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TheDemonBuer

@ TheDemonBuer @lemmy.world

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3 yr. ago

  • An uplifting message for you.

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  • I feel like our whole lives here in the US we've been told to expect things to just generally keep getting better, seemingly forever. Like, that's the narrative of "progress." The economy just keeps growing, the nation just keeps getting richer, technology just keeps getting better, living standards just keep getting better, so forth and so on. But, that was probably never realistic, or even feasible. I mean, no civilization progresses forever. Essentially every civilization that's ever existed has followed a pattern of ascension followed by decline. Many of the most notable civilizations ascended very quickly and dramatically, and then collapsed just as quickly and dramatically. Why should we expect to be any different? What makes us think we won't follow the same pattern as basically every other civilization in history?

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    What a reporter found when she returned to Cuba after last trip 3 years ago

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  • Even before the U.S. attacked Venezuela, Cuba was struggling with severe blackouts, soaring prices and scarcity of basic goods. Experts say that a disruption in oil shipments from Venezuela and now Mexico could unleash a potentially catastrophic crisis, especially since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba.

    Overall, many Cubans I’ve interviewed have shrugged off what could be impending doom, with experts saying that the Trump administration aims to spark a popular uprising in hopes that a new government will be established. But Cubans have said they will not be manipulated by outside forces. Meanwhile, some are preparing even though they doubt an invasion is looming. Those who can afford it are installing solar panels, while others are growing their own produce.

    To any of my fellow Americans reading this who still support this strategy for whatever reason, you need to understand that this strategy DOES NOT WORK. Trying to get the people of a country to overthrow their government by making their lives really hard through external means, DOES NOT WORK. The people don't blame their government, they blame YOU. WE are the foreigners involving ourselves in THEIR country's affairs. Even if they don't like their government, they will see US as the greater threat. And rightfully so. In fact, it will likely influence many of the people who had been upset with their government to start supporting their government, at least conditionally, because now they and their government have a common enemy. By supporting this strategy, you are HELPING the repressive government stay in power. You're not making things better! STOP! I don't care what your fucking intentions are, you're NOT helping the people. So, unless cruelty is the point, unless you just want to hurt Cuban people, fucking STOP!

  • Guess What Moderate Democratic Voters Aren’t Anymore? Moderate.

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  • There was a neoliberal consensus in place for a good three decades, and moderate Democrats were absolutely a part of that consensus group. Then the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath happened, and the consensus fell apart. That doesn't mean neoliberalism went away immediately following the crisis. Neoliberalism was still the consensus among most elites, but in the general populace the consensus collapsed. The "silent majority" neoliberal middle shrunk, with some going further to the right and some going further to the left.

    That's essentially where we've been since: without a popular consensus. In the absence of a popular consensus, different ideological groups have been competing for control. Liberals, socialists, reactionaries, and even fascists, right libertarians and anarchists. But through it all, no real majority consensus has yet emerged. Trump has thrived in the absence of a consensus by leveraging the resentment of various groups to seize as much control as possible, and different groups, both foreign and domestic, have opportunitistically latched onto the Trump movement to try and get what they can. Trump has been a useful idiot for several disparate groups, that are not necessarily ideologically aligned.

    We might be seeing a new majority consensus emerge, however. Maybe. It's hard to say. But there are signs that things could be moving in that direction. But it's not socialism, it's good old fashioned, new deal, Keynesian social democracy. And a very, VERY watered down, pro-markets version of it, at that. America is such a conservative country that we can't allow ourselves to look forward to new possibilities, only back to what's already been done. We're so backward that economic policies from the 1930s seem radical to us.

  • God bless the Midwest

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  • I'm drinking my dinner plans right now. But I drive by a Culver's all the time. I'll definitely stop in someday soon and give it a try.

  • Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds

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  • If warming continues to accelerate, we'll hit 2C before 2050.

  • God bless the Midwest

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  • Yeah.

  • God bless the Midwest

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  • I've never been to Culver's. Is it any good?

  • The US-Israel relationship is finally facing a reckoning. It doesn't need to slide into antisemitism | Joel Swanson

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  • I don't hate Jews. But I don't want Israel controlling US foreign policy, either. Israel is not a part of the US. It's not a US State or territory. Israel is an independent nation, if they want to bomb Iran that's their business. I don't agree with it, but it's not my country. But Israel wants to have the US on a leash, like we're their own personal attack dog. That does affect me. That's MY fucking government they're controlling. That fucking pisses me off. I don't fucking care that they're Jews. It would piss me off if they were Muslim or any other religion or ethnicity. Israel needs to stay the fuck out of my government. They have their own government. Go back to your own government and get the hell out of mine.

  • Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds

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  • “An important caveat, however, is that the acceleration may prove temporary,” said Beaulieu, who has published on the topic but was not involved in the new study. She added that the strong El Niño of 1998 also produced a period of apparent anomalous warming.

    “The relative slowdown that followed was interpreted as evidence of a pause in global warming,” she said. “Continued monitoring over the next several years will be essential to determine whether the accelerated warming rate identified here represents a lasting shift or a transient feature of natural variability.”

    It might be temporary. It might be transient. Then again, it might not be. We'd be taking a huge risk by proceeding on the assumption that it will only be temporary. If we're wrong the consequences could be severe. Maybe some people are willing to risk the future on hope, but I don't think that's a wise decision.

    You ever hear the saying: hope for the best, prepare for the worst? We're not prepared. Not even close. It's true the worst case scenario isn't likely, but it is possible. And worse case, though not necessarily worst care scenarios are also possible, and more likely. We're not prepared for those either.

  • Pastors gather in Oval Office to ‘pray for Donald Trump’ amidst Iran War

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  • I talked to god just now and he said Trump is a dipshit.

  • Gen-Z identical twins model civility as political foes

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  • Yeah, "civility" and decorum aren't solutions to our problem. They can help mask over ideological divisions, but only ever temporarily. The fact is, it's not possible for the United States to adopt contrasting, mutually exclusive ideologies simultaneously.

    The US cannot be, for instance, both fully socialist and fully capitalist at the same time, or fully autocratic and fully democratic at the same time. It is possible for a compromise to be struck, in which parts of each ideology are adopted to form some kind of "hybrid" model, and that might seem reasonable, but that almost always results in half measures and policies that are knee capped from their inception, making them ineffective at achieving their stated goal.

    And not all ideologies are equally capable of achieving the same goal, assuming they even have the same goal. Again, autocracy and democracy are mutually exclusive. The goals of autocracy supporters and the goals of democracy supporters are in direct opposition to one another. I suppose you could try and form some kind of hybrid between the two, but, besides being ridiculous and nonfunctioning, it wouldn't fully satisfy either the autocrats or the democrats, and they would be constantly looking for ways to undermine the other with the aim of fully implementing their system.

    And then of course not all ideologies are equally ethical. No rational person is going to claim that a violent, genocidal fascist government is as ethical as a democracy that protects basic human rights for all.

    That being said, humans are complicated, and it is often the case that no ideology fully captures all of those complexities, regardless of how ethical it is, in theory or in practice. And we should strive to be intellectually honest enough to recognize when our preferred ideology falls too far short of capturing enough of our human complexity to be viable. But still, that means the solution is a better ideology, not necessarily ideological plurality.

  • Honest Americans

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  • Americans now longer have the power to reign in the executive branch. At least not without a new and more confrontational strategy.

    What was the old strategy?

  • Global economy must stop pandering to ‘frivolous desires of ultra-rich’, says UN expert

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  • The practical incentives are there already, but far too many people are too greedy and shortsighted to recognize them. There are long term negative consequences to prioritizing short term individual gains over long term, sustainable prosperity for all. And achieving that sustainable prosperity does not require people to replace self interest with altruism, it requires that people to adopt a more enlightened, forward looking self interest. It's getting people to understand that overindulgence and a zero sum mentality today, without thought for the consequences tomorrow is not self interest, it's self destruction.

    If that can't work then civilization is fucked.

  • Military Leaders Say Iran War Is So Trump Can Bring About “Armageddon”

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  • Jesus.

  • U.S. Automakers Risk Being Reduced to Niche Producers of Gas Vehicles

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  • Eventually your auto insurance will go up to the point where it's unaffordable to drive yourself.

    Then I'll sell my car for scrap and walk or bike. And when I can't walk or bike anymore, well, there's always mobility scooters.

  • U.S. Automakers Risk Being Reduced to Niche Producers of Gas Vehicles

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  • Everyone suddenly has their own personal drivers.

    I don't want a driver. Even if I had enough money to pay a personal chauffeur, I wouldn't want one. I prefer to drive my own car.

    But maybe I'm in the minority on that one. Maybe most people would prefer self-driving cars. That's fine, I guess, but I just hope someone keeps making regular cars, because I ain't interested in being driven around by a robot.

    Ideally I'd be able to live in a city or town designed around people, not cars. So I wouldn't have to own a car, autonomous driving or otherwise, to get around.

  • U.S. Automakers Risk Being Reduced to Niche Producers of Gas Vehicles

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  • Yeah, but the whole point of a car is autonomy and independence. The person's, not the car's. If you're looking for someone, or something, to transport you places, buses and trains are much cheaper and safer.

  • BREAKING NEWS - Israeli media reports Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leader of Iran, was killed inside his bunker

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  • Pretty sure they didn't have autonomy for quite a few decades now.

    That's true. The Iranian nation hasn't had its own autonomy for some time. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

    In you're little analogy is the abusive dad always saying he wants to kill me and was handing out guns to people in the neighbourhood, telling them to take shots at me, which resulted in one of my kids getting killed? Then the abusive dad starts putting together a bazooka, all the while saying he's going to kill me?

    I mean, if you want to expand the analogy, let's talk about how the neighborhood vigilante has been interfering in the affairs of the family of the abusive father, long before the abusive father was even in power. Like in 1951 when the family's parliament voted to nationalize their oil industry and as a result the vigilante and his old friend helped carry out a coup of the family's democratically elected prime minister (operation Ajax), and replaced him with an autocrat. Or in 1980 when the vigilante aided another abusive dad, a fella by the name of Saddam Hussein, in his invasion of the home of the abusive father and his family. An invasion and war that resulted in half a million deaths, and that Hussein guy using chemical weapons against the poor family.

    It's dishonest to talk only of the crimes of the abusive father but not acknowledge the crimes of vigilante. And that's the thing about vigilantism: answering crimes with crimes is not a viable or moral solution. It's lawlessness and chaos, and a self perpetuating cycle of violence.

    Very bizarre to attempt of some analogy to be all "think of the children" over a guy that was such a terrible person.

    Well, that terrible person is dead. Now what? You gonna take care of those kids? Or are you just going to wait until another abusive father comes and takes the places of the one you just killed?

  • More Americans disapprove than approve of U.S. strikes against Iran

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  • "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."

    It frustrates me beyond words that we can't even get 51% of Americans to agree on something like this, which I think is so obvious. But, that's where we are as a country. I suppose I need to have enough wisdom to accept that.

  • Pete Hegseth snarls at reporter's 'gotcha question' when pressed on Iran war endgame

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  • We're going to execute at his command the objectives we've set out to achieve

    And what are those?

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    Canada PM's Speech at the WEF

  • No Man's Sky @lemmy.world
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    I love the new Corvettes, but they kind of break the game

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    Analysis: The fertility crisis is here and it will permanently alter the economy | CNN Business

    www.cnn.com /2024/06/25/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html