He’s had a very visible career so it’s actually pretty clear what his views are. He is not at all a socialist, he is a SocDem. He likes neoliberalism with some safety nets.

Are people using capital to acquire more capital to then undertake more capital-intensive endeavors? Yes? Then it’s still capitalism.

At this point I think Varoufakis only continues to rant his drivel in order to feel better about being a rich capitalist himself.

America is a terrifyingly broken country.

It’s like ‘every day is backwards day’ crossed with an infinitely-recursive manifold.

I saw a headline this morning that hedge fund managers are bullish on diesel. And the logic here seems to check out from what I skimmed. Will be interesting to see how this develops. A consumption downturn might kick the can out further.

I do support the argument that further complexifying essentials before the great decomplexification is a bad idea. However, burning a ton of fossil fuels to build alternative power sources is not a solution unless it is basically free energy - renewable alone is not sufficient justification. We need volitional degrowth. We won’t get it, but that’s what we need.

Not to diminish any particular arguments, but this is how these conversations always play out in my view:

Stop burning fossil fuels.

But we are in overshoot.

Yes

But we won’t be able to keep up agriculture.

Yes

But we won’t be able to keep up industry

Yes

But we won’t be able to keep up consumerism

Yes

But people will die.

Yes :(

But the rich will loses their riches

Yes

but but but

It doesn’t matter what the cost is, that’s the solution. The rest is simply consequence - and it grows greater by each day we ignore it.

Just because an ask is nigh impossible, does not mean that it is foolish or that it comes from ignorance.

c/collapse… such a lovely sound to it, even here at the end of civilization.

(refering to having decentralized from r/spaces)

And advertising customers. Great company all around.

The elite are trying to whip everyone back to the office to avoid a commercial real estate crash.

Yes, but I’m surprised the author doesn’t even mention CMBSs.

Hm. Maybe I’m missing something but I’m not seeing a million ‘successful’ AI startups pop up overnight like during the Dot Com Bubble. Most of the AI investments I’ve seen have been from major corporations that can pivot and eat a little loss. I do see several resume and business-plan writing services but it just doesn’t seem like much of a parallel, to me.

The article doesn’t address this disparity, it just pretends like it’s an equivalency - citing only megacaps like GOOG, MSFT, etc. Clickbait headline, I guess.

twitch plays pokemon, airliner edition

Majestic!

…I’m too informed to believe that a hand gun would be useful against these assault weapons, sorry.

I grew up around these things, you see - and hated them for years. Then at one point I realized I was just about the only leftist around, and just about the only person without a gun around, and the math clicked for me: It’s a much stickier situation than anyone really wants to acknowledge.

I’ve seen them carried around frequently while in the US - people carry them openly displayed on the back of their trucks. Who’s to guess how many have guns in their cabins and trunks? I’ve also followed the US’ wars closely enough to know that modern warfare looks like a bunch of armed citizens in a hilux, and that a state border won’t be saving any leftists stuck in southern Illinois when the RWDSs return.

Edit: I’m standing by this one. Disagree as you will.

Just to reiterate this, there is a difference between smoking the last cigarette you could legally purchase, and the last gun you could legally purchase: The gun sticks around afterward.

I agree to the change in behavior that it will lead to a decrease in sales on legal markets, which was the basis of my comment. Now, what change in user behavior - if any - do these laws cause that would result in the non-possession of currently possessed firearm? That’s the only way the bans would be comparable.

I totaly get the need for fair compensation and they should totally get that, no question

Great!

but is it a good idea to strike in the health industry?

Oh, but I do see some questions here haha. I see your point, but to that end:

There have to be better options, no?

No, there really aren’t. All labor has is collective action (and although it seems crazy doctors are usually working class) . It’s the only way they’ve ever made progress, and where they lack it, workers’ rights are always eroded.

If healthcare never paid a decent wage in the first place, there wouldn’t be highly-skilled doctors and the population wouldn’t be at risk from suffering from a healthcare strike - because they would just be suffering day in and day out instead.

I guess I should have explained my opinion. Fair enough.

Cigarettes are not reusable, are not continuously functional for a hundred years or more, and cannot end a life in a single muscle movement. This severely restricts situations in which they could potentially act analogously - they are too fundamentally different.

What makes it a good comparison in your view?

The story actually gives the background of the holes. They were dug by humans. They aren’t supernatural and didn’t appear from nowhere, they emerged from older sediment layers that were raised back to the surface again after an earthquake. The story doesn’t specifically say it, but it implicitly builds on ideas the predominant religion in Japan - syncretic Buddhism - which is common for any literature and would be recognized readily in Japanese audiences. These people committed crimes and were punished in the past, and now they have been reborn again. Like all people they are ignorant to their past lives in normal situations, but their ‘souls’ are still bound to and resonate with the same infinitely continuous karmic system.

Horrible comparison tbh.

Lemmy is acting weird so I can’t go back and quote, but no, you phrased your attribution in reverse at least once.

If you find a hole hidden under geological eras, and it was made just for you and you knew it… you wouldn’t feel tempted at all to just… take a step in… a unique hole unlike any other in the world, this one welcoming you like your own shadow with its depths… and confirm that someone really did carve out your exact silhouette?

It’s certainly something I could imagine happening in a dream. Like my recurring dream of driving off of bridges.

There is a Buddhist element of reincarnation going on which might be lost on some foreign audiences, but the feeling it is trying to summon should be familiar - a strange familiarity of something that should be unknown to you, an inexplicable intuition, something that feels like it could be from a past life, a premonition, deja vu.

If none of this is relatable to you, that’s okay, but it is relatable to myself and many others. Hopefully you don’t have recurring dreams about driving off of bridges, either.