A Brief Thought: Live & Let Die
Editor’s note: I would like to start by apologizing for my absence the past two weeks due to a number of cascading circumstances at least to some degree beyond my control; it would literally take me an entire post to explain everything that has conspired to keep me away from writing since the end of June but the short-short version of the story is that I had a very serious flu at the end of the month and spent much of early July arguing with the local phone company until they replaced faulty hardware that was knocking my internet out every time it rained – I’m not even joking about that last part. I will do my best to make it up to loyal readers with more content over the next few days but there’s really nothing I can do to get back the lost time & the staggering pace of truly insane news I feel obligated to analyze shows no signs of abating anytime soon. Please accept my apologies.
Fortunately however, during this same off period I was able to negotiate a small (but significant) amount of financial support for the expressed purpose of buying more content to post here on ninaillingworth.com; I’m still fine tuning the submission guidelines at the moment but expect a lengthy post in the very near future explaining how you can submit articles or political cartoons to this website and actually get paid (through Paypal) if we use them.
Finally, I would like to thank the kind Twitter user whose name I’m forgotten for rescuing me by providing the title for this piece, which is notably more on point than the original phrasing I’d intended to use. I thought I might ease back into the swing of things with a Brief Thought post about an issue that’s been bothering me for quite a while but has recently come to a head while observing the fallout from the completely preventable Grenfell Tower tragedy in the UK. Although I’ve been unable to write, I’ve recently found my conversations with others dominated by the topics of austerity, inhumane greed and a class war that now seems unavoidable because it’s already started:
Note: Please be reminded that if you’re having trouble reading this info graphic, you can right click on the picture and select “view this image” to pop out a larger version. Additionally, don’t forget to check out my comments after the sources section of this article.
Sources:
Shocker: 40% of Workers Now Have ‘Contingent’ Jobs, Says U.S. Government
Study: It’s Student Debt, Not the Economy, That Forces Millennials to Move In With Their Parents
Kill the private health insurance industry before it kills you
How Dollarocracy is Destroying America
“Yes, We’re Corrupt”: A List of Politicians Admitting That Money Controls Politics
Info Meme of the Week: No Progress
Here’s the real backstory to Grenfell – the Tory attack on social housing
10 Things They Won’t Tell You About The Flint Water Tragedy (But I Will)
Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder should face criminal charges for poisoning Flint residents
Austerity kills: The sad, sick truth about right-wing economics’ body count
Globalization Is Killing The Globe: Return to Local Economies
The Globalism of the One Percent
Americans see a government of, by and for the rich
Yes, the US economy is rigged. That’s why we’re striking
Inequality Is (Literally) Killing America
The Senate GOP Isn’t Fixing Health Care. It’s Waging Class War
To quote the at times stunningly unfunny “comedian” Dennis Miller, I don’t want to get off on a rant here but if you still genuinely believe that the idea of a full blown class war is a bunch of hippie, commie leftist nonsense then I’ve got some hot Juicero stocks and a subscription to Yachting America to sell your gullible ass; cash only, I’m not sure I trust anyone as dumb as you’d have to be with a personal check at this point.
Whether we’re talking about selling the entire goddamn country out to medical insurance vampires while your politicians profit on the side, dismantling workplace regulations & watchdog groups that save lives (sometimes, on a global scale) in the service of nightmare fucking industrialists like the Koch brothers or clawing back key financial protections and government regulations on behalf of Wall Street while setting the average taxpayer up for another goddamn bailout; the evidence that wealthy elites have dropped the gloves against the common person is on mainstream network news every single night. Furthermore, this isn’t really about traditional two-party politics, or even swine emperor Trump (who is a symptom, not the cause of runaway capitalism) either; the Democratic Party in America has gleefully us sold out to elite capital just as readily as the Republicans have. Finally, while my focus naturally lies with US malfeasance, this isn’t really an exclusively “American” problem either; the rapid “feudalization” of society is such a prevalent phenomenon in western Europe that they’ve developed an actual name for it – austerity.
In light of all this overwhelming evidence that we are indeed under assault by governments who serve only the mega-wealthy super elite class in our societies, anyone who actually bothers to fucking talk to average working-class people in the west knows that our relative silence in the face of this onslaught isn’t a question of ignorance. No, as far as I can tell the only damn thing keeping a lid on angry proles in the west right now is the fact that elites have been so brazen, so ruthless and so inhumane that until very recently, none of us have really wanted to believe that the situation could have gotten this bad. Like the character Cypher in the movie “The Matrix” many of us are unable to cope with the terrifying reality that at the rate we’re going, indentured servitude and suicide nets are just around the corner even in the privileged, protected west.
Unfortunately for the mega-rich however, this situation is almost certainly unsustainable and although our politicians appear almost oblivious to growing anger and the rise of right wing reactionary populism, it’s only a matter of time until outrage and fury outweigh revulsion and fear – and when that happens (and it most certainly will) then and only then, will all hell will break lose.
Sometimes, you really don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
- Nina Illingworth
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