I'm inclined to think that ignoring the big people machine is precisely how INTJ movie villains are actually made. Interesting.
What is this "control" you're talking about? Very specifically, would you list some ways you think the left wants to control you?
Oh gosh, what
don't they want to control?
The item at the top of their list is thought- they want me, and essentially every human being on the planet, to think as they do- to fret as they fret- to speak as they speak- and to act as they act. And not without good reason! For the entire leftist utopian philosophy to work,
every single person needs to be on board with working for the group- not the individual. It just takes one person to decide they want to be king, and it all comes falling down. The inherit impossibility of the everyone-for-the-group goal (individuals being just that- not cogs in a singular machine), despite how compelling the vision of what things would look like if it were possible, is probably the A #1 reason I apply my thoughts and sense of morality elsewhere- I see the leftist agenda as a waste of time doomed only to end in (hopefully) disappointment, or worse- Venezuelan levels of devastation.
They need me (everyone) to jealously hate rich people as much as they do. They need me to worry about climate change as much as they do. They need me to prostrate myself on the alter of victomhood and apologetically offer up my privilege in sacrifice the way they do. They also need more of my money than they already take- which would be the second reason I can't get on board with it from an ethical perspective- accomplishing most of their goals requires theft, which I can't condone. Not from me, and by proxy (fairness) not from Bill Gates either.
Anyone not
in the left, views the left as a kind of religion/cult- one that arose from the vacuum left behind by kicking Christianity out of things, out of the fundamental human need for religion (ie meaning/life purpose/utopian goals). They view it this way because it's the only way we can explain how it spreads, and why its members are as grave and impassioned as they are. It's a religion based on the most superficial levels of empathy, and driven by most of the classic human vices- greed, avarice, jealousy, and a thirst for power- at least that's how I perceive it. Most people I know on the left (in person, not overall) are just people who care, a lot, about the planet and about other people- but are also woefully out of touch with the darker parts of their nature (which we all bare) and consequentially don't realize when a good intention is thinly wrapped over a more sinister impulse. I can't fault people for their tenderness, and I don't blame them for wanting to make the world right- but first principals are first principals and the ends do not justify the means (my INTJ villain reference for the paragraph).
The "flat earthers" comment is more about the capacity to willfully ignore the fact that the freer the market is, the more wealth trickles upward. It's been proven. That is consistently how reality plays out. It's available to ignore that and focus on the individual, whatever that means - but from where I sit it kinda looks like simply ignoring that the individual is necessarily a component of the big people machine. Ignoring that - or just 'not focusing' on that - doesn't get rid of the consequences of wealth trickling upwards. Wealth disparity is growing, there's a 'frog in hot water' thing happening - this notion that people can escape poverty with willpower is a myth, and it's becoming a bigger and bigger problem - and measures need to be taken to buffer the steadily and distinctly upwards distribution of wealth.
See, I just don't think this way. Wealth is not a zero sum game to me. The more rich people the better in my opinion, as I greatly prefer working for rich people- they always pay up, and most of the time they will hand you a blank check to do whatever work you think is necessary. When rich people do well they hire me, and 50 other guys, to remodel their home- which feeds me for a year, and gives me more money to throw at servers in restaurants. If you're tired of working some shit job doing nothing of much value for an asshole, pick one of the dozens of careers that are currently in demand (by customers/clients) and go into business for yourself. This is what I meant by working for the customer, and cutting out the tower of middle men (managers/bosses/owners/etc). Almost all of them can be learned by almost anyone. I call it 'the next tier up in employment/adulthood.' If you're smart, you'll pick a profession that has a lot of upward mobility and complexity, so that when you move nearer to retirement and your body isn't what it used to be, you can still act in a productive consulting/supervising role. These people who feel like they should be able to get a mindless no-responsibility no-risk job when they're 19, and keep it for life while also being paid far more than they are worth, are some of the 'disgusting sheeple' I mentioned in prior posts. I'm sorry but life is not, should not, and never will be, that easy.
I just stopped giving a shit.
Yes! You know the feeling! This is
exactly how we feel about most leftist causes. The only difference being- we on the right don't need you to care, the way you need us to, for
our philosophy to function. The futility of it, again, is just too much of a turn off for this logician. I am open to new ideas (socialism is not one of them), but so far the system the right backs is the only one that seems to work with very little overhead- so it's the one I'm going with until someone comes up with something better.
I worked in an assisted living facility for years, and most of the caregivers needed to work at least two jobs and still struggled to cover the cost of living. The physical work involved can be brutal. But the issue with many back-breaking jobs is that they pay the cost of living in the immediate sense, but they trash a person's body before retirement age. So they need to pay more than the immediate cost of living. People end up on disability around 40 years old. I'm rubbish at researching things (I read & listen to podcasts to pick this stuff up, and then can't for the life of me remember where to look when I need a link) so I don't know how to find support for this, but I know it accounts for a great many of the folks on disability - they can't continue to do the work until retirement age.
And then there's reports of Amazon warehouses, which seem to be barely physically sustainable beyond a few years.
I have steered many people away from being CNAs for this reason. People should clean houses for a living instead (far more lucrative), or if they have the mind for it- go into nursing.
Yeah, they're fine with using other people's money when that money goes to them. Taxation isn't theft if they aren't the ones paying the taxes.
Trust me, we are most definitely NOT fine with corporate welfare. And maybe if we could find any degree of common ground instead of this endless hateful war, we could actually act on that one.