Why

Soulless money grubbers, the nation.

• https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1gnp2ph/big_tech_employees_quiet_after_trump_is_elected/
  • "Once vocal in opposing Donald Trump’s policies, Big Tech employees have remained notably quiet following his re-election, reflecting a shift toward reduced workplace activism. In recent years, companies like Google and Facebook implemented policies to curb political expression internally, limiting open discussions and dampening employee protest culture. The muted reaction underscores the effectiveness of these new restrictions as companies work to keep political discourse at bay."
  • "Tech employee married to another big tech employee. We are just exhausted and more or less give up getting dismayed about it. Why bitch? This time around we feel defeated...we plan to keep our heads down for the next four years and hope our country doesn't implode."
  • "Yeah 2016 felt like an accident. Like at a country we didn't mean it, but apathy and other factors let him sneak a win, so we spent effort holding it together for 4 years so that we could get back on track. But 2024 is no accident, it's a well informed and considered choice. And if this is what America actually wants, knowing what that means, then so be it. I only have so much energy."
• https://old.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/1gno2nc/they_hit_you_then_you_have_to_pay_them_for_saving/
  • Ambulance hits cyclist, picks him up and takes him to the hospital, bills him $1800 for the trip.
  • Not because of the literal events, but because the story resonates.
• https://old.reddit.com/r/cursedcomments/comments/1gnuyj1/cursed_ambulance/
  • Again, it's about the culture that the story reflects.
• https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1gnuyqe/trump_prepares_to_withdraw_from_paris_climate/
• https://old.reddit.com/r/NotHowGirlsWork/comments/1gng2dj/these_people_are_dreadful/
  • Those people will not be found to be engaging in threats.

2025-02-17

America is obsessed with money. And I say that as someone who grabbed the ring and held on for a while. I was making money very fast, but it's a disease. America makes money not just the most important thing, but the only thing. It is how we judge people and defines who we venerate. If you're not killing it, you're seen as a failure. And there's only so much room at the top.

And then we take as much as we can squeeze out of everyone except the top fragment, and pass it upward. Systematically.

I was there. The year I was 51 I pulled in half a million dollars, and the path up was clear.

I tell the story that I quit because I was diagnosed with hypertension, and that was certainly the punctuation mark at the end of my long sentence. But it was always a matter of powering through the broken glass and barbed wire because I had no choice. In America, you make money or you suffer. There are 80 year olds with backs so bent they can hardly see ahead of themselves who are bringing carts in from the parking lot at my local supermarket.