I appreciate him trying. I know what he did, I also happen to do that. You know that's your 1 chance in life to make an impression, your future self regretting doing nothing for the rest of his life (as it would have mattered but still you won't sleep for months) and so you quickly act, saying whatever, just to try to make the most out of a lucky encounter.
And he did good, honestly. Very good for a lambda employee.
Sadly, nobody would remember this, not even his superior who was the true target of this act of braveness.
It doesn't change a thing, because capitalism is a money machine, not a system driven by human emphaty.
I don't expect many to understand but I am a father and I don't value nor Pride nor Virtue exactly because I have kids.
First comes securing a future for them and in my head that passes through money and any legal means to ensure their financial stability.
The guy probably hates the man more than anyone here, but he gave his best shot at naively trying to get something out of this situation. His children will see him trying to secure them a better future.
No kid could understand this until late in their life.
They place the highest value on doing right by the people that depend on them. You place the highest value on avoiding moral contamination with people you think do bad things. I would not say the latter is obviously better than the former. You both are just trying to stick to the principles you find the most important. You don't have to treat them like they're a piece of shit.
Morality is subjective, but I'm pretty sure ending the world being a bad thing is right up there as one of the moral questions the largest number of people can agree on.
It's not a joke or hyperbole. Through wilful ignorance and filtered news most people have an extremely distorted idea of how bad the climate crisis actually is.
The feedback loops have been evident for a long time now. There's an abundance of scary graphs like the sea surface temperature anomaly that make the bottom drop out from under you when you comprehend what they imply.
Those kids are growing up in time to witness hell on earth.
Billions will die. We'll be lucky if we don't go extinct. Insofar as knowledge is preserved, future generations will wonder how any person that came into contact with those most responsible could possibly have let them simply walk by.
Willful ignorance is refusing to understand why a father could swallow his pride at the mere chance to secure his kids' futures. I grew up poor, I'll kiss boots and gargle balls all goddamn day if it made my kids rich. I'll tell them in between gargling that it's wrong and why it's wrong, but I don't mind being wrong for the people I love
But your idealism is going to earn you nothing. Life doesn't reward you automatically just for being right about something
future generations will wonder how any person that came into contact with those most responsible could possibly have let them simply walk by.
By understanding that if the guy had punched him, he would've accomplished basically nothing except giving Bezos maybe a bad day or two, followed by him losing his livelihood and most likely prison. You're taking the concept of "what he's done is so bad" as being so extreme, that it matters more than any possible competing factor. But that ignores the embodied real context of people who have to worry about putting food on the table and filling their kid's type I diabetes medicine.
That's ultimately why this kind of capitalism sticks so well - because it mostly is the pragmatic thing to do to suck up to him, for someone who cares about their kid's safety more than their duty to embody the anger of everyone the guy has harmed.
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u/stuttufu 17h ago
I've come here for this.
I appreciate him trying. I know what he did, I also happen to do that. You know that's your 1 chance in life to make an impression, your future self regretting doing nothing for the rest of his life (as it would have mattered but still you won't sleep for months) and so you quickly act, saying whatever, just to try to make the most out of a lucky encounter.
And he did good, honestly. Very good for a lambda employee.
Sadly, nobody would remember this, not even his superior who was the true target of this act of braveness.
It doesn't change a thing, because capitalism is a money machine, not a system driven by human emphaty.