I am expecting the announcement of a moon colony at any moment now.

They could create an autonomous oblast in the Russian far east for them…

Iran was complicit even though the United States has no intelligence or evidence

Is there no racism in the army that he isn’t worried that the statement looks too close to general Powell’s speech about WMD?

He most likely is right but the similarity is unfortunate.

As if slavery is a new concept and nobody was warned about huge conglomerates in every science fiction movie.

if you know that someone is immortal, then why are you trusting that they’re going to care about your relationship with them?

You meant immoral, didn’t you?

Good question both ways.

I am convinced that reading will be replaced with computers generating videos. Apart from that, I agree.

I was all with you until the forced education. Nothing kills curiosity faster. We can do better. There are enough humans that not everybody has to read, especially in a world of phones and videos.

The important part is respect. Children need an environment that nurtures it so that they are respectful as adults. A bit like ‘do not abuse a child and it won’t become an abusive adult.’

But yes, we don’t have full agency. That’s where development is needed.

I agree with your intentions. The integrity of a victim mustn’t be questioned. The issue to me is that it is not logical that attributing any blame does shift all responsibility. If that is the case then the victim is still in an abusive situation and priorities shouldn’t lie on the usage of language.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope that you are in a safe environment. I am overextending my position a bit and claim that despite your experience we shouldn’t accept limited agency in humans. For one, I have just been arguing that democracy relies on it. Apart from that, the aggressors can also claim limited agency. To me, that is not acceptable. Agency is a lie that we accept for the law to work. There are no aliens who take care of us. We have to make do with what we have.

That said, I am of course open to concepts about how to structure society with limited agency.

That depends on the housing market. If you have a surplus in housing, rent will remain stable because tenants will move if their landlord increases rent.

If you have a deficit in housing and more people look for a place to stay than there are available places, then tenants cannot move. Landlords and other businesses in deficit markets like healthcare will take all additional income.

Is this a choice of words issue? Saying that somebody could have prevented something and with that knowledge should prevent it next time doesn’t change victimhood for me. The suffering of the victim remains.

What is lost if the victim had some agency? Is there some metaphysical aspect to it? Are victims prechosen by fate and it’s a sacrilege to question their fate?

I can agree that a zebra being killed by lions shouldn’t be blamed. But a person who ignores advice from friends and joines a multilevel marketing scheme is not entirely innocent.

Thank you. Judging by the downvotes and objections, people deeply don’t believe it. I had expected some technical issues that prevent UBI but reading those replies makes me sad.

This is Lemmy. People on Reddit will feel even more disenfranchised. But it could be the other way round because Marxism states that capitalist democracy doesn’t work and that a revolution is needed.

That burns, especially seeing your comment frequency. But I would be a little bit proud if I am only annoying but not wrong.

I care about UBI and I think the movement is stuck because they expect politicians to resolve it and billionaires to pay. That won’t happen. It hurts to accept it but the sooner acceptance happens the sooner UBI is possible.

That’s not the burn you think it is.

A sign that you may learn something.

Jeff Bezos is rich but he cannot spend his wealth unless he is willing to give up control over Amazon. As long as he sticks to that power, his income is zero.

Similarly, if you have money in securities, no money flows.

So to finance UBI, the wages of the citizens are more important than the wealth of billionaires.

Thanks for the debate.

owning class… uses… lobbying

Civil right and liberation… has been,… including…

One is in the past, the other is present.

I am arguing for using lobbying as citizens.

There is no horded wealth. If you hoard wealth, the Fed will print money until liquidity is restored. The only money that counts is the one in circulation.

Regular citizens circulate enough money to get UBI going.

There are other origins of power but votes are special because they control the law.

Which protests are not ignored?

All origins of power will align when citizens coordinate their votes before an election.

It’s a bit Leninistic. If voting is a race among teams, a state is created that stands atop the citizens.

If citizens debate before the election about what they want and coordinate their votes, then the state represents their will.

Let’s meet in the middle.

Have an open register among participants for who participates and how much they pay.

Then members are incentivized to increase the income of other members. You also have a pool of people for other projects like building cheap new housing.

I would like to believe in your approach but I don’t believe in protests. That’s transferring union tactics from companies to the state. It’s valid in a monarchy but in a democracy, you can talk to other voters and have them support your cause. The citizens are the state.

Votes drive change. Believing in other means distracts from the real origin of power.

But votes have to be negotiated. Blindly voting for one’s own team turns citizens into a product.

What’s your point? I am not opposing UBI. I am arguing that we can have it right now if people want it.