- Sloth
The Tower - Disaster, Broken Pride, Disaster Delayed, Fear
It’s 2026 and you've been given a Doom Card. It’s the Age of Sloth.
Waiting for the bus, you were approached by a cutie. They smiled sheepishly and handed you a tarot card as they walked by.
“I was given this. I think it’s for you.”
“Uh, okay?”
You’re flustered by this moment of human contact, their cuteness, and a natural aversion to direct marketing. It’s a lot to process. You eventually decide to prolong this interaction, but they’re already gone. Dang.
Slightly forlorn, you look at the card. There’s a picture of a tower, struck by lightning. Disaster, broken pride, disaster delayed, fear.
The back of the card has a small poem. Maybe. It doesn’t rhyme, but it has the font and general shape you associate with poetry. Could it be a haiku? You can’t remember how many syllables a haiku has, but surely this has too many. It also appears to be about politics. Is it a manifesto? Too short. A haikufesto? Possibly.
Age of Sloth
All your money is being stolen,
To build the Ai that will replace you,
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
And the concentration camps you will die in.
Time to strike - STOP WORKING!
Until they triple your wages,
And give you 4 day weekends.
Okay? A three day work week sounds good. And you’re tired of being broke. Your corporate overlords are definitely trying to replace you with Ai. Not sure about the concentration camps thing. There’s a QR code. Will it have contact info for the cutie? You check it out.
It’s not the Tinder profile of your latest fumble, but more details on the not-poem. Fine. You spend the bus ride home skimming them.
Apparently medieval serfs worked less hours than you do. Lucky buggers. Since then the world’s become 70,000 times richer, but we somehow can’t get Fridays off. Sloth plans to tap that excess wealth for some rest. 92% of voters support higher taxes on the wealthy to secure affordable housing, education, health care, and living wages for everyone. But 92% approval isn’t enough to make it happen.
Because we don’t live in a democracy. The rich pre-select our politicians at the primary stage, making sure none will consider raising their taxes. Very shifty. At least that’s what they used to do. Now it looks like a rogue army of ICE agents are just going to decide who wins the next election.
Sloth asks, why contribute to your own oppression? They need our labor and treasure to overthrow democracy. They very literally can’t do it if everyone stops working. Right now, they can’t force you back to work - cause the poor outnumber the cops 50 to 1 and guns are cheaper than groceries. But that won’t always be the case.
They never expand on the concentration camps thing.
Their plan seems simple enough. Stock up on food, water, ammo, and get ready to stop working. Don’t make anything, don’t do anything, don’t buy anything. It’s gonna kick-off after the midterms. Til then, you can help by spreading the word. They suggest texting the Doom Card to two good friends and then passing it on.
You just barely have two good friends left, but you text them the link anyway. As you exit the bus, you pass the Age of Sloth to a tired guy getting on.
“I was given this. I think it’s for you.”
I researched every Democratic attempt to stop fascism in history. the success rate after fascists were elected was 0%
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