They allowed capitalists to win and they bought golf.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/jun/13/saudi-arabia-golf-pga-tour-public-investment-fund

That’s the capitalists:

The tragic paradox is that for the most part the people who care about sport do not own it and the people who own it do not seem to care for it at all. It is of no consequence to Saudi Arabia whether or not you like golf. Eventually, it will find the thing you do like and your views will not be of interest to them. No, they will not be taking questions. No, you will not be kept up to date on progress. As ever, you will find out what’s happening whenever it decides you need to know.

And if you think “I don’t care about golf, no loss” they already have bought all kinds of other tournaments including e-sport.

Bikini Bottom

or worse when you realize someone you were joking with was actually being completely serious

I liked the stories about the moon landing not happening for many years (I’m 58), not because I believe it didn’t happen, but because I loved looking into what would have to happen to cover it up and how impossible it would be to cover it up. It was a joke until I realised that people were starting to take it seriously. Alternative history was a hobby I was into, I was writing (terrible) stories myself and then they turned everything into “alternative facts” and made up history and took it for real and I just had to give up the hobby completely. It is no fun to write or read a story about a flat earth or people living inside the globe or aliens when you know someone actually believes it to be true. That’s why we can’t have nice things:

like half the worlds gone insane

Successful social movements requires

people who are willing to make the effort to understand what’s going on. Rural people can do that. If they don’t want to, nothing you can say or do will change that. They can simply ask "what do you mean?

You cannot simultaneously think that you have to break down politics so that a five-year-old can understand it AND take people seriously as adults and why would anyone want to listen to you if you treat them like children?

American politics is on a downward spiral as each party tries to shorten and simplify the message to the point where there is no message except “vote (for) me, everyone else (is) bad”.

I was able to use a dictionary and Google (I did not go to college or university), are you saying rural people can’t?

Rural people: Take us seriously!

Also rural people: Explain it to us like we are five!

This is the real point here. If this is a legit talk about legit points then it can be open for everyone to see.

Starting talks with Meta behind closed doors can never happen. If they have something to say or ask then they can do it publicly.

I am all for talk, because that’s the part that hurts no one, but make it as transparent as humanly possible from all angles.

I also want to know what “the enemy” is up to, so invite them to talk as much as possible, we do not need to agree to anything just because we were talking/listening.