volkris @volkris@social.cleverlibre.org
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Joined Dec 2022
You're saying Fetterman will switch to Republican?
Well, part of the complication is the difference between party registration and which he caucuses with.
He might be waiting for the outcome of this election to decide which to caucus with, where he'd have more influence, and set up party registration for his own reelection bid.
Well we do hold execs accountable with prison time.
We DO hold politicians to account. We reelect them.
We voters like it this way as we go out of our way to stand up and say, Yes, we hereby give this person authority to do these things.
If we did nothing they'd lose office. It's only through our active voting that we grant them that position, and renew that grant of authority every time it come up for automatic expiration.
With voters' active and continuing approval they'd have nothing.
I hate headlines like this that miss the point.
They found/used molecules that tune LEDs to more efficiently use today's office lighting. That's a chemistry advancement to be celebrated!
But found a way to harvest wasted glow? Not really. Indoor solar cells are nothing new.
And here I was just hearing that Tim Burton blocked a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas.
He just didn't have _this_ script.
Maybe a good solution would start with education, actually informing the public (and politicians) about what insurance IS and is not.
So long as people confuse insurance with simple financing or cost sharing they will continue to demand broken insurance schemes.
Practically, we ran into the warnings about the problems of Obamacare. Even just going back to the status quo ante would be an improvement while we work on one of the many better solutions we had at the time, this time with a more informed public.
First, do no harm. Obamacare did harm.
The thing is, Fediverse isn't actually decentralized, and that's worth clarifying. Rather, it's REcentralized around instances.
It would have been nice if the engineering behind it all actually did center on users, but they went a different direction, centering on instances instead.
Bluesky's ATProtocol did decentralization better, but it dropped the ball in different areas, unfortunately.
It seems like the article really answers the question:
"the point of insurance is (or should be) to cover unexpected and large expenses.
If BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama is demanding this increase to punish Hoyt for the shoulder operation"
No, BCBS isn't punishing Hoyt for the operation. Its point is to cover unexpected and large expenses, so it's doing that.
The article is very flawed by not going into the issue of whether these actually are bets in the first place. That question is VERY much in dispute in reality.
The article says each chatbot "hedges that betting on prediction markets may be outside the scope of the Texas law" but that's not a hedge. It's core to the issue here.
volkris
boosted
Prof: I teach for free, but I charge a lot for grading.
Admin: We just bought a program that will grade!
Prof: "I teach for free, but I charge a lot for writing."
Admin: The program will write, too!
Prof: I teach for free, but I charge a lot to attend faculty meetings.
Well, you don't need either smarts OR faith to throw a party!
Actually, so much Republican populism today is literally shaped by the sports world. Many of their influential figures come from sportscasting, and they continue to normalize discussing governance in terms of poor analogy to sports.
Well, this is them tailgating.
Frat bros chugging beers in the parking lot before "their" team plays may mumble something looking like faith or smarts, but really they're just having a party.
@gimulnautti the problem is, this kind sort of thing of goes down the rabbithole as far as needed to make its rhetorical point without actually finally making sense of the wealth in honest terms.
That's wealth, not money. It's accounting trickery, based on unrealistic assumptions about what things are worth in sales that will never and can never actually happen.
It's a double-edged sword: those people hold up the accounting trickery to claim more power than they actually have, and activists use it to rile up the public over fictions.
Unfortunately, folks not in the game are vulnerable to being mislead, so they fall for it.
@TCatInReality well, it's like trusting the guy at the end of the bar for medical advise. Maybe buying him a beer to listen to him.
It's not advise a reasonable person should seek or take seriously, so it's not clear what to do about it.
@erikKroes if you go directly to the IPO paperwork they describe their anticipated business model and path to success.
On the other hand, outfits like Ars make THEIR money by publishing eyecatching stories like this, even if they're a bit out there.
You invest in these companies to make money, as per the actual filings of the companies.
Right wing media setting up for a potential narrative about Trump?
Normalize the idea that a person fleeing the country under suspicion is evidence of the country's corruption so when Trump does it his supporters will believe the same thing?
#PJMedia― Headline: If the Election Wasn't Rigged, Why Is the Loser Fleeing the Country? A political figure who's in legal trouble fleeing the co...
@mhjohnson We really need to educate the public about this fact: earmarking of funds rarely works the way its' advertised in reality.
This is SUCH a common claim and has been for so long, but it regularly causes problems. If only we could let the public know that it never works so they should always reject a politician making that promise.
@ClaraListensprechen4 to be fair, a lot of the MAGA folks are idiots without coherent strategies at all, and others are simply grifters.
For _whatever_ reason Republicans had a ton of money going into this election cycle, so they've been ready to just throw it around, whether it would reasonably help them in the election or not.
One thing I'd emphasize is Trump's pattern of following, not leading, saying and doing the things that get him cheers regardless of any larger strategy. There are a lot of resources going into getting him those cheers from the crowd even if they harm the GOP cause. That explains some of it.
Agreed that evidence based is the barest outline of an alternative process, so what I'm advocating for isn't exactly asking for much.
But that's why it's worth delving into. It shouldn't take much to involve these aspects of realism in your call for action, right?
I'm happy to clarify: if you go back and read what I said, I was emphatically advocating *for* realistic analysis.
If you look at the facts and still decide that's the way you want to go, great! So I'm advocating *for* an approach to making those decisions that's more factual, less idealistic.
So let's look at the analysis that I'm advocating for, and then whatever you judge, at least it will be informed.
TLDR: I'm advocating for a more realistic approach than you're presenting, one recognizing the long history of failure of democracy as a solution.
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Joined Dec 2022
