I lost some, I won some.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 25th, 2023

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  • Seems to me it’s because so many people don’t have coherent political ideals of their own and are just identifying with this or that player or team. Lack of media literacy and the corporate control of mass media play into propagating this problem further, though it starts with upbringing, much like a religion.

    There are ways to debate political issues without tying anything back to political parties. For a long time now, we could have used more of that both in schools and in the media.







  • My first thought before reading was that it’s a shame of course, but not a surprise. While reading, I didn’t see (or missed?) if charges are going to be laid in this case. Maybe they’re just gathering info on who to charge? Surely there have to be existing laws that suffice.

    I tried to find where Haaretz wrote about STOIC (as referenced in this article), and instead came across an article about STOIC having had a campaign to influence lawmakers. (It’s paywalled, but the comments section is interesting.) There’s also a headline off that page about a march of nationalist Israelis through “the Palestinian area of Jerusalem,” chanting:

    warning - antagonistic and hate-filled words

    “Death to Arabs.”





  • Maybe I’m being naive, but in the absence of solid evidence, my working assumption is that they have some satellite pattern of people who have parts of the spectrum of traits they want, but not all of them. If so, then that means that although they would suppress it for the job, some of them surely have a conscience.

    But I admit this is all hypothetical, just based on things I’ve read and some specific testimony I heard in a podcast that shed more light on things recently.

    Anyway, I did a slight edit above: probably --> “possibly.”



  • It doesn’t. Graeber was an anthropologist and Wengrow is an archaeologist. It’s a review of existing evidence from past civilizations (the diversity of which most people are hugely ignorant about), making the case the most common representations of “civilization” and “progress” are severely limited, probably to a detrimental extent since we often can only base our conceptions of what is possible on what we know.



  • Child care and education for the first two decades of life are a big investment with uncertain returns (esp. if employing businesses are allowed to exploit parents, contributing to trouble at home that also hurts kids).

    We have increasingly detached leaders who just want certain numbers to look better in an unhinged and inhumane economic system. That makes it mighty tempting to bring in adults whose upbringing and education were paid for elsewhere.

    But beware fascist agitators (or their dupes) who don’t really care about people and just want to stir up division by making this about “invasions” and other racist and divisive BS. In fact in most, if not all cases, our foreign policy is probably connected at least indirectly to the reasons people feel the need to come here.


  • Yes, because the requirement for extensive infrastructure running across large stretches of land makes market entry nearly impossible for new competitors (while also being disruptive for customers if it does become possible). Hence all the issues we have with lack of competition and its effects.

    If by the nature of the product or service there is no ease of switching providers and if the thing is a necessity to get by in the modern world, it shouldn’t be (solely) private.