I just saw a TV ad for a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen for their environment data fraud
What stage of capitalism is this
lol i bet this is a exhilarating read
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Honestly, these sorts tend to overestimate the degree to which marketers are just being desperate.
Anonymous asked:
"God is sending you messages, but you aren’t checking your phone." Dude, you should've written the Bible.
anarchyinblack answered:
Perhaps one day a time will come when I will be bored enough to release my own version.
“And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I being detained?”
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and know the gate, and am the gate: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, for I am the key and the guardian of the gate.”
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With central planning, this is impossible; but with the market all things are possible.”
Bet you they have central planning in heaven.
With businesses as well as employers as well as landowners, large entities are better at ruthlessly maximising profit and also are better at responding to regulations. Whereas small entities often go for something other than maximising profit, and if it’s “being decent”, great, but then for some reason sometimes it’s “being pointlessly petty and cruel”. So you get a situation where large entities are often worse on average in very specific ways, but the very very worst and most unfathomable are the small ones.
“Capitalism with a Human Face”
You Can’t Have It All (even in communism)
In past ages, communists, socialists, and anarchists were usually reacting to a world in which resources were scarce in general as well as in specific and in which the situation of the poor in general was one of miserable deprivation. Meanwhile, the future potential of automation and robotics – machines which might not merely reduce the amount of work that needed to be done, but largely eliminate it – was not really visible.
Today things are… different.
It’s pretty common that I see far leftists more-or-less promising the following after a Revolution:
1. That it will no longer be neccessary for everybody to work, and moreover that people will be permitted not to work, and yet to have enough to live on, without needing to justify not working to anybody.
2. That industry will change to vastly decrease damage to the enviroment
3. That material quality of life and industrial capacity will not catastrophically plummet, especially not in things like medical technology
I think that this is… very optimistic. The kind of optimistic that no wise person would ever bet on.
Some far leftists claim that communism is more efficient and will do better than capitalism. This is unlikely. The Soviet Union did great things – industrializing rapidly after everyone else had a head start and after having the Nazis burn half their country – but they were just catching up to others, and they were oppressive, enviromentally destructive, and didn’t let people not work by any means. It didn’t last.
(However, in the post-Stalin soviet union, there were some labor rights that would make Americans drool.)
If you combine this with confiscationism and the intersectionality thing where anybody’s position in the grand hierarchy of justified people can be questioned, you have a nightmare: a society that continually eats itself, finding new classes of “bourgeoise” and kulaks and “counter-revolutionaries” to force into slave labor or just murder and loot, so that the Beautiful People can have their gleaming solarpunk utopia and their communism of leisure.
I do not wish to suggest that I intend to be the enemy of hope; our current system is unjust and needs to be reformed. We can reform it in a way that will turn automation from a curse into a blessing, and which will improve peoples’ lives now and in the future. But this will not be revolution but counter-revolution, and will have no place for bloodstained red flags.
Endorsed.
“Movies will be free after the revolution!”
Movies take the work of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people. How will we decide where to allocate our resources for the best results?
Centralized committee!
Yes! The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television smiles upon you!
@flowingblades replied to this thread with
the government has not given each person the regulations to look at and sign
That’s not an argument about the complexity of the regulations, just their imposition by force.
Which, you know, some things the state makes us do and support are genuinely cruel and stupid. But other things are like… don’t murder. No I never willingly signed away my right to murder, other people chose that for me. I don’t really blame them.
Plus, you know, good luck getting internet, traveling via plane or a car you bought, or getting healthcare without signing ridiculously complex contracts and EULA’s. So you can’t travel, can’t connect to the mass of humanity, and will get sick and die, unless you accede to things that you haven’t are difficult to read. This isn’t that different from “choosing” to be in jail.
You should have a position on the question of “are byzantine technical details understandable by the average citizen, and should we expect the citizens to know them?” That position should be consistent whether they are byzantine details brought by the government or by companies you do business with. Otherwise you’re just making up any clever argument you can for the side you favor, which yes is very possible to do you are very smart, but is pointless and you’ll never learn anything or convince anyone.
Now I’m wondering what if students could spend student loans on other things, like starting businesses.
So you’ve come around to the radical libertarians calling for voluntary slavery?
Just highly suspicious of the American student loan system! Like most American institutions it seems to neatly combine the worst aspects of socialism and capitalism. Why not just have regular loans (allow bankruptcy etc.) or just socialise the system entirely like a sensible country??
The money must be laundered through the private sector to prove that it isn’t Socialism™.
Nevermind that either doing it in a more capitalist, more socialist, or just straight-up better national centrist way would be more effective.
Is there any legit reason for my toothpaste to have triclosan (an antibiotic) in it? My understanding is that that usually harms rather than helps at reducing the population of “bad” mouth flora.
I am not a doctor, and this does not constitute medical advice:
As far as I am aware of, no. I would recommend against any use of antibiotics outside of an illness as well.
Personally, I import Sensodyne from the UK, as it contains an ingredient (Novamin) which apparently occludes the dentin and reduces sensitivity (I’ve found it effective in practice). (The US version apparently merely desensitizes the nerves even though it’s sold under the same branding.)
Alcohol will also kill bacteria without the effects of antibiotics, but it’s said to dry out the mouth.
SAN FRANCISCO—In an effort to reduce the number of unprovoked hostile communications on the social media platform, Twitter announced Monday that it had added a red X-mark feature verifying users who are in fact perfectly okay to harass. “This new verification system offers users a simple, efficient way to determine which accounts belong to total pieces of shit whom you should have no qualms about tormenting to your heart’s desire,” said spokesperson Elizabeth James, adding that the small red symbol signifies that Twitter has officially confirmed the identity of a loathsome person who deserves the worst abuse imaginable and who will deliberately have their Mute, Block, and Report options disabled. “When a user sees this symbol, they know they’re dealing with a real asshole who has richly earned whatever mistreatment they receive, including profanity, body-shaming, leaking of personal information, and relentless goading to commit suicide. It’s really just a helpful way of saying to our users, ‘This fuck has it coming, so do your worst with a clear conscience and without fear of having your account suspended.’” At press time, Twitter reassuredly clarified that the red X was just a suggestion and that all users could still be bullied with as little recourse as they are now.