Wait, it’s been since high school that I read that book admittedly, but wasn’t it kinda reversed, where concepts of demons are in universe subconsciously inspired by the appearance of the aliens, rather than the aliens themselves being demons?
Realistically it is difficult, I agree, as capitalism doesnt look to be going anywhere and the current environment doesnt seem like one where increased regulation is likely to get passed. Honestly I think the most realistic path to some improvement at the moment is research into automation tech for the kinds of farm roles that currently rely on cheap labor. Not that capitalists wont just take the cost savings and still pay people less, but its at least possible to pay people more without increasing the cost of staples if the available revenue can be spread across fewer more productive workers, and because operating complex machinery and maintaining it take more time to learn, such workers at least might have a better shot at organizing and thereby forcing that wage increase, because their skills could be harder to replace. And because the technology theoretically allows for increased profits, funding developing it might stand a chance at still getting through even current political conditions.
Honestly, that might be required even in a more equitable economic system anyway though, at some level that kind of work seems like it would have pretty slim margins, so even if the profits were distributed fairly, it still might not be enough to make those jobs not terrible.
Yeah, I’m absolutely opposed to this deportation thing, it’s cruel and if anything I feel that we should be encouraging more immigrants to come here, but the “it’ll be bad because it’ll get rid of all the people who do these jobs american citizens don’t want to do” line does sorta gloss over the fact that if the job conditions are so bad that if people have literally any other option the role goes unfilled, something probably needs to be done to improve the conditions of that job, especially if it is as vital as food production.
I suspect its more that they just arent as “important”, in terms of extreme wealth or active political power, as some of the other guys. Its not like Trump, who both was running for office, had judges in some of his cases that he put there, and who now has an electoral victory, and its not like the ones in congress, who are, well, in congress and therefore have other congresspeople to protect them or at least want them to stay if theyre on the same side. A lawyer and a guy who is rich, but not like Jeff Bezos rich, just dont have as much protecting them, which both means they cant get away with stuff other guys can, and if one is more cynical, represent people who cant fight back as much if thrown under the bus.
Hey now, they don’t want to bring back everything from the 50s… Suggest bringing back the tax rates from those days, especially for the upper end of the income scale, and they’ll look at you like you’re crazy.
I keep my cat food bags inside an old pet carrier; its already designed for a cat to be unable to break through easily, and seeing as they associate it with the vet, they dont really want to go in there.
No, Im not saying that at all, youre putting words in my mouth there or misunderstanding what I am taking issue with. The picture seems to imply some very specific things about farming specifically (note the mention of seed swaps and such, which arent bad things, but when the top image showing the problem shows a city, and the lower one showing community as a solution focuses on agriculture, its hard not to take the implication from it that the creator is advocating that their idea of community involves everyone being involved in food production rather than delegating to those members of the community that specialize in it, which is something that I think makes things worse on account of less efficient land usage that this implies, but gets used in this kind of imagery a lot. In other words, I think that pictures here dont actually depict the kind of community solution they want to show, and whether through accident or misunderstanding, looks more like some sort of greenwashing.
Im not entirely sure this message works; I get the intention, but community farming on its own isnt a solution to climate change since farming isnt the only major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and since getting one’s own community sustainable wont be enough unless one gets all or most outside one’s community to do the same. Im also not sure that community agriculture projects like this are necessarily an efficient enough way to grow enough food on the available land space: local agriculture makes sense for reducing logistics related emissions, and for reducing one’s community’s dependence on long supply chains, and having farms run by locals rather than massive businesses would seem good for the locals for reasons of reducing economic exploitation, but those local farms would still benefit from being run on relatively large scales using as much of the technology developed for efficient farming as can be adapted to sustainable methods, because if you just have everyone grow their own food on their own plots, even with community cooperation to help eachother out with that like this implies, you’re basically going back to something like subsistence agriculture, which likely isnt efficient enough to feed everyone (and even if it can be squeezed into doing so with effort, the increased farmland needed to compensate for that drop in efficiency will itself be ecologically disastrous). Realistically, we absolutely need government action (or even action at the international level) to deal with this, because the source of the problem is so much greater than the local level and governments represent a means to enforce rules across communities. If waiting for the government will take “too long”, then what those communities really need to be doing is forcing the government to act faster.
I used to see them every so often on people in stores and such when I lived in NC, I moved to MA sometime around the covid lockdowns and havent seen one in person since, though Ive encountered people that like Trump vocally enough that Id not be that surprised to see one.
Ive usually seen “Expat” defined as someone working in another country, but explicitly with the intent to be there temporarily and leave once their time at that job ends, rather than moving there with an intent to stay and join that society. Which, granted, doesnt seem to be what OP is actually talking about in this case.
that isnt what I said, I said they arent the ones responsible for Trump, not that their strategy was likely to work after it failed this time.
I suspect the “punch conservatives in the face” bit was hyperbole rather than literal
because the person that tried and failed to stop the criminal due to not being very good at it is the real person to blame for a crime, rather than the criminal themself
wait, what? does it download as some proprietary format and not a normal video file then?
from the sound of it, no, the article suggests that someone probably commanded them to fire back in the 70s while the thing still worked, and its just unclear when exactly this was and who did it.
depending on if we’re on a point in the timeline before they acquire hyperdrive or not (assuming the hyperdrive effectively counts as the same as a warp drive for prime directive purposes) the prime directive might not apply just because it would be a prewarp culture interacting with another prewarp culture.
honestly, you dont really come off as one to me, so I wouldnt worry, you come off more as someone who might have slightly different definitions or ideas regarding ethics, which can be mutually frustrating to argue around, but not the same as being malicious
Honestly, unsure. I dont think that you have a particular obligation to have sex with any sort of person, and I do think that you have an obligation (not necessarily a legal obligation, but a “being a decent person” one) to not be racist. It isnt exactly unusual for a person to prefer their partner belong to a specific category (for example, a gay man is likely to refuse to consider being with a woman, but I dont think they would be a misogynist for that). That being said, there isnt a particular difference between all white women and any other sort of women that would make for much of a reason to do this beyond just hating white women in particular, whereas for a woman, there is a notable difference between a man and, for those who would be attracted to them as well, a woman, as far as partners goes, because with a man, there exists a possibility of pregnancy, which could be dangerous in the current state of the country.
Tbf, being with a violently aggressive person in a tight enclosed space is still risky regardless