Is the US a dystopia?

opened my fortune cookie and i have so few words pic.twitter.com/b5roOyRR1Z

— krista! (@madeup_artist) January 6, 2022

That seems like low pay for a hitman

but the 401k has a 5% company match

Reflecting on January 6, people are justifiably concerned about election subversion. But given the state of Biden’s presidency, the more likely scenario is a popularly elected, and therefore empowered, second Trump administration. https://t.co/ElodhslLPK

— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) January 6, 2022

long on doomsaying, short on what to do about it

I believe Nero was an incredible fiddler and some people sang along

little known fact - the friction from him fiddling too fast is what caused the fire

nero fiddling 'everlong'

the drum part to everlong - ziggidiggidiggidiggiziggidiggidiggidiggi - on the fiddle

long on doomsaying, short on what to do about it

I can’t believe this one guy doesn’t have a plan to fix the entire economic and political system!!!

fascists hate this one simple trick

Trump winning outright is both totally possible and also a better scenario than losing outright and being installed by Congress anyway. Of course the end result would probably be the same, no more fair elections ever.

xxpost I think the point is "we endured people saying 'Trump is totally getting re-elected' as some defeatist foregone conclusion, and that doesn't exactly inspire people to take action." and then it didn't happen. and I reject that the reason it didn't happen was scaremongering by tweeters/bloggers/journalists, it's because the people who took action knew it wasn't a foregone conclusion and ignored all of that noise.

You didn’t have to endure that sentiment you had to go looking for it. Trump was incredibly unpopular his entire term and had half a million people die in an election year, it was always the Democrats’ election to lose.

Now Biden is the not-quite-as-unpopular incumbent with people dying. It’s not scaremongering to suggest that unless things change bigly it will be Republicans’ election to lose.

Republican, maybe, but I'm doubtful that Trump could get it done: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

2.9 years is a long time when you’re an ancient speed freak, Trump being dead is about as likely as either being elected or defeated.

nice placement for that fortune cookie btw

Trump winning outright is both totally possible and also a better scenario than losing outright and being installed by Congress anyway. Of course the end result would probably be the same, no more fair elections ever.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, January 7, 2022 5:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Republican, maybe, but I'm doubtful that Trump could get it done: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

― DJI, Friday, January 7, 2022 6:31 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

His ratings took a dive recently but seems like they average in the low/mid-40s. Considering their primary tactic is preventing black/poor people from voting, even low-40s approval rating overall could easily translate to a majority of likely voters in a few key swing states.

Long on doomsaying again yes. My best plan to address the issue would probably get me put on a list if I articulated it clearly, but suffice to say that if Manchin and Sinema were removed from the equation it would greatly improve the probability of preserving some semblance of American democracy.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvndja/amazon-paid-for-a-high-school-course-heres-what-they-teach

well fuck

Questions for an Amazon Pathways class called Business Management and Entrepreneurship asks students ... “What can Uber do to ensure its competitors are not chipping away at its dominant market share as a result of such bad press?”

62 percent of Amazon employees in the greater Los Angeles region rely on some sort of government assistance.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/02/national-butterfly-center-conspiracy-threats/

A South Texas butterfly sanctuary has closed after it was the target of conspiracy theories that escalated into credible threats.

The National Butterfly Center, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, has long been the target of QAnon conspiracy theories falsely tying the organization to human trafficking.

The center is a 20-year-old nature conservatory for wild butterflies. There are no law enforcement investigations into the organization or its staff for human trafficking.

Meanwhile in Techtopia (motto: “Don’t be a dystopia”):

In a Jan. 27 memo, Woodside’s planning director wrote, "Given that Woodside – in its entirety – is habitat for a candidate species (to go on the endangered list), no parcel within Woodside is currently eligible for an SB 9 project."

The species in question is the mountain lion. Each year, Bay Area residents come face-to-face with the mercurial cats. Numerous pets have been attacked and killed in encounters.

Woodside leaders say duplexes can’t be built as long as mountain lions could go on the state’s endangered species list.

Good job, CEQA

rename thread "prove the US is a dystopia" now i guess

I think that's been settled already

This is still a question?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFC/comments/stu2g5/yo_wtf_is_this

hahahaaa

if you meet Jeff Bezos on the road, kill him

touching JB—or really any of our oligarchs—is virtually impossible.

but there’s a guy, or more likely a committee, who came up with the cry box. bet you could find them ;)

rob was probably less advocating murder and more naming a zen precept

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,pg_1,q_60,w_965/df1a3a33278a0788e5dae76e1f516387.png

'If they weren't mentally ill before, they sure are now!!'

that recruitment ad seems more fitting for internet ads that raise an eyebrow

Took me a sec to realize they didn't mean the guards

Leave it to the @WSJopinion to look for the “unintended consequences” of financially freeing millions. pic.twitter.com/uT7xWyllIv

— Hector Oseguera, Esq. (@Oseguera2020) April 14, 2022

time to introduce Service Guarantees Citizenship

american suburbs have always been dystopic

Slovakian sees a video about American suburbs and posts questions to Reddit. The level of bafflement is hilarious and appropriate. pic.twitter.com/f6X5CzeYuE

— Tristan Cleveland (@LUrbaniste) May 11, 2022

I’m bored and sick so I looked at accounts of the big mad responses you’re not going to believe this but they get straight racist in their most recent couple of tweets/ retweets, if not right in the bio.

I thought it was kind of funny how so many big mad replies ignored the existence of American cities

I live in an American suburb that has almost all of the things that people don't think exist in American suburbs

Like sidewalks, public transit, apartments, row houses, businesses and mixed-use new urban stuff, plus vegetable gardens

This just seems like a really limited thing where you pick the worst example of something and decide that all of that thing is like that

i don't know where you love ymp but most of the thing is like that tbf

yeah YMP, most US suburbs are utter shitholes with none of what you describe

my family lives in the suburbs. it has sidewalks, no public transit (not even st louis has minimally viable public transit), no apartments, no row houses, no businesses or any sort of zoning other than "single family unit", and almost of the yards are very large, fenced in, and either empty or with a swing set or bench or something on one side. i don't see anyone there, even though every single house (which, yes, they are all identical, for as far as you can see in any direction, down every culdesac) appears to be occupied and has cars parked in the garage and driveway. but there are zero people outside. there is a small town about 2 miles away but everyone drives there. everyone is ecstatic

i used to scoff at that form of the American Dream, but all of these boring people living in their boring houses and never going outside appear to be doing way, way better than i am, and i'm sure they look at my life and think "dude just kill yourself"

My parents live in an older suburb of Philadelphia, so there are some amenities like a bus that comes once an hour, little shops and the like. Nearby, there are more strictly commercial corridors that line up with the old railroad lines. In many ways, it doesn’t resemble what this Slovakian person describes at all. I grew up in the city and these same suburbs, and so it was a bit of a shock when I became an adult and realized that a lot of people choose to live in suburban development hells way outside of cities, what are essentially exurbs.

I like the idea of a tavern in the garage, and vegetables in the backyard. Perhaps I should be in Slovakia.