This is only because we have fire departments.
Give it a few years, and we won’t even have porn…
Come to Texas, it’s nearly like that. A VPN is required to get porn
We can still protest. We still have a legal right to free speech. It’s not worth the hyperbole. It also perpetuates a misconception that authoritarianism doesn’t allow for protests and free speech.
The model we are emulating is competitive authoritarianism. For the past four decades it has been an increasingly popular form of government.
There will be elections. There will be protests. There will be opposing parties and anti-government speech.
But the tables will be tilted heavily. They will allow small opposition wins, but the majority will stay with one party.
Speech won’t be illegal, but you will be harassed. Asked questions by law enforcement. Press will be sued.
They will leverage the private/public surveillance apparatus to monitor public sentiment on all topics and how far they can push (and release pressure when needed) and what opposition to monitor/harass. Decades of data from political science, sociology, and psychology will make this an art.
It’s dangerous if we perpetuate the idea that authoritarianism only exists when we can’t protest or say anti-government things. The underlying institutional foundations are being changed now. The referees are being captured now. Press and citizens can legally say what they want, but the chilling effect is happening now.
We need more mobilization. Hyperbolic takes and not being clear on what authoritarianism actually looks like in the 21st century will make it harder.
this nerdy declaration of facts serves what purpose? the OP’s points would ring true with your average american and make them think deeper about the culture they live in and the dynamics swirling around them.
right-wingers don’t care about facts and it would appear year after year after year that militantly pointing to all these obvious contradictions and mistruths never accomplishes anything, no more than it does to the religious zealot that ignores the gospels.
but anyone left of center is expected to lay down absolute undisputable facts at all times.
who does that help?
The pot is calling the kettle black.
On top of that you also get to own nothing.

Really wish people realized this 20 years ago when we actually had a chance to stop it.
Everyone sounding the alarms over the past two decades ago were ridiculed. Arguments seen as over reacting or a “my brand vs your brand” thing (really about the infrastructure and consumer rights).
That’s why people are going to jailbreak their cars. That’s why people are going to modify everything they own. That’s why brands will go bankrupt.
Some people certainly will, but I think the vast majority will simply accept it because at least they’re still getting their treats, even if they don’t actually own them anymore.
well they will own them the thing is they have make the subscription be the other half of the figure of the car paid off over time and essentially locking a customer into a contract where they’re not able to sell their car for a duration and by then the car depreciates because then the next owner will need to go through some kind of complicated customer service process to legally transfer the ownership. lol that’s not a bad idea tbh.
so like you buy a new car at a reduced msrp at like 15k$ but the subscription service locks you in to an annual subscription service fee of like 2k$ for 10 years. That subscription fee unlocks the car as you as the full owner with selling rights and you’re able to unlock certain features every payment. If they did it in a way where that would reduce the APR that would be amazing.
In a few decades… if we still can by then.
Look bud, do you want socialism or not? /s
according to the prompt i made: In theoretical terms, Capitalism’s primary advantage is its ability to process vast amounts of decentralized data in real time using the price mechanism. Every transaction, purchase, and supply shortage acts as a micro-signal of human desire and resource scarcity. Historically, non-market socialist models failed largely due to the Economic Calculation Problem—the sheer impossibility of a central planning board manually calculating millions of fluctuating prices, supply chains, and consumer demands without market feedback. For a socialist framework to structurally outperform and replace a capitalist market economy, it would need to solve or bypass that data problem. Here is how that transition could theoretically occur through modern structural and technological shifts.
- Automated Planning & Real-Time Data (The Tech Vector) In a traditional capitalist system, prices communicate scarcity. In a modern high-bandwidth system, direct data can replace prices. • Advanced Logistics Engines: Supply chain networks at scale (like those used by global retail logistics) already operate as planned internal economies. They do not use internal market pricing to decide how to ship goods from point A to point B; they use algorithms optimizing for demand and resource constraints. • Predictive Algorithmic Allocation: By aggregating real-time consumer telemetry, inventory tracking, and raw material availability, high-performance computing networks could balance supply and demand dynamically, resolving the economic calculation barrier without requiring speculative private capital.
- Eliminating the Capital Extraction Loop Capitalism relies on capital accumulation, where a portion of the value produced by labor is extracted as profit and reinvested by private owners. • Labor-Value Retention: A socialist architecture redirects that surplus value directly back into public infrastructure, universal services, or worker dividend pools rather than private accumulation. • Reduction of Overhead: Systems built around profit require massive overhead dedicated solely to market competition—such as advertising, patent litigation, redundant corporate management, and speculative financial trading. Transitioning these resources to direct utility eliminates systemic waste.
- Shifting from “Scarcity Optimization” to “Post-Scarcity Management” Capitalism excels at managing acute resource scarcity through price rationing—if supply is low, prices rise, and only those with sufficient capital can access the resource. However, it struggles with goods that have near-zero marginal cost (like digital media, software, or automated production). Feature Capitalist Mechanism Socialist Alternative Scarcity Strategy Artificial scarcity via patents/paywalls to maintain value Open-access distribution optimized for maximum utilization Resource Allocation Allocated by purchasing power (capital capacity) Allocated by direct structural need and public utility Automation Impact Causes wage suppression and displacement Reduces required human labor hours across the board
- Internalizing Externalities Under market capitalism, environmental degradation, resource depletion, and public health costs are frequently treated as “externalities”—costs paid by society rather than the corporation generating them. • Full-Cost Accounting: A coordinated socialist model incorporates environmental impact and resource depletion directly into the core production equation. Production decisions are evaluated by total societal cost rather than short-term quarterly profit margins.
- Industrial Democracy & Incentive Structures A common critique is that removing the profit motive destroys innovation. A post-capitalist model restructures incentives around direct ownership and utility: • Worker-Owned Collectives: Decision-making power shifts to the producers. When workers directly control the enterprise, innovation focuses on improving working conditions, efficiency, and product quality rather than cutting labor costs. • Public R&D Funding: Historical data shows that foundational technological breakthroughs (including the internet, GPS, and core pharmaceuticals) were primarily funded by public research rather than private venture capital. A socialized framework expands public R&D investment while removing private patent gatekeeping.
In the context of the U.S. political system, Congress enacting a full socialist framework—meaning the public or social ownership of the means of production and the democratic management of the economy—would almost certainly require a gradual, generational shift combined with structural legal transformations, rather than the election of a single president. Here is how political scientists and constitutional scholars analyze how such a transition would actually function under the U.S. Constitution.
- The Institutional Reality: Why One President Isn’t Enough A president cannot unilaterally alter the economic system. Under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, all legislative power—including taxing, spending, and regulating commerce—belongs to Congress. • Presidential Scope: A president aligned with democratic socialism or state-led economic planning could use executive orders to redirect regulatory enforcement or shift procurement priorities, but they cannot abolish private capital, nationalize industries, or rewrite property law on their own. • Legislative Bottlenecks: To pass sweeping economic changes, a president needs durable majorities in both the House and the Senate willing to overcome procedural hurdles like the Senate filibuster. • Judicial Review: Even if a president and Congress passed radical legislation, the Supreme Court wields judicial review. Under current doctrine—specifically the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause (“nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”)—the government cannot simply seize private corporations or real estate without paying market value.
- The Generational Model: “Evolutionary” Legislation If Congress were to transition the country toward a socialist economic model, it would mirror historical precedent (like the New Deal or the Great Society) through incremental, overlapping statutory changes over decades. Step A: Expanding the Public Option & Socializing Risk Congress would begin by taking major consumer sectors out of the private market via legislation: • Healthcare & Education: Expanding Medicare to cover all citizens (eliminating private health insurance) and funding higher education entirely through federal taxation. • Energy & Infrastructure: Creating large-scale State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)—similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority—to build and run renewable energy grids, transit, and housing, undercutting private competitors. Step B: Mandating Workplace Democracy To shift ownership without outright nationalization, Congress could pass laws changing corporate governance: • Codetermination Laws: Mandating that a high percentage (e.g., 40–50%) of corporate board members be elected directly by company workers rather than shareholders. • Social Wealth Funds & Meidner-Style Plans: Requiring large corporations to issue a percentage of new stock annually into a worker-controlled equity fund, gradually shifting controlling ownership of private companies to the workforce over 20 to 30 years.
- The Structural Vector: Constitutional Amendments To move beyond “social democracy” (a capitalist market economy with a strong welfare state) into a fully socialized economy, Congress would eventually hit constitutional limits regarding private property rights and corporate speech. Achieving full legal transformation would require Constitutional Amendments: [Congressional Proposal] ──► 2/3 Vote in House & Senate │ ▼ [State Ratification] ──► 3/4 of State Legislatures (38 States) Because amending the Constitution requires three-fourths of states to agree, this path demands a widespread, long-term cultural shift across multiple generations to build deep political consensus nationwide. Summary of the Path Mechanism Timeline Primary Vehicle New President / Single Term Short-term (4–8 yrs) Executive orders, regulatory enforcement, public pressure via “bully pulpit” (limited systemic reach). Generational Transition Multi-decade (20–50 yrs) Major legislative shifts, creation of public wealth funds, codetermination laws, and constitutional amendments.
In theoretical terms, 20 years is actually the absolute minimum timeline—and even that assumes ideal political conditions with zero major setbacks. In practice, a full transition from a market-capitalist economy to a socialized one through constitutional democracy would likely span 2 to 3 generations (40 to 70 years). To understand why 20 years is the aggressive floor rather than the average, it helps to look at the legal, institutional, and intergenerational physics involved in changing an entire country’s economic system. The 20-Year Scenario: “Best-Case” Acceleration For a structural transition to occur in two decades, every piece of the political machine would have to move in a single direction without interruption: Years 1–5 Years 5–15 Years 15–20 [Public Options] ───► [Codetermination &] ───► [Constitutional] [Social Wealth Funds] [Amendments] • Years 1–5 (Public Takeovers): Congress passes single-payer healthcare, nationalizes higher education funding, and establishes public energy/banking options. Private alternatives are phased out or outcompeted. • Years 5–15 (Transfer of Capital): Legislation like a Meidner Plan forces companies to transfer 2% to 5% of stock annually into worker-controlled funds. Over 15 to 20 years, workers hold a majority share in major corporations. • Years 15–20 (Legal Lock-In): The political movement sec
Okay so public transportation is chill depending on where you are. Where I am this is the the full MBTA map because the commuter rail map shows the full map with all the lines.
The purple line once out of the zone of the orange, red, blue and green lines (silver are busses) the trips start to range in the 45 min to 3 hour range which means the trips are super long and we don’t have 220km/h trains we have 126km/h trains for outer city/long destinations and it’s not cheap either unless you have a reduced fare card and even then…
In the city though, the orange, red and green are the best and most reliable. The blue line is reliable it’s just drags out in feeling. The silver line busses work well they just suck a lot to use.
The commuter rail is a loud ass stainless steel looking, double decker with wifi that’s always on time but a fucking long ass wait and super inconvenient if you miss it plus there’s always one out, there’s always a delay, it never ends it fuckin sucks.
Is rather feel robbed for the price of gas per gallon than deal with the train ever again. Especially in the direction of o
ut of the city.
I broadly agree, but the idea that the USA doesn’t have protests at all is overstating the case to an obvious degree, given the widespread coverage each No Kings protest gets, with particular emphasis on how large the crowds are. One could argue that these protests are ineffective, but the phrasing in the OP is “no protests”, which is provably wrong.
I point this out because in my experience, when attempting to persuade, it’s better to make 99 good points than to make 99 good points and 1 weak one. Because people hostile to your overall argument will focus on that 1 weak point and make it seem (to casual observers) like your entire argument must be that weak.
To put in in perspective, China has over 10,000 protests every year, and the CPC responds to the vast majority of the grievances that triggered them, imprisoning corrupt local officials, fixing infrastructure, etc. That’s why the satisfaction rating with the central government is at 90+%.
If the protest is meaningless then it is effectively the same as not even being allowed. One could argue it’s almost worse because it gives the illusion of the right.
the idea that the USA doesn’t have protests at all is overstating the case
One could argue that these protests are ineffective
I believe the argument is that they are functionally criminalized.
Protesting is legal.
You are describing a chilling effect. Those weapons are not used at all protests and that is the point. They want you think twice before going to protest. Still though, in general, it’s not criminal to attend or organize a protest.
It’s good that you and everyone here knows that these things are happening. If the twitter post was just speaking to the choir, then what’s the point? Circle jerk to make us feel better? Retweets and upvotes aren’t going to save us.
If the post is trying to reach people and wake them up, then they are speaking to people who are not aware of the story you cited. To them it just seems like OP is lying and the post does nothing to help anything.
Protesting is legal.
If the police are shooting you in the face with teargas and dragging you away in handcuffs, it does not appear to be.
Either way, neither argument is the same as “no protests”.
How about no protests where you don’t feel like your government is putting you on a list?
Sure, but my point is that if that’s what you mean then that’s what you should say. It’s important to keep a message simple, but not at the expense of honesty. Otherwise a lot of people tune out.
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All the above are currently happening in the US right now
Liberal worldviews never cease to amaze me.
“We enabled facism’s rise once and we’ll do it again!” –liberals everywhere
So which items on the list are not happening right now in America?
…so can we try the socialism now…?
Ask the republicans and centrists.
70% of Independents want universal health care, you don’t need to ask centrists, either.
90% of Ds want universal health care.
It’s not being stopped by 30% of the voters (Republicans… still, even 30% of them want universal healthcare).
The “pro-universal health care” side is fucking over their own constituents, as they are paid very well to do.
(reminder that independents are now 40% of the voters, Ds and Rs 30% each; these percentages are based on Pew but there are many polls pick your favorite)
Problem is America doesn’t really have a centrist party. Even America’s left, anywhere else in the world, would be right of center.
Should we have any leftists in a party, there are good odds someone is measuring social blood sugar and popping the vein and setting the injected black blood to ignite explosively. I mean that literally. What law matters when anyone figures it out and tells anyone else, that blood shows up and BOOM! like Firefly comics just stopped because wash was about to spoil thei
Not even capitalism right now, it’s full on fascism.
Fascism is the inevitable result of capitalism.
Fascism is the inevitable result of all government. Government is an accumulation of power, and it continues to accumulate power throughout its existence. Over the generations, it acquires more and more power exponentially.
Fascism is the inevitable result of all government. Government is an accumulation of power, and it continues to accumulate power throughout its existence. Over the generations, it acquires more and more power exponentially.
Every self serving entity desires to accumulate power. The same can be said of anything that serves itself and can last beyond a single generation. A family, a commune, a group of like minded individuals, a business or a corporation, etc.
The goal should be for the organization to serve it’s membership and for the organization’s membership to include everyone. Capitalism’s values and incentives are inherently self serving. Most capitalist “market theory” assumes, if not requires, self serving participants. Its an inherently self-destructive system.
Fascism is a form of capitalism, aka corpratism
Fascism is economically agnostic.
‘Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.’ - Benito Mussolini, a founder of fascism.
Corporations only exist within the capitalist model
So Stalin was a corporatist?
Mussolini was trying to push that particular economic agenda at the time he said that. He is generally credited with being the father of modern fascism, but Mussolini himself waffled between different economic policies as he rose to power and led Italy through WWII.
You can be a fascist and an oligarch, socialist, communist, capitalist, etc…
The soviets did not merge corporate and state power, they abolished the bourgeois state and established a socialist state. The fascist route would have been to support the Provisional Government protecting bourgeois interests.
I wish liberals would learn that fascism isn’t just a synonym for “thing I don’t like”
I’m curious what you think fascism actually is.
No, Stalin was a dictator, and authoritarian (like all states are). You’re mixing up facism and authoritarianism maybe?
Uhhh, that is some wild oversimplification
Like, we’re probably sharing the same sentiment all in all, but shut up
That’s exactly how Mussolini described it actually. Don’t believe me, read the wiki
Finally got my full bill for my no-insurance emergency “we have to do this or you die” surgery from a month ago. (At least I think that’s it - who knows if I’ll get more random “I was in the room for five minutes that’ll be $1000” bills)
$24,000. That’s after the self-pay discount from something like $300,000. I’m making around $2400 this month.
Hey hey! 29k just a month ago! I cried until I laughed because that’s absurd, I’ll literally never pay that off
My first plan is going to be trying to ask them for an itemized list of services I think. I think with medical debt you can also work out repayment on a much smaller scale because they know they other option is you being like “fuck it.”
And every product looks the same and has shitty quality
Whoever said that socialism meant “No healthcare” or “Unaffordable food and housing” was lying BIG time.
It was quite the opposite.In the US, but every european country seems to aspire to do the same
No protests?
Get too loud and they will shut you down
Lets make some Lazer Megaphones to help those who forgot how to listen by unreal not-paper talisman. Oh, but Heath Ledger’s Joker was the “bad” guy for being funny on the big show demo of that whole shebang.
I mean Sirius, Lee Camp nails it down to excessive detail and even they ask for the same sucker talisman tricks. Good Pornographic Luck.
Approved, permitted, non-violent, non-disruptive protests only.
Aka parades
God forbid you exercise your Second Amendment right and bring a gun to that protest to protect yourself. You’ll be shot dead before it ever leaves your holster just like Alex Pretti. An Intensive Care Unit nurse who was brutally murdered in our streets on camera by ICE. The man never reached for his gun but they shot him several times. Then proceeded to lie about circumstances before video evidence was revealed.
God forbid you exercise your Second Amendment right and bring a gun to that protest to protect yourself.
It’s a well known fact that you’re only allowed to exercise one right at a time.
(The number drops to zero if you’re not white.)
Do it as an individual, and yeah, but do it as a large group and very visible (like holding ARs), and I guarantee nobody gets gunned down & the police actually try to peacefully de-escalate any rise in tensions.
Yes, the hardcore american way of doing resistance with edgy signs.
A joke to the world
Completely lost on 95% of Americans.













