I feel like these little rants are getting old. Don't get me wrong, they are all mostly on point. But they all act like people haven't known this for decades, or that it can be fixed by voting as long as enough awareness is raised.

That's bullshit. It's not going to stop nor get better because it's not an accident nor a mistake. Instead of framing it as some kind of failed experiment, call it what it is: a ruling class whose only job is to siphon money from your pocket into the pockets of their rich buddies who helped get them elected. That's it. That's all that a country really is.

Every four years, that ruling class plays a little game amongst themselves, and the winner gets granted a position of power from which they can siphon that money to wherever or whomever they want. That's the prize: your tax money. There is NOTHING more to it. None of them are doing it to help the stupid dirty plebs; the game is stacked against that type of player. Instead, the game favors liars, cheaters, and heartless bastards i.e. players who will do ANYTHING to win. Being compassionate or doing "the right thing" are nothing but self imposed disadvantages in this game, which is why those players almost never win. The most successful player is the one who plays the dirtiest while making themselves appear as the most noble. That's the strongest meta.

tl;dr nothing is "broken", this is all going according to (their) plan. You've already been defeated. The "bad guys" won decades ago. You are NOT in an ongoing battle for the future of your children; your great grandparents already fought and lost that battle. What you and I and the author of that little thread are living through is the aftermath. Stop talking like you can pontificate your way out of this. You can't change the outcome of a lost war, but you CAN start and win another war.