TrickstaPriest

This is the actual weapon, if you are wondering. https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgpPqor1v6/

I saw this a bit ago. Grr.

My apologies on losing my temper, though.

I wouldn't agree with that in totality, but I brought up the question because I think that financial representation from major donors has a lot more influence on policy than much else. There are exceptions, but I'm not proposing a fundamentally different government, merely soliciting suggestions on mitigations.

I haven't seen a serious attempt to push environmental agendas on either side that are sufficient in preventing our demise. I have zero people to expect action for, even when I do consistently vote for an environmental agenda. The system works but is killing us is like a medical system saying surgeries are successful but the patient died from them. If you want a coherent edit:researched and thorough argument from me, you will have to wait until I have the time. edit: I just disagree fundamentally that a system is working if it the system's stated goals are to support a society when that system's extensively exploited to the effect of killing that society. It will take a long time for me to break down on every instance of corruption, deception, and how parts of the economic system are rigged to continue it extensively and protecting those that do it, however.

edit: then again, I've been an environmental advocate for my entire life because I expected this outcome.

It's not a surprise - Trumpism is basically a drug. It's self validation, and people will get drunk on that for the express purpose of forgetting everything else they supposedly care about. This got published recently. Some disturbing footage, but I saw most of it shortly after the 6th anyway

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/congressional_job_approval-903.html 30% approval of Congress has held improved recently, but it's a horribly low approval rating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality Global inequality has decreased, but a massive gulf widened in the US in the last 50 years. Even my ex-coworkers, all cybersecurity professionals, are struggling under stress, income, healthcare, in one of the hottest growth technical fields in the world. I don't have the time to break down how much pork actually makes a difference in terms of mouths fed, I'm studying for my third cert in a row this summer to try and incentivize my continued employment. 😕 edit: I feel like our politicians are more incentivized to work with lobbyists of major businesses, regardless of the harm or conflict of interest. Recent news brings it to mind. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/07/02/exxon-climate-change-video-leaked/ I don't disagree that politicians spend a lot of time trying to get big wins passed to encourage citizenry, but we are still literally dying as a species and almost everyone I know and have ever met is struggling to keep things together financially... so I take those big wins with a grain of salt. I've waited literally my entire life to see a politician start to take Global Warming at all seriously. I'm still not certain if the current administration does. So I guess that is the question then? How does one demonstrate that our current government structure is incentivized to help its citizens? Or that it is not? I can't compile the amount of bills and the comparison of relative effects of such bills, weighted against things like Citizens United. And those are soft value comparisons sometimes, so how do you want to weigh it? Maybe when I have time again... some year, I'll compile the big gains and big losses in laws and actions over the last 60-80 years. Until then...

I wonder if that's what representative governments are actually incentivized to do. The fact that our government does not illustrates some of the problems with this assumption, and to even talk about it I guess we have to understand what would incentivize a government to function 'properly' to begin with.

The more I think about this the more it drives me crazy. Literally the only way the lightbulb market (that was self restricting lightbulbs to 1000 hrs of lifespan, deliberately creating an inferior product) was 'disrupted' was by inventing an entirely new technology - LED bulbs. Windows - it's only being replaced because the entire desktop machine is being replaced... by the phone market. Phone market. We are seeing the smartphone market eliminate the ability to replace batteries in their phones across the board. I had to buy a new phone and almost none of them allow you to replace batteries anymore. The remaining marketshare is too small, obscure, and of questionable quality, incentivizing/forcing the average consumer to buy new phones twice as often instead of replacing old batteries. Internet. Not even Google has been able to disrupt that market with new and superior technology... it exists across town from me, but I literally cannot get those lines from where I am. It only exists across town because there was no houses there... I may never be able to get those lines this decade without moving where I live. Hospitals you don't generally choose, that gets chosen for you. Friends of mine literally had to do research to figure out which hospital nearby is covered by their insurance - it wasn't the closest one! ...Plus the health infrastructure itself is insane. When I asked my doctor to run some bloodwork another person requested, no one told me (or probably knew) that the insurance company wouldn't cover it. I had to pay $800 out of pocket for bloodwork done out of the same lab by the same people I always get my bloodwork done, literally at the same time I got other bloodwork done that -was- covered by my insurance. Tractor companies have literally fought to prevent repairs to their own products, forcing farmers to hack the tractor software to conduct repairs on the tractors they owned. If they didn't do this, they'd be waiting for weeks to get a tractor repair done, which is the same as shutting down their income for weeks. We haven't even included entertainment - does Star Wardz count as a market substitute to Star Wars? If you can only get Star Wars on Disney+, then you can only ever get Star Wars from Disney... do market substitutes apply to entertainment products? Companies are actively incentivized to play obstructionist and bury complaints, buy and scrap competitors, bribe governors, and that's them being nice. Big companies buy literal death squads, arbitrarily deny energy to drive up electricity prices, or just take things like water. How does rigging the tax code factor into the market? It's a long rant, but this is what I mean (in general, not to anyone in particular) when I say I need to see the research. I just literally don't believe what people say "about the market" anymore. I've literally seen too much abuse. It's all illegal, but it's only illegal because we say so. We can just as arbitrarily say "it'll get handled eventually", and I just don't believe that any more. edit: Definitely as pinecone says, the government is a necessity at some times to tackle issues with the market, but i wonder how much our 'wisdom about the free market' is just bunk? And what other examples can we collate of this blatant kind of abuse of corporate power? I'm interested in things beyond what I already know, beyond Enron, Coca Cola, and lightbulbs. I honestly wouldn't mind hearing more about economics and what can be said about the market in general - I use incidents to inform me about a subject, but that doesn't teach anything positive in this subject. I've heard from others saying something to the effect of: "The market" requires a fast turn around time on a definable take-home product in a non-critical situation. It doesn't apply to a number of situations I think: life-or-death products (my mother flew off a highway, her car tumbled. insurance claims it was human error, but one of the new Firestone tires exploded) any services (handymen, doctors, dentists, car repair) a company controlling a platform environment (Windows dominating PCs, Amazon dominating shipping) nor does it apply if you would find out about a problem a decade later (see all the issues with contamination - plus I have problems taking supplements because they don't list their actual real ingredients) Plus long-term products - you can't really complain much about cars until you become an expert in them, or have multiple bad experiences with the same type of vehicle... which could take 20-30 years to actually pass. It could take ~100 years to 'adjust the market', where everyone responsible for the initial issues is literally dead and buried. And of course deliberate market collusion to make inferior products. like the lightbulb example I had posted I think it generally takes multiple "generations of product abuse from a definable abuser" for enough purchasers to create enough pressure to change the market to begin with. But a lot of the time it's hard to say "how bad is my doctor, really?", "I need a new electrician but I don't know any of these guys", "my new tires should be fine, they won't explode or anything", and "well I guess I am stuck with an X phone because I really don't have the time to learn how to use these weird 'other software' phones". What kind of soft factors weigh against the power of the market to rectify a problem?

The problem is I can't take "market forces apply" at it's word. It's just a general statement if there isn't research and evidence provided. As an avid environmentalist, the idea that "society eventually does something about it a century too late" is cold comfort to our collective demise. Then again, I'm just not interested in arguing markets right now.

Why would the 'Blue Dahlia Mob' care? I mean, profit is always higher when you deliver a subpar product across the market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

When the Georgia call came out, I kind of figured. The only way they'd swing this is to do this everywhere.

Complete capitulation and the whole world providing affirmation of their most rash beliefs and feelings. To be even less charitable, essentially being treated as princesses regardless of what reality is. edit: I wonder what their plan is for climate change, given the southwest is running out of water.

I was trying to avoid saying "X-ian Caliphate" but... Yes, this is more or less what I've been trying to warn about. This follows with the pattern of increased attacks following the pandemic - these shootings and attacks go up because of desperate circumstances. The real question is whether there will be other significant emergencies over the next few years.

I at least don't think so. But a lot depends around what happens over the next few years around Trump and around the various... 'news casters' in the US. It also depends a lot on whether the Biden admin can and will effectively address the severe poverty issues growing in this country.

deleted my line. This isn't going away, and I'm honestly expecting a lot more violence. And a lot, lot more religiously/politically motivated actions, and more public voices encouraging it. 😕 We, the rest of the public, have to start thinking about what kind of positive (and hopefully de-escalating) things that have to be done to deal with this.

Just skim the comments threads.

This video is restricted for language. Listen at your own risk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgRs1X4hUvY https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/17/secret-recording-florida-republican-threat-hit-squad-494976

News coverage and politicians is core to blame for that. At least to me.

Yeah, and this (building schools,hospitals,roads,infrastructure) is one of the things that separates a democratic free society from a dictatorship. As in, as long as the upper class actually need the lower class, they have to invest in them... 😕

Looking back at the past

deleted for dumb rant

I mean, as far as family goes, they don't have much shenanigans. I just don't think they weigh the literal politically-motivated overhaul of our elections as 'dangerous' as 'shitty online culture'. I think people are taking for granted the idea that 'there's political corruption in our government and election system' anyway, and don't realize that yes, it actually can get much worse than it is. And that the worsening of it will have terrible consequences for people's everyday lives, especially in the context of the de-powerment of employees, voters, etc.

This right here is why I'm so done. I know way too many people who are essentially only talking about 'the liberal left cancel culture making the world like China' who can't see what the eff is going on in front of their face. If I stopped talking to people who talked like that I'd have no friends I see face-to-face anymore, and half a family. This is really not good.