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a

[LordBaal]

But plenty of places show they are better for living with free markets or without heavy interventionism and without going full soviet or even socialist. Any government that can actually put the well being of it's people before stealing everything isn't bolted to the ground (and sometimes even that) can do a good job and have the potential of becoming a good place to live.

But this is besides to point of the post, it wasn't about me. It's a call to actual facts and people needing to put the vaccine. You wanna get rid of masks and all that shit quickly, put the darn vaccine please. And maybe keep the masks whenever YOU have a bug from now on like the are used to do in Asia to avoid spreading them on daily basis to.

[Random_Dragon]

Expecting that one's interpretation of conservatism to play well with the American republican party also strikes me as a bit amusing to hear from someone from Venezuela.

Needless to say, basically the entire voter base for that party, and most of the actual politicians, would be less than receptive to the political opinions of basically anyone south of the Rio Grande, regardless of ethnicity nor whether your political opinions mesh with the party line.

They already soundly reject even calls from politicians from within their own party.

[LordBaal]

C'est la vie? It's weird sometimes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I know that in most US or foreign politician eyes I would be just dirty latin peasant, fuck for our own current rulers we are little more than obstacles... but see, we all prefer things to fall in pretty predefined categories. It makes things simpler and it goes well with our biological need of groups, also it satisfies to some extent our need of "control". One have to accept things aren't like that always or even at all and be at peace that control is only a temporary illusion at best. The most sound advice I was given once I keep giving too is, simply try to leave a better place that what you found when you leave.

[Starver]

reduced but effective government,

That's a red[1] flag right there. If it's effective it's still way too large for the kind of people we're talking about.

[1] As in Communist!

[Rolan7]

It's particularly shitty that we have vaccine doses and people are refusing to use them, when other countries don't have them.  I think NPR (radio) yesterday said the vaccination rate in Africa is like 4-6%?  And Baal's vaccine is some Chinese thing instead of the brands we have?  One of the foreign officials claimed that they're even willing to pay for the Pfizer/Moderna vaccinations but that even future production is sold out to wealthy nations.  She called it a zero-sum game.

It shouldn't be zero-sum, the companies should have made more.  A long delay was perfectly understandable, but why is there a lack of quantity NOW?  Is it really just because America and other wealthy nations want booster shots?  I honestly don't know.  Did we lose that many doses to mismanagement?  Did vaccine skepticism result in a lot of doses going bad?

Surely the corporations tried to make enough for everybody... right?   

[anewaname]

@None

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

@Kagus

I wasn't using a source, it was conjecture, flavored with dark humor, and intentionally packaged with the "derogatory nicknames" concept that pervades American politics, because no matter what story we are told, when someone wants you to accept a derogatory name for something, that name was  chosen to diminish and lessen empathy and sympathy from you to the target of the name, as a precursor to recruiting you to attack that target.

So the story we are told is that the costume designer Alan Tippet named the Mon Calamari after a salad. The name is derogatory, it still translates to "my squid". Maybe he wanted to have moving tentacles on the costume and wasn't able to do it within the time constraints, so the tentacles were abandoned and he still named the creature after his salad that did have tentacles. He wanted people to make fun of the creature/costume, to attack it.

Y'know, we could probably infer some subjugation of the rest of the galaxy under human thumb based on the fact that everyone speaks human Basic, but that's wildly baseless conjecture, too, and for a story about space wizards and a nondescript evil empire that's evil solely by being evil (and not motivated by racism or hatred or other objectively reprehensible traits), this subcontext of programmed derision seems, I dunno, paranoid, or largely beside the point of the story as a whole?

If you name a minor character after a salad, it's probably because they're a minor character and need a minor name/design on the spot, not because anyone wants you to possessively deride the character. If Admiral Ackbar was more important, we'd have remembered him for more than "it's a trap!" That line is funny because it's abrupt and obvious, but otherwise has nothing to do with the fact that Ackbar is of a species named 'Mon Calamari'.

Like, look, there's plenty in the real world to actually take up issue with, feigning outrage for the sake of feigning outrage over feigned outrage (oof) really just makes it take longer to talk about real problems.

Please note that the Mon Calamari discussion started with that image. My intention in feigning outrage was actually to mock the ass-hats like Gaetz and Cruz, who feign outrage about others trampling on their rights while they while they are supposed to be discussing real issues involving other people who are under the duress of *insert-your-favorite-form-of-exploitation-here*. I saw Cruz in the image and read "It's a trap" and it triggered me.... lol

@Micro102

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There has to be some consideration that not all the Republicans are on the same side. If you treat them as a unified group, you cannot separate them into groups of "good for this reason, bad for that reason"; and you lose the ability to help some Republicans fight against other Republicans.

This applies to the Democrats as well, because there are plenty of rotten apples in that barrel.

I've given that consideration for over 10 years now. The last straw was Trump's entire presidency. All the shit that's happened and they refuse to do anything about it. They couldn't even vote to kick the Qanon loving, Jewish space laser conspiracy spreading senator from her duties. Republicans fall in line every time. The only discourse is in the democrats, because it's made up of everyone left of bat-shit crazy right.

Yeah, I agree with this. The "fall-in-line or be ousted" mantra has been a successful approach for the ass-hats that currently call themselves Republicans. Every Republican that dissented gets branded a traitor by other Republicans, and I still hope Liz Cheney will survive the churn.

I associate this problem with the election system, where an independent candidate can take votes from another candidate. It leads to that "fall in line with the group or be punished" attitude. I am hoping rank-choice voting gets more usage, because it clearly would allow the majority to say "anyone but that guy" but still allow "that guy" to get brought in at the local or state level where their politics do have a majority backing. This seems fundamentally correct for "representation".

@delphonso

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That's true, anewname, and I assume is in response to my blanket statement against Republicans. To clarify, the overarching message/goals of the Republican party are those which do not align with evidence. Topics include but are not limited to: evolution, covid19, climate change, systemic racism, and economics.

All of these are likely to (and occasionally already have) reach the Supreme Court.

Yeah, I tend to attack blanket statements (even if my attack is simply a statement like "but this governing policy/directive still needs to be followed". I am firmly against all of the ass-hat politics from guys like Gaetz and Cruz. They do not attempt to come to agreement over what the reality is, but instead attempt to escalate conversations into conflict and disagreement.

[Starver]

(Blanket statements are all bad!)

[Sirus]

Something something only Sith deal in absolutes.

[delphonso]

anewname, you have to recognize that pushing the blame onto Cruz and Gaetz as outliers is a coping mechanism. These guys aren't on the fringe - they're hugely influential to the Republican party. They are who the news follows, who represent the Republicans, and who shape policy and stances of the party as a whole. Look at the previous RNC - Golden statues of Trump and panels on how to deal with "being cancelled on Twitter". Like it or not, Cruz and Gaetz are the new norm for the GOP, they're not outliers. Appointments of judges and any other officials is going to aim at the middle of the party, which is consistently moving further Right and further from any reality.

[Gentlefish]

I'm on board with a lot of that. But really, replace "government" with "state". Public governing bodies (someone has to manage the infrastructure and public funds) are good but the monopoly of violence afforded to our governance, not so much. Our "law enforcement" systems in the state basically only report to themselves which is why all the protests.

I also don't know why people are so up-in-arms over free markets like they're only Capitalist. Free markets are fine? But the workers not owning their labor sucks. I'd like to see Democracy in the workplace. Unions for everyone, CEOs should be held accountable to them and not some dumb people who just want their money to make more money screw the consequences.

anewname, you have to recognize that pushing the blame onto Cruz and Gaetz as outliers is a coping mechanism. These guys aren't on the fringe - they're hugely influential to the Republican party. They are who the news follows, who represent the Republicans, and who shape policy and stances of the party as a whole. Look at the previous RNC - Golden statues of Trump and panels on how to deal with "being cancelled on Twitter". Like it or not, Cruz and Gaetz are the new norm for the GOP, they're not outliers. Appointments of judges and any other officials is going to aim at the middle of the party, which is consistently moving further Right and further from any reality.

Yeah, the Republican party is basically already set on running DeSantis for President in 2024 they're grooming him so hard. It's a growing trend. Not to mention Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert being certifiably conspiracy nuts and Gingrich still being Gingrich. It's not going away until the party does at this point. There's a bit of fight from more "traditional" Republicans still, and it's hopefully going to cause a split BUT they're more likely to just moan while voting in step with the radicals.

[Iduno]

The Gamestop thing also demonstrated that when regular people actually do hit a good idea the system will actively try have pre-emptively stacked the deck to fuck those individuals over to protect companies that're out to game the system. for profits

[Laterigrade]

The Gamestop thing also demonstrated that when regular people actually do hit a good idea the system will actively try have pre-emptively stacked the deck to fuck those individuals over to protect companies that're out to game the system. for profits

pfft I thought that that was the original post and you’d just reposted it wholesale; a ‘ftfy’ wouldn’t have been out of place

[Starver]

Apropos of nothing, but I thought Ameripol would appreciate hearing this...

One of the apps I willingly support by viewing in-app ads just gave me one ad for a Muslim Dating App one moment, and one from Fox News shortly after.

They've obviously got me pinned down fairly accurately in their database, right..?

(To be fair, I also have had a Christian Dating App pop up that way, before. Maybe they just think I need to find someone new, and they're not too bothered if it's Dan Bongino or Shamima Begum.)

[Gentlefish]

I live five minutes from the WA border and I had a full-screen popup today for a bluetooth-based contact tracer from the Washington Health Department.

why the FUCK wasn't this developed sooner? It pings nearby phones with the same app over bluetooth (a secure protocol) and checks if they've reported a positive test in the past 14 days, then alerts you that you've been near/in contact with someone who might be contagious. All anonymously and locally without "scary gubmint tracking" due to the design of bluetooth.

God I'd love to see something like this become popular enough to actually be useful.