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Where your head at?
a month ago
General
Karno's Rare-Because-He-Never-Has-Time Blather:
Well-meaning friends have advised me that I shouldn't be making all these political journals - I could get banned from FA for good, if the wrong snowflake gets triggered. Why not just keep my head down, and occasionally talk about my dog or a visit to a furry con? This is a furry fandom site, after all.
Well....keeping one's head down is only a good idea if you have the option of raising it up when you feel the need to. If not, you're just saving the thug holding your head down the toilet some effort, and why would you want that?
Check this out: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AcfoC4LqG/
As anyone who has access to news, even the bowlderized corporate sort, should know, we're in the formative phase of an authoritarian government. The press is being bullied into line, the law is being ignored, and masked, unaccountable goons flood the streets.
And as any history buff can tell you, there's only about two ways fascist regimes are defeated: One, stop them before they consolidate power - while there's still a free press, independent judiciary, the actual, functional pillars of a democratic republic, not just the hollowed-out zombie facades of them.
Two, wait for the dictator and his enablers to die of old age. Oh, and sometimes they flee to Argentina when the wars they started go against them.
I'm not young enough for method two to be a viable alternative. And let's not forget: Third-world type authoritarianism is very often followed by a third-world type economy. Remember the massive tax cuts every Republican administration has handed their corporate owners, the last few decades? Those tax cuts add up, yes they do. In fact, the vast majority of the US tax burden has been shifted onto the middle class. Unfortunately, the middle class has been all but wiped out by the looting spree of the billionaires. Ooops, bad timing!
So we've funded the US military and social programs largely by borrowing. We've borrowed so much, it's now becoming uncertain if we can even afford the interest on the national debt. If we're to avoid a devastatingly painful financial crash, we'll have to be very careful, thrifty, diplomatic.
Now look at the current occupant of the White House. Do any of those three words apply to him? Hmmm?
So when the Crash comes, what am I going to do? I'm basically an entertainer - a luxury. If your kids are going hungry, will you be spending any of your money on the silly funny-animal comics I currently make for a living? I don't believe so.
If the US economy goes down in flames, and I end up unable to make an honest living......Well, the option of fleeing to Iceland is open to me, I suppose. But I've made a very pleasant life here in Tucson with Traci, and I don't want to give it up if I don't have to. And let's not forget that most US po'folks do not have the option of fleeing overseas. What will they do? Starve quietly? Maybe not.
So that's why I'm begging anyone who will listen to check their voter registration well in advance, so the effects of the Repub's desperate voter-suppression programs will be blunted - hopefully enough so the "Blue Wave" will actually happen - that the demented Nazi-wannabes we're currently suffering under will be replaced by good old, all-American, sleazy political whores.
So yeah, the Midterms coming up might actually matter. Will Prump's terms in the White House be remembered as some absurd dinosaur-thrashings that ultimately came to nothing, or the start of the long national nightmare that destroyed our status in the world and left us impoverished for generations? It can go either way from here. So choose carefully, eh?
Well....keeping one's head down is only a good idea if you have the option of raising it up when you feel the need to. If not, you're just saving the thug holding your head down the toilet some effort, and why would you want that?
Check this out: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AcfoC4LqG/
As anyone who has access to news, even the bowlderized corporate sort, should know, we're in the formative phase of an authoritarian government. The press is being bullied into line, the law is being ignored, and masked, unaccountable goons flood the streets.
And as any history buff can tell you, there's only about two ways fascist regimes are defeated: One, stop them before they consolidate power - while there's still a free press, independent judiciary, the actual, functional pillars of a democratic republic, not just the hollowed-out zombie facades of them.
Two, wait for the dictator and his enablers to die of old age. Oh, and sometimes they flee to Argentina when the wars they started go against them.
I'm not young enough for method two to be a viable alternative. And let's not forget: Third-world type authoritarianism is very often followed by a third-world type economy. Remember the massive tax cuts every Republican administration has handed their corporate owners, the last few decades? Those tax cuts add up, yes they do. In fact, the vast majority of the US tax burden has been shifted onto the middle class. Unfortunately, the middle class has been all but wiped out by the looting spree of the billionaires. Ooops, bad timing!
So we've funded the US military and social programs largely by borrowing. We've borrowed so much, it's now becoming uncertain if we can even afford the interest on the national debt. If we're to avoid a devastatingly painful financial crash, we'll have to be very careful, thrifty, diplomatic.
Now look at the current occupant of the White House. Do any of those three words apply to him? Hmmm?
So when the Crash comes, what am I going to do? I'm basically an entertainer - a luxury. If your kids are going hungry, will you be spending any of your money on the silly funny-animal comics I currently make for a living? I don't believe so.
If the US economy goes down in flames, and I end up unable to make an honest living......Well, the option of fleeing to Iceland is open to me, I suppose. But I've made a very pleasant life here in Tucson with Traci, and I don't want to give it up if I don't have to. And let's not forget that most US po'folks do not have the option of fleeing overseas. What will they do? Starve quietly? Maybe not.
So that's why I'm begging anyone who will listen to check their voter registration well in advance, so the effects of the Repub's desperate voter-suppression programs will be blunted - hopefully enough so the "Blue Wave" will actually happen - that the demented Nazi-wannabes we're currently suffering under will be replaced by good old, all-American, sleazy political whores.
So yeah, the Midterms coming up might actually matter. Will Prump's terms in the White House be remembered as some absurd dinosaur-thrashings that ultimately came to nothing, or the start of the long national nightmare that destroyed our status in the world and left us impoverished for generations? It can go either way from here. So choose carefully, eh?
If you really like sharing all your opinions without feeling like one idiot reporting you would ruin everything, I would reccomend Reddit. Sure the subs can be a little bit like an echo chamber, but it's still a better way to discuss what ails your mind so much, that place is a huge forum for this reason and bans only happen within subs (less you REALLY violate a reddit rule).
Also the other problem is that people have become oversensitive to when they feel or think are attacked in their ideology, they prefer to label and be rude to anyone they deem "opposition", even people who are on their same side. When it comes to artists circles (specially furry circles), who are mostly left-aligned, they have a very thin and volatile hair trigger. An example: when I pointed out to a guy who linked to a fake news about Charlie Kirk's killer, he went straight to labeling me a nazifascist chud and blocked me so I couldn't reply to them.
It's also another reason I miss back when numerous sites and forums banned political and religious discussions: people lose their shit too easily, they cannot hold a healthy discussion.
1) Most people are here for art, so talking about "important" issues isn't really going to result in engagement. Certainly not at the same level as you would see on social media. I have plenty of my own strong opinions, but I rarely talk about stuff other than art on FA, since those topics don't fit in here and nobody really cares. It's good to write such content into comics, but repeated political journals just feel superfluous.
2) Most furries seem to lean towards the left, so political commentary about the evils of the current administration is mostly just preaching to the choir. It's affirming, but certainly won't change anything around here. Except, of course, piss off the admins.
3) You can cure ignorance, but you can't cure stupid. The thing that really gets accounts banned is criticizing stupid people. When I'm in a bad mood, I attack concepts, not people. It's safer.
You probably noticed that when countries wanted to trade oil without USD, "democracy" would start raining down onto them from the USA. Like in Iraq, or Lybia, Iran's only savior being that they have fissible material and a dirty bomb exploding in New York would be quite a problem.
But nowadays the dollar is no longer as important in trading. There's this thing called BRICS that started trading oil in local currencies. You have to thank Mr. Biden for boosting this ; turns out when you ban countries from using the USD, they move to something else, who would have imagined ?
So there's no magic dollar anymore. If you print it it'll lose value. Solutions:
- Print less of it. But that's unpopular, see DOGE for an example.
- Reduce trade deficit to stop needing to print it to buy stuff from abroad. Trump, sorry, Drumph tried that, the doofus, as misguided his attempt was at least he tried.
- Dominate the world and FORCE people to trade in USD. Trump thinks it's still possible and is trying, but I doubt the USA has the military might anymore for that.
You'll have money still. Americans will pay for your cartoons. It'll feed you because you'll buy local food. But imported stuff ? It'll become way expensive, because the dollar is going down ; people aren't interested in the solutions to keep it up.
No doubts people will curse Tr I mean Drumph : "He destroyed the economy !" While it was destroyed the moment the USA stopped SWIFT for Russia and froze Russian assets, boosting Russian and Chinese alternative.
You mean how Trump is wanting to build a 100,000 person arena to host a UFC fight for his birthday, directly next to the White House, and is claiming it's for 'America's glorious 250th birthday'? Like that?