There’s that poem(?) about that

“”"

“Get off this estate.”

“What for?”

“Because it’s mine.”

“Where did you get it?”

“From my father.”

“Where did he get it?”

“From his father.”

“And where did he get it?”

“He fought for it.”

“Well, I’ll fight you for it.”

“”"

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9358361-get-off-this-estate-what-for-because-it-s-mine-where

It’s kind of baffling to me. All of my friends are to some degree engaged in politics. But there are probably whole chunks of society that just brain rot through the day looking at memes and don’t really think about anything.

I think I kind of radicalized one of the guys I worked with just by talking to him about broad strokes of history and labor. If instead of me they had hired some bland “don’t talk about anything” standard guy, he might not have learned much. Talking to people can help.

Right. The robbery example is close to mind because someone broke into my house once, and they stole my partner at the time’s work laptop. We needed the police report to give to their workplace (I guess so they’d believe us it was stolen, or so their insurance would believe us). It was a bad situation, but it could’ve been worse if the police were like “Sorry, you’re not a subscriber”.

They did eventually catch the guy, but we didn’t get our stuff back. I don’t think they made any effort to return it. I think we both agree that the current system is really bad.

Simpsons meme where homer’s like “The worst day of your life so far”

At least right now if someone breaks into my house, I don’t have to pay the police to come make a report or whatever.

But to your point, the current state of things is also really bad, yes.

I haven’t thought through all the scenarios and edge cases, but generally spying on the public seems dicey and ripe for abuse. Especially if it’s just like “the public, all the time, whenever we feel like it,” instead of “ok we got a warrant signed by a judge to investigate Joe Bombguy”.

I don’t want the power vacuum left by removing policing to be filled by private enterprise. Amazon run police would be worse, probably.

“Included now in amazon prime: Same day detective work when you’re robbed! Non-prime users pay $88, and the detective will arrive within 14 days.”

I think I remember a sketch about this from ages ago with stephen fry in it.

It seems odd that if I’m suddenly twice as productive, I’m neither paid twice as much nor working half the hours. Ownership keeping all the profits doesn’t seem fair or like a good idea for society as a whole.

I guess everyone needs a hobby but this one sounds less rewarding to me than others.

There was a news article a while ago about maga hats saying their church was repeating “liberal talking points”, when the pastor was simply quoting Jesus.

https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706

Most of the maga hats don’t care. They found their tribe and that’s all that matters to them now.

Facts and quotes don’t change people’s minds. In-group belonging does. So long as they see you as an enemy, they won’t listen to anything you say. We’re all vulnerable to that, but maga hats seem especially vulnerable.

That always reminds me of the “missing missing reasons” post. It’s about estranged parents specifically, but I think the behavior shows up elsewhere. People’s ego is too fragile to let them remember or admit some details, and their emotions are creating their whole reality.

https://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/missing-missing-reasons.html

I would be surprised if it was as good and big as bg3. I doubt they’ll give it to a small studio with a lot of heart, so it probably won’t be good.

Though I don’t know, maybe if they gave it to whatever’s left of obsidian it wouldn’t be the worst?

I don’t think the current government is capable or interested in making sound decisions. I don’t think the public is capable of electing a better government. For profit orgs don’t have the public’s best interest as a priority. So this is bad

I feel like shithead musk always says like “working on it” but i would be surprised if he ever does any meaningful work.

He’s just such a disgrace. Like a fractal shit. No matter what part of him and his life you look at, no matter how zoomed in or out, it’s just shit. Fuck that guy.

Pete Hegseth should be removed from power.

Though the details of the Bezos wedding are highly guarded beyond the rumored $10-million budget

Ok so I’m not going to say that we all need to eat dirt so long as anyone is worse off than we are, but that’s a lot of money that could be spent on anything else.

I’m not christian but camel through the eye of a needle, man. You can’t be a good person when you’re sitting on that much wealth, and Bezos isn’t even trying.

Aren’t great on… median? Majority fall below some arbitrary standard of “decent”?

I’m not sure that detail of how it works today. I would assume that if there’s an option that is less beneficial to the wealthy, it’s not true.

In my magic wand perfect world, we just do UBI and things are much simpler for everyone.

I only learned recently that there’s a max on social security tax you pay each year. If your income is high enough, partway through the year your takehome pay jumps up because that tax is no longer applicable to you.

That’s stupid. Profoundly stupid. Ass backwards.

When your income is low, you need those dollars that are taxed. When your income is high, you don’t.

It should be like, the first (some amount) of income isn’t taxed for social security, and then the rate goes up as income goes up.

Anyone who doesn’t want to pay into social security is welcome to go live in a state of nature where they can be eaten by wolves instead of a society.

There was a rally to support Lander this afternoon. Pretty good turnout for a sudden gathering on a Tuesday.

He gave a short talk after he was released.

I feel like if Musk’s company is found guilty, it can’t just be “okay pay a little fine”. It needs to be like, “Undo the damage you did, and also pay a fine to help people deal with the damage.” And if it’s impossible for them to fix the damage they did, they can get fucked. We put people in jail for decades for smoking weed, we can put some corporate grade polluters in a cell.