They’re not referring to the federal road tax , but the $0.009 in the price.
The US actually has a legal denomination that is 1/10 of a cent, called a mill. It’s 1/1000 of a dollar. It’s very rarely used, and was never actually minted. The closest we had were 1/2 cent coins (5 mills), but those were short lived coin denominations in the 1700’s.
So, why do gas stores get to use mills in their prices? I don’t know, but I’m sure they do it either for a legal reason that outdated, because they get to derive extra profit per transaction, or because it’s an extreme form of the ¢99 advertising trick.
Well the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and the state gas tax where I am is 28.5 cents per gallon, for a total of 46.9 cents per gallon, that’s where the $0.009 comes from.
It’s not the figure that’s the problem, but the fact that Americans have been forced to accept this sort of casual deception in how the price of a standard good is advertised. Why is it okay that getting gas for “$3.50” per gallon (to quote the most visible price, which everyone will mention in conversation and mentally reference for comparison) is actually very slightly less than $3.51 per gallon? Just post the correct bloody price, in a clear and unambiguous manner, without faffing around with extra decimals that everyone mentally filters out anyway. It’s stupid.
Same deal with American businesses consistently citing pre-tax (and where relevant, pre-tup) prices. Just tell people what the fuck they are actually going to pay, instead of agreeing that literally everyone has to make their pricing an exercise in consumer deception or be beaten out by everyone else’s smaller-looking-but-actually-identical prices.
This whole thing is just another tiny window into why unregulated markets suck.
Personally, I like the pre-tax amounts displayed. I should know that I am paying 10 dollars for a shirt and that the government is taking an extra dollar. Rather than just being told, the shirt costs 11 dollars. Price tag saying 10+1 would be fine, but tax should always be displayed. Taxes shouldn’t be hidden.
Making cars mandatory fucks over working class people.
The government should stop subsidizing driving and put that money into a form of transportation that doesn’t require 10k a year for citizens to participate.
Ebike subsidies take no time. Increaseing bus frequencies is a bit faster (depending on local job markets). Painting bike gutters is pretty fast. Putting some traffic cones for modal filters is pretty fast.
It’s true that this change will be tough for poor people who bought cars in the short term. But it’s good for poor people who didn’t buy cars in the short term (which is a lot of people with the most need). And good for all poor people in the long term.
If you want to help poor people, subsidizing an antisocial form of transportation that some poor people use is not a good choice.
Things used to be a lot simpler & cheaper in the US, but then we passed the War Revenue Act in 1917 which drastically increased the budget & helped to pay for the war. They probably saw all that money rolling in & got greedy. What was initially designed as a war-time fund raising effort is now just standard taxation, it has gotten worse, and the people being born & working & dying nowadays don’t know anything different.
The government wastes so much money. Whose money? They don’t have any money! They’re wasting our money, that they extract from us via taxation.
We are financially raped into the ground, not allowed to enjoy the fruits of our own labor.
Let’s take android for example. There are legitimate security implementations like SELinux, full disk encryption but something like samsung’s knox is useless outside of enterprise use and kills OS level modifications
The only reason I haven’t rooted my phone is because of the Knox circuit. Rooting it trips the circuit, and it can’t be reset. Once the circuit is tripped, my bank won’t ever recognize my phone again, because it’s “insecure”.
Knox is used by Samsung own functions. Your bank app only does a root check. Which can easily be hidden with Magisk. If you trip Knox, you lose the Samsung exclusive security features baked into the OS. That’s it. Google Pay and USAA both complained about root access and refused to work with Magisk hiding off. With it on, they function as normal.
Integration into Knox requires enterprise device management and a custom app.
Huh. I’ll have to give it a try then. My prior phone, which had been rooted, wouldn’t work with my bank, and my bank claimed it was due to the Knox circuit.
When Knox is tripped it sets off the root check. Your banks misleading statement is due to their own confusion. Knox is no longer active so it can’t guarantee there is no root access. The OS basically says it’s untrusted/insecure due to lack of Knox and always says it’s rooted regardless of that actually being true. You can hide root for all apps that check. Do note that while you can return the functionality of third party apps, Samsung baked in apps can be hit or miss. It’s a game of cat and mouse. I speak from experience.
Additionally here are some other conversations about it:
voting (vote for the lesser of two evils…only two choices that are actually allies when the press isn’t around to help them pretend to disagree on social issues)
taxes (I have no problem with taxation if democracy actually existed and our tax funds weren’t being funnelled directly to the military industrial complex and corporate handouts without anyone having a say in the matter)
democracy (what the United States and British are trying to pass off as democracy is a complete sham)
sports (the distraction of the masses, anti-intellectualism incarnate)
Was coming here specifically to say credit scores. Oh what’s that you paid off your student loans? Here have a big credit hit as a treat. Oh you’re using your credit? Here have a credit hit even tho you’ve never missed a payment. How dare you use the credit you have??
Length of credit and credit utilization, you get points* for the length that each account has been open, so when you pay off your loan the account is closed and no longer counts. Also as you get to the end of the repayment it shows as a $30k account that you owe les than $10k on, you get points for using less than half or less than a third of the credit available to you.
*You don’t actually get points, that would be too easy to understand, you get factors that affect a complex equation in your favor.
ACTUALLY, the real scam (that I was alluding to there) is the use of tax funds for the fucking military industrial complex and Isreal by officials who were “elected” by a sham democracy.
They’re basically responsible for 90% of males simply refusing to discuss important issues in politics. They’re a distraction and are subject to massive corruption. Did you know that the MLB is actually a state-sanctioned monopoly?
Au contrarie; sports are a fantastic way to get socioeconomic issues (like labor rights) front and center on the minds of people who wouldn’t necessarily be thinking of them the same way. And they create opportunities for people to educate themselves in other areas as well. Not every sports fan is the willfully ignorant meathead you describe, nor do willfully ignorant meatheads exist because of sports.
MLB is not only a state sponsored monopoly, but like every other American sports league a blatant cartel which is constantly squabbling with its own employees over revenue shares (at the expense of the on-field product) and lying about how much money they actually make. Same thing as most other business owners, but people are a lot more willing to listen to the perspective of, say, Shoehi Ohtani than a random McDonald’s employee. I can tell you that I am personally much more clued in on these sorts of societal problems as a result of sportswriters discussing labor issues, on top of being far more statistically savvy and generally more sceptical of oversimplified narratives than I would be if I had never gained an interest in baseball. Nor would I have anywhere near my current understanding of global politics without global football (soccer) creating both a mechanism and incentive for learning about them.
But that’s not even the point: sports are not a “scam”. Sports exist first and foremost because for many people, watching elite athletes play a game is fun. That is the intrinsic value of professional sports, and nothing about that is inherently scammy. Full stop.
You write a whole lot like an intellectually dishonest boomer who financially benefitted from ALL of this bullshit. You probably own a home that cost you less than $50,000 back in the day, didn’t even need student loans, blame the poor for their plight, love Israel, want to write blank checks for Ukraine, profit from the military industrial complex, profit from the for-profit meditcal industry, profit from all of it. So, excuse me while I laugh heartily at you telling me that I am somehow programmed.
So you’re just trying to write the most incorrect statements in one reply? Since when did being born in the 80s mean boomer? You can go ahead and keep assuming, you seem to like being a dumbass.
It depends on the voting system. In the US there are two parties, that’s just one party away from being like China. Scam is thinking US is fully democratic when you can only vote for two parties or throw the vote away.
I would say the concept of liberal representative democracy is a scam, because on one hand lobbying and media control will decouple votes and decisionmakers from the actual collective good decision, and on the other hand party politics and and corruption will skew the fairness and representation even further from what is good.
And it’s not like there aren’t better concepts out there, the problem is more that almost all groups in liberal democracy, so parties, companies, the government itself are at best partially democratic and at worst authoritarian in nature. Especially companies obviously aren’t usually democratic at all. So continued or deepening democratisation isn’t actually in these groups interest because they or their leaders would lose power.
Council democracy or other direct democracy approaches are goals to work towards, or in some places just more representative and less dishonest voting would be a start.
In essence liberals like calling things democracy that on the whole make very few honest attempts at pursuing democracy, while still calling themselves democracies. I find nowadays my personal definition doesn’t include these “democracies” and is more along the lines of “a continuous process that honestly tries to provide the most value for all people and pursues contious improvement toward that end.”
I agree with everything but voting. Not because we ever have great options, but because sometimes there are terrifyingly bad ones, and while option A might not be at all good, option B is so much worse.
I disagree. You seem to be susceptible to identity politics even though it is quite clear that this “lesser of two evils” is actually hoodwinking you into agreeing with corporatism in the name of empty, symbolic inclusivity that intentionally stops short at extending that woke inclusivity to the poor.
You don’t seem to know what “lesser of two evils” means.
It doesn’t mean “that guy’s bad, so the less evil guy is good, actually, and totally deserves our support!”
It means “no matter which one of these assholes wins, I’m fucked, but if I’m lucky the one guy will use lube.”
I can’t do a damn thing about the two party system. That ship sailed before I was born, and nothing I do as an individual can change it. In fact, I can’t see a solution short of possibly violent revolution. If that happens before I’m to old and feeble to help, great. Other wise, I’m fucked no matter who I pick, so I’m sure as shit going to pick the one who just wants to fuck me and not fuck me plus kill my trans neighbor.
I’m sick and tired of being called stupid, gullible, or uninformed just because I can actually see how completely fucked we are. Your shit is great for people who still have hope. My shit is just trying to survive without the Gestapo coming for my neighbors.
So come get me for the revolution. In the meantime, stop calling me stupid for being depressed and practical.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to copy and paste this in reply to some other lemming that thinks I’m a gullible moron instead.
Any legitimate vote is defacto consent for the system. The biggest stand you can take in a voting booth is spoiling your ballot with obscenities. It is abundantly clear that “harm minimization” doesnt work. Voting for a lesser of 2 evils is still voting for evil.
The people counting the votes see the dissent. Low voter turn out delegitimizes the system. If only 30% of people voted it is easy to say the system is corrupt and that outside pressure is justified. If 30% of ballots are being thrown out it calls into question the entire system.
If “bad country” reported that 30% of their ballots were discounted the USA would slap sanctions on them and start banging war drums.
Assuming they’re not machine counted, fine. What does that accomplish?
Low voter turn out delegitimizes the system. If only 30% of people voted it is easy to say the system is corrupt and that outside pressure is justified. If 30% of ballots are being thrown out it calls into question the entire system.
Okay. So say the system is “delegtimized” this way. What now? That doesn’t change anything as far as I can see. The asshats in power will just… keep being in power, because no matter how morally, ethically, or even rationally unjustifiable, the corrupt system is, it’s legal.
I’m/not saying you’re wrong. I don’t think you are. I just don’t see what it accomplishes.
In the long run, it means revolution I guess. But in the meantime, how do we stop old ladies from getting murdered over pride flags (to use a recent example)? Cristofascists and those that profit from them winning elections legitimizes their hate. It empowers the twatknuckles that support them. Even dumb crap like calling COVID the “Chinese Virus” spurs on hate crime.
In the long run, it means revolution I guess. But in the meantime, how do we stop old ladies from getting murdered over pride flags (to use a recent example)? Cristofascists and those that profit from them winning elections legitimizes their hate. It empowers the twatknuckles that support them. Even dumb crap like calling COVID the “Chinese Virus” spurs on hate crime.
Has voting stopped this?
How do we deal with that?
Organize with other people who want a new system. Convince other people that nothing is going to get better by voting. Make connections with others groups who are doing the same. Build/join a network so that you/they know when critical mass is reached. While you wait for revolution, do what you can in your local community to make people’s lives better. This will also help pull people to the cause.
Also be ready to be a partisan because fascism rides electoralism to power so things are likely to get worse before they get better.
No. I’m not. That’s like saying that acknowledging the existence of the Chicago Bears means I’m a football fan.
I’m arguing that the establishment exists and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m arguing for despair.
All I have left is harm reduction. Which is also 100% hopeless, but it keeps me from jumping off a building because no matter how ineffective it is, it’s fucking something.
no matter which one of these assholes wins, I’m fucked, but if I’m lucky the one guy will use lube
this is some scary logic if you think about it. Imagine you are a person, who doesn’t want to get fucked. Two guys are about to fuck you, even though you don’t want it, and you get the option to choose which guys fucks you even though you don’t want to get fucked?
oh but the one guy is gonna use lube. To fuck you. The person who doesn’t want to be fucked.
“The United States is also a one-party state, but in typical American extravagance, they have two of them.” -Julius Nyerere, first president of Tanzania
You don’t seem to know what “lesser of two evils” means.
It doesn’t mean “that guy’s bad, so the less evil guy is good, actually, and totally deserves our support!”
It means “no matter which one of these assholes wins, I’m fucked, but if I’m lucky the one guy will use lube.”
I can’t do a damn thing about the two party system. That ship sailed before I was born, and nothing I do as an individual can change it. In fact, I can’t see a solution short of possibly violent revolution. If that happens before I’m to old and feeble to help, great. Other wise, I’m fucked no matter who I pick, so I’m sure as shit going to pick the one who just wants to fuck me and not fuck me plus kill my trans neighbor.
I’m sick and tired of being called stupid, gullible, or uninformed just because I can actually see how completely fucked we are. Your shit is great for people who still have hope. My shit is just trying to survive without the Gestapo coming for my neighbors.
So come get me for the revolution. In the meantime, stop calling me stupid for being depressed and practical.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to copy and paste this in reply to some other lemming that thinks I’m a gullible moron instead.
You don’t seem to know what “lesser of two evils” means.
Yes, they do, they were trying to explain to you that it’s a scam and only serves to move the nation to the right. Everybody understands “lesser of two evils” we’re all browbeaten with it our entire lives.
Edit: Sorry, wrong starting sentence. I meant to say:
Clearly not browbeaten enough.
Lesser of two evils means we’re fucked either way, but one way slightly less. It means there are not good choices, just less bad ones. If you sat through the Trump presidency and still think there’s no difference, then I don’t know what the fuck to tell you. If you can’t look at how fucked trans people are in Florida and other red states right now and still say there’s no difference, then go fuck yourself.
They’re both shit, but one of wants to fucking murder my friends. There’s a fucking difference. And if I sound mad, it’s because people saying shit like this vote dumbass third parties that can’t possibly win, or sit out an election because of protests. People are fucking dead because of this dumbass “there’s no difference” bullshit.
You wanna tear down the system and stat over? Fine, great, get going. I’ll even help if it looks like you might have a prayer. But right now, there is no hope. There’s just mitigation of harm. Your idealism gets people killed.
It’s amazing that despite knowing everybody, everywhere, already knows what “lesser of two evils” means, you still resort to just belaboring the point pedantically to repeat what everybody already knows. I’m sure you think you’re very clever, but your tactics suggest you find basic knowledge to be esoteric and worth repeating over and over.
I tend to repeat myself whenit appears that my audience isn’t listening. You’re the third person who seemed to think that “lesser of two evils” meant “if one guy’s bad, the other guys good.” People in this thread keep acting like I’m happy with the Democratic party or something.
So, since it seemed like you didn’t understand what I’d said, I repeated myself. I’m pedantic for the same reason: you’re either ignoring what I’m saying or don’t understand it. Either way, I apparently have to spell it out.
Nice use of the word “esoteric”. Did you find that in the word a day calendar this morning? It doesn’t really apply here, though, because nothing I’ve said is esoteric. It’s not arcane, obscure, or in any way difficult to understand. And I don’t think it is.
I just think you’re either being intentionally obtuse to rile me up, or you really don’t get what I’m saying.
It’s all good, though, dude. I’m tired. I’m just so fucking tired. I’ve been watching this shit unfold for close to five decades, sometimes while getting shot at, and I’m tired.
I’m mad, but I fucking give up. My position - despair - isn’t worth fighting for and I don’t know why I briefly thought it was. I fucking surrender.
Let me know how that revolution you guys are never going to have goes.
I tend to repeat myself whenit appears that my audience isn’t listening. You’re the third person who seemed to think that “lesser of two evils” meant “if one guy’s bad, the other guys good.” People in this thread keep acting like I’m happy with the Democratic party or something.
The irony here is you’re the one who seems to not be reading or comprehending us. Nobody’s saying you think one guy’s good, we’re saying voting for a marginally slower fascist is a stupid thing to give a shit about because it doesn’t even produce results.
So, since it seemed like you didn’t understand what I’d said, I repeated myself. I’m pedantic for the same reason: you’re either ignoring what I’m saying or don’t understand it. Either way, I apparently have to spell it out.
What you are saying is said by millions of people, you’re neither clever nor cutting new ground here. We all understand it, and we think it’s wrong. You might be exposing your intellectual shortcomings here that you can’t figure that out.
Nice use of the word “esoteric”. Did you find that in the word a day calendar this morning? It doesn’t really apply here, though, because nothing I’ve said is esoteric. It’s not arcane, obscure, or in any way difficult to understand. And I don’t think it is.
Now I’m really starting to think you’re a dumb guy deeply invested in pretending to be smart. Esoteric isn’t an unusual, special word - read a fuckin book.
I just think you’re either being intentionally obtuse to rile me up, or you really don’t get what I’m saying.
I disagree with you. Fundamentally. Grapple with the disagreement instead of trying to fake being high-minded or just repeating shit children understand.
Let me know how that revolution you guys are never going to have goes.
Nobody’s going to update a reactionary who can’t even allow themselves to directly consider arguments against their atrophied, ignorant worldview.
Look, I’m really tired here. And I’m formally apologizing. I have so radically failed at making my point that you think I’m a reactionary. I’m not. I’m utterly convinced that the whole world is completely fucked, and the absolute best we can do is try to tread water as long as we can before drowning. Reacting? To what? To what end? The system’s irrevocably broken, I can’t do anything about it, so what’s the point?
And I’m not particularly smart. I mean, I know some stuff, and I’ve been through a lot. But smart? Meh. When I was in the Army, I drove a tank for a living. Does that sound like the career choice of a smart man?
I’m just so fucking tired. Please tell me how anything you’re doing will help. No sarcasm, I want to know. How do you move forward?
Lesser of two evils means we’re fucked either way, but one way slightly less
So you are just okay with these incredibly low standards. Sorry, but I’m not and we could be doing things differently instead of this “lesser of two evils” garbage.
There are definitely ways to fix it but you keep posting about how you don’t agree with it, and you think you should just settle for the lesser of two evils… if you’re so against it, why even vote?
why tell others to vote? Fear mongering that the guy you’re afraid of is gonna win if you don’t vote cause uh oh then only evil people are left voting??
the more we don’t participate in this bullshit, the quicker we can get rid of it. Unfortunately, people like you just settle for what you have. Instead of pushing for something better. By just settling for this shit, you hold everyone else back from real change.
In order to change the system, we have to change the ideology that it’s necessary to be better than other people. Ture equality would only come from that.
I… don’t get you. I feel really dumb, but you’re going to have to explain it to me a bit more.
I get that no one is better than anyone on a basic human rights level. That makes intuitive sense to me. And I’m all for a cultural paradigm shift. I’m also 100% in favor of a massive overhaul of the entire government, up to and including a complete re-write of the Constitution and the bill of rights (I feel like we, as a nation, can do better than a founding document that defines some humans as being worth only 3/5ths of others, for instance).
Nah, based off your other comments and what you know about the constitution and bill of rights, I don’t think you come off dumb.
To be fair, this is pretty high concept stuff because while its something that could be done in theory, putting it into practice takes a lot of work.
The only way I have seen ideologies change over time is by basically social engineering them out. In order to do that, you need a lot of people on your side who are also willing to push that agenda. So we would need a lot of people doing things like making memes, having discussions like this, essentially popularizing the idea that we don’t need to feel better than others in the sense of, what class do they belong to.
This does already exist but not in a strong way like the other side is, the one that holds all the power. People in charge or in places of authority, billionaire types, etc. they all have the upper hand.
This brings me back to why I don’t vote and why I don’t participate in certain things that people try to scare me into doing basically.
By not participating, I’m removing myself from this sided argument - after all, there are no options for me to vote for, I don’t see any politicians ever wanting to actually change things, they only want to change things within how the system works already. I’m refusing to take part in something I never agreed to and have no real say in.
people have even told me, there isn’t a real option to opt out of voting - and that by not voting, I’m actually still voting but now all the votes unaccounted for get factored into the other side winning. That’s fear mongering.
If I’m not voting, then I’m just straight up not voting. It shouldn’t be able to work the way people are describing it because then its like not voting isn’t a possibility that exists in reality. Yet I’m here in reality, not voting.
This is all unfortunately a mind over matter issue where people who have the upper hand, refuse to let anyone else think that otherwise cause then they wouldn’t have the upper hand to control people’s lives.
But to actually pull that off, you would need to just be better at convincing people. I only have the energy to try sometimes. Most people want to pushback on this ideology because the current one fits them better. And they don’t give a shit about other people because again, they probably see themselves as better than who ever else there is out there.
What you’re talking about sounds wonderful. It sounds hopeful, like things could actually change. It’s not all that crazy to think it could work. It’s not really all that different from what the Founders were setting out to do, but with an extra two and a half centuries of cultural advancement and the knowledge that all people really are created equal - not just white dudes who own property lol.
So yeah. I get what you’re saying. And I can totally respect it. And anyone saying you not voting helps the opposition is kinda missing the point of opting out. Kinda like I was missing the point until someone (you) finally took the time to explain it properly, and I took the time to listen.
No problem! I see this discussion a lot online and have had it in person with people I cared about at the time, only to learn that they thought my ideas were too radical and now they won’t talk to me.
So its pretty refreshing to have someone understand it too!
Under the policies of the greater evil, billions will die due to climate change because corporate profits are more important than human lives to them. Under the policies of the lesser evil, billions will die due to climate change because corporate profits are more important than human lives to them.
It makes no difference, both parties should be opposed and true change can only come through revolution and the abolition of the capitalist class.
I agree with everything but the “it makes no difference” part. Thinking it makes no difference is a privilege a whole shit ton of people can’t afford.
They’re both horrible. Capitalism sucks. But to say there’s no difference? That’s just delusional. You’re missing the trees for the forest.
Until that “true change” you’re talking about happens, I’m not willing to sit by and let women, immigrants, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ people get fucked over even worse than I am. And fuck you if you are.
Roe V Wade was repealed under Biden. The concentration camps at the border are still open. In response to the mass murder of black people by cops, Biden gave more money to the cops. The extermination of trans people is continuing apace at the state level and the dems are doing nothing to stop it. This is all to say nothing about foreign policy, where the US is still complicit with killing thousands if not millions since 2020 through sanctions and facilitating genocide in Yemen. Or lifting all COVID restrictions despite the massive danger still posed.
There is a rhetorical difference between the two parties, but there isn’t much evidence of a material difference.
What word did I say that made you think I’m happy with the Democrats? That I actually support them rather than hate them just marginally less than the fascists in the other party?
It’s all fucked. And the Supreme Court was stacked by the last administration, so you’re arguing against yourself buddy.
What word did I say that made you think I’m happy with the Democrats?
I never said you were. I was addressing the claim that they’re a lesser evil, which I’m not convinced by.
It’s all fucked.
Agreed!
And the Supreme Court was stacked by the last administration
Largely irrelevant. Biden could stack the court, or just tell them to fuck off since they have no real power, or codified Roe into law when the dems controlled congress. There are excuses for why they couldn’t do any of those things, sure (not least of which that Biden opposes abortion rights himself because he’s a fucking monster). But all of them show that they’re fundamentally unserious in fighting back against the fascists. I’m not going to vote for von Hindenburg 2.
Until that “true change” you’re talking about happens, I’m not willing to sit by and let women, immigrants, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ people get fucked over even worse than I am. And fuck you if you are.
Did you vote for Biden? So you voted and still got roe v wade overturned. You voted and Biden has continued the staggering majority of Trump’s inhumane border policies. You voted, and we’re one well-timed court case away from the SC overturning gay marriage. Congratulations, the better guy won and all the same shit happened.
Roe v Wade got overturned by a Supreme Court that was stacked by the Republicans during the previous administration you absolute waste. You’re literally arguing against your own point.
And again: what fucking part of any fucking word I’ve typed makes you think I’m happy with the Biden administration.
Oh, wait! You’re not actually reading anything I’m saying! You’re just shifting goalposts and regurgitating talking points! Holy fuck, it’s like talking to a communist version of my mother.
Don’t talk to me unless you actually know something. Take your useless idealism elsewhere.
Roe v Wade got overturned by a Supreme Court that was stacked by the Republicans during the previous administration you absolute waste. You’re literally arguing against your own point.
And what is your vote doing to stop that? Anything at all?
Oh, wait! You’re not actually reading anything I’m saying! You’re just shifting goalposts and regurgitating talking points! Holy fuck, it’s like talking to a communist version of my mother.
I’m reading what you’re saying, it’s just so dumb and trite it might as well be embroidered on a tea cozy
I’m reading what you’re saying, it’s just so dumb and trite it might as well be embroidered on a tea cozy
The fact that I feel the same way about you probably indicates that this is a pointless waste of time on all sides.
And what is your vote doing to stop that? Anything at all?
In the Biden election? Nothing. Roe was done for as soon as Trump won. It was on life support, but people refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils pulled the plug.
I’m tired dude. I’m just so fucking tired.
Do what you want. You’re not gonna accomplish any more than I am so I’m not sure why I cared enough to get worked up. We’re all fucked no matter what. Do your little protest vote or whatever the fuck. I’m sure it’s gonna do so fucking much.
Why did Trump win? Did it have anything to do with the Clinton campaign choosing a pied pipe strategy where they boosted everything Trump did in the primary and ignored all the less fascist candidates? Do you suppose that continuing to use that tactic is good? The Democrats continue to use their donations to amplify the furthest right candidates in races, and they do not have anywhere near a 100% success rate in defeating those fascists they intentionally amplify. To make the point, money given to the DNC is, in some small proportion, money given to the RNC because the DNC would prefer to amplify worst case scenarios to improve their chances instead of offering GOOD CANDIDATES to entice voters. Supporting that is supporting the rightward slide of everything.
It was on life support, but people refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils pulled the plug.
That’s one way to see it - the same way the DNC paid pundits and managers see it, since it validates them. Another way to see it is, the Democrats steadfastly refuse to offer a better alternative.
Do your little protest vote or whatever the fuck. I’m sure it’s gonna do so fucking much.
You know that voting for Biden resulted in a worse world, and here you are sneering at anyone who thinks that was a waste.
edit: let’s address Obama, too - he had a fucking SC appointment, and instead of doing anything serious to seat a good candidate, he fucking punted on the assumption - the incredibly stupid assumption - that Clinton would win. Obama is why Roe is gone. So your vote for Obama was also a vote for letting Republicans pick a SC candidate. Can’t you connect the dots? It doesn’t matter how hard you vote for Democrats. They will always let the Republicans win, because they’re both paid by the same masters.
You’re not gonna accomplish any more than I am so I’m not sure why I cared enough to get worked up
one more edit: the distinction is you keep repeating shit everybody knows, whereas I (and other leftists) are trying to explain you to a new concept. It’s clear you’re not listening, but I’ll keep trying until you give up.
the distinction is you keep repeating shit everybody knows, whereas I (and other leftists) are trying to explain you to a new concept
I keep repeating shit because you keep not hearing me. You still think I’m trying to defend the Democratic party. You still think I find the Biden administration defendable. If you understand “lesser of two evils” so well, why do you think I’m trying to defend a party I keep calling evil?
So I’ll tell you what, I’ll deal with the “new concept” part of what you said when you explain that to me. Once I understand why you think I’m defending a position that I haven’t once defended, I might be able to move on.
I didn’t say Biden. I never said Biden. I never brought up his name. I at no point defended the actions of his administration or his party.
All I said is that the other guy is worse, which means you vote to try to have it not be the worse one. That’s explicitly not a defense of any party. It’s an attack on them both. I’d repeat my initial phrase, but apparently even though everyone seems to think it means I’m defending someone, trying to drive it home has gotten me labeled a congenital idiot.
And you’ve been misrepresenting me and jumping up and down on me ever since.
And nobody has presented me with a better option. They just keep calling me names, saying I’m repeating myself, and saying “they’re all the same” and “Biden bad!”
So please, for the next election, give me an action I can take that has some sort or hope of getting us all out of this collective shit show.
All I said is that the other guy is worse, which means you vote to try to have it not be the worse one. That’s explicitly not a defense of any party. It’s an attack on them both. I’d repeat my initial phrase, but apparently even though everyone seems to think it means I’m defending someone, trying to drive it home has gotten me labeled a congenital idiot.
This is at best, an outright lie. You want people to vote for the “lesser evil”, that is an endorsement of Biden and any other Democrat.
And you’ve been misrepresenting me and jumping up and down on me ever since.
No, this is also a lie. You are a liar.
And nobody has presented me with a better option. They just keep calling me names, saying I’m repeating myself, and saying “they’re all the same” and “Biden bad!”
The better option is organize, instead of voting for the party you endorse but curiously refuse to defend. * or challenge
So please, for the next election, give me an action I can take that has some sort or hope of getting us all out of this collective shit show.
Organize, outside of the party that apparently you refuse to defend but think we should all vote for and get snotty and sneer about being questioned.
It’s very eye opening that “lesser evil” proponents are so cagey about the candidates they’re explicitly telling us to vote for. Genuinely curious what irrational mental space you’re in that you think you can browbeat people to vote for democrats but allow yourself to get offended when people say democrats suck ass and shouldn’t be voted for. Pick a side, you fucking weenie.
I want to be very clear: I used to be a reliable blue voter, for maybe fifteen years. That is behind me. Voting for shitbags who will never care about the poorest people in America is wasted effort, I will not bother myself to drive fifteen minutes to the rural voting station to endorse assholes whose only responsibility is to their big money capitalist donors.
Have you seen Sophie’s Choice? If not, this won’t make much sense, but When Sophie chose Eva over Jan, was she endorsing Jan’s death?
Because I don’t think she was, but by the reasoning you’re using on me here, you would have to think Sophie endorsed Jan’s murder. As far as I can follow your logic, Sophie was not only in favor of Jan’s death, she supported it fully, and could find no fault in it.
We were going to have Trump or we were going to have Biden. No third choice I made - or anyone else at the time made - could do anything to change that. So, even though I didn’t like the creepy, handsy, corporatist faux-progressive ancient douche, and didn’t care all that much for his former boss, or his party, I chose him. Because the other guy had shown himself to be worse. All the same bullshit, plus rabble-rousing hate speech, direct attacks on my LGBTQIA friends, and more. He was empirically worse.
If you can, somehow, read that as an endorsement, then I’m relatively certain we’re not speaking the same language, and this has all been a huge waste of our time.
And fuck off with calling me a liar. I haven’t. If my language skills have failed me, and I haven’t managed to get my meaning across, fine. If I’m wrong, fine. But I didn’t set out to deceive anyone, nor have I intentionally or knowingly made a false statement.
Sorry. In what way have I knowingly told a falsehood? I’m lost, because I may be kind of an idiot, but I was present for this whole conversation, and I’m pretty sure I at no point tried to deceive you or anyone else.
Seriously? I already directly addressed this in a reply to you.
This is at best, an outright lie. You want people to vote for the “lesser evil”, that is an endorsement of Biden and any other Democrat.
You are trying to play a game where you admonish people to vote for Biden but get to dodge defending the argument about whether he’s worth voting for. You endorse Biden but will not tackle his inadequacies because they’re inconvenient. This is lying.
Seriously? I already directly addressed this in a reply to you.
This is at best, an outright lie. You want people to vote for the “lesser evil”, that is an endorsement of Biden and any other Democrat.
It isn’t an endorsement. How is calling something “evil” an endorsement? If I said “I hate beer cheese and pimento cheese, but if I have to eat one, I’ll take beer cheese” an endorsement of beer cheese? As far as I can see, I just said I hated them both.
You are trying to play a game where you admonish people to vote for Biden but get to dodge the argument about whether he’s worth voting for.
No, I’m not, and the fact that you think I am completely baffles me. All I said was *the other guy is worse." That’s the position I took. That does not require providing evidence of Biden’s virtues, because that position has nothing to do with his virtues.
How am I explaining this wrong? How am I fucking up my point this badly? Am I writing in English?
You endorse Biden
Again, no. Calling someone slightly less horrible than former president Cheeto isn’t an endorsement in the same way coming out of a movie theater and saying “well, at least it wasn’t Bloodfeast 2” isn’t a positive review.
but will not tackle his inadequacies because they’re inconvenient, so you act snide about it instead of addressing them.
Because my statement has nothing whatsoever to do with his inadequacies. I’m not being snide, I’m just fucking confused as to why you think I like the guy.
Rattle off all the shit you want about how horrible he his. I DO NOT CARE. HE’S NOT AS BAD AS THE OTHER GUY.
That’s not me being snide or sarcastic. That’s me shouting the same fucking thing I’ve been saying for days now. I’m not endorsing him, I’m anti-endorsing Trump. I didn’t vote for Biden, I voted against Trump.
Congrats. I’ve shifted from “confused and exasperated” to “fucking pissed off.” If that was your goal this whole time, well trolled.
This is lying
It is not. It is, at worst, being disingenuous. I’m not splitting hairs here. Lying is making false statements with the intent to deceive. Even if I was avoiding your question instead of trying my goddamndest to answer it, it would still not be lying.
Fuck, it wouldn’t even be dishonest, just shitty rhetorical practice and an asshole move.
I didn’t vote in the 2020 election and I won’t be voting in any other elections because I’m done voting for Democrats pretending to give a shit about anyone other than themselves.
Jesus fucking Christ fine! If that’s what your conscience demands, then fucking do that! Just get off my dick, and learn what the words “liar” and “endorse” mean.
It isn’t an endorsement. How is calling something “evil” an endorsement? If I said “I hate beer cheese and pimento cheese, but if I have to eat one, I’ll take beer cheese” an endorsement of beer cheese? As far as I can see, I just said I hated them both.
Because you don’t have to choose either. I’m not reading further, you’re just too silly and this is too fucking simple to let some chud drag me into it. You’re wrong, sucks, go vote for the lesser fascist and imagine you’re fighting the power or whatever. Buh byeeee
Lmao I can’t wait until you and your comrades try to start the revolution, shit is going to be hilarious 🤣
Also why tf does everyone on hexbear put their pronouns in their username on a site that emphasizes anonymous interactions. No one cares about what you like to be called.
Under the policies of the lesser evil, billions will die as you say.
Under the policies and rhetoric of the greater evil, a woman just got brutally murdered in California for the crime of hanging a fucking flag outside her shop.
My point, as I have been trying in vain to make this whole time (but apparently don’t have the writing ability to convey) is that if you’re fucked no matter what you do, then do the thing that hurts your friends less.
If you have some other course of action that can lead to actual change, then tell me. If you have some other course of action that will help my trans friends today, then tell me. Because billions dying over the next century doesn’t mean much to people who get shot, stabbed, or beaten to death today.
I want to believe there’s a better way, though, so explain it to me.
The action that leads to security and a better life for yourself and those around you is to organize your community along whatever lines are possible. Unionize with your coworkers, form a tenant’s union with your neighbors, physically get out in the street and provide security for LGBT+ events and spaces. Build up parallel structures so that when the government fails, you and those you care about will still have access to food and water, a place to live, and security. Join a political organization that’s active and actually does things in your area (one of the communist parties, DSA, or even just Food not Bombs) and do all you can to prepare for a revolution that might never come.
I’ll close this by saying that I’ve been harsh on voting and the electoral system in general during this conversation, and probably too hostile in tone towards you. I apologize for that, because it’s sometimes hard to tell when someone is actually acting in good faith, this being the internet and all. Voting isn’t something I think is particularly useful, but if you vote for the democrats because they’re less openly fascistic, that’s up to you. The key is to not let your political activity start and end at voting, because direct action in the real world is by far the best way to achieve positive change. I wish you and yours the best in surviving the collapsing fascist hellhole we find ourselves in.
In the UK university is still wayyyy cheaper than US, but local students pay ~$10,000 a year max due to regulation, but international students have no protection and typically pay ~$30,000
That makes perfect sense though. The UK government subsidizes/funds the universities, and in turn domestic students are more likely to have higher paying jobs and pay more tax. Foreign students are more likely to leave after graduating, so no tax for the government once they go.
Recently went on a flight and paid 30 USD for seat selection online. Then when we go to the airport our friends who didn’t check in online could select it free at the airport anyways…
If you’re flying as a family or with friends, some cheap airlines actually “randomly” puts your seats all across the airplane if you don’t buy the seats.
And the person selling you out glasses out front is for legal reasons a separate business from the doctor who prescribed you the glasses in the back. They don’t at any point make it clear to you that you are legally entitled to not buy glasses there, you can ask for your prescription, take it home with you, and find a good deal online. Its a dark UI pattern in real life. Its the exact same psychological thing that’s going on when a retailer defaults the “sign up for promotional emails?” tickbox to enabled
I took the gamble because I had the money to spare and never looked back again.
The money I would pay for a set of glasses in my country goes easily over €300. With that amount, I can pay an ophthalmologist appointment, have my eyes checked by a doctor, properly, get the prescription, order two sets of glasses (one as a backup) and still have money to spare.
I’ve had two pair of glasses from China… and I have to say: never ever again.
I’ve only bought them because money was tight back then… the quality was ok for what I paid but that’s about it.
I like my optician around the corner that’s been there for over 35 years. :) They have glasses priced from around 180€ up to what you’re willing to pay. 😂
I get all the service I need for free there - if something small is broken they fix it immediately and give your glasses a deep clean…
If my money lets me I will always choose to support small businesses.
You had a bad experience. I respect that. I have not.
Unless we can force a certificate of origin from your local optician for the lenses and the frames, there is a good chance we are actually purchasing material made in PRC.
Regarding service, I’ve used glasses for so long I learned how to maintain, fit and fix minor damage to my glasses.
And regarding quality, even when I paid a lot more money, a pair of glasses would last for about a year, give or take a couple of months. I get the same time from a cheaper set of glasses. So, no gain in spending more.
Probably not originally a scam but something about Tax, maybe it’s just me but taxes are suppose for the betterment of society. Everyone suppose to pay their fair share of tax yet it’s strange that we can’t even see how are taxes were used to improve society. There is no breakdown like a receipt on how our tax was used. While we file taxes we have to be meticulus or we get ourselves in trouble.
You’re free to look into the budgets of governments you pay taxes toward and see a breakdown of where every dollar you spend in taxes goes by doing some simple math. Some countries will even do this work for you and send you a breakdown of where your money went. IIRC Australia does this. But even without that you can easily figure it out yourself.
Taxes go to “the betterment of society” in many ways. They pay for all kinds of shit. Don’t be silly.
You’re free to look into the publicly available budgets of governments you pay taxes toward and see a breakdown of where every dollar you spend in taxes goes by doing some simple math.
Doubt it’s that simple as asking for those kind of information are usually behind red tapes and some are even confidential. Most people are not motivated enough to do that.
Some countries will even do this work for you and send you a breakdown of where your money went. IIRC Australia does this.
That’s interesting was not aware of that. Only if my country does that.
Taxes go to “the betterment of society” in many ways. They pay for all kinds of shit. Don’t be silly.
Yeah agree they do I guess the way they are like blackbox makes a huge disconnect to those who are paying.
In Australia when you pay your land rates it tells you where your money goes. Information about where your income tax goes is available online. Your country is no doubt the same, you just haven’t looked.
I’ve heard the IRS can actually send this information to you if you ask. I can’t find much about it online though. I do think it should be standard to help people understand where their money is going though.
The United States health insurance system. It’s such a for-profit racket that more taxpayer money goes into it per capita than any other system out there and its outcomes are worse and shittier.
I went to hospital ER once after being literally unable to walk (unknown spinal issue). After 4 hours, they took Xrays, gave me a steroid shot and some extra-strength Tylenol, told me I have mild scoliosis, and then discharged me. I was bedridden for nearly 2 months after that. I then received a bill for 4000$.
Would medicare for all be a good next step to push for? Are any progressive politicians putting forth a viable plan for getting us closer to universal healthcare?
It’s not the worst next step, but Medicare is far from a perfect system.
Just the question of what’s covered can sometimes be almost as complex as tax code. It also carries a 20% coinsurance, which for big ticket stuff can still bankrupt you in a hurry. And there’s a big push towards privatization/contracting out the administration to the big companies.
The one thing Medicare does well is that it covers everyone. Hit 65 years old and you’re in. It’s an entitlement. There’s a lot to be said for establishing a standard of health care coverage as an entitlement (veeeery loosely translated as “human right”) no matter what age.
american healthcare will continue to suck as long as politicians are friends of instead enemies of private health insurance. as long as both parties are on payroll of big insurance we’re all getting screwed
worse than that is professors being required by the school’s contract with the textbook company to tell you to buy a book that they have no intent on using because it’s awful. that was way way more common for me.
I loved getting my math degree. Almost every professor provided us with copies of the book. One went so far as to hand out flash drives with the pdfs on them on day 1. For the few classes I did buy books for, I went online and found the international edition, which was generally around 30 bucks instead of 300.
Fuck text book publishers and fuck school bookstores.
One of my professors had a textbook that was shockingly out of date for the subject. Like we’re talking using scientific data from 1995 at the latest, and I took this class 2 years ago. He sent a bunch of emails to the textbook author and eventually he came out with a “Fourth Edition” in response that changed NOTHING. The book was exactly the same except for a different cover.
The professors I have known with text books for their own courses hate this, too. They would always put it on the board for the entire course how to translate page numbers given for the current edition of the book to page numbers for older pages. One in particular was like “Take the page number. Subtract the difference between the current version and your version. That’s the page you need to start on”
This! My English teacher in my first year required us to buy a specific book that she wrote from a specific book store for $250. You had to bring it and the receipt in proving you bought it and aren’t just sharing with someone else.
We then opened the table of contents to “go over” the book and never touched it again.
She then said “you should probably leave those here so you don’t forget them”. Never fucking touched it again.
I had a hero of a physics professor who figured out that new editions of textbooks just mixed up the number of the exercises, so he advised students that they could just order previous versions of the textbooks and he’d provide the “key” for how the questions were shuffled.
Agreed! I miss my Samsung CLP. That was a real battle horse!
Yet, the talk was about printer ink and it is really hard to beat the price for that much ink, for those machines.
Fun fact: I don’t even own one of those machines. I have a Canon. Still cheaper than HP cartridges but those assholes tie the entire machine operation to the cartridges.
Those ink tank printers are their own kind of scam though, they clog if you dont use them frequently enough, and they use a non-replaceable dump pad when cleaning and purging that effectively bricks the printers when it is considred full, which is usually just a timer, not an actual sensor.
Car dealerships. They are awful on purpose. In many places car manufacturers are not legally allowed to sell their cars directly to customers, in order to create was is essentially legally mandated car dealerships, which all suck.
My younger coworker was just super stoaked that he only paid $3000 over MSRP for his new car. They gave him a year of oil changes and undercoat for free though!
Everything I’ve read said it had very little to do with concern for the consumer. As I understand it, car dealerships lobbied for these laws because, accorudng to them, the manufacturers were being anti-competative and squeezing car dealers out of business. So the laws were passed to protect “small” dealers from big car manufacturers, not to protect the consumers.
But now they use that ubiquity to get higher prices through shady tactics. It needs changed again, this time in favor of the consumer.
I have bad signal so I can’t find the sources for you, but if you look up something like “diamonds artificial supply limiting” you should find it.
Basically the diamond industry has a stranglehold on the supply of natural diamonds (which are also notoriously mined under horrid conditions - i.e. “blood diamonds”) and they artifitially alter the supply/demand ratio by limiting what goes onto market to jack up the price. Naturally, diamonds are actually a very common gemstone, and they can be easily created in a lab. They’re just hyper-compressed carbon, after all, and carbon is abundant on earth. Rubys, sapphires, and the like are much naturally rarer, but don’t fetch as high a price because of the market manipulation around diamonds.
Don’t forget that there used to be literal assassins that would kill you if you tried to sell (as a retailer, obviously the resale by individuals was so small-time they didn’t care and hard to track) under the price you were told to sell it.
which are also notoriously mined under horrid conditions - i.e. “blood diamonds”
Not only are blood diamonds mined under bad conditions, they are mined in mines owned/controlled by insurgents and terrorist groups, and then the sale of these diamonds is used to fund the activities of these groups. Watchdog organizations are a lot more careful about blood diamonds these days than they were 20 years ago, but it’s still possible to accidentally get ahold of one. That’s why it’s so bad to buy one and it’s why people all over the world made a fuss about them back around 2000 - 2003, because buying one directly funds atrocities in central Africa. They’re usually sold cheaper than the monopolized diamonds too.
Unpaid overtime is usually illegal too. Highly depends on your position though. A lot of software engineers are marked as exempt when they shouldn’t be.
The annoying thing is, depending on your job and financial situation, it hardly matters whether it’s illegal or not. I’m not talking about my comfortable situation as a software engineer, but rather people working crap jobs and not having alternatives.
If you know, you’ll be out of work for longer if you get fired, you basically cannot report any illegal stuff your employer is doing.
I used to work for IBM’s CIC (colloquially known as the “cheap labor division”) and starting pay for a junior dev was only 30k/year. If you got assigned to a contract, you were told that you had to work 44 hours/week exempt, regardless of if you had work to do or not, and everyone knew it’s so the could charge the project more without actually pating the devs any extra. Needless to say I got out ASAP and have 0 intention of working for them again, in any capacity.
And they wondered why everyone kept jumping ship right after getting those nice required onboarding certs onto their resumes…
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