Posts by mcv@nerdica.net
(DIR) Post #AZAwZvKoKQwUOCarT6 by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T00:30:25Z
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@amerikaHow many people on the Left know any US history prior to the 1960s?How many on the right do? That's where most of the historical misconceptions and misrepresentations come from.Of course lots of people have a poor historical understanding, but that's not specifically limited to the left, and perhaps more common on the right.
(DIR) Post #AZBzEwh0Zv6fXZcnCq by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T13:51:46Z
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@amerikaDo you believe that because you identify as right-wing? Have you considered that maybe it's your own bias colouring your perception here?Look at how conservatives in Florida and other US states are banning aspects of history from their school curriculum because it doesn't fit their politics. They explicitly insist on not learning from history. They were even arguing that slavery was good for the slaves.These aren't some fringe nutcases, these are their elected politicians.And I've been in plenty of discussions where people on the right outright denied historical facts, and tried to misrepresent large swathes of history to suit their party or ideology. If anything, conservatives are far more ideological about history, and less interested in learning from it to improve society. Which is what progressives generally try to do.
(DIR) Post #AZBzHgDSIKThJ96akC by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T14:07:42Z
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@amerikatheir methods do not produce their stated goals.Some do, some don't. The goal is to learn and improve.The Soviet Union et al are particularly poor examples. They dress themselves up in the language of socialism, but although they call themselves Marxist, they ignore what Marx said. Leninism is not Marxism. Lenin's dictatorship of the elite is not Marx's dictatorship of the proletariat. The fact that the proletariat don't get a voice and are ruled top-down by a dictator is completely at odds with everything 19th century socialists wanted (many of whom also disagreed with Marx about the need for that dictatorship of the proletariat, by the way). In all of those countries, socialism/communism has become an excuse for totalitarianism.I will absolutely admit that many of the left were fooled by the charade, the dressing up in left-wing language. They've been fooled, and they know it now, but some people have been fooled for far longer than they should have been.People should read more George Orwell. He makes pretty clear how these systems are the complete antithesis of socialism. Democratic socialism, because socialism has to be democratic. How can a system represent workers if it doesn't give them a voice? How can you get equality if people don't get an equal vote?The success of the left can be seen in western Europe and even in the US: the labour unions, rights for workers, universal suffrage, human rights, civil rights, the rule of law applying equally to everybody.These countries and their systems are still far from ideal, and especially the last 4 decades have seen a destruction of many of the social systems that had been created before, with a resulting rise in inequality. Money still holds too much power, and strives for a less equal, less fair society where the rich rule over the poor. A society where the rich can get away with crimes while the poor are locked up or even killed for questionable reasons.
(DIR) Post #AZBzLKAmC0cW6Hadwe by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T13:45:51Z
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@amerikaEquality makes a mob, and a mob needs warlords to rule it.Both parts of this are false. Warlords are put above others. It's the core of the conservative hierarchy, whether you call them kings or captains of industry, it's about putting people above others.Conformity is the mob of identical individualistsThey're not identical. They're equal, of equal value and importance, despite their differences. Nobody is above the law. There's no conformity; people are allowed to be different.Unlike in the conservative world view, where people need to know their place, fit their social role. Women need to be like this, men need to be like that. Poor like this, rich like that. Everybody gets their straightjacket to conform to.As for the raving mob, I suggest you look at recent events in the US to see which side has the raving mob.
(DIR) Post #AZBzQGIq0at9XtiOzg by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T13:40:40Z
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@amerikaProgressives don't need to, because fairness is their social order. The fact that the conservative social order needs to be balanced against fairness shows you that it's inherently opposed to it. Their social order is unfair because it's not based on merit, but on power.The Leftist ideal is not higher than the individual; egalitarianism is just group me-first individualism.That makes no sense. Egalitarianism is explicitly about respecting others as equals and not merely putting yourself first.
(DIR) Post #AZC25TU06t1sCiiRyi by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:02:45Z
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@amerikaSorry, but no. That is completely wrong. You can't just posit some unfounded claims like that and expect people to accept them.
(DIR) Post #AZC2fjSICbNwAPCpPs by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:09:11Z
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@amerikaThe Florida State Board of Education’s new standards includes controversial language about how “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,”https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-florida-standards-teach-black-people-benefited-slavery-taught-usef-rcna95418
(DIR) Post #AZC3QFEWNvzY2qwYLo by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:12:09Z
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@amerikaIn those two decades, social programs have been reduced. They peaked in the 1980s before Reaganomics/neoliberalism set in.The same happened in the US. After WW2, and the social programs of the New Deal, the US was the world's manufacturing giant. Since Reagan, the middle class has been hollowed out and manufacturing jobs have been shipped to low-wage countries.What you're blaming on socialism was done by capitalism.
(DIR) Post #AZC41ebP1hChRMU4TQ by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:24:51Z
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@amerikaYou're wilfully blind if you don't recognise this as an attempt to spin slavery as something benefitting its victims. Something that's no quite as bad as it really was. DeSantis has a history of defending slavery this way. A number of other Republicans have too.And then there's them trying to restrict teaching about the history of racism in the US because it might make some people feel uncomfortable to learn about that history.And here you are, also trying to keep your eyes closed to the facts because they don't fit the world view you try to believe in.
(DIR) Post #AZC6PLCB22xG6q6ixs by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:31:53Z
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@amerikaIt's funny to blame it on unions, regulations and taxes, all of which were reduced during this period. Unions were being undermined, membership was down, and whole industries were being deregulated. And that's when manufacturing started moving abroad. It's exactly the opposite of how you're trying to paint it.
(DIR) Post #AZC7CHPXtIOkYthF1k by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T15:36:32Z
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@amerikaHistory is nuanced, but that doesn't mean we should be making excuses for slavery. What's next: excusing the holocaust because there was context there too?race guilt propagandaI am so sorry about making people feel guilty about their racism.You know the right way out of that guilt? Not to excuse it, but to reject it. Germany did it with the holocaust, the US should be doing it with its history of slavery and racism.
(DIR) Post #AZCQvRDy9NYv9pWoeu by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T19:36:36Z
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@amerikaIt's illegal, but as a nation, the US hasn't processed that trauma the way Germany has. There are still a lot of people identifying more with the slave owners than with the slaves. That's why the guilt and hatred still continue: because it's still there, and people refuse to let go and process that ugly past.
(DIR) Post #AZCRA5ztM1PhfOvuPw by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T19:40:22Z
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@amerikaI might add that I do not like the Holocaust.I'm glad to hear that, although the way you're saying it isn't as convincing as I'd hoped.Diversity divides societies and they lash out at outsiders, as Theodor Herzl observed.No, fascism does. And to a lesser degree, conservatism. They need people at the top and people at the bottom. That's what divides society. Diversity doesn't divide society if you accept it. It only divides if people are looking for division. And fascism in particular thrives on it. We saw it then with Nazi Germany, and we see it now with Trumpism.
(DIR) Post #AZCRlg9hshi4WZReCW by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T19:45:25Z
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@amerikaUnions are currently preparing for a major strike in the auto industry.Yeah, awesome. Unions seem to be on the rise again. I'm hopeful for a stronger middle class in the future.Regulations are higher than ever before.Not all regulations are back where they used to be, especially in the financial sector. Many of the harmful shenanigans that used to be banned are still legal.But there does seem to be a new awareness that those regulations were necessary. That the power of corporations can't go completely unchecked.Taxes are too high as it is now to avoid market distortionsDepends really on which taxes you're looking at. Some taxes are way too low, and in fact too low to avoid market distortions.
(DIR) Post #AZCV2CjIq4js2yfMtU by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T19:57:54Z
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@amerikaI'm unfamiliar with Haidt, and you're not doing a great job of explaining what he means. But if his conclusions are this kind of nonsense, I suspect his reasoning or his assumptions won't be great either.And if you want to see what forms ravening mobs, just look at the news about January 6. Can't get much more ravening than that, yet it was all in the service of their warlord who tried to put himself above others, above the law, while excluding parts of society that he felt needed to be hurt.That was a real mob, and it was not driven by egalitarianism.
(DIR) Post #AZCVSp0N9enIHjLIZs by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T20:05:57Z
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@amerika Europe didn't panic, it's just that the neo-liberals of Europe love austerity and don't want to increase government expenses, while the social democrats would prefer to spend that money on social programs. Not to mention that a lot of people didn't see a need for defense (blind to Putin's threat), so it seemed like wasted money.But it's not that Europe is taxed too high (though again, it varies; not every tax is the same). And with recent events in Ukraine, there's suddenly a lot more support for increased defense spending. Western Europe used to be blind to the threat that Putin posed and thought that Russia was a normal country they could trade and negotiate with. Eastern EU members knew better and already supported defense spending.Defense spending is only justifiable when there's a threat, and since the end of the Cold War, most people thought war was permanently over. Well, apart from a few stupid self-inflicted ones maybe. But people were clearly wrong about that.
(DIR) Post #AZChxKk4v6P6qz2L1k by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-28T22:50:29Z
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Tax rate doesn't have much to do with how many children people have. Prosperity and education do. And things like maternity healthcare and affordable childcare, not to mention housing prices. If people can't afford a house, they're certainly not going to have children.But by far the biggest factors are prosperity and education. Fertility rates are the highest in Africa. Then central Asia and parts of the middle east. They're the lowest in Japan, Canada, eastern and southern Europe. The US isn't at replacement rate either, despite the taxes there being far lower in recent years than they were before 1980, when the fertility rate was much higher. I think that makes it pretty clear that taxes have nothing to do with it.Also, treadmill living is far less an issue in western Europe, where people have 5 weeks of paid vacation and hard limits on their work week, than in the US, where a lot of people work more than 40 hours to get by and have no vacation time at all. Because of the weaker labour laws, less worker's rights, and weaker unions.
(DIR) Post #AZGwhexmFNggsZGgWe by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-08-30T23:56:32Z
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@amerika Oh, they were. The resurgence in union membership is a pretty recent thing. For a long time, the view that unions were harmful was surprisingly common (driven by corporate propaganda, of course), and it's pretty recent that that view has turned around.
(DIR) Post #AcgJwxW4tOKx2yB5fM by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-12-10T22:27:11Z
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I once had pen testers report that the data to our application could be compromised if hackers managed to get write access to the server it was on. I said if they had that access, compromised data was the least of our worries.
(DIR) Post #AdWTLxqHDf7VhFztgG by mcv@nerdica.net
2023-12-29T08:05:39Z
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@AlexanderKingsbury @breadandcircusesThe problem is that make their profits in direct opposition to the interests of the world, and externalise their societal costs: they don't pay the cost for the damage they do. We end up paying that cost. And this is the major problem with how our current system works.