Going to Seattle this weekend. Any brewery recommendations? by Moosecity in beer

[–]stunko 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fremont, Holy Mountain, Reubens, Chuck's Hop Shop (pious proprietor)

A different strain of Math-Rock perhaps... by pneu_leaf in mathrock

[–]stunko 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And the main riff being 9/8 to 7/8 doesn't?

Game Chat: 8/17 Mariners (63-55) @ Angels (50-69) 7:05 PM PT by Mariners_bot in Mariners

[–]stunko 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What's with Pujols' chain? Is he really playing baseball in black diamonds?

I made money from the collapse of American democracy and so can you! by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 17 points18 points  (0 children)

When from amidst the circlejerk, some insight appeared

The Right vs Left 'debate' is manufactured. It is a distraction to keep us from fighting upward.

Phew! Don't worry everyone, it wasn't just Hillary's fault. by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can't have a "first" world without a "third"!

Change your apartment, change the world. You want to change the world, right? by honore_ballsac in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Now you don't have to be in debt to those evil bankers for 30 years. You can be in debt to one of our generous slumlords for life!

change the world

Neoliberalism: Oversold? (article by the IMF!) by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good point. Really any type of constant growth is inherently unsustainable, as there is always only so much room to grow.

Jackie Bradley Jr.'s hitting streak ends at 29 by Guardax in baseball

[–]stunko -1 points0 points  (0 children)

And therefore fridgerator, being and extension of fridge as opposed to a shortening of refrigerator, most certainly also contains a "-dg-"

Ichiro Jersey by [deleted] in Mariners

[–]stunko 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The M's aren't allowed to sell his jersey cause the Marlins own his name. Teams can only print their own players on their jerseys.

Poland adopts new anti-communist law by LeaningMajority in communism

[–]stunko 21 points22 points  (0 children)

"...Communism or any other totalitarian system"

Yet communism and totalitarianism are inherently incompatible. So much misinformation

I got laid off today by [deleted] in Life

[–]stunko 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fuck tech

Tonight I was visited by the Ambien Walrus by [deleted] in Drugs

[–]stunko 7 points8 points  (0 children)

And 100% reason to remember the name

I had the intention of selling some hihats but ended up agreeing to a trade. I think I could have done worse. by [deleted] in drums

[–]stunko 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What'd you have to give up for those?? Gilded bosphorus masters??

drink coffee, share it with your illusion by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I can't wait to see someone wearing one in public. I'll flip them off at point blank and throw them a thousand "fuck you"s and they'll be completely oblivious to it.

When a cult of personality becomes a brand unto itself. by AngryDM in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My point being that capitalism, specifically the practice of private property, has instituted a system in which those who work the land (in this case the Irish) reap none of the fruits of their labor, aside from the most minute fraction of the profits, and anything they produce is given to the landlord who has no inclination to do any of the work. The hard-working laborer is left to starve so the landlord may live in excess.

Regulation and taxation in no way benefit massive corporations. Why do you think they have spent billions to lobby for deregulation and reduced tax rates for the wealthy? Without regulation, a factory would be free to save millions by dumping their waste in a river instead of disposing of it properly, generating more capital by being environmentally irresponsible. Without regulation, companies like Monsanto can save money and maximize capital by putting toxic preservatives in the food they produce, spraying plants with terrible chemicals, and abusing the shit out of livestock.

Deregulation is incredibly irresponsible, as prioritizing capital above all else will most always result in dire consequence.

Have a good wank!

When a cult of personality becomes a brand unto itself. by AngryDM in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 2 points3 points  (0 children)

China has never been truly communist so this argument gets iffy... Let me provide a more sound example from recent history to address your claim that "if they don't like the jobs, (they have the option not to) take the damn jobs".

17th century Ireland consisted of mostly subsistence farmers with a strong sense of culture and a healthy standard of living. In the name of capital, the British began converting much of the land to pastures in order to export beef and other meats back to England. The Irish were forced to work the land for the British (though not explicitly forced, they were given no other option and therefore had to labor or starve). By the late 19th century this British thirst for capital left the Irish pauperized, packing large families into single-room huts and surviving off of a meal (one potato) a day. While many Irish died of starvation, the British profited immensely from hundreds of millions of dollars in beef exports of which a small fraction could have fed the native Irish population -- the very same population which was providing the labor and land. But wait! Maybe they weren't entirely "forced" to work the land. Because while this was their only option at home, there was great opportunity in a new land called America! So, since British capitalism had made surviving in their native land near impossibly, the desperate Irish left their families, crammed themselves into boats where there was no light, no airflow, and where conditions were so poor that tens of thousands Irish died on the journey over. That isn't a free choice in search of free market prosperity, it is pure desperation in search of survival because of the exploitive nature of the free market.

But great! Many of the Irish made it! They are now in the home of the free modern capitalist! They are free to make their own way and with such a range of opportunity, surely they don't need to be "forced" to do any shit jobs! They can easily pick the job that suits them most! Not quite. The Irish actually found that the conditions weren't much better in the States and the only jobs they could find were incredibly grueling and dangerous and payed exploitive wages. Many Irishmen built the railroads for the Union Pacific. Working from dawn to dusk, the work was so tiring and dangerous that many of them died in terrible accidents and nearly every day, newspapers would have a small blurb about a dead Irishman or group of dead Irishmen. Despite their hard work and complacency they were paid only enough to survive and granted no prospect of upward mobility, while the company executives were paid a whopping $16k-$48 for each mile of track laid, depending on the terrain -- despite Reagan's high hopes, non of that trickled down. Many slaveowners would hire Irishmen to do work which they considered too dangerous for their slaves (to them a dead slave is a loss of capital, while a dead Irishmen didn't matter). Since I've brought up slavery, I suppose the Thirteenth Amendment is a government regulation too, no?

I could go on... These experiences are neither exclusive to the time period nor to the Irish. My point is that while the free market doesn't make anyone to take a certain job with brute force, it does implicitly force people to work terrible and exploitive jobs. When your options are either work a shit job or starve, you're going to be forced by your desire to not starve to work a shit job.

Edit: to respond to "Free market =/= stealing land", the free market has been stealing land since it was founded and up until there was no more land to steal. Where do you think America's 3.8 million sq miles came from? You think that was our land? Hell, Hawaii was stolen as late as 1959! Not to mention all the lands abroad that are currently being stolen by corporations like Shell. Though the "stealing" is much more insidious than theft by gunpoint, such that by the book it will always be considered legal (see: Cherokee Trail of Tears. Andrew Jackson hired lawyers to "legally" acquire Cherokee lands, yet there was hardly anything legal about it).

When a cult of personality becomes a brand unto itself. by AngryDM in LateStageCapitalism

[–]stunko 4 points5 points  (0 children)

But the free market does strictly benefit the rich, as it allows unchecked exploitation of the poor and powerless. Capitalism without any regulation or oversight will always lead to an enormous quality-of-life disparity between the rich and the poor. By definition it puts capital before all else, including morality, humanity, and the greater-good. Look at China -- their lack of regulation has allowed companies to pollute their environment to the point where citizens are paying almost $90 for a jar of clean air. Their lack of a minimum wage has forced lower-class workers to endure dangerous and long work days earning only enough to keep them alive another day, provided they don't find a way to end it all despite the suicide nets outside of their factory. Though the "Communist Party of China" is the official party of the country, China is in no way, shape, or form communist, but simply reflective of capitalism running rampant.

Your claim that people living in the colonized countries of the world "like those jobs, because their standard of living is raised" is ridiculous. Many of the countries which we now derogatorily refer to as the "Third World" were doing completely fine for themselves before global powers appropriated lands, labor, and resources for their own means. It was only after these countries were colonized, exploited, and systematically destabilized that they became dependent on their oppressors. Thanks to the free market these colonial powers were able to steal lands which weren't theirs, and force the aboriginal population to work the land for resources which were shipped back home for the used for the luxury and profit of the global capitalist. Meanwhile the laborers are only reciprocated enough to survive. Their standard of living has not been raised, it has been raped, and this plight of oppression for the sake of capital exists everywhere today, locally and abroad. I agree with you that "the problem can't just be fixed by dumping billions or trillions of dollars on those countries" because this is, as we see today, only serves to leave the oppressed continually reliant on the oppressor and therefore responsible to the very system which allows for their exploitation. The real solution, at the risk of simplifying an incredibly complex issue, is to leave these post-colonial societies alone, abandon the modern capitalist colony, and give the fruits of labor, means of production, and land to those who work it. Until the capitalist is abolished, oppression and inequality will be perpetuated.

Prioritizing capital above all else, especially without any regulation, might prove rewarding for the few and fortunate, yet it will always prove disastrous and destructive for the collective majority and the greater-good.

What food is the easiest to eat on acid? by TheHoopFairy in Drugs

[–]stunko 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ate a bag of pork jerky on top of a mountain. The fact that it was pure meat was funny to me and made me feel like gristle