1
Piroko 1 point ago +1 / -0

Your grievance against Hoover's response to depression is understandable but blind to magnitudes.

Yes, Hoover did create many of the programs that FDR rolled with. But under Hoover's government they were all very small.

I understand that there are some people, probably even yourself, who adopt a "size matters not" attitude with regards to government programs, but, well, that's irrational absolutism, and we're never going to agree on that.

5
Piroko 5 points ago +5 / -0

I remember the early days when Best Buy used to rent VHS cassettes (and players for them). They got out of rentals when Blockbuster went big.

10
Piroko 10 points ago +10 / -0

One guy who doesn't get enough shit is Jack Kemp.

If you were to look at all the things that suck about the current congressional republicans, he would be patient zero.

26
Piroko 26 points ago +27 / -1

The last proper republican was Herbert Hoover. The party lost its spine in the following decades.

You have to understand one thing: Eisenhower was not a Republican. He was Eisenhower. Now, he did believe old guard Republican things (ie, he wasn't a racist democrat) but economically he was a New Dealer.

Nixon was probably the smartest of the Cold War presidents when it came to foreign affairs, but he should have handled inflation by keeping the dollar peg. He knew NOTHING about economics and trusted the wrong people.

By the time you get to Reagan, the party has already been transformed. Reagan was just a tough talking sock puppet.

4
Piroko 4 points ago +4 / -0

They aren't?

16
Piroko 16 points ago +16 / -0

Niche thing becomes popular and a billion dollar industry. Mainstream people notice profitable niche thing and seize it for their own.

But this time the niche thing might end up getting the NFA repealed.

1
Piroko 1 point ago +2 / -1

It's expending political capitol for no gain.

Network neutrality is about settlement free peering, or the free, unprioritized exchange of data across the peer networks that form the internet.

IT IS NOT about last mile providers, although midwits think it is. Being opposed to net neutrality looks like being in favor of last mile traffic prioritization.

It's mostly a fight between extremely large data hosts (Youtube, etc) and extremely large network operators (Lumen, etc), and in practice whether you have neutrality or not matters very little compared to the market forces driving the installation of new fiber. Large hosts increasingly run THEIR OWN fiber direct to major exchanges, making the whole issue moot.

1
Piroko 1 point ago +2 / -1

Lmao you can't go

Sure I can.

I'm the Diogenes here. You're the wannabe Alexander.

0
Piroko 0 points ago +2 / -2

It's not practical or even possible to suddenly replace elites

And this is why I look down on you:

You want power, but you're paralyzed into inaction by fear of the consequences. You know how in Valkyrie they keep trying to kill Hitler and they keep failing because they want to be alive afterwards?

That's you. That's every conservative like you.

You don't have it in you to walk up to Hitler, pull out a gun, and Deus Vult. You don't have that faith.

14
Piroko 14 points ago +15 / -1

Conservatives have been taught that the wielding of political power violates their own principles, and this mentality will always keep them from replacing the progressive left. The first step in attaining the Mandate of Heaven is knowing without a doubt that you have the right to rule.

This is the main point of the article.

Nietzsche and Schopenhauer were never disproven. It's just that their standardbearer lost a war.

Nowhere in the west do I see conservatism with the cajones to seize power. Hell, not even enough to secede.

1
Piroko 1 point ago +2 / -1

Top down problems require top down solutions.

The difference between you and me is that you believe you would be a virtuous leader. I think you wouldn't. I think I wouldn't. I don't think anyone is a virtuous leader. I think the very phrase is a contradiction.

An elite composed of you might be less bad than the elite we have, but that's not enough for me to rally to your banner. It merely means I'll complain less about your reign than theirs should you triumph.

4
Piroko 4 points ago +5 / -1

I'm not arguing for the utility of it. I'm arguing against the utility of corruptible institutions.

Man is virtuous or damned by his own choices, but groups are never virtuous.

6
Piroko 6 points ago +7 / -1

at least "my side" has a cathedral

I'm Quaker. We've been opposed to your cathedral for almost four hundred years.

3
Piroko 3 points ago +4 / -1

Yes or no:

Are you a blackpill accelerationist?

Because that is the only angle I am willing to entertain intellectually as grounds for a porn-grab, that you are trying to drive young men 100% Conan the Barbarian.

If not, then my response is fuck you, I don't trust your cathedral anymore than I trust the leftists'.

6
Piroko 6 points ago +6 / -0

Believe it or not, this country existed without hardcore porn before 1950, when it was invented by Jews.

Before 1950, the whole country had brothels. It's particularly hilarious in the midwest; cruise the historical district of any smaller city and you'll find a house that was very obviously the town bicycle hub. Built larger than normal, but not on the street where all the normal monopoly man mansions are.

It took a world war's worth of military doctors to convince an entire generation that riding the town bike wasn't the best idea.

38
Piroko 38 points ago +39 / -1

The parts of the industry you hate are already illegal.

I don't see how your proposal is anything different from a gun grab. We have a constitutional right to freedom of speech and press. I would not trust the enforcement apparatus that would be needed to make your objective a reality.

The problem isn't unreliable people. The problem is power itself. People are ALWAYS unreliable.

6
Piroko 6 points ago +7 / -1

And if the GOP is smart this time they'll ignore it because bickering over settlement free peering is the most Comcast-grade petty bullshit.

There is no political "win" on opposing network neutrality because the burden of enacting it falls most heavily on the networks... many of whom are on the list of America's most hated companies. A few are under investigation for defrauding the FCC on improvement grants.

Best to leave the issue be and tell any company that comes lobbying to go fuck themselves.

8
Piroko 8 points ago +8 / -0

TL;DR

You are irrelevant because you have no power.

You want the attention of the world? Turn the Nile red.

14
Piroko 14 points ago +14 / -0

"Senator Menendez is one of the most respected citizens in this state McBain, and yet you ran his limo off a cliff, broke the necks of three of his bodyguards, and drove a bus through his front door?"

1
Piroko 1 point ago +1 / -0

I'm quaker, I prefer more intermediate level solutions.

2
Piroko 2 points ago +2 / -0

Microwave weapons cause the sensation that you are on fire.

Put your hand in the box, young Paul Atreides.

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