Cross-posted from “The taxman always gets their due” by @Db0@dbzer0.com in !dbzer0.com@dbzer0.com

Author’s Note: Initially I was planning to just post it here, but then I though, “hey I have an actual blog for this reason”. So anyway, I’m just crossposting here anyway :)

Someone made the comment about the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO and mentioned that the clients to private security forces are going to skyrocket. This is true.

It made me think of how much companies like these have profited from lobbying the government to remove their social contributions (i.e. taxes) while also being directly responsible for destroying those social safeties themselves.

The companies constantly lobby the government to reduce or remove their tax burden while retaining their state protections. But they don’t recognize that the more their actions erode the life of the working class, the more the social contract people accept to not take matters into their own hands is discarded.

As such, you start seeing things like assassinations and kidnappings, which in turn force the rich to use the money they saved by not paying taxes, to pay for private security instead.

This naturally leads to a more and more polarized society where the rich live in increasingly isolated and defended enclaves, while the proles live outside in slums and favelas. Sometimes directly next to each other, as this iconic photos from Sao Paolo exemplifies.

<img alt=“” src=“https://i0.wp.com/dbzer0.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image.png?resize=620%2C413&ssl=1” height=“413” width=“620” />

Of course, eventually, the dissolution of the social contract is going to make even this insufficient. More and more wealth will need to be used merely to protect their life and property, once the state has been sufficiently defunded, until at some point, you own private security will be either so powerful as to become a de-facto state, or they will turn themselves against the rich and claim their wealth for themselves.

Under capitalism, the taxman always gets their due.

        • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
          2·
          6 days ago

          There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. More to the point I wasn’t involved in all of these acts nor do my local use of those models support those systems.

          • Umbrias@beehaw.org
            31·
            6 days ago

            there is no ethical consumption under capitalism is only really a defense when the acts are otherwise necessary in some way. a fake image for b roll in your post is hardly a worthwhile use, and takes away from artists whom could have been asked for their piece.

            • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
              2·
              5 days ago

              No it’s not just for necessities. You also can’t declare that others be as pure as you want. You don’t know everyone’s situation. Moralising and scolding like this is counter productive

              • Umbrias@beehaw.org
                31·
                5 days ago

                i can certainly moralize that this is not a good use of generative models nor a good use of your defense. think it’s counterproductive if you want, normalizing garbage that harms us all, especially artists in this case, out of expediency aint it.

                • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
                  2·
                  5 days ago

                  Scold all you want. Doesn’t matter. It’s Capitalism which harms artists, not technology.

  • VerticaGG@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    5·
    7 days ago

    Coming soon to a balkanized USA in your area

    There is a better way. Dont ever let them make you forget. Dont forget that:

    • That the 2020 lockdowns showed us we dont need Business As Usual, the society kept turning while the planet briefly healed
    • That Child poverty dropped at the fastest rate it ever dropped
    • That until last year, more people could just have health care, right, if the government decides to just do that.
    • That evictions can just be stopped. That if we – you know, if the government just rules it, like your landlord can’t evict you.
    • That the George Floyd Uprising had Cheeto Mussolino hiding in a bunker, while the people were fighting the police in the streets and winning.
    • That Covid is now endemic because these administrations, 45 and 46 and their counterparts across the empire, buried their heads in the sand and declared it “over” when it was not

    https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/vicky-forget

    Dont fall for the bread ans circuses. The relevative comfort and spell that it will put you under. Memory is fragile, it’s written-to- by feeling emotions. So feel this. Allowing them to let you get checked out entirely is like sleepwalking off a cliff.

    Dont let the doomerism get to you. Focus on what you can change. Refuse to forget. Rest is resistance is a good book. Sending all my good vibes 💜

  • MrPoopyButthole@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    14·
    7 days ago

    I’m surprised that drone assassinations are not more common. Strap a home made explody thing on a cheap FPV drone with a cheap servo release and you can take out anyone from the safety of a random parking lot or hotel room.