Do the degrowthers really think it’s a winning proposition that they want to take away refrigeration, sanitation and air conditioning? Do they truly believe that will sway anyone, win anyone over, make anyone remotely normal a true believer?
What’s the play there exactly? Oh, right, they just enjoy taking away things. Has nothing to do with saving the planet or humanity; it’s just permissible cruelty.
It’s going to be interesting watching the MAGA clowns argue in November or January why their very obvious coup is not a coup. We don’t need barely-literate doofs attempting to hijack high office while we’ve got at least one and maybe two major wars ahead of us.
And so many other problems that won’t be solved by putting a nearly 80-year-old doddering paranoid case in charge of them. And yes, the senility issue is true of Trump or Biden.
So we’re not supposed to call it monkeypox anymore because it’s offensive to monkeys?
I don’t think the monkeys care.
Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI—And Remote Work Is Why.
LOL, remote work doesn’t have jack shit to do with why Google is behind in AI. Most remote staff work longer hours and are more available than prior to that inflection point. I know I certainly do and am. And have observed this with my own staff. Also the fact that I am and they are more productive. This is especially true if you don’t define “productive” as many managers do — i.e., “I can ask an inane question I’ve already asked 500 times for the 501st time and get an answer right away.”
That sort of nonsense makes inferior managers feel productive but is not achieving anything other than wasting time and destroying actual productivity.
Gamergate’s Aggrieved Men Still Haunt the Internet.
This article doesn’t understand, for the most part, what the Gamergate goofuses were upset about.
As with incels, I didn’t approve of their methods but most of the GG grievances weren’t actually incorrect or misguided. It’s just that hating and harming women wasn’t and isn’t the answer and won’t help.
What the GG crew was agitated about is that to them it felt like their last refuge was being invaded by people who had already rejected them and exiled them from mainstream society. To the Gamergaters, therefore, it seemed (in many ways, accurately) that the women who’d already told them how terrible and contemptible they were would soon evict them once again to some other, even worse fringe of civilization.
Their reaction wasn’t helpful but their assessment of what was occurring wasn’t totally wrong.
That’s because a whole hell of a lot of women believe that in fact men do not experience any other emotions besides anger and “want sex.” That’s very telling of the women in question, though, and says nothing at all about men. If it weren’t so common a belief it wouldn’t be all over Twitter and Reddit all the time.
Me, I have a third emotion. It is “want pizza.”
What puzzles me about people like Ian Welsh and many others who worship at the feet of autocrats like Putin and Xi is…do they really think the world would be a better place with totalitarian leaders like that in control? Do they think their own lives would be better?
What in the world is the damn end goal there? Having lived in authoritarian countries (Egypt, China) I can tell you that what they imagine would be some paradisaical existence almost certainly would not be. And I will never, ever understand the obsession with Putin and their worship of him. He’s a petty thug. He’s a weasel. He’s got more delusions of grandeur than Anakin Skywalker. Worshiping Putin is fucking embarrassing.
America is not perfect. But if I had to choose, I’d live here a thousand times out of a thousand versus Russia. I truly do think Ian Welsh and all his Putin-cozying compatriots should emigrate to Russia and sign up for some meat waves being spammed across the front lines in Ukraine. If they are true believers, it’d make sense to show Putin their true level of devotion.
Of course they won’t do that. Because it’s all the middle-age equivalent of being a 15-year-old edgelord. Except even more clownish.
And for anyone who says Ian Welsh is not a Putinoid:
Fuckin’ LOL.
Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy.
Lord, this paper is a mess. So, let me get this straight — if you include countries in the “Global North” that are approximately 10% of the world’s population, then the other 90% of countries produce 90% of the shit? Shock me harder, daddy.
And this, check this out.
The periphery, or global South, includes all other countries (i.e. the IMF’s ’emerging and developing’ countries). In EXIOBASE, several of the IMF’s ’advanced economies’ (Singapore, San Marino, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Macao SAR, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Monaco, Bermuda, Andorra and New Zealand) are aggregated into regions, such as ’Rest of Europe’, ’Rest of Asia’, etc. We were, therefore, compelled to include these countries in our ‘global South’ category.
What a damn joke. And yes, I did read the whole paper. It’s bad. It’s very bad. I can’t even judge its conclusions because its data is such junk. Could be true, could be false, who the fuck knows? GIGO.