the world could genuinely really use that “better than both” system right now, before capitalism kills the planet and then the planet kills us.

having said that, I am not certain how one would even begin to build a system that assholes can not exploit. Assholes will always exist, and frequently team up to be bigger, more effective assholes to everyone else. Communism fails for this simple reason, humans are corruptible. Capitalism is a “winning” system (until it isn’t) for assholes and few others. How do you even begin to formulate a system that works for everybody (or most everybody), that does not just disincentivize or punish but make it entirely infeasible for bad actors to undermine it or game it? One that doesn’t allow starving children and billionaires to exist at once?

Anarchism is all well and good in a world where there are no other governments, but I doubt we get from here, where we are now, to universal mutual aid open bordered bliss, without a lot of kicking and screaming from the die-hard capitalists (read: very successful assholes) of the world. Or an apocalyptic catastrophe of some sort. So there must be formulated some system that can compete and exist, not just survive but thrive; in a world filled with manipulative bad actors, entire foreign governments comprised of them and those home-grown; while not being susceptible to the same hollowing out of government function/principles or being conquered militarily.

it’s a discussion worth having, certainly, but I doubt it’s one that would bear fruit in our lifetimes. Sure, I know the divine right of kings ended, and hell, I might even be sitting in a front row seat for watching the end of American democracy – who knows what’ll implode next – but hoping for the end of assholes in power, being able to amass incredible power, something seemingly older than the wheel and recorded history? seems like a reach.

I, too, remember candleja

IT’S NOT DIFFERENT AT ALL, IS IT STEVE?

“the birth of superintelligent life”

Whoever wrote this couldn’t huff their own farts harder if they tried.

Boris sounds like a cool guy, I wish I had a Boris.

I would unironically sooner become an actual hermit and never socialize again than give these cretins my ID or even trust that they’ll delete an age verification photo. Knowing Discord? yeah, no, absolutely fucking not

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

no, it’s much simpler than that: I think that any system, no matter how well-designed, can be broken by anyone with the will and patience to break it. And in an apocalypse, there would be no shortage of people with the will to do it and the time to plan how.

compounds on… the outside of the bunker. As in, not a bunker itself. Additionally, fed with what? I assume if billionaires are to the point of hiding in bunkers and paying “loyal guards” in food, that food outside is relatively scarce, and probably global transportation infrastructure is no more. Meaning they either have food stored onsite in the compound (which just means storming the lower-security compound first, getting a bunch of food, and then gassing the bunker to get even more goodies), or they’re somehow moving food from the bunker to the compound (which sounds like an easy way to get into the bunker).

that would probably work better, but if the infrastructure for communication between bunkers exists in the bunkers, and 95% of the people located in bunker A and bunker B want to escape and kill asshole billionaire A and asshole billionaire B, all they have to do is coordinate a simultaneous attack using that same communication infrastructure. If the order to “get ready to kill xyz prisoner’s family” can be communicated, so can “get ready to kill Bezos”.

If blocking the ventilation doesn’t work, I can think of plenty of chemical and biological agents to introduce to a ventilation system that will produce the desired effect. Filters only catch so much, have a limited lifetime and will deteriorate, and can be hastened to deteriorate faster. I doubt they’re going to fit a HEPA filter factory down there.

And as for the armed guards, if the world is bad enough that the billionaires have hidden away in their bunkers, I doubt it’s a world where fiat currency has meaning anymore. About the only ways I could see armed guards being kept in line long-term would be to have their families all held hostage in the bunker as well, and/or explosive collars – and the latter can be hacked, I’m certain. The former, I’m sure they could try, but then you’re not relaxing in luxury in post-apocalypse bliss, you’re running a massive underground prison where every guard hates the warden and wants to help the inmates escape and murder the warden. That doesn’t sound easy or fun no matter how much money you have to throw at the problem.

Really, I find it unlikely that billionaires will be able to retain much in the way of long-term control if the outside world gets bad enough that they’ve sealed themselves inside a hole in the ground, no matter what kind of connectivity they have down there. They can build whatever they want now, while fiat currency still has meaning; but once it stops making sense to worship the dollar and the planet is on fire, they’re just some moron in a hole in the ground with lots of supplies. They’re a loot cache.

I didn’t say “the next term”, though, I said “when the dust settles and adults are back in charge.”

That might be ten, fifteen, twenty years from now – but there are young men in this administration committing crimes right now whose impacts will still be felt years down the line, it’s not just the ancient orange fuckwit; and those men will likely still be alive if nobody has doled out mob justice to them in the intervening years.

I have no idea who will survive that long, not in this powder keg; and justice delayed is justice denied. But conversely, someday, these morons are not going to be in power, nor their cronies or their controlled opposition, and it might just happen in our lifetimes if we work for it. And me, personally, I really want to see Stephen Miller’s face when he’s sentenced, even if seeing his corpse would be satisfactory.

Not to mention, fully consenting Latinas! I know “not being a rapist” is a really low bar to clear, but for a wealthy, male, politically-connected American in 2026? Fantastic. Wonderful. Groundbreaking.

Oh, I imagine they have supplies to last a year.

I say open them after 100-200y, make it a fun time capsule, then turn them into museums – “this is one of the places where we buried alive the biggest leeches in society after they constructed the most lavish palatial bunkers to hide in during a time of global turmoil!” – you can show people just what excess wealth to the point of detachment from society will drive a person to do, and what society will do in turn to them.

I do not believe in any deus ex machina coming in and saving the day, not at this point – but you’d better believe someone is going to hang for the multitude of crimes being undertaken by this administration, up to and including high treason, once the dust settles and actual adults are back in charge.

This administration hasn’t just been doing a bad job, they’ve been doing a deliberately awful job; kneecapping our global soft power in almost every way possible across multiple fronts (the killing off of global aid, our intelligence being leakier than a sieve, hostility towards allies, etc.) in a way that will affect the prospects of the country for generations, in almost exactly the way a hostile foreign power would want them to. People this stupid (don’t tell me they’re all evil geniuses, there’s a couple evil geniuses mixed in with a whole smorgasboard of evil morons), perpetrating this many crimes all at once, leave lots of evidence of their stupid crimes – there will be too much evidence to not convict someone of something. Probably a lot of someones.

whether the someone(s) that hang are the same someone(s) responsible is what determines whether this bullshit continues to be a cancerous growth on our government or not.

And all bunkers have an entrance. Entrances that can be sealed with concrete and rebar, to turn bunkers into tombs.

"A man walks into a bar.

It hurt."

Gas stations also have sidewalks near them, most people have legs, and carrying an empty gas can gives you plausible deniability if questioned

I’d bring a good center punch to “play” with every nozzle at the pumps.