I live in a very rural area and I have very fast fiberoptic broadband, provided by a local, not-for-profit cooperative. Absolutely the best Internet service I’ve ever had.
“It is imperative that the Senate, in a bipartisan way, comes up with crippling sanctions against the ICC — not only to support Israel but to deter any future action against American personnel,” Graham said.
In this time of political division, it’s good to see there is still at least one thing liberals and conservatives agree on, and that is that the US and Israel must be allowed to commit war crimes without consequences.
I give the Democrats a really hard time (mainly because I have much higher expectations for them, and so I hold them to a much higher standard than the Republicans), but I can’t deny that Democrats, generally, listen to experts and follow their guidance much more than Republicans. I would even say the Democratic party is somewhat of a technocratic party, for better or worse. It is in this light that the apparent “flip flop” regarding unions should be seen. Both parties became anti-union during the neoliberal era because economists were largely anti-union. Their models or formulas were telling them that unions were bad, so that became the orthodox position of mainstream economics, and Democrats trusted in their expertise. Now, many mainstream economists have decided that unions are good, actually, and so Democrats have once again followed the experts. I’m not sure what changed in the economists’ models or formulas that made them rethink their position on unions, but then economics has always been a bit of a mess.
This is America. We’re all in a zero sum, winner take all contest for wealth, status, and power. It’s every man for himself. It’s not just that people don’t want to pay for other kids to get a good education, it’s that they want their kids to have every advantage possible. They will openly admit as much. They don’t just want their kids to get a good education, they want their kids to get a better education than everyone else. Inequality is the goal. Inequality doesn’t happen by accident, it’s completely intentional. When life is a competition, everyone is an opponent. You don’t help your opponent, you try to gain every advantage possible.
Everyone always forgets the “it just works,” easy, normie distributions like Fedora. I guess people figure if you’re looking for an OS like that, you might as well just use Windows, but I’d rather not.
Donald Trump’s pledge to fight what he calls “anti-white feeling” in the U.S. will likely embolden allies who seek to dismantle government and corporate programs created to battle racism and boost diversity in American life....
I don’t think there are very many people in the US who are “anti-white.” I think a majority of Americans are against white supremacism, or a racial hegemony/hierarchy that has “whites” at the top. That doesn’t mean I want a hierarchy that has another group at the top, I want no hegemonic order at all. I think most Americans would prefer it if we could all just see each other as, well, Americans.
I realize that’s easier said than done in this very divided era. I can’t deny that I have a hard time seeing some people as my countryman, because their culture, beliefs, and ideals are so much different than mine. I’d like it if we could reach some kind of consensus on what it means to be an American. I think we will reach a consensus, but getting there is going to be… contentious.
I’m sick of these articles telling me what I value. You know what I really value? Stability, security, peace of mind. I don’t want a mansion, a million Instagram followers, or a passport full of stamps, I just want a decent, relatively simple life. I just want to be happy and content.
The most distressing thing about this quote from Rand is that many people, even today, will read it and say that it’s wise, insightful, and true, rather than see it for what it is: incoherent nonsense.
I’m not young, but I feel the same way as these young people. I don’t care about this country, I don’t care about its people, and I don’t care about its future. It’s like that Bob Dylan song, “I used to care, but things have changed.”
We can’t compete with China on price, but do we need to? I don’t think it matters if our cars are more expensive than Chinese cars, what matters is: can Americans afford to buy American cars? If Americans can’t afford to buy American made products, our industrial renaissance will fail.
Labor is usually one of the biggest costs of making things. Our laborers need to make more than Chinese laborers because our cost of living is higher. We went from a country that made stuff to a country that generated a lot of its growth from inflating the value of assets and charging rents. As a result, the cost of living, especially housing, has gone up considerably, relative to wages. If we bring down the cost of living, housing especially, it will prevent labor costs from ballooning out of control. But, while this will help with affordability, it won’t be enough on its own. We’ll have to find other ways to cut costs, as well.
There is a lot of waste and bloat in our economy, we need to streamline. We need to eliminate inefficiencies wherever possible. We need to eliminate needless middlemen who just jack up prices, and we need to allow consumers to buy directly from manufacturers. We also need to reign in executive pay, and we need to get rid of shareholders who do nothing but sit back and collect passive income. We need to boost productive work and reduce, or eliminate, all of the non productive, rent seeking behavior.
Liberals and conservatives are different in ways that matter A LOT to liberals and conservatives. The differences don’t matter nearly as much to leftists, which pisses off liberals to no end.
I think this whole bathroom thing is just stupid. While I don’t really care who is shitting in the stall next to me, apparently some people do, but I think there’s a pretty simple solution: replace stalls with water closets. I mean, nobody likes the stalls. No one prefers them, and the total lack of privacy they provide is why bathrooms are gendered in the first place. Replace stalls with water closets, everyone gets their privacy, bathrooms don’t have to be gendered anymore, problem solved.
There aren’t enough Christian nationalists to swing the election for Trump. I think people forget it was independents in a relative handful of swing districts that swung the election for Trump in 2016, but many of those same independents swung to Biden in 2020, and I see no reason to think those independents will swing back to Trump in 2024.
It really comes down to trust, or the lack thereof. People don’t trust their governments and governments don’t trust their people. I think this mistrust originates from governments so often being imposed on the people, rather than the government being subordinate to the people. If the government were truly subordinate to the people, I don’t think privacy would be nearly as much of a concern.
I don’t think many people are saying that Biden is the same as Trump or just as bad as Trump. I think most progressives, for instance, would agree that Biden is better than Trump, it’s just that that’s such a low bar. I mean, are liberals really surprised that people aren’t all that impressed with a president whose main selling point is that he’s not as bad as the only alternative? Now, I get that liberals don’t see it that way, I understand that liberals, apparently, are really very happy with Joe Biden, but for the rest of us he is only the least bad option.
I would imagine those people are Marxists, or other anti-capitalists. If you’re somebody whose primary litmus test is whether a candidate is pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist, you might not see much of a difference between Biden and Trump because they are both staunchly pro-capitalist. But I think those people are overrepresented on lemmy and only make up a very small percentage of the actual US voter base.
Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be an American, according to a new poll....
I don’t think these were the things anyone was claiming we were divided over. Of course if you get a bunch of Americans together in a room and ask them if they support freedom of the press and the right to assemble and associate, they’ll say yes, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still very divided. Ask them what the role of government should be, whether we should provide universal healthcare and tuition free higher education for everyone, if taxes should be raised on corporations and the wealthy, what our immigration policy should be, etc, I’m sure you’ll get a lot less agreement.
Quite possible given the amount of radiation the average Springfielder is likely exposed to. I mean, have you seen the nuclear power plant’s safety inspector? Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
I'm just sticking to lemmy.world for now. It doesn't have all the communities I want yet but it seems more open than the others. I don't like walled gardens or gated communities. If I wanted a platform with power hungry, elitist moderators creating circle jerk in-groups, I would have stayed on Reddit.
Another US state repeals law that protected ISPs from municipal competition (arstechnica.com)
Biden administration signals it will support push to sanction ICC (www.ft.com)
Key sections from the article:...
Biden’s labor report card: Historian gives ‘Union Joe’ a higher grade than any president since FDR (theconversation.com)
Why school segregation is getting worse (www.vox.com)
US home prices have soared 47% so far this decade, outpacing all of the growth seen in the 1990s and 2010s (www.businessinsider.com)
US home prices have soared 47% so far this decade....
Biden announces 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles (www.theguardian.com)
White House levy to protect US makers from cheap imports likely to inflame trade tensions...
Operating Systems for Different Life Stages (lemmy.zip)
Source
Trump vows to fight 'anti-white feeling' in US. His allies have a plan (www.reuters.com)
Donald Trump’s pledge to fight what he calls “anti-white feeling” in the U.S. will likely embolden allies who seek to dismantle government and corporate programs created to battle racism and boost diversity in American life....
(2019) NOwnership, No Problem: An Updated Look At Why Millennials Value Experiences Over Owning Things (lemmy.world)
You will own nothing, and you will smile all the time and love it. These kookie 40 year old young people and their trends....
In private, Biden shifts from frustration to confidence that he'll beat Trump (www.nbcnews.com)
R. Crumb gives his opinion of Ayn Rand (lemmy.world)
Does it count as a meme if it’s from 1985 but still structured like a meme?
‘They Are Just Pissed Off’: Scott Galloway Warns Young People Are ‘Opting Out of America’ As Older Generations Failed Them (www.mediaite.com)
There’s No Easy Answer to Chinese EVs (www.theatlantic.com)
What keeps me up at night... (lemmy.world)
As his trans daughter struggles, a father pushes past his prejudice. ‘It was like a wake-up.’ (www.nbcnews.com)
Dusty Farr is fighting for his transgender daughter’s right to use the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school....
The less you vote, the more you back Trump (abcnews.go.com)
Christian nationalists embrace Trump as their savior – will they be his? (www.theguardian.com)
I did not know the origin of the quote (lemmy.world)
bOtH SiDeS!!1! (i.imgur.com)
Yes, we're divided. But new AP-NORC poll shows Americans still agree on most core American values (apnews.com)
Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be an American, according to a new poll....
It's jarring and implies that either celebrities or everyone in Springfield is deformed. (lemmy.world)
This handwriting ??? (imgur.io)
Removing a sticker without any glue left (imgur.io)
It's still "fun", but (lemmy.world)