Linux server admin, MySQL/TSQL database admin, Python programmer, Linux gaming enthusiast and a forever GM.

  • 0 Posts
  • 86 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 8th, 2023

help-circle



  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon ground
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    So, I watched that third link in its entirety. It was pretty interesting. I think the core idea is that NK isn’t some absolutely insane bizarro land, which I actually agreed with beforehand. It did not disprove the fact that NK is an authoritarian dictatorship. The only thing it did prove (which again, I knew about beforehand) is that western media likes to exaggerate the faults to hyperbolic levels. I honestly think that the average north korean would live a better life without the Kim family (or any other family regime) ruling over them. This doesn’t mean that they force people to have specific hairstyles at gunpoint or execute politicians for slouching during speeches (as the video joked about), but they still direct a large portion of the states wealth towards friends and family.

    I think you should really honestly consider the fact that two wrongs don’t make a right. NK and the USA do terrible things. Instead of litigating which one is worse, maybe we should focus on how to make better alternatives, like you’ve done with this alternative to Reddit.



  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon ground
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    To all of those stories, they seem like strawmen. I’ve not heard anything that ridiculous. Just that NK is an authoritarian regime that rewards friends and family of the regime at the expense of the well being of the populace. Kinda like a red veneer over Saudi Arabia, similar system.

    So why aren’t you asking why the US is allowed to participate when they commit far worse atrocities?

    I didn’t even ask why NK isn’t allowed to participate. Why are you giving me an argument I didn’t make?


  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon ground
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    1st link:

    Defectors can expect to receive the six-figure payout if they cross the border with intelligence that helps enhance South Korea’s security.

    That… is actually very reasonable, and does not support or diminish your argument.

    2nd link: I’m sorry, but DPRK news room doesn’t exactly scream unbiased.

    3rd link: The tone and channel name seems comedic at first glance, but I’ll watch it and get back to you. Plenty of comedians doing real journalism these days anyway, so that shouldn’t be a mark against him.




  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlAverage US presidential debate
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    How do you ever solve a problem if you don’t acknowledge it exists?

    I’m not from the US, but live in a country that is a US ally with a lot of military bases. The US election effects us. The fact the DNC is fielding an old age pensioner who should be sitting comfortably in a retirement home complaining about the birds obstructing his view against an equally old fascist is deeply worrying.



  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlThree Wishes
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 months ago

    No, I’m not talking about the 1936 constitution. I meant specifically the disempowerment of local and union soviets.

    I’m no expert on Russian history, so I may be misinformed about this, but as far as I understand it he put in place a series of reforms that stripped power from the local level and empowered the central committee.


  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlThree Wishes
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Are the concepts of freedom and working towards collective good so mutually exclusive?

    Not necessarily, and I also disagree with the commenter above that without the USA suddenly the world would be singing kumbaya.

    The problem was dictators seizing power in turbulent times. In Russia, Stalin abolished the soviets (A.K.A worker’s councils, kinda like mega unions) in the Soviet union. I think that says a lot.

    In Romania (I’m a bit better equipped to talk about this one), things were a bit different.

    The original communist government (1945) was essentially a Russian puppet state that drained the wealth of Romania via war reparations. Stalinist purges happened often during this period.

    During the 1950s and early 1960s, Romania got a degree of independence and things were actually looking up. Society in general (infant mortality, gender equality, literacy, standard of living, etc) were all improving rapidly without Russia draining us and making decisions for us, and we didn’t have a surveilance state of the scale that would come later. This was a period marked by political battles between the liberal communists and the Stalinist communists for control, with Stalinists commiting some pretty horrible atrocities (if you want nightmare fuel for some reason, look up the Pitesti experiment).

    Then, 1965, Ceacescu took power. During his early years, he actually looked like a liberal (EDIT: Just to be clear: I mean a liberal communist. This means more individual freedom for citizens in a communist economy). He allowed some emigration, some free speech, and even spoke out about the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. This, at the start, did not look like a typical authoritarian communist state. Unfortunately, Inspired by the “amazing” society of North Korea in 1971, he started to make changes in the structure of society to be more like it, which included an expanded Securitate. 2 years later, harsh austerity policies to repay foreign loans led to a massive drop in living conditions, which led to riots, which led to crackdowns. Things rapidly spiralled, and the Securitate were given more and more power to keep control.

    This then became the police state that everybody thinks of when they think of communism. A combination of too much power in 1 person’s hands, an authoritarian imperialist overlord (Russia), and rising backlash against dropping living conditions.


  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.workstoMemes@lemmy.mlbe honest
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 months ago

    Considering Ronald McDonald was a character primarily aimed at young children, I don’t think they were mentally capable of having personal responsibility at that age.

    As for the parents who were pestered to buy happy meals by their children, there’s like 50 ways to answer this question. I personally think that in a mentally healthy adult, personal responsibility is a factor, but it’s not the only one and is balanced by social conditioning, genetic predispositions, mood in the moment, and a ton more factors.

    The children who for one reason or another were brought up eating fast food are conditioned both socially and biologically to eat fast food, and breaking out of that addiction (as with any other addiction) can be very difficult, and is more complex than doing the equivalent of saying “git gud scrub”.

    Wow, that turned into a wall of text, sorry.

    Tl;dr: it’s way more complex than just “personal responsibility”.





  • Having one line about sleeping with the captain’s daughter might have been even more amusing (and thus more catchy) because of the double meaning.

    Very likely, probably why the whole captain’s daughter = captain’s whip thing took off as sailor slang to begin with.

    your average deck hand singing sea shanties isn’t thinking metaphorically when he’s singing about getting drunk and laid.

    I never claimed it was a metaphor, it’s slang. Similarly, the “gunner’s daughters” were the gun barrels midships on gunships.

    And insisting that the one line in the song isn’t about fucking is feels like wishful thinking

    I mean, no skin off my nose if you believe that, but it seems pretty clear judging from the fact that the captain’s daughter is a well known slang term for a whip in a song about punishing a drunk that that is extremely likely the correct original intent. Of course anybody can interpret anything any way they want.


  • Think about it inside the context of the song. Every other line is a type of punishment:

    • Shave his belly with a rusty razor (painfully pull chest hair out with a dull blade)

    • Put him in a long boat till he’s sober (put him somewhere uncomfortably cramped on his own)

    • Give him a dose of salt and water (probably the nicest variation of the song, make him vomit)

    • Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe on him (scupper= hole in the side of the ship, so stick his head in a hole and hit him with a hosepipe)

    There’s also loads of other variations on the song with tons of different punishments for the drunken sailor.

    Why would this line suddenly be different?