free_rms

13 ms·

121.
by free_rms 6y ago
Uber didn't invent the car or the mobile phone, or cabs or food delivery. What they invented was a business model that empowers capital and disempowers (some classes of) labor. I hear their microservice architecture employs a lot of SW
122.
by free_rms 6y ago
The scale in this case is typically a minor amount of turnkey commodity business going to ICE. I prefer to test principles by inverting the politics and seeing if I still agree: what about the gay wedding cake guy? Was he justified in ref
123.
by free_rms 6y ago
The entire business model is unsavory. The basic theory is about atomizing the workforce until they have no power whatsoever, and more profits can flow upwards. Abusing the app to force drivers to click "yes, i support this" unde
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by free_rms 6y ago
The fact that nobody holds it against Uber/Lyft/Doordash while competing to posture about Who Can Care More About Black Lives is exactly the problem. You've got black and brown lives right there, they're getting screwed.
125.
by free_rms 6y ago
I'm aware, and tech companies support things like Prop 22 in California with their superPAC money. While prostrating themselves about how much they care about intersectional social justice to keep their employees happy. Pure performan
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by free_rms 6y ago
Sure, in terms of lobbying, contributing to PACs, etc. But that's very rarely aligned with what the social justice activists want. What they get, instead, is a performative pacifier. Which IMO makes the problem worse as they realize
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by free_rms 6y ago
The kicker here is that actual politics is prohibited by law. Companies can't be endorsing candidates or providing in-kind contributions without getting into trouble with the FEC. So this is all about performative poses in the workp
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by free_rms 6y ago
It was an example. There are a thousand more. We're trying to explain that coming from an entire culture and moral tradition means that you can decide God isn't real and you're still mostly flavored by that culture and mor
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by free_rms 6y ago
Consider the "protestant work ethic". Most of the northeast is now either Catholic or Agnostic/Atheist, yet it persists, and all sorts of moral judgments are colored by it.
130.
by free_rms 6y ago
The flavor and style of respect is what makes it Christian. Most who claim "respect for universal human rights" as their motto actually have a belief system that's heavily influenced by specifically Western sources. When the
131.
by free_rms 6y ago
It's especially frustrating if you generally agree with the goals but think the aggressive messaging is a bad look. Any constructive feedback is generally received as "this person must be a closet white supremacist". Better
132.
by free_rms 6y ago
There's a strong undercurrent of Scary Foreign Election Interference to a lot of the pro-censorship arguments, FWIW.
133.
by free_rms 6y ago
I'm not OP but I am politically engaged with not 100% the same opinions, so sometimes I get annoyed by the environment and have to remind myself not to care. Imagine your workspace was full of aggressive pro-Trump messaging. A bit dis
134.
by free_rms 6y ago
It's uninclusive to put one very specific brand of politics in people's face all the time with the unstated message that if you think a little differently you had better be quiet about it. Some people can find that to be distracti
135.
by free_rms 6y ago
mdiesel just gave you an example of one of the most destructive wars in history, a dozen-nation pileup, being started by accident. so far , MAD has kept that from happening again. But it's not borderline madness to observe something
136.
by free_rms 6y ago
China is unconsciously seen as a threat to American hegemony, Russia isn't as much.
137.
by free_rms 6y ago
Does anyone else notice the free association going on here? Trump people dispute election -> we're mad at disinformation -> we remember that time disinformation was blamed on Russians -> a pennsylvania judge issuing arrest wa
138.
by free_rms 6y ago
The 'UN' at that pinpoint in time had no representation from China or Russia, so it was basically NATO.
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by free_rms 6y ago
Probably bad writing on my part too, there's 2 sides to every misunderstanding :)
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by free_rms 6y ago
Yeah, I was adding detail rather than disagreeing.
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by free_rms 6y ago
I think you misunderstood me here, I was trying to emphasize how big and varied the party's interests are. People often frame it like a singleminded machine. I don't live there but I've heard a lot of people say that party m
142.
by free_rms 6y ago
There are 91 million people in the party, and more who want in. Getting party membership is a big part of getting ahead. (Edit: It's not a hivemind is what I'm saying here.) All of those people have relationships that roll up an
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by free_rms 6y ago
But they're not reverting to "redness" in any way, shape or form. You seen the skyline in any of 50 different cities there? Did it look communist to you? It only looks plain, straightforward and simple to people who are them
144.
by free_rms 6y ago
The qing dynasty ended in like 1910ish. And 1949 is a weird time to try and measure economic output numbers. Half the world in ruins, and China itself being mostly illiterate peasants.. you have a cite for that number? Does it have a dol
145.
by free_rms 6y ago
I'm reminded of the time Bill Maher got cancelled for saying of the 9/11 terrorists "whatever else they are, they're definitely not cowards". https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04&#x2F
146.
by free_rms 6y ago
And none of them are super-prevalent in China. They have a non-abrahamic tradition that's a weird localized mashup of buddhism, taoism, local city-gods and crazy statues. This thread is full of people who've never seen any of it
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by free_rms 6y ago
Centralized religion has historically never existed or even anything close to it in China. And Xi has actually been a big booster for revival of the religious traditions that they do have. Every one of these threads is full of people doi
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by free_rms 6y ago
This comment carries a barrel full of assumptions that the lines you were fed in civics class are fundamentally right and destined to prevail. Consider: other countries have their own civics classes where they get fed a similar line about
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by free_rms 6y ago
It's worth considering what we get out of "confronting" these nations. Surely we should protect our interests, but are Ukraine or the South China Sea more vital to us than they are to Russia and China? What's actually i
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by free_rms 6y ago
I'm not looking to stan Obama, but I have to quibble with "Russian territorial expansions". Losing Ukraine as a de facto puppet state and having to invade to keep critical port infrastructure in the Crimea isn't an exp

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