Yup - the overwhelming odds say they’ll both contribute and fall victim to the problem, not solve it.
We have ~7bn people alive today, and we can’t muster the will to do what we know we is needed in order to survive. Instead, we’ll refuse to make comparatively small compromises, and sign our children’s death warrants.
I always get a bit annoyed at his Olympics win being written off because everyone else stacked it, as if just getting to the Olympic final isn’t a massive achievement in itself… I mean the Matildas got the keys to the city for losing a semi-final if you want to play it that way…...
The guy pretty much defaulted his way to the medal, but we shouldn’t forget that it was because he was the only competitor able to obey the first rule of speed skating - stay on your goddamn feet.
I’m not even slightly mad - he seemed like a great dude, and this has only cemented that.
The 27-year-old man who police say shot and killed a California business owner over a Pride flag draped in her store appears to have had a yearslong history of posting disturbing — and often violent — anti-LGBTQ messages on social media....
Honest question - where do we draw the line between mental illness and reactionary/far right politics? Noone of sound mind would believe the ludicrous conspiracism that the mainstream conservative media like Fox constantly spews forth - and that’s to say nothing of the more extreme OAN and Infowars.
Case in point - gay and trans people are inherently paedophiles (honestly wtf?)… A super-common talking point that begs the question what do we do about the people (the lunatics stupidly think are) raping our children?
Of course they’re assholes, but that’s not the point - they’re brain-broken delusional, and victims of genuinely unhinged conspiracism. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Believing the transparent, self-contradictory nonsense is absolutely pathological… I assume you think someone that believes they’re Queen Victoria are delusional - where do you draw the line?
First up, just because it hasn’t worked, there’s no reason it can’t work - or is there? I’m all ears. You missed that bit.
Beyond that, the most common issue is the fact that communism is typically achieved abruptly, with little to no pre-work. If you don’t address the centralisation of wealth (and by extension, political influence), of course power is going to collapse back into authoritarian hellishness.
Transition via social democracy, taxing away the inequality, getting the populace on board with world-class social services, providing more services over time, as you transition from worker representation on boards and equity stakes to full worker ownership and workplace democracy over time.
Taking the benefits of the people fuelling the economy - workers, and handing it to wealthy shareholders that contribute nothing as they consolidate into monopolies, creating market failure in an economy fundamentally built on markets makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There’s a better way - it just takes a bit of work.
The idea is to minimise the power imbalance to prevent individuals from being able to act on their own interests to the detriment of others, while changing incentive structures to minimise the benefit of doing so.
The government can intervene (and has done so historically) to crack up monopolies. By failing to do so in an economic system where economic power is tantamount to political power, we’re signing the execution order for democracy. Look at the political influence that the likes of Musk, Bezos, and Gates already hold. It spits on the face of democracy - a concept that I happen to value. This is a problem with a simple set of solutions.
The path we’re on only leads to worse lives for all of us - lower wages (they’ll only avoid slavery as long as the government stops them - look at Western companies operations in developing countries), less competition, higher prices, less social mobility, the elimination of the concept of meritocracy, escalating tragedy of the commons… We can and should do better.
Drugs, hookers, and influence peddling. GOP staples.
To be honest, it’s the potential influence peddling that concerns me - it mostly seems like “my daddy is Biden - money please” that didn’t go far, but if there’s something to that, he should definitely face consequences.
I wound up the same after picking up a weed habit as an adult - very mild persistent brain fog, and my memory has been affected, but I’m happier, and my wife is happier as a consequence. It’s not ideal, but I value happiness over peak mental performance.
I’m not necessarily recommending it (I’m sure different people will have completely different outcomes, and it’s a trade-off), I’m just saying it’s what I’ve done. I agree it’s a pretty dark choice to be motivated to make though.
Video released by the newspaper Monday shows Joan Meyer shouting at the six officers inside the Marion, Kansas, home she shared with her son, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer. Standing with the aid of a walker and dressed in a long robe or gown and slippers, she seems visibly upset....
…unless you gobble up your rivals instead, creating a monopoly, shrinking the job pool through consolidation, sweating the remaining employees that are competing for the vanishing opportunities to keep a roof over their heads, causing market failure and generally fucking everyone over.
This is the strategy adopted by the likes of Bezos, Zuckerberg, the Waltons, and arguably the majority of the biggest drains on our society. Billionaires
I’m not irrelevant - look at my irrelevant, trivially easy, by no means unique skills.
I guess those arguing in real life skills of yours don’t translate to the Internet - putting disaffected grunts, performative disinterest, and over the top sarcasm into text is difficult.
North Korean delegate at Iran defense industry exhibition (lemmy.world)
source: twitter.com/IranDefense/…/1694361407708443117
It Is No Longer Possible to Escape What We Have Done to Ourselves (www.nytimes.com)
Remember me comrades! (lemmy.ml)
'Five or six minutes of maximum intensity': Steven Bradbury hailed a hero after saving four people from drowning (www.abc.net.au)
I always get a bit annoyed at his Olympics win being written off because everyone else stacked it, as if just getting to the Olympic final isn’t a massive achievement in itself… I mean the Matildas got the keys to the city for losing a semi-final if you want to play it that way…...
Pride flag killing suspect appears to have a long history of anti-LGBTQ social posts (www.nbcnews.com)
The 27-year-old man who police say shot and killed a California business owner over a Pride flag draped in her store appears to have had a yearslong history of posting disturbing — and often violent — anti-LGBTQ messages on social media....
McCarthies everywhere (lemmy.world)
Oh no! Anyway... (lemmy.world)
Has anyone else noticed a sudden lack of reading comprehension skills?
Just as the title asks I’ve noticed a very sharp increase in people just straight up not comprehending what they’re reading....
'Get out of my house!' Video shows 98-year-old mother of Kansas newspaper publisher upset amid raid (apnews.com)
Video released by the newspaper Monday shows Joan Meyer shouting at the six officers inside the Marion, Kansas, home she shared with her son, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer. Standing with the aid of a walker and dressed in a long robe or gown and slippers, she seems visibly upset....
Not our chosen leaders. Not our way of life. (i.imgur.com)
Spread this OC far and wide.
Gen X Succeeds in Rebelling Against Society by Becoming Culturally Irrelevant (thehardtimes.net)