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In totalitarian countries the government spy agency tells the news media what to publish, and the news media unquestioningly publish it. In free democracies the government spy agency says "Ooh buddy have I got a scoop for you," and the news media unquestioningly publish it.
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"It's not about 'left' versus 'right' Caitlin, that's just something the elites made up to divide us."
Okay well what do you call the thing where there are no elites because we took what they stole and created a fair and equitable society where everyone has enough? I want that.
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Who cares if there are extraterrestrials? If there are, we're nowhere near mature enough as a species to interact with them anyway. Hell, we have giant-brained leviathans swimming in our own oceans whose mental lives we don't understand at all, and we've nearly killed them off.
Some people hope the ETs will save us from the conditions we've created for ourselves. No they won't. If there are ETs and they have noticed us they're certainly not going to give a psychotic omnicidal species powerful energy technologies. There will be no ET ex machina ending.
Our species is like a guy with a completely fucked-up personal life who keeps chasing goals and accomplishments outside of himself thinking it will make him happy. We need to stop looking up to the stars and focus on our severe issues right here. We're on our own for this one.
And while we're on the topic, what are we doing about this?
Anything? No? Okay, well, cleaning this up needs to happen, and soon. We're choking ourselves to death here and it's madness and no one talks about it because cleaning is not sexy or profitable. One of the many reasons capitalism is unsustainable is that it offers no reason to pour human effort and ingenuity into eliminating the giant garbage continents forming in our oceans, or to leave fossil fuels in the ground, or to stop strip mining, or leave forests as they are.
One way we could make it profitable is fining the corporations for every branded piece of garbage of theirs that we find in the Patch. Ten bucks for every Coke can, etc. That will fund the operation and put the responsibility for closing the loop on packaging right where it needs to be.
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