Is the US a dystopia?

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Getting back to the topic at hand, Le Guin wrote a book about a moon. Also was there some Cold War global political framework in her gender-bender book? I don't recall.

Climate catastrophe is going to be pretty universal IIRC.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:14 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

which is v little to do with the point about 1492 is it

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Saturday, December 11, 2021 1:17 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It is though (unless I'm misreading). The USA is the biggest historical contributor to the climate crisis. An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis. Same for much of global environmental destruction -- Amazon forest all gone? Thank Ronald McDonald.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 12 December 2021 18:51 (two years ago) link

Local teachers in South Dakota “Dash for Cash” to help their classrooms by fighting over $5,000 in $1 bills while the crowd hoots and hollers. pic.twitter.com/azwGJKhaKU

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) December 12, 2021

mookieproof, Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:29 (two years ago) link

they're going to remove that rug at some point

my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:34 (two years ago) link

and then charge them for it!

calzino, Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:37 (two years ago) link

An argument could be made that if 1492 never happened, there would be no global crisis.

Are we talking a world where Europe never came into contact with the Americas?

Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 December 2021 10:32 (two years ago) link

I can’t live without potatoes

A Pile of Ants (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 13 December 2021 14:19 (two years ago) link

-LL McCooljay

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Monday, 13 December 2021 15:46 (two years ago) link

It would have happened eventually.

Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Monday, 13 December 2021 16:40 (two years ago) link

I can’t live without potatoes

OTM

When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Monday, 13 December 2021 16:56 (two years ago) link

Lol, Neanderthal.

Santa’s Got a Brand New Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 December 2021 17:14 (two years ago) link

NEW: Drone startup BRINC, which just pulled a $25 million VC round, says it was inspired by the 2017 Vegas shooting to build non-violent robots. I obtained a video showing their original mission was a border patrol drone system designed to tase migrants https://t.co/TclkWOO3eM

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) December 13, 2021

mookieproof, Monday, 13 December 2021 17:51 (two years ago) link

It would have happened eventually.

Right but I'm saying the timeline where America turns the Earth into a toilet wasn't necessarily predetermined.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:46 (two years ago) link

Maybe ecocide is the dharma of the human race idk.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:47 (two years ago) link

this is all god's fault. god put the oil in the ground, fully formed, 8000 years ago

my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:49 (two years ago) link

it was all predetermined

my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:49 (two years ago) link

idk these guys predicted it pretty early

https://i.ibb.co/f4P96K0/index.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/cFmrLPX/index.jpg

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:50 (two years ago) link

Yeah I never loved the band but those album titles stuck with me.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 13 December 2021 19:42 (two years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link

personally idgi. fresh produce in american supermarkets is quite bad and expensive, every major city in the world has decent markets, etc. i guess it's better if it's brightly lit and you can listen to an instrumental soft jazz version of after the gold rush? https://t.co/g3b5LOgBcD

— joolsd (@joolsd) December 14, 2021

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 13:59 (two years ago) link

which Publix plays that?!? I'm happy if I get early '80 Boz Scaggs.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 14:12 (two years ago) link

I regret starting a thread that functions as an invitation to post the most depressing news you can find, but more narrowly the degree to which the US seems to be embracing core elements of the most prominent fictional dystopias is pretty striking! Sadly not cyberpunk this time:

https://pen.org/scope-speed-educational-gag-orders-worsening-across-country/

And it’s getting worse. In the month since the report’s release, state lawmakers introduced 12 new bills, bringing the total to a staggering 66 educational gag orders for the year in 26 states, 12 of which have passed into law.

Here’s what’s happening:

The recent group of bills includes seven in Missouri and one each in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
All 12 of these bills target K–12 schools, four include provisions that would impact colleges and universities, and four include a focus on state agencies, other state-funded institutions, and “places of learning.”
Six of these bills specifically ban “critical race theory,” making a total of 20 state-level bills introduced this year with such explicit prohibitions.
Six of these bills contain explicit prohibitions against teaching or using curricular materials from “The 1619 Project,” bringing the total of these to 17 for the year.

rob, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:04 (two years ago) link

xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.

I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.

DJI, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:29 (two years ago) link

we do have abundant food (not everywhere, of course) of mostly mediocre quality. it's ok.

the critical race theory mess is one of the factors in favor of dystopia

towards fungal computer (harbl), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:46 (two years ago) link

to me

towards fungal computer (harbl), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:46 (two years ago) link

xxp I remember back in the 80s, we hosted some soviet kids. When we took them to the supermarket, they lost their shit.

I think the original tweet is referencing that, not that Safeway is better than a local French produce market.


Why should that matter or be remotely relevant, though? That was forty years ago.

mardheamac (gyac), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:48 (two years ago) link

So was communism.

DJI, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 18:00 (two years ago) link

I guess that’s the kind of joke that lands better with boomers.

mardheamac (gyac), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 18:59 (two years ago) link

And that's the kind of joke that lands better with people from 2017.

DJI, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 19:18 (two years ago) link

the tweet is responding to libertarians tweeting photos of american grocery stores to prove a point

towards fungal computer (harbl), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 19:21 (two years ago) link

american supermarkets are among the purest products of american capitalism and therefore accurately reflect all our most popular theories about health and happiness, from gluttony to asceticism, all packaged in convenient sizes for easy consumption. it's a design that's been copied all over the world, with appropriate modifications to suit local tastes and incomes. almost any praise or criticism you want to make about supermarkets can be justified using real world examples.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 19:26 (two years ago) link

from gluttony to asceticism, all packaged in convenient sizes for easy consumption

cf. Randall Jarrell's A Sad Heart at the Supermarket (1960) and the companion poem "Next Day"

Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All

Jeremy Ironist (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 19:36 (two years ago) link

You want to know dystopia? Sometimes I have to go to three different supermarkets to get everything I need.

Jeff, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 19:58 (two years ago) link

I regret starting a thread that functions as an invitation to post the most depressing news you can find

You cannot design a thread that wouldnt fall prey to this within ten mins have you seen this site lately

fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Tuesday, 14 December 2021 20:15 (two years ago) link

no.

lol

DT, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 23:31 (two years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 15 December 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link

whew I had doubts

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 00:22 (two years ago) link

"I can't answer without sharing my personal definition of dystopia"

5 voters just laying it all down

my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 03:24 (two years ago) link

https://t.co/fFOE6vEXOc pic.twitter.com/PPoldWoOdT

— District Sentinel (@TheDCSentinel) December 15, 2021

xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 15 December 2021 11:46 (two years ago) link

we should maybe do a "worst living american" poll

When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 15:26 (two years ago) link

impossible. polls are limited to only 50 choices

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 17:37 (two years ago) link

maybe a poll to make the poll

When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 18:11 (two years ago) link

a poll of polls? better update the list of lists

my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 18:18 (two years ago) link

don't visit ILB if you don't enjoy a poll of polls

towards fungal computer (harbl), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 18:36 (two years ago) link

glad we got this settled

chaos goblin line cook (sleeve), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 18:37 (two years ago) link

got it sordid

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 20:07 (two years ago) link

Is ILX a dystopia?

aegis philbin (crüt), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 20:09 (two years ago) link

just look around

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 15 December 2021 20:11 (two years ago) link

As of today, 50% of women in federal prisons are Indigenous.

This is genocide.

— martha paynter (@MarthPaynter) December 17, 2021

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 18 December 2021 13:08 (two years ago) link

it's not a *direct* pipeline to the MIC, and school districts don't invest in it afaict, but it's amazing how that stuff just trickles all the way down in education.

omar little, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 23:30 (two weeks ago) link

The Cyberpatriot (mobile) site is even datedly creepy like something produced for a Starship Troopers deleted scene.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 30 May 2024 00:05 (two weeks ago) link

The M-I complex has had a death grip on US universities and colleges for most of the past 70 years. It started seriously gearing up in the 1950s and was unshakably entrenched by 1970.

I think I ranted about this on the Oppenheimer movie thread, but American academia wasn't exactly pushed into this - it should be M-I-A, the invisible partner. By the beginning of '43, every physicist in America knew that the Manhattan Project was a science Skull & Bones - whoever got the tap on the shoulder was going to be part of setting the direction of american physics - which leads to the UC running Los Alamos and Livermore, electrical engineering school partnerships with corporate towns like IBM in Kingston, and the o.g. Silicon Valley. All the M & I hired from the A like they were pro football teams. When I entered UC Irvine in 1983, the number of corporate partnerships the university had was front and center as advertising.

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 30 May 2024 02:13 (two weeks ago) link

FWIW, in 1981 General Dynamics took my entire high school to Disneyland for free. All of the rides were free. Way more effective propaganda than Cyber Patriot

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 30 May 2024 02:16 (two weeks ago) link

i recently went to a book fair where the author of this book happened to be and i meant to check it out -- has anyone read it?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61108472-palo-alto

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 30 May 2024 15:52 (two weeks ago) link

I read his first book, but the length of Palo Alto put me off.

jaymc, Thursday, 30 May 2024 15:55 (two weeks ago) link

yes it is HUGE! i would only read as ebook

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 30 May 2024 16:41 (two weeks ago) link

I kinda lost a bit of interest in that book after reading this review: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/grieving-redness-in-the-west-reading-malcolm-harris-after-mike-davis/

fpsa, Thursday, 30 May 2024 19:04 (two weeks ago) link

two weeks pass...

I guess this could go into one of the general COVID threads but running an anti-vax psyop in the middle of a global pandemic as part of Cold War II: The Coldening seems pretty dystopian.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 15 June 2024 05:32 (two days ago) link

fuuuuuck.

Nhex, Monday, 17 June 2024 00:32 (nine hours ago) link


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