Search found 19418 matches

by K. A. Pital
2021-03-08 09:08am
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: How to stop the downward spiral of US politics
Replies: 63
Views: 16768

Re: How to stop the downward spiral of US politics

„Deepfakes“ are just hoaxes; and they’re more elaborate, true, but their nature didn’t change. „Memetic weapons“ is a dumb term: memes are just more or less concentrated statements of ideas, so the flow of memes corresponds to the flow of ideas. None of the above seems to be critically important for...
by K. A. Pital
2021-02-07 11:40am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: A portal to Corporacratic America (RAR!)
Replies: 30
Views: 23860

Re: A portal to Corporacratic America (RAR!)

So I guess the closest counterpart would be something like a larger, more technically advanced mix of US and Mexico: above-replacement birth rate, coupled with horrendous working conditions, exceptionally long hours and no paid vacation or formal one impossible to take, but with the caveat that tech...
by K. A. Pital
2021-02-07 11:17am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: A portal to Corporacratic America (RAR!)
Replies: 30
Views: 23860

Re: A portal to Corporacratic America (RAR!)

Like having to maintain and juggle subscriptions to 83 separate lifestyle services and 163 separate credit agreements IMO that's not really related to periphery capitalism, only to core capitalism which has a relatively high concentration of capital per inhabitant and is also heavily parasitic. Per...
by K. A. Pital
2020-10-14 12:03pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Multiculturalism v Cultural Appropriation
Replies: 18
Views: 15468

Re: Multiculturalism v Cultural Appropriation

Does that term even mean anything or is it another Internet buzzword for people to manufacture outrage over? ...obviously? The only circumstance where you could even begin to make an actual argument that this is a bad thing is when foreign cultural artefacts are commercialised and also modified in ...
by K. A. Pital
2020-06-02 03:42pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: What do you consider 'basic rights'?
Replies: 16
Views: 16199

Re: What do you consider 'basic rights'?

For example, are you saying that as rights are purely social constructs they cannot be something innate or universal? Yes. Unless a society exists, there won't be "rights". Take something Western liberals consider universal: freedom of speech. It has no meaning outside society where said ...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-29 02:32pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: What do you consider 'basic rights'?
Replies: 16
Views: 16199

Re: What do you consider 'basic rights'?

None. Rights are a pure social construct. No society - no rights.
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-20 04:56pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

And your argument is what? “Start thinking from a developing world perspective”? Well it is you who deny people like us any agency. Per you, we should embrace tourism because it is not our jobs as Russians, Chinese, Vietnamese or whatever to build rockets, to design advanced machines, we should be s...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-20 10:53am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Apparently you don’t care about starving Third World people either, ray, because frequent and long-range flying is gonna fuck up their lives, making the equivalent of two Indias in terms of population a territory largely unbearable to live in, and that within the coming decades. But hey, I guess you...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-19 02:20pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

If feel sorry for ray because he grew up in a capitalist nightmare where university education is private and exorbitantly expensive. But it does not change the fact that if you build such a system, you are bound to experience its consequences. Under socialism or social democracy, you as a student do...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-19 10:58am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

“Places like Vietnam isn’t going to produce vaccines”
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/politics/20 ... 53492.html

Are you sure?
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-15 05:08pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Trump threatens to cut ties with China.
Replies: 25
Views: 9931

Re: Trump threatens to cut ties with China.

While Bezos is on the way to being trillionaire here we are still wishing for miracles. :P
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-15 04:45pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Trump threatens to cut ties with China.
Replies: 25
Views: 9931

Re: Trump threatens to cut ties with China.

“His rich backers” are not your allies. They don’t care if millions go jobless or die.

Wake up. How old are you?
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-14 03:21pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

We already understood that your logic boils down to “who cares about some poor dead people if I can have cheap cars”, cap.

Anything else than chauvinism and social-darwinism here worthy of consideration?
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-11 05:57pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

In which case, we're doomed. What do you propose we do instead? The global North is largely shielded from the worst impact of climate change, or at the very least is not going to be as badly affected as the global south. You basically have to assume more parts of the world is going to be rendered u...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-09 04:06pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

The average cyberpunk dystopia would be preferable to the total oppression complex this brand of hare-braned ecocommunototalitarians would (fail to) engineer. As ever it gives me a small, but noticeable, sense of satisfaction that they will never, ever have any power to implement the least bit of i...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-09 02:11pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Who designed and built settlements and infrastructure that way? Are you sure you want to argue from path dependency? Do you even understand what “path dependency” is?
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-08 12:46pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days
Replies: 1779
Views: 502840

Re: The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

madd0ct0r wrote: 2020-05-08 12:39pm I thought that was what I said? :)
Indeed, I would like to underscore “very” in very charitable, it goes beyond a small courtesy and forgives a lot ;)
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-08 06:02am
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days
Replies: 1779
Views: 502840

Re: The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

I've noticed a fairly heavy handed racist streak in my colleagues responses. They flat out cannot believe that Vietnam has kept it under control when the UK didn't. I've had one colleague (who has never read a news story on nam in his life) state that "it can't be lower, their government must ...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-08 05:52am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

I challenge the idea that anyone has a right to air conditioning, a car, or high-carbon leisure activities in the first place. There is no such thing as a “right” to these activities, obviously (I pointed out many times), and as someone who comes from a non-rights framework to me the whole framing ...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-08 04:53am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Tourist masses flying to distant vacation destinations just mean lots of people have relatively large amount of disposable income. If airlines go bust and tourism industry collapses and struggle to recover long term that money likely will be spent on something else like for example a family relocat...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-01 02:31pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Time is money. A five-day holiday is affordable for many. A seven-day holiday with three days spent in transit by super-maglev at 700 km/h is fifty percent more expensive - even for wealthy professionals. Why do you need a maglev speeding at 700 kph? No way to make a holiday close to home? Most soc...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-01 12:42pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Regarding sea walls: some areas are fundamentally unable to be shielded from rising sea levels, because water will come from below. The ground under Florida is largely porous limestone, which means water will rise through it, making your multibillion sea wall useless. Many of the poorer nations do n...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-01 12:10pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Fast and priority cargo. Freight-moving flights are a small percentage of passenger flights. Priority cargo (transplants, blood, emergency supplies, firefighting planes) is an even smaller percentage of flights. Bulk is entertainment passenger flights. Human happiness and freedom of movement worldw...
by K. A. Pital
2020-05-01 04:32am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Guys, transport - especially air transport - should be the last thing we decarbonize. Until batteries get more energy density than hydrocarbon, or we transition to nuclear-generated ammonia or something (which has its own problems), or we somehow finally build aircraft nuclear reactors (yeah, right...
by K. A. Pital
2020-04-30 04:32pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Decarbonising transport
Replies: 141
Views: 115307

Re: Decarbonising transport

Tourism is less than 5% of employment; Vietnam may have problems, but it can overcome them (unlike Seychelles or Maldives which are trapped in a Catch-22 of self-destruction: you only have tourism, only by air, but flying will destroy them via sea level rise). So if you are serious, you would have p...