Capitalism isn't the problem

- I disagree with this.

1. Capitalist companies are legal, but non-biological, entities that shoulder the blame of the harm or impact made by individual entities within the company. So many cases where an individual steers a company towards harmful outcomes only to move on to another company to do the same.
2. Capitalism priorities profit over everything else including the well-being of employees, customers and the environment. Look at US real wages against US GDP growth from 1979-today. As workers become more productive working longer hours and maximising technology, the companies retain the profits and employee wages stagnated.
3. Capitalism has no real ethical ethos which can be seen in the absence of genuine or fulsome ethical studies in economics courses.
4. Money begets money. In a capitalist system, it is much easier to make money when you already have it. This issue is exacerbated by the lack of wage increases meaning as inflation increases the value of your wages decreases. A majority of existing Billionaires became rich in a different time (i.e. conditions) or inherited their wealth. But sure, just pick yourself up by your bootstraps and keep working hard and you'll get that carrot eh?
5. There are those in society who are unable to compete in a capitalist market such as people with physical or mental disabilities. Should they be forgotten about? Conservative capitalists see these people as weak and a drain on resources. They are unprofitable!

You may not care now, but you will when it affects you. Your 'normal' life now may not be the normal of tomorrow. Are you ready for that? Do you want to have a say in what that looks like or just be told?

I'd wager you're in a somewhat financially comfortable position (not rich, just comfortable) and all you want to do is happily scroll through mildly entertaining content. OK, that's fine, I'm sure that's what a lot of people would like to do, even those recently 'politicised' by recent events. However, with Democracy at stake, there are those among us who must answer the call of injustice when required. I'm sorry this is messing up your earthly experience which, just as an aside, you are lucky to have given you could have been born into third world poverty.

For example, I wonder if the starving children in Gaza would share your sentiment about Capitalism? Is it helping them? Absolutely not. In fact, I would suggest that Trump's and Isreal's plan to redevelop Gaza into "the Riviera of the Middle East" is a fully 'Capitalist' initiative and they are willing to do anything it takes to get their way. Think about the mental gymnastics here: Trump is saying that HAMAS (Palestinian Muslim radicals) must release their Israeli hostages, because he 'cares' about their well-being, but if they aren't released then the bombing of innocent people in Gaza will resume. Such a humanitarian.

I get that you may not like the political nature of Lemmy but it represents the unfiltered views of public, not the personalised engagement and echo chamber content you're used too. That said, I hear Facebook is always looking for new members who enjoy minion memes, advertisements and privacy intrusions. Maybe you'll find your 'people' there?

But why I should care about third world countries that have nothing to do with me, my loved ones, or even those whom I admire

A few reasons come to mind:
1. 'They' are you. I know you consider yourself to be separate to the rest of the world, but you are not. You did not come into the world, you came out of it.
2. They are in need of help. Where would you be in your your life without support for your blindness? Why should anyone care about your needs like developing screen readers, braille, walking sticks, allowances for seeing eye dogs, etc? The answer is: because you are human, just like 'they' are, and human lives have intrinsic value even if Capitalism does not bother to quantify it.
3. Caring for and helping others in life is a source of genuine personal fulfillment that online content, money or material possessions could never achieve.
4. They didn't choose to be born into poverty, just as you did not choose to be born into a system that has the desire and resources available to support you in your disability. It was pure luck. The majority of people in third-world countries are just ordinary people that want to live simple lives. Only, instead of building their career, dating, having kids or taking vacations, they are in constant fear of death from above, hungry, searching for lost loved ones, digging through rubble or fearful of the latest ultimatum issued by a country halfway around the world.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but the right-wing Christian Nationalists, now surging into power under the Republican administration, are currently targeting trans-gender rights, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be coming for gays and lesbians next because of their religious beliefs. Would you care then?

I had an idea I would love to get your thoughts on.

Since you have been blind your entire life, you would not have a well-developed visual catalogue as a reference for how bad some people can suffer and how common suffering is across many cultures. Many people with sight are confronted with these images daily. Your sight, or the 'vision' of your consciousness, is limited to what you can touch, taste, smell, hear and sense like sensing of the vibe of your surroundings.

If you regularly engage with online content, and you are not confronted with the detailed images of suffering like those with sight see frequently, then it is understandable that you cannot relate or connect with the humanity of events such as the senseless war in Palestine. You would have to physically go there to really 'see' the reality through your other senses.

In other words, you're not only blind literally, you are also blind figuratively. Your lack of physical vision has limited your emotional visibility and the result is ignorance. That is not an insult by the way, ignorance is simply knowledge we are not aware of and I am ignorant in my own ways too.

As an exercise, I used AI to generate a description of an image that contains human suffering. I believe if you had better access to imagery, you might feel differently.

Here is the description of an image of a child in Gaza a few days ago: A small, painfully thin child stands among crumbling walls and piles of broken concrete. Their arms and legs appear no thicker than sticks, and their ribs are clearly outlined beneath loose, tattered clothing. The child’s cheeks are sunken, and their hair, wet and uneven, clings to their scalp in patchy clumps. They seem to be staring at the ground through dark, hollow eyes, which are partially concealed by shadows cast by the surrounding debris. All around them, the remains of a shattered city stretch in every direction. Fallen beams jut out of toppled structures, and shattered glass is scattered across the rubble-strewn ground. A few walls remain upright, riddled with holes that hint at a past assault. Dust and fine particles coat nearly everything, giving the scene a grayish hue. Through it all, the child’s frail figure stands out against the background of devastation, a stark image of hardship in what was once a bustling human city. End of description.

Does this type of descriptive imagery help you to connect to the issue?