The will and the resources have been there trying to move in this direction for a long time. I do agree that he’s absolutely fast tracked the process. His complete disregard for civility, shameless willingness to grift, and transparently transactional nature have enabled the absolute worst in us. From hateful, racist poor folks to deranged religious nutjobs to narcissistic billionaires - they’ve all been given the green light now.

I just hope that everyone takes note of which side people are on and, when this is all over, make sure that the memory of those who stood on the wrong side of history are so shamed, ostracized, disgraced, and hated that this shit doesn’t happen again.

To be fair, Trump is not the source of the problem. He’s a Heritage Foundation puppet, and those psychos kind of have people everywhere right now.

Also serves as a loyalty/obedience test AND gives him an excuse to punish anyone who disobeys. Tow the line or be targeted. Then when the real fascist shit starts you’ve slowly eliminated anyone with the balls to resist.

Google, Facebook, etc. have been burning money to gain market share and “good will” from users knowing that when the money faucet stopped or if they found a way to make money, they’d abuse their market share and squeeze their users for profit.

Once interest rates increased and the VC infinite money glitch went away (borrow at low interest rates, gamble on companies, repeat), the masks came off and the screws started turning, hard. Anything they can do to monetize anyone else involved, they’re trying.

The same story has been happening with AI but without the infinite money glitch - just investors desperate for a good bet getting hyped to hell and back. They need adoption and they need business to become dependent on their product. Each of these companies are basically billions in the hole on AI.

Users, especially technical users, should know that not only is the product failing to live up to the hype but that embracing AI is basically turning the other cheek for these companies to have their way with your wallet even faster and more aggressively than they already are with everything else they’ve given away.

He’s not a crybaby. He’s trying to make dissent illegal in preparation for a fascist takeover of the government.

To be fair… since the Xbox and PS4, those console families have used the same architecture as PCs. If I remember correctly, Xbox consoles actually run a custom version of Windows and use DirectX.

My interpretation of this might be different, but I agree wholeheartedly with my interpretation.

Being morally just doesn’t just mean “not causing harm” directly. It means striving to not cause harm both directly and indirectly. As someone who lives in the USA, our entire society is built off of exploitation. The less expensive something is, the more heavy the exploitation likely is. The cheapest manufacturing is done in countries where labor is exploited or even enslaved, where the manufacturing process can pollute and poison the area with little consequence (to the manufacturer), and where the powerful can force deals on the government to let them extract valuable resources and pay a fraction of its value - depriving the locals and nation prosperity. Even when buying US food products, the food industry mostly relies on extremely poor conditions for the animals it keeps, taking advantage of farmers it buys from or employs, and may even employ migrant children for dangerous slaughterhouse labor.

Avoiding these kinds of practices throughout most supply chains is sometimes impossible and usually more expensive the more thoroughly you manage to avoid the practices. Even then someone has to check in and constantly verify that the practices are legitimately avoided and not just greenwashing or fraudulent.

It’s really quite depressing.

AI generated images are basically tossing a bunch of art you didn’t create into a machine that consumes an enormous amount of resources and then claiming the end result as original art. It’s the same just burning way more resources needlessly.

Bad analogy, but we can agree to disagree.

Actually, the worldwide tariffs may have accelerated worldwide dedollarization. The world may move away from considering the American dollar the most safe and stable currency. That would impact the US’s ability to borrow by increasing interest rates for bonds, spiking the national debt. This is what is believed to have spooked Trump into “pausing” tariffs at 10% or whatever the fuck he’s saying now.

It’s victim blaming. In cases of domestic violence do you blame the abuser for abusing or the abused for not finding a way out? Do you congratulate the person not dealing with that situation for being smart enough to see that the abused should know better?

There is a difference between complacency and subjugation. We can agree to disagree.

In the US it seems that people are so ignorant that ad budget determines election outcomes. People don’t really want progressive policies, they are content with bread and circus.

There is a difference between being “content with bread and circus” and being deliberately psychologically overwhelmed and subjected to propaganda for generations. I have no illusions that, as victims, we need to be saved. We must save ourselves. Still, I think that compassion is required. Telling people they are too stupid and impotent to stand up for themselves will just make them defensive.

If you are in Europe and just want to feel better about yourself then have at it. Just don’t forget that wannabe Nazis are making a come back there too, and if powerful people in the US can get rich with this strategy you might be next.

That’s an extremely flawed take. Europeans wouldn’t vote against universal healthcare because Europe has experienced universal healthcare for decades. It spread throughout Europe in an extremely transformative time - while rebuilding from the destruction of WWII.

Americans are far more isolated than Europeans in many ways, and that also prevents us from truly understanding these kinds of issues. You can visit another country like we visit another state. This lets you experience so much more diversity of ideas than America gets.

Americans are fed lies by everyone around them because the lies let those in power keep power and make more money. We’ve been slowly drained of our ability to flourish. We spend an increasing amount of effort just surviving. We’re stressed and tired of the political turmoil, which lets politicians further strip us of our power.

I won’t deny that there are stupid, racist, willfully ignorant people here. I just don’t blame them for all of their ignorance. In order to learn, you need to be given the resources and opportunity to do so. Those in power here have worked very hard and spent a lot of money trying to prevent them from getting those things and feeding them lies about an alternate reality that maintains the status quo or further empowers the ruling class.

i felt the israel thing has much less of effect on voters than you think

Ok. I’m sorry you feel that way.

When a progressive candidate runs in a primary, the party itself sabotages them. The party leadership and party-favored candidates lie about the policies. The party prioritizes centrists with their funding.

The American public is one Facebook ad away from voting for a face eating Leopard.

In part, yes. I am arguing that you can’t ignore the fact that the democratic party itself paid for that Facebook ad.

Harris represented the Democratic party, but conceded numerous Republican talking points like immigration, highlighted that she was a gun owner, and campaigned with the Cheneys. Kamala refused to take a strong stance on Gaza giving little more than lip service to Palestinians and their supporters, rarely talked about ideas like universal healthcare or wealth inequality, and dismissed the general concerns about the economy.

Voters failed, yes. They failed to turn out and prevent the obvious danger of another Trump presidency or were ignorant enough to vote for him. However, the Democratic leadership also failed. They hid the state of Joe Biden from the public until the last minute. They failed to engage their base and, for the third election in a row, boosted a middling candidate over progressive candidates and then relied on negative campaigni against Trump to provide enough of a turnout.

Their Dogs Were Astronauts - Progressive, Djenty. Hard to pick a favorite track or album.

Opeth - Started as progressive death metal but they have gotten more chill and progressive and experimental over time. Favorites for me are Blackwater Park (on the harsher end of the spectrum), Windowpane (chill end of the spectrum), Reverie / Harlequin Forest.

The writing is already on the wall for Hegseth. Is he trying to pretend he deserves some credit for being a maverick?

Lol. https://news.gallup.com/poll/653489/majorities-back-stricter-gun-laws-assault-weapons-ban.aspx

Sorry everyone, forget everything I said. This one person says that the first reason in my list of reasons of why it can be effective to form a tenants union isn’t a big deal in their state. I guess that miraculously invalidates all of my other points that aren’t related the legal fees of the eviction process. Obviously, it also applies to every other state, even if the fees thing is different there for some reason.