Without disinformation, people will naturally work to improve democracy which will eventually expand it to the economy (socialism), so disinformation is arguably a necessary evil to protect the capital class from democracy

Socialism is democracy expanded to the economy. And I hope we can all agree that democracy is better than feudalism / oligarchy. The unchecked power disparities that capitalism creates betray every ideal that democracy stands for

Only to a degree. A terrible system like chattel slavery or fascism is always going to be terrible. Likewise, the wealth inequalities that capitalism creates will likely regress a country into an Oligarchy if given enough time.

It sounds ridiculous, yes, but there are US software engineers who basically work for minimum wage full time doing freelance work because that is all they can find

I don’t care if the kid threw a brick through my window, murdering a child is completely unforgivable and there is zero justification for it.

Imo, the only time shooting someone is even remotely justified is in the defense of someone’s life or as a very last resort when there are no other options.

Ethics are very important to me so I say always support worker owned companies/ small indie teams, always support books, but never support evil mega corps like Amazon, Disney, EA, Activision, etc.

Also, any company that has donated to the Republican neo-fascist party? Fuck them. If you wouldn’t give money to Putin then you should never ever give money to anyone who will give that money to Putin’s puppets (conservatives)

Public ownership of companies for the benefit of the public is a form of socialism, but Trump’s fascist oligarchy serves only the wealthy elites. Oligarchs hijacking democracy for their own benefit isn’t socialism.

Reminder that cognitive decline starts at 40. By 70, your mind is mere shadow of what it once was. Yes, even Bernie is a shadow of the man he was when he was 40.

It’s like most things in America - if you’re doing ok then it’s great, and if you’re not then the rest of the country just pretends you don’t exist.

That truly is the US in a nutshell. The US is fantastic if you are in the top 20% (and you have zero empathy for people you don’t know), otherwise this country sucks.

Define better. They eat healthier (lower rates of diabetes and obesity), but they also spend less money on cosmetics.

Jokes aside, as an American, I wish the US had lost the revolutionary war. Commonwealth territories ended up with socialized healthcare, a far better democracy, and far better labor rights, while the US ended up with fascist oligarchy. No thanks. I’d gladly trade my coffee for tea if it means I get a real democracy instead of a fascist oligarchy

Yeah, so anyway, what can’t I get in the Play Store or the App Store that I actually want?

When I upgraded my Samsung to a OnePlus13, Samsung’s app that manages the tag device flat out had an error message telling me that it could only work on Samsung phones. 5 minutes later I found an open source app allowed me to use the Galaxy tag that I paid for on my new phone. Samsung has some of the best engineers in the world so they were 100% lying or intentionally trying to brick my tag device to either force me to buy their overpriced phones…

And that is just one example. I use tons of open source apps. For almost any useful app you can think of, there is a free open source version. Premium-YouTube? Newpipe is ad-free with all the premium features for free.

I am very happy with my One Plus 13 phone. It has better hardware and was at a better price than Samsung’s S25.

A little, yeah. I grew up hating Stalin and favored Trotsky, but the more I learned about the eastern front the more I have to wonder if the USSR would have survived the Nazi invasion if Stalin hadn’t forced them to industrialize so aggressively. Without Stalin, it is possible that the Nazis took Moscow in 1942 and without most of the Wehrmacht stuck on the eastern front, I doubt that the US would have sacrificed a million men to force open a western front. It is possible without Stalin that the Nazis would have ruled Europe for decades.

Nicht wahr. I failed my first Discrete Math exam trying to teach myself using only the provided resources (professor, text book, notes, etc). The only reason I passed with a C was because I was able to watch lectures from better professors on YouTube.

I have also used YouTube to fix my car and many other things. Old Reddit (corporate social media) was a very valuable resource of knowledge.

Every single human accomplishment of note was only made possible through social bonds and social collaboration. We need each other. We need tight knit communities, but since so much of the soul of our race has been eroded by capitalist zombie consumerism and the atomization of individuals through car dependent urban sprawl, we are sometimes forced to rely on social media to meet that need.

Some European countries have a 40 hour work week maximum (volunteered overtime is allowed).

The US is still living in the 1800s when it comes to labor rights so we don’t have the freedom of a living wage for 40 hours of work.

Driving is inherently stressful. Hell, merely being around cars is proven to negatively impact your health: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/editorial/are-you-noticing-the-harmful-noise

Worse, too often these laws are selectively enforced only when cops are looking for an excuse to profile minorities and poorer drivers.

I would fully agree that confronting a lunatic face to face is dangerous, but the chances of getting shot for driving slow is next to zero.