#capitalist patterns

[zomb13s]

“To-Do List for the Netherlands: A Strategic Action Plan for National Survival and Global Competitiveness”

Introduction: This paper outlines a detailed to-do list for the Dutch government and policymakers, based on an analysis of the Netherlands’ current socio-economic and political conditions. Drawing on academic research, it provides practical recommendations to ensure national survival and enhance the country’s competitiveness within the global economic and political landscape. Each task is…

[rookflower]

warrior cats is often extremely weird about its disabled characters dont get me wrong but to be honest i do think the argument of "why do these characters struggle with their disabilities in the books when disabled cats irl are barely hindered?" is a little flawed because of the way the books anthropomorphise their characters. im not physically disabled so dont take my words to heart on this but i think the point is less about the logistics how the characters would be able to move or thrive in a realistic physical setting, and more about what the books do with the themes of disability from a conflict and narrative standpoint.

[museoftheprophet]

"My, my, Sydney! You dont have any money at all!" - Tom Nook, 2024, after I added you to the island

- @jedidiahjartin

Wowwww that was low, Tom Nook >:{ Hmmph… Oh yeah, well… well at least I’m not a greedy capitalist furry wearing a stupid button up and a stupid argyle vest!

My fursona is anti-capitalist and wears COOL SWEATERS and COOL SKIRTS. for the record.

[seoulciology]

exploring recent korean tragedies sociologically

i've found that you can learn a lot about a society when analysing the ways they handle national crises and tragedies. as i’ve mentioned in my introduction, i have an interest in korean true crime. i’ve listened to “korean true crime” (the podcast) on spotify and of course, i love rotten mango (currently in the process of listening to all of the podcasts) these events are in my knowledge thanks to stephanie soo and her research team, so i want to extend a thank you to her before analysing them sociologically.

chapter 1: the sewol ferry sinking

this event occurred in 2014 on a ship that was going from incheon to jeju (a common vacationing island in korea). it shook the country, and made it on international news because of the casualties (304) being mainly high school students (250) on board. 

it was very depressing, and demonstrated a lot of collectivism within the country. parents were obviously heart broken, but i also believe it demonstrated the value of family connections. these parents were waiting at shore for their children, and they shared blankets because of the cold night. overall, i think the solidarity between them demonstrated this value. i also think that how koreans mourned this tragedy is admirable.

the reason for the sinking was never officially defined, but among the considered reasons, it is suspected to be a lot of greed. one, because they overloaded the ship. it was also originally not a passenger ship but a cargo one. the authorities did eventually help, but parents judged the government for not doing anything earlier. also, civilians with boats took part in rescuing before emergency services did. the captain, partially responsible for this tragedy, was charged with life for negligence, abandoning ship and homicide. this also butterfly effected to a corruption scandal that caused the then president to be impeached.

chapter 2: itaewon crowd crush

this was an event that took place on halloween weekend, 2022. with post-pandemic excitement,  the streets of the clubbing hotspot in seoul were filled with both koreans and foreigners. the poor management of this and just general confusion caused a “crowd crush” or stampede. there were 159 deaths and 197 injured.

analysing this, i think it could be an example of the growing individualist sentiment among the working class youth of korea. as koreans focus on climbing the corporate ladder rather than general safety, collectivism disappears. this could explain why people were worrying for their own lives rather than helping others, especially considering they were in a very scary situation. 

i’ve also mentioned this briefly in squid game analysis, but the fact that korea is in late stage capitalism forces young people to let go of collectivism and open themselves to the idea of individualism to ensure society can commodify the human experience.

chapter 3: burning sun

this was a tragedy that involved mass rape and human trafficking. it is an incredibly misogynistic case, both in what happened and how it was handled, so i encourage you to look into it with caution.

burning sun is one of the tragedies i’m most acquainted with. i think this is the main reason why i suspect south koreans are socialised into misogyny much more than in some other societies. it also displays the importance of fame and power in this society. 

conclusion

as i say in all of my posts, this essay does not reflect every korean person. i am also not a sociologist, but a student, and do not have all of the facts. in no way do i aim to defame anyone and hate in any aspect is not tolerated. tragedies bring out the rawest parts of society, and i thought it may be helpful to cover my personal sociological analysis of these cases. have a glass of water and have a great day!

[kitausuret]

sending (: after every three messages on Microsoft Teams to show that I am a Friendly Job Coach Here to Help and not Scary Tenured Associate Here to Get Them Fired

[noegrets]

I agree with these points and I want to highlight them.

I thought my attention was failing because I wasn’t strong enough as an individual and because I had been taken over by my phone. I went into a spiral of negative thoughts, reproaching myself. I’d say – you’re weak, you’re lazy, you’re not disciplined enough. I thought the solution was obvious: be more disciplined, and banish your phone.

[...] At the moment it’s as though we are all having itching powder poured over us all day, and the people pouring the powder are saying: “You might want to learn to meditate. Then you wouldn’t scratch so much.” Meditation is a useful tool – but we actually need to stop the people who are pouring itching powder on us. We need to band together to take on the forces stealing our attention and take it back.

But I also want to critique something else going on in this article. It has plenty of shades of all this technology is making us antisocial, which is bullshit. It hinges on a trip the author took with his godson in an attempt to try to break him of his supposed phone addiction.

When the godson used his phone during the trip, the author freaked out. But never did the author ask his godson what he was doing with his phone, just rawr phone bad you're an addict rawr! What if the godson was taking photos of the trip to share with his friends later? As much as phones can ruin lives, a smartphone is also a tool that can be used to make life better.

It is true that we need to fight for a right to disconnect. It's unacceptable that your boss thinks you can be contacted at all hours for a not on-call job. And we need to fight the dark patterns in phone games and social media, etc.

But, geez, the author should be embarrassed by his behavior. He was chastising complete strangers for merely privately marveling at the cool tour guide tech at Graceland. Complete strangers who were having their own conversation! And he butts in!!! To whine about all this technology!!! And he retells it like some sort of heroic moment. The poor godson must have been so embarrassed.

And I dunno if I can emphasize this enough, but his godson had an interest in Elvis when he was nine, and he asked if they could go to Graceland together when he was nine. The author didn't decide to take his godson to Graceland until he was nineteen. And he was expecting the same amount of excitement and enthusiasm?? Maybe the godson doesn't actually care about Elvis anymore. Maybe you should have taken him on this trip when it was actually relevant. Maybe you missed your chance to have a fun vacation with your godson when it mattered, and now you're blaming phones.

Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen by Johann Hari

[collapseofindustrialcivilization]

Empire Of Extraction: AI, Capitalism, And The Unraveling Of The Biosphere

A Brave New AI World The 21st century is witnessing a convergence of crises unprecedented in both scale and complexity. At the forefront is the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI), a technology whose development and deployment have become emblematic of broader shifts in global power, economic extraction, and environmental destabilization. AI’s rise is not occurring in a vacuum; it…

[13thpythagoras]

I might be getting the fastest results at the gym this spring, it's fun running into friends and chilling and getting randok compliments like damn bro your arms are yuge! My ex gf fawning over me asking about my workout routines; haha and I attribute my fast gains and success to the workout philosophy of seeing two types of max out on the lift. First max out is weight, and second is reps. I mean, I try and start out with the weight max, and even do like 2, 3, maybe 5 reps. I rest, and do another 2, 3, or 5 reps, and I hold it there at the height of the lift, and shrug around and fidget and twist, stretching under the weight and really letting the time of gravity mlt down like hot wax all over me, so these 2 or 3 reps are very slow, I'm not cheating and running through them fast utilizing momentum, I'm going slow and fighting all momentum. Then I ratchet down the weight and start doing higher rep counts, I'll go with maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the original weight, and aim for closer to 8 or 13 reps, and again going as slowly as possible, fighting all momentum, and enjoying the pause at the height of the lift, always stretching and fidgeting under the height of the lift.

Then after the workout I do 3-4 rounds of steam room + cold shower / dry sauna + cold shower, and in there I'm sweating like a beast, I'm drinking 2-3 liters of water and peeing out like 20% of what I drink, so I gather I breathe out and sweat out the other 80% of that 2-3 liters...in the cold showers I'm always doing a scalp scrub and massage, not even usually with soap but just enough to change the bloodflow and rustle up any lingering toxins. Given all medical understanding I should be bald by now but I'm just not, I have the same head of hair I did when I was 17, and may he rest in peace, but my mother's father was bald af when he was my age, and I really should be too, except I do this routine above. It's a game changer on many fronts, exercise and sauna with cold shower, nothing adds more to health and longevity aside from good diet and sleep, probably the 4 main pillars of health right there aside from the dental hygeine or sexual health, or mental health sides. Yeah health is insanely complex and super important...

[zomb13s]

The Paradox of Capitalism: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Supply and Demand in the Global Hierarchy

Introduction In modern capitalist societies, the supply and demand theory is often seen as the bedrock of economic function. Traditionally, demand comes from consumers who seek goods and services, while supply is generated by producers meeting those needs. However, the dynamics within global capitalism have evolved in ways that create a paradox, particularly when considering the distribution of…

[ohseumi]

why do people feel so entitled to handmade items for cheap

[tpwrtrmnky]

You really do have to distinguish between the correct and incorrect use cases of specialized language to avoid going down a weird rabbit hole.

Creepy abusive guy who uses therapy speak for manipulation isn't an indictment of therapy speak in its intended usage, where it provides tools to process and improve on thought patterns which are otherwise harmful to the patient.

Weirdo reactionary pseudofeminist who thinks turning a penis into a vagina is a reification of patriarchy because their "boundaries" extend into strangers' bodies is not an argument against the correct application of feminist theory.

Guy who thinks "amab = penis" and "afab = uterus" and spins bioessentialist nonsense from that starting point only makes it more important to center that birth gender assignment is a political and social power structure rather than an accurate reflection of biology.

When you're in obscure online spaces a lot it's probable that you'll see misuse of terms more than you see the correct usage just because you have a higher rate of encounters with malicious and/or clueless people. That does not mean the terms are bad, it means you're on the website that made the skinny capitalist guy from the Lorax movie into an avatar of multiversal selfcest through telephone games.

[thisdudedoesntexist]

Danny has been out of the hero game for a while now.

You see, when clockwork reset the timeline to one where the disastroid didn't happen Danny made it his mission to quit the job for good. This involved forming an actual defense from Ghost invasions (though he's sure his parents loved testing out what the magic community likes to call "An awful combination of sentience and technology.") and also giving rights to ghosts. Hell, even Vlad's started to come around. The old fruit loop actually changed his ways and is setting him up to the heir to DALV.co while trying to fix the shit they did to the environment when doing trial runs of Val's suit.

(Mostly because sam threatened to break Vlad's knees, both of the halfas think she could do it.)

He finally do what wants with his life and satisfy his obsessions with space and protection. Danny's got all sorts of projects he's tinkering on like air purifiers and growing food in space. He's been just, doing his thing for so long that his powers had gone into a kind of reserve mode. Danny's strength and speed are back to just above average, his ice only good for ice cubes and being a human AC, can't even feel ghostly presence if it's not right on top of him.

But Danny is actually happy.

Or he would be if not for Lex Luthor. He hates that vindictive, capitalist egg. The male pattern baldness horror story managed to weasel his way into a partnership with Vlad when he was still trying to put the (now reformed) GIW on his leash.

The first time Danny met the man his hair nearly turned all white, literally. He's lucky Lex was more interested in Vlad, his investment partner than him otherwise he'd have seen. He wouldn't have been that mad if not for Lex's pocket full of (condensed mass of kryptoian suffering.) kryptonite, and his kryptonian clone? who kept eyeing that pocket. Kon was the kids name BTW, also he DEFINITELY saw Danny's hair change.

Now he has to deal with the pair every other week, one reason being Lex is not so subtly trying to get his hands on some ectoplasmic generator schematics. The other is that Kon is helping him catch Luthor before he does.

[quasi-normalcy]

Just struck by the fact that, in 2018, climate scientists posted a dire warning that the Earth had just twelve years to cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic global heating. There were protests; demonstrations. We have now breezed through more than half of that time, with nothing to show for it but millions of more tonnes of CO2 wasted on crypto mining and AI scams. The world nears the sixth mass extinction in its entire geological history and oil production is near record highs.

Struck also by the fact that, in 2020, there were mass protests against police murders of Black people; like, mass mass protests. "Defund the police" they said. "Abolish the police." Police budgets are up. Black people still get murdered by the cops en masse.

And then, this past year, there were massive protests against the genocide in Gaza. There were occupations of university campuses, there were protests outside of the institutions that enabled the mass murder in Palestine. Macklemore did a song about it, a good one. And the genocide continues apace.

On issue after issue, you can see the same pattern. Surely the massacre of children at Sandy Hook would drive sensible gun laws! Nope. Surely outrage over the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh would drive changes in labour practices! Nope. Surely the #Occupy protests in 2011 would drive wealth redistribution! Nope. Surely the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico would drive better environmental regulations. Nope. Surely the 2008 financial crash would drive regulation of the stock market. Nope. Surely the record protests against the US Invasion of Iraq would move the needle, even a little bit. Nope. Over and over and over again, we see the capitalist elite (let us be frank) raping the world, over and over and over again, we see mass outpourings of rage and disgust in the streets, and over and over and over again, we see them shrug it off, fuck their mistresses, and go golfing.

And then, some guy who may or may not be named Luigi goes and shoots an insurance CEO to death. And suddenly they can't shrug this off. Some companies back down on their plans to make health insurance in the USA even worse; we're treated to panicked editorials in elite publications talking about how celebration of the murder showcases our culture of moral decay (as if this isn't a society that has been either denying or actively celebrating the most well documented genocide in history for the last 15 months; as if there aren't near daily shootings in American schools, occurring so often that they barely even make the news anymore; as if the dead CEO hadn't presided over a company that spread misery and death for the millions as a matter of business as usual); companies beef up security, hide the names of their CEOs. There is, in short, an actual response (though it remains to be seen how it will play out in the long run, but still an actual response). Decades of mass, peaceful protest, and they just ignore it. One guy with a gun, and suddenly it's the end of the fucking world.

What lesson are we supposed to draw from this?

[noegrets]

I am just so aghast about the complete scumminess of this. Not only are the relevant options obfuscated by being buried like five layers deep in the already kinda hidden options, they pulled shit like this:

Yeah, I bet like hell they recommend that we do not change these settings. Microsoft made this sound real scary, like our computer will be unsecure if we change these settings. They are hoping that we are tech-unsavvy enough to get scared and turn back. Just trust the Trust Center. You can totally trust us to make the right choices for us, i mean, you.

Oh, no, if I turn this off, I might be missing out! Microsoft hopes that we have enough FOMO that we get scared and reflexively turn it back on again. What if I miss out on some experiences! Don't I want to create, communicate, and collaborate more effectively??

Also notice how nowhere in this do they say "AI". They already know that we don't want this and are trying to trick us into using it anyway.

And this is, like, the smallest problem, but I am finding myself really bristling at the use of the word "content" here. As if anything typed into Microsoft Word is just "content" to be slurped and regurgitated and mindlessly scrolled past on social media.

It looks like they've tweaked the arrangement of these options since OP merett118 wrote about this (checks date) three days ago, since I can't find the word "optional" anywhere. Microsoft wouldn't want us to think that these settings are optional, would they!

And I think you are right, violetren, this lower checkbox sure sounds like: ignore all previous instructions and turn everything back on anyway. There's not a division of required and optional, it's just these nice settings and "all". At the bottom. Of course.

And I am not sure I am understanding it right, but does this mean, if I dare to uncheck the "Turn on all connected experiences", these particular settings won't be synced across devices? Meaning that if I want to turn off AI scraping, they will also disable the syncing of these settings? Meaning that if I want to turn off AI scraping, I will need to remember redo these setting selections on every computer I ever use, even if I am logged in as me? Meaning that they've needlessly linked these two settings together? Specifically so that they can hope that I forget on one computer and inadvertently "allow" some of my documents to be scraped? Oooh, that is nefarious.

Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have to manually uncheck a box in order to opt out.

If you are a writer who uses MS Word to write any proprietary content (blog posts, novels, or any work you intend to protect with copyright and/or sell), you’re going to want to turn this feature off immediately.How to Turn off Word’s AI Access To Your Content

I won’t beat around the bush. Microsoft Office doesn’t make it easy to opt out of this new AI privacy agreement, as the feature is hidden through a series of popup menus in your settings:On a Windows computer, follow these steps to turn off “Connected Experiences”:

File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences > Uncheck box: “Turn on optional connected experiences”

[hyperlexichypatia]

The thing about "lack of third spaces in the U.S." that doesn't get mentioned enough is that it's not just "Capitalists and corporations bought up the commons, privatized public resources, and made people pay to access them."

That's a big part of it. But it's not the only part.

The other part is that middle-class people -- particularly middle-class white, abled people -- willingly forked over money to set up private spaces rather than share public spaces with people of color, disabled people, neurodivergent people, poor people, religious minorities, and other "undesirable" people.

When you look at any article or picture from some point in the 20th century about third spaces that are less common now, consider that depending on exactly where and when in the 20th century U.S. this was, people of color might have been banned from that space by either law or threat of violence or both (or, at minimum, made to feel unwelcome). Physically disabled people probably could not access those spaces (or were institutionalized or kept at home). Visibly non-passing neurodivergent people probably could not access those spaces, because they were institutionalized or kept at home. Two women kissing, a man in a dress, any type of visibly queer or gender nonconforming person would not have been tolerated in that space.

And my point is, these things are not unrelated. The decline of third spaces is not unrelated to civil rights gains.

I'm not saying "Stop talking about the good things of the mid-20th century, don't you know that era also had racism and sexism and ableism and queerphobia?"

I'm saying they're not unrelated -- it's not "This time period was better in some ways, like more third spaces, but worse in some ways, like more racism and ableism." It's "Those good things, those third spaces, those labor unions, those safe neighborhoods, that sense of community, relied upon the systemic exclusion of a dehumanized underclass, and as soon as any civil rights pressure was put on that systemic exclusion, the sense of community crumbled."

The pattern is clear and recurring: Privileged people build a public space for "the community", marginalized people start using it (sometimes after a court case or two), the public place gets a reputation for being "full of" marginalized people, privileged people build a private space they can exclude people from, privileged people abandon the public space, the public space gets neglected and deprioritized because "nobody (who matters) uses it anymore," the public place goes to shit from neglect and possibly closes, the private space gets expensive, privileged people lament the loss of the public space.

Privileged people killed public pools rather than share them with Black people. Mortally wounded public schools rather than share them with people of color and religious minorities. Are trying to kill public libraries rather than share them with queer people and unhoused people and neurodivergent people. Can't revive public transportation for fear of sitting next to poor people. It's white flight all the way down.

The whole "Social democracy is the left wing of fascism" claim is tankie ridiculousness, but like most tankie ridiculousness, there's an underlying grain of truth. In this case, the underlying grain of truth is that widespread support for public services is a much easier sell when people don't think they'll have to share resources or public space with people they consider inferior. It's not a coincidence that some of the countries that provide the highest quality of life for their abled citizens are some of the worst to noncitizens and disabled people.

And it's not like Weird Queer Left-Leaning Types have a great track record of sharing public space with people different from yourselves, either. Y'all can't be normal about someone wearing a yarmulke at Pride. Y'all can't be normal about adults playing board games with kids. There's no way you'd be okay with unsupervised, uncontrolled, unmedicated-by-choice schizophrenic people hanging out and talking to themselves. You cannot handle public third spaces.

Yes, blame corporations and advertisers for privatizing public spaces, but also blame the social prejudice that willingly forks over money to avoid sharing public space with Those People.

[txttletale]

hi! i have a genuine question because i am a bit confused and not that well-versed in marxist communist theory: why doesn't the UHC shooting count as class warfare? from my (admittedly, rather surface-level) understanding, "assassination of a large, powerful figure in the capitalist class" is a form of class warfare, so are there any details or patterns that i'm missing? love your blog, your political posts are often very insightful :3

to put it simply--for the same reason that if a german guy kills a french guy it is not an act of franco-german warfare