Devaluing or otherwise undermining the liberties and livelihoods of others for the sake of self-enrichment, self-interest or self-pleasure is the foundational stone forever linking Capitalism with slavery. By their very natures the two simply do not and cannot exist independently of one another, there being no slavery without Capitalism and no Capitalism without slavery. The current, pandemic-related insistence by a detestable lot of public figures declaring that the economy bears greater importance than life, is itself an endorsement of slavery. However, to blame extortion and exploitation on prejudice is to say rape is alright as long as it makes you feel good. Humankind is overeager to rationalize self-enrichment as survival, but creature comforts are neither rights or necessities, they’re excesses and more often than not, weaknesses. If life or death needs are squared, then not getting a fast food taco when you desire is *not* oppression. It only means you listen too intently to marketing.
That said, I am a firm believer that the adage “opinions are like assholes, everyone has one” is utter horseshit. The lack of independence or individuality in thought is the cause of most societal ills, so susceptible have the masses been made to playing follow the leader. Even social media is 99% repetition, not origination. As though by design. IQ tests for any and every political candidate should not be so taboo, but then, they would not be representing their constituents. The Statue of Liberty won’t torch itself.
What others think or feel about us is of intrinsic importance for being part to any collective. The popular, self-placating belief that how we think or feel about ourselves is more important, is to disregard not only the differing perspectives but the collective as well. It’s a deep hypocrisy. We must hold concerns for how others perceive us, otherwise we come at life with the same approach as the Trumps of the world. Self-perceptions only matter to ourselves. Any notion that our self-perceptions matter above and beyond the considerations of those who must live alongside us is still narcissism. When everyone’s egocentric there is no society. We can and will each decorate the stone walls of our life-sentenced prison cells with the graffiti of our choosing, but others can and will decorate their respective prison cells however they wish. And there’s nothing wrong with that, until one mandates the view of others. It does not matter how eager persons are to have others do their thinking for them, to have their considerations performed on their behalf. Neither your comfort or your enrichment is anybody’s natural obligation.
You don’t have to love them and they do not have to love you, in order to co-exist without using or abusing one another.
It’s an old line, but the common factor in all of your failed relationships is you yourself, and there is absolute truth to that. I suspect it is a uniquely American psychopathy, to question or demean anyone who tries to help fulfill the needs of others rather than working for the sake of you and yours having more than you honestly need. This culture rewards hero-status only to the more self-serving among us. No American can name more soup kitchen volunteers than they can Kardashians. The notion that you are capable of fault and fallacy, or your leaders or icons or celebrity crushes or the intentions of your government are capable of fault and fallacy, should not rationally be a controversial thing. Demigods do not exist. AA preaches that the first step on the road to recovery is admitting the problem exists, but I learned back in grade school, in a program called Future Problem Solving, that deflection of an issue is not remotely synonymous for identifying the issue, much less resolving it. The concept of scapegoating originated in the pages of the bible, but the practice of avoiding responsibility obviously extends beyond organized religion onto nationalism and any other system dependent on losing individuals in a crowd. Such as the homeless, who are openly ostracized legally and demonized socially, yet able to survive for years without Netflix or beauty salons or microwave pizza or MMORPGs or vibrating dildos. Entertainment is not essential to survival. It’s not a necessity, it’s no basic human right or civil right but 100% luxury. If you can’t exist without it, that’s not on the government or society or anyone but you yourself. For fucksakes the world is entertaining enough. Artificial cultures merely distract from that. Pursuits of happiness defined only by entertainment value is an excruciatingly narrow worldview.
It is not the purpose of anyone in existence to service your desires or to uphold what you believe in. It’s not the function of truth to provide comfort. The universe isn’t here explicitly to make you look good or feel good or to signal-boost the marketing which sold you.
Supremacy is certainly a form of entitlement, but entitlement encompasses far, far more, and too often applies to situations or environs where superiority is not regarded or even inferred in the slightest. I adamantly feel that rationalized selfishness is *the* problem. The idea that survival depends on self-interest or self-pleasure is just not remotely true, but for the human race is it the standard setting enabling everyone to be sold on participation in this system, a system itself depending stringently on exploitation and extortion. The conviction that Capitalism can be benevolent is as unfounded as suggesting that guns can save lives, rather than only ending them. I’m not belittling the harm of xenophobia or homophobia or anything of the sort, but declaring them as side-effects of egoism rather than the aim.
Free speech only actually applies to product packaging, because marketing is the only language which all residents of these united states are made to understand. I oppose each and every player within the USA federal government *because* I am not a homicidal piece of shit. I want you all to live, but I want you all to suffer for allowing this society to linger. The consequence of egos being taken as justifiable and pardonable both privately and socially leads to this hellmouth of making the wrong fucking ends meet.