Linux server admin, MySQL/TSQL database admin, Python programmer, Linux gaming enthusiast and a forever GM.
It’s actually worse than that. Starvation takes a long time to happen (~3 weeks). Lack of access to water causes death and desperation in a much shorter period of time. If water pipelines and/or pumping facilities get screwed up in any way, cities will become mad max much faster and in a much more intense fashion. In a water-starved population, people are mostly composed of water…
"I’m another day older and deeper in debt.’
I knew exactly what song that’d go to, clicked on it anyway, was not disappointed. Love that song.
Cyberpunk was supposed to be fiction, not a blueprint :(
FYI, I’m not Ukrainian. I’m Romanian. We have more skin in the game than Germany or France though. If Ukraine falls, Moldova falls 24 hours later, and allowing our brother country to go back under Russian domination is pretty unthinkable.
Even without that existential issue, allowing democratically minded Europeans trying to walk the same path we walked 25 years ago get invaded by Russia without as much help as we can give them seems horrific to me.
This period of war in Eastern Europe is pretty shit and I would like Western Europe to take it more seriously, thx
Technically yes, but I don’t mean technology as phones/laptops/tablets/etc. Imho, the biggest factor in social isolation is atomization due to bad urban planning. When everything and anything is only accessible by car, you lose any connection with your local neighbourhood and local stores/cafes/etc.
In environments where people walk around the neighbourhood, doing small daily shops, going to local businesses and taking mass transit to work/school/restaurants/bars, then you’re much more likely to interact with people rather than driving around in your social isolation-mobile.
Urban planning can be considered a form of technology, which is why I said technically yes.
EDIT: Oh, another big factor here is the loss of the third place. It still exists in some places (local pubs in British towns, local coffee shop in Portugal, etc), but in places without a socially normal “hangout spot” that is separated from both home and work/school, it’s much harder to meet acquaintances which may in time become friends.
Yeah, absolutely, that’s a much more readable summation than what I wrote.
As an aside, I really like the social contract theory. It’s a pretty clean philosophical summation of how the majority of people in tolerant democracies see the world and provides the foundation for it, even if they don’t think about it in formal philosophical terms. That essentially we are implicitly bound by the rules established by previous generations, those that set the rules (both cultural and legal), until such time as we form a political or cultural movement to change those rules. Then, anyone who comes after us is bound by those rules we set until and unless they in turn change them.
EDIT: I guess I should add that in the context of this thread, “be tolerant” is a cultural rule that has developed over the recent past, and thus if you aren’t tolerant there are social repercussions (and in countries with hate speech laws, even legal repercussions) as that is the current rule.
There’s also the social contract resolution to the tolerance paradox. Essentially, the tolerance paradox is that tolerating intolerance erodes tolerance. This means eventually if you allow intolerance to fester, they will seize control and you lose that tolerance.
The social contract resolution is that by being intolerant, you lose your right to be tolerated. This avoids that paradox, but superficially can look like intolerance.
I hope this didn’t end up too much like word salad.
Works for floors!
Blink-blink-blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink-blink-blink.
No, I don’t have something in my eyes, I swear I’m fine looks nervously at boss.
I’d say OS and driver programming is also in that category. It is the deep magic.
There are lots of people who will never update if asked to update at their leisure. I think it’s far better for user security to have updates be forced by default, with the option to schedule them yourself.
Playing smart or charismatic orcs is totally fine in Shadowrun, it’s not that suboptimal. You have to spend a bit more karma at the start to overcome the lower starting charisma, but it’s not bad at all.
So, I watched that third link in its entirety. It was pretty interesting. I think the core idea is that NK isn’t some absolutely insane bizarro land, which I actually agreed with beforehand. It did not disprove the fact that NK is an authoritarian dictatorship. The only thing it did prove (which again, I knew about beforehand) is that western media likes to exaggerate the faults to hyperbolic levels. I honestly think that the average north korean would live a better life without the Kim family (or any other family regime) ruling over them. This doesn’t mean that they force people to have specific hairstyles at gunpoint or execute politicians for slouching during speeches (as the video joked about), but they still direct a large portion of the states wealth towards friends and family.
I think you should really honestly consider the fact that two wrongs don’t make a right. NK and the USA do terrible things. Instead of litigating which one is worse, maybe we should focus on how to make better alternatives, like you’ve done with this alternative to Reddit.
That specific BBC article is what I was talking about. It’s not publicly available testimony, it’s information gathering by the SK state about NK from defectors.
To all of those stories, they seem like strawmen. I’ve not heard anything that ridiculous. Just that NK is an authoritarian regime that rewards friends and family of the regime at the expense of the well being of the populace. Kinda like a red veneer over Saudi Arabia, similar system.
So why aren’t you asking why the US is allowed to participate when they commit far worse atrocities?
I didn’t even ask why NK isn’t allowed to participate. Why are you giving me an argument I didn’t make?
1st link:
Defectors can expect to receive the six-figure payout if they cross the border with intelligence that helps enhance South Korea’s security.
That… is actually very reasonable, and does not support or diminish your argument.
2nd link: I’m sorry, but DPRK news room doesn’t exactly scream unbiased.
3rd link: The tone and channel name seems comedic at first glance, but I’ll watch it and get back to you. Plenty of comedians doing real journalism these days anyway, so that shouldn’t be a mark against him.
The people who manage to escape NK are a pretty good source. Also, 2 wrongs don’t make a right. It’s perfectly possible for both the US and NK to be in the wrong.
The absurd is a result of the confrontation between human need and the unending screams of the victims being run over infinitely.
Personally, the game I run the most is Shadowrun. Managed to transition my DnD group to Pathfinder 2e and it’s great. Pathfinder is DnD but so much better.