This shows how weak the Republican’s platform is. They aren’t attacking policy at all - it’s culture wars bull shit. All they can say is vague shit like communism without pointing to anything relevant in policy. Piker isn’t running. These are sloppy desperate fear tactics.
It rewards grifters, exploiters, the cruel and greedy. It rewards the worst of human nature. It’s a cynical system that rewards unnatural inclinations like resource hoarding and anti-social behavior. That’s why the capitalists stopped at nothing to crush communism. Even if in practice communism had a lot of faults, it’s underlying philosophy spoke on solidarity amongst the working class. Capitalism thrives on taking for the few and weakening and dividing the masses. It’s always been a broken unsustainable system. Today it’s hurdling us towards destruction with AI, destruction of the natural world, and oppression to protect the monsters lusting for more power.
America over here calling up bestiality bros to fill FBI vacancies. Everything is under control under the reign of King Don’s stable genius.
It’s individuals versus complex organizations and systems designed by the powerful. The blitz of complex systems is designed to disconnect and distract. Tax code, investing, politics, insurance, legal - everything is so complex to advantage the powerful with the means to maneuver and manipulate the systems. I think people are drowning to keep up in the maelstrom of things competing for attention. The disconnection and distraction is by design.
To go deeper - I would say stealing labor is what the powerful have always done. They found a new way to steal it, but it’s the same old playbook. We create, they take the majority of the value generated and act like they’re doing us a favor. Power is a parasitic enterprise.
Intellectual property is a fairly recent concept and a lot of the information stolen does not impact the deceased people who created it’s lives or older work that was mostly already compensated in the past era. This makes the impact much smaller in my opinion - not to say it’s not also very impactful. Slavery has been stealing labor for all of human history.
Imagine the pettiest you have ever felt towards someone in your life - an X who hurt you, a friend who betrayed you, etc. Now imagine that is the drive behind your entire personality - pure narcissistic greed and envy. That’s who Trump is. Anyone who can’t or won’t aggrandize or flatter him is an enemy.
I mean, slavery comes to mind….
Hate is a multi-billion dollar business in America. The capital class spends obscene amounts of money to keep people hating each other and stoke the culture war. It’s the evolution of the old school union busting on the 1900s.
I don’t think anyone not living in America understands how deeply propaganda is pushed here across media and culture. The ruling class has distorted everything so much it’s hard to have a coherent conversation with most people on real issues. The misinformation and capital class talking points are intensely deep seated.
Billionaires are societal cancer. One person should not have unelected power at the scale a billionaire does. They need to be removed.
I hear a lot of stories of lower mid level acts just giving up on touring - which after the collapse of album sales was the only way to make money. As with everything, corporate parasites slowly extract all value leaving the actual people doing the work with less and less.
Very little risk. Laughable in most countries. C-Suite accountability translating to truly damaging punishment, like jail time, is almost nil.
Hundreds - even thousands - depending on the act they open for. A lot of mid level acts use this to supplement tour money because the live nation monopoly and other consolidation factors have driven venue costs and other touring expenses through the roof. This has become pretty standard practice.
Highly recommend reading this book for more details on American interference in sovereign nations to protect corporate interests: https://ia600507.us.archive.org/0/items/ConfessionsOfAnEconomicHitman_257/JohnPerkins-ConfessionsOfAnEconomicHitman.pdf
Don’t forget, Iran was a democratic nation in the early 1950s until America fucked it up for corporate profits. We created the conditions that brought about the Iran regime to capitulate to corporate interests.
Honestly not sure. They are trying hard to rig the election or at least throw it all into chaos anyway. It’s going to get messy for sure.