pluralistic

pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

Here's an underrated cognitive virtue: "object permanence" - that is, remembering how you perceived something previously. As Riley Quinn often reminds us, the left is the ideology of object permanence - to be a leftist is to hate and mistrust the CIA even when they're tormenting Trump for a brief instant, or to remember that it was once possible for a working person to support their family with their wages:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong

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pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: How finfluencers destroyed the housing and lives of thousands of people; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

The crash of 2008 imparted many lessons to people who were only dimly aware of finance, especially how complexity was a way of disguising fraud and recklessness. That was really the first lesson of 2008: "financial engineering" is mostly a way of obscuring crime behind a screen of technical jargon.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

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pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

Oh, fuck you, British Airways.

pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Linkrot; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/21/noway-back-machine/

#Pluralistic

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A 1994 Yahoo homepage. It is animated. The blue links blur and then disappear.

pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: The new globalism is global labor; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/20/a-common-foe/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Depending on how you look at it, I either grew up in the periphery of the labor movement, or atop it, or surrounded by it. For a kid, labor issues don't really hold a lot of urgency - in places with mature labor movements, kids don't really have jobs, and the part-time jobs I had as a kid (paper route, cleaning a dance studio) were pretty benign.

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jpaskaruk, 6 days ago to random

@pluralistic

I know what your least favorite audiobook platform is, but what's your favorite way for [Canadians] to buy audiobooks from you?

pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

As a science fiction writer, I find it weird that some sf tropes - like space colonization - have become culture-war touchstones. You know, that whole "we were promised jetpacks" thing.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/#twenty-one-seconds

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pluralistic, 8 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Monopoly is capitalism's gerrymander; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/

#Pluralistic

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paneerakbari, 8 days ago to random

just @pluralistic in a featured spot at my local library!

pluralistic, 8 days ago to random

You don't have to accept the arguments of capitalism's defenders to take those arguments seriously. When Adam Smith railed against rentiers and elevated profit to a means of converting the intrinsic selfishness of the wealthy into an engine of production, he had a point:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/#too-big-to-care

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: You were promised a jetpack by liars; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Sunset empire

pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Eternal vigilance is the price of travel

pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

Residents of 21 cities in Utah have access to some of the fastest, most competitively priced broadband in the US, at speeds up to 10gb/s and prices as low as $75/month. It's uncapped, and the connections are symmetrical: perfect for uploading and downloading. And it's all thanks to the government.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/16/symmetrical-10gb-for-119/#utopia

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angusm, 10 days ago to random

This essay by @pluralistic incidentally sheds some light on my almost comical struggles to get broadband at a house in a semi-rural area, which recently culminated in LARGE ISP assuring me that they have no fiber going to the house owned by the neighbor who gets service from LARGE ISP’s RESELLER. As my neighbor demonstrably has Internet access, I can only assume that the packets are hand-carried to their front door by helpful elves.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112451309811648263