There was a hypothesis proposed a number of years ago that a mono-polar world is inherently unstable. A second great power keeps the other “honest” to a degree and limits the scope of corruption. It doesn’t stop it entirely mind you, but it has to at least maintain the appearance of integrity or expose its vulnerability. Any world where only one great power exists, must eventually collapse under the weight of internal corruption.
Looks like the hypothesis had some merit.
It’s the year of our lord 2026. Rule of Law is dead. The other Golden Rule is now supreme: He who has the gold, makes the rules.
There’s some truth to the inter-generational conflict. A lot of the boomers and early Gen X were granted limited access to the tools of the owner class (eg. “Reverse Mortgages” are really just a tiny version of the same equity financing the ultra-rich use to access their wealth without sacrificing control of their companies or paying taxes). They’ve socially conditioned and co-opted a lot of our elders into protecting their interests for them, however you are correct that it’s more of an attempt to obfuscate the real threat (the sociopathic rich bastards) and keep us fighting with each other rather than organizing against them.
It’s more than just income protection. The Luddites were against the way the manufacturing capital was being used to effectively create wage slavery. They weren’t against technology, they were against a specific use case that undermined worker rights and freedoms, not just incomes. The end result of their suppression was nearly a century of worker abuse and exploitation that ultimately produced the violent conflicts with the labour movement at the beginning of the 20th century.
It’s currently looking like we’re headed back into an era where the owner class is going to be leveraging government to mass-murder their own employees to maintain their dominion over the masses.
sociopathic rich bastards
I mean they are generally old too, it’s just not their defining characteristic.
Hopefully it will reset public consciousness and at least reduce the insane hero worship we give the executive class. These people aren’t geniuses, they tend to not even be particularly clever, just well connected. Maybe this will be the abject reminder people need that these idiots are generally still just idiots and are not in fact 10,000% more valuable than the guy who sweeps the floors and keeps the bathrooms clean.
I know. Wishful thinking. A guy can dream though.
I mean, that’s technically true, but doesn’t really mean much since you’re not accounting for what kind of radiation. An alpha particle, a gamma ray, and a radio wave are all radiation. One of those can kill you, one of those is harmless by itself, but dangerous in the wrong conditions, and one of those might make your hand warm if you had an unfathomably intense blast of it. Not all radiation is created equal. Unfortunately most people will never get past “radiation = bad”
You think the right wing are the only ones that enjoy trolling? Watching right wingers lose their minds every time we give him air-time is entertaining. His opinions aren’t worth much, but every time someone gives him a platform the collective pearl clutching is glorious. I’d like to believe most of us left of center, aren’t delusional enough to think he’s some great philosophical or political genius. But that in itself is kind of perfect, because he’s got no credibility left to destroy, so why not just say what you mean. Let the court jester speak!
Sure, I’m up right now. I don’t expect to stay there. I’m a millennial. Money is fake, and it will be gone when you need it most.
As someone who watched their retirement go up in smoke once because of a global financial implosion, I promise it won’t matter as much as you think it will where you stuff that cash.
Tell me how that works out for you when the AI bubble pops.
Every country has a word for it. Patriotism just means something different here than it does in the US. That’s the way a lot of things work. We share a lot of words. They don’t always mean the same thing in Canada as they do in the US, which is very confusing for people.
At this point, breakup is almost inevitable. States with a strong urbanized core and rural dominant states I fear can no longer reconcile. It didn’t have to be this way, but it’s too late for wishing for a different world.
Yeah, it’s bad. So was Belgium in the 1800s So was Germany not too long ago. Britain has been a menace off and on since the neolithic. Malaysia, the Mughals, the Mongols, etc. Every nation goes through times when they’re a menace, both to themselves and everyone else. The US has never been a particularly good nation. But it’s young.
Believing it can get better doesn’t mean assuming it will. I also never said it would happen tomorrow. We didn’t sit around and wait for the Nazis to get better in the mid 1900s, we did what had to be done. Also, I’m Canadian, not American, so watch where you’re point the “You” friend.
You say that like most of us are ever going to see a dime of that money.
There’s downsides to most solutions. Over-the-air reporting is another possible answer, but then you get into massive risks to privacy and data harvesting. It’s easier to mandate trickle chargers have Over-The-Air reporting than to have the car do it. Logistically there’s going to be complications no matter how you assess the taxes.
Patriotism is simply loving your nation. Part of loving your nation means being proud of the good it’s done. Part of it means acknowledging its faults, and working to make it better. The problem is, for too long America has let nationalists, who refuse to acknowledge its mistakes, own and define the word. Being a patriot doesn’t mean blind loyalty. It doesn’t mean hollow symbols, or forcing children to chant oaths before they’re old enough to think for themselves. It’s having the courage to believe your nation can always grow wiser and more just. Patriot theatre is for people incapable of having a mature relationship with their community (and likely anyone else for that matter).
There’s a difference between patriotism, which can be a good thing, and nationalism, which rarely is. It’s a shame “Pride” is such an ambiguous word in English, because it has many meanings that sound like they’re related, but are actually quite distinct; some very good, some deadly serious corruption.
See, annual inspections make it to visible. You get the bill for your road taxes all in one hit when you take your car in for maintenance, people are going to go a) Lose their minds at the price tag, b) Hit up black market solutions to “fix” their numbers. Being illegal is only a deterrence for getting caught breaking the law.
Hypothetically, a relatively stationary (not doing a lot of accelerating and decelerating) “Space Datacenter” would be a perfect test bed for something like Curie point radiators. Might help with the size of radiator needed to produce the same effect, but that’s probably the least difficult problem with that environment. The radiation shielding you would need would be… well astronomical.