104
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by ThereRisesARedStar@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

I'm noticing a lot of people taking "you should read more about this, here are some book recommendations" as insulting their intelligence.

This is relevant because most USians lack a political education.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] zifnab25@hexbear.net 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Its the same sentiment through the lens of western academia. When you've ingested enough eugenics, the idea that you don't understand something because you lack the formal learning to process it and that you physically can't understand it because your brain don't work good are the same.

Understanding isn't a product of hard work or a consequential legacy of accumulated knowledge gleaned from prior generations, its a consequence of superior genes and natural genius.

Incidentally, the understanding of accumulated wealth and power flows along similar lines. You're rich because you're a superior deal maker. You're a "natural" leader with innate charisma. You're a savant who derives all worldly knowledge from first principles. None of these things are granted through family status or political intrigues or insights gleaned from hard work of others. Its always just you being a uniquely special wonderkin.

One person claiming that they understand or possess information another doesn't isn't just a challenge to their priors, its a challenge to their inherent brilliant nature.

[-] IzyaKatzmann@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

I really appreciate this comment, particularly the last clause. Would you say many folks have a kind of inflated sense of self (what you called inherent brilliant nature) due to say, unearned prestige?

What I mean is, here in the imperial core I have peers who constantly trash on goods made in China. They say they can make something better, not only are the working conditions poor, the quality of the goods are bad too (as though good products could justify any kind of poor conditions; in this case they have no evidence of the conditions there in any form) and products like iPhones and MacBooks are only due to the brilliance of people in the West.

Here it's like they believe they are superior, their way of life is not due to their harder or better work. In the US, they skim off stolen land 'earned' by a near complete genocide. Really in what way are they superior?

Do you have any thoughts?

[-] zifnab25@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

products like iPhones and MacBooks are only due to the brilliance of people in the West.

Apple products all suck. They're interfaces are simplified to the point of being glorified Speak-And-Say machines, and the company hasn't put out anything particularly novel since the iPad (which was already just a malformed iPhone).

Nothing in the engineering of these products outperforms any other device on the market, from Dell to Samsung to Huawei.

The only reason Americans think Apple is a good product is the enormous amount of marketing and the dismal state of Microsoft.

In the US, they skim off stolen land 'earned' by a near complete genocide. Really in what way are they superior?

I think it's insane how Americans wiped out native peoples, and the native floura and fauna with them, to impose a meaningful worse agricultural system in its place.

Even setting aside the raw evil of the genocide, wholesale replacement of native buffalo with imported cattle was incredibly foolhardy.

Nevermind the desolation of the Mississippi River Valley, the draining of the Colorado, and the strip mining of the Atlantic Coast interior. Just enormous amounts of waste created so we could put "profit" on our business ledgers.

But the devil is in the accounting. How do you convince people that they're being robbed when Big Line Go Up?

[-] IzyaKatzmann@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

Completely agree with your comment on Apple devices. My view also includes the absurd amount spent on marketing and sort of anti-marketing usually through the news of non-US products (e.g. Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, etc.)

I'll say there are likely some genuine innovations by Apple, with as many resources and dollars poured into it, it's hard for there not to be. And much of it seems to be due to acquiring companies that have genuinely interesting technology, e.g. P.A. Semi, Imagination Technologies, etc.

[-] zifnab25@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

there are likely some genuine innovations by Apple, with as many resources and dollars poured into it

I'll believe it when I see it. But the Apple business model always seemed to be five years behind the curve delivered with polish for a retail market.

much of it seems to be due to acquiring companies that have genuinely interesting technology, e.g. P.A. Semi, Imagination Technologies, etc.

Right. They mastered maximizing they're market cap, which gives them cheap financing to monopolize other people's innovations.

But what they advertise as revolutionary tends to simply be shiny.

anti-marketing usually through the news of non-US products (e.g. Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, etc.)

The real innovation is convincing people bleeding edge hardware and phenomenal engineering is cheapo crap.

[-] IzyaKatzmann@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that's fair.

this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
104 points (100.0% liked)

askchapo

22744 readers
373 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

  1. Posts must ask a question.

  2. If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.

  3. Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.

  4. Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS