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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023

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  • shalafi@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldWeekend
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    2 months ago

    That’s rather my point! What are we to replace a free market with? Everyone screams SOCIALISM, but no one seems to agree on what that actually means.

    Shall we do the literal, textbook definition? State ownership of the means of production? That’s been a complete failure.

    What we need is a capitalist economic system, reigned in by:

    • Unions, to protect the workers
    • Breaking and disallowing monopolies, so they never get so large as to control the government
    • Democratic governments who protect us, voted in by an educated electorate

    But I repeat myself. I guess the Nordic countries, and most of Europe, who act exactly as I outlined, are failures.




  • shalafi@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldWeekend
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    2 months ago

    For all the bitching about capitalism, which basically every country on Earth uses for an economic system, we’re missing 3 key things.

    • We can have unions under capitalism.
    • We can break, or prevent, monopolies under capitalism.
    • Our governments can protect us under capitalism.

    Everything works fucking great with those 3 ingredients. Imagine that.









  • shalafi@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldApple (SMBC)
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    2 months ago

    Squint real hard and take the beginning of Genesis as a tale of solar/planetary formation followed by evolution, closest origin myth I know of.

    “Let there be light.” Solar ignition. Let’s go!

    They got the order of life mixed here and there, but at least it started in the sea. Adam and Eve’s curse is by far the most interesting bit.

    They eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Let’s say they were apes before that event and look at the curses laid down.

    • Now we know good from evil. Bit hard to argue animals are terribly moral, having a concept of good and evil. Other mammals are close, especially emotionally, but nothing like humans.

    • Now our heads are swole with brains, painful childbirth follows. Don’t know of any mammals that have such painful, risky births.

    • We’re cursed to labor all our days to bring food forth from the ground, when before we were swinging from trees, eating fruit and the occasional howler monkey baby. The invention of agriculture anyone?

    • Cast out of the Garden, we can never get any of the above back.

    I find it fascinating how many factual points they hit without resorting to, “Big god spooged on mountains and giants came forth and so on and so on.” (Yes, I’m aware of how nuts Genesis gets down the road. I’ve read it a time or two.)

    If you really want to confound Christians, point out there’s a second creation myth 3 or 4 pages later, which disagrees with the first.



  • shalafi@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.worldNow you tell me
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    2 months ago

    1991, gf and I are visiting Broken Bow Reservoir in the very SE corner of Oklahoma. (Stunning place BTW! Seriously.)

    Me: “What in the world are all those tiny blue tents?”

    GF: “Roosters for cockfighting.”

    Me: “They still do that?!”

    Later that night, outside our cabin.

    Me: “What is that noise?!”

    GF: “Roosters.”

    Same trip, we hit a convenience store to inquire about an ATM. I’m watching the girls behind the counter point and laugh at her. I could SEE her turning red before she storms out the door.

    “What the fuck was that about?”

    “I explained that I use this card to withdraw money from a bank machine and they laughed at me!”

    Poor gf. Imagine being genius-level IQ and growing up in Oklahoma.

    Another funny thing about that trip; Two broke college kids only needed to scrouge $100 for gas all the way across state, food, 2 nights in a private cabin and a day’s boat rental. $238 in 2025. Imagine that.

    Anyway, felt like telling a story.