uuldika @ uuldika @lemmy.ml

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Joined

4 mo. ago

I only had to pay $14 here in WA. maybe it's different depending?

There's a few ways to handle, but for example:

• Roads: large towns and cities would mostly handle their own road maintenance. Roads connecting towns would probably be joint ventures. Projects would be funded and contracted by the towns and financed by town income tax. Rural areas would be underfunded, but that's partly intentional - dense population centers are more sustainable.
• Environmental regulations: handled at the level of impact. for example, water quality standards for a river bind everyone who accesses the river. restrictions (e.g. standards for heavy metal levels) would be passed by minority vote - if 40% want a standard, that's enough. carbon credits would be administered at the Federal or World levels, by a combination of central government and treaties.
• Education: probably pretty devolved, mostly a choice by municipalities in what they offer/teach. there'd likely be standardized tests that most places agree on for transferability (e.g. how the SAT works today.) religious schools could exist in religious communities, or you could have a Montessori program in your secular socialist Kibbutz.
• Slavery: illegal at the Federal/World level. same with indentured servitude and coercive contracts. one of the most important functions of the central government is to protect the civil liberties of individuals.

So the principles are mostly:

• Externalities are handled at the level of their impact.
• More power locally, less power centrally. City governments are more like micro-nations bound by a sort of EU.
• Cities largely have a lot of direct democracy with some representatives. Critically, city governments wield lots of power over the businesses that operate in the city. This is critical to check corporate power.
• Federal government exists as a backstop to safeguard fundamental rights and for truly national concerns.

I'm a left libertarian. I embrace decentralization, collectivism, freedom from corporate and central government tyranny, and want to maximize individual liberty and progressive values as we ideally move towards a society like the Culture series by Ian M. Banks.

I'm not Anarchist because it's too chaotic and unrealistic, and I'm not ML because I don't like State authoritarianism and central planning.

I've been denied all the best ultra sex 😞

HRT should be available to trans kids. it seems I'm increasingly alone in this belief, depressingly, looking at the political situation around the world.

hungry constituents will pressure their representatives to revoke the tariffs.

I'm fine with automation if we can have fully automated luxury communism!

China is likely to get AI before the US does. Innovation here is slowing down.

Queer and gay I'd say have been completely reclaimed.

really depends on the community. "Queer" (particularly pluralized) is still used as a slur in the Midwest and Deep South of the US. I got called "gay" as as an unironic expletive literally two days ago online. "fake and gay" is a current 4chan meme.

I want to note I didn't implement this and have no power over it but I do find it kind of shocking since opening an account here how often people use the b-word online casually and I do not think most of them are women.

I'm guessing you mean how often you infer people trying to use the b-word here, since it's redacted? but what do you mean "casually?" casual could have two meanings, e.g.

A. "she's such an uptight [b-word]"

B. "sorry for being such a [b-word] earlier"

casual use of language like A would be shocking. usage like B I don't find shocking at all. again, maybe it's a cultural/generational difference, but B doesn't really feel sexist in most uses - it's semantically bleached.

an illustrative example of semantic bleaching is the term "raw-dogging." this used to rather graphically refer to having unprotected penetrative sex. however among gen z it's more commonly used to mean undergoing an experience without the comfort of any conveniences, e.g.

"my headphones broke so I had to rawdog the whole flight to London 💀"

"bro rawdogged the whole exam without a calculator"

It's as commonly abused as it is "reclaimed", in a male-dominated space like this it's more abused than reclaimed.

maybe my experience is different because again, as a woman, I hang out less in male-dominated spaces. but I imagine this varies from instance to instance. like, blahaj.zone is probably pretty safe from sexist use of the b-word by the nature of its members.

once in a lifetime recession

slightly bit-crushed Mr. Incredible

once in a lifetime pandemic

monochrome nightmare fuel Mr. Incredible

I wonder if you might make an exception for the b-word, per the case I've made here? https://lemmy.ml/comment/17736838

I honestly haven't heard the b-word used much as an intentionally sexist slur outside of like, 4chan. I (female) say it to my female friends pretty casually. even when I hear it used as a curse word (usually as -ing), it doesn't come across as a slur. for example, I hear it applied to men with roughly equal frequency as women. it's also pretty reclaimed ("she's a badass b-word.")

maybe could try taking it out, and maybe put it back if people are using it in a sexist way? (though hopefully sexists are disciplined rather than just having a single word in a sexist diatribe censored.)

I can see removing the r-word. I can kinda see removing the f-word, but it is being reclaimed by some (my ex, for example.) the b-word seems overkill. it's commonly reclaimed, used in many different contexts, and part of common non-slur phrases. examples:

• "I'm a basic [b-word] when it comes to fashion" (the context I saw that inspired me to ask.
• "I'm that [b-word]. Been that [b-word], still that [b-word]." (lyrics to Savage by Megan Thee Stallion.)
• "[b-word] please." (I, a woman, say this to my female friends. I hear it way more between women than from men tbh.)
• "We're best [b-word]s, remember?" (Julia and her friend from Brakebills in the Magicians.)

yes, it can be used as a sexist slur, but "queer" and "gay" can too. language is nuanced, regexes are not.

me in the ER when a neurology professor and her gaggle of students came to examine me after the ER doc called them up. it was giving House.

eyebrow crabs?!! doctors are a different breed, that's nightmare fuel to me.

America: third world country, first world prices.

it's extremely rare to find such a cheap used car. my partner spent $8k on one that lasted a year. also, you might be surprised to learn that driving isn't optional in most of the US - it's literally impossible to live without a car. I live in a suburb. it's several miles of dangerous roads to get to a grocery store. there is no nearby public transit. even large cities like LA were completely designed around cars. zoning and urban planning here completely screwed us.

yes, it sucks, yes I'm aware, yes I'd love to live in a walkable European city with commuter rail and cafes on the street corner, no I don't have a choice.

the 8bit FOX interview with Tucker Carlson felt incredibly on theme. you could seriously remake Papers, Please with these aesthetics.

I'm a big fan and longtime reader of Derek Lowe. He called attention to suppression of grant funding for hypotheses that challenged the amyloid hypothesis, and the shockingly partisan and dogmatic behavior of journal referees and NIH advisors in the field. I've been following his coverage ever since he started reporting disappointing readouts from clinical trials on the anti-amyloid mABs.

His concern that this class of therapy is "pathological science" (think cold fusion, or EmDrive, or string theory - not outright quackery, but hypotheses that are endlessly tweaked to justify the latest failures) are valid.

However, the newest mABs really do seem to have a small but statistically significant effect on slowing disease progression. Enough to justify the risks of brain swelling? Or the cost? Probably not. But I think Derek has perhaps swung too far in the opposite direction. It's too early to call time on this therapeutic target. If it's marginally but truly effective, we should try to figure out why, and keep tweaking the drugs to see if they can be improved.

Donepezil was a dead end, but it's too early to say if Aduhelm is too.

weeds are to gardens like my house is to HOAs.

So tired of hearing that the right is a champion of free speech.