• the_q@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If only the US had the balls to keep these trillion dollar companies in line instead of the other way around.

      • Tak@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        It’s not corruption, it’s working as intended. The citizens united case ruled that paying off legislators is equivalent to voting. We literally live in a textbook oligarchy, this is how it works and it’s working by design that way.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          I feel like your point is almost excusing it. Just because the corruption is working doesn’t mean it’s not corruption.

          • Tak@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            It’s more that corruption is to say the system isn’t supposed to work this way.

            corruption noun cor·​rup·​tion kə-ˈrəp-shən Synonyms of corruption 1 a : dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (such as government officials or police officers) : depravity b : inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (such as bribery) the corruption of government officials c : a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct the corruption of a text the corruption of computer files d : decay, decomposition the corruption of a carcass

            It’s not dishonest or illegal behavior. It is entirely within the fucked up letter of the law. Systemic change is needed not purity.

              • Tak@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                It’s really not if you read the constitution you’ll see how it gives power to the elites/ruling class and why the anti federalists opposed the constitution.

          • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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            9 months ago

            It’s not an excuse. The system isnt broken and needs to be reformed. The system is working as intended and needs to be abolished.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Nah, that’s just the typical small mindset that things should be cast away just because they have problems.

              Like police. We NEED police, just not the same organization we currently have, and certainly not a police force that intermingles violent and non-violent events. We need police who don’t reach for a gun and we need police who can deal with armed criminals.

              The economy can be fixed. We just need a government with the balls to actually tax rich assholes and fund social services.

              • bazmatazable@reddthat.com
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                9 months ago

                The wealthy actively lobby for tax breaks and relaxed regulation meanwhile the working majority don’t seem to be able to stand together and demand social programs or protections from big businesses. The government is not corrupt for delivering the change that is asked if it. Easier said than done but change for the better is possible.

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          When things are so bad that corruption is legalized and encouraged, it doesn’t stop being corruption.

    • 乇ㄥ乇¢ㄒ尺ㄖ@infosec.pub
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      9 months ago

      I’m not sure what you mean by ; keeping in line…

      I mean they’re collaborating with them to spy on the American nation and the entire world, with their creatively named secret projects…

    • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Always remember what comes first in any national emergency. Whats the first thing our leaders always make clear when the chips are down?

      "We will do everything necessary to protect our beloved nation society struggling citizens ECONOMY."

      People don’t matter here, only capital. If you are attached to meaningful capital, you will want for nothing and live in embarrassing decadence that would make pharoahs blush, if you aren’t attached to meaningful capital, you are livestock for those that are. You are less than human in the eyes of the capital hoarders in charge.

      Those are our American Values in practice.

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      Unregulated and unhindered capitalism is the American way. If the government interferes by saying that companies aren’t allowed to do whatever they want, that’s just socialism, communism or whatever it is that those Europeans are up to these days.

      /s just in case.

    • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Definitely need to do more, but, consumers could choose android over apple. Apples walled garden bullshit is why the only apple devices I’ve ever had were a couple of old school ipods and various Macintoshs going back to the IIe.

      It sucks moving platforms. I did it going from blackberry to android but with android I can buy any phone I want and it’s mine to do with as I please and plenty of phones have community support to keep an android version updated and secure.

      • highduc@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        As someone who’s only owned Androids, it’s just a different walled garden. It’s a duopoly instead of a monopoly.

        You can’t really own your phone whatever you do. Even if you root it all your important apps like banking ones will stop working so there really isn’t a choice.

        • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Android is a walled garden that has a gate with a latch. If one cares to put in the effort it isn’t terribly difficult to root Android and strip the Google stuff.
          Apple is a walled garden that simply has empty void on the other side of a 4 foot thick concrete wall. Jailbreaking has limited results and an incredible amount of DRM is integrated at the kernel and hardware level that can never be removed.

          • Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That brings about two problems for me. How about phones with locked bootloaders? And the reverse of that, is how do you keep phones with unlocked bootloaders from getting poison-pilled into the supply chain? IE from someone buying a pallet of phones flashing malware infected firmware and just returning it back to the warehouse for the populace at large to use. And some stuff you just can’t degoogle, at least not without a bunch of patching or just straight breaking functionality like what happens in trying to switch to say GrapheneOS (One of the best supported Alt Android distros I have seen) where notifications for most apps don’t work unless you patch back in a lite version of google apps or patch the app to use different protocols, and many apps expecting a “secure” (Google filled) environment will just not run again without patching.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      The US absolutely has the balls. They’re currently bound and being used by the corporations to lead us around.

      Yeah, we should probably say something about how they treat us, but God damn if our politicians don’t have the biggest fucking orgasm every time a billionaire compliments them.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        “The US has the balls.”

        Ah yes, that’s why the government is on it’s knees in front of these corporations … because it has balls… yep, the government sure has balls … on it’s chin.

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          I feel like you didn’t read my comment since we’re essentially making the same joke. But funny comment

          • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Nah, I’m barely even making a joke. My point is they don’t even have balls to be bound. They have a leash and collar for that. They have no balls except for the ones on their chin.