Politics thread (USA Elections 2016) - Page 270

yes google being in economic bed with a communist regime that creates super strains of bat viruses in incompetently held labs where they inevitably leak, helps create the conditions for novel diseases to spread

I'm really confused... so Loco if it were up to you, you would hold technological advancement, so such occurrences wouldn't happen...?

We all get that a complex problem like a pandemic is tied to many different factors on many different levels, can you, however, prove that the positives outweigh the negatives? Merely identifying the specific drivers of fast-spreading viruses is just the beginning of the topic. This is not a black and white solution you're looking at, technological advancement in the past 50 years has brought us a tremendous expanse into virtually everything known to mankind including your personal favorite - knowledge.

I somehow doubt your solution would be to ... scrap it, so that's where I'm confused. What it is that you propose exactly


P.S. Santafairy.... you don't believe in 9/11 conspiracies but believe the Chinese leaked COVID-19 from a lab? Really?

I specifically said that there is no clear enemy to fight against in my view, since we are not dealing with repressive power here, so of course there is no black and white solution. I wasn't claiming I have the answer either, I was responding to your black and white claim that technology/big tech has made all of our lives better. I was saying that on a personal level I know that this isn't true -- I can tell you my life was much better before the advent of high speed internet and then social media. I can say with confidence that my attention was exploited by big tech and what I have gotten out of it was in no way worth what I put in. And that I strongly believe that there is no upcoming event, like a technological singularity, that will make up for all of the negative and destructive aspects of capital-driven tech dominance. That, to me, is what is evident. Not what needs to be done.

The technological advancements you speak of came with an impoverishment of life in other areas which I would consider extremely important-- more important than the productive abilities of a society. The kind of knowledge that was acquired in the last 50 years and what it serves is the problem. The main takeaway from the knowledge we have of surveillance capitalism/dataism is the recognition that knowledge is only as good as the structures surrounding it allow it to be. The process of the last 50 years has been to increasingly weaponize it against people and erode the tissue of society. The focus has been to use new knowledge to increase competition and consumption. The result is citizens who are either highly competitive and narrow-minded, or passive, easily distracted novelty-seeking consumers, both of which are largely disconnected from reality and unaware of their own servitude and where their daily frustrations stem from (though this is quickly changing as evidenced lately by the talk around "The Social Dilemma'').

This is opposed to the ancient Greek model of knowledge and education where the focus is put on creating citizens that are thinking individuals who can act meaningfully in the world, and who highly valued engaging in leisurely creative pursuits. Knowledge now is purely informational and instrumental, it doesn't aim at "the good life"; it isn't an end in itself, it aims at increasing productivity and self-optimization, hence why it is a commodity now and "data is the new gold". It's a very destabilizing force in the world, augmenting psychological disorders, driving social inequalities, as well as accelerating cultural problems and widespread environmental destruction.

This is not my area of focus but there are people who have written good critiques of surveillance capitalism and proposed some solutions that I'll post below. My own ideas on this are still in development and this is not the place to expound on them in more detail.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

https://thebaffler.com/latest/capitalisms-new-clothes-morozov

On October 26 2020 21:38 Spitfiree wrote: I'm really confused... so Loco if it were up to you, you would hold technological advancement, so such occurrences wouldn't happen...? We all get that a complex problem like a pandemic is tied to many different factors on many different levels, can you, however, prove that the positives outweigh the negatives? Merely identifying the specific drivers of fast-spreading viruses is just the beginning of the topic. This is not a black and white solution you're looking at, technological advancement in the past 50 years has brought us a tremendous expanse into virtually everything known to mankind including your personal favorite - knowledge. I somehow doubt your solution would be to ... scrap it, so that's where I'm confused. What it is that you propose exactly P.S. Santafairy.... you don't believe in 9/11 conspiracies but believe the Chinese leaked COVID-19 from a lab? Really?

hi again retard, this is tiring

I said it leaked from a lab

I didn't say anyone leaked it or with any intention

If you can't even comprehend one single sentence then go back to elementary school and donate your computer to a local orphanage you incompetent fucking dementedly arrogant imbecile

Oh yes, they leaked a highly infectious disease from a lab by mistake, its not like those types of institutions have literally every precaution possible to absolutely make sure its impossible to do it... I doubt you ever get tired by the amount of brain power you consume.

On October 27 2020 19:01 Spitfiree wrote: Oh yes, they leaked a highly infectious disease from a lab by mistake, its not like those types of institutions have literally every precaution possible to absolutely make sure its impossible to do it... I doubt you ever get tired by the amount of brain power you consume.

Oh yeah, they shot JFK in the head, it's not like those types of presidents have literally every precaution possible to prevent it

On October 27 2020 19:01 Spitfiree wrote: Oh yes, they leaked a highly infectious disease from a lab by mistake, its not like those types of institutions have literally every precaution possible to absolutely make sure its impossible to do it... I doubt you ever get tired by the amount of brain power you consume.

I think your thinking here is very flawed, it couldn't have happened because they have precuations? wtf.

I think a deliberate release is very unlikely, first of all infecting your own population hoping that you can contain yet it goes pandemic is retarded, also trying to plan some geopolitical play modelling the effects of such a complex system combined with species-threatening risks make no sense whatsoever.

Accidental release is plausible given that the Wuhan lab was studing that specific horseshoebat coronavirus, but it also means they thought it was a likely scenario to ocurr in nature and given how often these things happen a natural ocurrence is more likely, but an accident or natural occurance makes no difference in the world approach to it.

My thinking is that I don't know and I heavily doubt that anyone in this forum knows. Of course, it's possible that the precautions taken in a high-security lab prevent any possibility of leakage.There's probably a chance to have an 'accidental release' too. So it all comes down to measuring the potential of each outcome.

Given what we know about the virus it doesn't seem like its as highly infectious as initially thought and an accidental release would be in the form of someone in the lab getting infected and spreading it, however having a patient zero who works in a very isolated environment be the cause of a superspreader disease sounds borderline ridiculous.

Of course, all of this is if you believe the virus came out of Wuhan, even though there are multiple verifications of cases across practically the entire planet much earlier than the Wuhan outbreak - which doesn't necessarily mean it didn't come out of Wuhan, since there is evidence that it might've been there earlier than anyone thought/reported too but it's still something up for debate

Only in LP would I spend so much time explaining obvious stuff to counter someone's groundless conspiracy theories... one might think this shouldn't be the case in a forum of ex-poker players that think in the likelihood of something occurring....

Spitfiree working on that social credit score for when the Chinese take over

Good forward thinking, plan ahead

On October 28 2020 08:51 Spitfiree wrote: My thinking is that I don't know and I heavily doubt that anyone in this forum knows. Of course, it's possible that the precautions taken in a high-security lab prevent any possibility of leakage.There's probably a chance to have an 'accidental release' too. So it all comes down to measuring the potential of each outcome. Given what we know about the virus it doesn't seem like its as highly infectious as initially thought and an accidental release would be in the form of someone in the lab getting infected and spreading it, however having a patient zero who works in a very isolated environment be the cause of a superspreader disease sounds borderline ridiculous. Of course, all of this is if you believe the virus came out of Wuhan, even though there are multiple verifications of cases across practically the entire planet much earlier than the Wuhan outbreak - which doesn't necessarily mean it didn't come out of Wuhan, since there is evidence that it might've been there earlier than anyone thought/reported too but it's still something up for debate Only in LP would I spend so much time explaining obvious stuff to counter someone's groundless conspiracy theories... one might think this shouldn't be the case in a forum of ex-poker players that think in the likelihood of something occurring....

You wouldn'nt have to spend time explaining it if you said something remotely along those lines instead of "can't happen because precautions were taken".

Jet fuel doesn't burn hot enough to cook bat stew

Voted for Trump!

love how these wanna-bes like loco, spitfire, and stroggoz can't even vote! what noobs!!

I probably wouldn't vote if I were American tbh, both choices are absolute trash

On November 01 2020 21:59 hiems wrote: Voted for Trump! love how these wanna-bes like loco, spitfire, and stroggoz can't even vote! what noobs!!

voted greens last week in nz general election

On November 01 2020 23:19 Stroggoz wrote: Show nested quote + On November 01 2020 21:59 hiems wrote: Voted for Trump! love how these wanna-bes like loco, spitfire, and stroggoz can't even vote! what noobs!! voted greens last week in nz general election

lol what the hell is greens!! what a noob!! stroggoz playing PRETEND election with poly-sci grad students and kangaroos while I actually get to vote in real elections!!

On November 01 2020 22:01 Spitfiree wrote: I probably wouldn't vote if I were American tbh, both choices are absolute trash

it's the most significant election in history imo..the amount of votes trump gets determines to a large extent how willing he is to set up a dictatorship in the likely scenario he loses. It will influence a ton of things outside of america from the melting of Himalayas to war and whether nations can successfully resist neoliberalism or not. There is quite a big difference in policy as well compared to our political parties. The greens here are not green new dealers or have any background in things like mmt. Voting is the easiest form of political activism, it takes 5 minutes to do.

yesterday I got this anarchist chick to rage-quit a van conversion/RV discord I am in, lol. Kind of like how loco threw a hissy fit and quit this thread a few months ago!! gotta love it!!

On November 02 2020 11:51 hiems wrote: yesterday I got this anarchist chick to rage-quit a van conversion/RV discord I am in, lol. Kind of like how loco threw a hissy fit and quit this thread a few months ago!! gotta love it!!

what a coincidence because yesterday i bought a toilet but i still don't give a shit

Hope all my American comrades are voting. Congrats on thread being almost 4 years old. It will be quite a sweat tomorrow, hopefully not so much in the weeks afterward.

I always disagree with the idea of more votes = good. For example you have an individual that always open folds AA preflop "because they always get cracked!" we clearly don't want this person voting.

I remember DougPolk tweeted some poll "Should you be required to pass an IQ test in order to vote" how many people were offended. A Poker Pro user named "Liberal Chick" said that it was ridiculously offensive.

"Get out the vote" imo is yet another liberal conspiracy. Quality of votes > quantity.