LukeZaz

joined 2 months ago
[–] LukeZaz 4 points 2 days ago

From the article, emphasis mine:

According to a report from Shanghai’s The Paper, the incident involved the company’s branch in Shenzhen’s Longhua district, where an employee involved in the filming said it was intended as a joke, and that the three employees in the video had volunteered to take part. The employee said the branch did not punish employees for small mistakes like forgetting straws.

On Wednesday afternoon, Good Me issued a public apology through its Weibo account. “We’re sorry,” it said. “We were playing with punchlines, and it went all wrong.”

Whether or not you might trust that statement, I do think it's worthwhile context. This post seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill – even the actual article's title/subtitle makes it clear this was a joke – and I find that in very poor taste given how high tensions are on this topic.

[–] LukeZaz 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is tangential, but am I the only one getting sick and tired of all the topics about China? The imperial core's news industry's obsession with the country has never been healthy, and none of the articles being posted have had me thinking any of that is changing. I'm seeing post after post, usually from the same two users, and I'm starting to worry that the line between "documenting the atrocities of an authoritarian country" and "sinophobia" might start to get blurry.

To be clear, I'm not trying to point fingers. I don't want to make assumptions about the users in question. I've just been seeing this for a few months now and it's getting on my nerves, especially given the political climate of the United States.

[–] LukeZaz 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't personally believe everything's so bad as it looks. There's a lot to be mad about, for sure, but it's worth remembering that fear and anger are some of the best-selling emotions the news has to offer. Doubly so if it's about China. But none of that means that things are substantially worse than they used to be. Some of it is that things weren't as good as we thought, some of it is that things are being made to look worse than they are.

Either way, we didn't start the fire.

Joel conceived the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon who said "It's a terrible time to be 21!" Joel replied: "Yeah, I remember when I was 21 — I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y'know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful." The friend replied: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties." Joel retorted: "Wait a minute, didn't you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?" Joel later said those headlines formed the basic framework for the song.

[–] LukeZaz 29 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I’ve always trusted games published by Annapurna to be something exciting, new, and high quality.

That didn't make them good either, though. Companies like them and Devolver Digital have had a bad habit of, for lack of a better term, using up developers and throwing them to the curb after. You'll notice that a lot of stuff they publish get marketed as though Annapurna made them, which ends up hiding the actual developers behind the curtain, thereby robbing them of fans and thus seriously hurting their long-term prospects.

[–] LukeZaz 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm assuming that "The Not So Tolerant Left" is a parody account of conservatives? Because if not this meme just looks like genuine right-wing garbage.

[–] LukeZaz 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're coming out here arguing in favor of a megacorporation keeping even more money for itself instead of artists getting paid for their work. I feel like you should have expected to have upset people.

[–] LukeZaz 5 points 3 weeks ago

I think the real answer isn’t DIY pharmaceuticals, but rather universal healthcare, informed consent, and a medical system (both physicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers) that puts patient care above any kind of profit motive

I think just about everyone here agrees. But the question is what to do until that becomes available. We need something in the interim; dangerous as this all is, I can't find it in me to shun it when the alternative is letting people suffer without access to anything as they desperately wait for a better society to emerge in some unknowable, possibly distant future.

[–] LukeZaz 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

While I'll agree that even focusing on votes is healthier than constantly worrying about how the terrible guy continued saying terrible things, there are better tactics than that available to us. If folks here want to worry about votes though, I'd recommend things that fight voter disenfranchisement, like ensuring polls have sufficient volunteers, or helping ensure people in line to vote will have enough time, food and water to wait out a long line.

(It should be noted though that it is unlikely he will be convicted, even if the Dems win, so don't get your hopes too high.)

[–] LukeZaz 2 points 3 weeks ago

Did you read my comment? Here, I'll help you.

I do not want anyone to vote for Trump, vote third party, or abstain. What I want is for them to understand that voting is the minimum they can do, and that they can and should protest the current and future admin’s policies regarding Israel until they stop enabling genocide, regardless of the color of the tie they wear.

Read that paragraph, then try again. Maybe with less antagonism, yeah?

[–] LukeZaz 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A regular reminder to everyone here that they do not actually have to care what Trump says. You already know he's shit. Focus on something healthier.

[–] LukeZaz 6 points 3 weeks ago

You can absolutely pressure Harris, though. Join a protest.

[–] LukeZaz 7 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Trust me, I'm well aware of literally everything you've just said. I get told it on almost every comment I make here, and every time people make the same two big mistakes:

  1. Limiting their thinking to votes.

  2. Refusing to push Democrats left, because they're scared it might hurt Harris' election chances.[^1]

 

I am pushing against #2 in this thread first and foremost, and getting #1 out of your response as a result. Please, understand that I know that Democrats are better than Trump. Everybody knows that, and if you think I want people to vote against Harris you are misunderstanding me entirely.

I do not want anyone to vote for Trump, vote third party, or abstain. What I want is for them to understand that voting is the minimum they can do, and that they can and should protest the current and future admin's policies regarding Israel until they stop enabling genocide, regardless of the color of the tie they wear.

If we let Democrats scare us with Trump or someone like him every year, nothing will change.

[^1]: Worse yet, some folks actively put down people who do try to push the Dems left for this very reason, which is outright counterproductive.

 

Archive.

Noting that the title of the article is not terribly good, as the funds in question have already been appropriated for the purpose of the wall and are not new, and are in fact part of a "compromise" bill that also includes funding for asylum lawyers. Not that I want a compromise bill, or don't think she shouldn't push for better, but it's hardly big news.

That said, the real problem lies at the end:

Zoom in: Beyond embracing the bipartisan bill, Harris' campaign has portrayed her as an immigration hardliner in ads.

The bottom line: Like the wall itself, Harris' changes on border policy reflect how Trump has shifted the political debate on immigration during the past decade.

I am getting very, very sick of the trend of Democrats spending more time trying to appeal to bigoted conservatives than trying to actually represent their own constituents or help the people they ostensibly care about.

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