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Cake day: July 17th, 2023

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  • With regard to the situation with Guaido in Venezuela, isn’t it true that the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election had a voter turnout of 79% and was extremely close? Whereas the 2018 election only had a voter turnout of 45% and Maduro was re-elected amidst widespread allegations of corruption and fraud. And for the upcoming 2024 election, multiple opposition candidates have been barred from running against Maduro.

    Since 2010, Venezuela has been suffering a socioeconomic crisis under Nicolás Maduro and briefly under his predecessor Hugo Chávez as rampant crime, hyperinflation and shortages diminish the quality of life.[6][7] As a result of discontent with the government, the opposition was elected to hold the majority in the National Assembly for the first time since 1999 following the 2015 parliamentary election.[8] After the election, the lame duck National Assembly—with a pro-government majority—filled the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the highest court in Venezuela, with Maduro allies. The tribunal stripped three opposition lawmakers of their National Assembly seats in early 2016, citing alleged “irregularities” in their elections, thereby preventing an opposition supermajority which would have been able to challenge President Maduro.

    The tribunal approved several actions by Maduro and granted him more powers in 2017.[8] As protests mounted against Maduro, he called for a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution to replace the 1999 Venezuela Constitution created under Chávez. Many countries considered these actions a bid by Maduro to stay in power indefinitely,[11] and over 40 countries stated that they would not recognize the 2017 Constituent National Assembly (ANC). The Democratic Unity Roundtable—the opposition to the incumbent ruling party—boycotted the election, saying that the ANC was “a trick to keep [the incumbent ruling party] in power”.[14] Since the opposition did not participate in the election, the incumbent Great Patriotic Pole, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, won almost all seats in the assembly by default.[15] On 8 August 2017, the ANC declared itself to be the government branch with supreme power in Venezuela, banning the opposition-led National Assembly from performing actions that would interfere with the assembly while continuing to pass measures in “support and solidarity” with President Maduro, effectively stripping the National Assembly of all its powers.

    And I understand that you’re not supporting Maduro. But if the US is trying to support free and fair elections which Maduro is suppressing, than they are essentially doing the opposite of supporting a fascist coup. I unfortunately don’t have time to unpack each of your scenarios.

    You’re not wrong in saying that the US has frequently intervened in Latin America for the past 200 years, right up until the present. But intervening to protect democracy is very different from intervening to support fascism, and failing to distinguish between the two is bordering on misinformation.

    Think of it this way, if it weren’t the US intervening, it’d be another foreign power. And the US primarily intervenes just to keep capitalism flowing, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Panama has done quite well as a result of the US intervening and building the Canal. And Latin America has largely avoided genocides and wars of the scale that we have seen in other developing countries in Asia and Africa.





  • ashenblood@sh.itjust.workstoScience Memes@mander.xyzdegree in bamf
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    8 months ago

    This is a consistent and very unpleasant fact of the world that white men will treat anyone of any other demographic as less than equals.

    Citation needed.

    In all seriousness, I understand your point and respect you for trying to deconstruct the mechanics of privilege.

    But I just factually disagree with your assertion. I would argue that every human being has an inherent preference for people that they perceive as similar to themselves in some way, and this can result in bias along racial or gender lines. However, this arguably applies less to white men than any other demographic, because such behavior is so consistently condemned and shamed when exhibited by white men.

    In contrast, people of other demographics are less frequently made aware of their own biases, because calling it out has not been construed as some kind of ethical imperative, as it has with white men.

    It’s also well documented that women have a much stronger in-group bias compared to men.

    In essence, women can be characterized as “If I am good and I am female, females are good,” whereas men can be characterized as “Even if I am good and I am male, men are not necessarily good.” This sex difference in cognitive balance suggests that a mechanism that promotes female preference in women does not similarly contribute to male preference for men.

    https://rutgerssocialcognitionlab.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/9/7/13979590/rudmangoodwin2004jpsp.pdf


  • ashenblood@sh.itjust.workstoAnime@lemmy.mlwhy? how?
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    8 months ago

    In that case, I suggest you shut down the community. At this point the core userbase and mods have moved to another location and this community only serves to confuse noobs and casuals.

    I don’t blame you for not wanting to research the veracity of pedo claims, but this is within your control as admins. If you have a community that is unmoderated and frequently taking up admin time and resources, simply shut it down.







  • Yes, as we know, the notability of national accomplishments diminishes as a function of time… other nations would never consider being proud of anything their ancestors accomplished before they were born. Lmao

    If you don’t have enough things to be proud of as an American, which nationality would be good enough to meet your standards?


  • Very strange argument. It seems like you’re bad at those games and created some elaborate theory to rationalize it. Class based games require just as much, if not more, skill than non-class based games. As the number of classes increases, the total amount of knowledge required and variety of techniques available also tends to increase.

    Professional players do optimize the fun out of a game, but that’s totally unrelated to the point you were trying to make.





  • Debating on whether or not minorities deserve the right to exist is not the same thing as arguing about which brand of magic sky-daddy you subscribe to.

    Why do you people keep talking about “the right to exist”? That’s nonsensical. You either exist, or you don’t. No one can take your existence away from you, it’s not a right that can be granted by others.

    What you are really talking about is the right to make assertions about the nature of human sexuality without being challenged to provide evidence for those assertions.

    It’s quite clear that you have a persecution complex. I can understand why, I’m sure you’ve had some unpleasant experiences with certain people that have caused you to adopt this defensive posture.

    However, your comment is absolutely reeking of in-group and out-group bias. Everyone who is part of your group is being unfairly persecuted, and everyone who is not part of your group is a genocidal Nazi.

    Personally, I am fully in favor of any and all expressions of sexuality, as long as the resultant behaviors and belief systems can be debated and analyzed like any other human behavior or position.

    To the neutral observer, it’s apparent that certain online communities cough are echo chambers that refuse to engage in honest discussion regarding LGBTQ topics and vigorously attempt to expel and shame those who do not adhere to the party line. This may be beneficial to your self esteem in the short run, but it ultimately does a disservice to your goals, assuming that you intend to enhance the acceptance of LGBTQ culture in our society moving forward.


  • I would argue the same is true of LGBTQ individuals. I don’t see how one could rationally argue that an infant emerges from the womb with a fully formed sense of sexuality. Sexual identity is a nebulous trait that develops throughout our lives, not an objective, immutable physical fact such as the color of one’s skin or the chromosomes composing one’s genetic code.

    Many LGBTQ people transition through a number of different sexual identities throughout their lives. An innate property is something that cannot be changed.

    I suppose that it’s possible that we all get assigned a hidden number at birth that defines our sexuality absolutely, and people just struggle to figure out what their “number” is due to societal pressure, but that doesn’t really jive with our understanding of human biology, like at all. Nearly every trait we have studied exhibits both genetic factors and environmental factors.