I am owned by several dogs and cats. I have been playing non-computer roleplaying games for almost five decades. I am interested in all kinds of gadgets, particularly multitools, knives, flashlights, and pens.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • This does ring true. And the right has been systematically attacking public education for decades, with considerable success. They have created the constituency they knew they would need to do what they actually want to do. The worst of it is that there’s nothing we can do about it, in the short term. Education operates on a generational time scale. We desperately need to fix this, but even if we had the political power to do that, which we currently do not, it would be at least twenty years before it could begin to affect things.

    I think we are nearing the point where even the far-right base is realizing that what’s being done is making things worse for the, not better. We may get a window of opportunity to start fixing things. When and if we do, progressives need to be decisive and daring. Big changes need to be made and made quickly.

    The Democratic party, as it currently stands, is not going to do what is needed. It needs to be reformed or replaced if we’re going to make this work. The best of the alternatives would be the return of something like the Great Depression.

    I don’t think the system we have will allow the practical creation of a new party, but I have begun to wonder if we can’t get away with bypassing the Democratic “leadership”. If we get progressive candidates through the primaries as Democrats, and support them directly with funding and volunteers, we can get them elected.









  • People are notoriously bad at correlating data. They personally experience a very limited number of data points, misremember half of them, then draw whatever conclusions they are predisposed to believe.

    I know this perfectly well, but it still happens to me too. The difference is that people with a little less self-awareness find it easy to firmly convince themselves that their distorted perceptions represent absolute truth.

    There are also areas where the data is open to broad interpretation. For example, the numbers for unemployment have looked surprisingly good for quite a while now. That’s because they don’t account for either the large number of people who have given up on looking or on the downgrading of many of the jobs from middle-class-breadwinner to minimum-wage-without-benefits. The numbers don’t look bad, but the numbers are a drastic oversimplification of the real situation. Similar questions about “the economy” are based on the assumption that what’s good for giant corporations is good for the average citizen, which has not been true for at least the last few decades.

    The MAGA Cult strongly encourages people to lie to themselves, but that isn’t really necessary in a lot of cases.



  • As a practical matter, most or all of these people are wearing body armor. It isn’t full coverage, but it would make shooting them effectively a great deal more difficult. They also operate in large groups, which makes attacking any one of them a lot more dangerous.

    The first civilian to shoot at them will almost certainly be killed within seconds. Anyone nearby is also likely to be hit, either accidentally or intentionally. Uninvolved civilians anywhere nearby are also likely to be hit. The agents are unlikely to care about their backstops or about collateral damage.

    Any attack on possible government agents that is not part of a well-planned group response, using appropriate weapons, is going to result in civilian casualties and is unlikely to have any effect on the agents. That is not to say it couldn’t be done, but a few people responding with concealed carry weapons are not likely to succeed.




  • You are absolutely right. It isn’t complicated. A fundamental principle from the teachings of Jesus is that everyone should share their “wealth” (i.e. food, housing, medical care, etc.) with those in need. No one should ever be hungry, homeless, or sick without treatment. It follows naturally from the idea of loving everyone, without exception.

    I’m not going to argue the questions about whether Jesus was divine or even existed. I am simply talking about the philosophy that is presented as his by the Gospels. That is the core of Christianity, but it is ignored by a majority of those who call themselves Christians. The fact that it is difficult and calls for personal sacrifices is not an excuse. He never said that it would be easy.

    I accept that Christian principles can be viewed as aspirational goals and not an absolute code of conduct, but that is not what we see in the would-be Christians. They have no interest in working toward those goals.



  • The ratio of poor to ultra wealthy is far greater than a million to one. Other than that, the only practical reason they have for not doing it is that they still need human labor for most of what they do. That isn’t going to change anytime soon, despite AI. However, they don’t need their labor force to be free or happy, which is why the US is on the cusp of a fascist takeover.

    The rule of law has largely stopped mattering to the ultra wealthy. It may occasionally inconvenience them, but they know it will never affect them in any personal way.

    Not all of the ultra wealthy are socipaths. Unfortunately, terminal-stage capitalism does a surprisingly good job of selecting for sociopathy at the very top of the hierarchy. Becoming that rich requires both a strong belief that you deserve it and a disregard for how acquiring it harms others.