Reagan enacted gun control in California

If only we were so lucky. Americans aren’t going to stop this themselves, the rest of us need to arm ourselves and prepare to defend each other

It’s 5% now

Holy shit, will AI cause the Linux renaissance?

Blackface Kardashian

We’ve been in a recession for years

He died. This is mickey8

We need to prepare for WWIII. America won’t stop until they control the world.

Well that seems like a pretty easy hypothesis to test. Why don’t you log on to chatgpt and ask it what will happen if you let go of a helium balloon? Your hypothesis is it’ll say the balloon falls, so prove it.

Well that’s simple, they’re Christians - they think human beings are given souls by Yahweh, and that’s where their intelligence comes from. Since LLMs don’t have souls, they can’t think.

I am, I hate pineapple on pizza that much

If it was hawaiian I’d assume the latter

Take for example “toxic masculinity”. Literally taken, that word means that masculinity is toxic.

Does “hawaiian pizza” imply that all pizza is from Hawaii, or just that this one particular pizza here is from Hawaii?

Coward.

I think it’s ethically okay to objectify this “woman”

Means of production are owned by both Affini and independents.

Only to the extent permitted by the Affini. You must understand, in Medieval Europe, most men over 30 had practical ownership of their means of production. Take a farmer as an example. As a young man you would work as a farmhand on an older farmer’s land, and your future wife-to-be would work as a milkmaid. Once you’ve both completed your apprenticeships, you would marry, and you would receive a dowry from your wife’s family which would permit you to inherit or establish your own farm. The land would be yours to work, and you would profit by your own labours and those of your family.

But the land would also be owned by the local lord, in much the same way that a modern corporate farm “owns” land that is also owned by the local government. The local baron would extract taxes from you as tithe for allowing you to work his land. You would be the only peasant permitted to work it; you would have sovereign domain with respect to other peasants, but the threat of state violence would ensure your efforts benefitted your superior.

The land and tools afforded to “independent” vassals of the Affini compact are permitted to be used with a great deal of freedom, but the threat of violence is implicit in the arrangement. The Affini are master. That is why I say the Affini follow a feudalist economic model. The Affini have a monopoly on the use of legitimised violence. De Facto, even if not De Jure, they own everything. The Compact is about as “communist” as the USSR, or modern China.

You look interesting. Have you read Glitch by Jenna Moran? It’s an RPG about retired void gods.

Here is a fanfic that gives me the warm fuzzies. It’s about the best most communist space civ meeting the worst most fascist one. The power differential isn’t anywhere near close, but what gives the fic stakes is the Culture’s ethics. They do not under normal circumstances kill, indoctrinate, or enslave, unlike some people. Can the ultimate commies reform the ultimate fascists and fix their horrible galaxy? And can they do so without being corrupted?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/649448?view_full_work=true

I’m not talking about florets, I’m talking about everyone who isn’t Affini. No civilization is permitted to self-govern without Affini interference.

Once the Affini Compact becomes aware of a civilization, their domestication is inevitable. Generally speaking, while there are no civilizations more advanced than the Compact, even such precursor cultures would be unable to resist the Affini indefinitely

When a species accepts the Compact, they tend to have much more of a say in the running of their society afterward — but even these cultures will be altered by domestication, and the Compact will still be there with a firm hand on the wheel afterward, just in case. Species that resist domestication, like Terrans did, don’t get much of a say in how things are run — a species that fights back needs much more correction, from the Affini perspective, than one that willingly joins the Compact.

Basically, you’re free to self-govern as a vassal of the compact as long as you do what you’re told and don’t want independence. That’s not freedom. That’s not political rights. That’s abuse. Guess what, black slaves who did what their masters told them were treated better too, but that doesn’t mean they had freedom.

I have little experience with HDG, but I’m afraid you have little understanding of what communism and freedom mean, and that’s far more important. So far we have not disagreed on the facts of the fiction. We’ve only disagreed on the facts of political systems and ethics.

I do in fact believe the Affini are entirely benevolent. They are also wrong. They are monsters who mean well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

Communism (from Latin communis ‘common, universal’)[1][2] is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need.[3][4][5] A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes,[1] and ultimately money[6] and the state.

1. The means of production are not owned by the community, they’re owned by the Affini

2. If an elite group controls it, it’s private, not public.

3. Affini are a privileged social class.

4. Affini are a state.

In 1950s America, men owned the means of production and did the productive work. Women (if married) were given free sustenance, but no control over the means of production, little right to work, and fundamentally no freedoms. It’s not communism if you have an underclass with no ownership of the means of production and no right to participate in the politics of the nation. Doesn’t matter if that underclass is women, black people, or all humanity, and doesn’t matter what kind of economics the ruling class practice between themselves.

The Affini are basically Israel. They steal all your planet’s land and natural resources, commit war crimes against anyone who rebels, and call themselves woke because it’s safe to be gay and white in Tel Aviv. Look at all the equality between the ruling race!