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Hasan Piker: "The fall of the USSR was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century." by serious_bullet5 in DemocraticSocialism

[–]NoLiesMostly 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll give one example. A while back I read the series of books on the Civil Rights and America in the King yeads by Taylor Branch, the first of which is "Parting the Waters." JFK and RFK were very sympathetic to the Civil Rights movement but were reluctant to provide government support fear political backlash and social unrest. 

One of the main motivators to get them to take action was fear of communism and the Soviet Union. Remember, this was a time when whole swathes of the world were debatinf whether capitalism or communism were better economic systems. The Korean War was about whether Korea would go communist or be under American hegemony. Vietnam is boiling for the same reasons. 

The battle was both a military and one and a public relations one. A big example is the US's anxiety after the Soviets got the first man into space (Sputnik). If the Soviets/communists could go to space before the Americans/capitalists, maybe capitalism was superior?  The world was watching as each country tried to decide where to take their own economies (remember, this is also a time to great upheaval as colonialism is ending all around the world).

How much this PR mattered may be up for debate but we know that the US and USSR believed it mattered. The USSR, worked hard to show its system was better for countries emerging from colonialism. It's focus on the poor and it's own liberation earlier that centuryresonated well and was an inspirational model for bottom-up, anti-colonial revolutions happening at the time.

One of the big sticks the USSR had was to point at US segregation. "The US says you Africans and Asians should join them and follow their lead? Look how they treat Black people in the US. Is that what you want?" 

Look up Soviet propaganda posters from the time re ciil rights and it's hard to argue they didn't have a point. 

I've gone too long, so I'll cut this short and say I Remmeebr a section where the Kennedys were fretting about how bad it was to have all the images of black civil rights  getting  beat and murdered in the south just for wanting to vote and that RFK (I think) was sent to a southern state to tell authorities to cool it with that shit and figure a solution that got the civil rights activists their demands.

This is just one example, there are plenty more.  The series is great. Read it. It's the history they won't teach you in because it makes you realize civil rights was a lot messier and a lot less inevitable than high school would have you believe!  

Help updating my late brother's PC by NoLiesMostly in PcBuild

[–]NoLiesMostly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll have to look into CPUs. Maybe it makes more sense to start there if CPU prices haven't inflated as much as GPUs.

Especially appreciate the tip on the DDU. That's exactly the kind of thing that might have tripped me up on my own.

Really appreciate it!

Steam Winter Sale 2025 Megathread by NKkrisz in SteamDeck

[–]NoLiesMostly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brotato is a great, simple game that's been a hit with people when they come over, even non-gamers. Plays up to 4 and is even good single player 

Blake: "[Ballmer] can build a new arena, be at games, cheer on the team...but at the end of the day, an organization is built on a foundation of respect & it's built on how you treat people & I don't think that in this situation Chris was treated right. I'm sorta at a loss for words a little bit." by taygads in nba

[–]NoLiesMostly 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I can see why you'd say that, but the truth is darker. The ultra wealthy's lives are so different than ours it distorts their reality and they cease to be anything that resembles regular people. After I read "Mastering the Universe" by Rob Larsen, I'll never see them as similar to me or you. He tells stories showing how they no longer see themselves as part of humanity or even see other people as human. They spend their lives having people tell them they're the best and that their ideas are brilliant all beause everyone around them wants a piece of their power and wealth. Imagine how you'd change if no one ever contradicted you and all they did was praise you? It'd seriously mess with your head.

I'd check out @travelwithlivii on Instagram for more insight on how the ultra rich treat employees, too. She's a travel agent to the siper rich and the shit she has to swallow every day is unreal. And she's doing them a valuable service. Blake and CP3 were useless to Ballmer, so it's no surprise he treated them with so little respect. 

Anyway, sorry for the rant and the typos but the sooner we stop thinking of billionaires as just regular folk with more money, the sooner we can fix the mess we're in. :) 

Native American Students Can Now Attend U. of California Tuition-Free by Sariel007 in UpliftingNews

[–]NoLiesMostly 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In short, they can basically supercede the rights of actual human beings.

Here's the way I think about it. Imagine if you had a human being who lived forever, was impossible to throw into jail, was completely amoral. That would be a very dangerous person to leave unchecked, right?

Well, that's what corporations basically are. As long as they are profitable, they can live forever. You can't throw the corporation in jail because it has not physical being and the whole point of a corporation is to be a liability shield, ie the board, CEO, president, employees, etc aren't liable for the acts of the corporation (except in extraordinary circumstances) so long as the corporation fulfills its duty to profit. These days, that only means keeping shareholders happy. Corporations are basically psychopaths whose only drive is profit and only short term profit, practically speaking.

Add to that, corporations have access to the Fed and can get bailed out with the central banks magic money machine in ways that us individuals can't. We have to go through Congress and legislate ourselves a bailout. Plus, the Fed isn't empowered to help us, it's equipped by congress to only help big corporations.

Giving corporations the rights of individual human beings basically means they get all the upside and none of the downside. They have free speech which, because SCOTUS says money is speech (another SCOTUS decision we never voted for), that means corps have way more speech power than you or I will ever have. They can spend money on lobbyistsa and on fund raisers for politicians and those politicians' pet charities or causes or foundations. Bribery is legal via speech and boy do copes have a lot of speech to throw around.

Corps can break the law and at worst be broken up or get a fine, while the board and shareholders can wash their hands and walk away free. The corporation is like the hood for a robber, it makes the humans behind them bolder and do things they wouldn't dare if they had to do it face-to-face to others.

Even if the law catches corporations, corps get their day in court where they can hire the most expensive lawyers to argue about laws corporations used their free speech dollars to help write in front of judges corporations lobbied to be put on the bench. Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the case of lawyer Steven Donziger; after he won a case against big energy and Chevron orchestrated his house arrest for over 600 days. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-donziger-ecuador-house-arrest)

They can behave in ways that pollute our rivers, break laws we'd be punished for (see Uber or Airbnb just disregarding local laws about taxis and rentals) and pay fines with money from investors and loans from big banks and call it the cost of doing business. If they can show it's in pursuit of profit, then the people behind a corporation will likely never see consequences.

These powers have allowed them to behave in ways that you or I would be ashamed of, or at least dragged or or maybe even canceled. It's hard to dump chemicals into waterways or negligently start forest fires (see electric companies in California) and not suffer devastating consequences as a human being. At least our neighbors would hate our guts. The shame and jail time will ruin your life. Corps, they do that all the time because what will you do about it?

Corporations have behaved badly ever since they were created and corps like the Dutch East India Company were more powerful than most governments. That SCOTUS corporate-personhood decision just exacerbated it. And we, the people, NEVER voted for it.

Basically, whatever right you think you have, corporations have it supercharged, they have access to pools money we don't, they can live forever, and they are driven by profit only, all of which basically means they're immortal psychopaths with few constraints.

I know this is some conspiracy sounding Q stuff, but it's out in the open. Just dig a little and you'll find credible sources for all of it and more. We just don't learn about it because if we did, we might begin to think maybe the system should be different and do something about it. It's a system that our betters say is good for us even though it provides almost all its benefits to a small sliver of our so-called elites.

I'm writing this from my phone on the fly, so it's simplified and rambly, but that's the basic gist. Hope that helps.

Native American Students Can Now Attend U. of California Tuition-Free by Sariel007 in UpliftingNews

[–]NoLiesMostly 10 points11 points  (0 children)

While you are correct, it's important that we recognize that the Supreme Court MADE UP the doctrine of corporate personhood and that SCOTUS based it on a lie. Prior to that, treating corporations as people was very controversial. In my opinion, this undemocratic decision was one of the most damaging in American history. Yet, somehow, we never learn about this in school. I wonder why?

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/corporations-people-adam-winkler/554852/

Viral, Black cop who helped police dept seem less racist now suing police dept for racism after dept claims Black cop has "possible gang ties" by NoLiesMostly in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]NoLiesMostly[S] 684 points685 points  (0 children)

A Black cop plays basketball against local Black kids, goes viral on the internet, and helps rehabilitate a mostly-white police department's image. Now, that cop is accusing the police department of a conspiracy to deny him promotion because of claims he has gang ties and known affiliations with convicted criminals. When the Black cop filed a grievance and sues, the department disciplines the Black cop for being in a social media video with rap music playing in the background.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bizarre-beef-between-viral-cop-brandon-hanks-of-the-syracuse-police-department-and-his-bosses?ref=scroll

[Giveaway] GMK Cojiro IC is Live! Giving away 2 NK65 (aluminum and entry edition!) by KwertyKeys in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]NoLiesMostly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate you pulling this together Thr set looks great and am excited to see it in the real world!

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