Crazy, Unrealistic People Vs Rational, Realistic People

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Crazy, unrealistic people believe all our systems are rigged for the benefit of the rich and powerful.
Rational, realistic people believe all our systems happen to benefit the rich and powerful by pure coincidence.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe the mass media feed the public lies to manufacture consent for agendas which go against public interests.
Rational, realistic people believe the media are telling the truth, and the public just naturally enjoys supporting wars on the other side of the planet and domestic policies which make them poorer and sicker.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe drastic, revolutionary changes are needed to create a just society which works for everyone.
Rational, realistic people believe a just society that works for everyone can be achieved by participating in political parties that are explicitly set up to prevent a just society that works for everyone.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe drastic revolutionary changes are needed in our society to avoid an environmental collapse that is already well underway.
Rational, realistic people believe the environmental collapse that is already well underway can be avoided by making small, incremental changes over the next several centuries.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe the US empire has lied about its every war, and is also lying about the current one.
Rational, realistic people believe that while history has shown that the US lied about all those other wars, this time it’s definitely telling the truth.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe the US empire amassing war machinery on the borders of its top two geopolitical rivals is an extremely provocative act of aggression designed to advance the empire’s geostrategic objectives.
Rational, realistic people believe the US amassing war machinery on the borders of its top two geopolitical rivals is an innocent act of defense.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe government agencies are spying on us and working to censor the internet.
Rational, realistic people believe that too, but they think it’s a good thing.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe a status quo of nonstop war, militarism, nuclear brinkmanship, ecocide, exploitation, oppression and authoritarianism is untenable, and must be dismantled by any means necessary.
Rational, realistic people believe we can just ignore those problems and think about more pleasant things.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe that the only way to achieve desperately needed change in a society whose systems are rigged for the powerful is to disregard those rigged systems and use the power of our numbers to force the end of the injustices we face and the creation of new systems.
Rational, realistic people believe we can get the changes we need if we just vote a little harder in the next election.

Crazy, unrealistic people believe the definition of insanity is continually doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Rational, realistic people believe doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results just might work this time.

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Featured image via B Rosen (CC BY-ND 2.0), formatted for size.