considerealization @ considerealization @lemmy.ca

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3 mo. ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pre-Columbian_inventions_and_innovations_of_Indigenous_Americans?wprov=sfti1

That looks very much like a false dichotomy to me. You left out:

• advertising (which does not require selling data, this is just an invasive additive)
• donation and volunteer based (Wikipedia does this quite successfully)
• funded from tax income (as are online government services, crown corporations etc.)
• companies that sell something thru the internet l, and website is an advertising or pm selling platform. This accounts for most sites, tbh, from brands to retailers, to marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and Craigslist.

These are just off the top of my head. But the point being is that your major premise of obviously false.

Most companies that are harvesting our data are also requiring or pushing for subscriptions now, so the dichotomy is also false in that respect.

Finally, it is clear that millions of people are quite happy to pay reasonable fees for valuable services, which is why so many fee based companies are doing fine.

Afaiu,

• a real “Free market” is a myth.
• A fully gov. Controlled market is not a free market by definition.
• The problem with the Canadian housing market is not government regulation, it is excessive marketization (and not enough of the right kinds of regulation).

This is a case of “don’t let the bad make bad stuff worse”.

Removing taxes on tips is a stupid, pandering policy that, at best is just a distraction, and at worse a government subsidy to the restaurant industry.

If we want more progressive taxation that benefits low income earners, we can just do that. Why should a barista make tax-free income but not a janitor? I’m fine with reducing taxes for lower income earners and increasing it for higher income earners. But why should it have anything to do with tips?

Thank you very much! Not sure why I couldn’t hunt that down before, but maybe I was searching with the wrong name.

• https://nyccli.org/
• https://prattcenter.net/our_work/gaining_ground

Building Community-Led, Affordable Broadband in New York City

Tell that to the hundreds of researchers who have their entire research programs and funding prospects thrown into the air, and/or outright cancelled.

Fucking bizarre take to lob at someone fleeing a country rapidly falling to fascism and ethnic cleansing.

These are places I would consider if I were able to go back to school:

• https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/ece/degree-options/electrical-and-computer-engineering-phd/
• https://grad.uwo.ca/admissions/programs/program.cfm?p=41
• https://uwaterloo.ca/electrical-computer-engineering/doctor-philosophy-phd
• https://www.mcgill.ca/gradapplicants/program/electrical-engineering-phd
• https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/programs/electrical-and-computer-engineering/

This fact has me considering dropping bell more than the outage itself.

It is totally indefensible for a telecom company to rely on X, steaming pile of inaccessible garbage that it is, for critical communications.

Yep, this basically is a government subsidy to the service industry, which then removes funds from essential government programs, like health and education.

Another step towards an illibertarian hellscape. :(

These kinds of prescriptive gimmicks are very exasperating, imo.

Of course I am aware of the "notwithstanding clause", but this is not relevant for the strict majoritarian view you were espousing, is it? Moreover, "it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override sections 2 and 7–15 of the Charter" and the parts of the Charter subject to override are limited: "rights such as section 6 mobility rights, democratic rights, and language rights are inviolable".

To my mind, this is clearly all further evidence of the fact that our government is organized via an intricate (and ever-evolving) system with various overrides and corrective measures and balanced powers, and that it is in no way simply reducible to strict, %50+, majoritarian rule.

I am not a constitutional lawyer (or any sort of lawyer), but my understanding (and what I meant to say) was that unconstitutional laws are subject to legal correction, so sure , we may vote in whatever we want, but that doesn’t meant the law will stand or take effect.

See e.g., http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp

The reason we in Canada nowadays use the term referendum to mean mainly the non-binding  type is because at the beginning of the century the western provinces experimented with the binding referendum. But it was abandoned because the Manitoba law on the subject was declared unconstitutional in 1919, mainly on the ground that it usurped the power of the lieutenant-governor, as a representative of the crown, to veto legislation. It also interfered with the powers of the federal government, which appoints the lieutenant-governors and has the power to instruct them

The limits are decided as the society and its government are formed and as they develop. Just as you note, look at the process for amending the constitution or the fact that you can’t vote in unconstitutional laws.

It just a basic fact about well functioning democratic systems that you have limits to majoritarian rule.

There is a lot more to democracy than winners taking all in bare majority votes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with requiring super majorities for some process, or requiring consensus in some cases, in having some things decided by experts instead of by vote, or by using deliberation with no voting in some cases.

The important part of democratic governance is that we work together to develop and maintain well reasoned and functional systems that are stable and responsible to our changing needs, based on engagement and deliberation of the citizenry. Winner take all bare majoritarian voting is the least of it, honestly.

Edit: it’s helpful imo to skim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy to get a sense of how varied and expansive democratic governance is.

That platitude does not convince me of anything. Some things should obviously require a super majority, or require additional process beyond voting, or not be subject to a vote ad all.

Majoritarian rule is not the end all be all of a functioning democracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Unfreedom has an interesting take on the wave of separatist movements. It traces it to a reactionary “politics of eternity”, which is being supported and advanced by authoritarian regimes to undermine the established order based on trade democratic deliberation. See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_Brexit_referendum

Now that X and Meta have become dedicated propaganda platforms, and I don’t know that it’s even possible for the government or researchers to get the needed access to determine if there are bad actors manipulating the public in this way now.

From Snyders view, one of the aims of this global effort is to convince people that coordination via democratic deliberation doesn’t work. Proposing ridiculous, highly polarizing referendums and tricking as many people as possible into voting for the most absurd option is a great way to convince everyone that democratic process are stupid, since that is the most degenerate form of democratic activity.

I would refer you to my other comment made.

I don't see a comment that speaks to numbers. You said they are "banning guns outright". If you mean "banning SOME guns outright", then it would be correct, but of course almost everyone thinks some guns should be banned outright. But not all guns are banned outright, you can still own and buy guns.