pjwestin
@pjwestin@lemmy.world
- Comment on Frog's Gift 2 days ago:
It also can’t be understated how much private corporations benefit from technology this research yields. We spent $25 billion ($175 billion in today’s money) on the Apollo programs alone, and NASA research has led to everything from cell phones and laptops to the rubber molding process used for sneakers. The DoD wasted a ton of money in the 80s on this new technology that involved getting computers to communicate with each other, and now we have the internet.
The government spends money in ways that could never be justified by cooperations, then the cooperations enrich themselves with that research and use the profits to lobby Congress for lower taxes and limited spending. It’s absolutely infuriating.
- Comment on "The American experiment endures," Biden said. "We're going to be OK." 1 week ago:
I was about to downvote until I saw the community.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
The party that ran a populist message won. When their economic situation is dire, people turn to populist leaders. When there’s no populist movement in the left (usually some for of socialist/labor movement) they turn to right-wing populism (fascism). Democrats spent the last 12 years stamping out any kind of pro-labor movement that started in their party in favor of neoliberal centrism, and now their losing to right-wing facism.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
I’m just so fucking tired of hearing why the policies that I and most of the country want are unpopular from people who can’t win a fucking election.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, except progressive positions are broadly popular. Raising billionaire and corporate taxes? Popular. Single-payer healthcare? Popular. Universal Basic Income?Popular. Bernie Sanders? Still pretty fucking popular!
Meanwhile, how popular was the flaccid centrist platform the Democrats put up this year? Is Kamala gonna be president? Are they gonna keep the Senate? Is the house looking good? No? Then maybe it’s time for all the popularity experts in the Democratic party to shut the fuck up.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
Democrats aren’t progressives. Maybe if they were, they wouldn’t lose all the time.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
Oh, I get to blame it on anything I like? Really? Then I’m going to blame it on Democratic party that was actively working against Sanders, a coordinated effort to anoint Biden after he won South Carolina, the billionaire who only entered the race, and an actively hostile media, and a billionaire who spent his on money on anti-Bernie ads. There were more headwinds against Bernie in those primaries than there were against Hillary, Biden, and Kamala in the general. Pretending that it was just, 'people picked Biden," FFS.
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
You’re right, I forgot that Bloomberg was still in and running a campaign entirely designed to block Bernie. Nothing says, “Democracy,” like an oligarch entering an election and using his personal wealth to undermine another candidate, right?
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
Except it wasn’t just him and Bernie. It was also Warren, so the progressive vote was spit, while the centrist vote was coordinated around Biden. Nice try though!
- Comment on US Democracy 2 weeks ago:
I think you’re forgetting the part where Clinton paid off the DNC’s debts and became it’s only financial lifeline, for which DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz abdicated control of party to Clinton’s team long before she secured the nomination.. Or that the AP controversially called the primary for Hillary just before California voted, giving voters the impression the primary was over before voting finished. Or that the DNC argued in court that they had no obligation give Bernie a fair, democratic primary. Or that Representatives Ford and Smith admitted the party did coalesced around Biden in 2020 to block Bernie. Or that polls had Bernie beating Trump by a wider margin than Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
- Comment on How do Americans win their country back? 2 weeks ago:
I’ll also add that you need to primary basically anyone that has been in politics for more than 15 years. There is just too much, “common sense,” in this party that is just wrong. In 2016, it was smart to run a centrist campaign that tried to move moderates away from Trump, and it failed. In 2024, they ran the same fucking campaign, and it failed.
There are well intentioned people that somehow still think that the 1992, third-way strategy will deliver gains through incrementalism, and it’s just not going to happen. Primary them, so that they at least have to contend with the new political realities. Trump picked up working class voters across across all demographics, not just the white working class. Everyone wants change; offer real change.
- Comment on ... 4 weeks ago:
Thank you. Something about me was rubbing me the wrong way, but I couldn’t articulate it.
- Comment on 'It Has Plateaued': Should We Be Worried About Console Gaming's Future? 4 weeks ago:
Well, there also seem to be credible leaks that it’ll have some sort of duel screen system, potentially functioning like the DS. It’s probably going to be more than just a bigger switch.
- Comment on Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit? 4 weeks ago:
It’s the only site with a similar post/comment structure and a large enough user base to be viable, so in that regard, it’s the only alternative. Culturally, it’s much different. It’s far more left-leaning and hasn’t fallen victim to the same salf-importance and group-think that Reddit users have. It also doesn’t have the same wealth of knowledge Reddit built up over 20 years, though, and it’s prone to petty infighting between communities and instances (and even admins).
Ultimately, I prefer it to Reddit, and never feel the urge to go back. I’m not convinced that Federation is a silver bullet for all of social media’s ills, but I think Lemmy is an interesting project, and I’m interested in seeing how it develops.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 1 month ago:
Eh, it’s a mixed bag. There’s a very high concentration of centrist, “vote blue, no matter who,” liberals in Political Memes. They’re not the whole instance, but they’ve made a nice little echo chamber that makes them a pretty loud minority.
- Comment on the flies 1 month ago:
Interesting. A while ago, I read that zebra stripes were meant to confuse predators. Basically, the idea was that when they ran as a herd, their stripes made it difficult to tell where one zebra ended and the other began. I wonder if that’s considered bunk now or if this is supposed to be an additional benefit.
- Comment on Disney lost nearly a third of a billion dollars on two Marvel movies 1 month ago:
Watchmen is a perfect example of how Zach Snyder doesn’t understand what he’s adapting. The original story is a deconstruction of the superhero, showing how sad and broken these characters would be in real life: right-wing murders, rapists, schluby middle-age guys with ED…Snyder takes those characters and films them like they’re cool and bad-ass. Aesthetically, it’s a beautiful, shot-for-shot adaptation, but at no point did it occur to him that the guy in a trench coat muttering to himself about filth and whores wasn’t supposed to be cool. It didn’t occur to him that a group of people who completely fail to stop the villian weren’t supposed to have action sequences straight out of The Matrix. It didn’t occur to him that a story about what superheroes would look like in the real world should be realistic.
The part that truly enraged me was a small moment at the very end. In the comic books, after everyone leaves, Dr. Manhattan goes to see Ozymandias one last time before leaving Earth forever. Ozymandias asks him if he was right in the end, and Manhattan tells him, “Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” Ozymandias asks what he means by this, but Manhattan leaves without answering. In the movie, Snyder replaces Dr. Manhattan with Owlman in this interaction. Ozymandias’ story ends with a character who is essentially God telling him that his entire plan was pointless, and Snyder swaps out God for the story’s everyman character. It’s a perfect distillation Snyder’s inability to understand even the simplest subtext.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL, you said that 4 hours ago. If that’s really true then get the fuck out if my notifications already.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
“Fin.” said the guy who spent a week trying to get the last comment. Fucking clown.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL, yeah, definitely didn’t say that, but that’s about the level of comprehension I’d expect from a dude who thinks someone who’s drinking til they puke is more sober than everyone else.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
Will do! Thanks for dropping in on a week old thread to let me know what a dipshit you are!
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
Well, I’m really sorry if I done something to give you the impression I give a fuck what you think. That definitely wasn’t my intention.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL OK champ, you’re the grown-up here for sure. Go drink til you puke like a big boy.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
No, throwing up does not indicate intoxication level.
Like, seriously dude, in a comment section full of dumb-ass misinformation about alcohol, you are king. Someday, you’re going to develop an adult relationship with alcohol. Until then, try not to rape anyone because you don’t understand consent.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL, well, if it seems like I’m being condescending, it’s because I absolutely am. You’ve got a poorer understanding of alcohol than the average college freshman, and you jumped into my comments to defend date rape. Condescension is the nicest reaction you get after that. If you don’t like being talked down to, trying growing the fuck up.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
Buddy, I’m 100% older than you. That’s why I don’t say shit like, “pre-game,” or throw up because I drank a shot when I had too much sugar in my tummy. I’m going to give you two pieces of advice, as someone who’s probably tended bar longer than you’ve been allowed to drink: 1) Learn to hold your liquor before your 30, because this shit stops being cute real quick and 2) don’t have sex with anyone that’s thrown up, because they’re too drunk to consent (except on the very rare occasion that they drank too much sugar and upset their wittle tum-tum).
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL, you’re not an adult. Adults don’t throw up from drinking.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
LOL, exactly the shit I’m talking about. Imagine thinking it’s OK to have sex with a girl who just drank so much she puked. I thought thinking like this died out in the 80s, but i guess the kids are back on date rape.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
This actually proves my point. “Very little alcohol enters fat because of fat’s poor solubility.” Meaning alcohol doesn’t enter fat, so body fat doesn’t lower the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. It’s part of TIPS certification; a lot of bartenders are taught that body weight increases your ability to consume alcohol, so they see a heavy set guy and assume he can handle more alcohol, but fat doesn’t actually affect their tolerance. A 5’8" fat guy that weighs 250 is going to have a lower tolerance than a 6’2" lean guy that weighs 250.
- Comment on Anon pregames 2 months ago:
Yes, and to be clear, a number of factors will affect how quickly alcohol enters your system: stomach contents, body weight (not including body fat), rate of consumption. But once alcohol is in your system, you can’t just purge it by vomiting. Time is the only thing that will remove it.