Yep. That’s pretty much exactly how I feel. American economics ispl pretty far from capitalism, having too few balanced regulations and allowing extremely one sided (wealthy) dominance of the market. Which is the exact opposite of a free market (one where every party in a transaction has equal and fair power in the negotiation. Free market has absolutely nothing to do with that nonsense about being free from regulations or government interference).

I think it is worth considering that every single b-rated movie has a huge pile of things they had to cut that probably made them cried for days and will regret cutting for the rest of their lives. Movies cost a fortune to make, and every single element costs more than you can imagine. At a certain point it is the choice between shitty sound or abandoning big enough plot points to kill the whole project.

That idea alone is sort of impossible. There is no pure communist or pure capitalist economy. Hell even capitalism is one balanced region between four points of varying qualities: authoritarian vs libertarian, and market driven vs planned economy. Communism is an authoritarian planned economy.

One of the first economic rules is that it is impossible to have a pure economy. Purely market driven or purely planned. The closer an economy gets to it the more it all falls apart. Right wing totalitarianism is the closest thing to an opposite of communism, and it absolutely sucks. Several former Soviet nations went that way after the fall. They became so anti-communist that they had to become totalitarian regimes (pseudo democracy where there is an election, but only one party, with only one candidate, because they illegalized all opposition). RWT is as destructive to economies as communism was. I admit that perceptions of how communism performed is filled with controversy and misinformation on every side. But no matter how you slice it, communism failed mostly because it placed duty to community above basic needs like food and shelter. Or, more correctly, managers of production had no incentive to perform their best, so they performed at lower and lower levels until the whole economy was so depressed that it could not feed everyone while food was spoiling in the fields unharvested.

There is a reason why China switched to a capitalist economy, even though they still call themselves communist the way Burger King calls themselves “King.”

Oh, bum deal.

(I knew a guy who said that to a kid with obvious debilitating hemorrhoids by accident once. I’m sorry for being crass)

I’m down fifty pounds. My mobility and flexibility are steadily improving, as is my strength. And best of all, I have cured my prediabetes, and very possibly my fatty liver disease.

My guess would be your Windows ID. Did you use the same Microsoft account when setting up the new laptop as your old one? I know Brave should eliminate that but from what I’ve heard it just doesn’t. It’s all lies. You mentioned using Edge, and I am thinking that Microsoft and Google are both so heavily intertwined at this point that they are basically the same data cesspool.

Of course that is assuming it was a PC and not an Apple or Linux based device (again, you mentioned Edge). Other options would be a Samsung, HP, Acer, Google, or other manufacturer accounts. Google for sure. If you signed into Google anywhere else on that thing with your ID I would just assume your data was being beamed straight into every computer watching for it in existence.

Ten swallows of water without taking a breath, as fast as you can.

I am a Christian and I don’t believe that. I could go on at length about how the Bible doesn’t support that idea.

Ironically, I have read that there was a study that found that the most gullible kids in elementary school grow up to be republican. I’m not kidding.

There is a lot to be said about economics and capitalism. I am in no way excusing the greed based nonsense we have rampantly running us all into the ground. But I do think that these actions will eventually burn themselves out. Take AI replacing workers. If that happens, there won’t be enough customers to buy AI products. So they will mostly go out of business and become a taboo. Instead there will likely be a balance.

The same is true of all the stuff you are mentioning. I think we are reaching a tipping point where these bad business practices and bad financial government practices are all coming to a head. Our economies are based so much on credit, and we are running out of credit to borrow worldwide. And, these corporate corruptions of government free democracy are all kind of back firing. I think in the next four years there will be an uprising of the population, much like what happened after the Hoover presidency, and I think that will result in some major law changes for the better. Not perfect, but better. I also think that we will see a LOT of these high profile compani s get broken up and go bankrupt. Take the insurance industry. It has become so toxic that they are getting close to being not worth it. They don’t pay out as much as they cost for most of us. So I think we will see alternatives start to pop up.

But then again, maybe I am just sticking my head in the sand because it feels safer to be ignorant.

Is this just an end run advertisement?

Trying to switch over. I use them both, but the threats to reddit freedom and it’s fast enshitification are the reasons I am currently using both.

Plus, the automod are out of control. I got a three day ban for quoting Clerks. (Try not to blow anyone on your way through the parking lot). I wasn’t even being mean, it was all for laughs and got a lot of upvotes before some automod refered me to a prude of a moderator.

Prove to me you never raped your niece

Be careful with this one though.

This is hilarious. Last time my union tried to do anything, Biden stepped in and stopped us. Then he took a victory lap about being a hero in to us while Congress forced a shitty contract down our throats.

Most of us are either completely deluded or utterly crushed by the collapse of our entire system of government. We know this is corrupt, and we want to organize to bring it to an end. But we have so many checks and balances that even if we all marched today with pitchforks and torches it wouldn’t effect any real change without burning down every police station, city hall, state house, and the federal buildings. All while hoping the military doesn’t show up and now us down with their weaponry. All the whole knowing that there has been a sharp rise in the popularity of police using violence and death as a deterrent.

In short, we know, and we can’t see any way out of this mess. It wasn’t supposed to be possible, and looking back we all saw it coming. But we were just dismissed as alarmists every time we spoke up and we are surrounded by morons who think this is the best thing that has ever happened to this national.