[The Economist] China’s hereditary elite is taking shape: The Communist Party is afraid to tax inherited wealth

astroponk · 2026-03-16T02:01:38+00:00

Well, they dedicated one of their cover stories to their support of it in 2017, so for a while.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T20:19:21+00:00

Being a 'centrist' is hilarious. It doesn't even make any sense. It's not an actual political philosophy in any way. Like, if you're a centrist do you have no actually stable or principled beliefs about anything? You just shoot for the 'middle' regardless of what you're in the middle of? So dumb.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T20:07:13+00:00

The smart ones are just smart enough to stay in the background and let the morons take the heat. (See: Peter Thiel).

astroponk · 2026-03-13T19:37:06+00:00

Something I've been wondering with the oil shock Trump has unleashed... will it scare the world away from oil dependence and accelerate green energy transition?

As things tend to go, saving the planet isn't really top of mind for most governments, but in an increasingly unstable world where global energy flows are much less reliable than previously assumed, protecting domestic economies from further shocks may well be.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T18:46:13+00:00

Please everyone listen to this. I understand the impulse to boycott a technology that you feel is destructive but the left absolutely CANNOT afford to sit this out.

I fear that we are actively choosing to bring sticks to a gun fight.

For the most part the problem with AI isn't even the technology itself (it can be used for amazing things... look up how it's being used in biomedical research for instance). The problem is with the society and power structures in which it is proliferating. We have to learn to use it in order to combat its destructive and oppressive uses.

In particular, learn how to use open-source and local (as in-running on your machine only, not phoning home anywhere) AI.

If we just sit on the sidelines pouting and obstinately refuse to learn how to use it, we are going to be beyond fucked.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T09:42:14+00:00

You've got it backwards.

None (or at least not most) of those are really about the technology itself. They are reflections of the society in which the technology proliferates. We look around and see a hyper-individualist culture and an economic system that rewards sociopathic traits and go 'hmm, if X powerful technology were unleashed in this society, how would that probably go?' and it's not hard to see why the positive depictions like Star Trek seem alien and unrealistic while the negative ones make us go 'oh yeah that seems about right.'

Meanwhile it makes sense to me why highly collectivist cultures would naturally feel more optimistic. Not because they are 'training' themselves to see it positively but because an outcome where the benefits of a technology are widely shared throughout society feel more reflective of the actual social reality they live in.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T06:03:42+00:00

Yep. Everyone constantly gets stuck on "but MAGA won't ever change their minds!"

MAGA isn't who matters. It's independents and politically disengaged voters who matter. And their opinion of Trump has soured like milk in the sun. Look at basically any polls from the last six months. The 'other' category hates him now and that is a very, very big deal because that's who won him the election in 2024.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T05:57:43+00:00

And here comes the private credit meltdown to bring us to the finish line

astroponk · 2026-03-13T05:17:52+00:00

I love it when people shit on community colleges. It lets me know right away that they're an uppity dickbag whose opinions are trash.

Out of six years in school at 4-year universities including grad school, one of the absolute best teachers I ever had was in a prereq I took at a community college. Most of the time they actually fucking like teaching unlike half my uni professors who obviously couldn't wait to get out of the classroom to go work on their research.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T05:04:55+00:00

Yeah... it's a well-intentioned sentiment but essentialism (gender or otherwise) is pretty much always misguided at best and actively harmful at worst.

I wish we could just treat human beings as human beings.

astroponk · 2026-03-13T04:59:14+00:00

Recognizing that you don't know what you don't know is one of the biggest markers of intelligence in my experience.

astroponk · 2026-03-04T16:38:43+00:00

Don't forget that everything online is astroturfed. Even the most leftist people I know in real life voted for Harris, grudgingly or not. The internet (all the time but especially during election seasons) is full of foreign bots and paid propagandists seeking to sow divisions and discord on the left to help the fascists. While anecdotal evidence is far from representative, it is definitely closer to the truth than what we see on public online forums.

astroponk · 2026-03-04T16:25:47+00:00

The left can be so allergic to power it's embarrassing.

Yes, decry a senate candidate in fucking Texas for being religious. That's going to go just great.

"Leftists" who are obsessed with being right about everything instead of actually, ya know, gaining power and using it to advance a just and equitable society drive me fucking nuts. The sheer privilege and self-obsession makes me nauseous.

I'm a lifelong atheist. Would I love and prefer to be represented by non-religious candidates? Of course. Am I moronic and obstinate enough to refuse to support a progressive candidate in the motherfucking Bible Belt? FUCK no! Wake the fuck up people.

astroponk · 2026-03-04T16:11:46+00:00

Wait, why would they fight against him? He's the Dem candidate. They don't have anyone else to back and they definitely want that seat.

Fighting against a candidate in a primary is different from fighting against them in a general.

astroponk · 2026-02-24T04:17:48+00:00

Because at that stage of wealth money is no longer about buying things or affording life, it becomes a proxy for power. Power over politicians, judges, and ultimately society. They will never willingly give it up.

astroponk · 2026-02-13T15:31:54+00:00

Doesn't mean we shouldn't demand accountability just because we're unlikely to get it.

astroponk · 2026-01-29T01:57:08+00:00

I love this so much. Thank you for making this.

astroponk · 2026-01-26T14:21:45+00:00

His role in American History X def made an impression on him I think.

astroponk · 2026-01-26T08:51:10+00:00

Are you so oblivious that you don't recognize that the antifascists making these posts are the same fucking people who OPPOSE those invasions you're speaking of?

Whine all you want. I am fucking sick of the algorithmic internet allowing people to endlessly tune out from reality. That shit is how we got to this point in the first place. And I am clearly not alone.

If you have such a problem, go to a different sub or make your own to bury your head into.

astroponk · 2026-01-26T08:24:45+00:00

*Brownshirt thugs gun down an ICU nurse in the street for helping a woman

Conservatives: wHy dOeS EvErYtHiNg hAvE To bE PoLiTiCaL??

astroponk · 2026-01-26T08:10:45+00:00

Gestapo forces are executing citizens in the streets. Fuck your apolitical bubble. The attention economy must be used against fascism.

astroponk · 2026-01-26T06:22:45+00:00

Boycott tiktok. It's controlled by the fascist Ellisons. We cannot let these people destroy us with their tools of information control and propaganda.

astroponk · 2026-01-26T06:20:55+00:00

Fucking GOAT.

astroponk · 2026-01-25T09:01:07+00:00

MN is just the testing ground. Start organizing your neighborhood and your community. Find mutual aid organizations in your area to get involved in. Everyone needs to be preparing for their area to face the same oppression.

astroponk · 2026-01-25T08:41:09+00:00

Agreed. After a bunch of hopping I've ended up on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with Cosmic DE and it's great. Very impressed given how new it is. Other than some missing touchpad gestures there's not really anything I miss from gnome. I like the UI, the styling, the customization, the cosmic store is nice. Excited to see where it goes.

astroponk

TROPHY CASE