In this dystopian reality, Americans never get to elect a president who refuses to wage aggressive wars abroad. Instead, they are offered the chance to bet on the timing of those bombings.
I can’t get over the fact that people were casting bets on whether the US would bomb Iran the other day. It just says such dark things about the type of civilization we are living in.
In this dystopia, Americans are never given the option to vote for a president who won’t bomb foreign countries in wars of aggression. But they do have the option to gamble on when those bombs will be dropped.
They’re prevented from rejecting war, militarism, and imperialism through their vote, yet they can use a phone app to wager on how those very forces will play out.
Stopping your government from dropping deadly explosives on foreign civilians trying to live peaceful lives? That’s off the table. You’re not permitted to do that.
Investing money in “prediction market” platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, wagering on when military attacks will kill innocent people overseas? That’s encouraged. Thumbs up.
It’s acceptable to profit from an app that lets Westerners gamble on devastating military events with grave humanitarian consequences.
It’s legal to enrich yourself by founding companies that produce missiles, selling them to the US government, and then funding think tanks and lobbyists who persuade officials to deploy those weapons in needless mass violence.
You can grow wealthy investing in arms manufacturers and backing political candidates who promise to initiate wars.
As long as the venture makes money and aligns with broadly accepted liberal norms, it remains lawful. But any efforts to reduce violence and challenge these profits are denied any electoral platform.
Our society appears as it does because relentless profit-seeking dominates our civilization.
War is lucrative, so it never ceases.
Corporations devastate ecosystems while shifting pollution costs onto the environment, because it’s financially advantageous.
Capitalists suppress wages and reduce labor rights to increase wealth inequality.
Plutocrats manipulate laws and policy through campaign donations and corporate lobbying, deepening corruption and oligarchy, while society grows more unjust and oppressive.
So long as massive segments of human behavior are steered by profit incentives, violence, exploitation, environmental destruction, inequality, and oppression will only intensify.
This state of affairs will persist until a collective decision forces systemic change. Until then, the current trajectory will continue unchanged.
Original article: caitlinjohnstone.com.au
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