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Comments
I'll try to lighten the mood by telling a Radio Yerevan joke:
(What do you mean, "it doesn't work"?)
I get that you're very upset and frustrated with current events in Venezuela, Stormtroper, but I think you're being very reductive. Broad statements like "fuck the left", "this bullshit must stop throughout the world" sound as though they come from frustration rather than reason. In a post-Cold War world where words like "socialism" and "communism" are unironically applied to Stalin's Russia and much of 20th century China up until today, it's very easy to see socialism as a single, monolithic political entity. Today's Venezuela resembles functional socialism about as much as the modern USA represents functional capitalism.
Again, I'm completely sympathetic to your views on where Venezuela is headed under its current (quasi?) leadership, but using socialism as an easy scapegoat doesn't get anyone anywhere. I'm not demanding you agree with socialist ideology or socialist ideas concerning economics, but it would be a shame if this blinded you to the positive contributions leftist ideas can make towards society, such as the many that don't require a socialist economic basis to work from.
You're right, I'm speaking out of frustration. Sorry.
That said, what is at fault, then? This mess that governs us didn't build itself, and it's not like socialists around the world tried to distance themselves.
Not being knowledgable about Venezuela's political history, I couldn't tell you for sure. It's far from impossible that some socialist policies, enacted in the wrong time, place or context, may have contributed to the current state of affairs. In that case, some influential individuals may well have allowed ideology to come before better judgement.
That being said, similarly adverse conditions, or worse, can be observed under failed capitalist systems or in places where terms such as "socialism" and "capitalism" don't exactly apply. The failings that led to Venezuela's current crisis, at a guess, might be more universal than anything tied to a style of politics or economy -- after all, Maduro is obviously a madman who speaks to birdies, and using the threat of military violence as he did in an effort to solidify power is a strategy almost universal to the least subtle dictators.
I guess that's a very excessive way of saying "I don't know", but I doubt the problem is socialism wholesale, or the concept of socialism. That's not to say that it can't go wrong; as much as I'm an advocate for the socialist system, I recognise that it can't be forcibly applied, and that it requires its own kind of infrastructure and social climate to effectively enact.
Politicians descending into agendaism, factionism and cronyism, fangless as that statement is, and those that buy into their lies.
*Shrug* You're right. Sorry.
S'cool. You're well within your rights to be furious at your current government.
Isn't it true though that socialism -- or at least communism -- as an economic model lends itself more easily to totalitarianism, due to the need for centralized leadership?
Not saying that it necessarily will, but just saying that the chance is slightly higher.
That depends on the model of both government and economics you use. For instance, some socialist theories propose much smaller geographical states of government, but more of them, with more of the populace involved in them. This limits the power an individual person can hold while also spreading political authority around.
Ideally, a socialist state shouldn't even have a position of singular executive authority such as a president, prime minister, or what-have-you.
I still can't sleep.
Good day.
I wish to take the liberty to advertise the notion of Beyond the Revolution, a Imperium Offtopicum game being set on Beyond the Lampshade. It will be a game of geopolitical consideration as you expand your nation in a "post" chaos world.
Consider well for great justice!
Oh god I'm making a page on TV Tropes. Why am I doing this.
Haro? You still there?
Okay, I've decided to try and get into A Song of Ice and Fire now, because the rest of my family seems to love it. They're currently up to series 3, episode 10 of Game of Thrones — anyone care to tell me roughly where that is in relation to the books, so that I know when I'm caught up? Nevermind, looked it up on Wikipedia.
FINALLY able to download a 63 MB PDF without the pace going at like 25 KB/s and then stalling at 3 MB.
I tried about ten times earlier today.
Clearly the best course of action is to find whoever decided to distribute information as a 63 MB PDF and deliver a well-deserved smack to his face.
I mean, that's twice the size of the complete PDF of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2009 Edition, and that's an 860-page book filled with illustrations!
Little known fact: You can embed files into PDFs as attachments. That might explain the huge fliesize.
The problem is actually my connection being wonky all day long.
^^ Even if that was the case, I'm not sure that makes it any better...
...maybe there's some form of transparent compression in the PDF standards that professional creators nearly always use in the right circumstances, but an inexperienced user might simply forget to enable?
Remember when someone made a callout culture thread a while back? After watching The Daily Show today, I think I see what they meant.
Care to elaborate on that(with link to relevant part of the show if at all possible)?
Can't link cause I'm Canadian lol, I'm suggesting with whatever means you can in the country you live in, watch Wednesday's Daily Show episode with the Whistleblower segment in which a self righteous "whistleblower" filming an "injustice" (not getting a receipt for a beverage last time she came to a restaurant) and thus deserves a free beverage, bragging this video will get a million views on Facebook and Youtube, all the while calling the employees the n word.
Saw it(I can watch it on the show's site apparently). What a hilariously distorted view that person must have of what the rest of the world considers controversial. What's interesting is that her act exposes but one side of callout culture(public shaming over trivial bullshit), and she herself gets the other end of the stick: doxxing and the follow-up life-ruining tactics of trying to get her fired, rape/death threats or at the least plenty of suicide encouragement. Browse through any comments section on it and you'll see how gendered the insults and revenge fantasies are: mobs care little about consistency in emancipation as long as there's fresh blood.
Sad, really. Incidentally, are there any youtube links of that, because I haven't found any on my own, and I would like to see the context for myself.
Any place you guys know where I can look at concept art of fantasy worlds? I mean like truly imaginary worlds, not low class middle age look-alike fantasy worlds, they can even look sci-fi as long as its imaginative and aesthetically vivid.
Zendikar, perhaps?
Magic is pretty good at this, I think. They haven't done generic medieval fantasy in a long time. (Well, there's Bant, but that's more like one part of a world than an entire one.)
Though if something really imaginative and out there is what's desired, I'd point to Mirrodin before Zendikar.
I remember there is a mapmaking community (the world-building kind of mapmaking) somewhere on the 'Net, it's not concept art, but perhaps you'll be interested in it as well. Damn me if I remember the address, though. I got there through Dwarf Fortress sites.