twoday posted:

a brief history lesson:

after the Netherlands became independent, the Dutch Republic soon emerged from being a feudal possession of the Spanish to becoming a flourishing wealthy empire. Free from the system of monarchy which burdened the rest of the countries in Europe, the country soon became an oligarchy run by wealthy merchants who also ran the government, and went to work building a mighty fleet that they used to enable their imperialist expansion to every continent and all corners of the world, ruthlessly exploiting every resource they came across for the sake of accumulating wealth. Not only did they invent the stock market and the concept of the corporation, but they also seamlessly integrated corporate and government interests into a single ruthless machine, and also established a global trade network which arguably played a massive part in establishing the basis for the current world order of international capitalist trade. In doing so, they rapidly accumulated unfathomable amounts of wealth, and the profits of the East India Company alone dwarf all modern ones when adjusted for inflation, and made it the most profitable company in the history of the world:



And that's just ignoring the West India Company and all of the other business which played a role in the economy. For a number of decades in the 17th century the Dutch Republic was by any measure the wealthiest nation on earth, and much of this money was invested into the armed forces and military technology, resulting in one of the most formidable armies and navies on earth, which was then used to build an exploitative global empire that drained the earth of its natural resources in the name of capital, and led to deaths of hundreds of thousands of people who stood in the way of this process. There was a period where the Dutch were pretty much the only global superpower, and not only dominated the world financially and militarily, but also created lots of scientific developments and beautiful artwork. So what happened? Why don't the Dutch still rule the world?

Well, all of this wheeling and dealing inevitably led to the Dutch becoming embroiled in numerous conflicts around the world with all of the other major powers of the day, and those decades of war (both cold and hot) drained a lot of resources and created a lot of enemies on the world stage. These wars were not only a financial burden on the nation, but also helped emphasize social divides which were already present, and generated a lot of problems in society. All of this came to a head in a single year which is now known as the 'Rampjaar' or "Disaster Year," when just about everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. After years of conflict, the other major powers all grew to despise the Dutch Republic, and in 1672 the country was simultaneously attacked on all sides by an Alliance of the English, French, and Germans. At the same time there was a bitter civil war in the country between monarchists and Republicans which culminated in the head of state, who had ruled for almost 2 decades, and his brother who was the head of the navy (perhaps the most formidable military force on earth at that time) being dragged out into the streets, where they were lynched by a mob who ripped off their skin and ate their livers and other organs raw.



This mighty empire descended almost overnight into unimaginable chaos, with every element of society being ripped apart along its weakest seams. There is a phrase from this time which describes the state of the nation - "radeloos, redeloos, reddeloos," which translates into something like "without leadership, without reason, and without possibility of salvation." Though they were able to fight off the armies which threatened to wipe them off the map, the economy was hopelessly devastated and would remain so for centuries. A leadership crisis emerged, and for the next hundred years the country was ruled by the nephews and cousins of previous rulers, who had grown up fat and wealthy and had no idea how to govern what remained of the country. While the average citizen became horribly poor and hopeless, the ineffective leaders continued to live in mansions and eat off of silver plates, and they turned to increasingly nefarious tactics to prop up their economy. They magnified the slave trade a thousand fold, and started using increasingly brutal tactics to retain control over their colonies, which were taken away from them by their enemies one by one. They invested in pet projects and other tremendous wastes of money which did little to help the country or its economy. For instance, the remaining few Dutch of this period who still had some wealth spent a lot of it financing the rebels in America in the late 1700's, largely out of spite against their ancient enemies, the British. But it didn't help, of course. They were invaded by the French and Germans (and English and even Russian armies at some point), and the nation continued along its disastrous trajectory, leading to revolution, invasion, poverty, and death. Lots of death. Many such horrors. The reason why so many Dutch cities have charming 17th century buildings which attract tourists today is that they never recovered economically from the Disaster Year until relatively recently, and for hundreds of years there was little money around for new building projects, and everyone just had to continue living in the houses which were built way back when during "the Golden Age."

So what's the point of this story? There was once a global superpower which was wealthier than any other in history, with a massive and powerful army which it used to terrorize the world, as well as form much of the global capitalist economic system which surrounds us today. But then one day disaster struck and the chickens came home to roost, and it all fell apart overnight. Poof. That's all it takes. And there's a good chance that anyone who is reading this post didn't know any of this. That entire empire so thoroughly destroyed and forgotten (and good riddance), that now, 350 years later very few people in the world know that it ever happened.

The moral of the story is that no matter how wealthy, how powerful the empire which you inhabit is, it is ultimately nothing within the grand scheme of history. Your entire world can just collapse one day, and then a few hundred years later barely anyone alive will know anything about it. Everything which surrounds you and all that you know is ultimately just an insignificant blip on the radar of human progress that can and will be forgotten. All it takes is one strong shock which tears everything apart. And that's what we are witnessing happening in much of the Western world right now. So good luck to everyone with all of that.

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

I can not stress this enough:

Murder the wealthy. Rip the rich out of their homes and hang them in the streets.

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

I can not stress this enough:

Murder the wealthy. Rip the rich out of their homes and hang them in the streets.

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

To keep it vague, I'm talking about [hospital system] [in my area]

They just received a $50M grant they don't have to pay back.

All frontline medical staff are no longer accruing PTO, all vacation is cancelled, hours are cut so hourly employees aren't eligible for benefits, company is no longer contributing to 401k's, and wages have been cut 5% across the board.

The CEO, board members, and all business-side employees will see raises and increased bonuses.


I can not stress this enough:

Murder the wealthy. Rip the rich out of their homes and hang them in the streets.

fits my needs posted:

https://twitter.com/anitakumar01/status/1247732231344394240?s=20

reddit posted:

They’re just funneling it through Kushner’s three week old shell company for massive profiteering

Edit:

Want to know how it works?

1.) Eliminate oversight of the spending of nearly a trillion dollars of tax dollars: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/490737-stimulus-opens-new-front-in-trumps-oversight-fight

2.) Aquire the authority to command which businesses get which contracts: https://youtu.be/MlQx7Qs2ACI

3.) Have trusted people stand up companies through which the money can be funneled (3 week old company, founded through a loan approved via the Coronavirus Stimulus bill, is now the center of medical supply distribution): https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/27/republican-fundraiser-company-coronavirus-152184 “I don’t want to overstate, but we probably represent the largest global supply chain for Covid-19 supplies right now,” he said. “We are getting ready to fill 100 million-unit mask orders.”

4.) Have the federal government sell, at a reduced price, it’s strategic stockpile to the new companies, run by your buddies: https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1245841458323771393

5.) Have the states bid on the supplies, driving up the price: https://youtu.be/2zeEUs7tcpE

6.) Have the federal government spend taxpayer dollars to ship supplies purchased from China to these brand new private companies: https://www.npr.org/sections/corona...tm_term=nprnews

7.) Eliminate the competition. Attack any company that doesn’t play ball. https://mothership.sg/2020/04/trump-3m-10-million-masks/

Edit 2: electric boogaloo

Congress and the Supreme Court aren’t going to do poo poo. Neither is Biden or the DNC. We need another Battle of Athens.

Fun fact: the position with the highest constitutional power is your county sheriff. They have the ability to block feds from entering and leaving the county. A few did this back during the whole “extraordinary rendition” thing whenever that was.

I would pen an email, letter and call to your county sheriff citing sources and your concerns of the feds taking your hospitals supplies. I just thought of this replying to you and I will be doing this tomorrow. We need sheriffs and deputies guarding our hospitals from the feds.

Jesus loving Christ

https://mobile.twitter.com/davidbegnaud/status/1245906088911949826

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

Official ranking of burger joints:

1. Five Guys
2. Whataburger
3. Shake Shack
4. Wendy's
5. In-n-Out

Also Starbucks and Tim Hortons have poo poo coffee, Krispy Kreme is literally the only donut, Carolina BBQ is dog poo poo but it's not nearly as embarrassing as what New Yorkers call BBQ, there's no such thing as good fried chicken north of Nashville or west of New Orleans, Chicago deep dish sucks, hot dish sucks, chili has beans and beef and tomatoes, IPA is poo poo, and New York hot dogs loving suck harder than anything could ever suck.

And for you Philly fucks, Nick's Roast Pork is the best by such a huge margin and your fat mother can rot in hell if you disagree.

Stereotype posted:

Israel's Iron Dome doesn't use lasers because they don't work.

shovelbum posted:

Anyone who thinks nukes aren't still the worst and final weapon of the present and foreseeable future is insane.

Homeless Friend posted:

https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1247698364063518720

lol

Basic Poster posted:

Lol if you don't think Russia, US, China and probably half a dozen others haven't totally converted to neutron bombs and are drat itchy to use then to completely de-occupy entire cities while leaving factories and infrastructure largely intact and ready for appropriation.

Tei posted:

src:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronaviru...utm_name=iossmf

The Saucer Hovers posted:

if the rich could erase us we wouldnt be here

shovelbum posted:

Anyone who thinks nukes aren't still the worst and final weapon of the present and foreseeable future is insane.

Morbus posted:

It's already free and widely available for the most part. Making it compulsory might help, but you've got people skipping out on measles and polio gl enforcing a flu vaccine

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

Krispy Kreme is literally the only donut

twoday posted:

oh yeah, here we go, time to learn about Bactria, which also fits into this theme of the collapse of empire:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3896504&userid=78326&perpage=40&pagenumber=3#post498094197

lots of other cool poo poo in that thread, someone bring it back to life by posting in it

Mistle posted:

I dunno, a bioweapon in the image of covid19, but worse would be pretty gnarly.

pancake rabbit posted:

lmao i have some unfortunate news for you about socializing and its ramifications wrt what kind of crisis we're in

snoo posted:

good news, yall

Quetzadilla posted:

That's not what pro-social means, idiot.

slopJoe 2020330 posted:

eatin beans

Plinkey posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0EiV423j0M

Inceltown posted:

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1247737221911896064

snoo posted:

good news, yall

A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:

Official ranking of burger joints:

1. Five Guys
2. Whataburger
3. Shake Shack
4. Wendy's
5. In-n-Out

Also Starbucks and Tim Hortons have poo poo coffee, Krispy Kreme is literally the only donut, Carolina BBQ is dog poo poo but it's not nearly as embarrassing as what New Yorkers call BBQ, there's no such thing as good fried chicken north of Nashville or west of New Orleans, Chicago deep dish sucks, hot dish sucks, chili has beans and beef and tomatoes, IPA is poo poo, and New York hot dogs loving suck harder than anything could ever suck.

And for you Philly fucks, Nick's Roast Pork is the best by such a huge margin and your fat mother can rot in hell if you disagree.

Quetzadilla posted:

That's not what pro-social means, idiot.

If you want to crank your hog posting about The Road becoming reality it just means that either:
1.) you think you, the enlightened leftist goon, are a special genius capable of empathy for your fellow man while the unwashed masses are not, even though literal toddlers are capable of empathy, or
2.) you are a maladjusted antisocial shithead and believe everyone else will act the same way you plan to.

In either case instead of making a scathing or insightful observation about society, you're just showing your whole rear end and I'm going to call you a dumbfuck for it. It's the same worthless dead-end nihilist smoothbrain bullshit as antinatalism that just serves to justify sitting on your useless rear end rather than doing a single thing.

NO LISTEN TO ME posted:

Straight up for real blackpilled leftists that are convinced optimism is synonymous with naivete are actually some of the most embarrassing people online. Same as the people who wish for the death of the entire south as if everyone born below the mason dixon automatically is born with a higher Racism Aptitude or something

Plinkey posted:

Inceltown posted:

https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1247785439798235136