Totally apropos of nothing, this is the senior leadership at Africom right now.

Leopold’s colonial rule of the Congo Free State resulted in the death of up to 10 million. Belgian colonial rule didn’t change that much. Shortly after Congolese independence, the CIA helped assassinate their newly elected leader Lumumba.

They replaced him with Mobutu. This allowed the worst colonial abuses to continue. Crucially so did the extraction of minerals. Copper, cobalt, uranium, … very important for America’s interests and economy. Unfortunately this meddling would ultimately result in the first and second Congo war and another 5 million dead. Oops.

Given Africom effectively allows the US to engage in force projection and colonialism in Africa, isn’t it fitting that it’s all white men running the show from Europe?

Some fun facts because I’m bored:

• A few years back Tesla signed a large cobalt contract with Umicore. Umicore is in part a successor to Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a mining company that is in part responsible for that 10 million death toll.

• It is estimated that child labour still accounts for 30% of cobalt mining in the Congo. Some as young as 7. Tesla goes zoom.

• AFAIK the Democratic Republic of Congo is currently not on Trump’s travel ban list, likely because the US is negotiating a new minerals deal. It could also be because Trump or the Whitehouse confused the DRC with the much smaller Republic of Congo. It could also be because Trump is on record as saying he doesn’t know what the Congo is, let alone where it is.

• The DRC has a population of over 100 million, and suffers from the so called resource curse. They produce 70% of the world’s cobalt, have 70% of the world’s coltan, and 30% of the world’s diamonds.

What’s the performance hit for sandboxie?

I know it’s not ideal, but I mainly use an old airgapped/no internet pc to running older/less demanding games. Obviously there’s a risk that the system becomes corrupted and infects the usb stick I use for file transfer, but that’s the gamble I’m taking right now.

If anyone reading this thinks it’s super risky, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m kinda assuming that most malware/harvesters/miners/viruses will want to connect to the internet, and not go the usb route. Seems like it’d be too much of a hassle, unless you want to take down a nuclear program.

I used to use steam for some stuff, but everything’s so expensive and I’m tired of all the forced updates and always on requirements, so I honestly can’t be bothered and torrent as much as possible. Only buying from GOG now, so I can at least share games with the household. Fuck 1 person licenses.

Statistically red shirts are less likely to die, there were more of them.

On TOS roughly 10% of red shirts died. Almost 20% of gold shirts died. Blue shirts were the least likely to die. Something like 5%.

we no longer own our own computers

What are you even on about?

Phones, computers and screens are still very affordable from a historical perspective and compared to the 2000s, you can easily pirate all media and games and own them in perpetuity, and it’s incredibly affordable to buy stuff online direct from the manufacturer. Buying second hand components and stuff has arguably also never been easier. If you’re not an idiot, it’s also still relatively (RIP specialised forums) easy to find the information to repair most things yourself online too. Especially with parts being so readibly available. Freeing yourself of Microsoft has also never been easier.

I went to a shop recently, was quoted 2500 for something. Twenty years ago I would have had no alternative. Now, I simply went on the internet and ordered direct from the manufacturer for 500.

everything we have is rented

I mean, housing is ridiculously expensive, sure. But what are you renting except your home?

a subscription to EVERYTHING in your life

I mean, honestly… You’re quite clearly too young to have been paying bills in the 2000s aren’t you?

Streaming is getting more expensive, but if you adjust for inflation, it’s still cheaper than cable/internet was back in the 2000s. I mean, my mobile plan costs me 5 euros a month for limitless calls, data, and calls. Back in the 2000s I would have been able to send 20 text messages for that amount.

And it’s not as if you need to pay for streaming. You need an internet subscription, a phone plan, and a VPN (which is also incredibly affordable).

Also, a reminder that hetero white male America is not the world. It really wasn’t that great in the 2000s for a lot of us.

Adjusted for inflation, an NES would cost $600 dollars today. An NES game would cost $150. You had to go to the mall to buy the games.

Thanks to spotify, youtube, and piracy music is now essentially free and available almost everywhere. Adjusted for inflation a CD/tape album you bought in 1985 would cost $30. You would had to travel to the mall, but an entire album just for that one song you liked, and listen to it on repeat for an entire month or stay up late to tape a particular song from the radio.

Don’t glorify the past too much. We have never had such easy and cheap access to such a wide variety of media and games. Napster and early torrenting worked well, but the quality was often shit for plenty of stuff.

To paraphrase Tacitus, because I’m feeling fancy:

They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name freedom, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.

It’s interesting how even the Romans thought they were the good guys, while literally enslaving millions and condemning millions more to starvation.

Humans haven’t changed. Great powers haven’t changed. Cunts are still running the world.

America isn’t particularly special. It’s just more of the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

From the looks of it, because he’s about to do a poo.

His opinion is relevant because he’s a cunt and cunts are stilling running the world.

And what that position of privilege cost the rest of the world. For example, Eisenhower was president from '53-'61, is often seen as a great president by Americans, and that decade is seen as a golden age by plenty of Americans (especially boomers).

Outside the US, Eisenhower had Lumumba assassinated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The replacement they helped install, Mobutu, basically continued the brutal rule and many of the atrocities that had occured in the Congo Free State (death toll as high as 10 million), so that minerals could continue to be extracted. Ultimately this would lead to the first and second congo war and an additional 5 million deaths. Fun fact: a few years ago Tesla/Musk signed a large contract with a company which was formed from a merger of companies including the successor of Compagnie du Katanga. The latter was a concession company that operated in the Congo Free State and is responsible for plenty of the worst atrocities committed during that time. Just in case anyone here thinks colonialism was a long time ago. There’s also stuff like the Guatamalan genocide which was a result of the CIA instigated coup of 1954, the 1953 Iranian coup which would ultimately result in Iran becoming an Islamic theocracy, and his signing a deal with Franco which arguably prolonged his rule.

Which often results these same people to think that polite or nice people are weak or don’t pose a threat. Which can be a very stupid mistake to make.

The good news is that we don’t have to choose.

The bad news is that we don’t get to choose.

I suspect it’s partly the changing world order.

Russia, China, and now even the US are openly and brazenly attempting to sow discord in the EU. It’s not unlikely we’ll soon be in open war with Russia, and before that the sabotage and interference operations will only get worse. And the Americans are brazenly trying to install far right governments across the continent.

Sacrificing some privacy may ultimately be the lesser of two evils. Better than half the continent falling to fascism and/or becoming a client state of one of the bigger powers. When the Americans were at least still pretending to be our friends, it was possible to get some of this intel through them because they’re using facebook and google to spy on us, but now they’re compromised you need to get that intel somewhere else.

It’s a shame cunts are still running the world.

If it’s free, you’re the product.

I’m running into the same issue as I move away from American companies. It’s not a coincidence that better privacy laws, often mean less free stuff.

I should point out that the cinema experience used to be better. People have become more selfish.

Also, it heavily depends on the kind of movies you’re watching. Trash attracts trash.

The interesting thing is that IRC plenty of economists think negative externalities (costs imposed on third parties) should be factored into price. That way the market would actually be fairer, more free, and more efficient.

For example, often the price of a product doesn’t include the environmental cost. So for example product A is cheaper to make than product B when you include the environmental cost. But manufacturer B is able to pass the environmental cost on to the tax payer, so the sale price of product B is cheaper in shops, and manufacturer A can’t compete. It’s effectively a subsidy of inefficient and unethical companies. The product which in total costs less to make has a higher sale price than the more expensive product, because we as tax payers and a society are effectively subsidizing the less efficient and more polluting manufacturer. That’s the opposite of a free market.

This happens all the time, even if you ignore direct subsidies. Whether it’s meat, oil products, stuff made in countries with lax regulation (and even more negative externalities), stuff made by underpaying workers and forcing them to rely on the government(and tax payer) aid, etc. etc.

Obviously, this is the kind of wealth distribution and inequality society and the media rarely see as problematic, because it is so deeply ingrained. But never let the right tell you wealth distribution is a taboo. They’re quite happy with wealth distribution when it suits them or their masters.

To be fair, they would probably be pro-life when it comes to giving a pro-life influencer leukemia.

Perhaps a better compromise would be that for every unwanted pregnancy, we get to sterilise the entire family of a far right influencer or politician. For example, Donald Trump’s family are all sterilised to the third degree removed.

And while we’re at it, everyone needs to have gay sex at least once, to see if they like it. Statistically gay couples are less likely to have an abortion, so increasing the amount of gay couples is pro-life. Suck a cock, save a life.

Which any genuine fan knows.

But often the people who make this claim, don’t actually believe Star Trek has suddenly become political, and aren’t genuine fans. They are invariably far-right entryists, pretending to be fans, who want to use Star Trek to push their far-right ideology.

Fascists rarely argue in good faith. Fascist entryists pretend to be fans of a shows, books, films, games, music, subcultures. They then try to spread their propaganda, grooming often impressionable youth into their far right cult.

Some examples:

• skinhead culture used to be heavily entwined with the originally Jamaican rude boy subculture. The far-right so thoroughly infiltrated skinhead culture, that being a skinhead and being a fascist, became synonymous.

• 4chan and other social media platforms being infiltrated by Stormfront, who used these platforms to normalise far-right ideology under the guise of humour. IRC Andrew Anglin, the former editor of the Daily Stormer, even wrote a helpful manual for his fascist friends.

• gamergate, Star Wars fandom, and the men’s rights community.

Their attempts may seem laughable, their claims may seem stupid, but do not underestimate fascists. As we have seen over the past decades, they have had great success in pushing fascism back into the mainstream.

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Live a little.

What’s the worst that could happen putting a coffee mug on someone else’s sofa?