Zuckerberg jumped on the Trump train. I think this anti LGBTQ stance is based on the MAGA opinions that were needed to raise votes.

Trump wants Greenland, Canada, the Panama channel, wants the windmills gone from the North sea and lots and lots of attention. And over half of all Americans voted for that guy.

It’s an interesting viewpoint, certainly not improbable. There is a strong connection between Elon, Trump and Putin though. It could be that Elon and Putin made some deal and that they both play Trump. That Elon used Trump is clear to me, Elon is the dominating one there. That leaves us with the Putin/Elon relation.

Oh I agree that pure capitalism isn’t the way to go, it just makes the gap between rich and poor great and empowers the rich. But the influence of Russian propaganda is real, unfortunately. Its main aim is to destabilize the West and NATO. Putin wants Ukraine to begin with. By stimulating the in-fighting he can weaken America internally (which worked already like a charm) drive a wedge between the US and Europe (leave that to Putin’s friends Trump and Elon). I hear exactly the same arguments over and over in the US as Europe, it seems as if they come from one single source.

There is definitely Russian propaganda, not that this is the only factor.

I think you are right. Unfortunately knowing what’s going on is not going to help us. The propaganda worked and people are truly turning hard right and pro-Russia. Something that would have sounded insane during the cold war. Often the same topics: “tax money wasted on corrupt Ukraine”, “against woke agenda”, “LGBTQ gender insanity”, “immigrants are criminals”. I tried to talk to people, but any information that contradicts what they now think is “fake”. There are still parts of the puzzle I don’t get. What turned Trump and Elon to Putin? What might Putin possibly have on Trump that could damage him? Trump can truly shoot someone in the street and people would be ok with it, like he said so himself. Elon has all the money in the world and can buy who he wants. Is it a cooperation that benefits them all? That destabilizing the West helps Putin is obvious, I suspect that what Elon and Trump get out of it is just making money and enjoying power. Where this all will end. I hope less bad than I fear. Prepare for the worst though.

I agree that this is true. I speak four languages, the first one is closest to me, the second that I learned at six (but heard all my life) is also still fairly close. English and German are roughly the same, both further away emotion wise.

You can see this movement spreading rapidly, like a cancer. People who don’t really agree, just go with the flow, for money or out of fear.

Well, we can witness the 1930ths all over again. Great. Humans are dumb idiots, they don’t learn.

Elon also supporting them too perhaps?

Seems the end of the Washington Post as a serious and reliable news outlet. It will not be the last in the current anti truth wave.

What’s happening in the world lately makes me think humanity is doomed to fall back into some primitive state again. A depressing thought. I had great hopes in the nineties. Not that everything was fine, but there was much more cooperation between the large nations. We need each other to solve some major problems (many caused by ourselves). Instead, we do our best to add some really huge problems. I heard that one scientists thinks that the octopus will rule the world in the future, instead of us. I’m sure they will do better.

I’m not an American. Do you think they really will go as far as deporting people that are even born in the US? I feel it’s more of a topic that Trump used to win votes? Now he’s in, he doesn’t even need the MAGA cult anymore.

I live near a smaller airport I sometimes listen to the conversations between the tower and the planes.

I think only the extremely simple life doesn’t feel pain, but then you have arrived on a microscopic level, where some tiny creature is getting eaten while eating themselves.

Organised religion tends to go south

I suspect that this might be true for the older religions? They are just not all that suitable for the times we live in. What I do expect is that the older religions will be replaced by more modern ones, that will turn into organised religion.

I grew up in a relaxed (not religiously fanatic) Catholic family. To me it all fell apart at 14, when I dared to critically think about it. Since then I have gathered as many books of the different religions as I could. The Bible was one of the last. I see new religions rising, constructed out of parts of the old ones mixed with new things. I can’t see any really structured ones yet. I feel the old religions started pretty much the same. I don’t believe in a higher, conscious power. I don’t believe we are created, nor that we exist after we die. At most a few generations will remember us, now and then. I don’t know any of that with 100% certainty, so that would make me an agnostic atheist I guess. I think we humans need to go for wellbeing, not pure economic/capitalistic metrics. Obviously you’ll need a certain amount of money for wellbeing, but I also believe that there is more than enough to go around. It’s just that a few take it all and we let them. We must finally take science and knowledge much more seriously. Hefty fines for bribing or forcing scientists and scientists that falsify data. Science it itself doesn’t know ethics, so that has to be the human side of it: wellbeing.

Putin has his claws into way too many world leaders.

Healthcare should never ever be a system based on making profit. It should be based on keeping the people as healthy as possible and limit suffering. This means strict government control and that’s something America isn’t fond off.

I also liked very much what was going on in the beginning, same as you. I don’t want to Tesla shame anybody, sorry about that.