RedEmmaSpeaks

RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

There's no point in satire or parody anymore because of people like Bezos who render it moot.

It's like the Rich want us to eat them. There are parasites that make the host want to be eaten, but then again, the Rich are the parasite so this metaphor kind of falls apart.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

Reply to by !deleted23972

I can't really get behind stealing from a library. They are one of the few places for the public to gather where there's no expectation of spending money, one of the few places outside the grasp of Capitalism. Now if we were talking about Jeff Bezos's library, I'd be more onboard, but public libraries are just cool.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

People seem to fall into two traps when talking about civilization or primitivism. The assumption is either we can have the perks of civilization (like computers and such) or we can live in a cave and eat roots and berries. But that's lazy thinking.

There's no reason we can't marry the old and the new, figure out what works and keep doing it, fix what needs to be improved, and throw out methods and ideas that don't work. If we put forth the effort and really do some thinking, we might be able to have a sustainable society and some of the tech of modern civilization.

It's why the Solarpunk genre is just so fascinating to me, the idea of having cities run strictly on sustainable resources, growing forests alongside skyscrapers, and creating an extensive transportation network that greatly reduces the number of cars on the road and when it comes to cars, we find ways of making them run on biodiesel or other alternatives. We regain the Right to Repair, and when it comes to products, the goal will be to reuse them as much as possible, breaking them down into parts to be utilized in other projects, so even if a laptop can't operate as a laptop anymore, its parts can be used elsewhere.

I firmly believe that if we were willing to greatly restructure our society, we would be able to have most of modern tech like computers and the Internet. But if that's not possible, I'll suck it up and give up whatever I have to. I like eBooks and the Internet, but they aren't more important than, y'know, the planet.

When talking to people about revolution and extensive change, people tend to get all scared by the thoughts of all the stuff they might have to give up: Internet, TV shows, social media, etc. It might make our sales pitch easier if we focused on gains or in other words, what you will gain under our new society, rather than what you might lose.

I will be willing to give up so many of the trappings of modern life for comfort and security, to no longer have to fear homelessness, enjoy a greater life of leisure, and know that if I get sick, I can receive treatment without plunging deep into debt. And the psychological balm of a tightly knit communal group, knowing that no matter how rough life gets, there will be a large number of people ready to back me up, far outweighs anything social media has to offer.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

He was, but it doesn't change the fact that his inventions effectively revolutionized society. Tesla gave us alternating current, radio, radar, so much of the tech and principles that led to wireless communication and transistors. Tesla was a eugenicist, which makes him a colossal asshole, but again, he still deserves better than to be associated with Elon Musk.

Musk didn't even found Tesla Motors. He bought the company from the founders (aka the guys who actually did the engineering and cool stuff) and with the purchase, bought the right to call himself a founder. The engineers who actually founded the company, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, are contractually forbidden from referring to themselves as the founders.

tl;dr, Musk is a rich asshole basically cosplaying as an entrepreneur, and everyone bought into it.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

The answer to that question is really obvious. Pretty much everyone on this board is laughing and laughing bitterly.

In the US, a bunch of White Rightwing Fuckwads took over government property while bearing guns, threatening to kill anyone who tried to stop them. And the authorities were like, "It'd be better if you'd stop, but hey, I don't want you to feel too pressured by all this." Yeah, they did eventually drop the hammer on these guys, but that was after giving them chance after chance to resolve things peacefully, repeatedly bending over backwards.

Meanwhile, the Native Americans at Standing Rock protesting having a pipeline cut through their sacred land? Authorities were all, "Say hello to tanks and tear gas, mothereffers!" pretty quick.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

Really tough call between Amazon or Walmart. Though since everyone's taking out Amazon, I'll go after Walmart. Walmart is all of America's worst traits in corporate form and basically given where I live, they've effectively made it so I've got to keep feeding the beast that's destroying small town USA.

Though if someone could take out Tesla and punch out Elon Musk, I'd really appreciate it. Poor Nikola Tesla...as if dying a penniless virgin despite inventing most of the tech that makes modern life possible wasn't bad enough, he's also associated with this douchecanoe. Nikola Tesla had more genius in his little finger than Musk could ever hope to over the course of his lifetime.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

Reply to by !deleted6686

Live way the hell out in the middle of nowhere in a state that's basically the buckle of the Bible Belt. All that in addition to crippling anxiety and terrible social skills.

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