We aren’t doing a genocide in Palestine… feels kinda wrong to diminish the meaning to include people not actually committing the violence while a large portion of their population protests any support the country gets.
Most Germans didn’t support the Nazis either, but they were still culpable. Israel could never do this genocide without our help, and so we are culpable for it.
There is certainly a genocide occuring in Palestine. The US is funding the Israeli military. Ergo, the US is culpable for genocide, just like all Germans were. Average citizens are less culpable than government officials are, but we are all culpable for it to a degree.
It’s a similar concept to manslaughter. We were negligent in our enforcement of our government, and so even though you and I might oppose the governments actions and didn’t directly cause them, we all had a duty to prevent a genocidal government taking power.
Average citizens are less culpable than government officials are, but we are all culpable for it to a degree.
There is a degree at which idealistic humanitarianism is pushed to such an extreme that it swings all the way back around into the concept of original sin. I know, because it's where I've sat for years and I had to sit down about it when someone pointed out I'm basically so atheist I've gone catholic.
Guilt is indeed a matter of calibration. This is correct. But at a certain point of granularity, it becomes a pointless statement.
Anyone insisting on wearing clothing or utilizing objects they didn't make by their own hand is a capitalistic slaver. You and I both own slaves right now.
I could disappear into the hills and become a vegan goatherd, and it's probably the closest I could get to neutral. But by the mere act of minimizing my own harm, I'm also shutting my ears to the plight of all others, which is an implicit endorsement through inaction.
If I choose action and swing the tides over to Gaza, they still have their own weaponry. If bringing my corrupt genocidal government to its knees, I've created a power vacuum that harms countless and will most certainly kill. Doing nothing or something both make me a murderer.
Even in donating to a charity, you're deliberately choosing to ignore three others just as worthy. When everyone answers to everything simply by chancing to be born, this kind of thinking becomes at best a semi-interesting joke and at worst actually psychologically destructive.
What am I meant to do, to stop personally committing at least 4 types of concurrent genocide across the globe? Stop paying taxes towards the military? At least my below-the-poverty-line ass is already there.
Calling my representatives won't do much with the US so heavily invested in the area, but I suppose if I'm culpable for mass murder either way, I might as well go to prison for it.
Everything you’ve said is the exact explanation for why there is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, and the inherent flaw behind it as a whole. But I do not accept that it’s the same issue in gaza. It is not capitalism as a system causing the genocide, it is our elected president who is actively lying about both sides of the war in order to perpetuate it. It is our UN representatives actively blocking a ceasefire. The fact we haven’t impeached Biden yet is very much on all Americans. Capitalism did not put Biden in the WH, we did. And so we are responsible for what he does and doesn’t do while there.
As far as the sins of capitalism, I very much agree with your original sin argument. It’s just a different issue when the problems are caused by our democratically elected government.
Just knowing the history of policing feels illegal. How they normalized this vile paramilitary - essentially institutionalized fascism - right from the start in the UK and the US sure as hell isn’t something they will ever show you on Law & Order.
K(potassium), P(phosphorus), and N(nitrogen) are found in guano, but that’s any animal(including human). Bird poop and bat poop are just the ones that quickly build up. But the core ingredient of the poop isn’t saltpeter(KNO3), at least not until it starts to crystalize and develop, since coming from the body it isn’t KNO3. And, bird poop isn’t really, the core ingredient of KNO3 because a chemical like it can be made in many ways, but one of the most common historical processes only needed guano, and water(but water wasn’t an ingredient)
So I could get some and just release it literally anywhere there are people, at least one of whom would inevitably call the fire department and they’d come out and waste a bunch of resources looking for non-existent propane? Huh.
Could still be an act terrorism, since mercaptan has health and environmental hazards. The concentration used for odorizing natural gas is extremely low, since humans can pick up its scent pretty easily. But anything above 500 ppm and you have problems.
Lol this one is actually illegal to tell others. In the UK you can be tried for contempt of court if you’re caught telling people about nullification, and the juror’s oath tries to explicitly discourage it.
That being said, what’s to stop a jury in a case of nullification from… nullifying your case?
Following is a generally devil’s advocate point here, because in principle I’m wholly supportive of jury nullification:
The idea of the jury being able to cast verdicts on conscience rather than just evidence does also, however, risk personal bias influencing trials regressively. It is not unknown for systems to acquit or convict someone based on racial prejudice or media coverage of a case, which is why even a sniff of conscience voting of any kind is heavily policed.
There’s a whole host of selection processes that try and limit bias in trials while keeping the state from totally controlling the process, but jury duty is one of the only examples of direct democracy under most neoliberal capitalist systems; that comes with all the risks and caveats that it would when applied to any other aspect of our social and political existences
The point of a jury is to get people who are unbiassed to determine guilt or innocence to help make the trial fair and not a kangaroo court. The jury determining that they absolutely did it, but the law is bullshit so they shouldn’t be punished and submitting a not guilty verdict anyway is basically a glitch or an exploit. They’re not there to determine the validity of the law, just whether or not the law was broken.
🤔 I made a thread a while back asking people here what they would do if they were founding a country, and one guy had the best solution I ever heard anyone come up with:
It was this tiered, hierarchial council lottery system where people were randomly elected to serve on councils that managed every aspect of day to day life. Eligibility for each council depended on your education, age, background, etc. and it was set up such that you had to take leave from your old job, but your spot would be held, you’d be paid the same rate you were before, etc. to disincentivize people from not participating.
He went into a lot of detail about it, and had a long writeup for it because it was a project for his pol sci degree, and it was based on the assumption that no human involved was scrupulous or trustworthy, and if some aspect of the system could be abused, it would be.
To this day I have not seen anyone come up with a better governance idea, past or present.
I agree that the jury should certainly have the power of nullification. And I believe a jury should be made fully aware that they have such power.
However, they also need to be aware of how that power has been (mis)used in the past, and understand that nullification should be seen as an extraordinary act of civil disobedience on par with a full-fledged riot in protest of the law in question.
Nullification is not something to contemplate lightly. If you’re going to be nullifying the law, you should be spending most of your deliberations writing a unanimous joint statement to the press, to be issued as soon as the jury is dismissed.
Nullification is not something to contemplate lightly.
I think it’s the other way around, not nullifying and instead condemning someone unless you’re entirely convinced they’re guilty and deserving, should not be taken lightly. Innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, if you’re on a jury and not convinced even if everyone else is, don’t compromise. Don’t be peer pressured into ruining the life of someone potentially innocent. And, don’t continue to ruin lives because of unjust laws.
If you have a reasonable doubt as to their guilt, your not-guilty vote is not “nullification”. It’s simply “acquittal”. Nullification does not come into play when there is a doubt as to the defendant’s guilt.
To “nullify”, you the juror must first be convinced beyond a doubt that the prosecutor’s allegations are true. You must be convinced that the prosecutor did fulfill their burden of proof. You must be convinced that the defendant did, in fact, break the law that they are charged with breaking. You must be convinced that the defendant is guilty. Until you are completely convinced of their guilt, your “not-guilty” vote is just a finding of fact. A routine acquittal.
Only once their guilt of breaking the law is absolutely proven can you consider whether the law itself is just and proper. A law that was duly enacted by the duly elected legislators of the state or nation, in accordance with the constitutions of the state and the United States, and signed into law by the duly elected president or governor.
In declaring a law invalid, you are contradicting the will of the duly elected representatives of We The People. You are declaring that you know better than those legislators and executives what the law should be, and that nobody should ever be prosecuted under this law. That is your right and is well within your power as an individual and as a juror, but it is also a tremendously bold step. You are quite literally calling for a revolt against the legislators and executives who enacted this law.
Remember: juries commonly nullified anti-lynching laws. Legislators and executives agreed that white people should not have the power to arbitrarily execute black people with impunity. Many juries disagreed with that sentiment, and exonerated defendants they knew to have violated these laws. These juries decided that any law insinuating “black people are people” is unjust and invalid; that legislators and executives should not dare to challenge the fundamental supremacy of the white man.
When I say it is not a step to be taken lightly, I want you to remember that the most famous examples of nullification have been absolutely abhorrent miscarriages of justice, and the nullifying jurors in these cases are reviled by history.
I mean… She’s the reason we know the Russians wanted Trump to win and took actions to compromise our physical election infrastructure. She leaked that while the Trump administration was actively trying to bury it.
You can request your trial to be done by mail, yes this is legal and if you truly want to get out of a speeding ticket or any other tickets or fine. Just do it the trial by mail and always postpone it for a greater chance of the officer just letting you win it. The source for all my information is from a lawyer, also check your local laws or state laws about this, thank you maggoty as it depends.
Tails OS. I went to search what it was and read the Wikipedia article. Guess I’m on a watch-list now, cause of my dumb curiosity lol
From Wikipedia
In 2014 Das Erste reported that the NSA’s XKeyscore surveillance system sets threat definitions for people who search for Tails using a search engine or visit the Tails website
Because anything that can be used for privacy can be used to also commit crimes that the state isn’t very happy about not being able to track effectively
Tails OS is an operating system you load onto a USB that “basically” procludes you from being tracked. It’s FOSS, and governments all over the world hate it. Even though the U.S. military “basically” invented it.
Lmao that’s low key, kinda how I feel looking at that link right now
Edit: Mother fu**er, and I still clicked it! God damnit; curse my curiosity. It’s a link to the Tails website y’all, in case you’re wondering. Doesn’t matter for me, I’m already balls deep under the NSA’s nose now. Hope they’re happy my taint is showered
No, it flags you specifically for being interested in TailsOS or Tor browser, both. It has nothing to do with the word tails and everything to do with “heeeyy this guy doesn’t like being stalked en masse, must be a criminal.”
But if you’re already flagged, and then I interact with you online, and use words like “Tails” or “Tor”… am I now flagged? If so, we’re all flagged around here now
What word? Tails? Like, “Tails” from Sonic? Or “Tails” as in the word I searched and fucked myself on, for being insatiably curious?
Sonic is the first thing I think of, when I think of Tails. Like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic and Tails”. And Tails was kinda my favorite character… besides Knuckles, because of the gliding plus climbing thing
But yeah, now I’m apparently not allowed to say “Tails” without scrutiny. C’est la vie. Ignorance is bliss I guess.
Your threat definition is allowed to be zero though too. They have just as much interest in marking off curious people as they do in finding people looking to use it nefariously.
That’s okay, it could be worse. You could have somehow gotten on the TSA’s list for always being randomly selected for an extra search. You’d think after 20 years they’d figure out what color the dildo I packed for them is going to be…
That being said, I doubt the tracking is all that helpful as there are many people who use Tails as a legitimate system for preserving one’s privacy and safety, such as in cases of DV, trafficking, etc.
Classified documents feels pretty illegal to know. Especially when there are cia agents tracking you down. That really hammers in the this is illegal feel.
There are free private, and generally better-working versions of almost every software program. Including, operating systems, social media, email, telephone, etc
Only if you already know how to use all its features and how to deal with all its quirks. Let me tell you trying to use it without having ever used it before it’s not easy
I’ve been using Photoshop for years that’s why I can’t get into gimp I keep trying to use PS shortcuts. It’s the same with Da Vinci resolve, it’s a great video editing software but I can’t shake the premiere mindset.
In a software ecosystem where almost every program or site you interact with expects some form of steady cash flow in a combination of subscription paywalls, pervasive surveillance, and intrusive ubiquitous ads then I think it does.
Generally? I know there’s a lot of FOSS fanboys here and I am a FOSS fan myself, but let’s not be fanatic and kid ourselves - I wouldn’t say FOSS software is “generally” better working. There are perhaps a few cases where the FOSS version is better, but that’s more the exception than the rule.
I’ve played it. It’s pretty good. It improves many systems from 1 while keeping the same core game. It’s missing a few things the DLCs for 1 added, like more pedestrian options (and biking in general) and things like that, but it’s generally better. Some people have said the performance is bad, but it was good enough for me, and I’m not using a particularly modern system. YMMV.
Last time this was brought up somebody pointed out that in certain countries (Germany, I believe) it is actually illegal to drive without purpose, so endlessly circling the roundabout would be illegal. I’m so confused how this could ever be enforced though, not the roundabout thing, but generally. Not anymore, but during lockdown I would put on an audio book and just drive around the countryside for hours. The purpose was keeping me sane, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
In a lot of European countries we are now introducing “turbo” roundabouts where you can’t even go all the way around once, and they work way better and amazingly.
Interesting! Though, with the amount of confusion the roundabout in my town (California) still causes after two years in existence, I fear for my countrymen’s ability to conceptualize this two lane miracle of modern wonders. I foresee a lot of attempted lane changes in the circle from people who accidentally got in the “get out on the first turn” lane.
I’m currently visiting my SO in the US and the way roundabouts are used here is terrifying! I’ve seen people just cross straight over them and I have yet to see anyone but my SO use their turn signal on them, not to mention how long people wait to get on the roundabout defeating the point entirely.
The turbo roundabout was confusing the first or second time I was on one, but after that it made a lot of sense and was quite simple. A lot of them even have guiding arrows and signs beforehand telling you where to go, these roundabouts genuinely make it so you basically never have to stop and can just continue driving like there was never an intersection.
When my city first installed roundabouts, we had more than a few people straight-up launch themselves into the air by trying to race through the middle.
I’m not sure if those people legitimately thought that that would work, or if they played GTA too much and wanted to try a ramp in real life. The fact that I can’t be sure which option caused it is a little terrifying.
There are some around here, where I live. I thought that was just so Americans would provoke fewer accidents. I’ve never seen them anywhere else in Germany, and none in France either
I often take a complete lap around a roundabout if I have people driving too close behind me, they clearly are in a rush to their accident, they don’t want to be behind me, I don’t want them behind me, one lap of a roundabout solves the issue to our mutual satisfaction.
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