And remember that they got rid of your third spaces so you couldn’t discuss any of it (and made common affordable gathering options like concerts and sporting events out of reach for the same reason). Threw you into algorithms so you felt like you were only preaching to the choir or conversely that nobody held your same opinions/aspirations for something more - either way a formula for you to get exhausted and give up.
And you do feel exhausted.
This really bothered me when I visited the USA (East coast). In retrospect I feel like I had the right to the highway, as long as I was driving. But no town square with a bench where I could just sit, no park where I could lean against a tree, no parcel of nature where I could just go for a walk. Cafés and restaurants were expensive and uncomfortable, clearly designed to push you out once the nominal transaction was complete. No wonder people eat in their car, alone.
I’m sure I missed a lot of good places during my visit, but I felt like the pattern was very quite obvious. Highway, Walmart, highway, Walmart, highway, Walmart. The forests aren’t wild parts of nature, they’re closed-off as-yet undeveloped land, awaiting their appointment with the axe. The town centers now have fewer options to linger than a classic mall. The suburbs are endless rows of freestanding houses, with no padding - no library, no shop, no playground, no outdoor gym, no football field. Maybe some pro-social resident set up a box for exchanging books between neighbors. That’s it.
Not saying the rest of the world is perfect by any means. But in Sweden where I live, I feel like the I’m seeing positive changes over time, with new third spaces being added every year. In my town the city center is now car-free during summer time to make space for outdoor furniture, and the nearby cafés and bars thrive. They’re adding grills for cooking to parks, making nature trails more accessible, and peppering the place with playgrounds and outdoor gyms. There’s a long way to go to perfect but at least it’s moving in the right direction.
Absolutely. But also remember that the concept of Third Places coined by Oldenburg focused on the wrong thing. A lot of the examples of “welcoming and leveling” places were actually pretty deeply exlusionary, which makes a lot of the Third Place rhetoric a white, male, heteronormative fantasy.
And importantly, it’s starting from a contradictory place to build a theory of pure civic community around spaces that rely on capital. A business’s primary goal is profit. The moment a patron stops spending money or takes up a table for too long, the illusion of “neutral civic ground” dissolves. By focusing on establishments (where the primary activity is conversation and consumer lingering), his theory ignores the Commons, the true public infrastructure like plazas, parks, and sidewalks. The argument can be made that instead of trying to revive Oldenburg’s nostalgic storefronts, society should focus on the “right to the city” in the shared public ownership of physical space where citizens don’t need a consumer identity to exist.
Ultimately, maga’s unhealthiness is they refuse to adapt to reality, whether that’s climate science, economic data, or global best practices. Their policies actively make life worse for most Americans while enriching a tiny elite. The tragedy is that many of their own voters would benefit from the very systems they oppose, but corporate propaganda, tribalism and proudly choose to stay in dualism, keep them voting against their own interests repeatedly. Until that changes, the US will continue to lag behind nations that prioritize people over profits. Real truth sets us free!
Amongst each other, the billionaires are the biggest socialists of all. They are simply greedy and do not want to share their ill-gotten gains. “C’mon poors! Fight each other for my pleasure and profit!”.
Of course, when things start to go sideways, they are the first to scream for government assistance. The very definition of socialism.
As much as possible just stop participating in capitalism.
Grow your own food. Share what you can’t use.
Connect with your neighbours. Offer to help with anything you’re good at. Share tools with them.
Hyper individualism is capitalism’s best friend. You can’t borrow a chainsaw from someone you don’t know. You have to buy zucchini from the store because you don’t know anyone with a garden. You have to pay a plumber for a simple leak instead of someone you know being able to help. And so on.
The powers that be will shit themselves if we all start cooperating instead of fighting. Why do you think they stoke the anti-trans flames so hard? Why make up that they’re eating the dogs and eating the cats?
They don’t want us getting along. That’s bad for business. You can do your part to fuck them up simply by remembering how to be a real human. Not a consumer.
Grow your own food. Share what you can’t use
I started a jalapeño pepper plant two years ago that’s been popping out peppers like crazy. I hate peppers, so I give them to anyone who wants them around town.
I do not share tools though, they never seem to come back. If you need a tool or something I have, as long as you don’t mind a furry foul mouthed Canadian I’ll gladly come help though and bring them along.
You heard it here first kids, plumbers exist because of capitalism.
For-profit plumbing businesses, yeah.
I know you’re trying to be snarky or whatever.
That’s an embarrassingly stupid thing to say.
I know!
most of all - ignore the last 100 years of socialist history detailing what a useless, inhumane disaster it’s always been
Who is talking about socialism? Are you OK?
We need more Luigis
** Luigi intensifies **
I don’t hate socialism. I hate socializing.
Same. Let me pay taxes and enjoy quality public services, but don’t make me talk to the neighbors.
The Epstein class must held to account for the rat fuckery they’re doing
If only they stuck with rats
Frankly, hearing the leader of the left party speak makes me dislike socialism. At least here in Sweden.
Something about the “fuck you, i’m right. But i wont explain why” attitude doesn’t sit right. Casually making comments like “there aren’t any insert opposition party in the town I come from” is frankly laughable. She just latched on to the first and apparently only dichotomy available in her surrounding and never thought about it again.
The point is collectivism in general. If you’re that easily dissuaded from it by actions, or behaviour, or even just words of a random politician, you’re the perfect rube to be exploted to keep the exploitative system chugging along
So if i’m disuaded by the actions of others that try to push an idea on me, then i’m the tool? Cool.
Yea the person your replying to is just a pig looking for an excuse to validate his asshole feelings. He also says shit like this.
That’s why the Epstein class can also be called parasites.
In my case, they wasted their money.
But, yeah, too many people have been duped.
Absolutely. Strong community bonds and local resilience should be a foremost corcern, and ideally come before ideology, heritage, or tradition.
The corporate fucks of the world are great at dividing us up and watching us fight each other over ideological and traditional differences, then laughing while they rob everyone blind.
This isn’t true. People hate socialism because it has never worked. People end up worst off under collectivism.
Read a book
You are right, only 39 of the top 40 economies have socialist policies like universal education, Healthcare or workers rights. Total failure.
You’re making the common mistake of confusing social welfare and socialism
No true Scotsman
Welfare isn’t socialism, this isn’t the gotcha you think it is.
No true Scotsman
No? Socialism is a mode of production and distribution, not something as simple as a social safety net operating within the bounds of capitalism. This isn’t a purity test, it’s a definitional distinction.
Gr8 b8 m8 I r8 8/8
Yeah because every man for himself and the glorification of selfishness has done wonders for society. Get bent.
Socialism always works, and has always dramatically improved the lives of the people as compared to what came before.
Where has it worked ? It didn’t work out too well for my family in Eastern Europe.
Life expectancy doubled in Russia, literacy rates went from 20-30% (depending on the region) to 99.9% within the span of decades. Healthcare was made free and high quality, same as education. Famine was gradually eliminated in a region where Tsarist agriculture made that a common affair. Homes were dramatically upgraded from wooden shacks in rural areas to decent apartments for everyone. I don’t know where in Eastern Europe your family is from, but the great majority of society saw dramatic improvements compared to semi-feudalism before it. Aristocrats and capitalists definitely lost out, and the transition wasn’t bloodless, but the vast majority of society pulled ahead.
Compared to feudalism. Low bar, huh?
Plus lol@famines. Ukraine wants a word.
The majority of socialist states emerged from semi-feudal societies, and they factually made dramatic improvements. The 1930s Soviet famine proves my point, the early 1930s was the last famine in the USSR outside of wartime, becuse by 1933 they had successfully collectivized agriculture and abolished the former Kulak system. The famine wasn’t caused by socialism, it was ended by it.
Holodomor is a river in Egypt.
Team sports
How much money do you need to spend to defund education and gate it behind fees?
