We are just finding out about a child sex trafficking ring involving politicians and billionaires, the world’s richest man does a Nazi salute at a political rally, and the President being an adjudicated sex criminal is probably not the worst thing he has done…

Meanwhile I’m standing here in the checkout line feeling guilty about whether or not I should tip a barista

Something is wrong with our collective notion of morality, and my individual understanding (Oh well, here we are)

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Even the next part:

    world’s richest man does a Nazi salute at a political rally,

    Don’t get me wrong, horrible and completely unacceptable.

    But sure as shit is nowhere near the line of what’s happened with the last 100 years:

    The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch[1] and the White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator.[2][3] Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general, testified under oath that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans’ organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d’état to overthrow Roosevelt. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the “McCormack–Dickstein Committee”) on these revelations.[4] Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said, “there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

    In case anyone’s eyes glazed over instead of reading, two key points:

    wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans’ organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d’état to overthrow Roosevelt.

    And even more importantly:

    Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said, “there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”

    Shit didn’t just get bad, it’s been bad.

    And the way to fight it is an opposition party like FDR.

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      A fairly wide range of problems in modern society can be traced to the judiciary’s reluctance to both prosecute and sentence the rich with the same rigor they apply to the poor.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Everyone acting like these are the worst times ever, makes me wonder about their history education. Yeah, America’s taken a steep dive this century. Yeah, that’s normal for empires to fall. Usually to greed.

      I’m hoping we crash hard, Great Depression hard. That clusterfuck ushered in liberal politics dominating until the 90s. We had conservatives, Reagan comes to mind, but they didn’t have unchecked power like today.

      Only exception I got is global warming. We’ve never played this particular game before.

      • postcapitalism@lemmy.todayOP
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        5 months ago

        False premise. I never said it was the worst time ever, or even that I was surprised.

        This is just about the relativity of my morality and what society is willing to tolerate

        (this to the above two smart comments as well - although I don’t fundamentally disagree)