rational_lib @ rational_lib @lemmy.world

https://rationallib.substack.com/

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8 mo. ago

FFS no. All it did the last two times was help him, because impeachment is basically impossible and he's going to "win".

We completely changed how the algorithm worked, pushing pro-Trump and right-wing posts to the top of people's feeds.

I thought this was common knowledge. Users have been talking about how everyone is getting flooded with right-wing posts on r/twitter ever since Elon took over.

But it's less unsuitable than any alternative avenue for contentious information (traditional news media, youtube/podcasts, social media, etc) - for the simple reason that wikipedia encourages citing sources, while every other platform discourages it.

I don't think they say "No intellectual would be a socialist", instead they say intellectuals are bad and evil. It's a classic pattern among dictator cults of personality.

I think he's sugar-coating it because their bonds are about to go up for sale. From the article:

While equity investors have reportedly slashed the value of their stakes by as much as 78 percent, the Journal reports, “banks hope to sell senior debt at 90-95 cents on the dollar, while retaining more-junior holdings.”

If they were breaking even, the bonds wouldn't be getting sold at a loss. Keep in mind, the bond holders get paid before the stock holding investors, so if they're taking a loss, the equity investors are getting nothing (hence the 78 percent cut, basically their share is only worth the odds of a miraculous turnaround). That doesn't happen with a company unless it's losing money.

“They’re saying ‘the war is tomorrow’ – this causes panic on the market and elsewhere," Zelensky, Jan 2022 in response to US warnings of imminent Russian invasion.

Zelensky didn't "choose to fight" because Russia insisted there would be no fight right up until it crossed the border. It would've been considered a sneak attack but for the US telling everyone Russia was invading for a full month in advance. There was no choice offered to Zelensky and never has been since, unless you count Russia's current stance of basically "give us all your weapons and maybe then we'll negotiate"/

It would be great to have a fediverse service for Meetup. Bending Spoons is aggressively enshittifying the original site, definitely ripe for disruption.

And is it working?

Point being, the whole "genocide" thing is useless because people don't care. No one thinks they're committing a genocide. If you went to Nazi Germany, they'd tell you the holocaust is not a genocide, it's a security measure or something like that. Just like you probably don't look at Oct. 7 as a genocide. It's the same thing. We're all human, we're all easily tricked into being monsters.

Does anyone decide against genocide when it suits them? There's some irony in both Palestine and Israel supporters whining to the Democrats about not opposing the respective genocides hard enough while ignoring their Hamas and Netanyahu doing it to the other side. Take the log out of your own eye before complaining about the speck in the other's.

On a rational level, we all need to oppose killing of civilians and children. But man, it's hard to convince people to care when the people you're trying to save won't help themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_vmQrTi3aM

Perhaps before the 2022 invasion. You can see for example the first round of the last presidential election results here - the light blue supported the pro-Russia candidate Yuriy Boyko, who didn't advocate being part of Russia but instead wanted better relations with Russia. After the invasion, Boyko himself apparently became part of a new party of ex-pro-russian candidates who now support Ukraine against Russia.

Generally it's hard to say how many fit into the category of "wanted an independent Ukraine but that is still close to Russia", but my sense is that it was a pretty large part of the blue group. Consider for example the average American liberal who wants the US to be more like Canada - probably there are some who would rather have their part of the country become part of Canada, but it's probably not most and certainly nowhere near all. Additionally, it's likely that many who actually did want to live in Russia changed their mind after the atrocities of the invasion.

Here is a list of the people with commuted sentences and their location of arrest. All of this is public information combined from executive proclamation here and arrest records here. Information is provided for awareness purposes only, these people may be armed and dangerous and should be avoided in all aspects of life.

Stewart Rhodes - TEXAS, Little Elm
Kelly Meggs - FLORIDA, Middle District
Kenneth Harrelson - FLORIDA, Titusville
Thomas Caldwell - VIRGINIA, Charlottesville
Jessica Watkins - Ohio, Dayton
Roberto Minuta - NEW YORK, Southern District
Edward Vallejo - ARIZONA, Phoenix
David Moerschel - FLORIDA, Fort Myers
Joseph Hackett - FLORIDA, Sarasota
Ethan Nordean - WASHINGTON, Western District
Joseph Biggs - FLORIDA, Ormond Beach
Zachary Rehl - PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia
Dominic Pezzola - NEW YORK, Rochester
Jeremy Bertino - (unspecified)

Reminder that Fox News declared Michelle Obama a terrorist over a fist bump.

"He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote-counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.

Except that Elon actually doesn't know shit about computers. Trump is just rambling delusionally like usual.

There's a selection bias, we usually hear about the most successful shitbags. Most ordinary shitbags live pretty terrible lives. Just look at the life of the typical red state resident. Usually working their ass off in a blue collar for some plutocrat who abuses them, subjected to country music all day long. Almost makes me feel bad for them.

The masses will always be attracted to the opiates offered them by those seeking to control them for greedy purposes.

No, they count as a colony as far as I'm concerned. But there's a difference in how they are treated. PR is basically treated as an independent nation, despite having voted for statehood (ignored by the ruling GOP). HK wanted to have just a modicum of independence, and the Chinese government reacted with goons and gulags.

The ol' Ellen Pao

Yes. People still lend Adam Neumann money, despite his record of epic failure. When you have the skills that get other people to pay the bills, failure is not a problem.