Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Max™]

If you don't vote, you're not just irrelevant. You're invisible.

I do enjoy being invisible to powerful entities that think they can attack me without consequence, you have a good point.

People have opinions about so many things they don't remember until you prompt them that any kind of serendipitous coverage of the population is hopeless.

Hmmm, seems like the problem is either people, or opinions, so I'll throw my hat into the ring.

GIVE UP YOUR SILLY OPINIONS AND BASELESS BELIEFS, IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ME, AS IN LITERALLY RIGHT HERE IN THIS ROOM, REJOICE THAT YOU SHALL BE CHAFF FOR THE MACHINE AND AS THE PILOT OF THE MACHINE I SHALL USE IT TO RAIN DOWN FIRE AND PAIN ON ALL WHO OPPOSE ME, IN A TRULY FAIR AND BALANCED FASHION!

Vote Me, Or Else!

Also blockchain=public ledger, there, it's demystified entirely now, you're welcome.

[Kagus]

Also blockchain=public ledger, there, it's demystified entirely now, you're welcome.

Metal Gear!?!

[Madman198237]

GIVE UP YOUR SILLY OPINIONS AND BASELESS BELIEFS, IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ME, AS IN LITERALLY RIGHT HERE IN THIS ROOM

Cue the Max™ World Destruction Party's fragmentation over the definition of "this room".

[Max™]

There is no party except the rockin' permaparty which will be thrown by people who don't ask questions that lead to those problems.

[Trekkin]

If you don't vote, you're not just irrelevant. You're invisible.

I do enjoy being invisible to powerful entities that think they can attack me without consequence, you have a good point.

Those entities are right, you know, although they don't think of it as attacking you. They see it as taking what they want without anyone they can see stopping them, much like how we don't think of farming as an attack on crops.

[PTTG??]

If you don't vote, you're not just irrelevant. You're invisible.

I do enjoy being invisible to powerful entities that think they can attack me without consequence, you have a good point.

People have opinions about so many things they don't remember until you prompt them that any kind of serendipitous coverage of the population is hopeless.

Hmmm, seems like the problem is either people, or opinions, so I'll throw my hat into the ring.

GIVE UP YOUR SILLY OPINIONS AND BASELESS BELIEFS, IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ME, AS IN LITERALLY RIGHT HERE IN THIS ROOM, REJOICE THAT YOU SHALL BE CHAFF FOR THE MACHINE AND AS THE PILOT OF THE MACHINE I SHALL USE IT TO RAIN DOWN FIRE AND PAIN ON ALL WHO OPPOSE ME, IN A TRULY FAIR AND BALANCED FASHION!

Vote Me, Or Else!

Also blockchain=public ledger, there, it's demystified entirely now, you're welcome.

Voting is the first and least expensive way to apply consequences to the powerful.

[Hanslanda]

Tannerite and small arms is the second.

[Trekkin]

Tannerite and small arms is the second.

Well, no; the systems oppressing you would not have lasted so long if amateur chemistry and bloodlust could topple them. For one thing, everything you can do is less than a rounding error at the scales on which "the powerful" operate, but even if it weren't, killing powerful people just leaves the boot on your neck empty for the next available foot to fill. The names and the nations may change, but ultimately the problems remain because, and I feel that this is something we really need to keep in mind before we go try to wage an actual War on Those Bastards, the problems with oppressive systems are a product of the system and not the people in it and even bad ideas are bulletproof. You can't gun down the profit motive or explode neoliberalism, and the holes left when you try will always be filled by whatever's maximally profitable (and thus minimally compassionate) because that's the most stable configuration of the system. Those bastards you're imagining holding at gunpoint literally can't afford to be scared into being nicer on any long-lasting basis.

There are ways to actually fix the problem, but one of the reasons our current dystopia is so resilient is that it channels all the Internet Tough Guy impulses of impotently unhappy dudes toward people rather than policies, and as above, so below: people are replaceable, from the C-suite to the factory floor.

[smjjames]

Neoliberalism kind of exploded itself really. Also, at some point those Internet Tough Guy impulses are going to get aimed at policies rather than being channeled into an embodiment of Internet Tough Guy impulses since they'll get angry that the people aren't changing the policies no matter how many times they replace the people.

That's kind of what happened in 2016 I guess. Just that it happened to be channeled into an embodiment of Internet Tough Guy impulses.

[Reelya]

Things like Trump's election were because the party-reality (both sides) drifted away from the actual reality. The mainstream establishment of both parties were pro-globalization, but against the globalization ideas of the other party. Then, circumstances change post-2008-recession and now you have a backlash against globalization in general, which neither party's establishment were able to tap into. Trump tapped into that.

[smjjames]

If the so called tax cut is any indication, the Republicans are still pro-globalist and haven't figured out how to tap into it other than simply mimicking Trump. The Democrats meanwhile seem to be trying to change or starting to realize that they need to change. We'll have to see how well that holds up I suppose.

[Lord Shonus]

In a slightly different direction, one of the local car electronics shops is holding a "tariff sale", claiming that they bought a ton of stuff before the tariffs hit, and now can beat all their competitors who have to charge tariffed prices. There's been a lot of indicators that Trump's trade war is causing major economic damage, but those aren't in the public consciousness to the extent that a successful company's radio ad is.

[Reelya]

It sounds like pure marketing BS. If they bought things before the tariffs hit then the optimal strategy would be to wait until the prices rise then sell the stuff then. What they are doing is just using fear of the tariffs to drive short-term sales to clear their old stock, which makes sense since electronics become obsolete very quickly.

[PTTG??]

I think political globalization (or, to put it in other words, world peace) is not only acceptable but an admirable goal that all governments must strive for. I also think that political globalization without mutual dependence (economic globalism) is exceedingly difficult to impossible.

What people have hated ever since 2008 wasn't globalism, it was power being invested in unanswerable corporations. Weakening the US's involvement with global policing and economics is only making international mega-corporations stronger.

Trump was only ever good at being a con man, and not a smart one.

[Lord Shonus]

It sounds like pure marketing BS. If they bought things before the tariffs hit then the optimal strategy would be to wait until the prices rise then sell the stuff then. What they are doing is just using fear of the tariffs to drive short-term sales to clear their old stock, which makes sense since electronics become obsolete very quickly.

I think you're missing the point I was after - I know it's just marketing.

My point was that this illustrates how well awareness of the tariffs, and the idea that tariffs are Bad and Cost Me Money, currently are. The fact that fear of the tariffs is a useful marketing ploy is politically significant in and of itself.