takes off another mask
Capitalism
To be fair, it happens in socialism too. And monarchies, and everything else - corruption is universal.:-(
Capitalism and the state exacerbate such things to the point that it’s fair to assign blame here.
But yes, we could remove another mask and see “the state,” which is the real problem. Certainly, no one argues that monarchy is desirable, and even ostensibly just systems such as state socialism will eventually devolve into social inequities that allow for this type of thing to occur.
Capitalism is just one of the most widespread current offenders, since it is fundamentally hierarchical and unjust.
It is masks all the way down…
When I was a little kid I grew up Catholic, then began to hate that religion after learning that practically every single thing I had ever been told was a lie. But now… I appreciate how they do things, like feed the homeless, because even Jesus hated religious hypocrisy, and we all agree that:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
- James 1:27
I had to go through that period of hating it, to see its’ faults, in order to see it more clearly and appreciate it for what it actually is, not what corrupt people say, or worse yet make it out to be. (ahem pedos)
Now I’m starting to think that way about capitalism - not that I understand it much, mind you, but just a general idea that if it were balanced out by a strong state, then it could be implemented better than it is now?
A REALLY tricky point is that… what we have now is not capitalism!!! For example, the people who showed up at January 6th in America weren’t actually defending the constitution, but the opposite! The Nazis (including modern varieties) weren’t actually “patriots”, and getting back to capitalism, this system the Western world uses now that gives handouts to the rich while taking more from the poor - it’s socialism (“shared distribution of means of production of goods”) for the wealthy, combined with taxation (along with extremely contentious representation) for the masses.
Now, mind you, I am not saying that if we would switch to a more pure form of capitalism that we’d all be fine - pure capitalism is just slavery, outright, and always has been. It is unfortunate that words no longer have meaning then, bc what do we (people in general) even mean when we say that we are “patriots” who “love our democracy” (while wanting to remove democracy), that we want to “defend the constitution” (like, really, or like claim that while doing the exact opposite?), that some people want to be “Pro-Life” (a far more precise term would be “Anti-abortion”, especially when you are literally ready to put people to death as a result of certain things, e.g. ectopic pregnancies that aren’t even remotely “abortions”), that you are against “cancel culture” (while actively engaging in cancelling all kinds of culture, by literally and physically, actually burning books, as in putting them through the combustion process of converting the paper product into ash, the ultimate cancellation of the item in question, in a vain attempt to somehow stop the idea that it contained and therefore represents), and yes, wtf even is “capitalism” then - pure, or mixed?
But in Soviet Russia, before it became capitalist they would assign people to jobs, where they would work until they died, just like here except here you can quit and go to a different, equally shitty employer.
Hence why I wanted to add the point that capitalism is not the root of all evil, just one particular instantiation of it. And most especially the balance point it is tuned at right now is particularly egregious, but it could be tuned differently, as too can all the other systems as well.
Small airplanes still use a lot of 100 low lead avgas. At least jet fuel is unleaded.
It’s lower lead than avgas used to be, but more lead than auto gas ever had.
Dumb question (perhaps the lead getting to me) but I’ve long wondered what the practical implications of this are. Does this mean the exhaust is littered with lead that gets aerosolized into the air as the plane darts across the sky? To what extent does that impact lead levels acutely versus background levels, etc.
Lead poisoning for the last few generations, micro plastics for the more recent ones
This may be the reason Biden wants to clean up all the lead pipes in America.
Nascar only stopped using leaded gas in 2008.
Don’t forget it’s used widely in ammunition.
And which political group just so happens to have a predisposition to firing such firearms, hmm…