“You guys aren’t gonna use AI for bad stuff, right?”

Tech oligarchs: whaaaaaat no we actually want to be regulated because of how dangerous this technology is!! Also tech oligarchs:

Hey, just a few thoughts I wanted to share in response to this:

First, citing the CIA to praise Stalin is… an odd move. Second, it’s important to recognize that liberals and neoliberals aren’t the same thing. The terms get conflated a lot, but they refer to different ideological frameworks, especially in terms of economics and state intervention. Neoliberalism is basically a rebranding of laissez-faire capitalism whereas liberalism favors more of a welfare-state capitalist system.

Third, I’d encourage reading the full context of the document in question. Here are a few excerpts that stood out:

There will not be a dramatic purge.

This might seem like a neutral observation, but it’s actually referring to a change after Stalin’s death. The implication is that dramatic purges did happen under him, and they’re noting that the new leadership wouldn’t continue that pattern.

Inasmuch as the MVD has already been cleaned up.

Again, this is post-Stalin. The MVD (Interior Ministry, which ran the secret police) being “cleaned up” suggests reform following abuses that were, again, tied to Stalin’s regime.

There is now no organized opposition inside the Party in the Soviet Union.

This kind of political consolidation didn’t happen in a vacuum. It reflects the legacy of Stalin’s crackdowns on dissent and internal opposition.

Since the death of Stalin and the blow which was given to the power of the secret police…

That’s a pretty direct reference to Stalin’s reliance on the secret police to maintain control. Again, the document frames the aftermath of his death as a shift away from that.

No improvement in the food situation can be expected.

This points to long-standing issues in agricultural production and distribution under the USSR, including during Stalin’s time. Whether or not the shortages were intentional, they’re part of the broader legacy of how poorly the Soviet agricultural system was managed. They were pretty much just experimenting with ways to grow food while failing to produce enough for their own population. I’m all for agricultural research, but only after the people are fed.

In short, this isn’t a glowing report of Stalin’s achievements. It’s describing a system trying to recover from the kind of authoritarian control he enforced.

If you’re interested in more critical perspectives from the time, I really recommend My Disillusionment in Russia and My Further Disillusionment in Russia by Emma Goldman. They were written in the early 1920s (just as Stalin was rising to power) and they offer a fascinating, firsthand account of someone who initially supported the revolution (Emma Goldman was an American anarchist exiled to Russia for her beliefs) but became deeply disillusioned with how it played out.

We really don’t need to dig up dead guys to give them accolades. We can think of a better system that the USSR or USA.

A local grocery store had self check out lanes and removed them and replaced them with 5 express check outs. I feel conflicted about it.

Apparently if you want to do that you have to buy Twitter

Fluorine ain’t nothin to fuck with. Shit will set asbestos on fire. Shit will set water on fire. Shit will set anything on fire.

Oh, you’re just a troll, or a very poorly written bot.

This is way too obnoxious, out of touch, and ignorant to be a real person.

You can’t block everyone, but everyone can block you.

rude people who talk over others just need to be ignored. if they continue, put them in their place with a look, a raised eyebrow, roll the eyes and then go back to the person you were actually addressing. it’s childish and should be pointed out if it continues.

Sounds like you need to be ignored and put in your place.

1. Not everyone can afford an electric car 2. Harassing individuals has been identified as counter productive over and over again. Maybe try to help the climate crisis by holding the corporations actually responsible for the issue accountable instead of alienating potential allies and giving the movement an overall insufferable vibe.

Shocking expose: group with cult like structure acts like a cult

Lol what a clown show

Who would want to buy toilet paper that already has shit on it?

You gotta drink water from the far side of the glass.

I learned to ride and loved it. After 2 years of getting a different perspective on how people drive in cars, I’ll never do it again. It’s insane what people think they can do while also operating a 1 ton hunk of metal flying down the highway at 70 mph. Cars should really not be the default form of transportation for most people.

Inner darkness + whimsy = witch/warlock Keep the inner darkness.

“Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something”

Jake the Dog, Adventure Time

Lol ass-dogs

On a serious note, does anyone else get some serious Dunning-Kruger vibes from this? Like serious scientists and experts in the field are very specificly saying that these are not dire wolves. The only people saying they are dire wolves are the owners of the private company that made them. A company with an invested economic interest in people believing them. I’m not an expert geneticist, but I hope you’ll excuse me if I believe the scienctists over the people saying, “you can tell it’s a direwolf by the way that it is!” so that they can make money.

He wants a depression, so that his friends can buy everything up. Rich people always come out on top during economic down turns.

Someone posted another article that has a interview with an independent scientist, and I think it’s rather illuminating.

Meachen is impressed with Colossal’s announcement but remains skeptical.

“I don’t think they are actually dire wolves. I don’t think what we have is dire wolves,” Meachen told ABC News. “What we had is something new – we have a mostly gray wolf that looks like a dire wolf.”

Shapiro disagrees with that thinking.

“I think that the best definition of a species is if it looks like that species, if it is acting like that species, if it’s filling the role of that species then you’ve done it,” she said.

So their only criteria for “Is it a dire wolf,” is yupp, looks like one and behaves like one, even though every real scientist is skeptical. This is, never the less, still impressive technology, but bringing back extinct animals seems more like a marketing gimic than a description of what they’re actually doing.

Flawless logic. Never mind that no one alive has ever observed a dire wolf.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/dire-wolf-revived-biotech-companys-de-extinction-process/story?id=120558562

It’s even worse than that. The Oscars began as a tool to prevent unionization in the film industry.

It’s weird that they asked Johanasson for a comment and not the judge that denied her restraining order.

Didn’t they want this? Haven’t they been trying to install a fascist dictatorship for literal decades? Did they forget that fascism is bad and nobody likes it?