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Comment Re: Did you even read the fucking summary? (Score 1) 60

It wasn't one or even two judges, it was a panel of three appellate court judges who made a unanimous ruling. I don't like it either, and I suspect at least one if not all of them also don't. But their job isn't to tell you whether they like it. As much as you may want it to be, this isn't Leninism. We have laws for a reason, and they're no good if judges can just ignore them.

Comment Give me a real filter (Score 1) 29

I don't want to unsubscribe to this or that.

I want to give natural language filters like "I never want to see a political email again, from anyone"

Or maybe "If they make it sound urgent but it's not urgent at all, don't show it to me and remind me a week before the actual deadline if it's at all important".

As others have said, unsubscribe links often do not work and it's probably all the Gmail feature will use.

Comment Re: Go BRICS! (Score 1) 123

Words have meanings.

Of course they do. Just like that time I had to teach you what the word "socialism" actually means. You almost certainly don't know what fascism means either, which isn't surprising because it's even less well known these days than what socialism really means.

China is not fascist.

Oh, but they are. Very much so. Think back to when I was the first person to inform you what socialism actually is -- remember how you said your politicians call themselves socialist? About that -- so, as you now know, they're not actually socialist. In the 1930s, what you call (called?) socialism was better known as the "third position." You see, in the eyes of socialists and fascists alike, on one side you have socialism, on the other side you have capitalism, and right in the middle you have fascism. Just like socialists, fascists don't come in promising to rule you like a king. They come in promising to take care of you. They tell you that they're going to make all things, including businesses, work for the common man. The difference between the two lies only in how they intend to do this. Rather than go into the details myself, I'll let an actual socialist explain through a modern lens: (note that I don't agree with any of the conclusions here, but he does have his terms correct and he has done his homework, as you can see from the citations provided.)

https://www.hamptonthink.org/r...

Now keep in mind that fascism has both a government component and an economic component that are separable. Those politicians you're speaking of are almost certainly economic fascists, and perhaps you are as well, but I honestly don't recall seeing any of your positions on economics. rsilvergun certainly is, though, without question. Regardless, their ideology and economic thought processes largely originated from none other than Benito Mussolini. But more than likely, they're not even aware of that. Very few of them are, they just think of themselves as trying to do right by the common man in trying to bring a compromise between socialism and capitalism. Note also that the distinction between Fascism and Nazism is about as strong as the distinction between Leninism and Stalinism. Nazism is what brought race into the whole thing, where Mussolini's fascism didn't even make an issue of race.

But back to China -- not only are they economically fascist -- they're definitely even more all around fascist than any other country at the moment. Their government has a very concentrated, top-heavy power structure. Technically it's a democracy in that the elections probably are fair in the way the votes are counted, but what they have is a democratic-republic with zero in the way of free speech, free expression, etc. Sure, you can vote for the other guy, but if he ever says something that the people currently in power don't like, they can remove that piece from the board. (This is a huge reason, by the way, why I say free speech of critical importance to a democracy, and why I oppose any and all curbs on free speech, including any kind of political justification, like for example, banning hate speech.) Regardless, it has very strong elements of corporatism (not to be confused with corporations in the business sense -- the terms are unrelated) a very deeply nested political hierarchy, and a ruler at the top with nearly absolute power.

Another critical element of economic fascism is the way the state can literally take executive control of large corporations. They can appoint themselves to the boards of directors and insert members of their party into key executive positions at will. They'll also pool government funds directly into these corporations to advance the interests of the state. Note the distinction of taking the business over outright and establishing it as a monopoly, also called nationalizing, which is what socialism ultimately stipulates.

No matter how you slice it, China IS in fact fascist in all but name. They call themselves communist, but that doesn't really mean anything.

China does very bad stuff. The UK does very bad stuff. The US does very bad stuff. The EU does very bad stuff. Take your pick. Or rather, don't.

This honestly smells of both-sides'ism, and in a really bad way at that.

Or rather, don't. Be pragmatic.

Trust me, I'm way ahead of you here. You're the kind of guy who literally manufactures disinformation, why on earth would you call yourself anything even remotely resembling a pragmatist?

China is doing more than any country to address climate change, which is objectively good, regardless of what else they are up to.

Sweet summer child... I think by far the biggest difference between you and me, is I actually read history. You see this sentence you said here? It applied equally well to Nazi Germany circa 1930s.

https://www.encounterbooks.com...

Same with animal welfare and probably a lot of other things.

You know why I'm opposed to socialism and you're not? Because 150 years of history says it doesn't work. You know why I'm opposed to fascism? Because 80 years of history shows that democracy and capitalism do a hell of a better job at lifting all boats, with the very nice side benefit of not leaving you totally miserable in the process.

More than that, we are falling behind because we refuse to compete. Not just economically, but ideologically.

You mean, you actually WANT to engage in an ideological arms race with them? Holy fucking shit...

Not just economically, but ideologically. There is a reason why so many of gen Z have little faith in our democracies, and why they look at places like China and wonder if there is a better way. Not necessary exactly like China, but a government that is at least not actively trying to shaft them at almost every opportunity. They inherited broken countries, broken economies that concentrated all the wealth away from them, and a looming disaster that the people with the power to do anything about seem to think is not going to affect them personally so they only need to pay lip service to addressing it.

No, they're not. I don't know about where you live, but this country is not broken. It's not perfect, but it's certainly not broken. We're currently living in what is the most prosperous age in history. Almost every country is, in fact. It's insane how much people like you deny what this guy says:

https://www.ted.com/talks/hans...

And it's all based on objective, empirical, fact. But people like you are having none of it. You've got a narrative to sell, which is why everything you're saying is nothing more than what people like you are trying to sell them. Politicians don't get votes and pundits don't get attention by telling everybody that "everything is ok but we can make it a little better." They get votes by telling you that everything has gone to shit, your life sucks even if you don't think it does, and only they can fix it. After Hitler's jail sentence ended after his failed Bier Hall Putsch, he came back to an economy that was beginning to recover from the great depression (the US would have as well had it not been for some very poor, in fact very Trump-like economic and foreign policies.) Nobody really cared for him anymore until he successfully sold the narrative that the jews were fucking them over in ways they weren't aware of.

For you, just replace 'jews' with 'the rich' and there really isn't much of a difference. Though come to think of it, I don't think even that is accurate. You claim Israel is actively committing genocide, despite there being no evidence of that. In fact, the best thing you could do to "free palestine" if that's what you actually wanted to do, would be to eliminate Hamas and its benefactors, namely Hezbolla and Iran. The best "evidence" (and I use the term loosely) you could even hope to provide is some kind of clandestine jewish conspiracy that they're keeping secret, just like every other group or individual who has decided to scapegoat jews. You yourself have literally manufactured disinformation against Israel, and YOU KNOW IT.

But you know what strangely doesn't bother you? China is actively genociding its Uighur population. There's a crapload of evidence to support that as well. So why is it that you never talk about that? With you, it's always "push the jews into the sea before they commit genocide!" You know what gay people in Palestine do? They apply for (and receive) asylum in Israel, otherwise if they remain in Palestine they're almost certainly going to end up tortured and publicly executed some day, and it won't even be Hamas that does it. But I'm sure you enjoy being in the "Chickens for KFC" club regardless.

This is about us being honest with ourselves, realistic about how the world is, and finding a way to make things better. Right now we are slipping backwards, fast.

No, we're really not. The only way that might happen is if people like you succeed where Stalin and Mussolini failed.

Comment Re: Go BRICS! (Score 0) 123

Is it even possible for a person to be a bigger apologist for an objectively fascist state than you? And you're also an apologist for terrorist organizations as well. Why do you do all of this? Is this just your way of showing how you hate America so much that you're rooting for objectively bad people, even though those same people would happily curb stomp you if they had the chance?

But don't worry, I found something that will make you feel good about yourself anyways:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ameri...

Comment Re:Fireworks Fatalities Much Lower in UK where Leg (Score 1) 112

I think it just depends on local factors. Like, for example, the reason people travel on the left side of the street in the UK: If you encounter a rival gang member on the streets of London, then by sticking to your left side, you can both draw your knife from your left inside pocket and slash your enemy in one fluid motion, making it much easier for you to get the jump on them. It's a local tradition there.

Comment Re: Illegal fireworks (Score 1) 112

No, it's you not them. The majority of land in question is run by the federal government, so the buck stops with your Daddy.

You wish I'm not related to you and your idiotic, loudmouth father. You're definitely a child of that lesser clod, and don't even think about taking me down to your level by associating me with your ilk.

Besides, I currently live in the LA area. Go around the south bay and ask around what the government here is spending all of it's incredibly high tax revenue on. For the most part, they will say nobody really knows. Nothing here fucking works. Everything is trashed. They might mention the incredibly high salaries the politicians receive, or they might mention what is already the world's most expensive high speed rail that hasn't even been built yet. But either way, nothing good.

And go ask what they're doing with land management. Ask why the ground has literally sank here. Ask why fish near the shore isn't safe to eat. Few people even know. No politicians ever talk about it, probably because it's pretty fucking embarrassing.

Comment Re:Illegal fireworks (Score 1) 112

Power companies are all privatized in Arizona as well, and it doesn't have this problem. Electricity rates are also half as much, and its power grid is far more reliable. California is what happens when the democratic party has absolute power at all levels of government. The politicians here will give you an earful about how important pronouns are, but they couldn't care less about land and resource management.

Comment Re: Illegal fireworks (Score 2) 112

Fireworks were illegal in Arizona until 2010 where they're now permitted on and around four different holidays. Haven't had any wildfires that I'm aware of, except occasionally somebody might burn their own house down, usually because they threw away the remains before soaking them in water.

Part of the law stipulates that they can only be used on private property with the permission of the property owner. Between setting them off in an area far more controlled vs going out in the desert to avoid getting caught as people used to do when they were banned entirely, I'd take the former.

Given the very dry conditions in Phoenix, the desert is definitely kindling ready to be lit. And it does catch fire. The main difference, from my observation at least, is Arizona just does a hell of a lot better job of land management. All resource management, in fact, especially water management. People here in California just love electing incompetent politicians, and love to overpay them even more for a job poorly done.

Comment Honestly who attacks the FSF? (Score 0) 34

LLM crawlers are understandable these days, but who on earth is actively trying to take the FSF down?

A bunch of heathen VIM users trying to stop people from accessing EMACS? What the heck?

Let's say you actually managed to take down the FSF website. Who would even notice or care? How would that help your hacker rep in any way? You'd be a laughingstock for making the attempt.

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