Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Sengoku Strider]

This government is trending a lot higher than recent presidents you speak of.

I’d like to know the what happens if overspending were to occur.

Let’s double down on hypothetical and pretend the administration spent 100 trillion of debt for “reform” and could not afford the debt in the future.

At what point would that effect our economy and what would the detriment be? I would like to educate myself on the cause and effect of overspending in general..

So...let's pretend that this time the sky really is falling.

The guy who was in the senate for 40 years then VP for 8. The guy who got the Democratic nomination not because he led the primaries, but because he was the safe, middle of the road center-right candidate the establishment wanted, and rigged their game to put him in place? The guy who went through an arduous process to get bipartisan support for this bill & got 19 Republican senators on board, even though he needed zero?

That's the guy who's suddenly going to wild out and jack up the $26.7 trillion national debt to $100 trillion like he's political Michael Vick? With absolutely nobody in the corporate-Democrat establishment putting the brakes on him?

Okay, I am absolutely 100% on board. As you can probably tell, I love weird stuff. Let's do this thing.

Let's say Biden has always been secretly envious of the shiny suit era of hip hop. He's going all out on Gucci stealth bombers. Miami DC, wrapped in Ver-sa-ce. Replaces fluoride in the water with Cristal. Appoints Master P head of the Treasury Dept. on the basis of his past business acumen and refined taste in gold-plated assault tanks. The White House and capitol are relocated to Neverland Ranch.

Pictured: 2023 US Dept. of Agriculture soybean & oilseed roundtable forum


Sure, some fuddy-duddies object. But this is the Instagram era baby, and P Biddy is putting on the flex to end all flexes. The people are loving it. But somewhere along the line, after a decade or two the bills start piling up. After all, Cristal costs $200 and up just at the liquor store, but Joe made the baller move of paying nightclub bottle service prices. Payments get skipped. America has to pretend it's not home when the World Bank comes banging on the door. They have to park the car at Paraguay's house to keep it from getting repo'd. President Lohan is losing her shit.

The country enters sovereign default. It's now a major credit risk, loan rates go up 40%. Neighbouring countries step in to help for fear of becoming the next domino, but not even Canada's pillowcase full of loonies can fix this problem.

The value of the dollar sinks as currency traders bail. Purchasing power goes down, some commodities get more expensive. Prices go up on imports like electronics. The agriculture industry contracts. Super markets get downgraded to just pretty okay markets. Economic depression results as banks are forced to make write-downs all over the place. Everybody makes mean jokes about you on the internet.

But ultimately, that old saying comes into play: if you owe the bank $10 000, that's your problem. If you owe it $100 trillion because you had Gucci redesign your entire airforce, that's the bank's problem. That kind of liability is a tough sell to offload to a 3rd party. And ultimately America's a sovereign entity. Nobody can actually compel it to pay back anything, unless China really wants to send its goons round to collect kneecaps.

So, debts get restructured. A conservatorship is offered. The world's largest ball of paint in Alexandria, Indiana is auctioned off to service debts. The US becomes a foster kid for the IMF, who keep a photo of it stuck to the fridge with U-S-A letter magnets. Music gets really depressing. But it's not all bad, because now manufacturing jobs can finally come back with labour costs reduced.

And you'll still always have those 8 magical years where Silkk tha Shocker rewrote the national anthem and Biggie was added to Mount Rushmore.

[orange808]

With some minor pain, the United States could probably pay its entire debt with a simple gasoline tax. We're talking pennies per gallon, here. I'm not actually suggesting that. It's a regressive solution and it would have consequences. On the other hand, it wouldn't stop the economy. People forget how big the US economy really is. That's why people store money using American debt.

[orange808]

I hope the people living in the dimension where we managed to walk on Mars and didn't ruin our climate are doing okay. Guess we can take solace that we're not one of the poor bastards living through nuclear annihilation, eh?

Maybe I'm a technology skeptic, but there is no dimension where human beings exist and don't ruin the climate. How would you even do that? Logan's Run? Any managed solution that treats everyone well will require some kind draconian and cruel policy to keep consumption in check. I keep hearing we can save the planet by turning off a light and trying to flush just once. That might help, but it won't get us there.

Real solutions are absolutely draconian. That's why nobody talks about it.

If there was ever any chance, I think it involves completely abandoning trips to Mars. No more playing spaceman. Space should belong to "robots". Sending people is expensive and dumb. The money we are spending on playing Major Tom should be going elsewhere. Yes, they can fix a space telescope, but I could build a new for one for less than we spend on that space station--and all the trips up and down. I'm also not amused that companies took NASA (government) funds, built vehicles (with my money), and now they sell tourists trips on my ship. Do I get a cut of the profits? Fuck no.

[GaijinPunch]

We have so many threads for wackos... I think this goes here.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ca ... y-n1276611

[Mischief Maker]

We have so many threads for wackos... I think this goes here.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ca ... y-n1276611

I can't wait until it's announced that our reptilian overlords are going to finally reveal themselves to the world and it just turns out to be the Geico lizard.

[BryanM]

Maybe I'm a technology skeptic, but there is no dimension where human beings exist and don't ruin the climate. How would you even do that? Logan's Run? Any managed solution that treats everyone well will require some kind draconian and cruel policy to keep consumption in check. I keep hearing we can save the planet by turning off a light and trying to flush just once. That might help, but it won't get us there.

Real solutions are absolutely draconian. That's why nobody talks about it.

It would require a variance in the development of the human animal or their environment. Much like there's a wacky dimension where this spooky thing called hydrogen exists, maybe there's a dimension were our median person had to be smarter than just smart enough to not be eaten by elephants. Or the hierarchical ape groups we came from were less hierarchical for whatever reason.

It wasn't a mandatory given that the dominant lifeform on this planet would be the car. But we designed our infrastructure to be that way.

This observation in this essay on the stroads that infest every corner of our lives was quite funny to me: they had to remove trees from the side of stroads to keep people from running into them, but they still have a bicycle lane that's right on the edge of the stroad. It's not a mistake or anything - it really is intentionally engineered that way to kill as many bicyclers as possible. (I used to wonder about this so much as a kid!)

Another observation (that I haven't checked) was that deaths from car crashes actually went UP during COVID. Because there were less people on stroads, they could drive faster and that led to higher fatalities.

Basically our towns and cities are designed to isolate people from one another as much as possible. Empathy is a poison to our society.

[Sengoku Strider]

Coping: A short story in four images

[orange808]

I can't be the only person in the world that ever checked the facts and changed my mind on something. Am I? What the f is wrong with these people?

[Sengoku Strider]

I can't be the only person in the world that ever checked the facts and changed my mind on something. Am I? What the f is wrong with these people?

Too many things to list. But the long and short of it is that reality stopped working for them a long time ago, so they just bailed on it. They know there's nothing good waiting for them there if they go back to it.

[orange808]

Too many things to list. But the long and short of it is that reality stopped working for them a long time ago, so they just bailed on it. They know there's nothing good waiting for them there if they go back to it.

The depressing part is we could do something better domestically, if they would just help us try.

(Sorry, can't build a global utopia just yet. I'm on board when we can. No kidding. I'm not pulling a Hillary and using limitations as a cheap excuse. We aren't there, yet.)

[Sengoku Strider]

The depressing part is we could do something better domestically, if they would just help us try.

Eventually they probably will. After enough misery and false promises and shattered rural and small town communities, there'll be a Bernie Sanders who comes along who wasn't born 20 years too early, who can speak to them in a voice they can hear at a moment they can hear it.

I remembered I had this. It's a post from back in January 2021 that was posted on 8Kun, the 4chan-but-worse anon board run by Ron 'CodeMonkeyZ' Watkins and his dad. They were almost certainly the two behind most of the Q posts, which exclusively appeared there.

It's like it was written by a time traveler, describing what was going to happen to the Q movement, who would be the only ones to hang on, and why. The redacted parts are just the usual gay slur they stick at the end of everything to be edgelords:



(Note the pathetic disclaimer at the bottom)

[BulletMagnet]

Eventually they probably will.

I really wish I had your optimism, but I really can't shake the notion that if this many of them haven't already had their fill of misery, false promises and shattered communities, they're simply never going to. To all appearances the point just plain isn't how bad things may ever get for them, it's how devoted they will always remain to making things even worse for other people.

[orange808]

Republicans are so very interesting. Do they care about Ethiopia? Does every life really matter? No. People are dying. Real human being are losing everything they ever had or ever will have. What do we do? Let's score some fucking political points! 'Merica! Fuck ya!

What's that they say? We can't fix Ethiopia? We can't fix nations by invading? That's correct. Interesting how quickly we remember and forget shit.

[Mischief Maker]

I think when people are in a really doomer mood, they need to rewatch No Country for Old Men, with the explicit understanding that Tommy Lee Jones is the protagonist, not Josh Brolin, and you should be identifying with him.

Especially this scene.

[orange808]

I prefer this one:
https://archive.org/details/plan-9-from ... ace_202009

"Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave robbers from outer space?"

[Mischief Maker]

I think if there's one line from Plan 9 that sums up the 2021 situation it's this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qro7oBzUBos

[Sengoku Strider]

Eventually they probably will.

I really wish I had your optimism, but I really can't shake the notion that if this many of them haven't already had their fill of misery, false promises and shattered communities, they're simply never going to. To all appearances the point just plain isn't how bad things may ever get for them, it's how devoted they will always remain to making things even worse for other people.

The tribal wagon-circling runs deep right now, I will absolutely grant you that needs to run its course.

Roosevelt won 98.5% of electoral seats in 1936, it was these same people voting for him. Right wing media spends no small amount of time railing against 'elites.' Currently that just translates into anyone with a college education who doesn't represent a Republican voting bloc, but I don't think it will take some kind of political mastermind to redirect their resentment towards this crowd:

[BulletMagnet]

I don't think it will take some kind of political mastermind to redirect their resentment towards this crowd:

Considering that they've been very openly trafficking in this sort of talk for a very long time (and not just towards "able-bodied workers" either; I recall some legislator or other not too terribly long ago similarly speaking in favor of cancelling school-provided lunches for poor kids, because "hunger is a powerful motivator"), I'm far, far more inclined to cleave to the well-worn notion that these folks just know that when their leaders speak in this manner they aren't talking about them, they're talking about Those People. (Off to the side, just the fact that the chyron in the screenshot you posted has the stones to describe the U.S. welfare state as "generous" is itself evidence enough of just how steep a hill there is to climb here.)

I suppose my larger point is that those of us who want to believe in the better (or at least more sensible) angels of our collective nature have been telling ourselves similar things for years now, about what The Tipping Point will finally be; Iraq will wake them up! The recession will be it! The "Birther" conspiracy will do it! Repeated government shutdowns are the one! The constant giveaways to the wealthy, that's the ticket! If not that, definitely stealing Supreme Court Seats! No, Trump will surely be it! QAnon! COVID-19! The Big Lie! The Capitol Riot! Cyber Ninjas! Voter suppression! A swift, gleeful slide into outright authoritarianism!

The Tipping Point Does Not Fucking Exist. The long-anticipated aghast exodus from modern American Conservatism simply is not happening. Anyone on the right - or, to a great extent, even in the "center" - who doesn't loudly and proudly cheer on the things happening to the right are more than content to simply keep their mouths shut and let the reactionaries do their worst, because it lets them get in on the fun of Owning The Libs without actually having to do jack shit. With very, very few exceptions, any meaningful #resistance to what's going on simply does not exist, whatever forms it does take are being swiftly and effortlessly purged, and I am frankly unable to imagine something that hasn't already happened which will finally utter the magic words that would make people who very literally depend on Medicare and Social Security to live stop voting for people who want to abolish them.

Maybe I'm just missing some massive swell that hasn't gotten enough attention which points to a different outcome, and if so I'd absolutely love to know what it is, but from where I've been standing for a very long time now I just plain don't see it, nor am I, based on everything I've managed to experience going back decades, inclined to anticipate it.

[BryanM]

The demographics change as older people die off is a very real thing. Republican Governor Andrew Cuomo had like an 80%+ approval rating with the TV crowd, while having around 30% among the peer to peer internet crowd or the people who care about politics enough to read about it like a nerd crowd. As I kept saying in the thread over and over, change of power doesn't happen with incremental baby steps. You either have control or you don't, it always happens in a swift chop. (Of course those shifts only happen because of people dedicated to change. Whether that's the DSA or the people who want to protect our statues to mass murderers, eh; the one guarantee in life is change.)

Our buddy Prester John talked much on the topic of the fundamentalism that fuels this engine. Religious thought and the religious mind is absolutely core to the GOP, and one of the absolute worst fears they had was that of homosexuality. That any land that would tolerate it would face God's wrath like Sodom + Gomorrah. But even their own grandkids don't care about it. And here we are, it's legal now, and no one but the most fringe gives a shit. Things that don't hurt anyone become normalized and lose their shock value over time, that they have to resort to fantasy now demonstrates they're running out of things in the real world to do their fear rotation strategy on.

One day.... people on the internet will be able to manage to live with themselves if someone dyes their hair blue.

[Sengoku Strider]

The Tipping Point Does Not Fucking Exist. The long-anticipated aghast exodus from modern American Conservatism simply is not happening.

Oh, I wouldn't ever suggest such a thing. Parties have too much data to be caught out like that. But I do think that the Southern US is about to get absolutely steamrolled by climate change over the next two decades. Certain states are already closer to third world conditions than anybody wants to admit. And resentment by the have-nots against the haves grows organically, you don't need to foster it. As the percentage holding most of the wealth gets smaller & smaller, it won't be hard for people to point out villains among them.

Parties in a functional democracy can't act in an ideology-out manner. They have to represent where voters are at. The current assumptions about what a 'great' America is are rooted in postwar Mayberry mythology. Liberal capitalism won, everybody gets a house and a car and two happy kids and a retirement. But Millennials and Gen Z have grown up with the opposite messaging, work with every drop of focus and energy you have or dangle from society's lowest rungs. Hounded by debt collectors, single in mom's basement in your 30s with a shitty Instagram.

My thinking is that even for those who are still true believers in Mayberry's return, non-whites will only make convenient scapegoats for so long; there's nothing to win in that battle. Stuffing black & brown people down in the underclass won't make globalization and ever-widening wealth inequality go away for whites struggling to reach or stay in the middle class.

Sooner or later someone will come along with a better story to tell them, and I think there's more than enough material in the Bible to turn the Sunlight + magnifying glass toward the plutarchs.

[BulletMagnet]

Parties in a functional democracy can't act in an ideology-out manner. They have to represent where voters are at.

Which is precisely why the right is doing its damndest to make sure we no longer have a functional democracy; moreover, the folks who you're apparently counting on to eventually see the light are all for it. And no matter how far it goes I, again, don't see this situation changing; the Viktor Orbans of the world all have plenty of emaciated tongues snaking up from beneath their boots eager to lick them, right alongside the well-fed and empty-souled Tuckers of the world.

My thinking is that even for those who are still true believers in Mayberry's return, non-whites will only make convenient scapegoats for so long; there's nothing to win in that battle.

Again, for this to make sense you need to assume that material concerns are the true motivating factor; beyond that point, which I imagine you'd agree we passed a long time ago, there's plenty to "win" when spite is the prize. And unlike health care or housing the supply never runs out.

Sooner or later someone will come along with a better story to tell them, and I think there's more than enough material in the Bible to turn the Sunlight + magnifying glass toward the plutarchs.

The Greatest Story Ever Told has been around for two millennia and has been used for the vast majority of that time to skin penniless peasants alive in order for the clergy to never have to leave the presence of gold and marble; hell, we've still got Jim Fucking Bakker hocking colloidal silver toothpaste as a Covid cure. Again, if you've seen some notable indication that today's Joel Osteen groupies - Trump's most loyal base, might I remind you - are any more versed in scripture, let alone any critical thinking such knowledge might inspire, than the illiterate masses of the Dark Ages, or somehow inclined to become so, I'm all ears.

On a personal note, it's been a very long time since I've picked up a Bible, but for all I've forgotten since then I can still clearly remember Jesus's declaration that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God's kingdom (Matthew 19:24); I don't think I've once heard it quoted since. Anywhere, by anyone.

[BryanM]

Which is precisely why the right is doing its damndest to make sure we no longer have a functional democracy

Yes it's called fascism aka late stage capitalism.

Diehard partisan GOP voters are the not the only people who exist BM. Maybe vote for a Sanders in a primary or something. Visit a park? Talk to some ducks?

On a personal note, it's been a very long time since I've picked up a Bible, but for all I've forgotten since then I can still clearly remember Jesus's declaration that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God's kingdom (Matthew 19:24); I don't think I've once heard it quoted since. Anywhere, by anyone.

Leftists like me quote it all the time to troll theocratic nazis. Their priests already gave them a rationalization why Jesus isn't a communist.

It isn't important that the words make sense, all that matters is they have them. Like any other symbol or talisman.

[orange808]

Jon Taffer (the bar guy) grew up around Great Neck: one of the most affluent towns in the nation--and it remains a wealthy city to this day.

https://www.zillow.com/great-neck-ny/

It's always nice to be born with everything on your side. He will tell you he's a minority. He's just a white guy. There's a certain card that some rich ordinary white people use to conveniently cast themselves as victims when it suits their aim. Of course, it's bollocks. They are just rich white people.

He wasn't starving.

[Sengoku Strider]

the Viktor Orbans of the world all have plenty of emaciated tongues snaking up from beneath their boots eager to lick them, right alongside the well-fed and empty-souled Tuckers of the world.

It's funny you should say that. Harvard runs an Electoral Integrity Project. It came out yesterday that several states in the US actually rank below Hungary:

In its most recent study of the 2020 elections, the integrity of Wisconsin’s electoral boundaries earned a 23 – worst in the nation, on par with Jordan, Bahrain and the Congo.

Alabama (31), North Carolina (32), Michigan (37), Ohio (33), Texas (35), Florida (37) and Georgia (39) scored only marginally higher. Nations that join them in the 30s include Hungary, Turkey and Syria.

Syria and Congo.

Again, for this to make sense you need to assume that material concerns are the true motivating factor; beyond that point, which I imagine you'd agree we passed a long time ago, there's plenty to "win" when spite is the prize. And unlike health care or housing the supply never runs out.

So I wouldn't disagree with a lot of what you're saying, and clearly there's another way things could go. But I'd differ entirely on the motivating factors. It's not about spite, that's what people act out on as consolation when they can't get their way. It's a response to the tribe's socio-economic status being threatened, because that translates into a threat to survival capacity. The coming demographic shift, increasing white poverty and 8 years of a black president pushing for trans rights really broke their minds. They all grew up having it drummed into them that that was the opposite of how the world was ordered. Everything suddenly went sideways and they're lost.

Their leaders did try to lead them a specific direction, courting Catholic latinos, and it failed spectacularly. Now a lot of them are out of office, replaced by loons and fellow Machiavellians who saw opportunity and read from a different script.

There is no plan. Circle the wagons, hang onto their fiefdoms for dear life through gerrymandering and voter suppression, and then...nothing. There's nowhere to go. The wealth gap will keep growing. Church attendance will keep shrinking. Whites will keep becoming a smaller percentage of the electorate. And then there's this:

Nearly half of American workers do not earn enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment, according to new data.

Rents in the US continued to increase through the pandemic, and a worker now needs to earn about $20.40 an hour to afford a modest one-bedroom rental. The median wage in the US is about $21 an hour.

People can rant about border-crossing immigrants and AOC all they want. When you can't keep a roof over your head because corporations are buying up all the real estate in the country, and certain regions are uninhabitable because they're on fire, you're suddenly faced with harsh realities. It would really surprise me to see people just sit around shaking their fists along with angry privileged grandpas on Fox, while somebody else is offering them an actual way out. It's not as though most of the working class realizing they're in the same boat hasn't happened many times throughout history.

On a personal note, it's been a very long time since I've picked up a Bible, but for all I've forgotten since then I can still clearly remember Jesus's declaration that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God's kingdom (Matthew 19:24); I don't think I've once heard it quoted since. Anywhere, by anyone.

I kid you not when I tell you the standard supply-side fundamentalist rationalization is that 'The Eye of the Needle' was actually a large needle-eye shaped gate in Jerusalem and it's all just a big misunderstanding.

[BulletMagnet]

It would really surprise me to see people just sit around shaking their fists along with angry privileged grandpas on Fox, while somebody else is offering them an actual way out.

A great many people have been doing just this for a very long time now and have moreover internalized it (as well as, I would still strongly argue, the inherent cruelty of acting upon said impulses) as an integral part of their personal identity, which is why the situation is what it is and continuing to deteriorate at a breakneck pace (I guarantee you not a single red-state conservative would give a rat's ass if you told him his state has about as much electoral integrity as Syria - hey, if that's what it takes to own the libtards!). Maybe The Threshold truly is just ahead, maybe they won't be utterly giddy for the onset of totalitarianism if they think it might benefit them, maybe they just need to suffer a liiiiittle more before they finally do something more constructive with it than spread it around while screaming and flipping the bird, but I'm not holding my breath.

I kid you not when I tell you the standard supply-side fundamentalist rationalization is that 'The Eye of the Needle' was actually a large needle-eye shaped gate in Jerusalem and it's all just a big misunderstanding.

The account that quote comes from is literally a rich guy (and a genuinely pious one, at that) asking to join up with Jesus and being invited along, only to change his mind and walk away when JC tells him he'll have to give up his riches to follow him. More broadly, this is not even close to the sole Biblical passage explicitly trafficking in similar themes. This is why I say I do not have faith in the power of scripture - or most anything else, frankly - to motivate change in the people who claim to live their lives by it.

Off to the side...

The median wage in the US is about $21 an hour.

My Google-fu is probably just weak, but for quite some time I've wondered what the median wage would look like if someone did the math to remove the top 1, 5, or 10 percent of earners from the equation; considering how lopsided the wage situation has been for so long separating them out would provide a significantly more accurate picture of what most people actually have to live on. I would also love to know the percentage of jobs on offer that actually pay 21 an hour or more.

[orange808]

Try measuring capital instead:
https://www.thebalance.com/american-net ... an-4135839

Human beings aren't nice, but they also aren't stupid. Once people meet their basic needs and wants, they get comfortable and start making investments.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1 ... 2281951232

omegalul

[Mischief Maker]

Circa 1987:

"I'm sorry we missed the concert, we had some trouble at the airport," said by a heroic version of Osama Bin Laden.

Circa 1988:

"I think we're gettin' soft," as they leave Afghanistan in the capable hands of the Mujahideen.

We've always been at war with Eastasia!

[Steamflogger Boss]

Oh and looks like Trump wasn't reinstated on the day the nutters thought he would be. Just shocking stuff.

[Sengoku Strider]

It would really surprise me to see people just sit around shaking their fists along with angry privileged grandpas on Fox, while somebody else is offering them an actual way out.

A great many people have been doing just this for a very long time now and have moreover internalized it (as well as, I would still strongly argue, the inherent cruelty of acting upon said impulses) as an integral part of their personal identity, which is why the situation is what it is and continuing to deteriorate at a breakneck pace (I guarantee you not a single red-state conservative would give a rat's ass if you told him his state has about as much electoral integrity as Syria - hey, if that's what it takes to own the libtards!). Maybe The Threshold truly is just ahead, maybe they won't be utterly giddy for the onset of totalitarianism if they think it might benefit them, maybe they just need to suffer a liiiiittle more before they finally do something more constructive with it than spread it around while screaming and flipping the bird, but I'm not holding my breath.

Now let me be the first to say, if the past decade has taught me anything, it's that the world now has way too many moving parts moving way too fast for me to act like I know what's going to happen. Like if tomorrow they revealed the greys really were running the CIA, I'd just shrug and go "Huh. Weird. I really thought it would be Nestlé." So far the only futurist who's been pretty much on point has been Hideo Kojima. We're like 2 years away from mooing tentacle mechs hopping around Afghanistan.

-That being said-

Historically the tipping point has always been food, shelter and security. Once those go out the window, any regime loses legitimacy.

It's one thing to blame the world's ills on migrant strawberry pickers and entitled millennials with their avocado toast when you're living in the Kardashian era. It's quite another when you're living in the Global-Warming-Unlocked-Paleolithic-Siberian-Doom-Bacteria era and the average temperature is 95 degrees. The Fox News TV you're shaking your fist at isn't actually plugged in since you live in a shared nylon tent in an Amazon Fulfilment Center parking lot, because the $1800 rent deducted from your bi-monthly paycheque is all you can afford. And besides, Amazon Security Solutions personnel are the only ones for miles around well armed enough to keep Jagi and Immortan Joe at bay.

If some guy comes along and says "Hey, what if you were allowed to keep the wealth you produce, instead of having it appropriated to fund Moon Bezos' Quixotic quest for the Anti-Life Equation?" ...you might just think this crazy idea is worth a roll of the dice.

Pictured - Moon Bezos and Transformed God-Elixir Jack Ma in their final fateful showdown circa 2122 CE: