Can't get you out of my head by Adam Curtis (2021) Updated +Created
Ciro Santilli was touched by this, and then watched several other documentaries by Curtis.
Part of Ciro asks if it is all a big conspiracy theory. But it feels and sounds so right.
Notably the part of the governments have lost all power to companies, and can't do anything meaningful anymore to actually represent the people, because globalization reduces the power of governments.
Companies with investors are evil Updated +Created
All companies with investors are evil, make no mistake.
They may have nice looking save the world charity campaigns, but once you get even close to affecting their revenue stream, the axe falls. The charity is only a publicity stunt to reduce wages.
Some level of government intervention is needed to control investor's greed.
It is just a question of business model: some business models are eviler than others. Making people pay for operating systems being possible the most evil of all.
One thing must be said however. You can learn a lot by working in a good company, because it ends up putting you in contact with practical real problems that you wouldn't otherwise see by just doing your own random low-tech startup. This is especially valuable if said company is also enlightened enough to use and contribute back to open source software, thus improving the world and paying back the moral debt of using other people's work for free.
Another important point to consider is who in the company is evil. In a sane tech company, the lowly engineers are going to be non-evil. And then the more you go up the management chain, the more aligned you have to be with investors, and thus the more and more evil you get. HR is just evil from the bottom though, it's just the nature of their job.
Donald Trump Updated +Created
Trump's election was an act of protest by the people, because they felt, and rightly so, that the promises by the democrats to decrease social inequality were just full of shit.
So instead, the old voice of nationalism spoke louder.
Ciro agrees with analysis of Can't get you out of my head by Adam Curtis (2021) that this is largely because government is losing all power to do anything meaningful. So the only thing left to do is to speak empty words to calm, or exacerbate, people's fears and hopes.
Ciro believes it is important not hate Trump and his believers, no matter how disgusting Trump might seem, a large part of which is likely theater. We have to try and understand them instead.
Trump's election shows clearly how the democrats let down the poor. This understanding is a good thing. It shows that we all have to make greater efforts to help the poor. Just voting for some random democrat candidate who doesn't really care every four years is not enough.
Another positive point of Trump's election is that it further highlighted the power of social media even further: it now feels more likely than ever before that anyone can run for office, since a president without any previous political office was elected (of course, being filthy reach helps a lot still, which is a problem). And this further highlights the need for regulate social media, to prevent events such as the deplatforming of Donald Trump
We should calmly analyze and understand how someone that tries their best to appear disgusting managed to win. Some interesting analyses of Trump's character:
  • www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/ The Mind of Donald Trump by Dan P. McAdams (2016):
    It was as if the golden-haired guest sitting across the table were an actor playing a part on the London stage.
    "It was Donald Trump playing Donald Trump," Griffin observed. There was something unreal about it.
    and the author comments:
    My aim is to develop a dispassionate and analytical perspective on Trump, drawing upon some of the most important ideas and research findings in psychological science today.
    which is exactly the right way to approach things.
Most damning moments:
  • about women:
  • corruption
    • This was a beautiful comment, since it highlights not only that Trump is corrupt, but also that highlights that the others are corrupt, which is why the people elected him. TODO find video www.vox.com/2015/8/6/9114565/donald-trump-debate-money:
      Q: You've also supported a host of other liberal policies, you've also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business related favors. And you said recently, quote, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.
    TRUMP: You better believe it... I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people. Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that's a broken system.
Video 1.
Fifth Republican Primary Debate - Main Stage - December 15 2015 on CNN
. Source. This perfectly summarizes the spectrum of republican politics. The only candidate who said anything decent were the two least popular ones, notably:
  • Rand Paul, saying that interventionism in the Middle East was a failure (Jeb notably still wants to repeat his brother's mistakes!), and supporting freedom of speech rather than censorship and violation of privacy
  • Carly Fiorina, saying that the people must take the country back
The others are mostly fear-mongering and saying "we will destroy ISIS", to avoid actually dealing with the more important questions: the people have no power anymore.
Video 2.
SMALL LOAN OF A MILLION DOLLARS - Remix Compilation by TwinkieMan (2015)
Source. Nothing synthesizes is how bad the democrats have failed to help the poor. This is who got elected.
Globalization reduces the power of governments Updated +Created
While Ciro Santilli is a big fan of having "one global country" (and language), which is somewhat approximated by globalization, he has come to believe that there is one serious downside to globalization as it stands in 2020: it allows companies to pressure governments to reduce taxes, and thus reduces the power of government, which in turn increases social inequality. This idea is very well highlighted in Can't get you out of my head by Adam Curtis (2021).
The only solution seems to be for governments to get together, and make deals to have fair taxation across each other. Which might never happen.
Social media as a public utility Updated +Created
Ciro Santilli thinks that maybe the government does not need to provide those, but it needs to regulate the fuck out of them, notably control over censorship in those platforms: the deplatforming of Donald Trump.
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