#Privatized

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Not saying Milei is a perfect libertarian — just pointing out the difference between dismantling state power and expanding it under the guise of patriotism.

🔥 Fuel Our Work: https://bit.ly/TFTPSubs 🎙 TFTP Podcast: https://bit.ly/TFTPPodcast

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[angelofdumpsterfires]

presented without comment

[never-quite-buried]

Nope now it’s at the point that i’m shocked that people off tt don’t know what’s going down. I have no reach but i’ll sum it up anyway.

SCOTUS is hearing on the constitutionality of the ban as tiktok and creators are arguing that it is a violation of our first amendment rights to free speech, freedom of the press and freedom to assemble.

SCOTUS: tiktok bad, big security concern because china bad!

Tiktok lawyers: if china is such a concern why are you singling us out? Why not SHEIN or temu which collect far more information and are less transparent with their users?

SCOTUS (out loud): well you see we don’t like how users are communicating with each other, it’s making them more anti-american and china could disseminate pro china propaganda (get it? They literally said they do not like how we Speak or how we Assemble. Independent journalists reach their audience on tt meaning they have Press they want to suppress)

Tiktok users: this is fucking bullshit i don’t want to lose this community what should we do? We don’t want to go to meta or x because they both lobbied congress to ban tiktok (free market capitalism amirite? Paying off your local congressmen to suppress the competition is totally what the free market is about) but nothing else is like TikTok

A few users: what about xiaohongshu? It’s the Chinese version of tiktok (not quite, douyin is the chinese tiktok but it’s primarily for younger users so xiaohongshu was chosen)

16 hours later:

Tiktok as a community has chosen to collectively migrate TO a chinese owned app that is purely in Chinese out of utter spite and contempt for meta/x and the gov that is backing them.

My fyp is a mix of “i would rather mail memes to my friends than ever return to instagram reels” and “i will xerox my data to xi jinping myself i do not care i share my ss# with 5 other people anyway” and “im just getting ready for my day with my chinese made coffee maker and my Chinese made blowdryer and my chinese made clothing and listening to a podcast on my chinese made phone and get in my car running on chinese manufactured microchips but logging into a chinese social media? Too much for our gov!” etc.

So the government was scared that tiktok was creating a sense of class consciousness and tried to kill it but by doing so they sent us all to xiaohongshu. And now? Oh it’s adorable seeing this gov-manufactured divide be crossed in such a way.

This is adorable and so not what they were expecting. Im sure they were expecting a reluctant return to reels and shorts to fill the void but tiktokers said fuck that, we will forge connections across the world. Who you tell me is my enemy i will make my friend. That’s pretty damn cool.

[lucydacusgirl]

i wish swimming was something you could do alone in your bedroom.

[possessesnightshift]

maybe if that united healthcare shooter knocks out 33 more CEOs he'll be up to 34 felonies and he can run for president...

[marzipanandminutiae]

me: oh man, Joann Fabrics is closing. That's going to really suck for a lot of people

Sophia, the Victorian ghost who haunts a lamp I bought at Brimfield: not the least among them Joanne. though I suppose her business acumen must have been wanting if she gave the shop her Christian name- it just seems undignified. was that what drove her customers to other establishments?

me: well, nothing- it's a chain, and in most places, there weren't any other fabric stores.

Sophia:

Sophia: there weren't. any other dry goods stores. selling fabric.

me: not usually, no.

Sophia: in a whole town

me: no.

Sophia: and now there will be nowhere to purchase fabric at all in those towns

me: not in person. I guess people can buy it online

Sophia: what if they don't know what different weaves feel like? how will they learn if they never get to handle them?

me: some places have free swatch service on their websites-

Sophia: so they'll wait a week or more for a swatch, decide if they like it, then send away for the full amount of goods they need and wait even longer for that? what if they want something finished sooner?

me: they'll just be frustrated, I guess

Sophia: wait, why did Joanne's shops close? if she had such a monopoly, surely she'd have made quite a profit regardless of the name

me: an even bigger company bought them and couldn't use them to make billions of dollars, so they're forcing them to close

Sophia:

me: wait- PUT MY SNOW SHOVEL DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM YOUR LAMP

[surlifen]

a wizard is going to turn you into a random animal! whether you like it or not! how nice of them! spin the wheel to find out which class your new species belongs to (and then probably do a google).

[grrlscientist]

How Private Equity Killed the American Dream

In her new book Bad Company, journalist Megan Greenwell chronicles how Private Equity upended industries from health care to local news—and the ways workers are fighting back.

[elderinternetresurrection]

Btw, privatization is stealing from *you.* You are the public in "publicly owned." Oligarchs are coming in to take the things we all share ownership of as Americans, like Medicare, Social Security, National Parks, PBS and scrapping them for parts they find profitable.

The right is planning to rob us and quite literally want us to thank them for the privilege by calling it "government efficiency."

[wat3rm370n]

Not representative democracy material.

I don't even feel like I have a way for redress when it comes to Harrisburg. The bar has to be set higher than merely not horrendous.

I called Governor Josh Shapiro's office for a way to send an email with attachments and I was told NO, there’s no way to do that. And the staffer didn’t even ask who I was or what I was calling about or what I wanted to send, or ask me why I was upset. He just said NO. And when I asked to speak to his manager, he said that isn’t possible.

I’m having trouble with the water company (privatized) and being given the runaround for months now. I have bills, voicemails, and my handwritten letters. My state rep and state senator and the governor have not terribly been responsive to me about this. The state senator’s office did get involved once I’d complained to Rep. Rob Bresnahan, the congressperson.

I want to point out here that Rep. Rob Bresnahan (Republican) ran on a platform of addressing people’s hassles and expenses with utility companies. And I will say this, when it comes to my complaints about utility companies, Bresnahan’s office and staff is highly responsive, and quite nice, interested, and polite. And they’ve gone as far as to contact people in the state. But that’s the rub, he’s not in state government, and it’s the state government who controls utilities. I don’t say this as an endorsement of Republicans or even Rob Bresnahan, I’m just pointing this out because I think it can highlight the problem people have when we’re having money stolen by utility companies in late fees for things that are the water company’s fault — a water company that has admitted to having staffing issues and tons of complaints. But then some politician says “the economy is good” or treats constituents poorly on day to day issues like this when we’re trying to get fair consideration.

You just don’t treat a constituent on the phone the way I experienced. A competent staffer of an engaged elected official would’ve inquired as to why I was calling, would ask the nature of what I wanted to send, would’ve been interested in me and why I was upset. He asked me nothing about me or my issue, he just kept saying NO. My guess is that he knew nothing would happen to him treating me like that. If he was worried about his job, he would never speak that way to a constituent.

It's not enough for Democratic Party politicians to just be like ok on the right side of 6 out of 10 issues and 4 out of 10 I agree with the republicans and still going to shove trickle down economics down everyone’s throats too and do shady stuff. And then, on top of all that — bonus — also going to treat constituents like crap.

When Josh Shapiro first got into office as governor one of the first things he did was reverse an anti-corruption gift ban put in place by Tom Wolf. I’ve had former Senator Bob Casey’s senior staffer talk down to me about my disabled status, actually questioning it, which was offensive. I’ve watched all the Democrats celebrate giving millions of dollars in taxpayer money to a literal bank, after so many decades of “bringing the jobs” trickle down economics bullshit we’ve endured here. The local county public health official was quoted in the news patronizing the public as though we’re a panicked mob, as if we couldn’t handle hearing about West Nile Virus in the area. On the other hand in the news the mayor of Scranton talked down to people in February 2025 saying worrying about immigrants being disappeared was “fear mongering”. I’ve been meaning to make a how it started, how it’s going meme about that one. The mayor had worked in the Obama administration, by the way, but sided with the MAGA mogul developer who was making light pollution so bad it was adversely affecting residents downtown.

It’s a problem when elected representatives act like they’re our bosses. And it shows that’s how they see themselves, often by their policy positions, but also because why else would some of their staff feel comfortable acting as if they’re superior to constituents?

[raymoohackery]

"whoa there pal! looks like your favorite web service is getting hit with enshittification. you should try this NEW PLATFORM, that is only mildly alike in function, has no stable source of funding, and is being ran by some people in their home office as a hobby. this will be a long-term solution for you that you can build a community on, i promise!" <- sentiment i see a lot on here lately. like. lol

[classicfilmsource]

The Private Life of a Cat 1946 | dir. Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

[stand-up-gifs]

Taylor Swift bravely standing up for the right of billionaires to destroy public information. (link here)

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

*walks up to a couple* so which one of you is the cheetah and which one of you is the golden retriever who keeps the cheetah from stressing themselves to death

[odinsblog]