[Cause]

I do believe that its never been a better time to be alive: We don't have a Cuban missile crisis, the cold war is over, its been 73 years since WW2 ended and while the world is not done with war its been trending down.

However in recent months or has it just been weeks there have been some seriously worrying signs. Am I imagining it or are things unraveling a bit.

1) Two Russians entered the UK and used a chemical weapon to poison a Russian Defector. Its not surprising that they would attack a defector but was using a chemical weapon necessary? This has to be an escalation and it was a message.

2) China is upping its game. It has disappeared its leading actress on possible charges of Tax evasion? It has disappeared the Chinese citizen head of Interpol on charges of corruption? It is openly talking about re-education camps with the aim of fixing the anti-communist party muslim population.

3) Saudia Arabia killed a Saudia citizen but who is also an American Greencard holder (is this correct?) in the Saudia embassy in Turkey? Spycraft is part of the open secret of why embassies exist but this cant be normal can it? Also Turkey is a friendly nation to Saudia Arabia.

4) Trump is trying very hard to steer America away from being the moral police of the world. I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing (Very long conversation this), however their is a difference between trying to not be the policeman and almost actively greenlighting this sort of thing as long as we can do business.

5) Russia interefed in the US elections. Did it interfere in Brexit? It tried to hack the chemical weapon watch dog. What else is it doing? Who else is doing it?

Am I leaving out some big events? Is this just par for the course or is it as I say a seeming escalation in bad shit happening around the world. Going backwards a few years we can even include Russia annexing parts of crimea and essentially getting away with it scot free. The Iraq war has heavily destabilized the middle east. I mean china has always been china and Saudia Arabia has never been to my mind a paragon of human rights but some of these stories just seem crazy to me.

[Aptorian]

You should probably add China putting spy chips in technology manufactured in China. China doing corporate espionage constantly and stealing information in any way possible.

China should be treated like cold war Russia but we're too dependent on their manufacturing capacity.

The Panama Papers being ignored and the whistle blower murdered.

American whistle blowers accused of treason instead of being celebrated.

Me Too exploding but not really reaching much further than the entertainment industry despite it being a societal thing.

Car companies lying about their cars performance and pollution.

A 2008 financial crisis that could repeat itself any day now. A crisis caused by bankers and investors but nobody ever really got punished, nobody learned anything.

Ever more consolidated corporations owned by the mega rich who control the media and buy politicians, one way or another.

EDIT: If you want to stay awake at night I should add that we're approching a day where wars are fought by drones in the sky and robots on land. In the future when people revolt against the mega rich... those drones wont give a shit about soft human targets. Meaning there's never going to be another succesful people's revolution because drones don't have children they love or a dream of a better future.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 16 October 2018 - 10:25 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

Brexit itself is a massive step backwards.

[Macros]

The super rich get super richer.

The disparity in wealth distribution is at its worst since....shall I just say Rome to make it a handy comparison?

[Maark Abbott]

Tiste Simeon, on 16 October 2018 - 11:16 AM, said:

Brexit itself is a massive step backwards.

Ironically it will be Tiste who starts our own Bolshevik uprising against the Tories.

[Cause]

Macros, on 16 October 2018 - 11:39 AM, said:

The super rich get super richer.

The disparity in wealth distribution is at its worst since....shall I just say Rome to make it a handy comparison?

Is this really true?

Still I think I am more concerned with if the people at the bottom have enough, than if the people at the top have so much more. Africa does not have enough, true for a lot of asia as well. However the poor in America and Britain today for example are not suffering the way the poor in the past did. I realize that last statement has exceptions and may be controversial but I think for the most part in the west everyone enjoys a higher standard of living today than in the past.

I also have to say I something think we should cap peoples wealth at 1 billion dollars (or even 100 million dollars). Still an outrageous sum of money but what do people really do with more than that. I know nothing is ever so simple as this in real life though.

[QuickTidal]

I believe civilization is a pendulum that swings back and forth with trends and allowances, and that when it swings too hard into one direction (as it seems to be doing now), that civilization will buck the trend, and shove back to correct it.

But then, I'm an optimist.

[D'rek]

My naive optimist slant says:

Cause, on 16 October 2018 - 10:03 AM, said:

1) Two Russians entered the UK and used a chemical weapon to poison a Russian Defector. Its not surprising that they would attack a defector but was using a chemical weapon necessary? This has to be an escalation and it was a message.

2) China is upping its game. It has disappeared its leading actress on possible charges of Tax evasion? It has disappeared the Chinese citizen head of Interpol on charges of corruption? It is openly talking about re-education camps with the aim of fixing the anti-communist party muslim population.

3) Saudia Arabia killed a Saudia citizen but who is also an American Greencard holder (is this correct?) in the Saudia embassy in Turkey? Spycraft is part of the open secret of why embassies exist but this cant be normal can it? Also Turkey is a friendly nation to Saudia Arabia.

All of these things happened all the time before, too, but with the marvel of global communications they are now exposed to the world. Gradually, the exposure will improve these places and reduce these incidents.

Cause, on 16 October 2018 - 10:03 AM, said:

4) Trump is trying very hard to steer America away from being the moral police of the world. I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing (Very long conversation this), however their is a difference between trying to not be the policeman and almost actively greenlighting this sort of thing as long as we can do business.

The only way America could stay the moral police of the world is if it were to stay the only rich, powerful nation. Not sustainable, and other nations industrializing and growing level to it will (eventually) diversify and blend the world's cultures and tolerance.

Cause, on 16 October 2018 - 10:03 AM, said:

5) Russia interefed in the US elections. Did it interfere in Brexit? It tried to hack the chemical weapon watch dog. What else is it doing? Who else is doing it?

There was a time when Russia's efforts at subterfuge were positioning nuclear missiles in threatening locations. Spy poisonings isn't good by any stretch, but they're softening bit by bit.

Alternative Goose, on 16 October 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

You should probably add China putting spy chips in technology manufactured in China. China doing corporate espionage constantly and stealing information in any way possible.

China should be treated like cold war Russia but we're too dependent on their manufacturing capacity.

The Panama Papers being ignored and the whistle blower murdered.

American whistle blowers accused of treason instead of being celebrated.

None of this is really new, though, it's just the manner is updated to modern technology and context.

Alternative Goose, on 16 October 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

Me Too exploding but not really reaching much further than the entertainment industry despite it being a societal thing.

We all want the big expose to lead to immediate, massive reaction, but really that's rare for these sorts of social exposes. It's more about changing perspectives in the next generations and waiting for the current generation(s) to die. I think it's doing a lot.

Alternative Goose, on 16 October 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

Car companies lying about their cars performance and pollution.

[insert used chariot salesman here]

Alternative Goose, on 16 October 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

EDIT: If you want to stay awake at night I should add that we're approching a day where wars are fought by drones in the sky and robots on land. In the future when people revolt against the mega rich... those drones wont give a shit about soft human targets. Meaning there's never going to be another succesful people's revolution because drones don't have children they love or a dream of a better future.

I don't know... hobbyists are making drones in their backyards/basements all the time, now. Isn't this like saying about the 1800s people's revolutions "well, the government has professional soldiers with muskets now, the people can never match that level of technology and training" ? But just like a hundred thousand peasants with no training and outdated muskets could beat a thousand professional soldiers, why can't a hundred thousand amateur quad-copter-with-pipe-bombs and basement hackers rise up against, say, the US Military's much smaller fleet of predator drones?

Cause, on 16 October 2018 - 12:36 PM, said:

I also have to say I something think we should cap peoples wealth at 1 billion dollars (or even 100 million dollars). Still an outrageous sum of money but what do people really do with more than that.

Some people (Gates, Buffet, etc) with more than that donate craptons of it to philanthropic causes, arguably much more efficiently and effectively - and with less strings attached - than any government program.

[Macros]

Cause, on 16 October 2018 - 12:36 PM, said:

Macros, on 16 October 2018 - 11:39 AM, said:

The super rich get super richer.

The disparity in wealth distribution is at its worst since....shall I just say Rome to make it a handy comparison?

Is this really true?

Yes,
Depressingly so.

ETA - to be more cynical on it American politics is as corrupt and rigged as Roman times, the rich are in power and they're staying there, the poor only think they have a vote, and even though they technically do it rarely matters, rich and powerful gonna rich and power.

This post has been edited by Macros: 16 October 2018 - 03:13 PM

[Gorefest]

All depends on your frame of reference. Slipping back compared to when? 5 years ago? 30? 200? On the whole the average earthling is better off than, say, 50 years ago even. Each generation has its struggles and ours is the rapid spread of globalised social interactions. It will take a generation or two to figure out how to deal with instant messaging, light speed communication and information processing/dissemination. But undoubtedly these things will be incorporated into society over time. The only real worry for everyone worldwide should be if the planet can keep up with us as a species. Anything else is comparatively trivial.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 16 October 2018 - 04:53 PM

[Macros]

Fairly sure there's kids in detention camps right now that disagree with the word trivial

This post has been edited by Macros: 16 October 2018 - 05:18 PM

[Abyss]

Ok, fine, fine already, i'll accept the role of Benevolent Global Dictator For Life+.



...there, happy now?

[Gorefest]

Macros, on 16 October 2018 - 05:18 PM, said:

Fairly sure there's kids in detention camps right now that disagree with the word trivial

Not any more than in any other period in history. That was the point.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 16 October 2018 - 06:10 PM

[polishgenius]

Alternative Goose, on 16 October 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

You should probably add China putting spy chips in technology manufactured in China. China doing corporate espionage constantly and stealing information in any way possible.

To be fair, you should also add in google, amazon and apple literally selling everyone spy devices in the name of convenience. And like fuck are they not using those for espionage, just not inter-nation espionage, they're just spying on everyone instead. Like, Google spy on far more people far more invasively than the NSA ever did, but it's not a scandal because technically it's a choice.

But also if your government ever turns bad- proper bad- they could fairly easily take control of that. And let's not act like that's not a possibility. I'm already scared it's on the way in Poland and Hungary. It's obviously already in place in China.



Also, in terms of Britain- the prospect of a no-deal Brexit is far more frightening than Russians killing people on our soil, as brazen as those acts are. Was just discussing this with people over on Westeros yesterday as it happens, for Britain no deal isn't a damaging scenario, it's a from-one-day-to-another paradigm shift for the worse.

[Studlock]

Compare to what though? Is it worse than it was five years ago? Yes, undoubtedly, but not because of Obama, or 'liberal' norms, or whatever, but because we didn't have actually unhinged crypto-fascists dictating policy, just amoral liberal warhawks (Obama pioneered drone warfare, BLM started under him, and MeToo could have as well). 10 years ago? I'm not so sure. The Great Recession fucking sucked and is one of the defining moments of my youth. I remember that overwhelming sense of corruption and incompetence. The USA and its allies was still fully in obviously illegal wars that would eventual kill a million people and create a political environment that would give rise to some of the worst reactionaries on the problem--and no one, from either those things got punished for it. Fuck, liberals right now are trying to actively redeem George W Bush. Right now the rich is richer than it has ever been--no man needs a billion dollars, let alone a hundred billion (a thousand is to a million as a million is to a billion--that is an immoral amount of money to have--like I'll ignore my intellectual and ideological comittments here and state that just practically that there is no way someone can honestly and rightly earn a billion dollars), while the poor, even from developed countries struggle everyday to continue to exist.

But then again, if go back we can fine relative times of peace and prosperity, and even worse times than now. The only difference, for me, is that now we multiple ways to destroy ourselves, and more people willing to do so for trivial reasons.

[worry]

No other generation in human history has been so bombarded, at least in such a sustained way, by suggested videos of Joe Rogan.

[Gorefest]

Are you a populist?
https://www.theguard...st-are-you-quiz

I ended up about 6 hexagons southwest of Obama.

[Primateus]

Gorefest, on 21 November 2018 - 11:07 AM, said:

Are you a populist?
https://www.theguard...st-are-you-quiz

I ended up about 6 hexagons southwest of Obama.

I'm most like Amlo, whoever the fuck that is and least like Trump. Given that I'm far away from Trump, I'll assume that's a good thing.

[Tsundoku]

Slightly Populist Left, 6 hexes straight up from Obama.

Huh. There you go.

Least similar to Trump. Happy with that. I must have some (minimal) intelligence then.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 21 November 2018 - 11:33 AM

[Tapper]

Non-populist left, 7 hexes left of Obama's position, 7 down from Obama. I guess I'm the kind of 'socialist elite clique' Trump rails against...