Interesting. Is that because it blocks JavaScript, ads etc?

Yup sounds like we’re on the same page

Yes I don’t disagree. But there is definitely a limit to what people will do voluntarily, especially if they don’t feel their effort is respected. Finding volunteers to read to kids is miles easier than volunteers to tidy up someone’s littered garden while that person boozily watches telly.

The Tragedy of the Commons is an old concept, very old. It far far far predates modern mega corps ravaging the planet. It is the simple observation that when people have free access to a shared resource they tend to mistreat it compared to their own property.

This is such a fundamental feature of humans that Aristotle was discussing it…

And that’s why the best comes from society when people have the freedom to better their lot visa their efforts (despite this causing inequality) so long as people’s basic needs are covered in a humane and reasonable way. But there will always be a difference between people. To eradicate that is to destroy the thing that motivates to go beyond merely what we’ll do voluntarily. And those (paid) jobs are still very vital to society functioning well. We have more than enough evidence that goodwill and volunteers is not sufficient to run a society at large. People are more nuanced than that.

Constant low level exposure to ads and commerce in general is bad for the soul. These voices aren’t your friends, they don’t have your best interests at heart.

Buy ad free services. If they don’t provide ad free, go elsewhere.

Rediscover the joys of ad free, intelligent radio. Start with BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. There are many others I’m sure.

Ha, I wasn’t aware of that.

I’m optimistic about another use some time next year. I’d thought about planning it, but it all began to feel a bit too contrived and was really draining the joy out of it. So I’m just going to see what happens. If it rolls around to next autumn without another appearance I might get a bit restless, but I’ve learned you can’t rush these things.

Are people not overreacting here just a touch?

The platform where Darth Vader confronts Luke has railings, so they clearly have the parts, tools, and a guy who installs them. Maybe he’s just held up on Level B?

So was it the the Russians who blew up their own Nord pipeline, or was it that Ukrainian guy with a yacht? It’s hard to keep track

Data cables defo Russia sabotage (if deliberate), doesn’t serve anyone else’s goals

Thanks

“The first rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two twice the price?”

Great work. Can you give some examples of how this works in practice?

Tagify leverages AI to automatically generate and manage tags for files

What does this look like in practise do you think? The steps she described didn’t sound like “taking power away from men”. It sounded like men encouraging one another to acknowledge truths about women’s and girls experiences.

If the West wanted to minimise Ukrainian deaths then they could do something like draw clear lines in the sand so that Russia publicly knows at what points their continued action leads to Western escalation (defensive escalation). Surely that’s a clearer deterrent and would save Ukrainian lives. Instead we’ve got what looks like European bickering and prevarication and eventually somewhat reluctant support. So maybe that’s genuinely what’s going on. Or if it’s an act I’m sure it’s for well thought out psychological reasons. But as an act it seems to rather encourage Russia to keep pushing, because they hope Western support will falter. So if that’s all deliberate it seems more about draining Russia than helping Ukraine. (With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives sacrificed in the process)

Lovely :)

Coming at the same thing from opposite sides as it were. The political movements I linked to have enjoyed at times broad support in Germany and the UK and elsewhere in Europe. They consciously reject ‘hard’ socialism as (regrettably) unworkable. They deliberately seek well functioning safety nets for the vulnerable and less able but see a well regulated 'fair" capitalism as being essential to unlocking people’s creativity and initiative. And that means allowing people to better themselves through their efforts. Equal opportunity not equal outcomes (but safety nets to prevent excess).

Also, while social democracy like what I’ve described doesn’t reject your ideology

But social democracy is exactly what I’m describing

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way

I dont even know what the implications are when the guy that was supposed to be the diversion ends up that close to the power that funds him.

“Do not cross the streams. That would be bad.”

Personal gain (or rather personal security) is how humans work. And personal gain is fine when it’s mutual and not exploitative. That’s what good trade is. The answer to unfettered capitalism isn’t no capitalism, it’s fettered capitalism. Or rather social capitalism (also modernised social democracy)

Not because it’s pure, but because it’s realistic, and works. On the other hand expecting people en masse to suddenly discover they all want to personally sacrifice for the same vision of the greater good without enormous amounts of control and coercion is complete fantasy.

I know everyone is reading this in their own political context, so I realise it’s open to a lot of misinterpretation. But just try and take the idea on its own, in its essence.

If you really had the free choice in the morning to bake artisan bread or go and wade in sewage and clean a communal sewer, do you not think people would need a little bit of motivation into the maintaince job using something more than kind words?

Once you start using capital (money) to indicate need in society (because human preference is not automatically aligned with human needs) then you end up with a situation where some people can choose to accrue capital if they hold their nose and do the shitty jobs no-one else wants to.

Are you telling me that if the extra the sewer cleaner earned was taken away and given to the bakers kids so that things are “nice and equal”, that you’re going to find enough people to clean the sewers in the future?

C’mon. I want the world to be fairer too. I think capitalism’s excesses are gross. But people have to feel they can personally gain else the way to indicate what really needs doing is completely broken.