Handmaids tale but less whimsical. No red robes or any of the other trimmings. Just the stupidest people imagineable running a declining empire while governing in the most racist and cruel way while still supporting business, just increasingly kkkristian coded.

Thats the result anyway. But an actual civil war? No shot. This happens without significant opposition.

It’s about FREEDOM, buddy! My definition of FREEDOM is PAYING MONEY to RICH PEOPLE every time I go ANYWHERE!

Well sure. CEOs’ main job is to coordinate the functions of major business units with the wishes of shareholders/the board of directors. Ultimately they’re a middleman on the hook for the results of the business without actual direct control of day to day operations.

Effectively that means they give broad goals and direction to named execs, who translate those goals into actions for their organizations, that middle managers direct their teams to achieve. Then middle managers report success/failure to named execs, who report back to the CEO who (in conjunction with the other named execs) reports success/failure to shareholders & the board along with financial results.

The execs all are basically on the hook for the results of the decisions made by those below them, but they only decide the broad strokes of the actions of the business.

LLMs could do most of that. The only problem is they can’t really make decisions properly. But they could pretty easily turn what is said by the board & shareholders into goals for others to enact - and maybe determine if actions taken by the business support the goals to some degree.

That is like 80% of the job of a CEO.

“A borgor republic is a country with an economy of the best type of capitalism, where the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the job creators. Typically, a borgor republic has a 100% meritocratic society, usually a lot of lazy welfare queens looking for handouts and a ruling class of brilliant, innovative job creators and democratically elected politicians selflessly carrying out the will of the people.”

US does mulled wine, but it’s more of a general winter thing. More common up north in areas with more northern european influence, I think. Mince pies aren’t really a thing, though, which is a shame.

很酷！很多的人也很多的我的朋友 from my hometown & childhood 和你一样来自中国。我喜欢能看到 the etymology in a 汉字。

I wish 我的中文是足够好 to understand 中文 TV. 老师小猪佩奇不是有趣的。

我正在学习中文。中文很难！

I took a break from learning Chinese for a while due to personal stuff being busy and am trying to get back into it. Chinese is a very logical language, I think, and learning it is fun and interesting but challenging. I was just about HSK1 level, I think, before I stopped. I gotta boot up peppa pig in mandarin again - 你好小猪佩奇老师，我是你的学生！

Overton window got yeeted so far to the right it ended up hitting 88mph and travelling back to 1930s germany

Compliance does need to be considered. The company I work for is trying extremely hard to comply, but because of complexities and ambiguities in the law, it is difficult to find out how to comply. I don’t know all the details, but I know legal, compliance, and the data engineering teams spend a lot of time figuring out how to be compliant and there aren’t always clear answers.

That said, the solution is not to roll back protections but to be very explicit about how to comply.

OhmanthatsthatolddevilslettucemanwooootellyouwhathuhhuhirolledmeabigolbluntoncemanbutdadgumthangwaslacedwithacidmandangolLSDmantellyouhhwhatthoughtiwasadadgumtadpolebeinchasedbybigolalligatorsnappinturtleforthreewholedaysmanhuhhuhthatwassomegoodweedtellyouhhwhat

I know several working class folks who grew up in the USSR who, while they admit it wasn’t perfect, were very happy with how things were then and - although some of them are now onboard the Pravda train to looneyville & love Putin and believe the Russian Orthodox church line that Ukraine is led by baby-eating, devil-worshipping, Nazi Pedophiles (not an exaggeration) - they admit things are much worse than they were then and place the blame squarely on moving away from communism & planned economy.

Because of strong social programs, they had access to good education, work & a high quality of life, and a level of recreation and leisure that seems wild to me as an American.

Communism is not a monolith. There are many tendencies. And YMMV depending on the folks in power, just like any system. Additionally, despots love to call themselves socialist/communist while doing nothing relating to seizing the means of production - look at Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) as an example.

Imagine if we asked folks “What’s your experience been like living in a capitalist regime”. Most people would think thats a weird question because of how many types of capitalist regimes exist - it’sa general economic framework, not a system of government. Your experience will vary wildly if you are from like rural Kenya vs the US vs Scandinavia.

It does not. The legal system has essentially lost the ability to be a check on the power of the executive branch. Partly because of the capture of the judiciary and regulatory bodies by right-wing extremists and partly because of the speed at which the executive branch is acting illegally - it takes time to build cases and the jsutice system can’t keep up.

¡Hola, compañeros perritos!

Mormon Jesus made this deal too. LDS church gives tons of bibles to hotels worldwide to put their fanfic right next to the original boring version.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They are the ones playing defense against fascism and violations of civil liberties by the US government. This includes immigration, freedom of religion/expression, lgbtq rights, abortion rights, you name it they’ve done it.they are responsible for getting nunerous illegal bills/acts/laws rescinded. They do great work. The sort of work that is foundational to getting the US government on track.

Yes. Although way fewer than I’d expect. Would recommend. Easy and cheap to grow yourself.

Nothing bad can happen. It can only good happen. But with Tylenol, don’t take it.

In the US, yes. It was more common before the mid-2010s when the r-slur was very commonly used.

It isn’t usually bad faith imo. They just genuinely can’t conceive of a world with a less coercive system of work. I’d say it is incredibly ignorant. It’s hard even for leftists to envision the specifics of such a system - why would it be any easier for people who’ve never even considered an alternative? So they just think, naively, that without the threat of systemic violence jobs wouldn’t get done

I think it’s important to frame this kind of argument very carefully. There is a misconception that communists and socialists just don’t want to work and want a free ride.

Communists, socialists, and anarchists are fine with work. They are not fine with exploitation. Work is not necessarily exploitive. Work should be rewarded and incentivized.

But, in a civilized society, your ability to merely survive should not be dependent on your ability or willingness to work. That doesn’t mean that the quality of life of someone who chooses not to work should be the same as someone who chooses to work. It only means that choosing not to work should not be a death sentence.

How any particular society may choose to implement such a system of non-exploitative, minimally coercive work may vary. But the main point is giving people more control over their work, their working conditions, and their lives generally.

“From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” still applies. You’re just more likely to also get the things you want if you do valuable labor.

Edit: another point. I’d argue that leftists are MORE okay with work than capitalism enjoyers because they do not want people to be paid for simply owning things and not doing labor. The goal of capitalism - how to win capitalism - is to just own things and exploit others’ labor, not to work. How to win Socialism is doing the job you enjoy/are best at/are most willing to do for the reward offered - that’s it. Simple as.