The problem with China being that it’s authoritarian, not that it’s capitalist or communist. There’s no choice other than the Communist Party, so when the party is wildly corrupt, you have no recourse at all short of revolution. And we all know what China does to counter-revolutionaries.
…You’re really saying that one party where you have no functional choice is better than a multi-party system, just because you think that Republicans and Dems are too alike, while ignoriing the plethora of other parties that not only actually exist in the US, but hold office at local and state level?
While it is true that there was inexpensive housing available in the USSR, and that rents were quite reasonable compared to anything that currently exists in the US, and people couldn’t readily be evicted if they lacked the ability to pay, it’s a flat-out lie to say that that was the “solution” to homelessness, or that it eliminated the problem. Rather, the USSR criminalized being homeless and not being engaged in socially-productive labor; people that were homeless ended up in prisons and were labelled as parasites. The problem that we have now is that the official records simply didn’t record the problem, in much the same way that Stalin had histories and photos revised to eliminate people that had become enemies of the state.
“Lemming” is used to refer to people that use Lemmy (lemmy.world, lemm.ee, etc.). Give that you have to have an account to post, you are def. a lemming.
Like having a good life insurance policy that pays out even if you die doing something stupid? And maybe having a fake tooth filled with cyanide so you can go out quickly instead of dying of exposure?
Honestly, they’re pretty neat. I’ve gone through tours of Mammoth Caves that require waivers, and they strongly recommend that you not take that tour if any part of you has a circumference of more than 42", because you won’t fit. There was a spot that was about 12" high, and 72-ish wide that you had to crawl through that took a sharp right; you had to take your helmet off to get through. But then you get out into this enormous cavern filled with rock formations that are seen by less 100 people/year.
But if I didn’t know that that crack was passable, that I’d be able to get through or get back out again? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.
SCUBA is even worse because any movement kicks up sediment, so that visibility quickly turns to nil. Cave diving has a very, very high mortality rate; BASE jumping is safer.
I’d argue that the problem isn’t so much saying that you’re a vegan because X, Y, Z, but that very often vegans extend that to moral judgements about people that aren’t vegan, without accepting that there are reasons someone may not wish to be a vegan. Y’know, god forbid that you tell a vegan that you hunt your own meat, and only kill/eat invasive species that are disrupting the ecosystem, like feral pigs, or lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico.
No, that’s a core belief of Buddhism. You move up or down as you achieve–or lose–enlightenment, and once you’ve extinguished all desire, you achieve enlightenment and nirvana. Hindu might also have beliefs in reincarnation, but IDK.
Huh? No, of course you can’t, because you’d first have to be able to prove that any person in question had lived a previous life, and that kind of belief isn’t falsifiable.
If the whole thing could be proven or disproven, then it would be science and not religion.
I’ve absolutely, definitely met people IRL that have argued in exactly the way I outline. …Although “argue” is charitable, since they’re just haranguing their victim subject. I’ve also known plenty of people that claim that they know they aren’t going to change the mind of the person they’re verbally assaulting–because people can’t change, I guess?–but that they want to win the hearts of the people observing. …Which they also aren’t doing, since they’re appearing to be mean-spirited to observers. (And yes, there’s nuance here, and I still firmly believe in punching Nazis.)
David McRaney has been talking for a while about what actually works for changing the way people think and believe (and he just recently published, “How Minds Change”), and Anthony Magnabosco has been posting street epistemology videos on YouTube for years. Both of them have found–to be really reductive–that you need to emotionally connect with the person you’re talking to, and you need to ask open-ended questions that allow them to consider the foundations for their beliefs.
And to your point, yes, that’s hard to do online. I get it. I often fall into the trap of arguing instead of being empathetic. So I need to take my own advice.
FWIW, I am very much a leftist. I’m mostly an anarchist, although I also recognize that having a large, diverse, functioning society is extremely difficult–bordering on impossible–without some degree of authoritarian control. (And I’ve also seen just how paralyzed radically democratic groups can get, when they have to vote on everything.) I want the people on the left, the people that want a more equal society, to do better, because I think we can be better.
Being kind to people–not fake kindness, not kindness with an agenda, but just kind–can go a long ways for leftists. For women, well, I’m not a woman. But having women as friends and them being open with me about what they experienced as women went a long way towards opening my eyes.
And, FWIW, I started from a position of being deeply conservative, very religious, and having absolutist views on gender identity and gender roles, and the godly nature of capitalism.
There’s actually some useful information here if you ignore the hyperbole.
If you act like a jerk and are mean to people, you will drive people away from your causes, even if you are taking a position that is strongly defensible from a moral and ethical view. If you take the view that “I don’t have to do the emotional labor to educate you, OMG read some theory, you’re fucking stupid if you can’t understand this, you don’t deserve to live if you think Y,” etc. you aren’t going to win people over. And yes, if you are always acting like an asshole, you’re probably going to drive people away that believe similarly to you, because they won’t want to be associated with assholes. That’s human nature, and something that you need to learn to contend with if you want to win adherents to any political or social position.
In other words: leftists and feminists, fucking get over yourselves.. You may not want to put in the emotional labor because it’s exhausting, but you know who will? Fascists, nationalists, misogynists, and religious fundamentalists. If you just want to make fun of and vent at people on the right, you’re only creating a more insular group that more and more people are going to end up hating. See also: hexbear,
I was being serious. She made art history–which is normally a fairly dry subject, particularly when you’re covering art before 1100CE–a really fun and engaging subject.
No; adjunct faculty can also rightly be called professor without having achieved a doctorate. I’ve had a few professors that had BAs and MFAs (esp. since I’m not sure that there are PhD programs for fine arts).
I had an art history professor that insisted on being called doctor; she said she’d put in a lot of time and spent a lot of money to get that degree, and so she wanted to get her money’s worth.
I don’t think that the issue is that people don’t know; people don’t care. They don’t understand how horrible the loss of privacy is, and think that the marginal convenience of being able to control your thermostat from your workplace, or have your refrigerator add milk to your shopping list outweighs the negatives of them being turned into botnets, or monetizing all of your data to squeeze every last penny out of you.
Aside from an episode of Strange New Worlds (and possible in Wrath of Khan, depending on your perspective), space pirates aren’t brought up as a risk to the Federation starships, presumably because they usually aren’t. Shields alone should be sufficient for debris and asteroids, since shields appear to stop physical objects as well as certain forms of energy (obvs. not certain bands of light though, or whatever bands their sensors use). Non- and quasi-sentient species shouldn’t pose any risk to a starship at all (aside from possibly omniscient comets, thank you Stanislaw Lem). The weapons on a starship are appropriate to direct against planetary settlements, bases, and other starships.
Fundamentally, I believe Mao was correct on this; the ability to use violence effectively is the lowest common denominator for all power. Everything else is a veneer of civility intended to disguise the violence that is inherent to all forms of coercive rule.
…And yet, the Enterprise is armed. If power does not come from the ability to effectively use violence, but from some other means, then why would the Federation arm it’s flagship?
If it wasn’t for the fact that the BATF has decided that simunitions are too dangerous for civilians, you could still do this. There’s a company that produces non-lethal ammunition that can be used in certain models of regular firearms–with modifications–so that you can quite safely shoot someone at near-contact ranges. Obviously your long range accuracy is not great. It will break skin, but so will AirSoft.
Communist Filth/Capitalist Filth (lemmy.ml)
Former religious lemmings, what made you quit religion or stop being a believer?
Mostly trying to relate.
Why do it (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
*Crickets* (lemmy.zip)
Free sex... (party)*… Become poor dog (lemmy.world)
I used to think X (sopuli.xyz)
Pronouns. (mander.xyz)
‘People have no idea’: How smart devices spy on us and reveal information about our homes (english.elpais.com)
historical materialism moment (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/7802418...
Nonlethal sporting duelist firing wax bullets, New York, 1909 (lemmy.world)
Seeing people realize they cant openly criticize a certain group committing genocide or they may lose their jobs (lemmy.ml)
if youre am*rican its illegal to boycott them.