Pure speculation:
Reality is complicated. Nuance is hard. Fascism dumbs it all down; things were better before, it's their fault things are bad now, let's fuck them up to make things good again.
Nihilistic opportunists love it because it's easy to float to the top amidst a wave of tribalistic idiots. Tribalistic idiots desperately want it to be true; if the problems I face are secretly simple, it means I'm not actually dumb for not understanding what was going on before.
I first played this game at a really emotionally raw point in my life, and it was a real gut punch. $2.50 is a great price for it.
I've seen this before, but I have to wonder: has anyone actually tested it? Like sure, you can imagine what licking asphalt would feel like, but have you ever just done it to make sure your imagination is right?
I would cut off both my arms if it meant I could kick a billionaire to death.
Stellaris has the federation builders and violent imperialists! And humans that have delegated all high-level decision making to robots that pamper them. And sometimes humans that nuked themselves out of existence before ever leaving Earth.
Folks. Publicly traded companies will ALWAYS compare the expected value of breaking the law with compliance.
Say it costs $100 million to follow the law. Breaking it comes with a $300 million fine, but only a 20% chance of getting caught.
They compare a 100% chance of paying $100 million to a 20% chance of paying $300 million.
Average cost of following the law: $100 million
Average cost of breaking it: $60 million
If we're gonna do capitalism (which I would rather we not, for the record!), we have to make that expected value calculation break in favor of following regulations. If it is cheaper to break the law than to follow it, you're not just losing money by complying: you're giving ground to your competition. Fines need to be massive. Infractions need to get caught and punished. Executives need to be held personally accountable. Corporations need to be dissolved. Fines cannot be just the cost of doing business.
Fuck that defeatist bullshit!
Of the top 10 largest protests in US history, two have happened this year, and they were both largely in response to Trump.
Movements are being built, organization is happening, people are pissed. Excuse us for not jumping straight to violence without a plan like the J6ers.
God. The "Americans Bad" circlejerk on Lemmy is so lame.
I think you're exactly right.
A few years ago, we saw a huge amount of mobilization for George Floyd. People fighting cops and winning.
After that, we saw a submarine full of billionaires implode & people cheered.
Recently, a health insurance CEO was shot to death in the street, and people rallied around the shooter as a hero.
Trump has been a uniquely effective vehicle for the ownership class to launch bullshit distractions at a population of Americans who are showing signs of class consciousness. Keep 40 or 50% of people mad at trans people and immigrants and DEI, and the rest busy trying to minimize the damage being done. Motherfucker said Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in a presidential debate, and people somehow still take him seriously.
But he's not long for this world. Dennis Prager has all the charisma of a bad case of trench foot. Rupert Murdoch is ancient, we're already down a Koch brother, everything Elon Musk touches turns to shit, and I'm crossing my fingers that all the HGH gives Peter Thiel a heart attack.
The ownership class has got to make hay while the sun shines. Things are primed to turn around on them quickly.
For context: Carrier is one of two (2) PhD scholars with relevant credentials who believe in full-throated Jesus mythicism. The other is Robert Price, who Bart once debated here.
Jesus mythicism is kind of a fringe theory, even among atheist Bible scholars. Yes, consensus =/= evidence and authority does not a sound argument make.
That being said, a trend I see a lot (especially in the earlier days of r/atheism) is atheists who are new to historical studies latch onto Carrier without looking at the whole picture, and then write off the rest of critical Bible scholarship as a sham propped up by Christians.
I think anytime you're getting into a new field in history / science / economics / etc., it's best to learn the fundamentals & understand what the mainstream is and why before entertaining the more fringe ideas.
But thank God they have tanks and grenade launchers. We can all take solace in that.
So the citizens still have to physically vote even though there's only 1 option?
Yep! Technically tho, they can cross out the name of the candidate to vote "no".
See that little table to the right? They have to use the red pen sitting on top of it. But don't worry, it's "anonymous"!
Apparently in more recent elections, "no" votes just go in a separate bin?
It also appears to double as a census, since voting is mandatory. That same Wikipedia article says elections are watched by the inminban to keep an eye out for no-shows.
To be completely fair, there is apparently one position in local elections that can actually have two candidates. It's mostly a figurehead that's subordinate to the unelected mayor, but hey! Two names on the ballot!
Can't find anything about how ballots are counted, though that doesn't exactly surprise me.
I will spend the rest of my life thinking about what could have been if that kid from PA aimed a little further to the right.