The Romans used bread and games to entertain the masses. Looks to me that this has been fine tuned for the past 2,000 years, only now we call it takeaway and surfing the net.
At least they were getting bread.
Bread price fixing is a major issue in Canada.
It’s more than that, I’m afraid. After all, conflicts that always seem to be perfect to capture the attention of the masses, amazingly timed just well enough that other systemic issues get swept under its rug, well…
Let’s just say that it seems exciting problems appear to happen right as things like incredibly controversial bills are passed in an afternoon.
Bit tinfoily, so take from this what you will.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re wrong.
It isn’t even paranoia. That’s the pattern. Back before the Great Reddit Enshittification people were noticing and posting. Controversial bills getting fast-laned in single sessions. Stuff being pushed on weekends. News Stations yelling about some story for a week while a shitty footnote was thrown into some funding bill. Then all too often around nationwide voting periods a major conflict being headlined.
It divides us. Using the most recent conflict, Gaza: Pretty much everyone who isn’t evil agrees that’s a terrible situation. Though it is sowing discourse. The exact same tactics Republicans use to work disagreements are being used to trample on people who beg for us to not let Trump succeed.
I’m just worried, I guess. This happens nearly every time. The Right bands together last minute to shit on the other guy and the left is too busy arguing amongst themselves to notice. Then we all talk about it and the process repeats.
Fuck.
It’s tricky to talk about hardly anything in a forum where you can’t say “it’s more than that.”
When it comes to food, a growing portion of humans are hungry or headed toward hunger. It’s not the only concern, water, food, shelter, all the basic Maslow’s necessities are getting harder to come by. Harder each month. There’s plenty of other concerns: corporate, government, education, and even scientific corruption, greedy billionaires; which are each and together still only part of the problem. The problems are systemic, and that right there is why you can’t talk about any one thing without recognizing there’s so much more. Calling it “tinfoily” is dismissing how immediately vital food prices and availability are, even while there are many other important issues. And the way the media selects and times articles is another one of those.
Glossary for non-Australians:
- Newstart: Unemployment living* allowance paid by the government / aka “The dole”.
- ATSI: Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islanders (the many indigenous peoples of what is now claimed as ‘Australia’).
Creating military jobs made easy
“Careers in Combat” by Parquet Courts is a good song about this
You found a source!