• psvrh@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    The problem, for the likes of Reuters (who is owned by the Thompson family, who are the richest people in Canada) that the problem is the very system that’s enriched them and people like them over the last fifty or so years.

    They’d need to admit they were wrong in their desires to dismantle the post-WW2 New Deal era, and that while neoliberalism has worked out just dandy for them, it’s been a net loss for a lot of people and is only getting worse. And that admission would mean they’d have to make do with less. Not that they’d be poor, but they’d need to be less obscenely rich.

    And because this is such a hard admission to make, and because neoliberal technocracy has been working great for them so far, they’ll nibble at the edges of the problem, maybe scapegoat a group or two, or fret about culture wars or indulge in the macroeconomic version of bikeshedding instead of dealing with the core issue.

    Upton Sinclair was bang on with “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      7 months ago

      For anyone who read to the end of the comment above, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is one of the most powerful books of the 20th century. It is credited with the formation of the FDA and the growth of labor movements throughout the United States. If you have not read it before, read it now.

      • psvrh@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        7 months ago

        He also ran for governor of California and had significant popular support, but was ratfucked by Hollywood.

        The United States would have been a very, very different country today if Sinclair and people like him had gotten traction.

        • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          He also ran as a socialist, and it was the first time in history when the Republicans and Democrats banded together publicly to defeat a 3rd party candidate. They didn’t care which of them won, as long as a socialist didn’t win. He still won something like 35% of the votes.