I will create LinkedIn hellthread.
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@SilverDeth @npc @phnt Man. Years of my life consulting. "Well, for what you want for your time, I could get *twelve* Bangladeshis!" They can go on and get their twelve Bangladeshis, man, like, I'll be here when that finishes playing out.
@p @npc @phnt
In my former life, I spend a few years working for a Contacting company - we were expensive and only hired real talent. Rigorous testing for anyone before the job interview even took place. We were expensive as f*ck. Gen-X owner. Nobody took our bids on RFP's seriously.
Never once saw one of our bids on a project get picked up by the big boys or state government.
Not once. They scoffed.
"We can hire 30 people from Palmer group for that!!!"
- 64 Year Old Boomer Department Head
(Palmer Group was a well known Jeet-Farm).
We were rolling in money, despite having never, once ever won a bid.
Our job was to show up after the "cheap labor" created a four-alarm fire, and fix it.
And we charged those same 64 year old fat boomers through the nose to do it.
They'd rather pay twice - once for a shit job and then a premium to fix it - than just pay people to do good work up front.
I say it again: Fucking boomers.
In my former life, I spend a few years working for a Contacting company - we were expensive and only hired real talent. Rigorous testing for anyone before the job interview even took place. We were expensive as f*ck. Gen-X owner. Nobody took our bids on RFP's seriously.
Never once saw one of our bids on a project get picked up by the big boys or state government.
Not once. They scoffed.
"We can hire 30 people from Palmer group for that!!!"
- 64 Year Old Boomer Department Head
(Palmer Group was a well known Jeet-Farm).
We were rolling in money, despite having never, once ever won a bid.
Our job was to show up after the "cheap labor" created a four-alarm fire, and fix it.
And we charged those same 64 year old fat boomers through the nose to do it.
They'd rather pay twice - once for a shit job and then a premium to fix it - than just pay people to do good work up front.
I say it again: Fucking boomers.
@SilverDeth @npc @phnt Shit, man. If we were in the same region geographically, I'd be kinda surprised if we had never run into each other.
@SilverDeth @npc @phnt Ha, NICE.
Snowden just ended up depressing me. All that shit happened and the response was "Make them promise (again) to stop doing that (again)" and like...cracka I was at AT&T, I heard about the goddamn "Ha, so the government installs these boxes, we have to split and feed the fiber-optic cables to a different cage that we're not allowed inside, isn't that *weird*?" before the "warrantless wiretapping" scandal dropped and they were already building PRISM before that hit the news, like, every single time it's the same shit, how are people this fucking gullible? Very upset. Not Snowden's fault, but still, like...for a few years, just thinking about Snowden would depress me.
Snowden just ended up depressing me. All that shit happened and the response was "Make them promise (again) to stop doing that (again)" and like...cracka I was at AT&T, I heard about the goddamn "Ha, so the government installs these boxes, we have to split and feed the fiber-optic cables to a different cage that we're not allowed inside, isn't that *weird*?" before the "warrantless wiretapping" scandal dropped and they were already building PRISM before that hit the news, like, every single time it's the same shit, how are people this fucking gullible? Very upset. Not Snowden's fault, but still, like...for a few years, just thinking about Snowden would depress me.
@p @phnt @SilverDeth @npc What's even more depressing isn't just that very few people truly care, but that half of the people that do are in favor of mass surveillance because "durr he went to russia hes a traitor". This country needs a reset.
@mrsaturday @p @SilverDeth @npc @phnt it follows the extremely simple pattern of shitbags everywhere
1. "that's not happing, you're crazy, shut up"
2. "put him in jail for revealing our secrets shut him up"
3. "everyone already knew this was happening, it's normal, shut up"
1. "that's not happing, you're crazy, shut up"
2. "put him in jail for revealing our secrets shut him up"
3. "everyone already knew this was happening, it's normal, shut up"
Was one of many things to dispel the myth that people will "wake up" if presented the facts in a clean consistent manner.
Turns out they won't wake up, they'd prefer to play silly mind-games with themselves rather than look at the overwhelming evidence that the world is not as rosy as they would like to imagine. Because the implications of facing it are too stwessfuw for them.
Cowardice.
Turns out they won't wake up, they'd prefer to play silly mind-games with themselves rather than look at the overwhelming evidence that the world is not as rosy as they would like to imagine. Because the implications of facing it are too stwessfuw for them.
Cowardice.
@cjd
Ok but like, what was actionable about these revelations? What could an average person have done?
I was in high school when it happened. I installed httpseverywhere and noscript. I started to avoid using google account wherever there was another option. The admin of a forum I hung out at switched it to https-only
But beyond that? Every day brought more and more depressing news that I could do nothing about. At some point I had to stop reading it
@phnt @npc @p @SilverDeth @mrsaturday @sun
Hey Wolf, long time no chat!
Well, the really obvious immediate point here is that running around like a conspiracy theorist saying "the people gotta wake up" is nah guh work. So that one can be written off...
If you're trying to move the Overton Window, one point is you shift the conversation away from "people wake up" to "people are fucking worthless cowards" because then it creates a social stratification with the cowards getting made fun of. Now everybody knows what they want to NOT emulate.
Then on the other side, you might decide you are NOT going to worry about the 99%, you're going to worry about creating a lever for the 1% who have the capability to pull it. This is really where stuff like Bitcoin fits in.
Both are (obviously) happening as we speak...
Well, the really obvious immediate point here is that running around like a conspiracy theorist saying "the people gotta wake up" is nah guh work. So that one can be written off...
If you're trying to move the Overton Window, one point is you shift the conversation away from "people wake up" to "people are fucking worthless cowards" because then it creates a social stratification with the cowards getting made fun of. Now everybody knows what they want to NOT emulate.
Then on the other side, you might decide you are NOT going to worry about the 99%, you're going to worry about creating a lever for the 1% who have the capability to pull it. This is really where stuff like Bitcoin fits in.
Both are (obviously) happening as we speak...
Now there's a different question:
Everybody has woken up, now what? What can anybody actually do?
Well, there's approximately 50,000 suicides in the US per year - IRS workforce is something like 100,000 employees.
If everybody takes out just one tax goon before they go, it takes 2 years to wipe out the IRS by pure war of attrition. Assuming zero resignations which is NOT what will happen.
So yea, there's nothing anyone can do about anything except the easy switch, but you're not supposed to know about that because When You Kill Your Enemies They Win, or something...
Everybody has woken up, now what? What can anybody actually do?
Well, there's approximately 50,000 suicides in the US per year - IRS workforce is something like 100,000 employees.
If everybody takes out just one tax goon before they go, it takes 2 years to wipe out the IRS by pure war of attrition. Assuming zero resignations which is NOT what will happen.
So yea, there's nothing anyone can do about anything except the easy switch, but you're not supposed to know about that because When You Kill Your Enemies They Win, or something...
@cjd
Or they could just refuse to work and tank the GDP, that'd put the politicians in a hard spot too.
@phnt @npc @p @SilverDeth @mrsaturday @sun
Won't really work, they will import Indians to do every single job (already are) and then convert White Americans into the Palestinians of America (already are)
@cjd
shit, I forgot you're a colony
@phnt @npc @p @SilverDeth @mrsaturday @sun
Well I (personally) moved to France about 12 years ago, so most of this does not apply to me. The French government (though not perfect) is not actively working to erase the French people...
But yes, in the US, the most bang for your buck is terrorism.
Actually you take like a small battery computer and package it in a tamper-proof 3d printed case with a few hundred grams of explosives and some fiber optic cable (because cutting fiber without detection is IMPOSSIBLE)... You rush somebody and drop the fiber loop around their neck, some mechanism synchs it up - you run away and the computer sits there telling them how long they have left to live and where to send Monero if they want to make it another day - AND, it asks them for wifi (time extension granted in exchange for wifi) and uploads the entire audio track of them whimpering and calling people to raise the money.
That's terrorism, that will trigger mass resignations overnight.
But yes, in the US, the most bang for your buck is terrorism.
Actually you take like a small battery computer and package it in a tamper-proof 3d printed case with a few hundred grams of explosives and some fiber optic cable (because cutting fiber without detection is IMPOSSIBLE)... You rush somebody and drop the fiber loop around their neck, some mechanism synchs it up - you run away and the computer sits there telling them how long they have left to live and where to send Monero if they want to make it another day - AND, it asks them for wifi (time extension granted in exchange for wifi) and uploads the entire audio track of them whimpering and calling people to raise the money.
That's terrorism, that will trigger mass resignations overnight.
What's the matter? Stiff neck?
@cjd @phnt @SilverDeth @npc @p @wolf480pl @mrsaturday @sun you were ragging on me calling me a liar and scammer and that I was immoral for quoting bible verses at christians and here you are advocating for that americans should commit acts of terror
If you respect somebody, you don't try to convince them of things that you yourself don't believe.
Regarding terrorism, I said it's the best bang-for-your-buck, and it is.
Voting has no effect, the people that took control of the US created enough rules, exceptions and loopholes to ensure that no legal process will ever actually challenge their power. So that leaves three options:
1. Leave (as I did) - I have not lived in the US for 12 years and I have no intention of going back
2. Just take it, accept that you're a slave, and pray that the system will care for your (if you're connected then maybe this will be okay)
3. Press the easy switch. Go back to the old game (violence), which the new game (politics) was created to replace, before the new game was rigged so that no one could ever win.
Regarding terrorism, I said it's the best bang-for-your-buck, and it is.
Voting has no effect, the people that took control of the US created enough rules, exceptions and loopholes to ensure that no legal process will ever actually challenge their power. So that leaves three options:
1. Leave (as I did) - I have not lived in the US for 12 years and I have no intention of going back
2. Just take it, accept that you're a slave, and pray that the system will care for your (if you're connected then maybe this will be okay)
3. Press the easy switch. Go back to the old game (violence), which the new game (politics) was created to replace, before the new game was rigged so that no one could ever win.
@cjd
IOW this is an is-statement not a should-statement, you're not claiming that doing such a thing would be good, only that it'd work?
Hmm lets see, what is my opinion...
I think the American empire has become a net negative for almost everyone in the world. So I'm pro seeing it overthrown (even though it's probably gonna be super messy).
Weapons advancement is just another technological advancement, which I think is cool.
I like when victimized people are able to get vengeance against their oppressors, and right now they aren't really getting it - they just become depressed and commit suicide.
So, with recognition of the fact that some of the side-effects will be things that are categorically bad, I'm kind of in the "should" space here.
I think the American empire has become a net negative for almost everyone in the world. So I'm pro seeing it overthrown (even though it's probably gonna be super messy).
Weapons advancement is just another technological advancement, which I think is cool.
I like when victimized people are able to get vengeance against their oppressors, and right now they aren't really getting it - they just become depressed and commit suicide.
So, with recognition of the fact that some of the side-effects will be things that are categorically bad, I'm kind of in the "should" space here.
I'd also add a bit of crisis bargaining theory here:
Politics is a negotiated settlement to avoid civil war. Any negotiated settlement must reflect the balance of power. If the ruling class screwed up so badly that a civil war has a better expected outcome for you than working within the political system does, then you fight.
If you don't have a red line beyond which you will fight, then you have zero bargaining power.
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Bingo.
War is the default state. And because killing and dying sucks, people invented a game and swore that they would all follow the rules.
Well, that works until somebody starts cheating. When they start cheating, the only RATIONAL move is to say "okay, game's over, it's back to the old way again until everybody can remember why they agreed to follow the rules"
War is the default state. And because killing and dying sucks, people invented a game and swore that they would all follow the rules.
Well, that works until somebody starts cheating. When they start cheating, the only RATIONAL move is to say "okay, game's over, it's back to the old way again until everybody can remember why they agreed to follow the rules"
@cjd
And by "fight" I mean any negative-sum process that hurts your enemy. Could be labor strikes, could be armed uprising, could be destroying civil infrastructure.
@phnt @npc @p @SilverDeth @mrsaturday @sun @rees
There's a blog called Anarchonomicon where he (despite the debates, it IS a he) has a lot of really good theory about effective revolutionary strategy...