Because capital is right wing and capital will act to preserve and concentrate power.
1,764 karma · joined May 6, 2024
I studied Masters in Criminology and I have to say that Justice is absent from the Criminal 'Justice' system.
Not going to be trying it just based on this observed behaviour.
And those who don’t/won’t squeeze as hard get outcompeted - a race to the bottom.
This prevalent view of “they’re just doing to get a payday” doesn’t broadly track.
I don’t think everything is deterministic. But in meditation I came to see the truth of what Buddhism calls dependent origination: every event arises from prior causes. That isn’t strict determinism, because people aren’t entirely automatons. It’s more like an electron cloud, where some outcomes are simply much more likely than others.
The same idea helps explain why so many wealthy people can’t make rational long-term choices. They take whatever option grows their net worth, however much damage it does, without seeing that they’re eroding the very systems that give them their wealth and power. Their behaviour makes more sense as an addiction to money, and addicts will destroy everything around them to get their fix. Again, there’s less conscious control at work than it first appears.
I know this isn’t a popular view on HN, where free will and personal agency are prized. But believing in a fiction that insight and reality don’t support is itself disempowering, because sooner or later delusion meets reality. That may be why some recovery programs begin by admitting powerlessness over the addiction. Paradoxically, the admission is empowering. Very Taoist, now that I think about it.
Further context: The left wing candidate Lula had a tough approach to Meta and Twitter, it was an all around effort to reduce scams, deepfakes, children being exposed and sexualized and more. This made Meta's business less profitable, and also attracted some big fines.