Zompist Bboard Again

How do we break out of the period of reaction, though? It didn't stop the revolutionaries the last time. Organize, educate, give mutual aid and wait for an opportunity. Remember, no matter what the talking heads say, capitalism is not actually good. It will keep failing, and when people are finally...

History of the Germans podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cvGmixy8 ... r1KckT6NjA

Fair enough. What is your theory or explanation for the sudden rise of far right politics in recent times? We're living in a period of reaction after the collapse of the Soviet experiment. There was a similar time after the failure of the French Revolution. Back then, all the intellectuals were sup...

The former was a claim by Biden (IIRC) which was quickly proven false, but as Ares Land mentioned, there is overwhelming evidence that systematic rape did happen. IIRC there were no babies in ovens or whatever. (Or was it beheaded babies in ovens? That sounds like something the IDF would do, honest...

They have largely evaporated to be honest. I have come to suspect that humans as a species are simply too tribalistic and cruel for sustained progress. Tyranny and bigotry may well be our natural state. Perhaps it would be better if AGI came to fruition and replaced us as the dominant form of life....

And why don't people trust liberals? The deterioration of unions and abandonment of working people in general probably has something to do with it. It's not even a passive abandonment. When Obama came to power, the Democratic party strategized to dissolve the grassroots organizations that campaigne...

So, one of the most unfortunate countries in the world, brutalized by exploitation and dictatorship. And they still achieved 51% cell phone ownership. That's a rare bit of good news for the country, and indicative of the way that cell phones are transforming the developing world. I only intended to...

great...what about the family or the individual? or is everyone defined by their commons/community membership? If a family business becomes a megacorp, it will be "taxed" until it's a family business again. (and isn't that exactly the conditions you said you were escaping from in your own...

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2024 5:11 am Because inflation had moved more and more people into the higher brackets of progressive taxation.

It doesn't have to include them. They could make the case to be excluded.

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2024 10:17 pm More people need to realize the banality of evil. The dystopia will not be cool, sleek, and hip. It'll be boring, grey and you won't even notice its creep.

They will be listening to Trump, who will be blaming the Democrats.

Life will never get better for me. That much is obvious. All the bloggers and pundits I follow agree that liberal democracy is cooked and have no strategy for fighting Trump nor any hope that he can be defeated. Where are your revolutionary convictions, comrade? Don't you understand yet that pundit...

This is a problem with overly focusing on the economy. You may get a self-proclaimed greedy person (along with his other faults of course). Morality should trump the economy. PS also overly focusing on immigration/people moving house across countries. It just plays into the xenophobes' hands. No on...

There used to be a streamer called Destiny who has been debating the alt right since before 2016. He was very gentle at first. He even avoided woke language and tried to make friends with communities of alt right hosts. By now, he's totally blackpilled. You can't reason someone out of a position the...

I don't understand what this objection is supposed to be. Do recipes, songs, conlangs, and video game reviews have to be free in order to have an informed electorate? In this context, "information" clearly refers to the news. I'm trying to avoid every qualification in every sentence. If y...

Levinson's main idea seems to be that the postwar boom was caused by a very specific combination of circumstances, which simply couldn't last, and that therefore, attempts to extent or revive the boom were always doomed. What were the conditions? I can think of: Apart from globalization, Europe was...

My professor was busy grading papers, so he couldn't make it to reading group. They made me explain the Numerical Fuzz paper on the whiteboard with zero prep despite another professor being present. The other professor said he liked my explanation. The paper is about estimating an upper bound on the...

Still reading: Experiments in Mystical Atheism. Zhuangzi had a dream about a butterfly and wondered whether the butterfly was dreaming the man. Similarly, this guy dreams that he could easily have been a theist writing Experiments in Mystical Theism. The main reason he's writing this book is that he...

A lot of people don't even like paying their regular taxes, and you're suggesting adding more taxes to pay for this? That ain't gonna go over well. Under my system, the state/commons/community would own so much that it wouldn't need taxes anymore. You mention both the internet and libraries as proo...

I watch this guy a lot, in this video he reads over a news article and explains how there's a consistent media bias against Biden and Kamala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxMOSPBJk8 Frankly I wouldn't be surprised I'm hesitant. I could never get into this guy because he's not as precise as I'd ...

The idea is that the fuel excise (which is around 30%) is used in lieu of a road tax - I don't know if even the government claims that it actually goes to fixing roads but in theory it helps balance everything out. I did recently hear a proposal though to switch to an actual road tax based on yearl...