matolo

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant profit-generating machine for corporations.

Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders.

That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live.

It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.

Music is made to be as profitable as possible, which means giving it the broadest possible appeal using formulaic song structure calculated to cause a chemical response in the largest number of human brains.

Movies are designed to draw the largest possible box office revenue at the lowest possible risk to studios and investors, often by just rehashing a movie that’s already proven successful in the past or by slapping together a story about an IP with pre-existing mass appeal.

Food is made to be fast and addictive rather than nourishing.

Healthy human connection has been commodified as social media intertwines with friendships and dating apps insert themselves into the development of romantic relationships.

Human sexuality is being warped and twisted as internet porn normalizes violence and degradation for the maximum number of clicks.

Attention and engagement have been monetized, creating an information ecosystem dominated by conflict and gossip designed to appeal to our baser instincts.

Advertisement is injected into every possible corner of our waking sensory experience, with any available space where the eye might rest or the ear might listen being flooded with psychological manipulation compelling us to consume. They’ll start running commercials in our dreams the instant they have the technology to do so.

You spend eight hours at the office working to generate corporate profits, then you come home and consume products to profit other corporations. You need your beer and snacks to unwind, your streaming services and social media to distract your mind from the stress of it all, your online clothing purchase to try to feel good about yourself, and your prescription drugs to get to sleep at night. People live their entire lives like this.

And that’s those of us who are lucky enough to be living in the global north. In the global south you get wage slavery and exploitation with far more toil, far less relaxation time, and no cheap products made by impoverished workers on other continents with which to comfort yourself.

All of humanity has been roped into this mess. And for what? To make the numbers in some bank accounts increase. To get some green arrows pointing upward on the stock exchange. To enable a few billionaires to buy islands and elections.

All while destroying the biosphere we all depend on for survival.

This, we are told, is the best possible system we could possibly be living under.

I personally do not believe this is true. I personally believe we can have better. Those who benefit from this current arrangement are going to assure us it’s impossible and do everything they can to stop us from changing it, but we do have the means to reclaim the wealth, dignity and happiness that they have stolen from us.

They built this whole machine on our backs. All we need to do is stand up.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

The claim "Iran is the world's largest state sponsor of terror" only makes sense when you remember that the western empire labels any group which opposes US/Israeli interests as a terrorist organization.

They even designated the IRGC as a terrorist group for fuck's sake. If you define a major part of a country's actual military forces as a terrorist entity, then obviously that country will per your own definition be a major "sponsor of terrorism" just by having a military.

Other Iran-backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are counted as "terrorist organizations" by the western empire, even as the rest of the world declines to classify them as such. For the overwhelming majority of the world's governments those organizations are not terrorist entities, they're just armed factions who oppose Israel and its western backers. They only get to define Iran as the top "sponsor of terrorism" because they say anyone who doesn't like them is a terrorist.

It's like if I said anyone who doesn't like Caitlin Johnstone is a Nazi and then went around punching them, and if anyone objected I said "But they're Nazis! Why are you defending Nazis??" Really they're just people who don't like me, but because I've changed the definition of "Nazi" to "someone who dislikes Caitlin Johnstone" I can then use that label to justify physically assaulting them.

That's all the "terrorist" label exists to accomplish these days. It's just a label they affix to any faction which poses an obstacle to the empire's goals of planetary domination.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

One reason AI is being pushed so hard is because it's the last "humanity can capitalism its way out of all its problems" narrative that has yet to be fully discredited. The idea is that if we can just create AI gods and let them come up with the effective-yet-profitable innovative technological solutions to our various existential crises that our own fleshy brains have so far failed to produce, then we don't need to dismantle the socioeconomic system we built that is destroying our biosphere and driving us to our doom.

Embedded in this logic is the same baseless assumption that has been plaguing us this entire time: that there are effective-yet-profitable solutions to be found. That we can simply let the free market deliver us desirable products that will both (A) cause us to stop cannibalizing our ecosystem and (B) create billionaires and trillionaires. Capitalism hasn't provided any innovations that have allowed us to consume our way out of our problems thus far, but because we've got these complex new AI technologies now, we can allow ourselves to move this entirely faith-based assumption into the purview of our new gods.

But that's just it: it's an assumption based on blind faith. There is no reason to believe we'll ever come up with technologies that are conducive to human and environmental thriving which also generate shareholder profits. Generally profits are generated by producing and consuming more products, which is exactly what has gotten us into this mess in the first place.

What this means is that capitalism has no ability to solve the problems we're coming up against as a species. There is no way to compete and consume our way out of the hole we dug through competition and consuming.

We need new systems. Human behavior cannot continue to be driven by competition and the pursuit of profit. We need to move into collaboration with each other and with our biosphere if we are to survive into the future as a species, and we will be unable to do this if we are excluding all possible solutions that don't generate revenue for the capitalist class.

AI is for many people just a psychological box that allows us to avoid facing this uncomfortable truth, because as Mark Fisher said, “It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” It's easier to imagine billionaire tech companies creating AI gods who will serve us up magical solutions to our urgent existential dilemmas which also facilitate continued economic growth than it is to imagine moving into collaboration-based systems where human behavior isn't driven by the pursuit of profit.

But that's just a sign of how insane our species has become. It's a symptom of our collective madness.

We need to wake up. We need to get real. It's adaptation or extinction time for us as a species, and that fork in the road is approaching very quickly.

[0️⃣BlackBetty ⚓️ @BabyD1111229]

I hope you will read Dave Ramsey’s comments about going cashless. It’s a two minute read and NO one has explained it better. Please take 2 minute's and read!

Dave Ramsey repost:

HERE'S WHAT NO CASH ACTUALLY MEANS:

A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here & there’. Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I think those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for. A cashless society means:

* If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job to get you through.

* Your child can’t go & help the local farmer to earn a bit of summer cash.

* No more cash slipped into the hands of a child as a good luck charm or from their grandparent when going on holidays.

* No more money in birthday cards.

* No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money & to learn about the value of earning.

* No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting $20 a week away for.

* No more little jobs on the side because your wages barely cover the bills or put food on the table.

* No more charity collections.

* No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.

* No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones.

What a cashless society does guarantee:

* Banks have full control of every single penny you own.

* Every transaction you make is recorded.

* All your movements & actions are traceable.

* Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 3 weeks, a thousand questions answered & five thousand passwords.

* You will have no choice but to declare & be taxed on every dollar in your possession.

* The government WILL decide what you can & cannot purchase.

* If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.

Forget about cash being dirty. Stop being so easily led. Cash has been around for a very, very, very long time & it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence.

If you are a customer, pay with cash. If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card. Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash. Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash.

Please open your eyes. Please stop believing everything you are being told. Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption & hidden agendas.

Pay with cash & please say no to a cashless society while you still have the choice.
#Truth

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

My enemies are not in Iran. My enemies are in Washington and Tel Aviv. In London and Canberra.

My enemies are the western oligarchs and empire managers who are poisoning my society and making everything awful while slaughtering human beings with the help of my tax dollars.

My enemies are the tyrants who are turning our civilization into a mind-controlled dystopia where it is increasingly illegal to criticize the abuses of my government and its allies, and increasingly difficult to find information which runs counter to the imperial narrative.

My enemies are the empire apologists and the hasbarists. The propagandists and spinmeisters. Those who side with Israel and the United States against basic human interests.

Imperial bootlickers always accuse me of writing “propaganda” for the “enemy”, with “enemy” meaning whoever the US-centralized empire happens to be attacking or preparing to attack on any given day. I always want to tell them “Motherfucker YOU are my enemy. YOU. You and the empire you simp for.”

The Iranians have never done anything to me. The Iranians pose no threat to me. They didn’t bring war to my country. The empire I live under brought war to theirs.

The Iranians haven’t robbed me and my fellow westerners of all democratic political agency to create an oligarchy run by megalomaniacal plutocrats and psychopathic government agencies.

The Iranians haven’t locked down all political systems throughout western society making it impossible to vote our way into peace, economic justice, and government transparency.

The Iranians aren’t working tirelessly to brainwash and manipulate everyone in my society to turn us all into apathetic flag-waving morons who care more about sports and celebrities than the fact that their government is committing horrifying war crimes.

The Iranians aren’t trying to make it illegal for me to criticize Israel and its abuses, or working to imprison my countrymen for uttering normal political slogans in opposition to a genocidal apartheid state.

The Iranians aren’t making my society crazy, stupid and evil while we hurtle toward ecological disaster, nuclear armageddon and AI tech dystopia.

I haven’t spent years watching a live-streamed genocide in Gaza being perpetrated by the Iranians.

I’m not frightened that the Iranians will try to draft my son to fight and die in a crazy, evil war.

The Iranians are not doing any of these things to me. These are things the western power structure is doing.

I have no loyalty to that power structure. I have loyalty to my species, to my family, and to the values I hold sacred in my heart of hearts.

The US empire can get fucked.

[matolo @matolo]

@TommiPedruzzi KDP

[Hans Amato @HansAmato]

The most fucked up thing about modern life is that being healthy requires you to actively fight everything around you

The default food is poisoned. The default schedule destroys your sleep. The default stress level is chronic. The default medical system manages symptoms instead of finding causes. The default cooking oils are industrial waste. The default response to feeling like shit is a pill

You have to FIGHT to eat real food. FIGHT to sleep properly. FIGHT to find a doctor who investigates instead of prescribes. FIGHT to avoid seed oils at every restaurant. FIGHT to manage stress in a world designed to keep your cortisol maxed 24/7

Your great-grandfather didn't do any of this. He ate what was available and it was real. He worked physically and slept because he was tired. His food came from soil that wasn't depleted. His stress was seasonal. His gut was intact because nothing was designed to destroy it

You're not failing at health because you lack discipline. The entire system you live in is engineered to make you sick and sell you the cure

Processed food creates inflammation. The doctor prescribes an anti-inflammatory. Seed oils wreck your hormones. The clinic prescribes TRT. Sugar crashes destroy your mood. The psychiatrist prescribes an SSRI. Each problem creates a customer

I stopped fighting individual symptoms and started rejecting the whole system. Real food. Enough of it. No seed oils. Gut repair. Sleep

Within months I felt like a different species. And I was just eating the way humans ate for 10,000 years before the last 50 fucked everything up

The system is designed to make you a patient

Opt out

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Nobody wants to believe they're the villain in the story. Nobody wants to believe their government is run by psychopaths who are inflicting unfathomable evils upon populations around the globe in order to rule the world.

It's much nicer to believe you're the Good Guys. Much easier to sit with the idea that your government might make an innocent mistake here and there, but overall is a driving force for the good of humankind, and is certainly superior to the villains it makes war with.

That's a fiction, though. It's a comfortable lie. A fairy tale that westerners tell themselves to avoid a profoundly uncomfortable truth.

The truth is that we are the villains.

We are the terrorists.

We are the tyrants.

We are the evil regime.

Our soldiers aren't out there defending our country, they're out there murdering people for defending their country. They're not fighting for freedom and democracy, they're fighting for money and power.

Daniel Crimmins from the US Army 3rd Infantry Division wrote the following about the Iraq War in 2015:

"Then you realize you haven’t seen anything to support the idea that these poor fuckers are a threat to your home. You look around and you see all the contractors making six figure salaries to fix your shit, train Iraqis, maintain the ridiculous SUVs the KBR dicks ride around in. You consider the fact that every 25mm shell costs about forty bucks, and your company has been handing those fuckers out like shrapnel flavored parade candies. You think about all the fuel you’re going through, all the ammo and missiles and grenades. You think about every time you lose a vehicle, the Army buys a new one. Maybe you start to see a lot of people making a lot of money on huge amounts of human suffering.

"Then you go on leave, and realize that Ayn Rand has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. You realize that Fox News and Limbaugh and John McCain don’t respect you or your buddies. They don’t give a fuck if you get a parade or a box when you get home, you’re nothing to them but a prop.

"Then you get out, and you hate the news. You hate the apathy, and you hate the murder being carried out in your name. You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you."

That's the reality right there, folks. We can wake up and start living in reality, or we can remain asleep in the fiction.

It's time to wake up to the reality that western civilization is a depraved dystopia where most people are sleepwalking in a propaganda-addled stupor under an empire that is fueled by human blood. And it's time to awaken to the fact that as westerners it is our duty to tear that empire down brick by brick, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for the sake of our fellow man.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Ring paid somewhere between $8 and $10 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot to tell 120 million viewers that their cameras now scan neighborhoods using AI.

The math is wild. Ring has roughly 20 million devices in American homes. Search Party is enabled by default. The opt-out rate on default settings in consumer tech is historically around 5%. So approximately 19 million cameras are now running AI pattern matching on anything that moves past your front door. Today the target is dogs. The same infrastructure already handles “Familiar Faces,” which builds biometric profiles of every person your camera sees, whether they know about it or not.

Ring settled with the FTC for $5.8 million after employees had unrestricted access to customers’ bedroom and bathroom footage for years. They’re now partnered with Flock Safety, which routes footage to local law enforcement. ICE has accessed Flock data through local police departments acting as intermediaries. Senator Markey’s investigation found Ring’s privacy protections only apply to device owners. If you’re a neighbor, a delivery driver, a passerby, you have no rights and no recourse.

This tells you everything about Amazon’s actual product. The customer paid for the camera. The customer pays the electricity. The customer pays the $3.99/month subscription. And Amazon gets a surveillance grid that would cost tens of billions to build from scratch, with an AI layer activated by default, and a law enforcement pipeline already connected.

They wrapped all of that in a lost puppy commercial because that’s the only version of this story anyone would willingly opt into.

[Le'Veon Bell @LeVeonBell]

if you’re not ripping your ‘Ring’ camera off your house right now and dropping the whole thing into a pot of boiling water what are you doing?

[matolo @matolo]

@LizCrokin Right on all counts, except the "Satanic" part. None of what is going on is "satanic"; the tenets of Satanism have zero to do with the behavior of the elite class. Call it what it really is: a group of predatory, deeply corrupt individuals engaging in extreme moral narcissism.

[Queen Bee @KingBobIIV]

Just a reminder that this week it was exposed that a global cabal of Satanic pedophiles are raping and murdering babies, children and women, and playing monopoly on our lives, banking and laws - and literally nothing has happened to anyone.

Not one arrest.

You realise this is a test just like covid?

You realise we're all being monitored to see just how much we'll tolerate?

[DirectorX @TheDirector_X]

True. It´s day 7 since half of the Epstein files were released (not to mention that governments have had the documents for years)
Where are the actual consequences?
- No arrests
- No detentions
- No mass demonstrations
- No no-confidence motions against incumbent governments
- Why do the people continue to pay taxes into a system rotten to the core? How about civil disobedience (ref Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr)... Collectively withholding taxes and demanding change/resignations.

You will never be able to solve this by using your so-called "right to vote" and voting for something else.

[Sean Padraig McCarthy @SeanMcCarthyCom]

“Oh it’s all so hopeless they’re gonna get away with it. The Epstein pedos are going to rule the world forever.”

Shut the fuck up.

It’s like sharing a foxhole with somebody screaming about how “we’re all gonna die.” You are a liability and you are spreading demoralization propaganda.

This feigned world weary cynicism is usually just a mask for comfortable westerners who want to maintain their lifestyle. They want to keep going to the movies and partying on the weekends but they need to assuage the guilt of knowing they are complicit in allowing the continuation of the system. So of course they pretend there is no chance of changing anything.

The truth is if the Epstein clique gets away with it, it’s our fault. Period. We are not helpless spectators. There are far more of us than there are of them. If they get away with it, that means we decided to let them get away with it.

One night in 1957 the NYPD beat the shit out of a man and hauled him into a Harlem police station. He had life threatening injuries. Family and friends begged the cops to let him go to the hospital and were ignored. Malcolm X showed up and surrounded the station with a mob of 4000 people. The man was released to hospital, the mob dispersed and the man lived instead of died that night. That’s how this works.

We have the numbers. We know where these people live. We know what infrastructure and what industries are critical to the functioning of this society. It is simply a question of how much do we actually want to change this. That’s it.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

Trump says "America First," and you thought he meant you.

You thought he meant your bills.

Your town.

Your children’s future.

But "America First" has never meant the American people.

It has meant the American war machine.

The American billionaire.

The American shield for Israeli impunity.

It means bombs before books.

Jets before jobs.

Sanctions before hospitals.

He wraps empire in a flag and sells it to you as patriotism.

You cheer while your schools crumble.

You chant while your bridges collapse.

You wave the banner that is being used to rob you blind.

America First is not a policy.

It is a costume.

And behind it there is only a hand signing away your future to keep someone else’s empire alive.

[Power to the People ☭🕊 @ProudSocialist]

Here is video of ICE Agent Jonathan Ross right after he murdered Nicole Good. He is not limping or injured at all. The government is lying to try to cover-up his cold-blooded execution of Good.

[Sailing Warrior @sailing_warrior]

@njoyzgrl81 No. We went to war over a 3% tax. Let that sink in.