I used to work the IT help desk as well and I didn’t want to fix broken shit in my spare time either. Friends and family were constantly on me to fix their shit or worse, help them setup their new thing / upgrade or whatever. The thing that always irritated me about it was that no one ever considered this a favor, you know, actual labor. To them, I just knew the secrets, and should simply share those secrets with them like a good friend. Because whatever they wanted to do, in their minds, was very very bad easy, they were just missing some small secret answer that would make it all suddenly work. And of course they’d only consult me late in the game after they’d made the purchase or whatever and gotten stuck because it didn’t work. Eventually I had to formally declare that I wouldn’t be helping anyone anymore.

Iran was allowing some ships through. The logic is that if it’s closed to the US it must be closed to everyone (it was not before).

Do I think this is a good move? No. Do I think Trump and Hegseth have three brain cells between them? No.

But it also isn’t hard to understand their angle here. It’s not better for anyone. But the idea is to make it worse for Iran than the previous phase, where they had control of the strait.

Thank you. I am interested to learn more.

I’m getting a little lost - you said both “social democracy” and “democratic socialism” there. I just want to be sure that was intentional? I’m still a little unclear what the better system’s rules are. I don’t mean to be ungrateful for the explanation, but this section in particular didn’t clear anything up for me:

people can still get rich, own companies, and buy jet skis, but they can’t take a successful company that hundreds of people have helped build and centred their lives around and hand control of it to their unqualified, arrogant, spoiled children to run into the ground

So… okay, but how is this codified in law? No inheriting?

Any reason not to just throw out these terms and talk about it as capitalism vs communism?

Thank you for breaking this down. Would it be fair to say that social democracy on a national scale can still be imperialist but social democracy on a global scale would actually be a good thing? I guess when I see social democracy equated with fascism it leaves me wondering what is actually the better path.

Deep breath. I wonder if I can say this without the room thinking I’m defending Charlie Kirk… Hm. I’ll give it a shot.

Objectively, I think it’s wrong to celebrate death. I tell my kids that we don’t cheer when someone dies. Even when Trump goes, much as we hate him, we’ll just quietly turn the page. Isn’t there some saying about how you don’t really believe in a principle unless you’re willing to apply to to your worst enemy? Well, so yeah, I will not cheer when Trump dies, though I may moan every day that he’s alive.

Having said this, I would indeed add an extra layer of revulsion for cheering an assassination. In addition to the simple fact that it’s a death, it’s also violence.

So while I appreciate the spirit of this, it’s not a perfect equivalency.