Wasn’t a core philosophy of Calvinists basically “god loves capitalism” (before the word was really established)?

Nah, that’s not it. Germany has legal and - theoretically - regulated prostitution, and society is not meaningfully different than, say, France in that redgard as far as I can tell.

There are other issues associated with it, but just that one argument alone doesn’t seem to work based on what I’ve seen.

I mean, congrats on your nihilism. If I cared about neither myself nor those close to me nor some abstract “humanity” or “society”, I would have it much easier in life.

Sadly, I still feel bad when I think of bad things happening to good people, or, even worse, me.

I don’t know about you, but:

1. I have some money. Not much, but I’d like to keep it, because food and rent is kind of required.

2. I don’t have a criminal record, and I would hate it if someone used my identity to commit crimes. At the very least, doors and lawyers are expensive.

3. Figure out how to simulate and scam me and a few million other dudes like me, and you have pretty good chances of getting elected here. That stuff is happening in all major elections now, and the results are, well, I assume you read the news.

4. I would really hate it if you send my detailed porn habits to my boss and my grandma. At the very least my boss would think I’m an idiot and don’t deserve a job working with computers and expensive machines.

Bonus argument:

I’ve been told that for years and nothing ever comes of it cause what do I got worth taking?

I’ve known people who drive without a seatbelt for years, and they haven’t died yet.

You do realise it is not about the physical phone, but what you do / have on it? That’s why I said access, and on the net.

My physical device is worth what, $50 with the half dead battery and all the scratches.

My bank and savings account is worth quite a bit more, and my non-felon status, citizenship of a (for now) democratic country and my private and professional reputation are as well.

Why do you not let someone look over your shoulder when you vote?

And if that is an unfair comparison, look at Cambridge analytica, and how things have gone downhill with AI and all that since then.

If you want some pathos, it is your civic duty as a citizen who wants to preserve liberty in a democratic coutry, to be at least somewhat independent and unpredictable from a state that wants you to be predictable and controllable.

OK, now give your phone and wallet access to anyone on the net.

Including the government, that other government, Kim Jong Un, a pimply broke teeneager in some failed ex-soviet state who doesn’t extradite to your place, Mike the Pervert (not allowed within 100m from any other living or recently deceased human by a court order), Mario NotAMobstero and Ranjin who works for $2.50/h in a scam call center.

Gold angle, I didn’t hear that before

“Maybe nothing to hide, but something to protect” is a nice one.

I genuinely had no idea how people could misunderstand the movie, until I met such people. It is weird.

First: The book does not glorify historically existing fascism, no.

But I believe that it is at least a half-serious argument, that Heinlein actually believes that a society like the one in the book wouldn’t be the worst.

I don’t believe that Heinlein supported racism or the oppression of “lesser” people. He made that point pretty clear, in interviews, life choices, other stories or by famously revealing (iirc) that Ricoh was brown-skinned.

But the militarism, united humanity in a hostile universe, the weird ideas about authority and merit, and the per aspera ad astra part? I do believe that he’s at least in part making a sincere argument, wrapped in an action story as a vehicle. The world he creates resonates too well with Heinlein’s biography, imho.

I have to admit, the book makes a great argument for “fascism” / military meritocracy, plus it’s just a easy to read action book.

I still think the argument is very flawed, and it’s a good thing that Heinlein (iirc) never had children to raise.

But do read it, it’s a decent book with an interesting argument.

Aaand then you put a bunch of enslaved lightning in rocks to work to hallucinate away the noise from the image.

It’s an uplifting image

Before you are scared to use a MRI now: I can not imagine that they don’t have multiple safeties in place to avoid explosion. I’ve never worked on cryo stuff, but from regularly cooled big machines, there are always redundant measures to avoid the big boom, and where there aren’t, you can identify them by the scary sign and the heavy breathing of the safety officer. And that is for internal stuff, patient/customer facing things are probably treated even more carefully

Das Boot, it is the classic movie about German Uboats from the perspective of the Uboat crew.

It does not glorify, it does not condemn, but the one thing that stays with you is the feeling of futility.

They did all the terrible and heroic things, cheered at hitting convoys, let allied seamen drown because of their orders, escaped again and again, showed fanatism and self-reflection, panic and comradeship, and in the end, when they come back to their home base, it just doesn’t matter.

Why? I have plenty of disk space, a few unused binaries wont hurt me

Yeah, it would still be a massive improvement if it took 20 years instead of 1000.

To be fair, there has always been crap. Sure, llms automate the process of slop creation, but you always had to rely on curation and often pure luck to find decent books.

Iirc discord is making it deliberately hard to bridge stuff.

• “Come naked and bring beer”
• “Crack Cave”
• “$name, 2. floor, 23, single”