I donate about $7 a month to my masto instance (Hachyderm, funny enough) because:

• Twitter wanted $10
• I know about 1% of users donate
• I like having an independent instance run by people I feel ideologically aligned with.

For similar reasons I will very likely donate something to db0 this quarter to support my Lemmy habit.

I still have reason to use Facebook, reddit, Instagram, and those places all suck. It’s so dire scrolling there and literally 80% of the content is ads. I canceled all my streaming services this year but I’m still going to pay for independent social media because it’s worth it.

A keylogger on the back of the boss’ computer? A hardware VPN backdoor to the company’s network? Oh maybe bring a flash drive full of malware and viruses and just drop it in the break room?

Jork-Aff Videos, for jorkin’ aff!

Trick-pissing champ here, the real homies bank their shots off the shower walls first before swirling it around the bowl for the finale. If I’ve been drinking heavily the night before, I’ll piss fakey or throw in some yoga poses to up the challenge. The only way to be great is to push yourself a little farther each time you step up to the bowl.

My high school and early college was during the W. Bush years. I hated him, and around that time is when I got political, active, and told my (Republican) parents that I was a proud Libertarian! (Look, I’ve learned a lot over the years, and Libertarians used to pretend to be a little more progressive.)

My parents hated that, and constantly gave me the “you may not like him but he’s your president too and you have to respect the office!” The first time he complained about Obama (hours after the election), I broke that one out and turned it around. And they realized their hypocrisy immediately becoming gay communists decided that the rule was stupid, actually, and that it turns out you don’t have to respect the office when you dont want to!

What bothers me so much more than their stated political views is the realization that they never actually had reasoned, considered views to begin with. They emotionally select things that seem directly beneficial to themselves. And then lie about their beliefs because they know they’re selfish and indefensible.

They’re still republicans but I’m an anarchist who no longer respects any presidents! Funny where a difference in fundamental values will lead you.

Can purchasing anything within the system of monstrous exploitation called global capitalism be justified?

Straight from Blade Runner

For as much as people talk it up, I thought there was a lot to it. There isn’t.

A dialectic is a tool for thinking through a problem or idea. You start with an idea or concept (called the Thesis) and then you consider the forces and concepts that lie in opposition to the chosen one (called the Antithesis). After considering both, you try to understand the relationships between the two things and how they support, oppose, and generate each other. This unified understanding of how the two concepts are actually one concept through these connections is called the Synthesis.

Dialectical Materialism is applying the dialectic as a tool while also keeping in mind physical/material reality and the ways in which physical/material constraints influence these things.

For example you might ask “Why do rebellions occur in formally peaceful states?” Your thesis is “rebellion” and so your antithesis is something like “the state” or “status quo.” Through materialism, you’d ask questions like “where do the rebels/state acquire food, shelter, weapons, etc. What is the role of poverty in fomenting rebellion?”

Through synthesis, you would come to conclusions like “the people pay taxes to fund the state, but some people also devote a larger share of their time and resources to the rebellion.” Or: “Rebel recruitment goes up after police crackdowns, a lighter hand with policing may reduce re-occurrences of riots.”

Because this isn’t ideal dialectics (not “ideal” like optimal but “ideal” as in “concerning ideas and immaterial things.”) So we’d be less concerned with “what is the rebellions stated aim” or “what is the state’s majority religion?” you can make these questions material though: “what do the rebels hope to gain materially” or “how is the state religion funded and enforced?”

And although I’m just riffing an example, in real life when using this tool to convince others of your sound logic, it is best to have actual references and data to support the conclusions derived. This gives reality to the material considerations.

It’s only “wage theft”

when they take time from you.

But slack off for what’s left:

shocked pikachu

This is called manufacturing consent. News media tells you what future the elites want so it seems inevitable and desired when they force it through. Alternative futures can never be considered.

Removed by mod

Just what I wanted!

The correct answer is telling your asshole relatives that they need to do a match with the mini-goliath themselves if they think they’re so tough. Then they either have to play along with the bit or else they’re the asshole who hurt a child’s feelings. (Spoilers if they’re like my family: they will, but then you and the lil bro can bond over that shared trauma. Ah, family!)

> lack personal communication skills with wife

> casually post deeply personal and emotional stories on 4chan behind veils of text and anonymity

> oh shit am I neurodivergent and undiagnosed because I’ve never talked with a therapist

Cops. No one knows why.

One theory is ACAB = 1312 = All Cops Are Bad, so shortened to 12 (why not 13? also the slang predates “acab” popularity.)

Another is the show Adam-12, about cops.

Terrible news, Shell better put back all that carbon they weren’t supposed to release!

I mean, Jaquim Phoenix’s Joker did… what? Kill Jay Leno on air? Luigi is definitely in the top 3 Jokers, way above Leto and Phoenix.

Because the ruling class is terrified

This was also my understanding and I begrudgingly agree with NDT that borders and states and tribalism are bad. I don’t agree with complaining about lines. Damn dude, sucks to have to be a regular participant in society, maybe of bureaucrats got paid better or there were more people working the passport desk.

Or… and i know this is fucking wild, he made up that story because in the US you get passports in the mail. Yeah, you have to maybe wait in a short line for some steps but overall you just send in your info and wait 6 weeks.

Eh, that’s one view. In The Dawn of Everything, Graeber and Wengrow propose that the State arises from the intersection of three forms of social power. These are sovereignty (control of violence), bureaucracy (control of information), and politics (control through charisma and culture). Historicaly each of these has existed as the basis for societies alone and in combination without the concept of a state.

The State is a meme, a technology like religion or money, which provides a framework for the distribution and application of those 3 forms of power. It isn’t the only possible framework for that, but it’s outwardly destructive nature and self-propogation have ensured that the modern world is structured around a narrow set of configurations of the State.