[crayboff]

> The amount of deceit put out into the world and gobbled up, on purpose, in business is obscene and seriously depressing.

In business, politics, everything. It almost seems like everyone is quietly agreeing that "if we pretend the pesky truth doesn't exist for long enough, we can literally change reality to be what we want".

I feel like I'm going crazy. There's no way that's how things can work for long, right?

[ANewFormation]

You're not going crazy, they are. But even once things start falling apart, inertia alone can give the appearance of productive movement for years to come.

This is probably why when somebody looks to try to find the cause for e.g. the collapse of the Roman Empire there were a surprisingly large number of potentially serious issues all happening simultaneously.

The reason is that the empire probably collapsed decades before its fall and so the stupid decisions and actions all continued to pile up, seemingly without consequence. All until the inertia finally ran out and suddenly the entire house of cards came crashing down.

[benreesman]

By all accounts it was like this at the end in the USSR too: infinite nepotism, no accountability, crashing standard of living near the median, deaths of despair attached to crazy levels of dangerous substance use.

This is what happens when bad people capture the levers of power.

https://youtu.be/IUJMyTJ9gyI

[nradov]

There has never been a time in the history of the greater Russian Empire when good people captured the levers of power.

[eltondegeneres]

I didn't watch this talk but I read the article it's based on.

When an Iraq War supporting Tory like Niall Ferguson criticizes the US military for being both bloated and stretched thin by underfunding, it gives away that the critique is just disingenuous contrarianism.

[jjkaczor]

... and look how well that has turned out for the average Russian citizen (or journalist, or competing business-person who stands too close to a window anywhere but the first floor)...

[Herring]

It's not about pretending. Truth is the first casualty of war. If someone is trying to deceive you, they are actively exposing you to some kind of risk, usually for their own benefit, which is a hostile act.

[roymurdock]

We've kicked the can down the road for a while, but no worries, we will pick it up soon and recycle it ;)