Marx referred to this as the Opium of the People. Back then it was religion. Now its consumerism.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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Time to prove them wrong i guess?
Except that they're not wrong. Whoever this Jes Stanley is, back in 2014 he read the metaphorical room perfectly. Western culture will put up with anything as long as they keep getting shiny new toys every year.
That theory is being put to the test right now. If people can't afford their toys, and the government is doing constant outrageous bullshit and murdering people in the streets, there's only so far distraction can go in that environment. Time will tell I guess
im guessing thats why they included culture war BS, as extra on top of it, which affect both sjws and conservatives, conservatives more though. it only goes so far, but having fear based "grief" last alot longer.
Good thing (not really) we're barreling towards economic catastrophe and potential rising geopolitical danger. I'm not gonna pretend it will make things better, but I think people consistently lack imagination for how things can actually suck. People can imagine extinction or the status quo, but actually conceptualizing a middle ground is far more difficult.
Yeah, if trump wasn't in office I would agree, he has jumped the shark though and is getting people out in the streets.
yup like new ev cars, etc. or a marginal healthcare legislation. And sports being political in itself is one of those distractions too
Works on you, you are not everyone. ever notice how people seem to be getting angrier and anger these days?
Who says I'm not angry? You don't know me.
Bitching and moaning on a website isn't productive. Going out a filming a weekend protest on the brand new iPhone you purchased that week isn't productive. It's literally the epitome of what this guy was talking about. The addiction to ephemeral trivialities.
You protest Trump and yell your slogans about Epstein and in the end it does nothing because the people you SHOULD be targetting is the oligarchs and billionaires that pay him.
Trump is just another distraction from the root of the problem; another rage-bait to keep you distracted.
Until we are dragging billionaires into the streets en-mass, your protests mean precisely fuck-all. But anything more than just marching with a sign would require putting people's creature comforts at risk, and that's anathema in the west.
I'm sorry but I have to point this out, at least for your own sake when writing going forward,
your Assuming a lot about me yourself angry man. your on a Canadian board remember, Iv good chance I'm not American by that alone. aren't you bitching and moaning on a website rn?
Tho it is true that the richoids messing with the levers of democracy and good governance need to be ripped of the controls and tossed out into the snow with the rest of us, I can't simply walk over and dismantle them even if I had the ability. Instead people outside the US should disconnect from American companys as well as set up home grown alternatives for people to avoid the new athoritarian uprising for something nicer.
your on a Canadian board remember
That would be because I'm Canadian. And no, that's not bitching and moaning, that's rightfully pointing out that while Ukraine and Gaza are living in demolished homes and unheated homes without electricity because they're fighting fascists, Americans won't do anymore more than performative marching because it might mean they lose their creature comforts and shiny toys.
The country is already in a civil war. But only one side is fighting it. And that's why the body count is on their side.
Exactly which is why we diversify the only thing they have left to control regular people, through their corporate services, we just need independent copy's of those services to distence ourselves from their corporate soft power, I was worried about them before but now a days, not so much.
Also many would consider laying down a wall of text as B&M when it's about a topic many of us are familiar with and struggle to deal with.
in general ive seen people ovvereact over mentioning thier race, or if you compliment them, but they take it as offense if your not the same race.
Your assiming I'm a racist when in reality the CCP has a habit of doing this frequently and is why I'm suspicious
I been listening to Elmessiri, an Egyptian scholar who address this issue as being part of a materialistic ideology. People like the Greek who would eat, vomit, then go back to eat. The society is built to normalize self indulgence. If something doesn't have a materialistic value it's disregard as trash.
We saw this in Nazi Germany with eldery people, and we see it now in simple forms such as homelessness and senior homes. He suggested that, people who take this materialistic view of the world would do things like killing, raping children, as well as building camps for those who the see as useless.
He wrote about it in the 60s, and I found it interesting because his model suggest exactly what we see today. Or we can say, what we see today and what happens in Nazi Germany fit his model.
I found it interesting because that tell us Trump is not a unique case, he is the perfect example for someone who only care about himself, the reason why he get voted, is because the Eroupean and American ( US and Canada ) made it clear to the public that this is what a great American will look like. He works hard, care only about himself, he is strong because he vote the Democrat and won against all odds. Therefore, he can do whatever and no one will do anything about it.
If you stop Trump, that means you longer materialistic and there are values that higher than oneself, which goes against decade of dectornation.
We also see the same language in the email, who they treat people as disposable products, if you are not a cunsomer you are useless and should be killed. They have system in place to make sure you can barely live if you are not a cunsomer, through insane health insurance, student debt, and many little things in Media and even city planning.
The only way out is to revolt against these ideology otherwise, another Trump will come up...
link if ya got one pls
Unfortunately it is not translated in English, he mention in youtube lectures that he address this as part of his PhD thesis, which I think is where he argues this in writing. this in an older work so and i couldnt find it or go through it yet.
His wiki is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Wahab_El-Messiri
His thesis called: "THE CRITICAL WRITINGS OF WORDSWORTH AND WHITMAN: A STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL AND ANTI-HISTORICAL IMAGINATIONS"
Note that they are saying he is a communist and Muslim brotherhood, but I don't believe these labels are accurate so far, I haven't gone through much of his work, but from what he saying, he is clearly focus more one defining models and frame works rather than being part of one.
i am also intersted in translating his lecture to english using AI, if i manage to do that i will keep you posted.
I put it in my sticky notes thx.
It's what I've been saying. In a postindustrial world, most especially in the states, revolution is economically, technologically, and culturally impossible.
Americans in particular are simply too wrapped up in themselves to give a shit about what kind of world this is. They barricade themselves in their ridiculously expensive housing, self-medicate with cheap beer and reality shows, and just shrug when ICE beats the shit out of the neighbors' kid.
They're not wrong.
I wish I could get people to care about wages and health care even half as much as they care about someone saying or posting something mean, or the next slave-manufactured iphone, or whatever dumb shit is trending on TIkTok.
When, on the 2010 US Census, we saw that mixed-race households had increased by 20+%, I still had a modicum of hope for the future. But social media algorithms sure solved that problem for the ruling class.
“The poors won’t revolt” is all copium.
“No one is going to revolt as we’re all sheep” is all doomerism.
People have a breaking point. Look at what is happening in Minnesota, Syria, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wallstreet, the Civil Rights, Idle No More, Palestine Resistance, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, etc. All these events happened because people hit their breaking point. Anger is powerful motivator.
People will have to decide is it worth dying the street for change or dying not doing anything.
True. Mubarak lasted for decades. The minute Egyptians couldn’t afford bread, he was out.
All these events happened because people hit their breaking point.
And all resulted in no meaningful change or even worse circumstances.
I don't consider myself a doomer, but I can also read a history book and know full well that while this may be satisfying in the short term, in a few weeks or months everything will go back to the shitty normal.
Our only power now is local.
And all resulted in no meaningful change or even worse circumstances.
The US Civil Rights movement and the end of Apartheid in South Africa would seem to be pretty unambiguous examples in the above improving circumstances.
The world is shit. Nothing will can immediately achieve will make it not shit. But we can make it less shit, step by step. We have. And, huffing my hopium, we will continue to do so.
No true revolution happens because of some arbitrarily interpreted "breaking point". Those are merely flashpoints that burn bright and fizzle out just as fast or just leaves a vacuum of power for the most advantageous, opportunistic leech to cement themselves as the ruling authority.
It happens because of communities coming together to create alternatives in the here and now. Building a culture of solidarity and support so that people have the confidence to throw off the chains of the old system while also building the foundations of the new system we wish to replace the old one with. And that can only be done at the local level.
Otherwise, humans are more than capable of living on their knees and coming up with insane, fallacious justification for why their suffering is "necessary". It's written across all of human history.
"I don't consider myself a doomer"
Proceeds to say doomer shit and justify it.
He's not wrong
Panem et circenses.
Tale as old as time.
True as it can be
Well, then what happens when you make things so expensive that people can’t afford their consumer goods anymore?…
You demand lower interest rates so that the consumer can get themselves into forever debt. That kicks the can down the road for a bit so hopefully it's someone else's problem.
Yup. Bleak.
And this is how small loan shit like Klarna is born. Where we see debt and uncertainty, capitalists see opportunities.
Luckily for us, "bread and circuses" is not only not true, but also believed by many of the actual elite.
Rule number four, I know you heard this before
Don't get high on your own supply.
They won’t even give us fucking bread anymore.
Maybe 100 years of State oppression of the Left in general and Civil Rights in particular has something to do with it?
This consumerism explanation could only come from a capital-brained billionaire high on his own supply. Social Justice as a supply side issue? Makes perfect sense if you don't think about it.
It's also super racist. Black Americans are not stupid children and JayZ is not the pied piper.
actually 60+years of propaganda against any progressive/left concepts have prevented anything meaningful congregation. also the constant propaganda against "socialism" which really his too small in the us.
Blacks
Gross
It's all of us.
Yep, this was in the immediate aftermath of occupy wall street.
Less Buying Tatts
More Beating Twats
Yah thats what they think, I think their in for a rude awakening since mostly only the selfish and stupid think like that, a good chunk of us don't and that's still a lot of people angry at you.
Honestly, yeah. They ended that to protect pedos. It wasn't working for everybody, but it's over now. See if they like what's next.
Occupy wallstreet pretty much show the threat is non-existent.
Nobility of the 21st century. Things never really changed.
Bought off by Jay Z? wow the stereotyping and a strategy by Jay Z to keep others down, that’s got to hurt. Jay Z is a player hey.
Jiggas a billionaire he's not a good person.
yeh i know, its just good to say it out-loud for the simpers