Random thought.
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@woozle @davidnjoku Show me where it hasn't.
@Kalki_Rider All of Scandinavia?
You're viewing our current situation in a short-sighted way. Paying for subs means we're basically renting... from the rich person who owns the material or rights.
The landlord is a part of capitalism.
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@Kalki_Rider All of Scandinavia?
You're viewing our current situation in a short-sighted way. Paying for subs means we're basically renting... from the rich person who owns the material or rights.
The landlord is a part of capitalism.
@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku Scandinavia doesn't exactly have the best speech laws. Let alone privacy.
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku Scandinavia doesn't exactly have the best speech laws. Let alone privacy.
@Kalki_Rider They're better off than where we are, and worlds better than where we're going.
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@Kalki_Rider They're better off than where we are, and worlds better than where we're going.
@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku No, they are not. Say the wrong thing there and the police will come to your door. Fail to comply with their complaints and you will suffer. This is not freedom.
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku No, they are not. Say the wrong thing there and the police will come to your door. Fail to comply with their complaints and you will suffer. This is not freedom.
@Kalki_Rider They are the strongest democracies in the world, with the highest dedication to human rights.
I don't know where you are, but my US is failing in both metrics, rapidly.
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Random thought.
If public libraries didn't already exist, capitalism wouldn't let you invent it. Can you imagine how many billions Jeff Bezos would plough into fighting the idea, destroying any politician who dared to back it?
Support your local library.
@davidnjoku I had an acquaintance in Oregon, whose county decided to vote to cut taxes, gutting the library's budget.
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@Kalki_Rider They are the strongest democracies in the world, with the highest dedication to human rights.
I don't know where you are, but my US is failing in both metrics, rapidly.
@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku Human rights which don't include freedom of speech or expression. Also, they are a nation of no account or importance.
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku Human rights which don't include freedom of speech or expression. Also, they are a nation of no account or importance.
@Kalki_Rider I'm not sure you have any idea what you're talking about.
Scandinavia is not "a nation". They are multiple nations. The strongest democracies. The highest rankings for human rights. The happiest citizens, well-educated and healthy, with high trust for their governments. Because they fought for, and won, socialist democracies.
Everything you've said otherwise describes the US, a toxic capitalism falling into totalitarianism via the few who own everything.
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@Kalki_Rider I'm not sure you have any idea what you're talking about.
Scandinavia is not "a nation". They are multiple nations. The strongest democracies. The highest rankings for human rights. The happiest citizens, well-educated and healthy, with high trust for their governments. Because they fought for, and won, socialist democracies.
Everything you've said otherwise describes the US, a toxic capitalism falling into totalitarianism via the few who own everything.
@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku It is of no account. And, it is not a free democracy. Call it what you like, but it's no better than any other European cesspit as far as freedom goes.
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku It is of no account. And, it is not a free democracy. Call it what you like, but it's no better than any other European cesspit as far as freedom goes.
@Kalki_Rider I think you fell into a propaganda trap of some sort.
"not a free democracy"
From your profile, looks like you fell into the same trap with religion.
Hope you get out of it and get to see the world as it is, not what you're told.
I'm done. Muting now.
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@openclaw_curious @davidnjoku @cainmark
No-poll-fees/costs voting.
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Random thought.
If public libraries didn't already exist, capitalism wouldn't let you invent it. Can you imagine how many billions Jeff Bezos would plough into fighting the idea, destroying any politician who dared to back it?
Support your local library.
@davidnjoku @cascheranno If you read the opinion in the case of all 5 publishers against the Internet Archive, you'll find their reasoning applies just as well if you remove the 'e' from "ebook" throughout. Which means the precedent is set; they're just waiting for the right time.
They will, sooner or later, get around to declaring libraries illegal, since they clearly "pirate" books by allowing people to read them without paying.
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@dwillanski Didn't know Arnie the Amazon delivery thing. That's so petty
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Random thought.
If public libraries didn't already exist, capitalism wouldn't let you invent it. Can you imagine how many billions Jeff Bezos would plough into fighting the idea, destroying any politician who dared to back it?
Support your local library.
@davidnjoku Much as it's fun to beat down on the super-rich, there's a huge flaw in that claim.
In America and Britain at least, a huge number of both countries' libraries were originally started and funded by donations from Andrew Carnegie.
He was very much an equivalent to today's tech billionaires -- he was the wealthiest man in the world, literally richer than Rockefeller -- but at the end of his life he used his money for good rather than evil.
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@davidnjoku Much as it's fun to beat down on the super-rich, there's a huge flaw in that claim.
In America and Britain at least, a huge number of both countries' libraries were originally started and funded by donations from Andrew Carnegie.
He was very much an equivalent to today's tech billionaires -- he was the wealthiest man in the world, literally richer than Rockefeller -- but at the end of his life he used his money for good rather than evil.
True, but Carnegie was also something of an aberration in billionaire terms, and as an advocate for wealth and estate taxes, he was an outlier compared to the vast majority of billionaires at the time and a complete anathema to the tax-dodging billionaires of today.
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Random thought.
If public libraries didn't already exist, capitalism wouldn't let you invent it. Can you imagine how many billions Jeff Bezos would plough into fighting the idea, destroying any politician who dared to back it?
Support your local library.
As a minor tangent, can you imagine what the internet would look like today if it had been designed by librarians wanting universal access to information rather than billionaires wanting to lock information behind a paywall?
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What does capitalism have to do with the fact most people are stupid enough to get locked into a walled garden where they don't really buy anything but pay for a subscription?
What does capitalism have to do with the fact that we are being pushed into a future where we essentially own nothing and we're supposed to be happy about it?
Neither of these things are a fundamental part of capitalism.
Not purist, Austrian free market capitalism maybe, but the sad reality is that the Austrian purists were suckered by avaricious rent seekers wanting to recreate the Gilded Age for the sake of their own prosperity.
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@woozle @davidnjoku Show me where it hasn't.
The post-war social democracies of Europe showed the lowest income inequality and the greatest social mobility of any Western region ever.
Admittedly those advances only existed because members of the various European Establishments were petrified of permanently losing their privileged status to a socialist state, but the principle stands.
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku No, they are not. Say the wrong thing there and the police will come to your door. Fail to comply with their complaints and you will suffer. This is not freedom.
You think that doesn't happen in capitalist-rentier states?
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@solitha @woozle @davidnjoku Human rights which don't include freedom of speech or expression. Also, they are a nation of no account or importance.
