@Mark from Queens

they [Amerikans] remain willfully ignorant that they're purchasing cheap, disposable goods primarily made by slave labor in SE Asia, because the profiteers don't care about the welfare of human beings or people's jobs. Try to have these conversations (I do) with family and friends, and they look at you with blank stares or like deer in headlights, sometimes turn angry.

Unfortunately I too have intelligent family members who yet are either afraid, disinterested, or just plain ignorant of the real state of affairs.

A nation full of zombie debt slaves (mortgage/consumer/medical/student). But no one wants to revolt. I think perhaps healthcare as the one issue could be a galvanizing point, because it really does effect everyone. But there's such a beaten down mentality here, a constant barrage of propaganda that keeps people apathetic and inert

Precisely. The masses are collectively so brain-washed they do not realize they are shackled to the pens in which they are confined.

Online starts it, in-person is where things really happen.

This is what activism is all about.

That is the major hurdle, I think. I'm even less sanguine on such occasions as this.

Let's face it, Americans are way too soft, coddled, and addled by endless consumerism, which is a purposeful tool wielded by the monopoly Capitalists to keep people, many of whom are in crappy jobs just for the healthcare "benefits," numbed by the false sense of abundance and well being through over-the-top consumerism, while they remain willfully ignorant that they're purchasing cheap, disposable goods primarily made by slave labor in SE Asia, because the profiteers don't care about the welfare of human beings or people's jobs. Try to have these conversations (I do) with family and friends, and they look at you with blank stares or like deer in headlights, sometimes turn angry. The truth cuts deep. And no one seems to want to bear any personal responsibility, instead defeatedly muttering the inane, attempt-at-profundity, "it is what it is." Thanks for the enlightening response, bozo.

During Occupy we had the best chance to rile up the indignation necessary to throw over this rotten, soulless, predatory, inhumane system - and though there were critics amongst even our friends, they couldn't argue that the basic premise was right on. We are controlled by the interests of big money in government, they call all the shots; and it is primarily the Economic Terrorists of Wall St whose speculations, shareholder boards and schemes are directly responsible for war, the rising cost of living, the loss of jobs/decrease in salaries/loss of pensions/increase in healthcare costs, staggering student debt, the hollowing out Main St USA small business replaced by ever more franchises and big box stores. A nation full of zombie debt slaves (mortgage/consumer/medical/student). But no one wants to revolt.

I think perhaps healthcare as the one issue could be a galvanizing point, because it really does effect everyone. But there's such a beaten down mentality here, a constant barrage of propaganda that keeps people apathetic and inert, insanely repeating the RW "think-tank"- generated slogans heard on Faux News and RW radio in service of their masters to defeat their own interests, such as "we have the greatest healthcare in the world," "people come here to do to doctors," etc - when just the opposite is true. Not having even the faintest clue that across the rest of the entire world, from Barbados to Belgium, from Mexico to Norway, every citizen has their healthcare paid for by its government.

Propaganda and consumerism are our biggest enemies.

Face-to-face town halls and meetings, community discussion groups and reading groups, activist hubs and community centers, the way people have done over the centuries, all over the country, will be the only way to accomplish this. It has to shift from online, to in-person. Online starts it, in-person is where things really happen.

The counterpart to this is folks need to be convinced that mainstream corporate media is poison, and have to start turning off their tv's, radio, stop reading the daily newspapers and find trustworthy sources of news/journalists (and read some history).

@eyo A scientist should easily be able to provide a mathematical formula relating atmospheric CO2 to global warming, if it hasn't been done already. The climate change deniers think this is an Agenda 21 hoax perpetrated by the UN to dissolve our sovereignty; as if we have any left.

they remain willfully ignorant that they're purchasing cheap, disposable goods primarily made by slave labor in SE Asia, because the profiteers don't care about the welfare of human beings or people's jobs.

Thanks Mark from Queens.

Try searching for document called "the-politics-of-global-production-Jenny-Chan-Ngai-Pun-Mark-Selden-2013-NTWE", It academically explains my tech worker disillusionment.That paper really made me glad Leopard was the last product I consumed from Apple, just curious about OSX. As someone who rode the Clinton tech bubble in the 90s, experiencing the downfall and "rebirth" of Apple was pretty pretty disgusting.

While I'm glad that many Chinese have achieved middle-class status, fuck their billionaires. I am very very sad about the CO2 and lung cancer given along with Most Favored Nation status. I'm sure my Dell and HP machines helped too, tough the data scientists don't tell the full truth about globalization.

"That's the system." It's my opinion Bill Clinton did more climate damage then any president ever, so far. So fuck Apple and their billions wanting to "come home" now, now that wages are shitty enough, and the EPA is being dismantled. Don't buy Apple stuff, don't reward bad behavior, that's what I say.

Peace