baursak

14 ms·

91.
by baursak 9y ago
Half of China's economy are state-owned enterprises (SOEs). China is still way more centrally planned than people think, including good old Soviet-style 5-year plans. Most of strategically important industries have not been "liber
92.
by baursak 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...
93.
by baursak 9y ago
> Nobody treats you like a human being if you're in tech. They treat you like a wallet; how do you think it feels to never be smiled at or even acknowledged unless you're about to pay for something? How does that even work? Do
94.
by baursak 9y ago
Oh I'm up for that my dude. Basic Maslow pyramid necessities should indeed be free and freely available. Food, water and shelter are top of that list.
95.
by baursak 9y ago
I don't get it. When prices are high, it's a housing crisis. When prices are going down, it's a housing crisis. It's almost as if news articles just need to be written regardless of the reason.
96.
by baursak 9y ago
> It's an absolute monarchy, it's not supposed to be fair. "It's a dictatorship, it's not supposed to be fair". Or I guess all Saddam or Gaddafi had to do was to rebrand as monarchs and US would have complet
97.
by baursak 9y ago
Yeah, sure, compared to routinely beheading people for witchcraft, this might even seem civilized. My point was that when it's murderous tyrannical allies like Saudis, the mainstream response is just like yours, "eh, what am I sup
98.
by baursak 9y ago
Saudi Arabia is bombing and starving Yemenis as we speak. It has been destabilizing Syria by funding jihadis. It is still publicly beheading people for sorcery, witchcraft, apostasy, and sex outside marriage. Women are NOT allowed to drive
99.
by baursak 9y ago
Like I commented elsewhere in this post, if anything remotely close to this was happening in any of "official" adversaries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc., media would be calling for US troops on the ground. It this was in Russia
100.
by baursak 9y ago
Sure, but where is the outcry from Western media and round the clock coverage of this outrage? If anything remotely close to this was happening in any of "official" adversaries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc., media would be call
101.
by baursak 9y ago
So then blaming communism for these actions is a bit of a stretch. It's like blaming capitalism for any atrocities committed by rank and file US soldiers/agents.
102.
by baursak 9y ago
Was this during the revolution, or much later? Do you have a source?
103.
by baursak 9y ago
Sure, Marx was smart and all, but practically, what it comes down to, is a few options. - Capitalist markets - USSR style central planning - Anarchist-leaning gift economy, not scaleable beyond n=1000 or so - Market socialism strains like m
104.
by baursak 9y ago
It's an issue of central planning and information arbitrage I guess. Unless the entire society is equally involved in economic central planning (which is absurd), a small group of people will be doing it, thus having access to more inf
105.
by baursak 9y ago
I guess as long as they are regulated, monopolies can be beneficial to the society overall, in many ways intangibly. Bell Labs is a great example of something that kept on giving (Unix, C, etc). I wonder what could make something like Comca
106.
by baursak 9y ago
As I've mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I recommend watching Abby Martin's on the ground reporting in Venezuela to get a full picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYWrPiUeWY (this particular episode is on
107.
by baursak 9y ago
Really? Do you have some examples of those gross distortions? So far it seems like she has an anti-capitalism slant, but that's hardly something unique or a dis-qualifier nowadays.
108.
by baursak 9y ago
It's difficult to figure out what's really going on there. I followed Abby Martin's reporting on the ground recently, and it's quite eye opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYWrPiUeWY
109.
by baursak 9y ago
I wonder how much different the whole thing is just because pen-testers get paid to do this by the same company, from somebody actually trying to do this for real. Getting caught for pen-testers means something completely different, I wonde
110.
by baursak 9y ago
Basic income has become a buzzword, with different people having different understanding about what it really means. Even right-wing libertarians seem to be in favor of basic income if it means replacing all other forms of social safety net
111.
by baursak 9y ago
Anything that costs $0 to make a copy of, but is sold at premium. Enterprise software like Oracle, etc. Digital Music. Streamed Movies and shows (Netflix). Also, anything that costs nearly $0 at scale, but is sold at premium. Internet ser
112.
by baursak 9y ago
What is AGI?
113.
by baursak 9y ago
Communism does not imply totalitarianism, and capitalism does not imply democracy.
114.
by baursak 9y ago
Venezuela is more capitalist than China. There are more state controlled industries in China than in Venezuela by a large margin. How come you're not saying "take a look at China"?
115.
by baursak 9y ago
I don't agree with your assessment of his writing as "preaching", because that would be the most boring and dullest preaching I've ever read. Most of my Chomsky reading experience seems like reading academic writing in t
116.
by baursak 9y ago
I don't think anything you said contradicts what I said though. He's more known outside the US than inside. His writings only appear in book format or in marginal media outlets. NYT and WaPo crowd would rarely, if ever, have him w
117.
by baursak 9y ago
> I recommend his book Manufacturing Consent. This Wikipedia article is a good quick overview and introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model
118.
by baursak 9y ago
Have you done the actual comparison? E.g. Native American Genocide vs Stalin's Purges as one example. What's the result?
119.
by baursak 9y ago
Ignored or silently blacklisted is probably a more apt description.
120.
by baursak 9y ago
The same NYTimes apparently was the voice of American establishment at that time, as usual: http://fair.org/extra/the-year-of-dangerous-reporting/ Not that it's not that same voice today, as US "stands b

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