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The media seems to have a fascination with the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley and the like. I think mostly because Baby Boomers are fascinated by anything that disturbs the narrow little world that they grew up in, and they seem to have a love/hate relationship with this "Net 2.0" that has both let them tweet about disrespectful athletes, but also has made them no longer masters of the world. But I think that Big Box stores changed American life just as much as the dotcom era and later social media did, its just underreported because it seems "normal enough" to the Boomers and the media that panders to them. But lets compare the two: Big Box Stores: Bad: Increased oil dependence by sprawling out communities Also destroyed lots of habitat (Generally bad for the environment in a lot of ways) Ruined town character, and disrupted community relations Drove down wages Ugly and tacky Good: Gave access to cheap stuff to people who otherwise wouldn't have had it Made it so that if you wanted to buy something simple like a keyboard you could just drive to Best Buy and get it, instead of having to go to the one weird crowded computer store run by neckbeards Tech/DotCom Bad: Used a lot of resources by encouraging conspicuous consumption Encouraged people to stare at screens all day Disrupted communities Full of smug fuckers who play foosball all day and made rents in San Francisco riduculous Good: Enabled people to interact with the wider world Greatly eroded barriers around the world Encouraged new forms of creativity and community Made life generally more fun and versatile and convenient I think on balance Tech gave more to the world. Big Box stores changed communities more than is generally accepted, I think it tore apart traditional social fabric much more than the internet did, but unlike the internet, it didn't replace it with anything. Also, on a personal level, even though tech is full of smarmy fuckers who I kind of want to punch, lots of them try. Like Zuckerberg. He looks like an annoying, smug bastard. But I think he means well, or means something. I could actually have some type of conversation with him. Compare that with Alice Walton, who literally killed a woman while drunk and wasn't charged for it because Texas. I think the choice is clear here.
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Sep 19, 2016 02:21
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Darth123123 posted:I don't know where your going op Going down to Walmart to pick up 5 packages of Candy Corn Oreo for 10 dollars
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Sep 19, 2016 02:33
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jackyl posted:I'm thinking millennials are worse than Walmart or the tech booms or anything really SELFIE STICKS!
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Sep 19, 2016 02:41
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Serious Frolicking posted:i think that every human creation including humans themselves must be burned away from the face of the earth Are you sure you didn't mean to post this in the Evangelion thread?
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Sep 19, 2016 03:12
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Chinatown posted:who loving gives a poo poo Quite a few people do, and people who don't, should.
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Sep 19, 2016 03:54
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gary oldmans diary posted:the pros and cons of french bread pizza vs big box stores: I used to get this really good French Bread pizza, fresh bread, fresh cheese and sauces and just a little oregano on top, at my local independent grocery store in Montana. It cost me like under 2 dollars for a slice, which was a pretty good deal. There was some big box stores on the other end of town, but I liked my small, locally-owned market with its fresh deli food and bakery with extra good donuts. If I could have just instagrammed one of these great french bread pizzas, I would have had a perfectly cromulant joinder of all three of our topics.
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Sep 19, 2016 05:01
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CJacobs posted:The good done by both of those things far outweighs nearly all of their negatives op, the question you pose is a loaded one that implies either of them was bad for the US when really neither of them were Source: Thomas Friedman's taxi driver whose nephew built an e-commerce business on a smartphone he bought at the local Wal-Mart.
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Sep 19, 2016 05:53
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