Americans don't really have ways to participate in organizations that will stop this sort of thing from happening.
Republicans endorse it, Democrats endorse it, and third parties are barely even a sideshow. As far as I know, there's no group of "stop sending our military to kill browns" that I can give money to.
I can do all kinds of stuff about domestic policy, try to encourage foreign policy to increase intervention (Darfur (no thanks)), but there's nothing I can do to decrease foreign intervention. It's ugly and the citizens are powerless. I can't even really blame the troops that much because it's basically a trap for poor people who can't find a job to do the bidding of our imperialist leaders.
I highly recommend everyone read Killing Hope by William Blum to get a good rundown of how much this has been happening in just the last 60 years.
You seem to be under the impression that American corporations do not operate in the third world. They do, and they are often responsible for the misery of those countries.
I recommend Killing Hope by William Blum for this subject. It's a good explanation of the events that have happened in the last 50 years (usually) involving the US government's efforts to safeguard the property of American business abroad.
I don't mean to portray it as a banana republic. However, when Wikipedia tells me things like 30% of the population lives on less than $2 per day, it gives me the impression that things like computers are not that widely available.
anything that will make the common people laugh at him, and thereby undermine his social standing from within is just about the only hope Venezuela has left
Ha! You think common people have the internet in Venezuela?
White-collar, internet posting first-worlders are a global minority numerically.
Both heavy and light rail networks are popping up and being rejuvenated all across the US right now, actually. GM hasn't stepped up to bid on any of the new locomotives or rolling stock. It wouldn't be prohibitively difficult for them to retool a factory to do that if they landed a fat contract.
In the ideal socialist utopia, you wouldn't be allowed to raise your own kids. Parenting is too important to be left to parents. They'd go to an indoctrination camp with a built-in park.
That's not at all true; that's against accepted psychological knowledge. I don't excuse the tragedies caused by people like Stalin, but dystopias appear in the real world under every economic system.
You're very fortunate. Those places are models, really. Also, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and probably others are nice. They are exceptional, though.
In most of the country, it's really impossible to get anything done without owning and using a car for nearly transportation activity.
The big problem with automobiles is the problem of space. Modern American cities look like a bomb went off in their downtowns; just a few buildings surrounded by flatness for the sake of parking.
As long as we rely on automobiles for everything, we'll still be consuming too much energy, paying too much to pave too many roads, spending too much money to buy and maintain automobiles, dying in traffic, and wasting time in traffic jams.
Actually, that's not true. Slaves cost money; if they die, you gotta buy a whole new one!
When you have an employee, it doesn't matter what happens to him. You've only paid for his labor, not his life. It's easy to hire a new one and only has a minimal training time overhead.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess there is one thing we know we can do. I just sent $50 to Wikileaks and I bet most other slashdotters can afford that easily, too.
That's the whole point. The military industrial complex wants to make this shit seem normal.
Americans don't really have ways to participate in organizations that will stop this sort of thing from happening.
Republicans endorse it, Democrats endorse it, and third parties are barely even a sideshow. As far as I know, there's no group of "stop sending our military to kill browns" that I can give money to.
I can do all kinds of stuff about domestic policy, try to encourage foreign policy to increase intervention (Darfur (no thanks)), but there's nothing I can do to decrease foreign intervention. It's ugly and the citizens are powerless.
I can't even really blame the troops that much because it's basically a trap for poor people who can't find a job to do the bidding of our imperialist leaders.
I highly recommend everyone read Killing Hope by William Blum to get a good rundown of how much this has been happening in just the last 60 years.
You seem to be under the impression that American corporations do not operate in the third world. They do, and they are often responsible for the misery of those countries.
I recommend Killing Hope by William Blum for this subject. It's a good explanation of the events that have happened in the last 50 years (usually) involving the US government's efforts to safeguard the property of American business abroad.
Yeah, I knew that. I just wanted to take an obvious cheap shot :-)
b-but the founding fathers!
Go learn CSS and JavaScript, you big baby!
800 nuclear missile launchers aren't enough to nuke everyone in one turn?
Worked for Henry Kissinger
When anti-communism is allowed to work, like in Greece after WWII, freedom reigns supreme.
I don't mean to portray it as a banana republic. However, when Wikipedia tells me things like 30% of the population lives on less than $2 per day, it gives me the impression that things like computers are not that widely available.
anything that will make the common people laugh at him, and thereby undermine his social standing from within is just about the only hope Venezuela has left
Ha! You think common people have the internet in Venezuela?
White-collar, internet posting first-worlders are a global minority numerically.
Both heavy and light rail networks are popping up and being rejuvenated all across the US right now, actually. GM hasn't stepped up to bid on any of the new locomotives or rolling stock. It wouldn't be prohibitively difficult for them to retool a factory to do that if they landed a fat contract.
In the ideal socialist utopia, you wouldn't be allowed to raise your own kids. Parenting is too important to be left to parents. They'd go to an indoctrination camp with a built-in park.
That's not at all true; that's against accepted psychological knowledge. I don't excuse the tragedies caused by people like Stalin, but dystopias appear in the real world under every economic system.
That's a good tip, but I actually did intend a tongue-in-cheek "Socialism is impossible" cliche
In my ideal socialist utopia, there would be a collective garden or backyard nearby (a park)
You're very fortunate. Those places are models, really. Also, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and probably others are nice. They are exceptional, though.
In most of the country, it's really impossible to get anything done without owning and using a car for nearly transportation activity.
The big problem with automobiles is the problem of space. Modern American cities look like a bomb went off in their downtowns; just a few buildings surrounded by flatness for the sake of parking.
As long as we rely on automobiles for everything, we'll still be consuming too much energy, paying too much to pave too many roads, spending too much money to buy and maintain automobiles, dying in traffic, and wasting time in traffic jams.
Everything besides decreasing auto dependence is just a bandaid. Of course, I wouldn't expect GM to participate in this since they're the ones who killed our public transit system in the first place.
An even easier one is to look at your boss
Maybe Lenin thought dictatorship was the first step on the road to a worker's paradise, but he doesn't speak for everyone, especially not today.
Modern communists have the perspective to see how the Bolsheviks (among other groups) failed themselves and would rather not repeat their mistakes.
The best way to do it is telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
That's possible, but I don't have the feeling that many people have any particular job over the long haul these days.
Actually, that's not true. Slaves cost money; if they die, you gotta buy a whole new one!
When you have an employee, it doesn't matter what happens to him. You've only paid for his labor, not his life. It's easy to hire a new one and only has a minimal training time overhead.
Many developers end up picking up the pieces of halfway finished projects leftover by others; nobody works in a vacuum.
A good developer should care about what others are doing for a variety of reasons.
It's called Symfony, FYI