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Pro-Capitalism Propaganda Campaign For Forbes by Ad Agency Goodby Silverstein
  • Marx never sat in a self-driving car

    Marx, like every other person alive when he was, probably never thought about a self-driving car because regular-ass cars hadn’t been invented yet.

    But you know what Marx thought (and wrote) about a lot? Technology. In the first volume of Capital, he outlines how the very technologies we develop are part of the superstructure and reflect the needs of the current mode of production. In his excellent podcast series Reading Capital With Comrades, Derek Ford uses the white noise machine as an example. The capitalist economy doesn’t really care about noise pollution any more than it cares about air and water pollution so workers are forced to just deal with it. We also have a premium on sleep because we all get worked to death and capitalism loves to take ever increasing amounts of our waking hours. So along comes the white noise machine. Something that, instead of solving the problems of noise and letting workers get more sleep, just allows them to cope with the situation and get to work.

    So in that sense, the self-driving car is absolutely an innovation of capitalism. It doesn’t solve the problem of us destroying ever more land so everyone above a certain income level can have a quarter-acre of land and a “house” made of particle board and oil-based products. It doesn’t put automation to uses that allow for more productivity in the service of human flourishing. Nope. In fact, I guarantee you once self-driving cars become ubiquitous white collar workers will be expected to work the same number of hours in the office AND in the car to and from the office on top of that; and blue collar workers will have to watch ads or something. They’re not actually going to improve the quality of life, they will actually make things worse but more profitable for capital as they will be able to take over even more of our waking hours.

    Marx saw that under socialism (and only under socialism), technology and automation could be unleashed to enhance our lives by making us more productive and thus allowing us to work less. Hell, even Keynes figured we’d have 20 hour work weeks by now. But what Keynes didn’t understand and Marx did is that only if the workers control the advancement of tech, can it be used to make our lives better.

    If you gave people the choice of either working 5 hours and taking a bus, or working 10 hours but getting a heckin’ cool Muskmobile death trap, who would choose the latter other than the most bazinga-brained labor aristocrats who would rather die than sit next to a worker on public transportation?

  • NSFW
    Norm why (CW: Transphobia)
  • I think another factor is these people have spent most of their leftist lives mostly isolated from actual “real world” leftists. If you’re a Marxist professor or writer in the 70s, who are you gonna be interacting with other than maybe other Marxist academics. When you let your views percolate in your brain (or only interacting with other egghead leftists), you end up being unable to grow and change.

    Like, I really don’t think myself or most leftists who grow up in the internet will get like this when we’re in our 80s. We joke about touching grass, but the truth is being able to interact with other regular leftists from across the world on a place like Hexbear really does keep the brain worms in check, I believe.

  • Chud politician defends marrying 12 year olds to adult creepers. (CW: kiddie creeping, audio)
  • This bozo voted against a law that would raise the age a minor could marry someone over 21 from 15 to 17. So he thinks a 15 year old should legally be allowed to marry like some 40 year old (not that 17 is much better).

    This whole insistence a lot of conservatives have that children should be allowed to marry adults is of course reprehensible... but also just bizarre to me. Like, I grew up deep in conservative, fundamentalist evangelical culture. And the idea of teenagers getting married would have been appalling to everyone I know. But I also grew up in the suburbs of a big city. Who is actually for this? Is this some rural cultural thing?

  • ✊ Malcolm warned us
  • As a fellow white guy, if I would dare to quote Malcolm X, I would be for damn sure that I wasn't using his quote in a context that would go against everything he actually stood for.

  • Missouri attorney general issues rules to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender kids (possibly adults too?) (CW: transphobia, ableism)
    news.stlpublicradio.org Missouri attorney general issues rules to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender kids

    The emergency regulations will require health care providers to tell patients about what Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called health risks of gender-affirming care. They will also prohibit providers from administering care to children with untreated mental health problems.

    Missouri attorney general issues rules to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender kids

    >Under the regulations, which a department spokeswoman said are still being finalized, health workers will need to:

    >•Disclose to patients that the use of puberty-blocker drugs or hormones to treat gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria is "experimental and is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration." Inform patients that the FDA has warned that puberty blockers can lead to brain swelling and blindness.

    >•Ensure that patients have received full psychological or psychiatric assessments of at least 15 separate hourly sessions over at least 18 months, and that such conditions have been treated and resolved.

    >•Adopt and follow procedures to track for 15 years any adverse effects of gender transition for all patients.

    >The emergency rules also require providers to screen for autism before providing treatment.

    In the discussion of this on Reddit, people are pointing out that while the AG's verbal comments talk about these regulations being about trans youth, nothing in the text of the regulations specify that they are only for trans youth. So while trans youth aren't safe in Missouri (there's already an anti-GAC for youth bill approved by the Senate and will almost certainly be signed by the hillbilly GOP governor), it's very possible that Missouri is no longer safe for trans adults, either.

    Not to mention the insidious stuff about mental health, basically (here's the CW for ableism - sorry it appears the "spoiler" thing isn't working):

    If you are diagnosed with autism, you could be denied treatment. If you are diagnosed with any mental illnesses, you could be denied treatment. If you don't have at least 15 counseling sessions in 18 months (so puberty might have already have really kicked in) you can be denied treatment.

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    yall are nice
  • I have a half-baked idea of using Che to push kids left in the way chuds use Teddy Roosevelt or Marcus Aurelius. Seriously, reading about Che it's almost like he's some fictional character come to life.

    And I've always wanted to do some drunk hexbear posting, just never got around to it.

  • Millennials and Gen Z living at home are a ‘trainwreck’ thanks to their parents, says personal finance guru Dave Ramsey
  • “So, let me get this straight. You live in your momma’s basement, but you got a Coach purse,”

    This person does not really exist outside of Dave Ramsay's head. He takes two different, unrelated data points ("young people are driving luxury good growth" and "more young people are living together") and tries to mash them together like a kid trying to mash together a Duplo and a Lego. It doesn't occur to him that there can be wealth disparities within Gen Z; that the wealthier end are buying Coach purses while a very large other group is living at home.

    And fuck this guy, like most "investment advisors" this guy doesn't actually know jack shit about things but he has to pretend he does so he sounds like a "trusted financial advisor". Nearly every investment advisor is a glorified car salesman.

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    DoubleShot [he/him] @hexbear.net
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