I think it works like this:

Maybe people like Obama, Bernie, AOC etc start off earnest and good.

Then one day, a gray man in a forgettable gray suit sits them down in a quiet room.

He probably says something like:

"I know you'd like to see major things change for the better, but the truth is, it's already too late. Here are the numbers we've been suppressing. No environmental efforts can stop it now. Life as we know it is already over, and if you try to tell anyone, you will only be causing a panic. Hundreds of millions of people are going to die. It's inevitable. Meanwhile, our enemies are focused on building power and they won't be slowing down to help people, so we can't afford to slow down either."

Very calm, very matter of fact.

"The best you can hope for, is to do what good you can while you're supporting the power structures that will allow us to protect a few chosen survivors. If you want your friends and family to have a safe place to go while the world burns, you'll do as you're told and keep your mouth shut. This is no time to ro rock the boat. We don't have the luxury for real democracy or progress. And if you're tempted to encourage any sort of uprising and it actually starts to get anywhere, just remember we don't mind tossing some false flags or kicking off WWIII a little early so we can declare martial law and keep the rabble in line."

"So. Just tell people what they need to hear in order to live out their lives in relative calm for whatever time they have left, and we'll let you look like heroes."

That's how I figure the establishment convinces otherwise basically decent intelligent humans to keep coming to heel like good little sheepdogs. This is what I believe we're dealing with.

A lot of folks talk about it as if the betrayals and sellouts are a matter of simple selfish grifting, but the thing is... We're up against the most powerful war profiteers on Earth here-- what wouldn't they do to protect their power? Let's not pretend they have scruples. Any change to the status quo threatens the purse strings of the same kinds of companies that have been building their empires from profits off of genocide, slavery, and environmental devastation for centuries. They let nations run around wearing a facade of sovereignty, rule of law, democracy etc like quaint decorations. Like the kiddy wheel you attach to your toddler's car seat so they can pretend they're steering.

They learned their lesson in the 60s-- overtly assassinating people in the streets makes us angry, so they have much more sophisticated techniques now. There's no sense massacreing protesters when you can just patiently torture and mutilate them while making sure the news tells everyone what unfocused useless violent failures they are. Why shoot someone when you can discredit them, break them, co-opt them, lock them up, suicide them, use them as an example-- there are many fates worse than death, and many many cracks for people to fall through.

It doesn't even really matter what specific cartel/mafia/gang/tycoon etc is responsible for what. I'm not going to get bogged down in those intricate conspiracy weeds wondering which people are pulling which strings or leaking what emails or what friggin hats they wear while dancing around in the Bohemian Grove eating babies and so on. This is a system, a hydra whose many many heads will always have thousands of ambitious replacements eagerly waiting in the wings, until conditions no longer support its growth.

This is how I think our world currently works. It's dark. Really fucking dark. The people who want to assume I'm just not scared enough of the Republicans or whatever, are fixating on a few small corners of a bigger picture full of horrors much worse than they can imagine.

But I want you to know, I still firmly believe that nasty gray man is LYING his vile, sociopathic ass off.

It doesn't have to be like this. Things CAN change for the better. It's a long shot, and it'll get worse before it improves, but solutions exist. There are always things we can do. The right things-- unexpected things, new things-- could set off chain reactions bringing in major paradigm shifts that can carry us to a better future.

The one certainty is change, and things are changing faster now than they ever have in the history of the world. This cruel system will fail-- its own nature is to destroy itself. We can still affect how much of the world it takes down with it as it goes.

We may as well keep trying to make something good. Ain't like we've got anything better to do.

#MineshaftGap
#Collapse
#ClimateChange
#WWIII
#Doomerism
#Sheepdoggery
#Corruption
#CorporateFeudalism
#LateStageCapitalism
#DontLetTheBastardsGrindYouDown