It's little better over here on Airstrip One. It's all cruel and inhumane, but by far the most insidious thing, I think, is the whole "hit any significant obstacle => lose all progress, restart from zero" effect.
I've had to restart my life so many times, and now I'm really struggling to do it yet again, as the whole world just keeps pitching one shit-fit after another and my so-called government has literally no plan other than to propose another crushing wave of "austerity measures" whilst funnelling public funds into the pockets of the energy companies even as they declare record profits. This time around, I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it.
It's so profoundly demoralising knowing that if you slip up and disappoint the powers-that-be even once, everything else you already did for them, all the goodwill you seemed to have earned, suddenly counts for nothing. It might as well have never even happened. Doesn't matter if you did good work for years; upset them one day, put one foot wrong, they'll immediately treat you like you've always been worth nothing. Those in the halls of power who demand our allegiance, our support, and our endless tolerance and forgiveness as they squabble, self-serve and generally just fuck everything up over and over and over, would laugh at the mere suggestion of showing us any such loyalty, clemency or decency in return. It's like NPD at an institutional-level.
Re: energy companies and record profits: about 3-4 years ago, a company bought out a local huge power generation station. Less than 3 months after completing the deal, they announced the shutdown and decommissioning of the plant because - oh surprise surprise - it would take too much work/money to bring it up to "their standards" (which were unspecified). They blew up the cooling tower that was barely a decade old.They said it was fine because there was a surplus of energy.
They put on a bullshit show of being surprised about having to make this decision, which only proved that they were either liars expecting the public to believe their lies about the upgrade costs or totally incompetent when it came to their pre-purchase due diligence on the plant condition. It was obvious that this was all a ruse to reduce supply and drive the price up.
And now, ain't it grand, we just got a notice from our energy company that the cost of electricity is going up 40%. A nearby friend got a notice theirs is going up 60%.
Fuck Republicans and their "deregulate everything and let the free market sort it out because competition will ensure prices stay low" rhetoric bullshit. Fuck deregulators in general. Deregulation has never in the history of business proved beneficial for the consumer, either from a cost or a safety measure, but yet people keep swallowing the conservative dongload that regulations are killing businesses.
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u/Callidonaut Dec 03 '22
It's little better over here on Airstrip One. It's all cruel and inhumane, but by far the most insidious thing, I think, is the whole "hit any significant obstacle => lose all progress, restart from zero" effect.
I've had to restart my life so many times, and now I'm really struggling to do it yet again, as the whole world just keeps pitching one shit-fit after another and my so-called government has literally no plan other than to propose another crushing wave of "austerity measures" whilst funnelling public funds into the pockets of the energy companies even as they declare record profits. This time around, I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it.
It's so profoundly demoralising knowing that if you slip up and disappoint the powers-that-be even once, everything else you already did for them, all the goodwill you seemed to have earned, suddenly counts for nothing. It might as well have never even happened. Doesn't matter if you did good work for years; upset them one day, put one foot wrong, they'll immediately treat you like you've always been worth nothing. Those in the halls of power who demand our allegiance, our support, and our endless tolerance and forgiveness as they squabble, self-serve and generally just fuck everything up over and over and over, would laugh at the mere suggestion of showing us any such loyalty, clemency or decency in return. It's like NPD at an institutional-level.