The Pandora Papers AKA the Panama Papers 2.0

[Nealithi]

Okay then, let me say something different. Most of the bottom 90% isn't nearly as sleazy as most of the 10%, never mind any random sample of the 1% or the paragons of evil that make up the Billionaire class. Treating it all as interchangeable is both inaccurate and unhelpful.

And on the subject of status quos, the most unjust parts of the status quo are the things said 1% is either causing or perpetuating, whereas most of the parts of the status quo that make life pleasant could easily carry on if they all dropped dead tomorrow. Better?

First paragraph feels too simple somehow. Us and Them issues without nuance. The fact that my cynical side says you are likely correct does annoy that withered husk of optimism people tell me I should nurture.

The second paragraph while nicely going to my point. Feels again disjointed. Reminds me of trying to talk to my mother on the subject. "Any one who uses a bank in Switzerland is a Nazi lover."
Along with such pearls that no matter how many generations removed ever removes the stains of oppressors and conspirators. So I ask if we should move to Ireland and she looks at me confused.

Absolutes seem an easy write off. And the solutions I can think of are rather depressing.
I think the status quo of education in the US is not be perpetuated by the 1%. But it is an abysmal mess.
I do think our members of congress, on either side of the aisle, are at best out of touch with the common people. Does that make them sleaze, or clueless? I am not sure. I am sure if we look we will find some that are both. Just don't make broad absolutes. It cheapens the argument and makes it easier for your opponents to dismiss.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I don't think I'm being overly broad. Let's look at the education system. It is messed up precisely because the school-to-prison pipeline benefits the 1% with a vast bulk of cheap prison labor. Ideologies that would threaten a status quo where the 1% benefit at the expense of the many are quietly or not-so-quietly repressed, or taught in a way that frames them as wrong.

You say I'm too broad, I say that the bulk of all human misery, one way or another, comes from or at least benefits the greed of the powerful few.

[Nealithi]

I don't think I'm being overly broad. Let's look at the education system. It is messed up precisely because the school-to-prison pipeline benefits the 1% with a vast bulk of cheap prison labor. Ideologies that would threaten a status quo where the 1% benefit at the expense of the many are quietly or not-so-quietly repressed, or taught in a way that frames them as wrong.

You say I'm too broad, I say that the bulk of all human misery, one way or another, comes from or at least benefits the greed of the powerful few.

Alright here's my problem on too broad. I read your comment on school-to-prison pipeline and cheap prison labor. So I go to see how much prison labor is actually used. And first hit got me this gem.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/884989263

Now this was offensive. The 14th century thing about inmates have to pay for their incarceration was supposedly abolished. And last I heard one of the gripes people have is prisons are paid for with tax money. Wipe away this person's details and look at it from the wider scope. Not broad claims, just wider view. We do not know how systemic this is, nor the economic impact, or where the money goes because no one seems to be actually looking. Holding the institutions accountable.
To take that and say 'the 1% did it. They get something out of it somehow.' IS too broad. It lays blame but does not address the issue.
Hypothetical: Go execute the Gates, Sanders, and all other 1% money holders and their families in the country. Does the problem of the prisons go away because the puppet strings are cut? I don't think so. The wardens and guards don't make that much so they were not against the wall. The engine keeps turning. Expand to 5%, does that magically cut the strings and end the problems? If not then how far do you cut till the problem of the 'rich' is solved?

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I guess the first point is that, with so much dark money removed from politics and Koch types funding it, there would be much less lobbying to keep private prisons that way. The corruption isn't something that just happened, it's something that is actively pushed for at multiple levels, and there's a lot of people pushing back. Maybe with fewer giant thumbs on the scales we could actually get somewhere.

I did have a different response at the start. I want you to know I really did entertain your point of view for a while, but when I thought longer, I came back to my original thesis. Does that make any sense?

[Nealithi]

I guess the first point is that, with so much dark money removed from politics and Koch types funding it, there would be much less lobbying to keep private prisons that way. The corruption isn't something that just happened, it's something that is actively pushed for at multiple levels, and there's a lot of people pushing back. Maybe with fewer giant thumbs on the scales we could actually get somewhere.

I did have a different response at the start. I want you to know I really did entertain your point of view for a while, but when I thought longer, I came back to my original thesis. Does that make any sense?

Oh I understand. And if we all thought the same way all the time I think the world would be a worse place.

Mind you after reading the article you posted on the Tennessee juvenile system I am leaning toward hang them all toward supposed leaders. But that is my impotent rage about a sick system I can't even see a way to affect let alone correct.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well, if you see the system as hopelessly corrupt and want to take some kind of action, you could start following Prison Abolition activists. If you want to fix it without removing it altogether, then the way is certainly less clear. Supporting movements to end for-profit prisons might be a start? Or you could try to support Legal Defense Funds? =S

I admit it's one of our more staggering systems of inequity.