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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 04:10:50 JST Paul Cantrell

   Whoa.

   This feels like a harbinger of things to come. I can’t cheer it, but also can’t say it comes out of the blue.

   Can't cheer it because the guy’s a human being, and whatever he did, I do not support the death penalty (much less summary execution).

   Can’t say it comes out of the blue because he was a figurehead of a cruel system that does •incredible• harm to many, many other human beings, as part of a runaway feedback loop of self-concentrating wealth and power. https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113595179834467503

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:26:37 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Michael Kohne

     @mhkohne
     Yeah, that's exactly the problem. I don’t want this. But…what did they think was going to happen?!

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Kohne (mhkohne@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:26:38 JST Michael Kohne

     in reply to

     @inthehands Someone else said it first, but when there's no justice available, people will DIY it. The damn fool CEOs and billionaires should take this as a wakeup call that they can't go on taking everything forever. People are going to fight back.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:32:39 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Democracy and elections, the rule of law, the social safety net, the free press and free speech, the US mythology of Individual Opportunity, the aspiration of mutual aid…

     …say what you will about all those things, good and bad, but they all have one thing in common: they all help form alternatives to “might makes right,” to negotiating societal relationships via violence.

     When they are in decay and decline, what do we expect to happen?

     2/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:37:10 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     My Dear Oligarchs, when you suck the life out of democracy, manipulate elections via disinformation and voter suppression, destroy the rule of law, gut the safety net, buy up the press, and strip the economy for parts, what do you expect to happen??

     These things you're destroying are part of an ecosystem. And one thing that ecosystem does is protect •you•. All of us, including you.

     3/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:45:36 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The natural response of people in power, of course, will not be to realize all the above, but to do ever-increasing damage in a vain attempt at self-protection.

     I do not relish what’s coming. I have no fantasy notions about glorious revolution and this being a magical path to utopia. This is social ecosystem collapse, and a lot more people are going to get hurt along the way. Yes, more than are already being harmed by our half-broken social systems. Worse is worse. My heart is heavy.

     /end

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:53:44 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • zeh

     @zeh
     Yes, it’s a good point: individual blame only goes so far, because systemic force select for and create the people who would cause this harm in the first place.

   • Embed this notice
     zeh (zeh@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 05:53:46 JST zeh

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     While i sympathize with your point and sentiment, i think the framework you're operating under is off. The oligarchs are also trapped by this machinery. If they don't make the line go up, they are replaced. This is not to excuse them. They chose to deal death and misery to everyone as a "living", they could very walk off. But it's not like they chose to build the machinery this or that way. It has an internal drive to maximize profit, above all else. It's capitalism.

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Dekker (dekk@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 08:39:32 JST Michael Dekker

     in reply to

     @inthehands Simpler: While the rule of law has never applied equally to the rich, the illusion that it does has been lifted. So many people who have been or should be in prison are being gifted direct access to power. It changes how we process expectations of justice. More people are thinking, “the only justice this person will ever see must come from me.”

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 09:22:19 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Michael Dekker

     @dekk
     I mean, yeah, I think we're thinking along the same lines. Take the cross product of everything you said about the justice with the electoral system, the economic system, our social support systems, etc.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 11:23:33 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Just a little addendum to the thread:

     I said up top that I don't support the death penalty. “Don’t support the death penalty,” however, is not the same as “Don’t speak ill of the dead.”

     Please, by all means, go ahead and speak ill of the dead if that's the truth that needs to be spoken.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 05-Dec-2024 11:49:10 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Quaap

     To wit, from @quaap:

     https://toot.io/@quaap/113596790647631712