Hector Saint-Prix

[MC Squared @mcsquared34]

This sums up pretty well the systemic rot that is capitalism. The whole racket is rigged to favor of the 1%.

[Sizwe SikaMusi @SizweLo]

I keep seeing people asking this question: “If the robots do all the work and people have no jobs, who’s going buy all the stuff the robots produce?”

First, it’s important to understand that Capital doesn’t particularly care who buys goods, it cares that someone with purchasing power does.

Second, beyond buying and selling, Capital cares more about ownership and control of resources.

With this in mind, the answer to the question “who buys the stuff robots produce?” is “whoever has the money”.
And who has money when the people don’t have jobs or incomes? The answer is “whoever creates money in the first place”, and that would be the government, specifically the central bank.

In short, if the above situation were to arise, the government would purchase the goods and services from the robot corporations and distribute them to the masses. This way, the people get their needs taken care of, while the corporations get to keep ownership and control of resources.

Under this arrangement, the corporations get their revenues plus resource control, the state gets its legitimacy and the people get their calories, sneakers and internet access.

“But if the state can print money to buy the robot stuff and the corporations need the government to complete the transaction, why does the state need the corporation’s permission?”, I hear you ask.

Yes, the state could nationalise the robots and cut out the middleman. But they won’t, for the same reason they don’t nationalise things today: political capture, property rights, neoliberal dogma, etc.

“But when people don’t have jobs they will have no purpose and there will be no upward mobility, no ambition, no aspiration”, I hear you further say.

Well, the idea that without a job you have no purpose or ambition is what capitalists say to get you to come work for them in their quest to own and control resources. They’re happy to see that you’ve internalised it.

To be clear, meaningful activity is a genuine human need, but the mistake is assuming that such meaningful activity must take the form of wage labour and that without a job, life will lose meaning.

But even setting the question of meaning aside, automation raises a separate and more concrete problem of who controls the machines. If corporations own the robots and the resources, they can simply refuse to sell to the state at reasonable prices, hoard output, or shut down production to drive up scarcity to strengthen their bargaining position.

On the other hand, the government, if it wants people fed, cannot negotiate too hard. This puts the state, and by extension, the public in an embarrassingly weak bargaining position, giving the corporations unlimited power over the state and the public.

It should be clear by now that contrary to what many people believe, the real threat of automation is not that people will lose jobs, but the fact that those who own and control the robots will be in a prime position to weaponise necessity.

Put another way, the danger goes beyond unemployment and into the power that comes with controlling the production of essentials in a society where human labour is no longer necessary.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

Every few years they give you a new enemy.

In the nineties it was welfare queens and crack addicts and super-predators.

In the 2000s it was Islamic terrorism and you were told to be afraid of your neighbor on the airplane and to accept surveillance as safety.

In the 2010s it was immigrants, caravans, invasions at the border.

In the 2020s it was the other political party, upgraded to existential threat, fascists, communists, destroyers of democracy, depending on which channel you watched.

Notice what is never the enemy.

The hedge fund manager who bought your neighborhood and raised your rent 40 percent is never the enemy.

The pharmaceutical executive who priced insulin at a level that makes rationing a survival strategy for American diabetics is never the enemy.

The defense contractor CEO who has budgeted for cost overruns as a profit mechanism and built political protection into every congressional district where a factory or base exists is never the enemy.

The private equity firm that bought the hospital, extracted its capital, laid off the nurses, and left the community without emergency services is never the enemy.

They are never on the screen.

They are never the face you're shown when you're told to be angry.

They are never the subject of the prime time segment.

They are the people who own the screen.

The enemy is always someone who looks like the person next to you.

Always someone who can be found in your neighborhood, your workplace, your family dinner.

Never someone who can be found on the Forbes list, the Davos guest list, the Epstein flight manifest.

This is not accidental.

This is the product.

This is what the media is for.

[Shaun King @shaunking]

I have to say this daily, but if Muslims did this to ONE Jewish temple, the world would be OUTRAGED.

Israel has now destroyed over 1,000 mosques in Gaza and the West Bank.

It’s the single biggest destruction of holy sites in the modern HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

[Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur]

Half the country thinks Netanyahu should be arrested when he's in US. Only a quarter think he shouldn't. Yet, 100% of anchors on TV think it's an outrageous idea. What a coincidence that everyone in national media is against what Americans think and in favor of what Israel wants.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

POGROMS
against defenseless civilians
all over the West Bank (while Gaza is under fire).

Israeli civilians and army joining forces.

It is not just Nethanyahu and few "rotten apples".

THIS IS ISRAEL

ARMS EMBARGO NOW - STOP TRADE NOW

This is what intl law requires.

[Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur]

If you’re a reporter and you don’t explain to your audience that Israel is trying to buy the Michigan Senate seat for $50 million, you’re not a reporter. If you don’t explain to voters that a lobby for a foreign country is trying to control our Senate, you’re not a journalist.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

We live on a planet where the country that overthrew Iran's democracy in 1953 is "concerned about Iranian authoritarianism."

Where the country that funded Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program in the 1980s launched a war in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein for having chemical weapons.

Where the country that armed, trained, and created the conditions for the Taliban spent twenty years fighting the Taliban.

Where the country that sanctioned Iraq through the 1990s, killing an estimated 500,000 children through the denial of medicine and food, a number Madeleine Albright called "worth it" on national television, explained that it was doing so because it cared about the Iraqi people.

I am not asking you to hate America.

I am asking you to read the sentences above without looking away, and then tell me, with a straight face, that the question is whether to believe them.

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

Hace tres años, los españoles decidieron con su voto seguir avanzando en una agenda de progreso. Desde entonces, ¿qué hemos logrado?

- Liderar el crecimiento económico de Europa.

- Crear 1,6 millones de nuevos empleos.

- Aumentar la renta real de los hogares un 6% por encima de la inflación.

- Revalorizar la pensión media con 2.470€ adicionales al año.

- Tener una electricidad tres veces mas barata que Italia y la mitad que Alemania.

- Ampliar en tres semanas más los permisos de maternidad y paternidad.

- Habilitar 235.000 nuevas plazas de educación pública de 0-3 años y FP.

- ⁠Convertir nuestro país en un referente mundial de tolerancia, paz y coherencia moral.

Aún queda mucho trabajo por delante. Pero tenemos los objetivos y los principios muy claros.

Somos el Gobierno de la gente.
El Gobierno del progreso.
El Gobierno de España.

[Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur]

People say I’m obsessed with Israel. I think when this long, brutal genocide is finally over, I’ll think I didn’t do enough.

We’ll all think we didn’t do enough to stop Israel from brutalizing its neighbors. And the people who supported it will live in shame forever.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

⚽️As the world gears up for the football world cup final, Israel has just killed another Palestinian footballer: 17 year old Fadi al-Naasan was shot during an attack by Israeli settlers on his village in the West Bank. Israel spares no one in its genocidal war on Palestinians.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

People in the comments have been asking me for videos of a local supermarket during my current roadtrip in Xinjiang, so here you go 👇

It's actually proven to be a very humbling experience: the abundance and diversity of products vastly exceeds anything you'd find in most supermarkets in the West, even in my native France.

And we're not even in a big city: I'm at a local supermarket in a small remote town named 特克斯, only 50k inhabitants, which is super tiny by Chinese standards.

[Garland Nixon @TheGarlandNixon]

So.. now that Americans are living in their cars and the billionaire oligarchs are sailing 500 ft yachts.. Blame communism, China, and Putin. But definitely NOT Congress, Wall Street, or their corporate puppet masters.

[Shaun King @shaunking]

When I see Arab nations denounce bombings from Iran but not the United States it tells me everything I need to know about the leaders of those nations.

If you want Iran to stop bombing you, stop allowing the United States to use your lands to bomb Iran.

[JerryRigEverything @ZacksJerryRig]

hey look mom I made it

[Iran Embassy SA @IraninSA]

Spain is in the World Cup Final.

For the first time, I'm cheering for a team other than Iran and wishing them success and the championship.

¡Hola, España! 🇪🇸⚽

[The Palestinian @InsiderWorld_1]

“I’m not afraid of losing my Hollywood career, and I will continue to speak up for Palestine.”

—Mark Ruffalo

[Hector Saint-Prix @matinino]

@chocolate_flake @NoFilterSkin For safety reason, in France you are not allowed to drive a car bare footed or wearing shoes that could slip from your feet while using the pedals. Also, sandals can get your foot stucked at the worst time. With a 3 pedals car it makes a lot of sense.

[𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐦 @Malcolm_Pal9]

This statement from Liam Cunningham depicts the real conditions in Gaza.