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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • Or because it’s stupid political theater giving Trump’s base an out when he inevitably says some dumb bullshit during the debate and loses. He obviously never expected that ridiculous request to be granted. The act of playing along is an act of weakness, so it’s never going to happen.

    Also they’re both going to be on drugs. All presidents are given various drugs. Some to keep them alive, some to help them concentrate. It’s no big deal, it’s a demanding job.

    Edit: forgot Obama actually did show his birth cert. Shouldn’t have played along though




  • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlAlso "parasite".
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    6 days ago

    I think it isn’t going to be that effective a phrase. People don’t understand why having lots of money (hoarding wealth) is a bad thing, necessarily, and it sort of implies that, if they were to just spend it it’d make the initial hoarding fine.

    Gotta also focus on the fact that they essentially stole that money from workers through labor exploitation. The bare fact that they got the money to begin with is the problem, not just them holding onto it. If they were to spend it all on horrible capitalist enterprises rather than hoarding it, that’d be even worse. Even if they spent it all on “philanthropic” efforts, that’s still worse than the workers having their fair share and the government being able to actually have that money to spend on social programs through taxes.





  • There aren’t comics afaik and, thankfully, the Jodorowsky monstrosity didn’t get made.

    I mean, sure, but it’s half of a story. So much of the criticism I saw totally left out that it was part 1 of 2. I ask because it’d be like watching The Fellowship of the Ring and being upset that it was just a story about some midgets going on a hike - it’s a take you could only have if you weren’t at all familiar with the source material or even generally what it’s about. It’s not an invalid take, necessarily, but it is one that ignores that it’s only one part of a larger story. Dune Pt 1 was also a slower burn, and it’s totally valid to dislike that sort of movie.

    I hope you watch the second one and can appreciate the first one as part of that context. Dune (the book, not just the movies) is very good for a lot of reasons and was incredibly influential on sci-fi as a whole. It’s obviously fine not to like it, of course, but as a lifelong fan, I just want everyone to give it a chance.

    Edit: there are comics actually. Huh.




  • That is very true, but my critique was more focused on the difference between automating software tasks vs mechanical tasks, especially with non-uniform inputs and not the economic investment required. Some tasks are better suited to automation - and plagiarizing art is far easier than deconstructing and recycling massive industrial freighters.

    Not on the side of the AI art generators here - that was just low hanging fruit compared to something like was suggested in the original post. Definitely need extremely strong labor law to protect against AI union busting (and union busting generally)


  • I get the sentiment, but that is a really dumb take. Software automation is a hell of a lot easier than creating robotic automation to disassemble ships of all shapes and sizes. That’s why art automation has been done, and industrial freighter recycling automation has not been.

    How would that even be possible? Presumably, you’d need to break the ships down into pieces first, and even then, you’ll be dealing with huge numbers of oddly shaped and sized components of varying materials. It makes a lot more sense to have people do that, though it is likely very dangerous.

    Seems more like a job for unions and workplace safety regulations than for robots


  • Especially if your company operates their wellness programs through a third-party (as they should), you are protected by HIPAA and numerous other regulations. You should make use of the mental health resources available or you are throwing away money or your own mental health due to paranoia. I use my company’s EAP all the time for counseling (autism, depression, anxiety, etc) and participate in the other wellness BS for the small cash rewards I get for doing so. I have not had an issue for well over half a decade, because the company would get maaaajorly sued for prying, and is actually incapable of doing so because these services are 3rd party.



  • There’s just more nuance to it than the way you and others on both sides in these comments are presenting it. There is an 16% gender pay gap, true, but it’s actually a complex issue and just presenting that one fact in isolation leads others to believe “… and it is fully attributable to discrimination”, which isn’t the case.

    Some of that is explained by “job choice” and choice of university degree, meaning women are self-selecting into certain lower paying jobs and fields of study. Like how women are underrepresented in STEM. This isn’t to say women are bad at STEM. There are just societal barriers that prevent them from pursuing those career choices. Everything from the pervasive notion that women “don’t like math” to harassment in male-dominated fields to our society enforcing the idea that women’s role in society is to care for others - and the “caring professions” are not high-paying.

    The gap is not wholly explained by these factors, and we should try to mitigate them while continuing to decrease gender discrimination. But don’t pretend like these factors aren’t also at issue. Meanwhile, the gap is closing due to women becoming more represented both in universities (outnumbering men in the US), various old-fashioned notions going away, etc.

    There are plenty of studies that support this, I saw several both from Harvard (some of which I was familiar with) and many more from other reputable universities and institutions. Also some from irreputable, conservative think tanks - it’s easy to see how this issue can be weaponized by them, but ignoring that job choice and other factors play a role is not helpful to closing the gender pay gap. This is from a US perspective, I can’t guarantee it holds true in all “Western” countries - but I know it’s the case in US and Canada

    The US government has found that: "Specifically, differences in the industries and occupations where men and women work explain 42.0% of their variance in earnings. ": https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WB/equalpay/WB_issuebrief-undstg-wage-gap-v1.pdf (source on the chart in page 2 of the writeup, comes from 2020 study by the US Census Bureau). This is a sizeable effect and we should not ignore it.


  • It is objectively true that women are overrepresented in lower paying jobs. This is due to a variety of reasons, including societal and social factors thay discourage women from going into higher paying, traditionally male fields. The gap is narrowing especially now that, at least in the US, there are more women attending university than men and we have robust laws to prevent/punish discrimination based on sex.

    Here’s a good summary/explanation by Pew Research Center in a writeup of a survey of theirs on the Gender Pay Gap:

    "Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

    Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay."

    They go on to say that a gap still exists, even accounting for these factors, but it’s smaller than the commonly cited 84% figure (though 84% is correct if you don’taccount for other factors).

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/

    The US government has found that "Specifically, differences in the industries and occupations where men and women work explain 42.0% of their variance in earnings. ": https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WB/equalpay/WB_issuebrief-undstg-wage-gap-v1.pdf (source on the chart in page 2 of the writeup, comes from 2020 study by the US Census Bureau)

    Here’s a brief writeup of a Harvard study that talks about how women self-select into lower-paying jobs: https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/effect-task-choice-and-task-assignment-gender-wage-gap-experimental-study

    Basically, there is a pay gap, some of it is explained by factors other than gender, but we should work to try to eliminate those factors by removing barriers for women to enter certain fields as well as gender discrimination.


  • The Palestinian people, as a whole, certainly have the moral high ground given the Israeli government’s decades long campaign of genocide and apartheid against them.

    However, if you mean “actors on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have done reprehensible things,” then of course that is the case. Hamas and the Israeli military have both committed great and serious crimes against civilians.

    But only one side has the power to begin negotiations or seriously affect genocide against the other, and that’s Israel - and thus far, they have decided on the genocide route. Supporting the Palestinian people in this conflict is not the same as endorsing Hamas’ actions.