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realceon Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension

Sorry, I didn't mean to nitpick. I totally agree with you about the frustration, but I also wanted to highlight how authoritarian governments aren't simply the outcome of general social stupidity or a lack of education. IMO that's somewhat of an elitist or champagne-socialist scapegoat and simplification. A notable point would also be that the USSR had an authoritarian government while also maintaining a near 100% literacy rate and an exceptional regard for education.

Apologies if I misrepresented your statement.

realceon Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension

I this so to

realceon Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension

https://intellectualtakeout.org/2015/10/nazi-germany-was-hig...

>Germany had the world’s finest elementary school system, the highest literacy rate and the best universities; by 1913 more books were published annually in Germany than in any country in the world.

Believing that authoritarianism stems from lack of education is a flawed ideology.

realceon After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant off shelves

Delsym is dextromethorphan-polistirex, a long-acting formulation of DXM that is supposed to last 12 hours. DXM is available in almost all cough syrups.

realceon After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant off shelves

And it's much more profitable to scrape every ounce of working life out of the poor, then use them as slave labor in a prison once their addictions get them into a critical situation or farm them out to a rehabilitation facility that pays councilors 20 bucks an hour and gets a large chunk of it's funding from taxpayer subsidies. If there's any issue, blame the overworked poor for turning to drugs, then sell them energy drinks.

realceon Trump wins presidency for second time

> Groceries and housing are unaffordable, and any voter who complained about the issue to the incumbent party were ignored, or were outright told their experience with high prices wasn't real (which is called gaslighting).

Almost every single Harris ad I saw was about how groceries and housing was too expensive. Two of the 3 pillars of her campaign were about price-gouging on staple goods and increasing access to home purchase. How was the issue not acknowledged?

realceon Trump wins presidency for second time

What a great skipping-record case-in-point. I almost think this is satire.

> Have you considered the possibility his supporters know something you don't?

They literally considered that, it's a main point of the post you're replying to, they got answers that lacked actual details or hinged on hyperbole.

> A lot of what you mentioned is either debunked or is fraught with misinformation

See what I mean? "A lot" meaning what number of things? Either debunked or is fraught with misinformation? What does that even mean? Which things? Jan 6 is "debunked" or "fraught with misinformation" or both? Trump didn't release his health care plan, Trump called GA to find votes, Trump constantly complained about rigged elections. Those are sincere and unarguable facts. What are you speaking about in rebuttal?

realceon Trump wins presidency for second time

The DNC doesn't truly provide the means for their party members to actually participate in selecting candidates to the same degree the Republicans do, and therefore they place some kind of party ideal over the democratic participation of their party members. Superdelegates, not holding a caucus primary this time, conspiring against Bernie, all that stuff. It produces manufactured candidates that don't have a real relationship to party members, not an extension of the zeitgeist. They shove square pegs into round holes and wonder why it doesn't fit.

realceon Trump wins presidency for second time

In an opportunity economy, you'll have OPPORTUNITY!

I think Harris 2024 is the worst campaign I've ever seen in modern American history.

realceon Trump wins presidency for second time

> Kamala was a perfectly good candidate.

You were literally just proven empirically incorrect. Demand better from your party or this will just keep happening, stop compromising.

realceon Will Plants Grow on the Moon?

Did they expose the seeds or the plant that produced them?

realceon Our First Generalist Policy

Why do you need incentives? We're talking about the "do art all day because you're bored" phase of the singularity. If people exist, they'll do it because it's just fun to do.

realceon GitHub cuts AI deals with Google, Anthropic

Totally agree that heavy commenting is the best convention for helping the assistant help you best. I try to comment in a way that makes a file or function into a "story" or kind of a single narrative.

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

None of these statements relate to the comment thread you're responding to IMO. Are you saying that the median human today is "vastly" "healthier" because of medications developed by American pharmaceutical companies, that they are "healthier" because of medications created to alleviate the outcomes of pollution/greed? What point of the discussion said humans are not healthier than they once were?

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

The comment we're both responding to is about the validity of modern pharmaceutical research and what kinds of medicines they produce as an outcome of US federal government investment. "Before industrialization" is over 400 years ago.

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

The 7.25 rate was set in 1996. Adjusted for inflation, 7.25 is worth 15 today. There are thousands and thousands of jobs paying less than 15/hr.

In NC, where I live, the average wage for an entry-level crew member at McDonalds is $12.16, effectively 20% lower than the original purchasing power of the 1996 minimum wage.

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/McDonald%27s/salaries?location=US...

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

How many medicines are required just to treat issues brought on by unrepentant greed in other industries? Does Ozempic treat obesity and diabetes or does it treat the lack of regulation in food quality and advertising? How much cancer is an outcome of greed in exchange for disregarding public health, how much depression is the outcome of greed and economically-produced hopelessness, on and on.

How have so many people lost their hearts and minds to this tail-chasing madness?

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

> By its own description, that council doesn’t appear authoritarian.

The defendant certainly didn't kill his wife, he said so himself!

realceon A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance

> I think the reality is most people are ok with not owning things.

> By removing ownership from the product offering the seller can reduce the price.

The price of ownership is greater than the price of licensing, as it comes with additional rights and privileges than licensing.

If a product or good is only offered and priced without ownership, how can you say that people "are ok with" not utilizing an option that's not provided to them? They cannot purchase ownership, by what means could they experience the difference?

The products you use as examples were wildly successful under an ownership paradigm, what says that Photoshop or N64 games would have been somehow better if they were licensed goods?

realceon Meta Bans Accounts Tracking Private Jets for Zuckerberg, Musk

You still supported PM's activities, provided them a greater ability to sell more cigarettes with your investment, and reap profit from that activity. I don't see any insulation from support or culpability here.

I literally own tobacco company stock and accept that I am complicit in the sale of cigarettes, it's not much of a leap.

realceon Meta Bans Accounts Tracking Private Jets for Zuckerberg, Musk

> The company who made the breakfast of a rapist should be charged with the crime?

The company is not literally investing in the endeavor of the rapist, the teacher is not literally investing in the outcome of the killer, investors/funders literally expect the outcome of the thing they invest in to continue without ambiguity. These are much less fitting than the drug-dealer analogy.

realceon Meta Bans Accounts Tracking Private Jets for Zuckerberg, Musk

Both charities and charity funders are considered complicit in the social impacts of that charity's output.

realceon Meta Bans Accounts Tracking Private Jets for Zuckerberg, Musk

Two things can be true at the same time.

realceon The feds are coming for John Deere over the right to repair

Are you saying companies should be able to sell bottles of bleach as "baby formula"?

realceon Machines of loving grace: How AI could transform the world for the better

Great reply!

realceon Machines of loving grace: How AI could transform the world for the better

> better adapted to live on this planet

I'm a doomer, but this is something I never understand about most doomer points-of-view. Life is obviously trying to leave this planet, not conquer it again for the 1000th time. Nature is making something that isn't bound by water, by nutrition, by physical proximity to ecosystems, or by time itself. No more spontaneous volcanic lava floods, no more asteroids, no more earthquakes, no more plagues - life is done with falling to these things.

Why would the AI care about the pathetic whisper of resources or knowledge available on our tiny spaceship Earth? It can go anywhere, we cannot.

realceon Machines of loving grace: How AI could transform the world for the better

3 links above this one is https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/10/08/exoskeleton...

realceon Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

> They're mostly getting the hardware for free.

No.

Ordering this costs $320 and takes 1-2 weeks. They even charge for shipping and handling.

By the time you get this, internet and cell service will most likely be re-established. I live 20 miles outside of Asheville, this is basically profiteering off a disaster imo.

Much easier for the richest man on Earth to simply install a hundred base stations himself. Instead, people who just had their lives washed away need to pay his company 300 bucks.

realceon Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims

Yes it is separate. This program is about base stations that are publicly accessible wifi, which Verizon is also doing in the area. This is just a "first month free" promotion.