"Poisoning the water supply" is going right to the top of the list.
You shall rrrrrrrue the day you rrrrrrrefused to rrrrrretain my serrrrrrvices!
You shall rrrrrrrue the day you rrrrrrrefused to rrrrrretain my serrrrrrvices!
"He worked a shitty job serving bean juice to people who weren't as cool as they thought they were so he could have food and shelter"
Man, so true. Timeless words.
Man, so true. Timeless words.
The Mycenaean Greeks are likely to have been the ones that created the Medusa myth, and at that time the Egyptian Old Kingdom that built the pyramids had collapsed 500 years before the very beginning of Mycenaean Greece. There would have been multiple Egyptian eras of which Egypt would have been in an era of unity. , The Mycenaean Greeks are documented in a letter to have had diplomacy with Egypt, and Mycenaean pottery was found in Egypt suggesting trade between the two regions.
With all that being the case, Africans wouldn't be some mythical creature due to the power and influence of ancient Egypt in that era, and it seems much likely the Medusa just follows the Greek tradition of chimeras combining different animals or animals and people to allegorically represent different parts of the human experience....
Another thing about the legend of Medusa is that she starts as a beautiful woman and angers the gods, being turned into a hideous beast with snakes for hair. This directly contradicts the core idea of the picture, suggesting that some people need to learn the legends they're trying to appropriate before they try to do so.
A potential counterpoint to my argument could be the minotaur, which we now know was derived from the Greek contact with the Minoan civilization. However, I think this actually proves my point -- the Minotaur didn't look like a bull/man hybrid because the people of that civilization looked like bulls, it was a representation of the bull icons the Minoans placed everywhere in their complex architecture.
Anyway, I know, nobody asked but it bugged me...
With all that being the case, Africans wouldn't be some mythical creature due to the power and influence of ancient Egypt in that era, and it seems much likely the Medusa just follows the Greek tradition of chimeras combining different animals or animals and people to allegorically represent different parts of the human experience....
Another thing about the legend of Medusa is that she starts as a beautiful woman and angers the gods, being turned into a hideous beast with snakes for hair. This directly contradicts the core idea of the picture, suggesting that some people need to learn the legends they're trying to appropriate before they try to do so.
A potential counterpoint to my argument could be the minotaur, which we now know was derived from the Greek contact with the Minoan civilization. However, I think this actually proves my point -- the Minotaur didn't look like a bull/man hybrid because the people of that civilization looked like bulls, it was a representation of the bull icons the Minoans placed everywhere in their complex architecture.
Anyway, I know, nobody asked but it bugged me...
We've seen some of the thing CSIS says.
I say we should defund them completely. Another step towards a balanced budget. they can make money selling crack in detroit like a respectable intelligence agency.
I say we should defund them completely. Another step towards a balanced budget. they can make money selling crack in detroit like a respectable intelligence agency.
My first two vehicles were stick, and I like it if I'm in the country or a town and I don't need to be doing lots of stop start traffic. Once I realized I was going to be spending a little bit more time in cities with lots of stop start traffic, that was the end of that. I want nice thing is I've got the skill forever.
Fact check: false
While it is true that virtually all of the conspiracy theories turned out to be true, it makes no sense that Chewbacca is from endor! That makes no sense! The ewoks are from endor, why would Chewbacca be from endor? It makes no sense! It makes no sense!
While it is true that virtually all of the conspiracy theories turned out to be true, it makes no sense that Chewbacca is from endor! That makes no sense! The ewoks are from endor, why would Chewbacca be from endor? It makes no sense! It makes no sense!
Most dangerous thing we keep doing is drawing straight lines every time we see two points.
Won't be as good as evangelists say, won't be as bad as apocalyptic prophets say.we just gotta wait and see.
Won't be as good as evangelists say, won't be as bad as apocalyptic prophets say.we just gotta wait and see.
GOG is the best game store since once you have the installer saved they can't take it back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du6SqVoxy0o
Go to Taco Bell
Order a big mac
Hand the clerk a pair of hundos, "Look, I don't care how you gotta do it. Just make it happen."
Go to Taco Bell
Order a big mac
Hand the clerk a pair of hundos, "Look, I don't care how you gotta do it. Just make it happen."
I think even Marx recognized that capitalism was a relatively recent invention, seeing it as a descendant of feudalism which he did consider a different economic system. While his view of history still sees the lords and kings as the owner class compared to the working class, it doesn't claim capitalism is something that's always existed or been the dominant economic system.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
Unemployment being "at all time lows" is a great example of the cooked books. There's "record low unemployment" but the labor participation rate is also really low and the number of able-bodied people who for example are permanently on disability are high.
Not to mention "a job" isn't necessarily meaningful. When I was in college, we rented our first 2 bedroom place for 325 in Winnipeg, you probably would struggle to find the same place for 1500 now. Meanwhile the minimum wage has only gone up by a few dollars, and proportionally more jobs are low wage jobs.
In Toronto there's 25 strangers sharing a basement, each paying 1000/mo, and according to the numbers that means everything is great, but in reality it's an abomination.
It's also a third rail, but many of those 25 strangers living in a basement are recent migrants. Immigration isn't at all bad, but mindlessly cramming as many people from developing nations as possible into a developed nation is bad for the existing population, and bringing in such people solely for the purpose of exploiting them on an economic ledger is deeply immoral.
And let's talk about "greedflation". It exists, but from who? Well, I'd argue it's from the politicians. The US has increased their federal debt by 10x in 20 years, Canada has doubled its debt in 8 years. These greedy politicians don't intend to pay back the debt, they're just going to run it up until society collapses. In the US, debt maintenance is on track to exceed military spending. In Canada, debt maintenance is on track to exceed universal healthcare. The politicians just can't stop spending other people's money, and the price is mass inflation. Oh man -- the politicians loooooove the 25 strangers living in a basement, it looks so good on their fake little economic ledger!
Some people would blame capitalism, but modern capitalism is a quite recent invention and similar issues have occurred in many different countries throughout history, many of which we would not tend to consider modern capitalist democracies, such as France prior to the french revolution, Spain during the conquest of South America, or the Roman Empire.
You don't need private ownership or control of capital to have corruption and mismanagement, and in fact a corrupt nobility can be made worse by not having a strong merchant class to keep them accountable. Having this separate class that can become more powerful through merit is important because having a strong nobility and no capitalism results in high levels of stability, but also stagnation because there are no mechanisms for meritorious people to be easily elevated by objective means. People could be born a serf and become a noble, but merchants must do it through actually being successful merchants, whereas a serf would have to impress a noble who themselves may not be such a good arbiter of merit.
The fact that the poor can be in trouble under capitalism is true; however it does not suggest that there is a monopoly on such. Feudal Japan is a great example of a distinctly non-capitalist nation that nonetheless had high levels of inequality, with some people barely considered human, and others considered as living embodiments of gods.
The present danger is that the state is so large and so powerful that it distorts capitalism. We can see this where a company like Tesla made Elon Musk briefly the richest man in the history of the earth largely on government largesse -- he got a free factory, he gets huge subsidies, every single one of his vehicles got a huge direct subsidy for the buyer, and because of high inflation due to state money printing (and artificially low interest rates on debt due to government policy) people who want to retire need to save their money in something that grows and so the stock market gets a disproportionate amount of money inside of it because the money needs to go somewhere or it'll disappear.
Banking is a great example of an industry that's completely distorted by government. On one hand, deposits are insured so people don't take their money out of banks. Many loans are backstopped by the government such as mortgages which are insured in favor of the banks. The banks have a unique ability to print money out of thin air that's largely a government construct. If a bank becomes insolvent then there's many different types of insurance to keep the bank going. So often, "deregulation" doesn't touch any of these things and only will seek to reduce the few regulations designed to make sure the benefits don't become a massive moral hazard where banks take huge risks not caring since everything they do is protected.
Not to mention "a job" isn't necessarily meaningful. When I was in college, we rented our first 2 bedroom place for 325 in Winnipeg, you probably would struggle to find the same place for 1500 now. Meanwhile the minimum wage has only gone up by a few dollars, and proportionally more jobs are low wage jobs.
In Toronto there's 25 strangers sharing a basement, each paying 1000/mo, and according to the numbers that means everything is great, but in reality it's an abomination.
It's also a third rail, but many of those 25 strangers living in a basement are recent migrants. Immigration isn't at all bad, but mindlessly cramming as many people from developing nations as possible into a developed nation is bad for the existing population, and bringing in such people solely for the purpose of exploiting them on an economic ledger is deeply immoral.
And let's talk about "greedflation". It exists, but from who? Well, I'd argue it's from the politicians. The US has increased their federal debt by 10x in 20 years, Canada has doubled its debt in 8 years. These greedy politicians don't intend to pay back the debt, they're just going to run it up until society collapses. In the US, debt maintenance is on track to exceed military spending. In Canada, debt maintenance is on track to exceed universal healthcare. The politicians just can't stop spending other people's money, and the price is mass inflation. Oh man -- the politicians loooooove the 25 strangers living in a basement, it looks so good on their fake little economic ledger!
Some people would blame capitalism, but modern capitalism is a quite recent invention and similar issues have occurred in many different countries throughout history, many of which we would not tend to consider modern capitalist democracies, such as France prior to the french revolution, Spain during the conquest of South America, or the Roman Empire.
You don't need private ownership or control of capital to have corruption and mismanagement, and in fact a corrupt nobility can be made worse by not having a strong merchant class to keep them accountable. Having this separate class that can become more powerful through merit is important because having a strong nobility and no capitalism results in high levels of stability, but also stagnation because there are no mechanisms for meritorious people to be easily elevated by objective means. People could be born a serf and become a noble, but merchants must do it through actually being successful merchants, whereas a serf would have to impress a noble who themselves may not be such a good arbiter of merit.
The fact that the poor can be in trouble under capitalism is true; however it does not suggest that there is a monopoly on such. Feudal Japan is a great example of a distinctly non-capitalist nation that nonetheless had high levels of inequality, with some people barely considered human, and others considered as living embodiments of gods.
The present danger is that the state is so large and so powerful that it distorts capitalism. We can see this where a company like Tesla made Elon Musk briefly the richest man in the history of the earth largely on government largesse -- he got a free factory, he gets huge subsidies, every single one of his vehicles got a huge direct subsidy for the buyer, and because of high inflation due to state money printing (and artificially low interest rates on debt due to government policy) people who want to retire need to save their money in something that grows and so the stock market gets a disproportionate amount of money inside of it because the money needs to go somewhere or it'll disappear.
Banking is a great example of an industry that's completely distorted by government. On one hand, deposits are insured so people don't take their money out of banks. Many loans are backstopped by the government such as mortgages which are insured in favor of the banks. The banks have a unique ability to print money out of thin air that's largely a government construct. If a bank becomes insolvent then there's many different types of insurance to keep the bank going. So often, "deregulation" doesn't touch any of these things and only will seek to reduce the few regulations designed to make sure the benefits don't become a massive moral hazard where banks take huge risks not caring since everything they do is protected.
I was looking at the next time they think there'll be a supercontinent. The average surface temperature of most of the earth most of the time will be over 40C, so even just that far in the future things will be pretty rough. All of civilization has existed in a relatively short period of world history, it has been really cold or really hot.