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kalel posted:really stupid and small follow-up question: are there any functional alternatives to capitalism? It depends on how you define "functional". I would say that this system is the least functional because it's currently destroying our biosphere and fellow humans and living things. The costs of capitalism are currently "everything". As for other ways, many smart people have done a lot of good theorizing and anthropology about how, actually, most of our distribution of power (politics) and resources (economics) are anarcho-communist in nature. They're just being used to manage things that we've been taught to believe have no "value" because they haven't yet been enclosed for capitalists to extract value from. For an example, consider the family meal. Who has power at the table? Who gets to eat the most? Who must cook and clean? Most importantly, who gets to decide these things? The answer to these questions up until recently is only rarely "the state" or "the boss". Instead, the answers are mediated by the people in the situation through their relationships to each other and their common and individual needs, as well as their culture, of course. Depending on that culture, and the individuals and their relationships, this way of distributing power and resources functions extremely well, or extremely poorly. But at least it's clear where the problems start. Now consider the restaurant movement of the past 70 years or so. Who has power? The owner. Who gets to eat the most? The ones with the most money/sufficient money. Who must cook and clean? Labourers. Who gets to decide? The boss and the state (which decides the conditions of the "market"). All of this is the result of an elaborate campaign by moneyed interests in our political and knowledge production systems to "enclose" communal eating. Now, does this system of distributing power and resources function well? I guess, sort of, if you ignore the costs (aka negative externalities). It doesn't seem to be functioning for the workers, people without enough money, people who can't access the restaurant (or its alternatives). Not to mention the environmental costs of the production of the food in this manner. This enclosure process has been covered extensively by even liberal writers like Michael Pollan. Examples of this campaign would be everything from urban design congregating workers around restaurants to the ideological project of forgetting, excluding or denigrating traditional ways of communal eating. Consider, for example, what your grandmother's grandmother cooked for her family. Do you know? Could you access all of the ingredients she needed? Do you have the "free" time to prepare that food? Do you have the skills? Or instead, have all of those things been taken from you in a huge variety of ways so that you only see the alternatives that extract value from you and then call them functional because, at least for now, you seem to get enough of what you want or need that it's ok? Now, how can we take our old political economy which is rich in relationship to each other, land, and community and replace our current political economy? We've also done that a lot in the past, but you have to read some books to find those answers. I'd recommend The Dawn of Everything (by Graeber (RIP) and Wengrow) and 1491 (by Mann) as good starting points in the pop anthropology. The docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes is about colonialism but it does a great job of showing what happened to many of our alternatives, and to people who tried to protect them. Capitalist Realism by Fisher (RIP) is a great summary of how you came to ask this question in this way, since it presumes that our system is either the best possible, or at least inevitable somehow.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:34
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I want to confirm a story I have been told: "the US Navy discovered a stealth flaw in cold war-era Soviet submarines that made it really easy for them to be tracked, and they used it a lot for years and years until someone revealed it in a memoir (or book or something) and the Navy was really mad while the Russians went "oh no" and fixed it" google is not helping, and I know very little about cold war submarine stuff.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:35
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kalel posted:really stupid and small follow-up question: are there any functional alternatives to capitalism? The functional alternative to capitalism is socialism, most of what we've been told about the perfidious evil communists by our capitalist indoctrination in public school was pretty much false. I actually just wrote a thread about this in cspam the other day if you want to learn more about the only revolutionary form that has ever succeeded against capitalism in human history, feel free to visit and ask as many stupid and small questions about it as you like (large and smart questions are welcome too): https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4039485&pagenumber=1&perpage=40
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Aug 19, 2023 16:25
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Please don't turn this thread into cspam or d&d, I work hard to avoid those parts of the forums.
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Aug 19, 2023 16:38
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That's why I linked to the thread rather than typing five thousand words here to explain how politics works.
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Aug 19, 2023 16:39
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StrixNebulosa posted:I want to confirm a story I have been told: No answer from me, but the a/t milhist thread is very good at these type of questions.
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Aug 19, 2023 16:48
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I understand that this will vary by effort of government and location and such, but for let’s say the USA: What kind of regular maintenance is required for public dirt roads/unpaved roads? Do they need to be sprayed or compressed or trimmed or anything at some pace?
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Aug 19, 2023 16:52
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dokmo posted:No answer from me, but the a/t milhist thread is very good at these type of questions. Thanks! Asked there.
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Aug 19, 2023 16:53
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BaronVanAwesome posted:I understand that this will vary by effort of government and location and such, but for let’s say the USA: It depends on what's driving on them. A forest service road used by logging trucks will require regular grading, because they are so heavy that they tear the road apart and create washboarding and potholes and poo poo. A tiny back road used by farmers in small vehicles will require very little maintenance as long as it has enough traffic to keep the plants from encroaching on it.
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Aug 19, 2023 16:59
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kalel posted:really stupid and small follow-up question: are there any functional alternatives to capitalism? It also depends how you define "capitalism". It means a lot of different things to different people. Humans don't need much. Food, shelter, health, education. Plenty of countries provide those last two as a public service. America spends a stupid amount of money doing them for profit instead, and has convinced its population that it's somehow better. It's totally possible for the first two to be provided in the same way. It would be way more efficient, cost way less per capita, and solve almost every other problem there is, aside from heartbreak. You can still have "Free Enterprise" on top of that if you want. We can even still call that capitalism. Great, go hog wild. Just after we've taken care of everyone's basics. ("possible" meaning "within our technical capabilities" of course. But capitalists love all their capital so much that they will fight tooth and nail to prevent this from ever happening.)
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Aug 19, 2023 16:59
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kalel posted:really stupid and small follow-up question: are there any functional alternatives to capitalism? if you mean "an economic/political system that can can be implemented in society and that society more or less functions day to day" then yes. there are several. if you mean "an economic/political system that can be implemented causing all members of a society have enjoyable lives free of any oppression and completely equal rights to each other that are never violated, not just theoretically but in actuality" i dont believe there is any historical record of such a system existing. yet. no one has yet invented a political or economic system that has prevented the people running said system from taking advantage of it and loving over everyone else. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 17:01
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Earwicker posted:if you mean "an economic/political system that can can be implemented in society and that society more or less functions day to day" then yes. there are several. I mean the implicit baseline for functioning from the question is how our current system does. So you don’t need to go full gay space communism or anything. TooMuchAbstraction posted:Please don't turn this thread into cspam or d&d, I work hard to avoid those parts of the forums. Sorry, I guess the answer I should have provided is just that reading list at the end.
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Aug 19, 2023 17:04
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tuyop posted:I mean the implicit baseline for functioning from the question is how our current system does. So you don’t need to go full gay space communism or anything. well im in the US where we've currently imprisoned a larger percentage of our population than any other nation on earth, people routinely go bankrupt due to medical emergencies, daily mass shootings, the leading candidate for president has been arrested four times and led an insurrection, there are states actively pushing revisionist propaganda in school textbooks, states criminalizing being trans, etc. and etc. so if that's your standard for "functional" sure there are all kinds of functional systems. you could probably invent a completely new one on the back of a napkin this afternoon and it might be just as good
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Aug 19, 2023 17:11
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feudalism was pretty stable, it lasted for thousands of years It basically comes down to labor relations and class, but I don't think political derails are encouraged in a/t and it would be a huge derail to try to work through any actual answer to the original question.
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Aug 19, 2023 17:13
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yea really the question itself is entirely off topic. like it's exactly the opposite of a small or stupid question, and you should probably at least take a few classes and have a few moments of idealistic whimsy about all that poo poo before you become a sad bitter alcoholic and realize the answer you are looking for does not exist
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Aug 19, 2023 17:15
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Why are there two different number pads throughout North America? Like why is it code:code:
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Aug 19, 2023 21:24
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BaronVanAwesome posted:I understand that this will vary by effort of government and location and such, but for let’s say the USA: Some kinda tractor with a car-sized lawn mower on the side for cutting brush and small trees down. A truck dribbles gravel that has been treated with something that plants don't like. I don't know if it's a chemical or what but it's really dusty. Lastly, a soil compactor to bed the gravel. Snowfall basically turbofucks these roads because water melts under the gravel, freezes into ice and pushes it away. Repeat a dozen times over the course of fall and spring, so the roads are filled with potholes which stay there for two years until the gravel road is resurfaced again. YMMV, this is my experience in rural Canada.
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Aug 19, 2023 22:56
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tuyop posted:Why are there two different number pads throughout North America? I dunno, it's dumb tho.
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Aug 19, 2023 23:18
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tuyop posted:Why are there two different number pads throughout North America? There isn't, you just have either your phone or keyboard upside down.
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Aug 19, 2023 23:24
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tuyop posted:Why are there two different number pads throughout North America? As far as I know, the layouts for electronic calculators and push-button "touch-tone" telephones basically evolved completely separately. (The phones were like 10-20 years earlier though.) Computer keyboards took the one from calculators while your cell phone took the one from old touch-tone landlines. Which was mostly fine to begin with but now that phones are really just small computers it makes everything more confusing. RPATDO_LAMD fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 23:48
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My phone has both! But it’s at least in different apps and is kind of authentic? I hate it.
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Aug 20, 2023 01:12
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See this page for some explanations about keypads being different arrangements for different purposes.
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Aug 20, 2023 02:16
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Is something fucky going on with the forums? If I click on, say GBS, it doesn't show any threads. I can still get into threads I have bookmarked from the control panel.
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Aug 20, 2023 06:25
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Ironhead posted:Is something fucky going on with the forums? If I click on, say GBS, it doesn't show any threads. I can still get into threads I have bookmarked from the control panel. You've been ghostbanned. Try opening stuff in a private window to see if you got cache / addon grief.
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Aug 20, 2023 08:08
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Ironhead posted:Is something fucky going on with the forums? If I click on, say GBS, it doesn't show any threads. I can still get into threads I have bookmarked from the control panel. is it possible you have archives browsing on? should be a "remove" in the bottom right corner you can click to toggle it off, if so
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Aug 20, 2023 08:23
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Inceltown posted:You've been ghostbanned. It's this, you're not allowed to post in those forums anymore.
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Aug 20, 2023 12:29
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someone awful. posted:is it possible you have archives browsing on? should be a "remove" in the bottom right corner you can click to toggle it off, if so haha yup, thats what it was. No idea how I ended up there.
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Aug 20, 2023 13:29
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it could be a mistake, you could try messaging a mod. don't know how you could be ghostbanned without some kind of paper trail in your rap sheet
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Aug 20, 2023 14:56
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What's so great about Lithium that it shares its name with rocks in general?
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Aug 20, 2023 21:06
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Baron Porkface posted:What's so great about Lithium that it shares its name with rocks in general? Its discoverer named it after the Greek word for stone because he first found it in a mineral.
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Aug 20, 2023 21:36
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Baron Porkface posted:What's so great about Lithium that it shares its name with rocks in general? The same reason "Hydrogen" is named after water, even though it's not water soluble, <10% of the mass of water, and is in many compounds other than water.
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Aug 20, 2023 22:31
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Is there a place anyone would recommend for buying casino quality dice? I want some white and red ones for my dad for his risk games, but while I can find some transparent red ones on Amazon I can't find standard red and white, and I'd also feel peace of mind having someone confirm that they aren't just the standard type you can find anywhere. If there's a better thread of course I am happy to go there instead.
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Aug 20, 2023 23:14
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thechosenone posted:Is there a place anyone would recommend for buying casino quality dice? I want some white and red ones for my dad for his risk games, but while I can find some transparent red ones on Amazon I can't find standard red and white, and I'd also feel peace of mind having someone confirm that they aren't just the standard type you can find anywhere. Edit: There's an ancient thread about dice here, but probably too old to resurrect. One of the chat threads in Traditional Games might be the place though. Trapick fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Aug 20, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2023 23:28
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Slimy Hog posted:I know nothing about trucks. Does this match the bill? Lol, this is pretty good. I would of swore there was like a "customize your own Hot Wheels!" site or something. thanks bud.
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Aug 21, 2023 18:14
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I have an older Schwinn exercise bike. It's never been a issue before but lately, the handle has been feeling sticky to the touch. I thought it was sweat or something at first, but no matter how much I wipe and clean it, the sticky feeling doesn't go away. What is happening to the bike and how do I fix it? Can I just buy tape and wrap it around the handle?
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Aug 21, 2023 19:58
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Trickortreat posted:I have an older Schwinn exercise bike. It's never been a issue before but lately, the handle has been feeling sticky to the touch. I thought it was sweat or something at first, but no matter how much I wipe and clean it, the sticky feeling doesn't go away. What is happening to the bike and how do I fix it? Can I just buy tape and wrap it around the handle? Your grips are toast and new ones are required if you don't want slimy hands. You could probably wear gloves if you wanted to instead but getting new grips should be pretty trivial.
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Aug 21, 2023 20:08
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Trickortreat posted:I have an older Schwinn exercise bike. It's never been a issue before but lately, the handle has been feeling sticky to the touch. I thought it was sweat or something at first, but no matter how much I wipe and clean it, the sticky feeling doesn't go away. What is happening to the bike and how do I fix it? Can I just buy tape and wrap it around the handle? There's a few things you can do to fix this. If the handles are rubber, this is probably beyond a cleaning stage. Rubber products that get handled frequently just eventually absorb oil and sweat and they wear out and get gummy. There are products that are supposed to clean and restore, but I have not had much luck with them, and as you describe, they just seem to stay sticky. You can order replacement handlebar grips, so long as you are able to remove the old ones. Depending on the material, they might just slide off, with some effort, maybe get some good pliers. Or just cut them down the middle entirely. New ones would slide over the base metal pretty easily. Tape would be OK, but depending on type and how often you are using the bike and getting it sweaty, it might wear through, and give you a gummy/sticky residue all it's own. If you have the hard plastic or if the rubber had bumps and grooves for better grip, then taping over that will create uneven surfaces, likely leading to faster wear and different stickiness. I would not tape up the bare metal. If you just want something to protect the metal, you could use a few coats of plasti-dip or some of the flex seal liquid plastic products, but honestly, I don't like how they feel on my hands, but to each their own. It's not going to be as soft as rubber or molded foam like the replacements would be, but it may be cheaper. Personally if I was going down this path, I'd use the liquid product and find a way to dip the handlebars. The spray and brush options never really worked out for me. Regardless, I'd say pick up some workout gloves for the future too.
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Aug 21, 2023 20:23
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What is the point of companies not allowing price adjustments online? I purchased a couple of glasses two days ago and they went and they went on sale today. I emailed about getting a price adjustment and they said they wouldn’t be able to do it. So I would have to place and new order and return the original one. Seems like a real waste of time and resources. From their returns team, customer service team and their shipping team. Not to mention all that stupid shipping back and forth.
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Aug 21, 2023 21:01
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Lots of reasons, most people won't bother with something like that for whatever meager savings it gets them. Generally you also don't want there to be a mechanism for your employees to reduce the price on things because then they'll offer it more often.
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Aug 21, 2023 21:11
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I don't think (In the US atleast) that theres any law regarding price adjustments. I think it's just a good PR thing and to make it easier for everyone so you don't just return the item and repurchase it. They probably just want to make it more difficult for you, so that you're less likely to do it. What advantage do they get for essentially cutting you a check for free money?
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Aug 21, 2023 21:13
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