[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 45 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The republican/right wing party attempted to overthrow an election. And they are unabashed about that. And somehow they still have a 3rd of the country still supporting them.

Is that not enough for us to qualify as having a real fascism problem?

IIRC about 2/3rds of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That is not an economy that is working for the people.

We need dramatic overhauls that Biden, and especially Trump will never deliver. We need employee ownership of companies for starters.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

According to Star Trek lore, WW3 will begin in 3 years, and last for 27 years.

Buckle up.

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[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 46 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 71 points 11 months ago

Keeping users siloed in Facebook’s garden shouldn’t be seen as a win for us.

Sometimes the only winning move is not to play. If people hadn't federated with google's XMPP back in the day, google wouldn't have had the same level of control it had to kill XMPP as a competitor.

We need to learn from the lessons of the past, and the past has resulted in the deaths of services when federating with corporations.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 59 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Embrace extend extinguish

Don't federate with corps, it will only end badly

Enshitification isn't solved by voting with your dollar. If it did, the printer market wouldn't be the shit show that it is. You can't vote for the good if all the manufacturers mutually agree to only produce shit. Only regulation will keep them in line.

(inb4 "brother is better", I am aware that brother printers are generally better, but they are far from good.)

Things aren't tough yet. Wait until the effects if climate change absolutely destroy our shore lines, food and water supply, etc.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 126 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As to why a Scientology-owned group would care about such a matter, 404 Media suggested that it could have to do with Scientology E-meters, or electropsychometers. The Church of Scientology describes the machines as an "electronic instrument that measures mental state and change of state in individuals and assists the precision and speed of auditing" and that only a Scientology minister or training minister should use. 404 Media noted that some people collect the devices and, oddly enough, you can find E-Meters sold on eBay.

"My hunch is that the Scientologists think granting the hacking community permission to dig into their E-Meter software will expose the whole operation as snake oil. The request is like so many other anti-Right to Repair arguments: Manufacturers are afraid that access to repair materials will expose some of their other dirty secrets," Chamberlain said.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Landlords pay up front (directly or via a loan, which the renters presumably cannot get) and assume the risk of vacancies and repairs.

And then they get bailed out by the government when their risk blows up.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/landlords-were-never-meant-to-get-bailout-funds-many-got-it-anyway-11590494400

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/four-reasons-landlords-should-take-advantage-federal-rental-assistance/

And they have little to no risk in the first place because the market has such high demand that they can pretty much instantly fill vacancies, and they barely do repairs if at all. And at least where I live, renters are required to have/pay for renters insurance which further drives down the landlord's risk. And on top of all that, they have security deposits to lower their risk even further. They don't take on any meaningful risk.

If landlords ceased to exist, how do you propose new housing stock be created? Should the government be your landlord?

Government investment into housing development (which then turn into market rate housing/co-ops), zoning fixes, and a LVT is the solution. The builders get paid, home ownership becomes affordable, the risks are dealt with, and renters aren't being priced gouged. It would also do wonders to help fix the homelessness crisis.

And none of it needs the government to own your home.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Landlords don't pay for buildings to get built, the renters ultimately do. Landlords are just middlemen.

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Olgratin_Magmatoe

joined 1 year ago