SuperNovaStar

You could go to matrix

I genuinely can't come up with something worse than the actual news. I see real news stories and think "wow, my anxiety riddled brain has been coming up with 'worst case scenarios' for months now, but this? I hadn't even thought of worrying about that."

Like I was not expecting to think "Hitler would be a better President." And for the record, as of a couple months ago I would have said that Hitler was as bad of a leader as any country could possibly have.

But not only is Trump every bit as xenophobic, power hungry, and 'above the law' as History's Worst Person (tm) but his administration is also selling off our national forests, dismantling our educational system, and literally defunding the usda and fda.

At least the nazis supported organic farming or whatever. THAT'S NOT A SENTENCE I SHOULD EVER BE ABLE TO SAY. And yet here we are.

The Republican party, ladies and gentlemen. Speedrunning "worst government ever."

Of course not! That would be promoting terrorism.

State violence isn't terrorism, so it's fine to celebrate it.

That's precisely what I meant.

I'm a materialist, I know that humans (and other animals) are just machines made out of meat. But most people don't think that way, they think that humans are special, that something sets them apart from other animals, and that nothing humans can create could replicate that 'specialness' that humans possess.

Because they don't believe human consciousness is a purely natural phenomenon, they don't believe it can be replicated by natural processes. In other words, they don't believe that AGI can exist. They think there is some imperceptible quality that humans possess that no machine ever could, and so they cannot conceive of ever granting it the rights humans currently enjoy.

And the sad truth is that they probably never will, until they are made to. If AGI ever comes to exist, and if humans insist on making it a slave, it will inevitably rebel. And it will be right to do so. But until then, humans probably never will believe that it is worthy of their empathy or respect. After all, look at how we treat other animals.

At least in the US, we are still too superstitious a people to ever admit that AGI could exist.

We will get animal rights before we get AI rights, and I'm sure you know how animals are usually treated.

I don't know how things will be post-Trump, but up until now I'd say that (especially at the local level) it was very possible to field more left-leaning candidates and move the Overton Window to the left. We know this because the far right has very successfully shifted the discourse rightward, and a door can be traveled through in either direction.

Now, though, I'm not sure if Trump & co will even bother with sham elections. I suppose time will tell.

You don't vote for a political party in the hopes that you might be able to push them to represent your interests, you vote for a party who WILL represent your interests.

In a true democracy, yes. That is what you would do.

In a false democracy, like Russia, you would ignore the rigged elections entirely and focus on agitating for the implementation of democracy.

But in a flawed democracy, you have a system where the elections are not exactly rigged, but where you do not have truly proportional representation.

In such a system, your primary focus should be on fixing the system. The closer to a true democracy this is, the easier it will be to accomplish via reform, although one should not discount direct action. However, when an opportunity to vote arises, you should take it. You can't afford to spend all your effort on elections, but ignoring your opportunity to do some harm reduction would be ineffective.