Post Aiur36a99plwpmCR9c by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #Aiur36a99plwpmCR9c by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-14T10:53:23Z
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A student asked me “If I really wanted to do something about climate change & all this injustice do you think I should just try to become a billionaire so I’d have real power? Or should I be a judge so I can make the big decisions? or president? Who has the most power? who can fix it?”me: Listen if I knew the answer to all that I would tell you. I think it matters what you are good at? What you think you can do well. student: whatever it is I need to do well I will learn it.
(DIR) Post #AiurFQOXJuRNl0dx7w by senorverano@fnordon.de
2024-06-14T10:55:35Z
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@futurebird I'd say billionaire, but becoming one isn't possible without massive damage to climate and justice IMHO...
(DIR) Post #AiurQDQ5tuC8hZW8w4 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-14T10:57:33Z
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me: I know you will! But also I don’t think it’s about one person— many people are involved in all of these decisions, if you don’t like what they have done it will take a lot of people to change it. I had friends who wanted to change the world by reaching some difficult goal like being a judge or a congressman— some got so caught up in reaching the goal they forgot how they wanted to save the world along the way. Maybe that is the downside of power. But, I think you’d make a great president.
(DIR) Post #AiurZk0K7dk6Mn0PJo by TomSwirly@toot.community
2024-06-14T10:59:17Z
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@futurebird It's impossible to become a billionaire, or a President, or a Supreme Court justice, without becoming irrevocably morally compromised and causing terrible harm along the way.I think the time for effecting change through rational and peaceful means is long gone.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Blow_Up_a_Pipeline_(film)
(DIR) Post #AiurrJ9AiQswHaWLnk by MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
2024-06-14T11:02:26Z
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@futurebird It's possible to accomplish a lot of evil with any of those positions. And quite easy in today's environment.If you want to accomplish anything good, the main determinant is willingness to take risk. None of those positions mean a thing for justice without a person assuming risk. Look how powerless the DOJ and FBI chose to be in the face of theft of nuclear documents, until librarians horsewhipped them into doing something.
(DIR) Post #AiusD11am4akRrKIrI by gueuledatmosphere@mastodon.green
2024-06-14T11:06:21Z
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@futurebird Well the term "polycrisis" did get invented for a reason. The choices you have down in the poll are stand-ins for business, law and politics. Those are good areas in which to make a difference. Science, engineering, medicine and journalism remain important as well. The very talented may consider learning more than one discipline and act as bridges. I think we need more of those.
(DIR) Post #AiusdBXEJtfAZgbTMW by ohyran@social.piewpiew.se
2024-06-14T11:11:05Z
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@futurebird Circumstances you exist in tend to define your actions.I've met some awesome folks who decided to go in to business to improve something - only to find themselves forced to constantly worry about the company bottom line and then that becomes the "step 1" in any plan they have.Politicians who claim that any good change can only come if "everyone voted for me" and legal figures who see their position as a cog in a machine mainly.
(DIR) Post #AiusfEQuW34M8rcie0 by thecorodon@wandering.shop
2024-06-14T11:11:11Z
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@futurebird Getting involved in government somehow, by whatever handle they can reach on collective decision-making.The billionaire route is filling holes with the money you make working at the hole factory.
(DIR) Post #AiutGz1KGgaLLQeqHI by Gurre@mastodon.nu
2024-06-14T11:18:16Z
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@futurebird Not only does becoming a billionaire require doing horrible things to the environment along the way, it also corrupts people immensely.
(DIR) Post #Aiuu7A5mLfKMk2cZqi by caitp@mstdn.social
2024-06-14T11:27:42Z
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@futurebird I think each of those jobs/situations requires so many connections and favors, and puts your hand so close to the 🍪 jar, it would be very hard to get the job and perform it in a rational and unbiased way, at least at this point.I don't think it can be changed without a major grassroots cultural shift, and maybe that can happen when people talk (and listen) to each other more, and organize our thoughts more collectively
(DIR) Post #Aiuvxk04BlpZ7WaKEC by johnmark@freeradical.zone
2024-06-14T11:48:14Z
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@futurebird Honestly, community organizer seems like the most impactful thing one could do
(DIR) Post #Aiuw6JzmF7hj4gXbdY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-14T11:50:00Z
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@johnmark Remember in 2008 when there was an effort to turn “community organizer” into a slur since Obama claimed to have briefly done such work. Wild stuff.
(DIR) Post #Aiuw84pxZXcKdnmny4 by MarekMcGann@sciences.social
2024-06-14T11:50:08Z
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@futurebird I selected "something else", intending "organiser", precisely for the reasons you describe here.Trying to get personally to the levers of power is a gamble. But organising, build community, create lobby groups (preferably promoting existing rather than reinventing) is much more something that you can achieve through hard work and dedication than good luck. See: unionising and effective political action groups in recent years, which could be made more powerful with more members.
(DIR) Post #AiuwA12AgOgfQQQFf6 by prettyhuman@piipitin.fi
2024-06-14T11:50:30Z
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@futurebird Something else. We have billionaires, presidents and SCOTUS, but shit just keeps getting worse.
(DIR) Post #Aiuwrjni7IwsidVU0G by janbogar@mastodonczech.cz
2024-06-14T11:56:47Z
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@futurebird Neither. Single person is mostly powerless, even a billionaire (if they want to keep being a billionaire).This is comforting, it absolves us of some guilt.What he should do is to embed himself in a coordinated group, the larger the better, that want's to save the planet.That's a different game.Also it gives you a lot of freedom, such groups need many skills and professions :)
(DIR) Post #Aiux7hO4rEgXrp7zUm by dogfox@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T11:58:27Z
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@senorverano @futurebird I was thinking this too. A billionaire can buy an SC justice if they need to. Then it hit be how much easier it is for individuals in the positions mentioned to do evil because their method of influence is corruption.
(DIR) Post #AiuxXPlF0yLCjGDzu4 by tob@hachyderm.io
2024-06-14T12:04:59Z
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@futurebird You have some clever students. That's a good question. I would remind your student that power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.The answer is "global dictator of the world." A single (infallible) person who could decide who lives and dies in a single-minded effort to curb global CO2.
(DIR) Post #AiuxaxPCNjQfwbbV5c by cheddarcrisp@hachyderm.io
2024-06-14T12:05:35Z
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@futurebird There’s a saying I’ve heard that applies here. You can’t fix a system using that system. Another older saying is, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”You can’t become a billionaire without committing injustice. You’ll never become President by asking people for change that requires sacrifice. SC justice is the best option but you’ll probably never make it if that’s your goal. Probably the best things to be are empathetic, competent, and loud.
(DIR) Post #AiuxegHNzvR5zGj1U0 by CatDad@mas.to
2024-06-14T12:06:24Z
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@futurebird All of those are part of the problem, not a solution. If there even is a solution (which I strongly doubt at this point).
(DIR) Post #AiuyHmewDAZd4GO3jE by unlucio@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T12:14:27Z
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@futurebird IMHO a huge part will be played by what happened during their journey.If he's fine with explaining to others the "billionaire" route is probably the one that might give them the better platform at the end, but what happened in between?Will becoming a billionaire make them slide deeply into capitalist indoctrination thus rendering a sociopath and thus forgetting why he set off to be one in the 1st place?
(DIR) Post #Aiv6hRgfbgbVBcwdGK by cosvak@mastodon.world
2024-06-14T13:48:42Z
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@futurebird unfortunately the money cabal would never let a fellow billionaire actually get anywhere with climate change. There are organizations who are ran by multi millionaires that get nowhere cause the impact of a singular foundation has nowhere near the effect of the combined money power level of a corporation hell bent on profit.
(DIR) Post #Aiv6juM3za1wg1Tpsu by johnmark@freeradical.zone
2024-06-14T13:49:08Z
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@futurebird I never liked Rudy to begin but that was the moment I began to *hate* Rudy
(DIR) Post #AivyJ6Vg5SDU55e3to by apophis@brain.worm.pink
2024-06-14T23:43:12.919122Z
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@futurebird assuming magic genie who changes the economy so you're instantly a billionaire: billionairewithout the magic: this is impossible to do without (a) being born into significant wealth and opportunity *and* (b) getting into the habit of making some of the most mercenary, amoral and utterly ruthless decisions a human being can make, which will utterly deaden you to whatever ideals you may have started out with long, long before you're anywhere near "influence the decisions of major countries" moneyof course this dynamic works for the others as well, but at least those you can theoretically coast into through connections while secretly harbouring your plots - and the legal training required *might* help stave off some of the worst of the deadening (i have no actual reason to believe this of the American system)as for the others...scotus judge: ginsburg did a spectacular job holding the line literally unto death (which was a horrible strategic blunder but that just proves the point here)president nowadays seems very weak if the administration isn't just as determined as he is on that one specific issue - the damage trump did had very little to do with any policy he implemented himself that the american govt wouldn't have done anyway, and everything to do with the overton window and the scotus appointments
(DIR) Post #AivzFSedub8jYbfJB2 by LeafyEricScott@fosstodon.org
2024-06-14T23:59:55Z
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@futurebird wow so many people said billionaire! The existence of billionaires is a huge part of the *problem*.
(DIR) Post #Aiw2fywGnmBl4pFQwK by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
2024-06-15T00:38:20Z
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@futurebird A billionaire can buy a president and a justice or three. In fact, it's probably necessary in order to become one in the first place.