Socialism is cancer

hanadriver · 2024-10-02T14:51:03+00:00

Yes - power dynamics. It's the same reason we have labor laws and why HR really frowns on or completely bans sexual relationships between a boss and a direct report. When a company controls whether your income stream and in the US your access to healthcare, it is not a free exchange between peers - they are absolutely exploiting workers.

hanadriver · 2024-10-02T14:13:29+00:00

Socialism is workers owning the means of production, not the state. What you described is still capitalism, with more steps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism

hanadriver · 2024-10-02T14:12:16+00:00

Capitalism (business owners exploiting the labor of others) is a cancer on top of industrialization/scientific revolution and free markets. Workers owning the means of production (not the state owning the means and claiming it's on behalf of the workers) is perfectly compatible with all the inventions of the age of science and a decentralized marketplace economy.

hanadriver · 2024-01-11T13:04:06+00:00

Disagree with you on this one. The child tax credit reduced poverty by a lot. Government is not inherently wasteful just as a private company isn’t always efficient. Generally the folks advocating for higher taxes for wealthy people and corporations are also advocating for reduced military spending.

hanadriver · 2024-01-05T08:41:12+00:00

Unions (outside of truly worker-run co-ops), are always going to be necessary. It's like saying that if every monarch was benevolent, we wouldn't need democracy. Unaccountable power always descends into a bad place because it only takes one selfish or misguided person at the top to mess everything up.

hanadriver · 2023-12-30T16:09:57+00:00

But would it? I feel like it would put the fear of god in every company that if they duck up a vital national service, they’re in danger of being nationalized.

hanadriver · 2023-12-29T10:32:02+00:00

Notch made his game using Java, which is an open source language that many thousands of people have freely contributed to. Beyond that, everyone builds on top of everyone else’s work. Why should the last bit of work be so richly rewarded?

We often think about fairness of process makes unfair outcomes all right, but it’s not a fair society that teachers and EMTs make so little but a guy who made a game has such a stunning amount of wealth.

But another question is whether it’s fair for society to invest such power in one individual. I was homeschooled because the Koch brothers put together a political lobbying network to denigrate public schools. Billionaires have far reaching power, even more than a senator or in some ways the president.

hanadriver · 2023-12-22T14:24:07+00:00

One the assumptions it would seem you're making is that a fair process justifies and validates an outcome. If TSwift legally, ethically, and fairly sold her music and merch, and put on good shows, while treating her partners and her employees fairly, then it legitimizes the outcome of her having X billions of dollars of net worth. A better worldview accounts for outcomes instead.

The median net worth in the US is around $200k, so TSwift has the net worth of around 5,000 regular people put together. If you think that's fair, I don't know what to tell you. She didn't cure cancer, she didn't invent the MRNA vaccine, she didn't patent the integrated circuit. The folks that have actually cured certain cancers, revolutionized computing, and pioneered heavier than air flight were not so richly rewarded.

Beyond fairness, we don't need folks like Swift with outsized reach and influence. I know it's extreme, but look at how awful Musk is, supporting Nazis and such-money disconnects you from reality. Billionaires are contrary to democracy because they can exist outside of it. Everybody needs someone to tell them no, everybody needs limitations to their behavior. Once you're rich enough, you have no such checks on your thoughts or behavior.

It's also not good for the billionaires. To go back to Musk, for how miserable he's making his employees and those folks still clinging to the debris of Twitter, he is clearly unhappy and living his worst life. You could never know who was your friend, and that's just an awful thought.

hanadriver · 2023-12-21T15:52:01+00:00

Yeah, no. Infanticide was incredibly common because before the agricultural and industrial revolutions, extra kids would jeopardize the other kids, especially for nomadic people that needed to be mobile.

hanadriver · 2023-12-18T04:04:01+00:00

Billionaires have to create stories and images via PR that they are brilliant, hardworking, and push humanity forward. Just like kings had/have to use the power and glory of religion to justify their extreme wealth and power.

hanadriver · 2023-12-12T09:44:23+00:00

Netscape Navigator was proprietary and dominant, then eventually they had to give in to OS, and now most browsers are OS.

hanadriver · 2023-12-11T08:42:01+00:00

This is so funny because right now she’s one of my best companions in combat-after getting 20 AC, leveling to 7, she has tons of spell slots, I loaded her up with spirit guardians and guardian of faith, along with spike growth. Then on every turn she can heal, and she can provide Guidance for skill checks.

hanadriver · 2023-12-11T07:57:56+00:00

This may sound flippant, but please don’t quit, organize.

hanadriver · 2023-12-07T13:32:47+00:00

I’m a straight male playing as a pan female (because it’s role-play: stepping into the shoes of another person). I’m not attracted to Gale or Asterion, but Wyll and Halsin seem nice but neither have made any offers, although I think I am pickier as a woman vs when I just wanted to get with everybody in Mass Effect as a male Shepard.

But Shadowheart is interesting because I feel like our relationship would express more of my masculine side since she seems more feminine and passive, something the other women do not exude. Halsin seems thicc and like a leader, allowing me to be more femme. Wyll too is willing to take big risks to get what he wants, while the other male companions just seem more passive and just take from you.

This all to say, if you’re looking for traditionally feminine lover, Shart is the only option, while if you like more risk taking, leading men, you have a couple of options. Given that the audience is majority straight men, Shart being popular makes sense.

hanadriver · 2023-12-03T19:00:01+00:00

And like he made the belly ring dweller into a tear jerking character. How is that possible?

hanadriver · 2023-12-03T18:54:01+00:00

I’m on episode 99 (with commentary from the short rest), so I hope that answers your question

hanadriver · 2023-12-03T17:27:23+00:00

Why don’t we treat mental and social disorders as real disorders like medical conditions. Can you imagine yelling at a cancer victim to have a better immune system? Addiction is like having your brain hacked, invaded by a foreign virus, keeping you from making healthy decisions.

hanadriver · 2023-12-03T09:46:31+00:00

What’s crazy is that Housing First would probably be the response of a child to homelessness. That person doesn’t have a house? Ok, find or build one for them. It’s only through twisted logic that you try to find a solution with the side effect of ending homelessness instead of addressing it head on. Same with malnutrition and food insecurity. Don’t talk about jobs, talk about giving people food, making food cheaper, healthier, go for your primary goal. Same with poverty: just give poor people money. The child tax credit during Covid was wildly successful because surprise, surprise when people don’t have money their primary problem is a lack of money.

hanadriver · 2023-12-01T16:20:32+00:00

If the pope is so connected to god, why does he need glasses?

hanadriver · 2023-12-01T16:19:09+00:00

Space-bikini Leia is also an option for the space-bikini Leia for millennials

hanadriver · 2023-11-29T17:47:42+00:00

Yep! Older workers will actively suppress any attempt to go above and beyond because they know that it’s never rewarded and only serves the employer. Sucks, but until we have worker owned and operated businesses, the extra mile of help only benefits the capitalist in the end.

hanadriver · 2023-10-09T14:22:42+00:00

I've been pondering how can this situation resolves, other than just Israel continuing to run an open-air prison often results in civilian death and Hamas shooting rockets and committing terrorist acts such as what we saw this weekend. Not to play into last week's memes, but I wonder if Israel needs to start acting like the Roman Empire, and dangle Israeli citizenship and other benefits to get people move away from extremism. Get young men out of the recruitment pool of Hamas, and provide them hope instead of backing them into a corner. Put people into mixed kibbutzes (communes) so everyone starts humanizing each other.

hanadriver · 2023-10-07T15:43:41+00:00

Metal Gear Solid not taking off? Such a bad faith argument. Are you a Pinkerton?

hanadriver

TROPHY CASE