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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • I think the question already contains a sort of ideological trap: it assumes that a specific company can be uniquely evil, as if morality were some trait that varies between company to company.

    I’m sure everyone’s heard this before:

    There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

    It’s not just a slogan. It gives us insight into the very structure of capitalism. That doesn’t mean every individual act is equally bad, but the system demands a sort of baseline complicity.

    CEOs and executives are legally required to maximize shareholder profits. Not just encouraged— legally obligated. So when Coca-Cola, for example, hires paramilitary death squads to kill labor leaders in Colombia, it’s not because it is uniquely monstrous. Replace Coca-Cola with Pepsi, or Nestle, or Amazon, or Raytheon… whatever. The logic of the system would produce the same result. If I gave the same chess position to 30 different Grandmasters… if there is a best move they will all see it and choose that best move.

    Think of an ant colony. An ant colony doesn’t decide to be cruel; it expands, consumes, protects its territory, destroys threats. Is it evil when some colony wipes out another for resources? A colony committing what we could term ant genocide? No it’s not. The colony is simply acting in its nature. Much like a slime mold would expand in a radius looking for food in a petri dish.

    Large corporations are like ant colonies. Complex emergent behavior resulting from a large number of individual units acting by a set of rules. The intelligence or perspective of the individual does not actually matter for the organism as a whole. As long as the individual units follow a set of rules it creates a sort of “hive-mind” pseudo-intelligence that acts in its own interests and has an almost Darwinist natural selection process.

    So this is all to say that I reject the question. I don’t believe in uniquely evil companies. The horror is precisely that they’re all, in a sense, innocent. They act not out of hatred or sadism or cruelty, but because the system itself has carved out the pathways where the ball inevitably rolls down the hill following the path of least resistance.




  • “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

    https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/

    Peter Thiel is the financier behind JD Vance and one of the co-founders of PayPal- later on with Elon Musk. They’re part of the same group of people, along with various other Silicon Valley tech executives, who subscribe to what has been called the “Dark Enlightenment” philosophy

    JD Vance, for example, has openly expressed his support for Nick Land and cited him as a major influence.

    Both Yarvin and Land believe that gradual, incremental reforms to democracy will not save Western society; instead, a “hard reset” or “reboot” is necessary. To that end, Yarvin has coined the acronym “RAGE” – Retire All Government Employees – as a crucial step toward that goal.

    Does that sound familiar?

    Yarvin advocates for an entirely new system of government – what he calls “neocameralism.” He advocates for a centrally managed economy led by a monarch – modeled after a corporate CEO – who wouldn’t need to adhere to plodding liberal-democratic procedures. Yarvin has written approvingly of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping for his pragmatic and market-oriented authoritarianism.

    They’re essentially trying to reshape the government to function more like a corporation. Something akin to the Chinese or Singapore method of governance. Democracy is not compatible. What’s interesting is that this isn’t happening in secret. They’re out in the open about it.

    I’m guessing you refuse to see what’s in front of your nose out of fear, which is why you keep saying everyone else is afraid. Me personally, I’m not afraid at all. I’d say I’m more morbidly curious to see how it all ends up. I’m fairly privileged and I’ll be fine no matter what. As long as you shut up and do your job most people will be fine. Just don’t be an immigrant or openly anti-Israel

    But it’s happening. We’re witnessing a coup right in front of our eyes. They are purging the federal government and Trump has started to ignore court orders- dipping his toes in the water. There’s a lot more to this if you’re interested. There’s many articles out there and you can even read stuff by Vance, Thiel, Yarvin, Land, etc. They’re not shy




  • we’re watching an unprecedented purge in only a couple months of an administration. led by people who have openly admitted they want to destroy American democracy and institute a dictatorship.

    me personally I think Trump already crossed the Rubicon. but in the very near future there will be an order by the Supreme Court for Trump to stop doing something. He won’t stop doing it. And then it will be abundantly clear to everyone we’re in a new stage of US history



  • this was actually a key part of Hitler’s strategy. early on in the Nazi meetings they would try to pin down and give an exact agenda and set of policies.

    he would yell at everyone that they’re missing the point. it’s more about the vibe than the logic. being vague and ambiguous keeps your options open.

    “It is not truth that matters, but victory.” Adolph

    By refusing precise definitions, you are able to retroactively decide what the ideology “always meant”. so when it’s convenient to hate against health insurance CEOs you are “against the swamp”. when it’s convenient to dismantle the government you are “against the swamp”

    it can mean whatever you want it to. similar with the “enemies of the state”

    nazis would use the word marxists or “degenerates” very loosely. makes it very easy to shift blame to a specific target or another when necessary

    berlin’s degeneracy is because of gays, somewhere else it may be gypsies, another it’s the jews, etc.

    today we see phrases like “radical leftists” “cultural marxists” “woke ideology” etc

    a federal judge blocked some of Trump’s orders (Trump ignored it of course) and what does he call him? a radical left judge. something that couldn’t be further from the truth- radical left would imply some type of communist or socialist. but it doesn’t really matter because the term is vague enough it can work




  • kava@lemmy.worldtoNews@lemmy.worldFlorida is now a solar superpower
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    4 days ago

    That’s true although it’s quite impressive regardless.

    First, the Florida state government is actively hostile to solar. Just a couple years back they passed a law that made it so you couldn’t sell your excess power back to the grid- a huge benefit of installing solar.

    This was at the request of FPL (Florida Power & Light) because just like in the federal government, the Florida government is essentially bought and paid for.

    So I don’t know the specifics in CA, but I’d imagine their government is more friendly to renewable energy.

    And we also need to consider CA has a little less than double Florida’s population and a little more than double Florida’s GDP.

    So the fact that Florida surpassed California’s solar usage is actually quite impressive, especially considering CA had a significant head start.

    It’s really a testament to how useful this technology is. Solar is not growing in Florida because it’s renewable or has lower carbon emissions, etc. It’s growing because it’s economically feasible.

    And I think it’s a good sign for the future of renewable energy. Also goes to show Florida is rapidly growing. Few years back we surpassed NY as the 3rd largest state (in terms of population).

    Right now Texas & Florida (and certain states in the SE like S or N Carolina) are the fastest growing states. Meanwhile states like New York, California, and Illinois are stagnating.

    In the next couple decades, Florida and Texas will eventually surpass NY and CA as the two most important states. And I predict they will both turn blue just like what happened to California.




  • The federal government’s countermeasures will come into effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 13. The 25 per cent tariffs will hit steel products worth $12.6 billion and aluminum products worth $3 billion.

    In addition, Canada is hitting another $14.2 billion worth of imported U.S. goods with fresh tariffs, totalling $29.8 billion in retaliation.

    I wasnt aware new ones from yesterday. It was for $30B, though. Combined with the last set of tariffs its $60B total out of $350B of US exports to Canada

    So about 17%. So let’s say Canads is at a conservative 3 generous 4


  • pretty much. we all grew up in the US being taught it’s a country of immigrants and the “bring me your weary your hungry your whatever masses to be free”

    it’s actually kind of fascinating to see that ideology shift so fast it’s giving whiplash. turns out we actually kinda need these people for our economy otherwise we’ll end up like European countries with stagnating economies until we eventually get overrun by China




  • you don’t just become friends with people to become friends. there needs to be some glue that brings you two together.

    so for example back when you were in primary school, you had that glue- you took the same class as someone or rode home in the same bus, etc.

    as an adult, if you want to make friends, you need to find some glue. it could be working together, or playing dungeons and dragons, or a deep appreciation of black and white cinema. who knows

    so i will suggest one thing and it will only really work if you live in Florida. go to kava bars. just go with your laptop and hang out there drinking kava and doing your own thing. go every once in a while and you will meet people and make friends. it’s one of the few modern “3rd place” locations.