The Death Toll of Capitalism (Sourced from "The Jakarta Method" by Vincent Bevins)
#capitalism #psyop #propaganda #anticommunism #usa
capitalism
It's not parody. It's not The Onion.
This is the actual world we live in now...
______________________________________
"Mystery Billionaire Buys Apocalypse-Ready Bunker Surrounded By Fire Moat"
In a dystopic but perhaps unsurprising turn, the ultra-wealthy are investing in fortified shelters like never before. Mark Zuckerberg’s purchase of a 5,000-square-foot bunker beneath his Kauai ranch has set off something of a buying frenzy, with the global elite seeking refuge from future threats like armed conflict, cyberattacks, and climate change.
But it’s far worse than just bunkers: Al Corbi, president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments, is overseeing the creation of custom designs for the uber-rich that go far beyond traditional shelters. His most ambitious project to date is an island fortress with a 30-foot-deep lake surrounded by a flammable liquid moat, water cannons for aerial threats, and a whole lot more, set to be completed in 2025.
______________________________________
FULL STORY -- https://www.dmarge.com/mystery-billionaire-buys-apocalypse-ready-bunker
Edited 1y ago
This *should* be front-page headline news every day, leading every TV newscast.
But it's not. Why? Because if it was, that might deter us from accepting the perpetuation of Business As Usual.
__________________________
If global temperatures increase by 1° Celsius or more above their current levels, billions of people will face wet-bulb temperatures every year so intense that their bodies will not be able to naturally cool themselves.
Indeed, if global temperatures exceed 2° above pre-industrial levels, four billion people will encounter intolerable heat and humidity on a yearly basis, often in regions where air conditioning and other forms of relief are not widely available. That could include more than two billion people in Pakistan and India, one billion in eastern China, and 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Once global temperatures rise 3° above pre-industrial levels, much of the U.S. Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest will also regularly experience unlivable wet-bulb temperatures.
There is no universe in which this development will not lead to millions of deaths. "It is important to understand that wet-bulb temperatures of 95°F (35°C) are not conditions we can just get used to," said Dr. Peter Reiners, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona. "Human bodies have fundamental physiological limits; our planet's perturbed, angry climate doesn't care about them."
__________________________
We're already at, or close to, 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. And 2°C is not far away.
At the rate we're going, BILLIONS of people soon will be at grave risk of death from climate chaos.
FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.salon.com/2023/10/16/heat-is-making-our-planet-uninhabitable-why-isnt-this-the-top-news-story-around-the-world/
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Edited 1y ago
When I first started calling Silicon Valley’s business model “people farming” I was told I was being hyperbolic and alarmist.
I don’t get told that much anymore.
#SiliconValley #BigTech #AI #surveillance #capitalism #PeopleFarming
HEADLINE: "Oil Industry Deceived Public on Plastics Recycling for More Than 50 Years"
Is anyone surprised by this? Of course they lied. That's what capitalists do. They ALWAYS put profits ahead of truthfulness, ahead of human rights, ahead of a healthy biosphere.
Here's more...
____________________________
The plastics industry has ‘sold’ plastic recycling to the American public to sell plastic, according to a report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit organization that advocates for legal action to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.
Petrochemical companies and the plastics industry have known of the technical and economic limitations that make plastics unrecyclable for more than half a century, and “have failed to overcome them,” the report states. “Despite this knowledge, the plastics industry has continued to increase plastic production, while carrying out a well-coordinated campaign to deceive consumers, policymakers, and regulators about plastic recycling.”
“This evidence shows that many of the same fossil fuel companies that knew and lied for decades about how their products cause climate change have also known and lied to the public about plastic recycling,” Richard Wiles, CCI’s president, said in a press release. “The oil industry’s lies are at the heart of the two most catastrophic pollution crises in human history.”
Plastics manufacturers and industry groups, including some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, have spent more than 50 years funding and pushing plastics recycling in order to stave off regulatory action – all while knowing that only a small fraction of plastic waste could ever be recycled.
____________________________
FULL STORY -- https://www.desmog.com/2024/02/15/recycling-plastic-center-for-climate-integrity-report-fraud/
REPORT SOURCE -- https://climateintegrity.org/plastics-fraud
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #Greenwashing
Edited 1y ago
Here’s the thing about the “Invisible Hand”:
Regulators didn’t put microplastics in your water.
The nanny state didn’t lie to you about whether tobacco products caused cancer.
Socialism didn’t decide to take a third of your paycheck for health insurance coverage, and then still do everything in its power to deny your claims for lifesaving care.
Capitalists pursuing their self-interest did all of that, and more.
#Capitalism #economics #AdamSmith
If you've been cruising the Fediverse recently, you've no doubt seen a number of amusing posts under the hashtag #CDCSays, about why the U.S. Center for Disease Control is probably trying to kill you for capitalism; in particular as that relates to their updated COVID isolation guidelines. While these posts are objectively hilarious, the simple truth is that these aren't really jokes, and pretty much everyone who understands this virus and how it works, thinks the CDC has sold us all down the river for capitalists, corporations, and the bosses, to keep the fuckbarrelTM churning.
Of course, there's only so much these folks can communicate in a joke on social media, so today I thought I'd share a recent article by Reina Sultan on Self.com. Inside, she talks to three medically qualified experts who work in this field about why the CDC's new guidelines, and the drastic reduction of the isolation period recommended if you've contracted COVID, are wishful thinking at best and quite possibly capitalist death cult propaganda:
https://www.self.com/story/cdc-new-covid-19-isolation-guidelines
Although it's definitely worth reading the entire short article, let's look at some important highlights here for folks who're absolutely not gonna click on a link about COVID because they'd rather pretend everything is fine:
- reducing COVID isolation recommendations from 5 days, to 24 hours "if you’ve been fever-free" and "your symptoms are improving" will "likely make more people sick—and this approach increasingly places the burden of public health on individual people, which is dangerous for everyone, but especially for those at a higher risk of complications from the virus."
- changing testing from a way to determine if you can leave isolation, to merely something you might want to use to "assist" your decision making, is a terrible idea.
- COVID is most certainly not over; "wastewater analysis data suggests there are still more than 760,000 new cases of COVID a day in the US—meaning roughly 1 in 63 people are actively infectious."
- Michael Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, says "There is no evidence to suggest that these waves (of COVID infections) are becoming smaller on average over time, or that we're having fewer waves.”
- Lara Jirmanus, MD, MPH says "that the CDC’s messaging implicitly communicates two falsehoods: that COVID has “ceased to be a threat,” and that it “stops being transmitted when people stop having a fever.” According to Dr. Jirmanus, "infectiousness has little to do with specific symptoms, since you can be sick (and contagious) without a fever and with few, mild, or even no symptoms at all. And if you’re testing positive on rapid tests, you’re very likely still able to infect others, even if you feel fine."
- Shortening the isolation period "supports economic interests and is not in the interest of protecting health." Yes, this means that the bosses and capitalists are okay with making you sick and maybe even killing you, so they can keep extracting wealth from our labor.
- In fact, Kaitlin Sundling, MD, PhD says the CDC’s updated recommendations are moving in the wrong direction. “COVID isolation should be expanded, not reduced or eliminated. There is no change in the scientific evidence around COVID transmission that would support reducing the recommended isolation period below five days... Extending isolation beyond five days would be a safer approach, both to prevent viral spread and to allow people adequate time to recover.” Ideally, she recommends you isolate "for 10 to 14 days, if you have that option, and take two rapid tests with negative results at least 24 hours apart before going about your daily life as usual again" but acknowledges that without sick leave, this will be impossible for many workers, who she then advises to wear "a well-fitting respirator and limit in-person activities only to what is essential.”
Additionally, these experts point out that long COVID is real, remains poorly understood, and is therefore something we should absolutely not be fucking around with as a society by continuing to "let er rip" and reducing protective measures; which is precisely what the CDC has done here with its joke ass updated isolation guidelines. Finally, all three experts also remind us that these policy updates all seem to be designed with non-disabled, non-immunocompromised people in mind; which is pretty alarming when you realize that roughly “4 out of 10 Americans have chronic diseases that put them at higher risk of COVID.” All of which just reinforces the argument I've been making for a while; rich people and their captured regulatory bodies will absolutely toss disabled people, sick people, and the elderly into the furnace for five points a share.
Look folks, I get that we're all tired of this virus and this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but these are highly qualified doctors telling you in so many words that "it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you." And the CDC at least, sure is.
Edited 1y ago
There goes the neighbourhood.
#threads #meta #facebook #fediverse #mastodon #surveillance #capitalism #PeopleFarming
Edited 1y ago
Electric vehicles clearly are better for our climate and environment, at least in terms of overall carbon emissions, than traditional ICE vehicles.
That doesn't mean EVs are good for the climate and environment, however, because they're not. As always, the best option is not to drive a car at all. Instead, if you can, ride a bicycle or an electric bike or scooter or use public transit.
But tire manufacturers *really* want you to keep driving. And they're okay with either kind of vehicle, ICE or electric. Of course, they would prefer that you drive a large SUV or one of those giant pickup trucks. That makes more money for them because the tires cost more and they wear out faster.
Big EVs are especially great for tire companies...
_______________________
With their heavy weight and quick acceleration, EVs tend to burn through tires about 20% faster than internal combustion vehicles do, according to AlixPartners. And the tires cost about 50% more.
“If EV does proliferate through the car population like some think, it may bring about what I call the gold rush for tire manufacturers,” said John Healy, an analyst with Northcoast Research.
_______________________
FULL STORY -- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/why-evs-are-causing-a-tire-boom.html
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #WarOnCars #BanCars
Edited 1y ago
In addition to being a massive global eugenics project, it is now increasingly clear that rich people used the pandemic as an excuse to accelerate and prosecute the class war:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/billionaire-wealth-up-88-percent-pandemic
"Four years ago, the United States entered the Covid-19 pandemic. Forbes published its 34th annual billionaire survey shortly after with data keyed to March 18, 2020. On that day, the United States had 614 billionaires who owned a combined wealth of $2.947 trillion.
Four years later, on March 18, 2024, the country has 737 billionaires with a combined wealth of $5.529 trillion, an 87.6 percent increase of $2.58 trillion, according to Institute for Policy Studies calculations of Forbes Real Time Billionaire Data."
The numbers here are staggering, but I think what's most important to remember in all of this is how this vast economic change was sold to us by "Very Serious People" and for-profit media. After thousands upon thousands of stories about "inflation" and how giving poor people money to survive the pandemic would wreck the economy, the obvious truth is that the greed of billionaires and their minions are why you can't afford groceries and everything costs too much now. Rather than us "all being in this together" the pandemic is when the knives came out and the rich bled us all dry. Tax the rich? To hell with that; it's time to abolish them.
“CEO Jim McNerney…repeatedly invoked a slur…Those who cared too much about the integrity of the planes and not enough about the stock price were “phenomenally talented assholes,” and he encouraged his deputies to ostracize them into leaving…He initially refused to let nearly any of these talented assholes work on the 787 Dreamliner, instead outsourcing…development…The plan would save money while busting unions, a win-win, he promised investors.”
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/
Are you old enough, like me, to remember the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, a disastrous oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989?
Here's some important info about that event from Greg Palast...
________________________
"Don’t Buy Exxon’s Fable of the Drunken Captain"
The true cause of the Exxon Valdez catastrophe was the oil giant breaking their promises, cynically and disastrously, in the 15 years leading up to the spill.
As for Captain Joe Hazelwood, he was below decks, sleeping off his bender. At the helm, the third mate would never have collided with Bligh Reef had he looked at his Raycas radar.
But the radar was not turned on. In fact, the tanker’s radar was left broken and disabled for more than a year before the disaster, and Exxon management knew it. It was just too expensive to fix and operate.
Today, three decades after the oil washed over the Alaskan beaches, you can kick over a rock and it will smell like an old gas station.
The Fable of the Drunken Captain serves the oil industry well. It falsely presents America’s greatest environmental disaster as a tale of human frailty, a one-time accident. But broken radar, missing equipment, phantom spill teams, faked tests — the profit-driven disregard of the law — made the spill an inevitability, not an accident.
________________________
FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.gregpalast.com/dont-buy-exxons-fable-of-the-drunken-captain-2/
Edited 1y ago
Funny how since #GretaThunberg started talking about how the #ClimateCrsis is linked to the ills of #capitalism, and actually engaged in activism advocating for it's undoing, suddenly she's nowhere to be seen on TV, Davos, the UN etc etc.
Experts ignoring the elephant in the room, younger generations are sick and tired of CAPITALISM, it's not 'smartphones' or whatever bullshit excuse the Media comes up with, it's the very toxic society you've forced on us which is making us ill.
#MentalHealth #Capitalism #UKPOL #Ukpolitics
All along they've told us it would be so easy... just recycle some of your trash, or ride a bike once in a while, and everything will be fine.
There's no need to even *think* about system change. 🙄
#Pollution #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Greenwashing #Environment #Climate #Degrowth
How many people alive today have read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair? Less than 1%, probably.
How many people have seen "Our Daily Bread" from 1934, or similarly subversive movies? Less than 1%, probably.
How many people have read "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn? Less than 1%, probably.
Almost everyone is traveling blind.
The education we receive and the cultural literacy we are allowed has been carefully crafted and controlled to serve the interests of our capitalist masters.
Are you experiencing job insecurity, burnout, high-stress levels, unaffordable healthcare, housing insecurity, debt burdens, social isolation, mental health issues, or poverty? You may be suffering from #capitalism. An immediate extraction is recommended for your health and safety. If an immediate extraction is impossible at the moment, please contact your nearest #IWW chapter for further instructions.
Every day for the last 50 years, the oil and gas industry has brought in $3 BILLION in profits. Not revenues. Profits.
EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
That’s 💵 💵 💵 $52 trillion 💵 💵 💵 in pure profit, their payoff for happily destroying our climate and biosphere.
We need system change NOW.
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Edited 1y ago
Getting personal for a minute:
If a company describes itself as "a family"
RUN! It's a huge red flag.
I'm 54 and am of the generation told to go to college, land a good job, work your way up "the ladder," and remain until you retire.
I quickly discovered that is capitalist propaganda.
During my 20-year corporate career, I experienced overt and subtle racism, and denial of career advancement opportunities.
I witnessed inexperienced and untrained individuals be hired and promoted due to nepotism. I've witnessed folk sleep their way to being promoted. I've dealt with toxic bosses, inane office politics, and shifty business practices.
Several years before the pandemic, I began working for myself, remotely. BEST decision I've ever made. My intent is to never work in a corporate office again.
Companies do not care about you. Period.
Criticize the world's largest oil company? They'll sue you!!
(And I promise they can easily afford more and better lawyers than you can. Not to mention bribing judges.)
⬛️ https://finance.yahoo.com/news/column-exxon-mobil-suing-shareholders-100046384.html
#Law #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
We live in a society where scientists discover that mercury in our lakes and rivers makes fish unsafe to eat.
So instead of telling polluters they can't keep polluting, we tell people they can't eat the fish.
"If SUVs were a country, they would be the world’s fifth largest emitter of CO₂"
I'm so disgusted, I can't find the words... 🤬
______________________________
SUVs accounted for 48% of global car sales in 2023, reaching a new record and further strengthening the defining automobile trend of the early 21st century – the shift towards ever larger and heavier cars.
There are now more than 360 million SUVs on the roads worldwide, resulting in combustion-related CO2 emissions of one billion tonnes, an increase of around 100 million tonnes from the previous year.
Despite advances in fuel efficiency and electrification, the trend toward heavier and less efficient vehicles such as SUVs, which produce 20% more carbon emissions than an average medium-sized car, has largely nullified the improvements in energy consumption and emissions achieved elsewhere in the world’s passenger car fleet in recent decades.
______________________________
Capitalism is killing us.
FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.iea.org/commentaries/suvs-are-setting-new-sales-records-each-year-and-so-are-their-emissions
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Edited 1y ago
This is what capitalism gets us...
"Creating a throw-away culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life"
_____________________________
In 1956, the plastics industry learned about a new way to boost sales — and profits. At the industry’s annual conference in New York, Lloyd Stouffer, the editor of an influential trade magazine, urged executives to stop emphasizing plastics’ durability. Stouffer told the companies to focus instead on making a lot of inexpensive, expendable material. Their future, he said, was in the trash can.
Companies got the message. They realized they could sell more plastic if people threw more of it away.
In a 1963 report for another plastics conference in Chicago, Stouffer congratulated the industry for filling dumps and garbage cans with plastic bottles and bags.
“The happy day has arrived,” Stouffer wrote, “when nobody any longer considers the plastic package too good to throw away.”
_____________________________
FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.npr.org/2024/06/09/nx-s1-4942415/disposable-plastic-pollution-waste-single-use-recycling-climate-change-fossil-fuels
Edited 1y ago