We have Vision Zero in the US, too. They lowered speed limits in a couple neighborhoods from 25mph to 20, and all the LED road signs show annual aggregated deaths from car crashes until the number is greater than zero, then someone wrings their hands and says “Welp, we did what we could, guess people just like dying” and then goes on vacation. (Source: me, I made up the spokesperson who gets scapegoated, but all the other stuff is observationally evident where I live)

OK I’m actually a noob at formatting and i have no idea how i even did that giant text

This is crazy in the context of having just finished the Native Tongue trilogy by Suzette Haden Elgin. Great read or listen, describes the world this person imagines.

Trade =/= capitalism. Capitalism is maximum enrichment for a few at the cost of the many. “Capitalizing on an opportunity” doesn’t usually seem to get interpreted as “get what I need and hopefully what I want in an exchange that is equitable, just, fair, and negotiable to all parties”; instead, the common meaning seems to be “get all that I can as quick as I can in exchange for the least possible expense on my part”, which is not even a full step away from 'The Tragedy of the Commons, ’ or, “if there’s not enough for everyone to have as much as they want or need, then everyone who takes as much as they need is evil, and if someone is going to be evil AND ALSO have enough than that person is damn well going to be me.” THAT’S capitalism.

Such has been the present interpretation of the course of recorded history. Recorded most often by conquerors, looking favorably upon the the ends of their conquest to justify their means, and if you boil just about every single conquering ideology down for long enough, you will see two things, in this order: greed for what the conquered populace had, and fear of not having enough.

That’s not “human nature,” that’s a response to human nature. Most of us would probably generally prefer to go on living. For many people, that looks like “i just need my necessities covered and I’ll figure out the rest.” Historically this happened by banding together and looking out for one another, not by hoarding resources and making people do extra work just to fucking exist with a modicum of comfort in a society forever dangling a golden carrot to keep you distracted from the meat grinder. (Edit for formatting)

Yeah the dude in my old neighborhood who drove a Dodge RAM but rearranged the letters so it said “WAR” on the tailgate instead, and had a bumper sticker that said “KILL EVERYTHING” in that script that’s like, “badass Gothic tribal” but in reality is just floral minus the actual flowers… Not all clown cars are smol