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Nearly everyone in the US has a giant car that is basically a tank. They are dangerous. But it’s managed. Centralized power never works. We have the worst tim

Nearly everyone in the US has a giant car that is basically a tank. They are dangerous. But it’s managed. Centralized power never works. We have the worst times in history to look at. Nationalization just centralizes to a different set of people. It’s personal ownership or oppression. We all need open weight R2D2s.

pixl97 17d ago
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jsrozner 17d ago
Cars are decidedly less dangerous than tanks, which are less dangerous than nuclear weapons. I am certain that giving a nuclear weapon to every person in the world would not go well.
- freejazz 16d ago
  I don't see tanks killing pedestrians every week or so in NYC
boie0025 17d ago
I can't properly read the tank/car comment, the comparison is bizarre to me. But I think this misses the point a bit. The reality of these new risks is literally being learned in front of us in real time, and in my opinion, anyone who claims to understand these risks is speculating at best, and actively manipulating the situation for whatever reasons. While I am a (mostly) capitalist and generally disagree with nationalization (including, for the time being, this situation), I also don't think we can say that "centralized power never works". Maybe we scope that a bit. I know plenty of business owners who centralize power in their businesses and they are effective, ethical and it works perfectly fine. In theory, in the US, nationalizing some unit of the economy _decentralizes_ power; the US is, after all, a representative democracy. Trustworthiness of the electorate is a different problem. But I don't think we can generalize much about centralization beyond sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. There is a difference between centralizing all power in a given administrative unit, and centralizing certain powers, but that's more analogous to non-democratic units.
ben_w 16d ago
Funny, I'm sure I would have noticed when I visited if US cars came with tracks, a 105 mm main cannon, and massed around 55 metric tons. We may all like our own personal R2 units, but if you insist on scifi, instead of tanks, consider everyone getting an X-wing for their commute. Oops, safety on the blaster was off, there goes the neighbourhood.

pixl97 17d ago

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jsrozner 17d ago

Cars are decidedly less dangerous than tanks, which are less dangerous than nuclear weapons. I am certain that giving a nuclear weapon to every person in the world would not go well.

freejazz 16d ago
I don't see tanks killing pedestrians every week or so in NYC

boie0025 17d ago

I can't properly read the tank/car comment, the comparison is bizarre to me. But I think this misses the point a bit. The reality of these new risks is literally being learned in front of us in real time, and in my opinion, anyone who claims to understand these risks is speculating at best, and actively manipulating the situation for whatever reasons. While I am a (mostly) capitalist and generally disagree with nationalization (including, for the time being, this situation), I also don't think we can say that "centralized power never works". Maybe we scope that a bit. I know plenty of business owners who centralize power in their businesses and they are effective, ethical and it works perfectly fine. In theory, in the US, nationalizing some unit of the economy _decentralizes_ power; the US is, after all, a representative democracy. Trustworthiness of the electorate is a different problem. But I don't think we can generalize much about centralization beyond sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. There is a difference between centralizing all power in a given administrative unit, and centralizing certain powers, but that's more analogous to non-democratic units.

ben_w 16d ago

Funny, I'm sure I would have noticed when I visited if US cars came with tracks, a 105 mm main cannon, and massed around 55 metric tons. We may all like our own personal R2 units, but if you insist on scifi, instead of tanks, consider everyone getting an X-wing for their commute. Oops, safety on the blaster was off, there goes the neighbourhood.