Financial firms want a bigger piece of the $10 trillion in America’s 401(k) plans, and the Trump administration is planning a regulatory rollback to encourage less-regulated — and often riskier — investments.
They aren’t moustached villains, actively plotting people’s misery for their joy.
They’re simply making choices that are good for them personally, as anyone would. They aren’t thinking of any broader externalities and effects on people they’ve never met.
In a proper world, altruism wouldn’t exist.
It only does because nature is uncairing, and society can be cruel.
But being made up doesn’t matter to my point. People can create a problem with one hand, while trying to fix it with another, having never noticed the connection.
I would’ve been fine with your comment if you hadn’t included that. I don’t doubt these people are trying to act in their own self interests.
But when you say “as anyone would” it implies everyone is horribly selfish and never takes other people into account when making decisions ever and this is just accepted common knowledge, which it isn’t.
Animals are altruistic. Just search for _____ saves person. You will find lots of instances of animals saving humans. Not just dogs and cats either. Ravens, crows, pigeons, elephants dolphins, beluga, and humpbacks are all well documented displaying protective behaviors when predators are around humans that they know.
It’s not just animals that are altruistic, i maintain that life as a concept is fundamentally cooperative.
At its most basic you can just reduce it to “fighting and competing wastes energy, whereas actively cooperating can make things more efficient or straight up unlock new resources”.
I mean just look at our own gut flora: The microorganisms that cooperate with us (to the degree that we’d die without them) actively do things to prevent other nasty microorganisms from taking hold. Or how tons of plants and fungi communicate with each other and even share nutrients.
Cooperation is so utterly fucking bog standard that we gloss over 90% of it and it takes an individual basically killing itself to save another for us to realize it’s happening.
No. Altruism is an evolved survival trait that’s beneficial to social species. They all found their own way to it. In fact it’s probably the foundation trait of social behaviour and pre-requisite for all social species.
Few are cartoon villains; few are thinking of externalities. But the people pushing for this change know what they’re doing. They are actively plotting wealth transfer from the working class to the capitalist class.
Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.
These people ARE cartoonish villains because that is literally their entire cultural frame of reference. They are profoundly ignorant, none more than their Fuhrer himself. None of these people paid attention in school, they all beat up some nerd to do their homework. Obvious morons like Trump and Hegseth got their entire educations from TV and movies, and their entire political education from the Conservative Propaganda Machine.
They are cartoonish buffoons, but they think they look tough. It’s obviously very frustrating for them that we don’t take their fearsomeness seriously.
But I’m more refering to the common $100Millionare +. They generally aren’t trying to screw people for the fun of it. They just do what’s good for them, without thinking much of the externalities. In my experience most people work the same way. Once you point out the negative effects they’re causing, they’ll change what they do, in that instance at least. Then quickly go back to ignoring and forgetting the problem, because it’s not their problem.
They aren’t moustached villains, actively plotting people’s misery for their joy.
They’re simply making choices that are good for them personally, as anyone would. They aren’t thinking of any broader externalities and effects on people they’ve never met.
“as anyone would”
I guess altruism is a made up thing?
Well it is, just like greed is a made up thing.
In a proper world, altruism wouldn’t exist.
It only does because nature is uncairing, and society can be cruel.
But being made up doesn’t matter to my point. People can create a problem with one hand, while trying to fix it with another, having never noticed the connection.
I would’ve been fine with your comment if you hadn’t included that. I don’t doubt these people are trying to act in their own self interests.
But when you say “as anyone would” it implies everyone is horribly selfish and never takes other people into account when making decisions ever and this is just accepted common knowledge, which it isn’t.
Anyone and everyone are very different things.
Yes, the words are different, but the meaning was effectively the same. “People are inherently selfish and we all know this”
I wasn’t saying selfish. More myopic, or ignorant.
What pedantic definitions to be as reductive as possible. You are not a good person.
What a thought stopping dismissal, to be as righteous as possible. You don’t know what makes a good person.
We dont accept the premise of assholes here
It’s clear you lot think you don’t fart.
Animals are altruistic. Just search for _____ saves person. You will find lots of instances of animals saving humans. Not just dogs and cats either. Ravens, crows, pigeons, elephants dolphins, beluga, and humpbacks are all well documented displaying protective behaviors when predators are around humans that they know.
It’s not just animals that are altruistic, i maintain that life as a concept is fundamentally cooperative.
At its most basic you can just reduce it to “fighting and competing wastes energy, whereas actively cooperating can make things more efficient or straight up unlock new resources”.
I mean just look at our own gut flora: The microorganisms that cooperate with us (to the degree that we’d die without them) actively do things to prevent other nasty microorganisms from taking hold. Or how tons of plants and fungi communicate with each other and even share nutrients.
Cooperation is so utterly fucking bog standard that we gloss over 90% of it and it takes an individual basically killing itself to save another for us to realize it’s happening.
While that is all true, I didn’t think the previous commenter would find many stories titled “ameoba saves man,” or the like.
that’s kinda my point, they’re just constantly keeping you alive, and no one even thinks about it
Of course they do. Altruism was made up by all social species. A few others even copied it.
are you implying other animals saw social species be altruistic and… decided to be altruistic for fun?
No. Altruism is an evolved survival trait that’s beneficial to social species. They all found their own way to it. In fact it’s probably the foundation trait of social behaviour and pre-requisite for all social species.
Few are cartoon villains; few are thinking of externalities. But the people pushing for this change know what they’re doing. They are actively plotting wealth transfer from the working class to the capitalist class.
— Michael Parenti
that’s not fair, these days they plot via insecure chatrooms, from the comfort of their luxury yachts or whatever.
These people ARE cartoonish villains because that is literally their entire cultural frame of reference. They are profoundly ignorant, none more than their Fuhrer himself. None of these people paid attention in school, they all beat up some nerd to do their homework. Obvious morons like Trump and Hegseth got their entire educations from TV and movies, and their entire political education from the Conservative Propaganda Machine.
They are cartoonish buffoons, but they think they look tough. It’s obviously very frustrating for them that we don’t take their fearsomeness seriously.
I can agree with those in political office.
But I’m more refering to the common $100Millionare +. They generally aren’t trying to screw people for the fun of it. They just do what’s good for them, without thinking much of the externalities. In my experience most people work the same way. Once you point out the negative effects they’re causing, they’ll change what they do, in that instance at least. Then quickly go back to ignoring and forgetting the problem, because it’s not their problem.