imagine you make an innovative product. I don’t know, automatic fence painter

Do you know why there doesn’t exist automated fencepost painters? As bad as this sort of stuff is in software world it’s soooo much worse in hardware world. The licensing fees for every single little piece of IP that go into it would nickel and dime even large businesses out of building anything like that. Sure there’s also technical difficulties with building one, but those are surmountable. However, a business model that could survive the constant threats of litigation, licensing fees and turn even a mild profit does not exist.

Is this xenophobia to you?

Yes, because you just described what businesses throughout the Western world do to your mythical small business and projected it onto some mythical far east.

someone stealing your product and killing your business?

You do realize that is the point of IP right? To allow legalized theft in this exact manner? In the exact article this comment chain is discussing palworld did their due diligence to verify they weren’t violating any of Nintendo’s IP and then Nintendo modified their patent filing so that they were with the express goal of stealing their product.

the student will get hired to follow up on that research.

You’re right that that’s an aspect I forgot about, however If the patent system worked as you envision it then those students would own the parent which they would then lease to those companies. The actual situation is quite legally messy because it’s usually the universities which own the IP produced, (which is then leased out via partnerships, grants etc ) and when those individuals lease themselves with the promise of producing more valuable IP they have to take cautions to not infringe on their previous work.

I think that’s a bit extreme,

Not really, using Covid as an example this paper details the pre and post-epidemic funding sources that went into the discovery, testing and production of the COVID vaccine. Do you have any other examples you’d like to use to demonstrate how it’s “extreme”?

The COVID example, however, is an outlier

Yes and no, but it is well publicized and documented which is what I was trying to communicate with that specific one as an example.

every good, innovative US or EU product die immediately due to China/India making a 1:1 copy and flooding the markets with it?

If it’s a perfect 1:1 copy why does it matter? Can you explain how this isn’t just a stance rooted in xenophobia?

Enjoy innovative products that startups create? How about not having any of that because as soon as a startup makes something, a big corp comes in with their money, steals the idea, and floods the market?

You just described the dream of most startups. The goal of the vast majority is to be acquired by a big corp so that their idea/product can continue growing, because without acquisition growth is severely limited.

The main alternative is offering them a subsidy on a silver platter, but then you’re making everyone pay for that R&D

R&D for many companies is taking the research done by underpaid graduate and PhD students and using that to create some sort of product or buying out the startups those students created and building from that.

We already live in a system where the majority of costs are publicly subsidized (and that’s not mentioning the myriad of direct subsidies these companies receive, for an especially egregious example look at the amount Pfizer got paid to develop the Covid vaccine) and then the result is patented and privatized.

the level of police response to these Trump protests is radically different than what we’ve seen so far.

If you’re referring to the 50501 or “hands off” protests then yes, there has been no response because those have, generally, been parades not protests. There’s no point in repressing the toothless.

I have literally almost never felt unsafe during the Trump protests.

Resisting fascism is an inherently unsafe act. If you’ve never felt unsafe then you are not actually protesting.

Do you know of more than that which has been happening?

Are the Tesla protests and arsons close to what you’re asking about? I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “has been happening”?

The intention was one of contextualizing current events. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by gatekeeping?

The original series of speeches and sermons by the former Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller’s mentiones the Incurables, Communists, socialists, schools, unionists, democratic socialists, Jews, the press, and the Church. but explicitly avoids mentioning the Nazi party started with felons and foreigners.

The original German poem omits the felons, foreigners, incurables, schools, press and church.

The American English version further omits the Communists and originally tried to replace “unions” with “industrialists”.

If you are going to project the “first they came for” concept onto the USA you can either start with the spirit of the poem:

First they came for the indigenous peoples

Which sets the start date of the poem to at least ~1850.

Or you can start with the letter of the poem:

First they came for the Communists

Which sets the start date to at least ~1950.

During the Trump years, it was a real possibility that you might get kettled, maced, arrested, beaten, tazed, charged with felonies, hit by a car by a “counterprotestor”, or straight-up killed by the police during a lot of the protests

That never stopped. The student intifada? Tortuguita? Etc.

There is a big difference between “Fuck America” and “Fuck all Americans”.

Of those 300 million, the ones who are not to be blamed are the ones who realize this and also say “Fuck America!” Surely you can’t be so ignorant as to not see how the existence of that country as a political institution has a direct and causal link to this sort of outcome.

Yep, so unless you have a passport you now might not be able to take any form of air transportation.

I do what I can. But it doesn’t feel like enough.

And it clearly isn’t enough as things are getting worse, but also what I’m doing clearly isn’t enough either. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for one, or two, people to do enough. It’s just important you do what you can and remain cynical about what those limitations are.

I apologize if this felt like it was targeted explicitly at you, but I don’t see a path forward without aggressively corralling those who are doing “what is expected” vs “what they can” and I apologize if my attempts at pushing were misdirected or misplaced.

Keep on doing what your doing, if we all keep doing what we can we’ll get through this.

Oh I agree, but that one didn’t seem to bad to me due to the clocks depicting an in-game time that were everywhere. The ones that I almost rage quit on were:

Some I really appreciate that I’m not seeing on this list:

I’m currently enjoying Blue Prince which is a fairly new rogue-like puzzle/mystery game it’s hard to explain without spoiling but it’s worth looking up.

Portals of Phereon is one of my absolute favorites. It’s a fairly deep tactical RPG thing with loads of replayability. It’s kind of like a Pokemon x FF Tactics but with monstergirls and it’s also currently free while it’s in development. Be aware it’s extremely NSFW and horny, which I suspect is the main reason it’s not as popular as some of the others listed (IE rimworld, stardew valley, etc.) however the horny is such a key point to it’s original gameplay and world-building that it wouldn’t be the same without it.

Thea: the awakening is a decent tactical RPG. I love it for it’s original battle mini game, crafting system and world-building. It unfortunately has some balance issues and jankiness that prevents it from being an all time favorite, but it’s definitely one I would encourage at least trying.

Thought of a few others:

• Reus (2nd one’s alright, first one’s excellent)
• Library of Runia
• Book of Hours
• Kenshi (saw it listed one other time, but it deserves a lot more love)

how would you know if I was or was not actively doing something

It’s the Internet I don’t. The difference in perspective I see is the lack of ‘guilt by association’ which only goes so far. That was kind of what the whole Nuremberg trials were about. My point is that if you are not confident that in a real life interaction you can demonstrate either you were unaware, were resisting, dis-associated yourself or were incapable, then you do shoulder some of the blame.

The fact we’re having this conversation shows you are not unaware, I hope you’re actively resisting but the defensiveness tells me you might not believe you’re doing enough, and if that’s because you’re incapable, for whatever reason, then give yourself some grace. If that’s not the case then yes, you modern_medicine are to blame for the fascist bullshit happening around you.

people from your country surely do drugs which is why the cartels exist and kill people.

I believe you have a poor understanding of what cartels are and why they exist, but yes using your example I can confidently say I actively work to alleviate the conditions that result in people self-medicating and have distanced myself from cartels and their activities as much as I am aware and capable of. Can you say the same?

I agree that “blame” may not be the right word. Is there an English word for “complicit through complacency”?

Then I guess you should probably be actively doing something about that problem shouldn’t you?

So long as you aren’t that blame isn’t really misplaced is it?

argument against words than it does against concepts.

That’s good feedback, thank you. I did do both and I think it muddled the message a bit.

It was also not the best example, but I tried lol. Have a lovely day!

you’re going to mount a defense against the existence of Mt. St. Helens, right?

I will!!! Mostly to try and better illustrate what is being meant by “perspective is not reality”.

I am certain of the fact that Mt. St. Helens is a volcano that exists.

A mountain exists in that location that was formed via an underlying volcano, however the name for both is Lawetlat’la.

I am certain of the fact that it erupted prior to my existence upon this planet

Volcanoes themselves generally do not erupt, magma chambers erupt through (and via that process create) volcanoes.

I have never laid my own eyes upon this volcano

Nor have most. Outside of eruption events the volcano isn’t visible, only the mountain is.

The volcano Mt St Helens does not exist. Using the mountain of Lawetlat’la as evidence does not make the volcano Mt St Helens exist because while the mountain and volcano are distinct entities, standard naming convention is to call them both the same thing.

it’s the system we have and we should use it

That was Thomas Jefferson’s justification for the continuation of slavery.

Regulation and heavy taxes

This assumes a world where regulatory capture is not the default state of things.

the government can’t seize citizens personal property for no reason and without compensation.

That “no reason” is extremely vague and allows it to be one of the primary underlying argument against taxes and regulations.

Disagree with personal property shouldnt exist, but agree that businesses need to have their power and ownership regulated heavily

But without also limiting the power and ownership of individuals we loop right back to feudalism and the exact issues these systems were designed to solve.

What is your understanding of what “personal property” is like under some idealistic, utopian communism?

regulate harshly and with a 50s style tax

Isn’t this argument ‘free-market but with guardrails’ or did I misunderstand?

What do you mean by “personal property”? That monopolistic land ownership is okay so long as it’s individuals not businesses?

Since Nixon vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace back in 1968.

In 2024 pproximately 59.0% of voting age population voted, which is 63.9% of voting eligible population.

2020 was the only year to surpass with 62.8% VAP/65.3% VEP.

3rd place is 2008 with 58.3% 61.6%.