{"id":1454,"date":"2021-02-13T16:04:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T21:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2021-02-13T16:04:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T21:04:07","slug":"our-overlords-are-not-our-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1454","title":{"rendered":"Our Overlords Are Not Our Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;ve lately been pondering how many of the ills that beset the ordinary poor, working class, and middle-class person in the world can be linked directly to the power that the ultra-rich have &amp; will do anything to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you scratch the surface of organized religion, politics, poverty, law enforcement, the economy, racism, white supremacy, misogyny, labor, unemployment, education, war, or environmental degradation, you find a thread leading back to the oligarchs. Each of these nominally disparate things either directly feeds their power &amp; wealth or protects them at the first, second, or third remove. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have no idea how to effect change to this system. It feels as if there is no way to change a structure so carefully constructed, that has existed for so long, and has so many interlocking protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sorry, just some dismal thoughts on the day the second impeachment trial grinds to its inevitable conclusion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve lately been pondering how many of the ills that beset the ordinary poor, working class, and middle-class person in the world can be linked directly to the power that the ultra-rich have &amp; will do anything to protect. If you scratch the surface of organized religion, politics, poverty, law enforcement, the economy, racism, white &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1454\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Our Overlords Are Not Our Friends&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-commentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgY3e-ns","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=41","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":0},"title":"Robonaut will go where humans would be in danger","author":"Jorah","date":"May 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"This story is about a robot that is being developed by a team at NASA. The idea is to have a machine that can do \"EVA\"s... Extra-Vehicular Activities... which are very dangerous for people. The robot will be primarily controlled directly by people, not self-operating, and is shaped like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":990,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=990","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":1},"title":"Class Sock","author":"Jorah","date":"September 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A week or so after the lace class trip we hosted the Golden Bobbins Lace Guild at our domicile. The talented Michele C. taught us the basics of toe-up socks using fairly large needles and fairly heavy yarn. I was pleased to have another chance to learn Judy's Magic Cast-on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Knitting&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knitting","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=85"},"img":{"alt_text":"My first sock!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.madstone.net\/images\/knitting\/tiny-class-sock-2-Th.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=218","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":2},"title":"Why lobsters aren&#8217;t food","author":"Jorah","date":"March 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Why lobsters aren't food:BY DAVE BARRY(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Jan. 26, 1996.)I am pleased to report that the scientific community has finally stopped wasting time on the origins of the universe and started dealing with the important question, which is: Are lobsters really just big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=181","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":3},"title":"Quarter Flipping","author":"Jorah","date":"August 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"After spending WAY too much free time, this kid is a world-class quarter-flipper","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=31","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":4},"title":"Concealed Carry Class","author":"Jorah","date":"May 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I had my CCH (concealed carry ...handgun) permit in North Carolina forseveral years. This Sunday I'll be going in for my South Carolina CCWclass; I should have my permit in late August if all goes well.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":517,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=517","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":5},"title":"Day 12\/70","author":"Jorah","date":"January 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I earned 558 points on\u00a0fitocracy.com\u00a0for: Stretching: 0:05:00 (+2 pts) Trying to let my lower back straighten out by doing knee-to-chest stretches before getting out of bed. Plank: 15 sec (+5 pts) 536 sec (+100 pts) #1 - RKC plank to warm up. #2 PR attempt. Parallel-Grip Pull-Up: 1 reps (+3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1455,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}