my .plan: I'll grow a world where humans and other beings flourish. I don't know how I'll do this. I'm willing to be different from how I am now.

It's Declaration of Independence time!

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

#rebellion

The capitalist likes to have credit for creating jobs. It is the employee who makes the capitalist's dream come true. The capitalist taking credit is like the mugger wanting you to thank him for the privilege of emptying your pockets and you should, furthermore, be grateful that he only took the bills and gave you back the coins. And what is the capitalist risking? Someone else's money. And what money is the bank who made the loan risking? Someone else's money. And whose money might that be? You guessed it! The employee's.

#anticapitalism

It's past time for a revolution. Yes, I mean a nonviolent revolution. But we need to tear things down to the studs. It does us recurring harm to use a 250 year old document. As we observe where we are now, in a despotic regime, the Constitution is a failure. It must be revised with human and economic rights built in at the ground floor. And regular review and revision must be baked in as well. Here's the thing, though. The oligarchic, fascist regime will be (is) violent. We mustn't let that deter us.

#antifascism #democracy

The logic of extraction is a way of seeing the world in which all of the earth and the people in it are resources to be exploited. It is the through line connecting colonialism, chattel slavery, the capitalist economic slavery of unemployment without an economic bill of rights, and the mental slavery of the social media algorithm. Fascism is the logical endpoint of the extractive worldview. The battle for freedom never ended. The battlefield simply expanded. It's not enough to protect bodies from bombs. We have to rescue our minds.

#anticapitalism #antifascism #antifa #democracy #socialism

People say it can't be done but I say why not? We're doing what's happening now. Who else would change it? Matthew Cooke points out that cooperation is the human superpower. Let's cooperate to make a democracy that actually works. Fascism takes cooperation too. Why the fuck are we cooperating with that?!

#cooperation #antifascism #democracy

There has been some talk of politicians finding their courage to speak out on issues now that they're no longer in danger of being primaried. Our politicians are supposed to tell the truth all the time and the fact that they only do so when their seats are safe demonstrates that our electoral system is rigged in favor of entrenched power and against its citizens. Clearly, we are not a functioning democracy.

#corruption #democracy #power

If anyone is inclined to give the government and corporations the benefit of the doubt when it comes to surveillance, read Means of Control by Byron Tau. And also this Time article. Bottom line? If they can, they will.

Yet another danger is heading toward us: programmable finance, smart contracts, and (of particular concern) central bank digital currencies. Bottom line: it's money that spies on you and tells you what to do. You'll be told it's convenient. You'll be told it's "safe". And it will be those things. But the government and the corporation will be up in your business. And, guess what...your world just got smaller. It'll be money that you can't save for a rainy day because it has to be spent by a certain date. It'll be money that can't be spent because you didn't go to an approved store. It'll be money that gets taken back because you missed a rent payment. And you won't be able to do anything about it because it's all digital...it'll just disappear from your bank. And that government and corporation? They won't care. This is how they built it.

My son walked today to receive his college diploma. Felt lots of things.

I just heard on a podcast people talking about why they're for or against the war with Iran. Why be against the war? I dunno...Hmmmm...Let me think...Killing people! That's a reason to be against the war! WTF?!

This underlies much of what we struggle with, the fact that we have become so numb to the suffering, of ourselves and others. There is a better way. We could create actual democracy. We could stop harming people on purpose and then begin to roll back accidental harms. The "system" is so big and the myths about it are so powerful that it seems inevitable. It's not. It's just us. We do everything together. It's all cooperation. That's basically what democracy is...a cooperation where everyone has a voice. We can cooperate in a way where we stop hurting ourselves and the world around us.

It seems like a tall order, changing the world. You just start where you are. Local. Really local. Stop being an asshole.

#democracy #peace

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

- Thomas Paine; The Rights of Man

#freedom #antinationalism