Not_mikey
@Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on a very tasty snack 1 day ago:
Gonna save this pic and look at it whenever I crave meat.
- Comment on angry 2 days ago:
Must be some shitty Xanax if he’s still mad after taking them. Isn’t the point of Xanax to chill you out?
- Comment on Waymo raises massive $16 billion round at $126 billion valuation, plans expansion to 20+ cities 1 week ago:
They have to report any accidents to the authorities. They tend to be very diligent on this as cruise, another former autonomous vehicle company, went under after it lied about how an accident happened.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
I haven’t worked in the industry but I’ve been a member of a credit union for enough years to see that as my wealth goes up, so do my relative returns. The basic savings account earns 0.05% , you have to have more invested to get higher APY. To get the top tier, as far as I know, high yield rate of 3.75% you need to have $25,000 invested there. The median savings account in the US is around $8,000. So 10 people each with $100,000 are getting more than 100 people with $10,000.
Yes credit unions may not be taking top 0.1% billionaire money, but they’re definitely taking top 20% money, which is where the real class divide in the US is at. The top 20% own over 70% of the nations wealth. This combined with the increased rates I mentioned above mean that this top 20% is getting a majority of the investment income, even from credit unions.
The difference between a slaveholder and a landlord is one of magnitude not kind. Both demand labor from someone without a claim to property to someone with a claim to property, not for the labor they put into producing that property, but simply because they own that property. In slavery that property is the slaves body, for a landlord it is the house a person lives in. A landlord demands a smaller share of the person’s labor, 30% vs 100% but that’s just a difference of magnitude. You can mystify that relationship all you want through a bunch of third parties and middle men but fundamentally that is what landlording is, exploitation of the propertyless by the propertied. A small portion of that money going to slightly less wealthy people doesn’t change the exploitative nature of the system.
That doesn’t make the process of loans/credit inherently slaveholder/slave, and implying as such is just ridiculously childish. You aren’t going to convince any sane adult with that sort of semantic stupidity.
So I guess one of the most influential and consequential sociologists and economists of all time isn’t a sane adult because he compared capitalism to slavery
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Read any Communist or anarchist theory and it will be full of comparisons between capitalism and slavery with analysis of the similarities and differences of the coercive nature of both.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
And if the person’s got their mortgage from a Credit Union… then its… all those evil working class credit union members profiting?
A very small portion of mortgages are owned by credit unions, and the income of those mortgages are mostly going to a small percentage of wealthy members as opposed to the average working class person with 10k in a savings account earning 0.5% APY
The trope that slaveholders are all evil, profiteering off of the slaves, is an over-simplification / stupid stereo-type. Yes, there are shitty slaveholders. Yes, there are more planter aristocrats involved in slavery these days, and those planters are pretty exploitative. But there are lots of slaveholders who are just regular locals looking to try and gain some financial security.
Stereotyping an entire demographic of people based on some negative trait of a particular subset of that demographic is not helpful. It’s not helpful when it’s done to portray racial minorities in a broadly negative way, nor is it helpful when its done to portray slaveholders in a broadly negative way.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
if I sold it, it would go not to a family in need, but to a BnB company or an “investor”
You know you can choose who to sell it to, you can reject offers from investors. The family in need may not get you the highest price but reducing the price makes housing more affordable, at the expense of your bottom line though.
Sure the family could’ve tricked you and sold it right back to an investor but with closing costs, fees etc. it would make it hard to make a profit by doing that.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
Even with repairs and maintenance at an all time high a majority of rent is profit, either for the landlord if they own it outright or a bank if there’s a mortgage on it. The fact that a majority of the money being paid for housing isn’t going into building or maintaining housing and is going into the pockets of landlords, banks, mortgage backed securities holders is the main reason housing costs so much.
This is why the best solution to housing affordability is social/public housing. If you remove the profit motive and make it so all the money going into the housing system is spent on building or maintaining housing, then more homes would get built because there would be more money for them and you remove the rentier class constantly lobbying against new buildings to preserve property values.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
Even in the case of a break even mortgage situation the meme is still true, it’s just the rich assholes getting paid for doing nothing are the banks and holders of mortgage backed securities.
- Submitted 1 week ago to [deleted] | 8 comments
- Comment on Pope Leo XIV brings not peace but a sword to AI oligarchs and a slop-mad world in new address, says it's 'Turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts' 1 week ago:
He’s just mad the church of shrimp Jesus is leaving him in the dust.
- Comment on How do you fight doomerism/pessimism in these trying times? 2 weeks ago:
Can slacktivism work
IMO no, You’re way less likely to reach anyone outside your bubble online unless you have a large broad following , and even then you’re mostly broadcasting to an echo chamber. The algorithms are working against you, they don’t want to show you nuanced takes from the other side that’ll make you think and stop scrolling for a second, if they do show you takes from the other side they’re going to show you extremist rage bait that is easily dismissed by a funny caption.
That’s why I think phone banking , which can be done through software too even if you don’t have a phone, is better. You’re calling random people, and more of them are less into politics than the people on social media who are seeing political content, so they are less entrenched and more open. I guess you could also get to these people through social media but you’d have to fight against the algorithm to get out of the echo chambers and into the more moderate general spaces.
In general I think you need to focus on and put energy into things you can change for the good. If you are unable to change others minds then you can still focus and put energy into changing yourself for the better. You can focus on changing your mind for the better, learn an instrument, a new skill hobby etc. that you can see yourself getting better at. Or you can focus on changing your body for the better through exercise and diet.
For example if you want to fight climate change and probably improve your health with more fiber and can control your diet then switching to a vegetarian diet can be a way to change your body for the better. You can also learn to cook vegetarian food which will build a new skill and improve your mind, a skill you can clearly see / taste you getting better at.
- Comment on How do you fight doomerism/pessimism in these trying times? 2 weeks ago:
Tough spot, but some suggestions I can think off the top of my head:
for organizing: come election time you can phone bank from home. Find a progressive cause or candidate you believe in and they’ll usually have a system set up and script for you to call or text and a list of phone numbers. This can also be an entry point into the campaign to volunteer to do other things and you can explain your situation
For exercise:
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you can buy some weights online and use those along with body weight exercise to work out. I mostly do cardio so I’m not too familiar but I’m sure there are plenty of guides online
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walk a dog. If you don’t have a dog you can probably find a neighbor near you who would be happy to have there dog walked. Idk how restrictive your living situation is but I’d hope that walking the neighbor’s dog would get you permission.
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try vr if you can afford it, some of the games will get you moving and sweating and are pretty fun, there are also guided workouts as well.
Whatever you do just start a regiment that you can do and keep to it. You probably won’t see progress for a while but if you do keep on it and make it a habit you should start to notice your mood improve.
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- Comment on How do you fight doomerism/pessimism in these trying times? 2 weeks ago:
Organizing for the things you can change, which isn’t much in this “democracy”, exercise for the things you can’t. Doomerism and anxiety tend to go away if you spend 30 minutes a day running instead of doom scrolling.
- Comment on Ice slipping on ice 4 weeks ago:
This is how you know they’re sending in people from bum fuck nowhere Alabama, no midwesterner would look at that and think that’s a good place to run, or even drive.
- Comment on If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now? 5 weeks ago:
Venezuela would definitely fight back an occupation, that’s why they’re not invading. There are already Communist guerillas on the border with Colombia. Recruitment would shoot up under the banner of “stop the empire from bombing us and taking our oil”.
- Comment on YSK the Venezuelans community in the US is not representative of Venezuelans as a whole. 5 weeks ago:
I don’t think MAGA is more informed on this, they just have a different myopic view. They’re only listening to the Venezuelan diaspora in the US who are almost entirely happy about Maduros ousting.
The reality is Maduro is a controversial figure in Venezuela, just like trump is here. A majority don’t like him, a smaller percentage hate him and some people like him. Ignoring any of these factions and flattening all Venezuelans down to one opinion is why we got here. Trump was buying everything the diaspora was telling him about how everyone over there hates Maduro and we just need to take him out and his whole regime will fall down like a house of cards. Maduros regime wasn’t a house of cards like they were told though and it does have some base that will require a lot more than I think trump is willing to do to topple it.
- Comment on YSK the Venezuelans community in the US is not representative of Venezuelans as a whole. 5 weeks ago:
Never said they were all millionaires, only that they tend to be wealthier. In general immigrants from developing countries are on the higher end of income from the country they emigrate from.
Also 7.9 million Venezuelans did not cross the Darien gap, most Venezuelan migrants stayed in South America in neighboring countries like Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador. Those that could afford it did make their way to the US but not all of them crossed the Darien gap and could’ve taken alternate safer and more expensive routes, if not legal routes including hopping on a plane.
- Comment on YSK the Venezuelans community in the US is not representative of Venezuelans as a whole. 5 weeks ago:
Point to me which statement I made was ill informed or propagandistic. I never said Maduro has majority support, I said the opposite in fact, or that everyone over there loves Maduro. Just that they don’t to a person hate him like the Venezuelans do over here and warning people not to take their opinions as representative of Venezuelans as a whole.
Many news outlets are showing cheering crowds in south Florida as a sign Venezuelans are happy for this. Like I said in the original post, yes they do represent a large chunk of Venezuelans who hate Maduro and left. The opinions of Venezuelans who like Maduro and stayed are noticeably absent though and they represent another large chunk of the population.
I never said to outright dismiss there opinions, just to know that it’s biased and to be aware that there are differing opinions, how is that propaganda?
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to youshouldknow@lemmy.world | 126 comments
- Comment on You do get a hot blue alien wife though... 5 weeks ago:
Your mistaken, they do have aliussy, in the newer ones they get pregnant, so the baby has to come out somewhere.
The tentacle hair is just another erogenous l communication zone, like our mouths.
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to [deleted] | 5 comments
- Comment on YSK about Israel’s “Samson Option”: The Nuclear Target List that includes American and European cities… 5 weeks ago:
Not to bomb there allies, this only “makes sense” if the country is getting invaded and they want to punish there allies for not defending them. The US cannot be invaded and even if they were they aren’t dependent on there allies to defend them, same with USSR/Russia.
Maybe France or the UK mulled over bombing dc if the Russians invaded but they probably didn’t look too far as that would take away any chance for a d-day 2 that could free them. It also may bring about a counterattack by the US, and France has shown in WWII they would rather surrender to the enemy then see Paris burn.
- Comment on Is there a point we can track down when we stopped caring about doctors, nurses, teacher, etc? And thought it was a great idea to pay atheletes millions and screw everyone else? 1 month ago:
Assuming your talking about the top line players making millions, because your median professional athlete is barely covering there costs if you include athletes outside of the big 5 sports in the US and those outside of the top flight leagues. Then like any performer embedded in the monoculture it happened when mass media became a thing.
Once your able to sell discs, tapes, TV ads on a mass scale with extremely low marginal cost anyone with a claim to that media property can make millions off of it.
- Comment on UK to “encourage” Apple and Google to put nudity-blocking systems on phones 1 month ago:
Especially with titties, you think your five year old can’t deduce that those bumps on women’s chest have a nipple on it just like theres. Even if they can’t I doubt that revelation will be traumatic or earth shattering.
- Comment on Is there a mechanism in the USA to undo presidential pardons years later if political corruption has been proven as motivation to give these pardons? 2 months ago:
Nah, it can be used for good. Obama pardoned a lot of non-violent drug offenders who were gonna be in jail into there 60s due to something they did in there 20s because of mandatory minimums.
- Comment on Transliterated country names into Chinese Language use pre-existing characters that already has its own meaning, therefore native Chinese speakers have a subconcious impression based on country names. 2 months ago:
Interesting, Japan does a similar thing I think and the US is 米国 meaning rice country. Which sort of makes sense since the US has always had a huge agricultural / grain surplus. I wonder if the japanese think / know we’re fat because of the name.
Also england/ UK is the same 英国 as above so maybe they learned about them from the Chinese whereas they independently learned about the US and gave it a different name.
- Comment on Make me feel like a man 2 months ago:
It’s not his fault, be mad at the person who bred him, not him for existing.
- Comment on Half of the US Now Requires You to Upload Your ID or Scan Your Face to Watch Porn 2 months ago:
Or just VPN, I assume that’s what most people are doing in those states.
- Comment on MKBHD's Panels wallpaper app is shutting down 2 months ago:
I could see it being a good way to support artists, if that’s where the money is going.
- Comment on Rich People Are Becoming Less Willing to Help With the World’s Problems 2 months ago:
We’re talking about median, and the median person in the US gets employer provided healthcare and usually some form of employer pension/401k contribution plus social security, so I don’t think those would be much different cost wise for a median US vs UK resident. I’m sure Britain uses there taxes better than us and has better benefits, especially for the poor, but I don’t think that fully accounts for the gap.
