The non-voters had nothing to do with this. They literally did not participate.

Any real democracy would count the non-voters as part of the results. 20M not voting? OK then, any policies that affect everyone can no longer be enacted. No new laws. No new wars. Government can then maintain plumbing and provide public services, that’s it.

Why isn’t that the case? Why is it not a requirement for people to vote for government to have power?

Democracy…? Sure. Whatever hope you need to feel, friend, see you in the streets I hope.

Thank you. Wow. I was basing that on something I saw or thought I saw in Cosmos (the 1980s version with Carl Sagan). Perhaps I was stoned when watching it. There is little better than to watch one of the Cosmos series while stoned - or the autotuned versions by Melodysheep (on YouTube).

For anyone who wants a quicker read on the above: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_greenhouse_effect

I shall have to revise my world view now. 🤯🤯🤯 Wow. I feel optimistic.

Tardigrades - they will likely survive then. And cockroaches, and other life. So even if we all + most animals die out, we will be like the dinosaurs, and life may indeed bounce back.

I mean… A shadow has been lifted from my soul.

Goddamn. I know it seems like I am joking but I am not.

Good news.

Yay humans.

Actually there is a serious risk that Earth turns into Venus. Perpetually self-reinforcing green house effect. All life on Earth, fried, for all eternity.

Edit: Well, until the sun blows.

FTP?

I go with Njalla for torrents until I hear anything weird about them

No, Njalla at njal.la offers port forwarding

Also, the bell curve does not have a single bottom.

A bell curve counts the frequencies of a single parameter. A person, such as a teenager, does not fit on it.

Not at all

I think you underestimate the impact of technological progress.

Back in the day, you needed an army who could betray you. Tomorrow, you can deploy a fleet of self-governing robots to kill thousands. Of course, only accessible to the rich.

For ordinary folk, the future is looking grim indeed.

My school teacher taught me I should be surprised at things like this.

Luckily, I am no longer 12.

Hmm hmm. I’d recommend reading this: https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too

It argues for why capital punishment is not necessarily a good route to go.

Yes, slavery. It’s been around for ages.

In 1962 there were no “lethal autonomous weapons”.

Only if other people can’t hear you or you’ll be a disturber of the peace.

The issue is the extreme power imbalance. My ‘cloud’ will be a small space, surrounded by capitalism on all fronts. Like an oil field that’s not drilled, but all fields around it are drilled. It’s emptied anyway.

You cannot be ‘apart’ from capitalism as even if you are, or try to be, outside - your position is still going to be defined as an outsider to capitalism and all the hardships that entails.

And if you get a ‘cloud’ big or powerful enough - let’s look at history, what would happen?

Genocide. That’s what happens. Every time.

I believe in personal relationships. Trying to be in good relationships makes this mess endurable and, I believe, safest.

Yes. My guess is that, soon enough, just wearing a police uniform will be enough to end up on kill lists.

Kind of like Colombia during narco wars, except it’s going to be everywhere, no matter what kind of cop.

Cops will need to watch their backs even more when people have less and less to lose, and believe less and less in the ‘rule of law’ that constantly fucks them over.

Yes, this cost-saving doesn’t directly benefit any billionaire.

I think people care, we’re just trained into patterns of learned helplessness and isolation over generations.

There were large swathes of people who resisted during the 19th and 20th centuries, they were systematically murdered en masse. I bet it has happened many times over the centuries.

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve bred ourselves into either loyal obedience or dispassionate compliance because everyone else was always killed by the first group while being ignored by the second.

Or maybe it’s just me 🤷‍♂️