Plastic seals food, sterile medical implements, medicine, beverages, etc… it’s seems like plastic is used as a way to seal things safely. Post pandemic rising, I see even more. My work used to be have plastic utensils in the cafeteria, for example, an already wasteful thing. Now, post-2020, every fork, knife, and spoon is...
My only note here is that canned beverages have a layer of non-recyclable plastic on the inside to prevent chemical interactions between the contents and the metal. Glass bottles are fine though as (aside from plastic labels) they’re fully recyclable.
[email protected] kindly commented that wifi network names of you and your neighbour can be used to locate your address, so please be aware to avoid betraying your privacy. Peace!
“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.”
One-on-one might be effective, but it can’t scale. There’s no hope for the most heavily propagandized country on Earth that doesn’t start with an end to the incentive to lie for profit, I.E. Capitalism.
Money and power are equivalent, hence my identification of the problem as Capitalism. Billionaire-owners who can afford to run a propaganda machine as a loss-leader are also to be abolished.
Please inform me of the method by which one can vote for “SOME Democrats” without also implicitly consenting to be represented by the rest of the party.
And also, why you think your time is better spent trying to convince a hypothetical single-issue voter to capitulate than calling the Dems and demanding they do better.
Exactly. There is no alternative. This is a hostage situation.
And when the guy holding you hostage asks you to pick which of your kids he should murder first, the right move isn’t to vote for the “lesser” evil, but to spit in his eye.
Neither party represents my interests and, as you’ve seen, the “lesser evil” argument doesn’t motivate me in the slightest. If you want me to vote for Dems then you’ll have to make them worth voting for and stop acting like they can coast to victory on fear of the Republicans alone.
I’m aware of FPTP and its mathematical implications, our country is designed to provide only the appearance of democracy while actually limiting choice to those candidates the parties deem inoffensive to their campaign financiers. And we’re stuck with them unless you can convince the two-party state to abolish the leverage it has over third parties, so stop acting like they’ll let you vote your way out of this situafion.
Real change would require a political revolution, and I’ve long since lost my faith that Americans would build something less fascist given the chance.
Let me know when the 2 party stranglehold allows you to vote it out.
You’re the one insisting I don’t have a choice here. Why should anyone bother helping reinforce a system designed to disenfranchise them? To keep the “wrong people” from taking power, as if that wasn’t already the case?
If that sounds like Accelerationism to you, then you’re reading me correctly. Preservation of the intolerable status quo only delays and inflames the inevitable upheaval.
Meanwhile, completely oblivious that you and people like you are exactly the reason why we don’t have enough voting power to enact real change.
Oblivious?
No, I’m counting on it. The Democrats won’t change unless they have to, and people like me are the ones they need to change for. People like you, who “vote blue no matter who”, can be safely ignored by party leadership since they know you’ll vote for them anyway.
Well unlike you suggest, I don’t vote blue no matter who, I vote blue because the other choice is demonstrably worse.
I’m sure the party cares deeply about this justification, since that seems to be all they’re running on these days.
I remember back in 1984 when such a strategy was considered comical:
<span style="color:#323232;"> It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "I did," said Ford. "It is."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-Douglas Adams, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)
</span>
You wax eloquent about how things need to change and so you choose to do nothing
Says the guy who thinks that repeatedly voting in a game that was rigged from the start isn’t “doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result”.
what happens when you recruit enough lefties to your side that the right is able to establish the equivalent of a dictatorship via voter suppression, coups, etc?
Non-fascists will be forced to accept that working within a system that’s designed to disenfranchise them can never produce a democratic government and join with the anti-fascists. The dictatorship is subsequently overthrown by popular action at the cost of many lives (which likely includes my own as a nonbinary person with left-wing politics). This creates space for a second constitutional convention to fundamentally reform the law of the land.
At that point you are 100% fucked.
We’ve been 100% fucked for longer than you’ve been alive, the only question is whether or not you’re comfortable with the current rate of fuckery and what you’re willing to risk to change it.
Are you one of these idiots who actively want a civil war?
Lol, of course not. I have merely accepted that nothing short of a second American Revolution could overthrow the two-party system and that things will definitely get worse before they can get better.
Hell, I predicted this way back in November 2016. Trump’s win would galvanize the Democrats in 2020, and the subsequent lack of meaningful change depresses the vote enough that 2022 and 2024 go to the republicans. Trump then punishes his percieved enemies while the Democrats continue to chase Republican voters to the right, further fracturing their own left-wing base.
Ditch Windows and install Linux and Steam, then add your game to the library as a non-Steam app and use the compatibility tab in the properties menu to force the use of the Proton compatibility layer. You should then be able to run the game through steam as normal. This has worked for me with almost all my old games and will probably work for you too.
Add the setup/installer executable as a non-steam game, run it to do the install, then modify the non-steam game’s settings to point at the installed executable so it can run from the directory where it is installed.
No problem! I’ve used this trick to run non-game Windows apps on the Steam Deck too, though support can vary wildly.
As an alternative, you might also check Lutris, which employs user scripts for installing and running Windows software in Linux. You can even add them to Steam so they’ll work in the Steam Deck’s gaming mode:
Looking around for a furry podcast that still releases episodes, or a furry adjacent podcast that a weird furry like me might enjoy. The Dollop, Hardcore History and Written in Uncertainty are all I listen to and they are great for history and Elder Scrolls enjoyers, but some variety would be awesome :3
Yeah, that’s the thing. If we had that option I would instantly vote against the fascist. But our choice is whether we want our fascism with a kindly face or an angry one, and that’s not a decision worth dignifying by consideration.
If you want me to vote for Dems, tell them to do the bare minimum and form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Then let me be the first to apologize for whatever evils the American State has done to you and your compatriots in my name.
That said, elections are fundamentally not a process for selecting leaders. That’s merely the method by which they accomplish their purpose, to legitimize the State’s claim to power.
There’s no option in the “democratic process” that represents those of us who see a State as illegitimate. It’s most obvious when you consider the elections in North Korea or Russia, but “democracy” as implemented cannot be “democracy” as we are taught to understand the term. Without a “none of the above” box that no government ever provides (because it would defeat their purpose for holding elections), our only choice is whether or not to participate in our own disenfranchisement.
Refuse to vote because the right-wing bias of the electoral college would give that hypothetical election to Trump either way, just like it did in 2016.
For the sake of argument let us ignore the electoral college, in which case I would still refuse to vote since a tie must be broken by Congress in an undemocratic process that harms the government’s claim to legitimacy just like when the supreme court gave the 2000 election to Bush.
Remember when the Democrats voted with Republicans to censure the only Palestinian-American in Congress for objecting to the arms deals that are currently enabling one of our proxy states to perpetuate a genocide against her ethnic group?
Voting for the “lesser evil” is still voting for evil. Worse, it provides the lesser evil with no incentive to seek redemption, since they know you’ll vote for them anyway out of fear.
Lol, thanks for continuing to legitimize the Empire I guess. You’re really sticking it to those fascists by adding your voice to the implied consent of the governed. 🙄
“Letting” the greater evil take power is what happens when you choose to acquiesce to the carrot and stick. Regardless of the outcome, your participation legitimizes the false choice, gives the the lesser evil no incentive to reform, and the greater evil all incentive to push further in the future. No matter who wins, “Worse outcomes” are inevitable.
The one making a “selfish moral point” is you, who argues in defense of evil because you fear the consequences of even the mildest rebellion against the Empire more than the cost of living under it.
If you want me to vote for Democrats, then you’re talking to the wrong person. Call your reps amd convince them to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a bare-minimum first step towards reform and they’ll have my support.
“Pushing for more progressive people in the primaries” is what I’ve been begging people to do instead of wasting time trying to persuade me to hold my nose and vote blue no matter who, lol.
As a trans person myself, I dont want to be a martyr but I cannot abide by a false choice between bad and worse. That isn’t Democracy, it’s a Faustian Bargain that can only temporarily delay the inevitable crisis of legitimacy that marks the end of the American Empire.
Justice delayed is justice denied, and waiting for a more convenient hour will only preserve a status quo where people like me are frequently murdered without consequence.
In full consideration of the risk, I must continue to insist that Democrats aren’t worthy of my time and energy. Instead, I focus on building robust networks of mutual aid and community support that we might minimize loss of life during the transition to a new form of government.
The sooner we can begin the transition away from Empire and towards a more equitable form of government, the more lives can be preserved.
Electoralism can only delay the inevitable, and that time and energy is better spent on building networks of mutual aid so we can support each other and minimize loss of life during the Second American Revolution.
You claim that participation legitimized the false choice, giving the lesser evil no incentive to reform, yet this is just wrong!
Please explain.
Voting for nobody means the status quo sticks. Voter participation can drop insanely low, and still nothing will happen. You’re just giving more power to those who do vote. The lesser evil has no need to change their ways, because you are irrelevant to them.
Lower voter participation is a threat to “moderate” parties, forcing them to appeal to radicals they’d previously written off as irrelevant if they wish to remain relevant themselves. Rather than preserving it, this disrupts the status quo.
You are not part of the equation for them. You are, quite simply, nothing. You may as well not exist. Your voice isn’t being heard, because the only time your voice matters in the US is when you vote. If you don’t vote you have no voice.
This is a wonderful condemnation of our electoral process, detailing exactly why I’m being so openly performative with my refusal to vote for Democrats. A political party that is neither beholden to their constituency nor interested in appealing outside of it is not a viable party and must change to avoid a spiral into obscurity.
But if you vote for the lesser evil, you are now a threat to the greater evil.
If only it were that simple. In truth, the existence of opposition emboldens reactionary parties who rely on actual or perceived external threats to supress internal conflict. Dem victories drive Republican voters and vice versa. If the Republicans vanished overnight, factions within the Dems would split tomorrow. The structure of our first-past-the-post electoral system guarantees it mathematically and allows them to be manipulated by Capitalists playing both sides.
The greater evil must now start leaning towards policies held by the lesser evil party in an attempt to take votes from the lesser evil party.
This is the opposite of what we see in reality. Spite and fear drives the Republicans to further extremes to appeal to the most vocal and dedicated members of their base, and Democrats follow the Overton Window to the right in search of the new middle. This is called the “Political Ratchet Effect”.
Voting for the lesser evil has a chance of improving the country. Not participating guarantees the opposite.
I wish I could have such hope in the power of a single vote, but for that to actually be the case, we would need a Democrat party that’s willing to throw off it’s financiers and lobbyists to work for us instead. Until then, we’ll get (less) bread, (more) circuses, and maybe the occasional token gesture to rile up Reps and demotivate Dems to maintain the appearance of competition between them.
Likening the American election system to a prisoner’s choice of dinner is probably a lot more apt than you intended.
But to follow along with your metaphor, a prisoner does effectively fight the system by refusing to submit to prison slavery. Instead of providing extremely cheap labor and driving down non-slave wages, they become a drain on the finances of the prison system that is still obligated to provide them with kitchen floor slop.
Participation in prison slavery, on the other hand, renders them complicit in their own imprisonment. Sure, they might be paid pennies on the dollar for their labor, but the vast majority of the value they create goes to offsetting the cost of keeping them locked up and fattening the profit margins of companies that rent convicts, providing financial incentives to further perpetuate the prison slavery system.
Why can’t you do that while being under a democratic presidency?
There’s a Democrat in office now.
Why not vote for Biden, prevent deaths and pain and human suffering, but also work towards that goal?
Whether or not I actually vote is nobody’s business but my own. My public threats to withhold my vote are a sentiment manipulation strategy for pushing the party to suck less.
Under fascism, good luck doing that. It’s going to be impossible to build robust networks of mutual aid.
They managed to do it in Chile while Republicans and Democrats were sponsoring the Pinochet regime. We’ll do it too, because we’ll have to.
And who needs to give Dems time or energy? Fuck them. I barely think about them. I vote blue
And by admitting it, you reveal yourself as a “safe” voter whom the party can ignore rather than a potentially reachable voter that the party must actively pander to.
To me, it sounds like you’re waiting for that convenient hour. That right candidate. I rather do that while alive and have my freedoms.
I don’t discuss the details of my political activities in public, but you can trust that I’m not waiting around for some hero to swoop in and save the day. I’ve been disappointed too many times before.
It gives the Democrats one vote’s worth of incentive to stop the war machine right now, as opposed to waiting a year and hoping there will be a candidate on my ballot more beholden to BDS than AIPAC.
That’s the thing, I love arguing politics. It just gets frustrating when people come into it in bad faith rather than openly considering new perspectives and talking through the logic.
And anyway, I’m only threatening not to vote. Whether or not I actually do is separate from the effect of my ultimatum to the party.
If the Democrats believe that they need to shape up to earn the votes of people like me, then in a year’s time we might be lucky enough to have Democrats worth voting for on the ballot.
It’s pretty much the best move I could come up with given that I’m not rich enough to buy influence.
I’m not asking to be persuaded, folks are just mad that I refuse to commit to “vote blue no matter who”. The people who need persuading are those 188 who aren’t demanding resignations from the other 12.
I’m not going to give up the only leverage I have on the party by promising it my vote a year in advance. If you want to describe that as “handing you to the fascists”, then you’ve clearly misunderstood me.
That’s why I’m doing everything I can to push the Democrats to reform now, rather than promising to “vote blue no matter who” and sitting on my ass 'til voting day.
Its astounding to me that so many folks in these comments have such little faith in the party that they skip straight to the assumption that I won’t be voting and waste time trying to change my mind rather than calling their representatives and demanding they shape up.
Do the Democrats have a candidate whose worst feature is a single incidence of baby-robbing, or are they just going to run war criminals for office again?
The Democrats have a year to sort themselves out, but so many people in these comments seem to assume that they won’t even try. Its weird that all these supposed Democrat voters have such little faith in the party that they’d rather try and persuade me to vote blue no matter who than call their reps and demand they do better.
That’s not going to change the fact of the next election candidates.
It’s a shame, but it’s not changing my message. The party needs to shape up and start sending war criminals to the Hague instead of the White House.
We need to work with the system.
The system is designed to disenfranchise us, especially if we work with it. I’m glad to leave room for a plurality of tactics, though. You go ahead and push the envelope from the inside and I’ll pull from out here.
We need to mobilize grassroot movements and affect local politics.
Yup, strikes need organization too. Especially when the bargaining unit consists of about 165 million democrats and nonvoters. If you run into anybody else that wants the party to reform and is willing to not-vote about it, send them my way.
We gain a lot more when we have Dems instead of Repubs at the head of power.
But we could be getting a lot more, especially if the Democrats started doing wildly popular things like forgiving student debt, blocking arms deals to war zones, and putting republicans on record voting against bills for postal banking, a public healthcare option, municipal broadband, etc.
LW: CRISPR Will Make Me A Genius - "I don’t have a formal background in biology. And though I learn fairly quickly and have great resources like SciHub and GPT4," (www.lesswrong.com)
archive: archive.is/KdzMM
Out of all the cars you've owned, which one holds a special place in your heart as the absolute favourite.
Shamelessly stolen from /r/askreddit.
How will we ever get away from plastics when they are ubiquitous for safety
Plastic seals food, sterile medical implements, medicine, beverages, etc… it’s seems like plastic is used as a way to seal things safely. Post pandemic rising, I see even more. My work used to be have plastic utensils in the cafeteria, for example, an already wasteful thing. Now, post-2020, every fork, knife, and spoon is...
What's the funniest WiFi network name you've seen?
[email protected] kindly commented that wifi network names of you and your neighbour can be used to locate your address, so please be aware to avoid betraying your privacy. Peace!
Remember, if Fascism wins it is YOUR FAULT. (slrpnk.net)
Trying to play my old CDROM games on Windows10 and about to lose my marbles. Could you help me?
Okay listen: I am less than tech-savvy, but I tried so many step-intensive things on my dinky PC, to no avail....
How poor is the average American?
I’ve been watching a few American TV shows and it blows my mind that they put up with such atrocious working terms and conditions....
Any ongoing furry podcasts around?
Looking around for a furry podcast that still releases episodes, or a furry adjacent podcast that a weird furry like me might enjoy. The Dollop, Hardcore History and Written in Uncertainty are all I listen to and they are great for history and Elder Scrolls enjoyers, but some variety would be awesome :3
George Takei's Based Voting Take [Rule} (files.catbox.moe)
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