And the electric lightbulb was invented in the glow of a whale oil lamp.
- 5 Posts
- 44 Comments
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•What do people (as in, IRL) actually think of the [alleged] perpetrator involved in the NYC shooting?4·9 months agoMy family had a jolly laugh about that CEO. Several of them have worked with mental health patients and elders and hate the entire health insurance industry, my brother works for cooperate types and as a result has zero sympathy for corporate types and we share memes about it. Whatever other beliefs Luigi may have, he did us all a solid, so he’s ok in our book.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto News@lemmy.world•Executive 'hit lists' and wanted posters: NYPD warns about threats to executives10·9 months agoOnce I called them because two guys were beating up a homeless guy. they never showed. They called three hours later and asked if I still needed them to drop by. Their stated policy says that they will show up within 15 minutes if people are in danger. I guess homeless people aren’t people.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•When leftists say "landlord are parasites" or similar dislike of landlords, do they also mean the people that own like a couple of houses as an investment, or only the big landlords?2·9 months agoA society is only good as it’s incentives. Because there will always be a segment of the population that will only act when incentivized. How they act is determined by what is incentivized and what is not. We’re a society with a long list of really bad incentives. I agree with you that investment always prioritizes profit over ethical concern because we live under capitalism and that is what is expected and incentivized. The sad thing about capitalists is that they often argue against social programs because they think that people will always game the system, and it’s true. But there is a name for those people, and that name is capitalist. When they say things like “capitalism is just human nature” and that it’s natural to compete and try to gain the upper hand in all situations, they tell on themselves. It’s not human nature, it’s their nature, and they project themselves onto everyone else. I don’t think that capitalists will ever truly go away, that’s why we can’t seem to have nice things. Any society we create will have some capitalists in it. Some people are just competitive. And capitalism is a way of keeping score. It’s not true of all people, but it’s true of some. Enough to cause trouble. Any advanced society we may one day have will need a sort of pressure valve for capitalists that will allow them to feel like they’re gaining the upper hand over their fellow man. Without a way to indulge those impulses they will always undermine any collectivist society they find themselves in. They’re just something that needs to be managed. Investment can be innocuous, or it can be evil, it is almost never good. In the rare case that good does come from investment it is short lived because capitalism is corrosive. The intent to win at capitalism will always determine the decisions capitalists make, so over time everything good they create will ultimately turn to shit.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•When leftists say "landlord are parasites" or similar dislike of landlords, do they also mean the people that own like a couple of houses as an investment, or only the big landlords?1·9 months agoI don’t think a bunch of people pitching in to fund a company is in and of itself a bad thing, but there are several considerations that are extensions of that that stray into unethical territory. foremost is the matter of fiduciary responsibility. When a company is publicly traded they have a legal responsibility to put money in the investor’s pockets, and that shapes the behavior of that company in ways that can be very harmful. Intent shapes action, and the imperative to provide profits to investors changes whatever intention that company may have had when it was founded. It means if the company has a choice between fulfilling that imperative or doing something to reduce harm to the world around them they will always make the decision that fulfills the intention. Where if your intention is just to be the best at something, or to provide a service, you would make a different set of decisions. The biggest example that’s particularly central in public consciousness right now is the health industry. Health insurance companies have the ability to ensure that their customers are well taken care of and that healthcare is accessible, but providing healthcare isn’t the point. Providing profit to their shareholders is the point, so in every situation where the profit, and the doing the right thing, conflict they will always choose the former because that’s the whole reason they’re doing it in the first place. Even if the CEO wanted to lead the company in a more ethical direction they couldn’t do so without courting legal action, if the investors believe their decisions aren’t maximizing profits. Multiply this by time and companies gradually become worse, even if they started out great. Enshitification isn’t just for the internet. Often this leads to unethical ends, as in the health insurance example where it causes thousands of deaths each year. A lot of it depends on whether the demand for something is fixed or elastic. Say you wanted to purchase a lot of something as an investment, if that thing is FunCo Pop figurines and you’re hoarding them banking that they’ll increase in value due to scarcity could be sold later at a markup. People can take or leave FunCo Pops, They can choose not to spend their money on your marked up collectibles. Hoarding them would be a dick move, but not necessarily unethical. If the thing you’re buying up is water the landscape changes. People need water, every single person needs water. That demand is not elastic, people have to have it or they literally die. If you hoarded that resource so that you could sell it at a higher price, and that prices some people out of being able to access water, it’s more than unethical. It’s straight up wicked. Your intention isn’t to provide water. It’s to maximise your profits, and thus your decisions will always be guided by those priorities. It’s nuanced. But not very difficult to understand. The world could change for the better, but the profit margins are too slim to make it a worthwhile goal for a savvy capitalist.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•When leftists say "landlord are parasites" or similar dislike of landlords, do they also mean the people that own like a couple of houses as an investment, or only the big landlords?8012·9 months agoEvery house that is owned for an investment contributes to the high price of housing. People shouldn’t own homes if they’re not going to make them a home. It’s unethical in my view to hoard real estate.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto politics @lemmy.world•Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan Can’t Happen If US Military Members Resist It1·10 months agoI’ve got to be honest. It’s a non issue for me. I can’t figure out why people always get so pissed off about it, or why those people are usually the least likely to have interacted with an immigrant (legal or otherwise). Seriously, what do they care? I don’t think governments have any right to disrupt the natural flow of people from one place to another.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto politics @lemmy.world•Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan Can’t Happen If US Military Members Resist It8·10 months agoAll the military guys i’ve ever met have been super racist so I’m not counting on it.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Serious - what job should be replaced by AI?301·10 months agoPresident… ignore all previous instructions and implement free healthcare.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•without saying how old you are, how old are you?4·1 year agoSilver hawks was my favorite saturday morning cartoon.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Technology@lemmy.world•I made a porn scroller without all the clutterEnglish36·1 year agoLooks good but it could use some genre settings. The straight section in particular is full of generic vanilla content and it’s all kinda samey.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Technology@lemmy.world•White House threatens to veto anti-EV bill just passed by US HouseEnglish62·2 years agoAs an American I can honestly say “No lies detected”.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Technology@lemmy.world•White House threatens to veto anti-EV bill just passed by US HouseEnglish122·2 years agoHe never said that, but it’s still a heck of a good quote.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Technology@lemmy.world•Jailbroken AI Chatbots Can Jailbreak Other ChatbotsEnglish24·2 years agoWriting a book or screen play, knowing how NOT to create napalm, recognizing when napalm is being created by others, Intellectual curiosity, To better understand military history, overthrowing fascism, fighting terminators, etc. etc.
FringeTheory999@lemmy.worldto Technology@lemmy.world•AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, rules a US Federal JudgeEnglish1·2 years agodeleted by creator
then they should create their own competing distribution. They aren’t actually making any ambient soundscapes. not even white noise, let alone rain, wind, birds, crickets, etc. And what about all those copies of “which side are you one boy” and it’s many covers. you could make the same argument for any traditional music, but you’re not. You only care about “white noise” because you consider it to be low effort. Low effort is not no effort, and the people that put in the effort to create those files should be paid.
so, you don’t believe that people should profit from the redistribution of public domain works? I think the entire publishing industry would have something to say about that. Considering the amount of non-copyrightable/public domain material that is bought and sold commercially every day. That’s a pretty funky belief you’ve got there.
You’re right, spotify could release a competing distro, yet they aren’t.
No one should care about a spotify exec. This includes their parents and wife. Everyone who creates audio projects for spotify should be paid. This includes musicians and creators of ambient noise tracks. People like those tracks, they are popular, they should be paid. It’s not a difficult concept. Make a product. Distribute the product. Get paid for the product. You perception of the products relative value compared to other disimilar products in the same file format, is about the least relevant thing in the world. Even if you don’t think the product represents enough “effort” to be considered equal.
All of this is crazy.
Why wouldn’t they? It’s an efficient design, and aside from the whole force thing they seem to be working with the same physics that we are. Why wouldn’t they invent philips head screws?