rational_lib @ rational_lib @lemmy.world

https://rationallib.substack.com/

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There was a time when the US was as colonialist as China, but in the 20th century it let the Philippines go, and passed on turning Germany and Japan into colonies, and let the Panama Canal go back to Panama. There's an analogy to Hong Kong in there somewhere, or with North Korea which remains a totalitarian puppet of China to this day.

The US is far from perfect, but they're not China. Not even close.

Yeah but why would we be more concerned about Chinese competition than say, the EU? Because China showed who they are in Hong Kong, and we want that to be as un-powerful as possible.

As soon as the government oligarchs who own the media thinks it might matter, they have a million tools to silence you.

But it's also worth noting that the Chinese don't even have that. At least in America, you can get your message out by getting a billionaire to agree with you.

At least not until they use their influence operations to elect a pro-China president.

It's funny that we're arguing this on a platform that's legal in the US, and banned in China. Is lemmy.ml a US surveillance op too? Are you? Am I?

Actual argument I had recently with a "libertarian" family member:
Libertarian: "Rent control shouldn't exist! It's wrong for big government to tell property owners and renters what kind of agreements they can enter!"
Me: "What are your thoughts on single family zoning that bans missing-middle housing throughout most of the US?"
Libertarian: "Well that's different! People choosing what kind of rules should apply to where they live is the epitome of freedom!"
Me: "Couldn't that same argument apply to rent control?"
Libertarian: "Wha...you have clearly been brainwashed by the woke mind virus! So sad!"

He was a first mover on podcasts, and already being a reality TV celebrity he got a lot of big guests early on.

"I have lung cancer? How bad is it?"
"Well let's just say it's...non-small lung cancer."

This article goes into some details that I'll just recklessly post a big section of here:

Then, after he won the election, Biden committed to the cause like no other president had in modern times. He appointed one of the movement’s brightest and most aggressive reformers, Lina Khan, to run the FTC, as well as other fierce critics of corporate concentration in key posts, including Jonathan Kanter, who took over the antitrust division of the DOJ, and Tim Wu, who became a key economic adviser inside the White House. Six months after taking office, Biden issued a whole-of-government executive order that called on 17 different government agencies to take 72 actions to foster competition and protect consumers against monopolies. As a result, agencies like the FTC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Food and Drug Administration have cracked down on public scourges like price gouging, noncompete contracts, and banking-related junk fees, and created new rules to make consolidated industries like the hearing aid market more competitive.

Under Kanter and Khan, the DOJ and FTC have also filed far more ambitious antitrust investigations than any administration in decades. Last summer, an investigation into several food production conglomerates over wage suppression and collusion resulted in an $85 million settlement, one of several successful DOJ investigations into no-poach and wage-fixing schemes across the economy. In December, the FTC successfully blocked the medical data firm IQVIA’s attempt to monopolize the business of advertising to doctors through the purchase of an ad tech company called DeepIntent. And in January, a judge sided with the DOJ in its suit against a JetBlue-Spirit merger, the first successful prosecution of an airline merger in 40 years.

The effect of a more aggressive posture from regulators goes beyond favorable court rulings: Under the threat of litigation, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Berkshire Hathaway, and the chipmaker Nvidia were some of the companies to back off multibillion-dollar acquisitions of smaller firms. Biden’s regulators filed a record 50 antitrust enforcement actions last year, and mergers dropped to a 10-year low.

These actions don't get media attention because the media treats the government like some reality TV bullshit

Justifiable anger can be stupid and usually is.

UnitedHealth, employer of slain exec Brian Thompson

Not quite correct sort of. This is OptumRx, which is owned by United Health Group, which also owns United Health Care, which Brian Thompson was nominally the CEO of. In other words, this is like the sibling of the company Brian Thompson ran.

To be clear, Brian Thmpson wasn't a billionaire, he was a mid-level at best millionaire worth only $41 million. He was just another star-bellied prole who thought he was in the aristocracy.

Point being, the whole thing is stupid. The health care system, the people getting rich off it, Luigi's reaction to it, our reactions to it, the media's reporting on it, all of it.

Really it's the celebrities more than others keeping it afloat. What's really inexcusable is that so many Democratic politicians still have accounts - AOC, Bernie, the whole gang is still there helping Elon and Saudi billionaires get richer poor more slowly.

It's not necessarily political, wall street can be very clueless about technology. They all seem to believe they can judge the potential of just about any company, no matter how complex the industry, by merely watching a video of the CEO speaking and judging how smart they sound. Perceived potential can also be self-reinforcing because the more prominent a business figure gets, the more wall street reporters and influencers want to be associated with them - so they're careful to only praise them and not piss them off. So they can easily be duped by an Elizabeth Holmes/Adam Neumann type who has a strong voice and even stronger connections and promises the moon for a small investment.

Musk's key innovation was taking that a step further and promising them Mars.

At first, the internet was for nerds only and not "for the masses". Then corporations realized there was a lot of money to be made, and they forced user-friendliness on it. And then the masses came.

Don't worry, in two decades we'll have Fediverse 3.0 which will just be a balkanized assortment of sites that don't communicate with each other and are worth trillions, all owned by people who bafflingly support President Kid Rock.

You can look at what happens when you actually go Luigi by looking at what happened with Luigi. They're the ones with the real guns and thanks to advertising dollars and social media ownership, control over the media narrative. Violence is the excuse they need to crack down.

But they can't make us keep paying them.

You think you're tipping the worker, you're actually tipping Jack Dorsey.

I think at some point we need to agree as a society on a no-tipping day in which we stop paying tips, and just keep it up. After that point, no tipping for anything, and rather than not tipping being a stigma, tipping becomes a stigma.

Honestly the fact that 75% of Democrats voted against it is actually kinda surprising. In the past close to 100% of both parties were knee-jerk pro-Israel votes. This means there's actually a good chance it won't pass the senate. If people wanna call their senator instead of complaining online, maybe it won't. I'm in DC so I'm allowed to just complain online until you give me my two senators.

How did you know they were acid burns as opposed to the many other things that could burn someone?

I'm all for satire, but I also think this was kind of bullying in that they did something that was offensive specifically to a particular marginalized minority group.

So it's not something that should be illegal or warrant a shooting, but I'm not exactly surprised. Just as if they published a story like "Fuck this one guy's mother" showing a drawing of some random guy's mother being fucked.* That guy doesn't then have a right to shoot them and should go straight to prison if he does - but I wouldn't be surprised and I don't think we all need to identify with the paper or anything because they were being total pricks.

*And I know the response will be along the lines of "You can't compare that drawing with a mere drawing of mohammed". But that betrays a failure to take another perspective. Who's to say that in a society even more liberal than our own, "fuck your mother" might be seen as not particularly insulting? After all, take away expectations of women being pure and you basically have "fuck your dad" which really doesn't seem too insulting, it's like sure if that's what you're into weirdo, but let me check with my dad first.