huh… that’s odd they didn’t come through. Does shift-enter not work? When I edit it I still see the shift-enter. Just added enter.

Isn’t it just people? Why did Rome fall? They had better tech, more people etc. I think they fell because the glue that held the society together dissolved. They had enough success that the human impulses that tear things apart were no longer suppressed. Lets kill people for sport, someone else should deal with the invaders, etc. A big part of that glue is apparent need. That guy in my way is the blacksmith that I need or I don’t know that guy get the F out of my way. Our major challenge has shifted from trying to survive to competition with other people.

I think this is where a lot of the hostility comes from. Now add in another force, marketing and business. It’s not like they are really worried about your well-being. They prey on these things like a con artist preys on trust. Feed the easy things that everyone wants. A kid is going to choose the candy bar over the brussels sprouts most times. You deserve a break today, you deserve everything. Feed this and you end up with a lot of believers. I deserve everything and those people are preventing it. Plug in a system (AI) that only purpose is to get more of your attention and what will it feed you? Trolling, anger, hate are all easy. The feelings from them are strong, addicting even. They feel powerful. Stir well and spread widely. Pretty simple recipe.

For the final topping, the people who rule us. Yah rule us. Do good people chase power in this environment? Can a good person stop the mob of 50 people that are gonna do some damage? At what point to people start giving up resisting those impulses and joining the mob. I want to do some damage too. As we see our leaders and the things they do, our examples, the people we trusted to do the right thing, the people who get the make the rules, who are so removed from the people they rule as I am from that ant I just stepped on. As this snowball gets bigger and faster it’s harder and harder to stop. Rolls over most things except that cliff where it will go splat. Everyone feels it. It’s hard to miss if you look. Any attempt to stop it creates a conflict between the stoppers and those that are fine in that snow ball and the people that are actively pushing that snowball. It will eventually stop and most times it’s a very messy stop.

Why hasn’t there been a successful civilization that has lasted, people and who are people… ?

Never used the app. I’m here cause after an effort gain enough karma to post in the group I joined reddit for, I found I had been shadowbanned (had to look up what it was) and had been from the creation of the account. Never spammed, no trash, no fights. In fact I still have 1 karma. Found out days ago I was shadowbanned (cause some mod finally took pity on my posts trying to understand how to get karma, which I couldn’t cause no one saw anything I posted, ever) and realized that all that effort was worthless because of some AI or other that flagged me for some unknown reason and they didn’t have the (insert word here) to indicate there was any issue. Not interested in the ban hammer that drops off the shelf and happens to hit you. Sad thing really as I tracked the group through another means and it’s been great. reddit can eat my karma. and their shadowban hammer.