theparadox

@theparadox@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There should be a term for people who never really returned from the pandemic's social isolation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think we could eliminate it if literally everyone put in a fairly minor effort - getting vaccinated, masking, washing hands, avoiding gatherings for a while.

  Even in countries where the culture is to wear a mask when you are sick I guarantee significant minority selfishly ignores those practices - more than enough to spoil it for everyone else.

  Also, masking helps lessen but doesn’t prevent the spread in all cases. Many of the cultures that mask when sick do so because they are going to work or are out and about while sick.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There should be a term for people who never really returned from the pandemic's social isolation⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think their point is that, with effort, it can be become a thing of the past.

  However, so many are unwilling to put forth the effort because it’s either too inconvenient or they’ve been brainwashed into believing it’s a hoax.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kotaku being Kotaku⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just reiterating what others have said but… if you have an IP you like and want more of it in the future (regardless of medium!) then its success in any other medium will likely impact whether or not you get more.

  Unfortunately, we live in a world where:

  • Money matters more to most IP holders than the IP itself
  • New IP is seen as risky
  • Those in charge don’t have to take responsibility for their failures

  If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred. As a result, priorities will often shift away from the IP to something else in all mediums (ex. ASOIAF/GOT). Unless the IP is absolutely gangbusters in all other mediums, it will suffer. Similarly, success will likely lead to more utilization of the IP in any medium.

  It’s unlikely that the IP owner will sell or license the IP in the near future because at one point it was popular and new IP is hard to make. It would be better to hoard IP and maybe try again in a decade when they need a trick up their sleeve. Plus, another failure might damage the IP even more.

  Admittedly, I’m not attached to any brands or IP in particular and so I’m not invested really. I just makes me a little sad when some IP I thought well of has this happen… or when the person who benefits from the IP turns out to be a person I’d rather not give money to. Occasionally I’ll ponder what might have been if things had gone differently and feel a little bad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does the USA have so few legal protections for ordinary people, and how can we change that?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why do ordinary people seem so unprotected against these shady practices

  Assuming you are in the USA, it’s fundamentally because our politics is fueled by private money. The “haves” spend lots of money to make rules that protect and enrich themselves at the expense of the “have nots”. The rich get richer, and the rest of us get a larger share of the burden.

  The rich then spend more of their money convincing everyone else that some minority group of their fellow “have nots” are to blame and let us fight amongst ourselves. They starve us but leave us with just enough left to loose so that the price of doing something about it is too high (quitting, losing insurance, getting arrested at a protest, etc) for most of us to bear.

  how can we change this?

  Get money out of politics. Get the public to stop blaming their fellow have nots and demand change from the haves.

  How does one person even start to address these issues?

  Have empathy for and help your neighbors if you can, especially when they take the risks required to push for actual change. Talk to people. Organize. Support/start unions or a mutual aid organization. Go to local government meetings and make your voice heard. Run for local office.

  Its easy for a small group of wealthy organizations to tilt specific elections or politics in their favor. It’s much harder them to do that in 1,000+ small communities across the nation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are so many leaders in tech evil?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fundraisers and charities, when you have a lot money, are rarely acts of charity. They tend to be PR campaigns and power plays.

  Honestly, even when the acts have good intentions, they are often quite damaging. The involvement of the wealthy in charity is very similar to their involvement in politics. Their wealth buys influence and gives them a disproportionate say that allows them to ignore and overrule the will of the people and sometimes even reality.

  For example, look into the impact of Bill Gates’s “acts of charity” in the education space. He poured money into charter programs that negatively impacted public education. Later studies showed that his programs were not particularly effective.

  Let’s say, hypothetically, that a very rich person is convinced by some charlatan that they found the a means to produce free energy. The wealthy person throws tons of money at the idea. How many talented people will be taken from other legit programs because the paycheck at Bullshit Energy Nonprofit is better? These rich people are successful and think they know bestr. Their money ensures they get treated like experts because money makes things happen whether or not those things are helpful.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ISPs worry that killing FCC net neutrality rules will come back to haunt them⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Then stop funding them with tax payer money.

  The big ISPs? I agree - they can’t be trusted. However, in most cases access wasn’t happening at all without grants. The big guys just came in, strutted around promising the sun and the moon, then took the money and sat on it.

  I want to see small towns do community infrastructure as an alternative to the terrible single ISPs that are normally present.

  In many communities, it isn’t possible to do that without the help of grants… running cable or fiber isn’t cheap.

  …but we can agree on this. I’d love to see municipal broadband break up these ISP monopolies.

  Unfortunately, many states and municipalities have stupid laws still on the books that explicitly prohibit municipal broadband or force them to jump through hoops like getting ISPs to bid to provide the services first or some other bullshit. Its irrational fear of government run programs and socialism or whatever. Those laws are starting to get repealed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ISPs worry that killing FCC net neutrality rules will come back to haunt them⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It is crazy to try to force pricing or other free market values.

  The US government has, on multiple occasions, spent many many billions of dollars subsidizing the expansion of broadband internet. Often the ISPs would take the funds and under deliver, drastically. Like “Sure, we’ll take $ to provide broadband in these areas” then provide it for like, a neighborhood within that area, mark that area as having access to broadband now, and cash their check.

  …Or they’ll lie about covering areas or planning to cover areas to prevent rival/startup ISPs from getting similar funding to expand access to an area without access. Imagine you don’t have broadband and your ISP lied to the FCC so a rival ISP could get grants/subsidies for broadband expansion.

  They lie and cheat to steal government and customer money and maintain their anticompetitive monopolies. Its not a free market.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumer, we have detected that you are above the poverty line. The 99¢ price printed on this Arizona tea can only applies to those below the poverty line. Your total comes to $3.67.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Market socialism can be distinguished from the concept of the mixed economy because most models of market socialism propose complete and self-regulating systems, unlike the mixed economy. While social democracy aims to achieve greater economic stability and equality through policy measures such as taxes, subsidies, and social welfare programs, market socialism aims to achieve similar goals through changing patterns of enterprise ownership and management.

  I mind if you are simultaneously linking to a Wikipedia article defining it as being completely self regulated, lacking any form of social welfare.

  Capitalism’s problem is that, ultimately, it’s “compete” or die because you need to work to afford to live. I’m not necessarily advocating for the nationalization of all industries or a command economy. There can be competition, but the playing field needs to be leveled first. Workers owning the enterprise as a collective is a step in the right direction but that still leaves the door open for “B2B” exploitation when an enterprise’s failure can mean its workers now cannot afford to live.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumer, we have detected that you are above the poverty line. The 99¢ price printed on this Arizona tea can only applies to those below the poverty line. Your total comes to $3.67.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A theory to use as a standard for regulation assuming you are restrained to a capitalist system, maybe.

  But it is a system that can be maintained with appropriate regulation.

  The nature of Capitalism requires that some have while others have not. Many of those among the capitalist class will use the full force of their power to obstruct and corrupt regulation, find loopholes, and obtain more power. Regulatory capture, pivoting to the bleeding edge of industry where nobody knows how to regulate yet (financial derivatives, crypto, AI), or just leading a coup - they’ll find a way.

  The only way is something that resembles socialism, but you can call it “appropriate regulation” if it makes you feel better. Sure, competition has its place… but it doesn’t belong anywhere near basic human needs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumer, we have detected that you are above the poverty line. The 99¢ price printed on this Arizona tea can only applies to those below the poverty line. Your total comes to $3.67.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think perfect competition is impossible. The incentive is not to compete fairly, it’s to maximize profits and the most effective ways to maximize profits are anticompetitive, exploitative, or both. Anyone arguing for a society built around such a system is either naive or trying to buy more time with false hopes.

  Virtually every condition in the ideal scenario is a barrier for profit, and I don’t think any civilization has managed even a single one of those conditions. There will always be actors looking to take advantage of any loopholes or create unregulated markets.

  It’s just not a system that is sustainable. The incentives are simply wrong and the society built around those incentives can’t maintain a system of perfect conditions even if one were to exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumer, we have detected that you are above the poverty line. The 99¢ price printed on this Arizona tea can only applies to those below the poverty line. Your total comes to $3.67.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Demonstrating the inherent contradiction of capitalism in practice.

  Capitalism is allegedly the only fair way to price things, via the “Price Mechanism”. However, capitalists have simultaneously been creaming their pants at the idea of charging specific people or people in specific situations more, because they can get more profit, in service of Profit Maximization.

  I’m sure I’ll get a lecture on how they are not at all mutually exclusive but I don’t care, honestly. It’s either going to price gouge when the customer is perceived to be in more need (low battery pricing for taxi apps) or have a price based on the customer’s ability to pay… at which point why not socialism?

  Essentially, the capitalist will support what is best for themselves and make up reasons why it theoretically might benefit consumers (but not really).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would America be as divided if Trump lost to Hillary in 2016?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  [How] do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would America be as divided if Trump lost to Hillary in 2016?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There could have been better worlds

  So… because Trump didn’t get unhinged to the point where he started a nuclear war, you aren’t worried.

  • How did you feel about refusing to concede in the 2020 election and creating uncertainty and doubt about the electoral process among a not insignificant minority of voters?

  • How about inciting an angry mob to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power in January 6th?

  • How about strong-arming the Republican party and installing his family to run it?

  • How do you feel about how his SCOTUS has changed the fundamentals of the US government?

  • The Chevron deference?

  • Bribery?

  • Presidential “immunity” for official acts?

  • How do you feel about the loss of the right to have an abortion?

  Do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term? Where is your line?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would America be as divided if Trump lost to Hillary in 2016?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I see. So what has happened over the last 8 years as a direct result of his election isn’t concerning to you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would America be as divided if Trump lost to Hillary in 2016?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  now that Trump has been president once, I know what it’s like when that happens and don’t worry that much about it anymore).

  That sounds disturbingly like you aren’t all that concerned about what a second Trump presidency would be like. It sounds like you don’t think the first one wasn’t as bad as people thought it would be and the second one will similarly be better than people think. Am I misreading your words?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dangerous? Signal Blasts Google Effort to Use AI to Scan for Scam Phone Calls⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, if it was transparent enough, I’d be fine with a service you could turn on that would listen to the first x seconds/minutes of a phone call to try and detect an AI generated voice. I have family that would 100% wire thousands of dollars if someone with their kid’s voice asked them to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come liberals dont hate conservatives the way conservatives hate liberals⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  USA here. They’d likely consider this to be extremely patronizing, but I consider most conservative voters to be unaware of what it is they are actually preaching. It’s crazy but the more extreme their views get, the more I’m convinced they’re misinformed and misled. Some folks at the top of their pyramid I legitimately hate - I have no doubt they know exactly what they are doing.

  So many of conservative beliefs just fly in the face of reality. I hate that they’re perpetuating the harm that the beliefs and resulting policies cause, but seeing as how they are mostly based on clear and obvious lies, I have to assume that most of the supporters just don’t realize they are being lied to and have invested emotionally in an identity that actively harms their own interests.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Education⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Students are walking out of class and “occupying” spaces, joined by non-campus outsiders sometimes. Police are calling it trespassing and arresting them if they don’t disperse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best printer 2024: a humorous critique of the Google search engine and printer enshittification⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m still using my HL5280DW. The w (and later the n) both stopped working, so I connected it to an old pi I had laying around to print to it over the network.

  Only downside is no Windows 11 (thanks new work laptop) driver support if I connect directly via USB.

  I think I changed my toner for the first time like 2 years ago. The high capacity toner I bought with the printer worked just fine (after 16 years in my closet) when I installed it. I don’t expect it to run out of toner until I’m long dead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You know what? Fuck it. I am going to take up Prancercise⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This explains this one lady I often see dancing along the sidewalk on my commute home. She actually looks remarkably similar to this lady, just with grey/blond hair.

  There is at least one person out there still keeping the art alive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Liking an OS isn't a personality trait ❌⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I expect that, like me, most of the upvoters see that as a joke/mockery of our stereotype… and no, obviously, we can’t help but make the joke.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Liking an OS isn't a personality trait ❌⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What are you doing to them?

  Something most people don’t do. It’s like how Apple can often hold your hand so hard that you can’t leave their preferred path. Windows lets you think it will let you stray without a fight. In niche cases it doesn’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's stopping people who lash out at the world from going after corporations?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Because those in power spend a lot of effort distancing themselves from the impact they have and casting blame on everyone else, including on the victims.

  A local factory may be poising the locals, paying little in taxes, and exploiting workers on the cheap but they are the biggest employer and its those minorities’ fault for some reason and if not that it’s the locals’ fault for not pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps like their fathers did…

  Oh, and look over there, quick! A teacher is trying to groom your kid because he refused to shame that one gay kid in school! Git 'im!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is TV Dead? Global TV Shipments Hit a Decade Low in 2023⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely. Dumb TVs going forward. Unfortunate that the best screens like those made by Samsung are ruined by surveillance and hardware that can’t run the “smart” OS for more than a few years without eventually running like dog shit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which one are you?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m a never-dad, but thanks to a generous gift from my SO’s dad and proprietary battery systems, I’m now on team red.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨And I will die on this hill.⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s actually something that’s likely already happening, assuming they manage to even achieve that.

  I guarantee there are tons of potential geniuses born that are never afforded the chance to develop or even demonstrate their abilities… and when they do, aren’t recognized. Either because they are from the dirty poors and/or the Moneybags family can just leverage their resources to ensure their kids get the opportunity or recognition instead.

  If you don’t believe in fairness or equality, the potential benefits to yourself by way of improvements to society from geniuses should motivate you.

  I’m so tired of the pattern of a well balanced society flourishing and then a few selfish fuckwads hoard resources and starve their society back into a stagnant imbalanced fief.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why is the world suddebly focused on the irsali-palestine conflict and hamas group?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Because things escalated significantly in the last few weeks.

  npr.org/…/death-toll-gaza-israel-hamas-conflict

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft fixes the Excel feature that was wrecking scientific data⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Apparently our typical installer for Visio 2016 and our 365 license use" incompatible installers" so it is going to be a pain in the ass for me to have both installed at the same time. Thankfully I’m trusted by IT so I might be able to just do it myself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft fixes the Excel feature that was wrecking scientific data⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Now if only it would stop dropping leading zeros unless you ask it

  That appears to actually be a feature. Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California passes right-to-repair act guaranteeing seven years of parts for your phone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  A right to repair bill made it just as far in NY and the Governor absolutely sabotaged it.