this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Admittedly, if I had slaves, I think I'd be pretty worried about weapons just lying around...
Well we all know that exploited workers having weapons is a clear and simple path to liberation...
"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary."
-Karl Marx
All means that have been used for gun control and disarmament in the USA has been steeped in racism. Most neo-liberal anti-gun people don't seem to acknowledge this fact like with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act. Nor how the police are almost guaranteed to kill a black person when they're armed in some capacity even if they are complying. Not like the origins of the police were systematic racism as well as classism. Nope, not at all.
Oh no, the workers have weapons! Anyways...
Marx died shortly after front-loaded muskets were replaced by the earliest rifles. You know, guns so terrible, a worker and trained soldier were somewhat matched.
From what I've heard, small arms were plenty available to civilians during the siege of Sarajevo. Yet they were absolutely worthless because it turns out modern soldiers are several orders of magnitude better equipped and deadly.
Americans will look you dead in the eyes and say "the second amendment empowers us to protect ourselves from tyranny and that's why today America is the freest and safest country in the world" with a straight face.
My Medicare card does more to protect me than every gun in the US does to protect a single American. Then these "under no pretext" brainlets come in as if the literal poster child for capitalism wasn't built on that philosophy. Guns don't overthrow governments, organised groups do. Guns kill people.
The "overthrow government" thing aside, as an Asian American, Rooftop Koreans are what we need to protect against ourselves because I know when shit goes down, the law enforcement will not protect us. We need a well-regulated militia, fuck the police.
Last I checked, the state would just beat into submission people who weren't armed advocating for their rights. I believe even Martin Luther King Jr. himself understood that you would need the threat of violence to push for moderates to change. Not that he'd do it himself, but the carrot and stick principle. Also had some very interesting words on white moderates and capitalism. I'm sure he was very popular back then https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-king-had-75-percent-disapproval-rating-year-he-died-180968664/
Last I checked people in the US have been, and currently are being, beaten into submission and so clearly having guns isn't stopping that from happening.
You are literally doing the "Americans will look you dead in the eyes and say "the second amendment empowers us to protect ourselves from tyranny and that's why today America is the freest and safest country in the world" with a straight face. " thing that I just mentioned! I couldn't script something this damning. Are you stupid??
Guns in civilian hands don't overthrow the government.
And neither do organised groups of civilians.
The military does, when they refuse orders to shoot on civilians and turn on the government.
Or if it's an occupying force, when the necessary military becomes more expensive than the value you can extract out of the country.
Either way, protests and strikes by the people are necessary to overthrough the government, but not sufficient.
If the government is willing to use the military against the population, and the military is willing to do so, there's not much even millions of people can do.
One might even call the military an organised group
Nearly every liberation to happen in the past 200 years have used guns. It's kind of a thing. Why do you think every dictatorship starts removing guns from people? Look up German gun laws from 1938 sometime.
Not all slaves were mistreated in the way the modern world mistreats it's laborers.
It wasn't all sunshine and roses for sure and rights were limited, but that is true for most people in the ancient world.
Slavery simply existing is mistreatment enough
I don't think you'd want to change places with a Roman slave. The vast majority of people in modern times have it much better, even if they live in poverty.
This is a reductive thought process which only serves the purpose of fostering complacency within the most exploited. "Starving kids in Africa" type argument
I wasn't in any way implying that we should be complacent about the current state of affairs in the world. But the commonly made claims about how paleolithic hunter gatherers/Roman slaves/mediaeval peasants had a better life than we have today are just ill informed.
Fair enough
Yes. But the poorest of our poor have it much worse. Didn't claim I yearned to be a teacher slave.