My childhood home only has dialup Internet. First year at college I found out someone ran a DC++ instance on the network and it was over from there. I got a 2tb HDD because I had to, and could, download enough movies/shows to last me the summer. I stopped for a while when I moved out and actually had broadband, but then Netflix stopped being Netflix and became $NFLX, and with all the other services popping up I heard the call of the seas again

This is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). I recommend “The Deficit Myth” by Stephanie Kelton

It helped me to realize that a federal government that’s in control of their own money doesn’t use or even have money, and basic terms that we take for granted mean something different in that context. A federal government creates money through spending and destroys money through taxes. It is necessary for a federal government to spend money in order for money to exist in the economy. So a national debt just means that the federal government is creating more money that is destroying

I got into TorrentLeech and MAM with the intention of building reputation and getting into a better tracker, but frankly I’ve never needed to take that extra step. If I can’t find something on TL I can make a request and someone will have it uploading within a day or two, but I’ve only ever had to do that with obscure stuff like Pros vs Joes

Oklahoma: watermelons are vegetables

Fair. But isn’t complaining about gas prices America’s largest export?

Just checked some other countries and it seems like Canada is the only one that breaks this general pattern, though it’s obviously not rigorous research

Edit: Also, I don’t really care. I was just venting some frustration to The Internet

This is some boomer nonsense. I can’t find 2 sources that seem to agree on specific numbers, but several sources, and my personal experience, agree that gas prices peaked in 2008 after the one two punch of Katrina and the housing market collapse

I started driving in 2006 and bought my first car in 2008 and I can confidently say that I’m paying less for gas now than I was when I started driving and I’m not even talking about adjusting for inflation. Are prices too high? Yeah, probably. But this “then vs now” shit just ain’t true

Such as? Not doubting, I just want to know

I’d love a smartwatch that, along with telling time, is just a screen that shows me my notifications and a button to pause my music.

Kodak used to operate on this 13 month calendar. When I asked someone who used to work there, she was shocked that I knew about it and said that it was the best thing about working there. The original plan that this calendar is based on called for a liminal day between years for New Year’s Day with 2 days for leap years

Noooooo… for real?

Foundation and Empire? Foundation’s Edge‽

Modern country music is just emo music while wearing wranglers instead of skinny jeans

This was my favorite T-shirt that I’ve ever owned. Wore it until it had so many holes in it that it looked like fishnet

Fair enough. I’m not going to double down. This was a blind spot for me, maybe because my union is already established and fairly strong, but I’ll hold this L and learn from it

Dirty? Nah, you’re fresh as hell, comrade. Workers co-ops are great

I guess I have my own special version of pessimism where if I see an employer not actively hiring Pinkertons I think if it add a little w for workers these days

Fair point, well made. I would love to live in a world like this one day

Okay. So I’m not missing something. I guess I heard him say that it “would be a personal failure for him as an employer” as him taking personal responsibility for his employees’ treatment. A charitable interpretation, but just a difference of opinion.

I can see how people can interpret what he says as soft anti-union, it’s just weird to see you and others say things like this as if he’s sober sort of Robber Baron.

Edit: I’m not going to double down. This was a blind spot for me, maybe because my union is already established and fairly strong, but I’ll hold this L and learn from it

True. If he said that line in response to a statement about wages. I can’t say that I exactly remember the context in which he made that statement, but I believe that it (ironically, given this post) had more to do with workplace culture than wages.

Am I missing something? When had he expressed his hatred for unions? As a union man, if he had said something like that it would’ve pricked my ears. As far as I know, he’s said that he doesn’t want his employees to feel like they need a union, but wouldn’t stand in their way if they wanted one, which is about as good as it gets for a North American business owner.

If this stuff is true then they should unionize immediately. Solidarity Forever

Edit: I’m not going to double down. This was a blind spot for me, maybe because my union is already established and fairly strong, but I’ll hold this L and learn from it

Linus “spoke out” against unionizing by saying that he couldn’t legally do anything to stand in the way of his employees unionizing and wouldn’t want to stand in their way if they ever decided to. But he wants to make a workplace where people don’t feel the need to and if they did then he would see it as a personal failure.

There’s plenty to criticize Linus for right now, but I don’t think that his “anti-union” stance is one of them

Edit: in the context of these allegations, then yes, his employees certainly should unionize if the actual criminal crimes in this thread are even partially true. And if that happens then I will be singing Solidarity Forever for the LMG employees, but until that happens and we see how Linus responds to that this is just not a good read on Linus’ stance towards unions.

Edit2: it feels weird to have posted what could be seen as a defense of Linus under this particular post. I’m not a Linus Stan, Just a union advocate that wants criticism to be levied where it’s actually called for and this doesn’t seem like it is