Western society has become a hollowed-out shell of communal life, where AI chatbots act as digital opioids providing addictive facsimiles of human relationships. These are symptoms of societal collapse, where atomization drives the masses to seek solace in algorithms.

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[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

if there was a cafeteria in walking distance that was affirdably priced with discounts for kids and the elderly, but structured just to cover it's labor & material costs, with a bunch of communal eating tables, an elevated area for announcements, and a "clean up after yourself" culture... I swear to god, it would become the community hub.

of course, the bourgeoisie fucksticks that control property and own the constantly failing, overpriced restaurants would shit a brick at even the mention of such a place.

[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 16 points 8 months ago

With all the failing malls, I wonder how much the lease on a food court stall is. It would be cool to open a cafeteria with a "pay what you can" model, serving easy to mass produce vegan meals and whatever else can get donated while also letting orgs use the space for dinner and teach ins

[–] BobDole@hexbear.net 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The biggest problem would be the rent. In my area, it’s impossible to buy commercially zoned real estate as an individual. You have to pay a landlord to do anything, and they will raise your rent until the unit is vacant again.

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 7 points 8 months ago

yeah, for sure. landlordism is an anathema to community and its normalization is a poison. the notion that it's completely normal for a group of people to come together, socialize, help each other, and build a community while some entity forces them to convert a significant portion of the value created into some exchangeable unit of value for it to extract in perpetuity is toxic. even the "father" of capitalism wrote of landlords as cruel parasites, "indolent", and ignorant/incapable of thinking.

both materially and in the imagination, landlordism as a concept prevents us from coming together, because we take it for granted that it's normal/good/acceptable for someone to charge us for having a place to exist. there is more than enough wealth for our need, but there will never be enough for the landlord's greed.

nevermind that bonds against future municipal taxes and revenues from municipal services could be used to purchase community land at a fairly assessed value, that land could be granted exemption from property taxes as a communally owned district, and the disposition of the land into communal space for food, recreation, etc is all pretty feasible even under a not-even-radical social democratic system. but the implication that we can own something together and realize the use value ourselves without a landlord is too dangerous for "civic leaders" (banks, landlords, etc) to allow.