• thefluffiest@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    53
    ·
    2 days ago

    Why does this story generate so much sympathy on here for the person instead of fiery rage against the social system that enables this?

    Why should a small entrepreneur have to give away their products out of good will instead of society enabling everyone to buy a few cupcakes once a year?

    Why socialise the problems for the many while promoting private profits for the few?

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Regarding this post, I’m mostly just pissed that an obviously fake story got posted and is being treated as if it was real.

      • skisnow@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Consensus seems to be divided between “this is fake” versus “yeah but shut up, this community is for being wholesome”.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      50
      ·
      2 days ago

      It’s called the orphan crushing machine.

      People celebrate that one orphan has been saved from being crushed by the orphan crushing machine. No one questions that we have an orphan crushing machine. No one acknowledges that the machine is of our own creation. No one realizes that we could stop and dismantle the machine at any point. Because we have always had an orphan crushing machine. There’s a prophecy that we will lose everything and it will all collapse if the orphan crushing machine is stopped. The prophecy was written by those who made the machine.

      So people celebrate one orphan was saved, but how dare you suggest we dismantle the orphan crushing machine. So it goes unacknowledged.

      • lemmingnosis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        As people all too familiar with The Orphan Crushing Machine, it’s nice reading a plausible story about one person acting against its grain.

        It’s okay though. The very next story on the feed is probably focused on the machine itself - probably something about a capacity increase, or new motors or blades.

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        you suppose there is a world in which no such machine could ever exist.

        there isn’t. this is simple a throught experiment.

        in the real world there will always be poverty, and there are plenty of folks in the real world who tell you they are in poverty, when they are not.

        • dustyData@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          Oh no, the machine is not poverty. If you think the machine refers to poverty you don’t understand the metaphor.

    • Soup@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      2 days ago

      To be honest, I’m so full of rage at the system and the people who prop it up that every so often I just need to let myself feel happy and proud of the people who live in said system and help to starve it, not feed it.

      Absolutely there are people who like it because it helps validate their shitty positions but there are also people who just need a win to keep them going in pushing back. It helps to know that your anger is not a lonely anger, that your need for justice is not unique and small.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Because we all need a mental break once in a while. Those of us that care and understand are exhausted by little Timmy’s lemonade stand to pay for his dad’s cancer treatment, Susie’s cupcake drive to help with mom’s insulin bills, a gofundme to help pay for someone’s unexpected disability, or just about every infuriating event where people paint glowing pictures like this to signal the virtue of the hard worker engaging in the desperate grind to save someone rather than be enraged at the failure of society that necessitates child labor or social largesse to pay for someone’s continued life and liberty.

      It’s fucked up. I hate that I have a government that would piss away trillions on bombs and Sturmabteilung killing people rather than invest in the citizens so someone of any age can afford insulin, or a cake or piñata for a kid’s birthday.

      So allow us to shed a tear over a potentially apocryphal story where someone’s life is better for just a moment thanks to a person who expected nothing in return.

      • Mirshe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        This is me. On the one hand, I am filled with rage that we have a society where a young mother can’t even afford a nice birthday for her kid, where the first part is the sort of story I witnessed over and over when I was in retail. On the other hand, this sort of story, even if it’s embellished or untrue, lets me hold hope for at least a moment that there’s good in this world worth fighting for.

      • mirshafie@europe.pub
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, we still need prosocial behaviors on the individual level regardless of what wider economic system we have.

        The use praise for prosocial behaviors as an excuse for a broken system is mostly a third world problem, with the USA at the helm.