money comes from to fund public news? It comes from the public, either in donations, or in the case of something like the BBC, taxes and fees like a TV license. Either way, you’d be “selling plasma” to afford it. You don’t suddenly get to opt out of funding it because you’re too poor when its taxes.

    • MiscreantMouse@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Hey man, call me an asshole if it makes you feel better, I’m just pointing out the problems as I see them, and the giant gaping holes in your suggestions. Widespread political corruption isn’t something we can safely ignore. The public can’t crowdfund journalism in a sustainable way, unless they get a substantial increase in disposable wealth.

      That’s the world as it currently exists.

      One Koch donation is worth more than the locals can ever give to local journalism, and most local outlets are just Sinclair Broadcast Group in a rubber mask anyway. But sure, be angry that you can’t fix it by parroting a facile solution, that really helps us get there.

      In response to your edit:
      You’re so close to getting it omg. Keep trying. It’s almost like this is a problem that’s been considered before, and had a solution. How could we ensure a public service is publicly funded? Should our poorest even be selling their plasma to pay taxes? That almost sounds like a whole other problem… If only we had a way to regulate these things. But of course, we can only consider solutions within a capitalist model, cuz 'merica, so obviously there’s no solution.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 months ago

        One Koch donation is worth more than the locals can ever give to local journalism, and most local outlets are just Sinclair Broadcast Group in a rubber mask anyway.

        So once again, short of total revolution, what’s your actual plan to get us there? You’ve made it clear the public is too poor to support publicly funded news, so what is your suggestion to make news publicly funded short of taxation that would increase the tax bill of the public that is too poor to afford it?

        Seriously if you can’t bring an actual answer, then fuck off already. I know my answer isn’t good, but fuck me, it’s better than bitching and doing nothing.

        Also, let’s not pretend that the fucking BBC is some paragon of virtue, publicly funded news can be conservative bullshit too.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 months ago

        In response to your edit: You realize the reason I called you an asshole is because people who want things to get better share information instead of acting like a smug prick because others don’t already know.

        Like, way to channel Angelica from fucking Rugrats in the 90’s: “If you have to ask, you’ll never know!”

        Saying shit like “since you’re struggling” to me when at no point before that had you mentioned “public funding” is literally the definition of being a smug asshole, chucklefuck. Sorry I can’t read your fucking mind because you want to dance around the fucking answer instead of just saying it.

        You know what actually helps? Educating other people, not shitting on them because they’re not fucking already “enlightened” like you. “Keep trying” said no good teacher ever instead of helping the student understand the concept.

        No wonder you’re obviously fucking miserable.

        You still refused to answer the question, because you’re more concerned with lording your knowledge over others instead of sharing it. Kind of antithetical to your stated socialist ideals, isn’t it? Hoarding information is what capitalists do you fucking idiot.

        So keep enjoying yourself by denying others information and acting like a smug prick about it, you’d fit in just fine with the Koch’s. Which, once again, is why I called you an asshole, asshole.

        • MiscreantMouse@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Lol, I’m not hoarding anything, just trying to get you to actually think critically about the problems inherent in your approach. And yep, I’m being smug, because you refuse to think seriously about your responses, while getting all huffy because someone dared to point out how unworkable the easy answers are. But calling me names totally strengthens your position though, good job there.

          You keep mentioning ‘total revolution’ as the obvious solution, and I would like you to think about why that is. I think we need big structural changes if we want to claw back anything approximating a democracy. You keep saying I won’t give you a solution, and it’s baffling to me that you can’t get there on your own, but if you need spoon-feeding, imo one of the most fundamental things we need do is go back to taxing the wealthy fairly, in order to pay for social services. gasp

          It’s just boggling to me that you apparently can’t even begin to see taxes as something that would help the poor, rather than hurt them, a perspective I’d suspect you’ve picked up from our deeply biased news media. Turns out, instead of making the poor sell their plasma, we should actually be making billionaires sell their yachts and vacation homes.