vvilld @ vvilld @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts

0

Comments

72

Joined

1 wk. ago

Fun fact: Monopoly was originally called "The Landlord's Game" when it was created and was meant to teach people about the fundamental absurdity and contradictions inherent in the capitalist system of land ownership. It was later co-opted by a family member of the creator who sold it to Parker Brothers. They renamed it Monopoly and turned it into the commercial success it is today.

Sort of to both, but not really.

Slavery has existed for at least as long as states and kingdoms have, yes. But the specific form slavery took in the Americas (not just the US and North America) was unique. That being race-based chattel slavery. That form had not existed anywhere else in the world previously or since. The closest you could claim were the Helots in ancient Sparta, but even that was closer to serfdom than chattel slavery.

So, no, the British did not "invent slavery", but they (along with the Spanish and French) did pioneer a new form of slavery that was uniquely brutal and inhumane.

And while you're correct that America as a nation did not adopt slavery from the British after the formation of the US since the colonials had already been practicing race-based chattel slavery before the US existed. But where did those colonials get that slavery? From the British who were their overlords and ancestors, who formed the colonies, and who created the economic system that relied on race-based chattel slavery.

So while you might be technically right, it's only due to semantics. The Brits absolutely did create virtually everything about the American system of slavery, which we then continued to perpetrate for another ~century after independence.

Again, you got that kind of money? I live outside DC, so not close to an international border. In fact, most Americans don't live somewhere they can travel across the border easily. And with the way the government is denying entry to people with the wrong level of melatonin, I don't think it's particularly safe advice to tell people to start crossing the border regularly.

And most people in the US do not fly for vacations. It's very expensive to fly, and most of us have cars we can take. I'm planning a family vacation later this year to visit my grandparents ~700 miles away. We priced it out and discovered it's actually cheaper for us to rent an RV and drive than to fly. Flying, especially internationally for a shopping trip, is an extreme luxury for most of us.

Sure. And the US government has the CIA and military to enact that regime change. Plus they have all the cops and military to defend against a popular uprising overthrowing the government.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but we're still in the early stages of a popular uprising. That's what these protests are about. This one on Saturday got, reportedly, ~5 million people on the streets at the same time. That's ~1.5% of the country's population. According to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, it takes ~3.5% of the population mass mobilizing at the same time to effect political change. That's ~12 million people. That's why this wasn't a 1 and done protest. The next one is already scheduled for April 19. And there will be another after that. And another after that.

Let's not just aim for 3.5%. Go higher. What can 5% of the country, 17 million people, do if we're all out in the streets together? Rather than just complain that one single protest didn't immediately result in widespread political change, why don't you get out there and join us on the 19th? Bring your friends. Bring your family. Help make a change rather than just complaining that others aren't doing it for you.

Because that's realistic advice. You have money for be to buy a plane ticket every time I need groceries? Who's going to fund everyone moving to another country? You got that kind of money? Because I don't.

There is no mechanism within American politics to run a new election. If that's the demand, we first would need to amend the Constitution, which isn't going to happen, or violently overthrow the government. Just demanding, "run a new election" is as empty a demand as anything else you could imagine.

Nobody would be stupid enough to fall for this..

Brother, the US has been doing this for literally our entire history. We both Gulf Wars, Vietnam, and Korea were all just "police actions", not wars (according to our government). Hell, in history we call our westward expansion the "Indian Wars", but we never declared war on any Native American tribes ever. Those were just "internal police actions".

Anarchists are kinda the exact opposite of authoritarians....

As an anarchist myself, I would not call libertarians or state communists fascists. All 3 are bad, but in different ways and for different reasons.

And if we're standing against fascists, I'll stand side-by-side with a communist or a libertarian. But I'll never stand side-by-side with a fascists against anyone for any reason.

Sounds like a good time to be in business as a dentist!

I'm just a simple construction worker who's not wise to the world of international geopolitics, but isn't a military strike on a foreign country's sovereign territory usually considered an act of war?

Mental asylums as they existed in the US before the 80s were often little more than glorified prisons. They did all kinds of horrific things to people which today we would consider torture.

That said, most people (not all, but most) who were in mental asylums were there because they had very real issues they needed real treatment for. Most people were not getting the treatment they needed, but that doesn't mean they didn't need something.

The mental asylums absolutely needed a lot of reform. Most probably did need to be shut down, or, at the very least, the entire staff needed to change and they needed a completely new philosophy of care. What this country absolutely did NOT need is to just throw all those people out onto the streets to fend for themselves. It seems to have been a lateral change for the people who needed help and a negative change for the rest of the country.

I'm not sure I would use the term "mental asylum" as that has a lot of cultural connotations I don't think we need or want to bother with. However, I do think the federal government should provide massive amounts of block grant funding to states to open new facilities which can provide inpatient services to people who suffer with mental health problems. These should be founded on a care-first framework, not the torture prisons of yore.

Since it's clear we're talking about the US here, the 1st Amendment clearly states (emphasis added):

Congress shall make no law respecting ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It says nothing about citizens, tourists, foreign nationals, etc. In fact, the amendment only limits what Congress can do (and the Supremacy clause extends this to the states). It doesn't say "Citizens have the right to free speech." It says "Congress shall pass no laws abridging the freedom of speech."

It's pretty clear that anyone and everyone has the right to free speech and assembly. The right wingers you're talking about are trying to rewrite the first amendment to justify their fascism.

Honestly, as an individual there really isn't much you can do with your purchasing power about it.

Next national day of protest in April 19. Find the largest one you are able to attend and join in.

They can secede, with the consent of the other states (meaning an act of the Federal government).

The general theory is that once a state enters into the Union it gains certain privileges and benefits which it would not previously had access to. Things like military protection, federal government investment, the increased power/influence in global politics/economics, etc, etc. Each state is getting things from other states and the federal government at the same time as they're giving things in return. Since it's a two-way relationship, it should take both parties to sever that relationship.

It just seems wrong to me, kind of like not allowing divorces.

I'd argue it's more like requiring alimony after a divorce. When two people are married often one will put their career on hold or de-emphasize it in order to focus on other things to support the marriage (eg stay-at-home parent). When the couple then divorces, the courts recognize that the individual who put their career on hold is now at a sever disadvantage in that they have forgone however many years of experience, advancement, salary, etc. They can't just jump back into the workforce and expect to get a job as good as if they had been working the whole time. And the other member of the relationship (the one who did not sacrifice their career) got the benefits of having someone to manage the home while they could focus on their career.

So the court acknowledges this disparity in the relationship and will require the higher-paid member of the marriage to pay alimony payments to the other as a way to make up for that economic imbalance between them. The higher earning member of the marriage can't just divorce and go about their way without having to compensate the other for the years they spent focusing on the family rather than their career.

This is what the secession of a US state would look like in theory. We tried the whole "one side gets unilaterally decides to break up without mediation or compensation to the other" thing. It was the impetus for the bloodiest war in American history. In order to secede "the right way" (ie without bloodshed), a state would have to go to the Federal Government and ask to secede. The government (which is a collection of representatives of the states and people in the states) then debates and decides on terms.

Of course, this has never been done or even tried. I suspect that pretty much every single state (except maybe California) would find that the benefits of staying in the Union far outweigh the benefits of leaving.

My Samsung Galaxy Buds+ work with gloves. I work construction, so I have work gloves on quite often. The tap to pause/double tap to skip forward/triple tap to skip back works perfectly with work gloves on. Can't say I've ever tried it with winter gloves, though.

I got banned for calling a guy a "fascist sanewasher" and refusing to post an apology when a mod messaged me to tell me to apologize.

I don't have an active account anymore (mine got banned because I called someone a fascist sanewasher and any new account I try to make gets immediately banned), but I still browse Reddit specifically because there are several subreddits for my local area (my county, my suburb, and the big city nearby) which are pretty active. I get a lot of local information from there which really isn't available in such a concise way anywhere else.

What have you been doing?

I am in the streets every chance I can get, and have been for more that 2 decades.