BertramDitore

joined 1 year ago
[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I imagine CFPB is at the very top of the hit-list to get fully doge’d. Because fuck consumers, why would they ever need protection from anti-union, discriminatory billionaire oligarchs like Musk?

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 32 points 2 days ago (3 children)

US Presidents are limited to two terms, it doesn’t matter if they are consecutive. Grover Cleveland is the only other president who has served two non-consecutive terms.

Term-limits are a relatively recent addition though, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was only ratified in 1951 after Franklin Roosevelt served four terms.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 54 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For real. Academics are some of the most prolific pirates I’ve ever met. Usually out of necessity because we don’t pay them reasonably or value their work.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only legitimate use I can think of for AI in podcasting might be for realtime translations so people who don’t speak the language of the podcaster can still listen. Even that makes me feel weird, but I think it could be done ethically-ish. Same deal for voice-cloning, I think that would be super-useful for realtime translations, so listeners still kinda hear the host’s voice, even translated. But every other use I can think of is ripe for abuse and won’t result in quality content.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 15 points 2 days ago

I'm saying since 59% of white men voted for Trump, when you walk by a random dude on the street there's around a 1 in 2 chance that that random dude voted against you being a full person. Since that percentage is so high, it's not unreasonable for women to swear off all men until after a serious reckoning.

It was just a silly and imprecise thought experiment to make tangible some distressing statistics about what millions of men think about women.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 46 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Makes a lot of sense. Think about it this way: there’s a slightly better than 50 percent chance that the random dude you walked past on the street voluntarily chose to vote against your most basic rights as a person. Why the fuck would you go near them again, let alone let them touch you without some serious national reconciliation?

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 14 points 4 days ago

If it’s coming via FedEx, UPS, or USPS, I’d say no, unless for some reason they come into your house to help, then yeah if you’re generous. Moving company 100% yes tip. Normal corporate delivery service I’d say no unless they did something extra.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

There are lots of examples of reformed white supremacists/nazis/racists. Like I said, it's hard work, not saying it's easy. My grandparents also escaped Europe, dropping family members off in any country that would take them before ending up in the US. The trauma is in my blood, so I get the impulse to want violent revenge. But I firmly believe that in order to learn anything from the horrors of WWII, we firstly have to avoid violence at any cost. Otherwise we're just making the same mistake they did, while trying to fix their mistakes. It won't work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/why-i-left-white-nationalism.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/books/review/eli-saslow-rising-out-of-hatred.html

https://jewishpostandnews.ca/features/the-cure-for-hate-how-a-former-neo-nazi-skinhead-turned-his-life-around/

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-54526345

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/from-neo-nazi-to-hasidic-jew-former-skinhead-who-discovered-his-jewish-roots-to-speak-in-montreal

Those might not be the best examples, they're not particularly easy to find, because it's hard work and relatively rare. But it's possible, and I'd argue the hard work is worth it to avoid violence.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Huge for not being proponents of political violence. Be it for the sake of history, our legitimacy as a nation, the sake of teaching our children healthy values and civics, and sure, for our feelings, take your pick. Sometimes being a good person and using alternatives to violence is much harder than defaulting to our baser instincts.

The whole idea of modern politics is for it to be how we resolve conflicts and make progress without violence. That’s the whole point. Politics is the antithesis of violence.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago (21 children)

It got us the moral high ground of not condoning political violence, which is huge. If we respond to their violence with more violence, it won’t end in peace and harmony, it will only exacerbate the problem.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 26 points 4 days ago (28 children)

As a Jew I fully understand your sentiment, but it is a really dangerous thing to normalize. Everyone can change if they’re given the right kind of attention and put in a ton of work being deprogrammed. There are amazing examples of Nazis and white supremacists finally understanding the impact of their hatred. I’m not saying it’s always going to work, probably not even most of the time. But absolutes like this are not a constructive solution. Threatening death, violence, and/or refusing to even try to rehabilitate racists, bigots, and Nazis only gives them more power.

[–] BertramDitore@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

Two months without genocide is better than genocide. There’s no moral or humane reason not to exert every ounce of possible influence to stop this even if it ends up being temporary. I don’t think Biden has any idea how poorly history will judge him for his lack of action. He has the power in this relationship. And it’s infuriating that he has consistently refused to use it.

And for an example of how unfair the world is: Trump will probably not be judged poorly, even when he inevitably makes things worse, because Trump doesn’t get the blame for the bad things he does, he gets rewarded. It’s not fair, it’s not right, but not much is these days.

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