You nailed it. I agree completely. This is getting a bit off topic now but it’s worth talking about. Sorry for the novel. It’s how I am.

I don’t know if you remember. In 2021 Spring in America was a time when Americans had a renewed sense of hope (and for the first time in a long time, labor rights). That’s when that sub antiwork took off and it was before they paraded a Reddit mod stooge on Fox to mock the concept of labor rights.

Those short few months— the air changed. People were starting to realize we have collective power. That we were underpaid. People started quitting in droves. They changed jobs. There were many spots opened we had many die or become disabled, after all.

I drove across America twice during that period and people were quitting their shitty jobs in droves—Arizona, Kansas, Ohio—all the same. Sometimes during the shift they’d up and leave. Incredible, I remember thinking.

But. Then—big tech companies started to lay their workers off. Starting with Facebook most loudly. Zuckerberg release a statement that they “over hired” during the pandemic. Many tech companies followed suit laying-off in the same or similar amount. Using the same reasoning. Amazing—they all over hired.

I raise one eyebrow. The atmosphere in the air was still up but it began to mix with a foulness. I wondered then—is tech working together strategically? Maybe.

The tech layoffs were so many that NSA then hired a new public facing woman who started a public campaign to hire the laid off tech workers from the tech companies. The NSA even said smoking wasn’t an issue.

2022-2024. Profits soar. Layoffs continue. Prices increase. Trillion in unsecured PPP loans rock the Real Estate market. Interest rates rise—too little too late. Americans collectively fall back into deep dispair. A constant pressure on all of our chests. We are sensitive—we all feel it.

In 2025–Tech CEOs all congregate in Washington now and rifle through America’s treasury and fire Government Agents.

I raise both eyebrows. They do this for many reasons—but do we see the connection here? Economically they delete the federal safety net as the largest American job provider. Corralling workers and kettling us economically. This is Siege warfare.

Over the preceding few years leading up to the American Presidential election, American news outlets pounded that the economy was “bad.” Prices of goods were out of control because of…the supply chain? But when looking at the numbers, the price of goods were being raised much higher than was needed to cover their losses. It is no longer price gouging but an economic siege, who is there to stop them?

The Biden Administration was better than other Administrations at pursuing Anti-trust cases. In my opinion, it was another too little too late, but still appreciated.

The signal, or so I hoped, was that if Harris got in that the DoJ would continue to pursue anti-trust, criminal conspiracy, and price market manipulation cases that Biden Admin scored on. If anyone isn’t familiar— Biden admin was dunking guilty verdicts on Big Pharma companies to the tune of billions for criminal conspiracy to rig prices with competitors and other unsavory economic criminality.

I’m a criminal defense lawyer in practice but I wanted to switch to prosecuting Anti-Trust.

Now, I don’t know. The air is curdled.

TLDR/My Point:

I believe that the Corporate heads colluded together in mid-2021 to crush the short lived optimism we all felt in America. They manipulated the labor market and worked together to manipulate the consumer market. This effect is felt collectively all over the world but very much so domestically in America.

What we are in now—the globe and domestically as Americans—is an Economic Siege. You feel it. I feel it.

Corporations have become so large they rival the power of Nation States. They move like ghosts through the sphere of International Relations. I call them, Geldgheist or “Money-Ghost.”

We are no longer in a uni-polar world where America is top. But we are also not in a normal multi-polar world where only Nation States hold power.

We are in a new era where these Geldgheist bastards, whom have no nationality or loyalty except to their own individual power, seek to topple all Western Democracy and corrupt our lands. We cannot wage traditional land war on them. They have no land to physically attack. No soldiers to fell.

So, the only option we (the West and our Pacific Allies) have is economic war. Citizens Boycott. Governments freeze assets, break up and dismantle the Techbro Geldgheist Corporations.

Straight from the mouth of Geldgheist Musk himself, “[…] If that [American] pillar falls, the whole roof comes crashing down. There’s no place to hide. There’s no place to run.“

We face this together now or we lose Western and Pacific democracy — there is no other option.

This is one of the issues with oligopoly and unrestricted subsidiaries. At that point, every product is an A/B test for the same few companies. The illusion of competition is confusing for the consumer.

But it’s also the nature of our current supply chain and how we manufacture goods—we make products together and goods don’t have a strict nationality anymore like citizens do.

The confusion is maybe a good wake up call for how insidious this issue has become. America slacked on enforcing their anti-trust laws and now the world gets to pay for their mistake.

I hope all of you boycott the hell out of America. It will hurt me personally, but it is necessary. Don’t let up.

Wait–who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline in your estimation, Germany? Do I understand your position correctly?

That’s good to know even if anecdotal. Damn shame. My brother was born in Kostroma. I can’t imagine getting out, choosing to indoctrinate myself, and then voting for the party that hates Ausländers. Thanks for sharing.

Is there any country that is unscathed from this instability? This is the most global instability I’ve seen in my entire life. The Great Recession was one thing—this is much different.

I feel like every week a new country is wavering.

where can I learn more about .world lore

This is my third or fourth alt on Lemmy since joining. I love that I can stick to one account or change instances if I feel like it. It’s not too difficult to get used to! I’m getting a desktop app next.

I like that there’s an application process for each instance. That gives you a good idea of how the instance is managed and what to expect.

I love that I can get German news and interact with Germans and German language speakers. Or, in other words, I love that it’s not default centralized American.

It’s really cool seeing their instances next to everyone’s handle. There’s so much here! I feel a lot safer. I love that everyone is human.

I see @[email protected] everywhere. I have been here a day and I think I have upvoted them 15 times already. Haha

For the real life sorcery duel option what schools of magic are allowed?

This is so cool! What kind of foam did you use? I feel like this would be a great 3D print too :)

Great work!

I just want to second this comment and chime in with my experiences. (Thanks also for the information on Framework as I’m not familiar and love to learn)

My family primarily uses Thinkpads. We refurbish them for fun (and often give them away to our community). We run Linux easily on almost all our Thinkpads. So far, Linux works very well even on some old machines (as old as 2012 which wouldn’t be what OP is looking for but still worth mentioning).

We try different distros all the time but mostly stick with Fedora and PopOS.

Right now, I am on a refurbished Thinkpad T480s running PopOS. The 7th gen processor is probably too slow for OP but it runs Linux great and it can even handle running a large dwarf fortress through Steam haha. The T480s also has a touchscreen option (and screens can often be swapped out). The T480s screens usually have a hinge where they can lay completely flat (although, I’m not sure if they are pen compatible).

A more recent Thinkpad with a better processor could be an option for OP to consider in addition to the other great suggestions you made. :)