extracting rent

That’s their right

lemmy.ml

Have I discovered a rare pro-capitalist user of lemmy.ml?

Some people are, it’s called antitheism. I confess when I was an edgy 16yo I was like that, but I had just left a religious cult so don’t judge me too harshly.

Even if it were the case that they didn’t want to be there, “just following orders” is not an acceptable excuse for committing a genocide. The morally correct thing to do if you’re compelled to service in the IDF is to refuse and face the consequences, because they cannot be worse than the moral injury of being tasked with the murder of innocent children.

There was a spate of news articles recently about AI feeding people’s delusions to the point that they start thinking they’re the chosen one, emphasising that it was happening to people with no prior history of mental health issues. It was supposedly linked to an update to ChatGPT that made it even more sycophantic than usual.

It’s a mix of sensationalist media and moral panic with just a hint of truth IMO. If people can fall for scams, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories then they can definitely get pushed off the deep end by an AI saying “yes and” to their every thought.

Allow me to translate.

I form my worldview on vibes alone and am incapable of thinking for myself. My perception of people is entirely filtered through memes and sensationalist media.

The CCP acts like just because the state owns major enterprises then the workers - through the state - own the means of production. That doesn’t hold up when the state does not adequately represent the will of the workers. Never is this contradiction more clear than when the Chinese state suppresses workers’ attempts to organize on their own terms.

China is communist in the same way that the US is democratic, which is to say that it’s a sham to keep up appearances that is suspended when convenient for the few who hold real power.

I would plead for someone to show this man a microscope but I fear the conclusions he might draw.

Did the brain worm leave anything for the prions to replicate in or for the poor brain-eating amoeba?

So they took over a building they don’t own, refused to leave, and had a list of demands?

Yeah, sounds like something the police should be called for.

Would you say the same thing about organized sit-ins in segregated buildings during the civil rights movement? Same set of facts, took over a building they didn’t own, refused to leave, had a list of demands. If not, then clearly you believe that if the status quo is untenable and the demands reasonable then the action is justified.

This is peaceful civil disobedience in opposition to an ongoing genocide being broken up by the police state.

Right, white people aren’t allowed to be activists. Instead they should bitch and moan in internet comment sections about activists not doing enough or not doing the right things while doing nothing themselves.

This is ridiculous. What would Greta have to do to earn your respect, huh? You’re really gonna ask “why wasn’t she on the boat” as if she planned for the humanitarian aid vessel to be drone striked the day before she was going to board it? The fuck are you doing?

She is both a climate activist and advocate for Palestinian liberation, and framing her risking her life to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians as a shallow attempt at staying famous is incredibly ignorant and arrogant.

I’m sure the velociraptors helped you stay focused too.

I have the version that was made for the OG Switch and the build quality is garbage tier. Developed stick drift in both sticks in less than a month.

Former Christian here, I’m still very partial to this verse:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

Would you have preferred they use a euphemism like “enhanced interrogation?”

Just like with RFK, it’s somehow always obvious where the brainworms came from.

The killing of Brian Thompson revealed just how frustrated the general public has become with the lack of meaningful change to our predatory healthcare system. I do not recommend that more people go out and kill health insurance CEOs, because that is a very individualistic approach to a problem that requires systemic change. That doesn’t mean I’m going to shed any tears over the death of someone who is responsible for an astronomical amount of suffering, and I do believe that defending Luigi Mangione’s rights is important not just for protecting the rights themselves, but also for demonstrating solidarity and instilling class consciousness.

Let’s stop talking around the issue. I’m referring to union organizing, general strikes, boycotts, mutual aid, direct action, etc. Would you consider those things “steering the ship into rocks?” Do you really think our only viable course of action is to do nothing except show up to vote on election days? We have to organize, and the Democratic leadership is uninterested in helping. Grassroots liberal progressive groups like MoveOn and Indivisible have been doing that work for them, and the Democratic leadership has been actively hostile towards them.

I’m not really even arguing that people should give up working within the system, just that it very clearly isn’t enough. If you haven’t noticed, we’re losing big. Even when the Democrats win, can’t you see how little they are able to accomplish? When you play a game that’s rigged against you, you have to get creative and look for solutions that are outside the bounds of the rules that have been set before us.

Your misplaced faith in the Democratic party is blinding you to the reality of our situation. Even within the party we have lost ground to the oligarchs, meaning our access to political power has been compromised. To take it back will require us to fight on two fronts, both within and outside the system.

So yes, you can, but people aren’t, because people are idiots.

Stop this. You have become jaded and cynical, which is understandable, but it’s causing you to accept a very dangerous premise. We didn’t get here because people are just idiots, the ruling class out-organized us. To believe that people are simply too stupid to fight back is to accept defeat.