Mama told me not to come.

She said, that ain’t the way to have fun.

  • 56 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • It’s important to take the broader context into account. This happened at the start of the Cold War, so anything that looked remotely connected to the USSR was suspect. Árbenz legalized a communist party, and that seems to be what pushed Eisenhower over the edge.

    It had nothing to do with the actual ideology of the Guatamalan government, but suspected ties to USSR. At the time, “communism” meant “USSR,” and anyone that was sympathetic to communism in any form was suspected of being in league with the USSR.

    If the Guatamalan Revolution happened just 10 years or so later, the US probably would’ve been an ally instead of an enemy of someone like Árbenz.



  • Lemmy doesn’t meet my needs, but it’s closer than Reddit is. As soon as something better comes along (or I build a replacement), I’m out. I still use Reddit occasionally, I just don’t have an account there anymore because I’m unwilling to feed them more data.

    Likewise, Forgejo partially meets my needs, and since automatic syncing a/ GitHub is a thing, I’ll probably use both. I don’t hate GitHub, I just prefer to self-host, so I’ll probably go that route instead of buying into GitHub’s ecosystem.


  • That part is incredibly misleading, because it assumes you’ll pay off the entire payday loan on day 175, which would require quite a bit more than the rental cost.

    The truly damning thing here is that it’s cheaper to buy on credit and pay it off using the same monthly payment as the rental (assuming 30% interest). Many credit cards give you an extended warranty, so you’re better off than with the rental terms, so there’s literally no reason to rent, assuming you’ll keep it at least a year or are willing to sell it at the end.

    Don’t pay credit card interest, but if the choice is between credit card interest and an NZXT rental, you’re better off getting fleeced by the credit card company.







  • There have been many elected socialist democracies, but the West undermined them

    We’re getting into very biased reporting territory.

    Let’s take Venezuela as an example. Here’s the events as I understand them:

    1. Hugo Chavez takes power in 1999
    2. Venezuela becomes rich from oil (prices increased in early 2000s) and spends a ton on populist social programs (presumably to stay in power; corruption is rampant
    3. Rapid inflation and widespread shortages starting in 2010 due to over-reliance on imported goods and exported oil (oil prices started dropping in 2007) and no spending cuts after revenue shortfalls
    4. Maduro takes over in 2013 and is even more heavy handed and doesn’t ease spending or improve anything economically
    5. Protests and unrest, which the government violently repressed, especially in 2015 when oil prices fell dramatically
    6. Sanctions due to human rights violations started in 2014-ish but really picked up steam from 2017-2019, which deepened the problems they already had, especially since the government refused to cut spending

    Western sanctions only became a thing years (more like a decade) after they were already in crisis. The crisis wasn’t caused by western countries, it was caused by mismanagement and corruption. Venezuela was held as a model for socialism under Chavez, but things only worked because of oil money.

    I’m happy to discuss other countries as well.


  • Sure, and many capitalists support socialist ownership structures within an otherwise capitalist system.

    I’m pretty supportive of laissez faire capitalism (with caveats; I consider myself a left-leaning libertarian), and I also agree that worker co-ops are a great idea in many cases. The important thing, to me, with capitalism is that profit motive drive the decision making process in a competitive market. Sanders seems to largely agree, he just wants more of that profit to make its way to the workers.

    Socialism (generally speaking, I know socialism is a big tent), seeks to eliminate both the profit motive and competitive markets, seeing both as waste. From what I know of Bernie Sanders, he’s not on board with that view of socialism, he just wants the average person to be better off.


  • he clearly says that workers should have ownership stake in companies, which is not a capitalist sentiment

    It absolutely is though. Partnerships have been a thing since pretty much forever, and a lot of publicly traded companies and some private companies hand out company stock as part of compensation. Employees owning stock isn’t socialism, it’s capitalism, and the goal is for employees’ interests to be more aligned with the company’s so overall profitability is higher.

    Sanders is approaching it from an employee outcomes perspective, but it’s still very much from a capitalist mindset.

    He’s not advocating for companies to be run democratically like they would under socialism, he’s advocating for more profit sharing without meaningfully changing ownership.




  • I played through Gris and had an absolute blast. I finished it in <3 hours, but spent another 3 or so tracking down collectibles (momentos) because the world is so pretty.

    I also played Monument Valley 1&2, each in one sitting. The puzzles weren’t very hard, but I’m a sucker for non-Euclidean worlds (also loved The Bridge and Manifold Garden).

    Other than that, I’ve been playing a bit of Fire Emblem: Engage. I probably won’t finish that before Christmas though, it’s a long game.

    I’m probably going to pick up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk this Steam sale, which recently turned 1. I have kids, and they’re each getting a Switch game for Christmas, so I’ll have a few more to play soon.


  • He really isn’t anti-capitalist, he’s against concentrations of wealth generally, but he’s absolutely in favor of our capitalist system, he just thinks there should be more rules so workers fare better. He’s not a socialist, much as the right wants to think, he’s just in favor of a large welfare system and high taxes on the wealthy. He doesn’t want to fundamentally change our economic system, he just wants to make it more fair for his definition of “fair.”