I think you are referring to the AI comment at the end of my now deleted post. Happy to repost minus that bit, though I stand by previous my assessment.

I like your reply. It is generally constructive and reasonable, and shows an understanding of the many sides in this discussion.

Your last paragraph articulates a feeling I hear shared across my friends and colleagues, that Western life is imploding and has been for a long time.

I clearly need to read more.

There are plenty of published articles dealing with specific experiments, but I’m going to hold you to the same standard you expect of me. Go do your own research, it is really not that hard. You’ll discover that Powerful groups trend towards corruption (in the long term), and if you dig into the smaller scale social experiments that have been repeated around the world, you’ll discover why. It is very interesting stuff, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

I know I am badly informed about the way things are done in a functional Communist state, like China, and my views are entirely coloured by my western up bringing. I’m over 50yo so I have a lot of cultural assumptions to overcome. That said I struggle with the idea that communism can function without very strict controls and closed door bureaucracy. I guess I prefer to KNOW I’m being lied to by the media and my government, rather than only suspect it but not be able to talk about it.

Regards my desire for individual freedoms, this is not about consumerism. I’m a simplistic guy, I’m not dreaming of the shop-till-you-drop life, or a mansion with 50 cars. I’m talking about my ability to go places and say things without fear that I will be arrested for sharing my views. There will always be consequences for our actions, and if what we say directly results in destruction, pain, or death that is a good thing, but I won’t be silenced just to keep the peace.

I’ll say it again. We are in challenging times with hyper conservatism ruining everyone’s day, but I’m hopeful.

I was hoping for a serious answer. I want to know why you think this view point is so wrong.

Wow, OK. so something wasn’t liked in my reply. Did I hit a nerve ?

Don’t be childish. You know full well that was not the intent or focus or my point. Focus on the human nature stuff and read about the psychology of control and self preservation of groups.

Not about to get into a pantomime back and forth here, but to satisfy your curiosity.Psychology is a personal area of study. I often read the BPS and APA, though my primary interest is Developmental psychology so I prefer the BJP most months. If I had more patience for statistics I’d have made a career of it.

I’ll admit I don’t know enough about transparency in communist societies, but you need to read up on the experiments done on human behaviour in power structures. It is fascinating and scary.

You are right, power is not a super natural force. However, the psychological impact of power is very real and well understood. The evidence of our own experiences should be enough to tell you this. Also, there are countless psychology experiments demonstrating the corrupting influence of power, which often boils down self-preservation through a continued hold on power. People will make up any old bullshit to justify why they should in power.

The degree of corruption varies between individuals and the level of responsibility they have, but once you bring people into groups it becomes unavoidable. Public transparency and oversight is about the only thing that can constrain it.

I don’t pretend to know everything about Leftist theory, but it doesn’t seem complicated. Also, I’m from the UK, where things different enough from the US that it is worth mentioning.

I don’t care for any governmental system that exists now. They are all based on state control of individual freedoms. I am essentially an Anarchist, but with “protection from a distance” meaning something automated and trusted that protects people from harm and control by others, while allowing everyone to do as they please. I realise this is a futuristic fantasy but it is worth aiming for imho.

Before I critique communism further I want to make it clear that I know western democracies are corrupt, some extremely so, and that corruption is driven by the super rich. (Oil, tech, arms, other evil shit).

The nature of corruption is very different between western Democracy and communism. In the west it mostly goes public (and not much gets done about it apparently), but changes are made and things do generally improve in the long term. In china it is all done behind closed doors, and is about protecting bureaucracies. For me the "public vs “private” behaviour is the most important difference. When issues are public is there a chance for the public to have a voice, but when it’s all behind closed doors what chance do the public have?

Also, it is about individual freedoms to do and say what you like without fear of state interference, which communist states don’t have a good reputation for. I’m sure you can think of a few subjects you can’t discuss in China. Why is that? What subjects can’t you discuss in the UK?

Granted, right now western culture is going through a period of hyper conservatism with freedoms being oppressed, but this is a battle ground with voices from every corner speaking out, which is impossible in a communist state. How would this be dealt with in China? Either way, I am hopeful this too shall pass, and we’ll move away from the extremes of capitalism (once the current generation of old people die off)

Regarding my idealism around getting rid of money. T I know this is a problem we can’t solve today, but I don’t think it’s far away This is a side topic for another post I feel. I’ll write up my thoughts and post it.

Not at all. I have to deal with a lot of AI generated slop, and the first half of your reply had a distinctly AI slop sound to it. That’s why I gave my reply then only mentioned the AI bit at the very end.

I’ll admit I am thinking in idealistic terms, but that is the point. I believe in punching through your targets, and not just settle for the “best of a job lot”. I hope for a society that can move beyond the types of government we’ve seen so far.

Power always corrupts. Some individuals are able to avoid this but organised groups never can. Maybe some groups are more altruistic in their goals, initially at least, but the longer they exist the more self preservationist they become. This is basic human behaviour.

I disagree with your conclusion that replacing leadership is a bad thing. If a society (communist or not) is not satisfied with the performance of its leaders they should be replaced. The power to replace leaders must be in the hands of the people, not as an exception but as routine. However, I don’t know of a communist government that allows this, unless I’ve misunderstood?

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The reality is that “leadership” is NOT a working class. It has power and authority over the society it leads, and power corrupts. Democracy is the only hope for society right now because it is the only form of government that has regular replacement of leadership built in.

However, the corrupting influence of money, controlled by the mega rich, will never go away, no matter what system of government you choose.

I’ll say it again, take humans out of critical leadership positions and get rid of money.

Any systems of government run by people in a time of resource limits, and when money is still in wide use, will inevitably become corrupt.

Once we can have anything we want, whenever we want, then maybe we’ll be free.

Worked in UK universities as an Enterprise Architect. Can confirm you can’t rely on those email addresses. It is a gift most Unis provide to graduates, but they’re not obligated to maintain it, or fix it when it goes wrong.

As per above, register your own domain name (I use my own full name .co.uk). This allows me to have lots of email addresses for (shopping@ work@ games@ amazon@ etc etc). Also, if the email host gets too expensive, does something you don’t like, or just cuts you off, you can point your domain name to another host and pick up from there. Obviously it is a good idea to keep a local backup of your emails (thunderbird or outlook) just in case.

Not enough comments in thread. New account. Weird facts, some of which is contextually pseudo tech.

So yeah, A lot more evidence needed. Pcap dump? With your skills I’m sure you can redact anything self identifying.

Edit: forgot the weirdest part. 127TB for data? Example: At full 1GB/s that’s 12+ days flooding that link. To sneak that much data out would take weeks.

Also I don’t buy someone with serious data doesn’t have some physical backups.

These are the people in power now. There should be an international year or celebration when the last person born before the year 2000 dies, with minor celebrations for each decade leading up to that year.

The choice for me was something that did well in gaming. Features like good VRR support made the voice of KDE plasma the only option. I’m not bothered about the KDE UI. It is nice, and similar to windows, so ready enough to get along with.

I am monitoring Cosmic. Once it has HDR and solid VRR, etc I may try it out.