Meanwhile these degenerate folk play these things irresponsibly, become public charges, and I have to pay the brunt of it as a taxpayer who isn't going to get any of my money back in the form of things that benefit me. Social Security will be insolvent, I still don't have universal healthcare or functional public transportation, and the cost of everything is going up while I'm getting taxed to death.

The only actual solution I've found is to participate in the "system" itself and actually get my money back from the "system". I have better math skills than 99.9% of people on the platforms, so I'm able to profit significantly by quant trading on it.

I wish I didn't have to do this. I'd love to be rich just by working and getting to actually keep the money I make from working. Inflation and taxes could be less if everyone was smart with their money. But my money is stolen, used to support this system, so I just fish it back by playing the house :/

Gambling and betting always seem target explotation of people who aren't well off already. Like lottery tickets I worry that Polymarket, Kalshi and the like are ways to further destroy the marginal in an apathetic if not malign political environment. It doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything about it.

>My Instagram ads

That's your one-two punch right there. On Instagram, and viewing ads. Best thing to do is avoid both.

you can work on your timeline and who you follow, maybe use a vpn, and make sure meta doesn't really know who you are. my timeline has none of that shit.

> (the ones that truly blow my mind are the promo ads for people gambling on buying mystery collectible cards then virtually "ripping" the pack open. Grown adult men paying hundreds of dollars! Absolutely wild.)

Sounds just like a lot of NFTs.