Is the US a dystopia?

ty i appreciate it for sure- i am def not in space i know.

I also live in Philadelphia and so the continued portrayal of the city as some opioid mecca doesn’t do anybody any favors except the outlets printing the portrayals and the police state.

Philly is a hard place, but KnA is legit one tiny strip of blocks in an enormous city that is, in many ways, kind of great.

Northeastern cities that aren’t New York or Boston are so underrated. I love Baltimore dearly and there’s so much cool stuff and cool people.

https://theappeal.org/angola-prison-children-death-row-louisiana/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7haUShzBsrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpGumISBDrQ

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-investors-snapping-up-colorado-river-water-rights-betting-big-on-an-increasingly-scarce-resource

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lights-massachusetts-school-year-no-one-can-turn-rcna65611

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=falApGAB8Rc

the video, the challenge, the ads, the presentation, the everything

they’re all kinda baked into th

... those bangs.

jealous of her mcr shirt

omg i loled at the poll where you could choose "you are god's little soldier" some other shit and "vanilla extract" and vanilla extract won

A good dystopia is packed with minor daily frustrations IMO.

So there's a great Thai restaurant in my neighborhood called Kiin. Yesterday, I searched for their website to order some takeout. Here's the Google result. pic.twitter.com/JFCyvXV9be

— Cory Doctorow (@pluralis✧✧✧@ma✧✧✧.f✧) (@doctorow) February 24, 2023

This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk

The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel from discarded plastics as part of a “climate-friendly” initiative to boost alternatives to petroleum. But, according to agency records obtained by ProPublica and The Guardian, the production of one of the fuels could emit air pollution that is so toxic, 1 out of 4 people exposed to it over a lifetime could get cancer.

Staff members said in interviews that Mr. Becerra continued to push for faster results, often asking why they could not discharge children with machine-like efficiency.

“If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line,” Mr. Becerra said at a staff meeting last summer, according to a recording obtained by The Times.

This quote, from that article, is particularly thread-appropriate:

Underage workers in Grand Rapids said that spicy dust from immense batches of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos made their lungs sting

Ford is seeking a patent for a system that would enable its cars to annoy users with endless notifications and constant beeps and chimes or even lock owners out of the car entirely if they miss a payment, according to a patent application published last week.

i'm amazed it's taken this long. they'll put the repo men out of business, and then when they can't make their payments, take their cars too.

(I mean fuck the Repo industry ANYWAY, but this is way worse.)

really should just post the Youtubes to evry track from The Coup's Steal This Album itt

It goes on to say that it's probably intended for self-drivers, so the cars can just turn around and drive back to the dealership

I dunno, cars driving themselves back to the dealership sounds less dystopian than repo men stealing them back.

completely removes some of the tools people can do to keep their rides a little longer and prevent repossession though

like parking at other people's houses, etc.

frankly repossession of any type is bullshit, automated or not. if it's going to happen, it should have to go through court only, dragged out as long as possible

(I don't mean long extended court costs type thing that'll hurt the person impacted even more, but like rather that if the dealer/seller is trying to get the car back, it should be like eviction where you can't just throw someone on the street, you have to go to court, and it takes a while, so someone has more time to rectify it or at least be prepared for life without a car, not just walking outside and seeing no car like happened to my mom a decade ago).

the entire phenomenon of having to pay 'subscriptions' for things one 'owns' to fully work is indeed dystopian, but it's not really limited to the US

that's capitalism, baby

am i really "alive" this month? or am i actually just 1/840th alive for my life

I was kind of annoyed when that movie Repo Men came out cos they didn't go far enough with the concept, but like we're probably a year or two away from heart transplants being ripped out of you for failing to make a hospital bill payment.

schroedinger's infinitesimal z_tbd

oh, Wikipedia tells me that Repo! The Genetic Opera has a similar plot? huh. maybe i should finally watch after all.

in the alternate dvd-only ending of Repo Man, it ends with Estevez weeping "fuck!" to himself for way too long

lol I mean the shitty 2010 film with Jude Law. ain't even seen the 84 Estevez flick.

i do like that ending though

the 84 flick is a classic imo. it makes you root for the repo men, just a bit

harry dean stanton doing exactly what you want him to do

total classic

"Otto, we don't have much time, so I'm going to have to torture you"

Essential viewing

I dunno, cars driving themselves back to the dealership sounds less dystopian than repo men stealing them back.

To what extent do car dealerships care, though? They got the sale. Seems likelier to me that it's the banks/lending institutions who care. I'd be a little more worried about my car wanting to drive to Bank of America as opposed to Honda of Springfield or whatever.

Yeah, on the local news last night they said that if the car wasn't worth worth what was owed on it, it would drive itself to the junkyard & that does seem pretty fucked up.

Also Repo! The Genetic Opera movie is a super weird production. I fell asleep to it one night and my wife came to bed later and was like "what the hell were you watching?!" the next morning.

From Philip K. Dick's Ubik (1969):

“The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.” He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.” “I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.” In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip. “You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug. From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door. “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.”

meanwhile, down the hall, joe chip's neighbor was fucking the door

As mentioned above, it's crazy how much chat GPT (or more specifically the current iteration of GPT-powered bing) makes me think of Philip K Dick's dystopian view of artificial intelligence. A future where I am constantly arguing with various appliances in my house now seems totally plausible.

I don't remember which novel has some sort of suitcase designed to constantly start pointless arguments with you until you are driven insane enough to not be drafted by the military, but that kind of tech seems to have arrived.

In a remarkable live hit, this local reporter covering the horrific school shooting in Nashville shared her own experience of surviving a school shooting when she was in middle school. I didn't catch her name. pic.twitter.com/qFLu6uWQxl

— Reem Akkad (@reemakkad) March 27, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLMMxgtxQ1Y

It's AI generated... apparently the DNC reacted with absolute glee when they say how bad it is

you would think all the work silicon valley has put into teaching AIs to be racist would have paid off more

I posted that b/c it sucks, just to be clear

The "feels like the train is coming off the tracks" for the famously Amtrak-loving Biden is decent political-snark praxis tho