I’ve started to post something and deleted it at least a dozen times over the last week. I’ve read so many articles outlining people’s takes, opinions, and post-mortems, but the gnawing feeling in my gut just hasn’t gone away.
@pluralistic has been beating the drum about enshitification for a while now, and Zitton does a really good job here pointing the finger exactly where it should be pointed.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/lost-in-the-future/
This is it, the social contract is broken, #enshitification was THE decisive factor in the outcome of this election.
Used to be a time when the bottom line of a company was connected to providing value for its customers and its not just its shareholders. Now they take our money, give us garbage in return, and use the money we gave them to elect the fasch who will help them keep doing it.
My hope is that they don’t realize that their arrogance is radicalizing people… that they are completely suprised when one day they wake up and everyone has stopped believing in them and stopped using/buying their products, people no longer covet getting a job at their companies.
There are two words in my mind that keep coming up:
1) Divesture
When you have the opportunity for discretion, use it by refusing to invest in these companies with your time and money. Find alternatives if you can, or accept a sacrifice if you can afford to do it and there are no other options (also understand I don’t want or expect you throw yourself under the bus in the process).
2) Solidarity
This is a word I’ve heard many times in my life but I didn’t really understand what it meant until quite recently. That is by design. Solidarity is the thing that these asshats fear the most. It’s a word that can’t be appreciated fully without the context of class struggle, without the realization that we are born into a conflict between labor and capital that began long before us.
It comes down to standing with your peers, not your oppressors. Stop believing in the lie that you can “become like them”. Recognize that hoarding wealth and status is actually evil, that by pursuing that path you are reinforcing and compounding those evils (and becoming evil yourself).
If that’s what you really want then there is nothing I can say to change your mind and this post isn’t meant for you. Go ahead and be evil. For the rest of you, JOIN A UNION if you can. And don’t just join, get involved so that the leadership that is supposed to represent you does their job of representing instead of colluding with management.
I’ll sign off by saying that I am in Toronto and I would really like to connect with more like minded people on a more personal level than mastodon allows. If you think we are on the same frequency please message me on signal (contact is in my profile).
In Solidarity!
