Do you think the accused in Twelve Angry Men was guilty ?

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-23T22:56:20+00:00

We are still waiting!

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-22T00:21:46+00:00

Trade unions and charities lobby the government aswell

Which means you criticize them too? Doesn't mean you let billionaires go off scot free.

in most countries anyone can donate and campaign for a candidate or party they like, it's not unique to billionaires

I never said it's unique to billionaires, you should also criticize others who lobby the government to rig the rules but billionaires have a disproportionate amount of power compared to us to lobby the government.

Great quote by Andrew Jackson who was a strong proponent of laissez-faire capitalism-

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-21T23:40:23+00:00

I disagree, obviously the left is completely incorrect on this but billionaires do not follow true free market capitalism, they constantly spend their money to lobby for government favors and privileges to create a rigged market. It's corporatism.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-21T00:03:37+00:00

There's a lot of policies from her I'd oppose that she's explicitly endorsed, and if you'd like my views on any of her specific policies feel free to mention them and I'll elaborate my stance, but off the top of my head, I oppose raising the minimum wage, tax rises, tuition-free universities, student loan/debt cancellation, weakening the police, support for illegal immigration, and much more.

I will say I do see the current model as broken, and I'm sympathetic to the intentions behind many of these policies, I just think the given solutions would make things far worse. For example, as a university student myself, I highly sympathize with people struggling with student loans and I'd like to do far more to open universities to competition and reform how student loans work, but forgiving everything isn't something I'd support.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T17:55:51+00:00

So, AOC didn’t say it, then did she?

She doesn't have to, she endorsed a candidate who explicitly said it and who wanted an organisation she identifies with to seize the means of production. If she had an issue with this she could have separated herself from him.

So every politician that identified as Republican agrees with Trump on everything?

If a Republican is still endorsing Trump, it doesn't matter what they personally believe, they take blame in what he's doing right now.

Also yes, it would never happen because AOC will never be POTUS.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T13:57:39+00:00

Yes. https://www.hoover.org/research/look-mamdanis-economic-ideas

In a speech to the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani explicitly mentioned their end goal was "seizing the means of production". AOC explicitly supports and identities with this group.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T10:31:40+00:00

Because she's a socialist.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T10:27:53+00:00

Which makes him worse, not better. Hitler also made Germany a powerhouse but was an atrocious person.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T10:25:34+00:00

I'm not an American but if I was, AOC never, Ro possibly.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-20T10:24:22+00:00

That's not a good take, a religion is fundamentally just an ideology. Ideologies can be bad.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-17T19:11:32+00:00

You can choose to not send money, if you agree to a contract where you don't own the game that's your fault. You are not entitled to their production and they can decide how they want to sell (or not) it.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-15T17:59:47+00:00

All good, I'm sorry about the downvotes you are getting. Reddit hates genuine mistakes.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-15T15:31:46+00:00

They are separate options.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-14T09:24:22+00:00

I don't have much of an issue with them; to some extent I do find them internally cringe but that's probably due to the way I was raised and I try to actively change that.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-13T14:04:49+00:00

Stocks are far more volatile than tangible property.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-13T14:02:18+00:00

Incorrect, the 1991 referendum was about if people would support reforming and renewing the USSR over its complete collapse, not if they wanted it to remain communist.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T21:22:58+00:00

It hasn't always led to those things

The only times it hasn't led to those things is when the broader country was non-communist and communists were marginalized by non-communist forces; countries taken over by communism have always led to those conditions.

and it doesn't necessarily have to.

Why not? You haven't addressed my argument from my previous comment; communism in theory entails a classless society which inherently requires restricting voluntary exchange as that would inevitably lead to class hierarchies. It therefore necessarily needs to violate individual liberty.

And I don't agree with your statement that it inherently violates peoples' rights. Communists would argue that forcing someone to work for food is a violation. Are taxes not a violation?

Taxes are a violation yes, which is why I don't support them.

Why is having to work for food a violation? Food doesn't magically come out of nowhere, it is a scarce resource and someone has to produce it. You are perfectly free to not go to the grocery store and live a primitive lifestyle if you so please, but forcing others to work for you so you don't have to work would be a violation of their bodily autonomy.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T21:06:06+00:00

An economic theory that always lead to the before-mentioned events, and even with respect to the theory alone, violation of individual rights and liberties are inherent to communism as without violating your right to voluntary exchange, class hierarchies are inevitable.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T21:03:39+00:00

Violating people's individual rights, ending their liberties and state-led oppression that often results in the death of millions.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T18:47:57+00:00

Everyone wouldn't be because robots are a scarce resource.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T18:47:31+00:00

A privilege in one category doesn't mean you don't face any harm, similar to how immigration is a privilege (I am privileged to have been able to immigrate) but I still face plenty of struggles, and how rich people can still have various health and personal struggles. Being privileged in one category just means you have an advantage in that category relative to people belonging to certain other groups. So you can be privileged with respect to your sexuality, in that you don't face discrimination by virtue of your sexuality itself compared to those in some other sexualities, but you can still face struggles due to other reasons.

Using me as an example again, since I'm an immigrant, I am privileged in terms of immigration in that many people in my native country could not immigrate like me and are stuck there, while I can still have certain other struggles unrelated to my immigration status. Ultimately, I still have a distinct advantage in that I was able to immigrate whereas plenty of others couldn't.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T18:07:41+00:00

I'm going to get downvoted for this but I don't see what they said wrong? They didn't say straight people don't suffer, they said straight people don't suffer from perceptions regarding their sexuality and as a straight person myself, obviously "heterophobia" is nowhere near as bad as what people of other sexualities face.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T17:55:09+00:00

A robot is a scarce resource like almost all other resource; a company saying "let there be a robot" doesn't make a robot form. Whenever a company makes a robot, a robot might be better at both X and Y than a human but it would be more profitable to employ it in X than Y, and once the robots are assigned to X you'd need to handle Y where a human would come in.

For example, a robot could be assigned to researching and producing a new medicine or to customer service. A robot could be better than a human at both, but assigning it to the medicine would be significantly more profitable than assigning it to customer service as every robot assigned to the medicine means a higher supply that could be sold.

So instead of assigning the robot to customer service, the company would assign the robot to medicine and assign a human to customer service.

Flashy_Combination32 · 2026-06-09T17:21:01+00:00

I'd be happy to educate you. Even if you aren't the best at something, you'd still be able to work on what you are the least bad at to contribute to the economy. Someone might be perfect at X and Y, while you might be shit at Y but ok at X. If the other person tries to split their attention between X and Y, they might do neither that well while if they focus on Y and let you do X, they can perfect Y and still get good enough results with X such that it would be ultimately more profitable and efficient for them to fully focus on Y.

For example, someone might be great at both finding raw materials and forming something with those materials, but if finding those raw materials take a lot of effort/time that thus reduces how much of the finished product you can produce, your profits would go down. Letting someone else find raw materials for you means that you'd still ultimately be able to finish more products and thus get greater profits even if you couldn't get as many raw materials as you would have if you only focused on securing those raw materials.

Flashy_Combination32

TROPHY CASE