Apparition of Jack

More like a white-worker

@Anderz Have you checked out Leo's video on marketing? It's really good. It explains how like 90% of our "true" ideas in ANY domain are actually just the result of marketing, lol. Here's the link if you haven't seen it

@Anderz Apple has always been overpriced for the technology they provide, I honestly think 75% of Apple's "genius" is learning how to market technology as sexy and avant-garde rather than as something for nerds and bureaucrats, and hence being able to charge premium prices for their products. I don't want to diminish the real technological achievements made under them though, they clearly have technological innovation, but most of their success comes from marketing IMO.

@diamondpenguin Because mentally he is 13

"Progressives may benefit more from a Hitler victory. Here's why"

@LfcCharlie4 Be careful of self-fulfilling prophecies tbh. Saying "yeah Trump will win even though I don't like it" means you'll be less likely to put in the effort to actually change this. A Trump victory isn't a certainty at this point, nor is a Biden victory. Every moment the future is in motion. 76 days is an eternity in the current state of politics.

This is why a second Trump term is so dangerous. It's not only another years of incompetent, racist, climate-denying neoliberalism, but it also fundamentally shifts the conception of American politics from being based on reason and consensus towards being based on ego, manipulation and falsehood. A second Trump term change's Trump's presidency from "temporary reactionary embarrassment" to "future of American politics from here on out." We cannot normalise fascism and incompetence in the White House.

I've since learnt that at this point in history American politics is simply way too chaotic to make any sort of meaningful prediction until the actual event happens. As it stands now, the chances of Trump winning through fraud, Trump winning legitimately, or the Dems winning legitimately all seem equally possible to me. My approach to the situation is to not think too much about the potentials of it and instead just work tirelessly to ensure a Dem victory in November, come hell or high water.

These things aren't mutually exclusive though, it's often through a desire to manifest ideals into the world that people are motivated to survive / struggle / work hard enough to get through the hardships of devilry, social ills, corruption, etc. If all you give people is cold, logical ways to maximise individual survival at the expense of some higher truth to strive towards, people will abandon you when hardships inevitably arise. This is a huge part of why technocratic neoliberalism is proving so ineffectual at staving off fascism / radical communism etc. This worldview has no ideals beyond "let's use technology to make as much money as possible." And to be fair, technology has progressed rapidly over the last 30 years or so, so credit due where credit is due, but eventually people will get sick of just being marketed new ways to solve problematic minutia without being given any sense of higher truths to strive towards, both collectively and individually. Giving people an optimistic glimpse of what could be possible, whether that's through art, discussion, prefigurative politics, debate, etc. grants people a sense of "grounding" and provides them with hope that a civilisational downswing is only temporary and that brighter days will still lay ahead. Otherwise people will turn to corruption and devilry when they feel their world closing in too much and start lashing out, which obviously negatively affects everyone's survival.

"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live." - Adolf Hitler, a man who committed suicide after failing to win a war and plunging the world into an era of darkness

https://reddit.com/r/MensLib/ Despite the redpill-sounding name, this subreddit is the exact opposite and instead focuses on building up a healthy attitudes towards masculinity, self-esteem, being inclusive of women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, etc. There's some truly fantastic discussions there and if you're a guy (or not, hehe) struggling with feelings of insecurity, dating, emotional issues, a role in life etc. then there's a lot of great stuff to be discovered there. Highly recommended.

Just get a phone case and a screen protector and it'll survive 99% of all drops. As far the products themselves go, I don't like how restrictive they are customisation-wise and honestly don't see how they're any more "intuitive" than Microsoft of Android products. In fact I often find them less intuitive. With that being said, the privacy concerns are a real issue for me and I basically see Microsoft and Google as being an open-door to whatever security agency wants to snoop around my personal info, so I use an iPhone for that reason alone since Apple seems to take privacy a little more seriously (I doubt they're that much better honestly.)

As with all sentiments, there's some truth to these feelings. In a sense we have gone too far away from nature and too many people do feel alienated as a result. The problem is going overboard with it and then claiming everything would be perfect if we just gave up cars and electricity and the internet and just lived off the land like our ancient ancestors did. I think the right solution would be to take that nugget of wisdom and then integrate it into the understanding that technology is here to stay. One of my favourite current literally / aesthetic genres is Solarpunk. The idea is a future envisioned where an understanding of ecology and the natural processes of earth are integrated with and moderates our use of technology and urban planning, which to me is the sort of future we should be aspiring towards.

White man are magicians all on their own - they can make a poor country's mineral wealth disappear!

Much easier to accept the world is constantly staked against you so you can just jerk off and get angry on twitter all day than to accept you are able to influence politics and make your policy positions a reality with hard work and compromise

Foreign funding can happen for a number of reasons. One can be to invest in the security of a country where the donor country has regional interests. I don’t know much about Jordan but I know it’s generally friendly to the West and downplays extremism, so the EU is probably happy to support it so that it has a friendly nation in the region. Another is to shore up diplomatic support. Unlike what many isolationists, autarkists and militarists think, it’s important to maintain healthy global relations and displays of good-faith like this can improve a nation’s or an alliances’ international standing. Say the EU wants a resolution passed at the UN, this donation might mean your country is now more likely to support the EU in that resolution. And another reasons which shouldn’t be understated is there might just be genuine goodwill from the EU to help out a county in need. Despite how easy it is to be cynical these days, a lot of political efforts are still motivated by values and ideals. I imagine there’s enough people in the EU bureaucracy who genuinely believe in international solidarity enough that something like this is seen as a beneficial course of action.

ATLA is a fantastic example of effective worldbuilding and storytelling and will honestly remain popular for decades to come. It's legitimately one of the most impressive pieces of media I've ever seen, yes it might be targeted at kids but the creators were truly channeling some higher truths when they created it. Mike and Bryan were truly living out their Life Purpose when they got to work on it IMO.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, she’s like the only non-geriatric person in a position to be President within the next four years (who isn’t also an evangelical wingnut like Pence is.) Plus, she has that generic “Yass Queen” energy that appeals to many undecided normies who might like the fact that she’s an outspoken woman. On the other hand, I get a really bad vibe from her when I listen to her speak and I 100% believe she’s going to be as stubbornly status quo as possible, a few minor platitudes aside. Even Biden seems to be more genuinely progressive than she does these days. Plus, unlike dementia-patient Biden she has the mental fortitude to put up resistance to progressive policies. I’m still hoping Biden wins, but it means that when she inevitably takes over from him when he gets too old, it’ll mean progressives really have to hold her feet to the fire and push her to be as radical on climate change, lobbying reform, healthcare etc as possible. We can’t let her be Hillary Clinton 2.0 just because she happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as they have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months." - Dr. Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University, October 17, 1929

Stage Purple comes across stage Orange industrial technology:

You have a house, but there’s 10 homeless people in our town with nowhere to stay. I decided to kick you out of your house and put the homeless people there instead. I’ve just helped out the maximum number of people with the resources we have. Do I get my good boy utilitarian points now?

A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B IMO. Humanity is always progressing towards greater consciousness, freedom and Love, but at the same time our lower human impulses (ego, greed, violence) are a fact of life and can't ever truly be eradicated no matter how developed we become. It's a paradox, but that's how you know it's true, lol.

So you mean he's going to get outsmarted by a couple of teenage girls?

@Roy what would be wrong with that?