alvvayson @ alvvayson @lemmy.dbzer0.com

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2 yr. ago

My car gives a warning when it detects a potential collision.

Usually, it's right before I start turning into a turn.

I get it, it's 2-bit brain doesn't realize that the car will not, in fact, drive straight into the wall.

It doesn't realize that I have had my foot off the gas in anticipation.

I would really hate if the car would brake under those circumstances.

You are right. But I still see most people refer to the Plaza accords. I guess those are just more well known.

As a European, I say fine and sure.

But then we also withdraw from the Plaza accords.

Ever since China has winded down their US debt holdings, we have picked up the tab and the EU countries are now the largest foreign holder of treasuries.

Time to start selling.

And also, we only buy from European defense firms, no more spending on American defense.

Billions have already been spent on building chip fabs which will never be profitable.

Yes, China is doing the US taxpayer a solid by giving them an opportunity to prevent losing money on AI, but I think this administration is going to find a way to send those billions to silicon valley anyway.

I personally think that moment was in 1993, when the Encarta CD was released.

It had a huge amount of information, but it didn't feel overwhelming.

The internet also didn't feel overwhelming.

In 2005, I think the internet already felt overwhelming.

But I guess if you weren't the nerdy type crawling the web, then social media and smartphones were the game changer and I would put the date closer to 2010.

Only if those American importers had the foresight to buy coffee, or coffee options, earlier.

What happened now was that American importers and speculators immediately scrambled to buy coffee to avoid tariffs and this drove up global prices.

This whole adventure does seem like a win-win though.

Trump and his supporters won because Trump convinced them he got them something.

Colombia won because they didn't have to actually give away anything, but coffee prices did rise even further. If they can get 25% more for their coffee, then that's a cool extra billion on a $4B export.

BRICS also won because they are quickly becoming a more attractive trade organization than the WTO.

I guess only coffee drinking American libs got owned.

You are talking about people who voted loyal to Democrats for decades, donated and campaigned.

The democratic party took their votes for granted and wasn't even willing to talk to them.

As Europeans we have spent trillions on buying American defence products and buying American debt.

While China has been divesting from US debt, the UK and other European countries have been picking up the slack and now own more than 2 trillion of US debt.

I think we have to seriously stop subsidizing the USA and start investing in ourselves.

https://en.macromicro.me/charts/81306/top-10-countries-holding-us-debt

So what's your point?

Was this election so unimportant to the Democrats that they couldn't pressure Israel into a ceasefire in October?

Biden had all the power for the past 15 months. Failing to deliver anything and claiming they are "working tirelessly" can only mean incompetence or deception on the part of Democrats.

Blaming Palestinian-Americsns for staying home when American bombs were killing their families is just such a weak take.

I agree.

This also isn't 2016.

The American voting public knew what they were voting for and they cast their ballots and gave Trump a presidency and a Congressional majority.

Businesses are responding to the changed political reality. And we also know how businesses operate, in an amoral fashion.

If anyone thought Coca-Cola was some paragon of virtue, then they were naive.

Yeah, but think your examples through.

Refusing to treat because of a religion is illegal and there is no way for a doctor to justify it.

But being a doctor that only treats men or only treats women is not illegal, and many exist.

My barber only services men.

If he came out and said that he doesn't cut women because they are inferior or whatever, he would quickly be fined or jailed.

But because he says he specializes in men's hair, it's fine.

And maybe he secretly is a misogynist, but there is no way to know.

You don't understand how medicine works.

A doctor can't just decide to start doing a new medical procedure. They need to learn and practice. It takes a significant investment. And to be good at a procedure requires doing it often.

Even my dentist referred me to another dentist for a relatively simple procedure, because the other dentist is better at it and does it more often.

For a doctor that is not experienced in performing abortions, doing an abortion would be medical malpractice. If anything goes wrong, and the chance is higher due to lack of experience, they will be sued and they will lose the tort case.

So doctors have to choose what procedures they specialize in. And obviously, nobody who is morally opposed to performing abortions will choose to specialize in performing abortions.

It is a conscious choice and long term commitment to be an abortion providing doctor.

Not performing a procedure that you don't regularly perform is prioritizing patient health.

Right, because you would want to be the patient to undergo a procedure by a doctor that never performs that procedure?

No sane country does this.

Maybe go live in a dictatorship if you like to force people to cut into other people's bodies.

The vast majority of Germans did not know about the death camps. They were under the impression that the Jews were held in labour and prison camps and only learned about the genocide towards the end of the war, around 1943.

My (great)grandparents were in the Dutch resistance and saved many people, including Jews. They thought they were saving them from labour and prison camps.

They also only learned about the death camps towards the end of the war when news of it started leaking out. This made them even more resolved to save whom they could, which was hard in the Dutch famine in the 1944/1945 winter. They gave away a lot of food that winter.

Neither they, nor the Germans, could do much more than that. Trying to protest the Holocaust would lead to immediate arrest by the Nazi's.

Also, even the Nazi's didn't know about the Holocaust until the 1942 Wannsee conference where they invented it as "the final solution". By that time the war had entered its third year.

My point is, unlike the Israelis today, the German public as whole at that time can only be accused of being complicit in genocide, during a period where they themselves were under martial law. They can not be accused of supporting genocide while still enjoying civil rights.

Which is why I have more disdain for the Israelis today.

A hospital is just a building and the organization that owns the building.

The real question is, should hospitals be allowed to force or forbid doctors from providing medical care?

A doctor (Catholic or not) should never, and can never, be forced to perform a medical procedure, including abortions. And they also shouldn't be forbidden from performing a medical procedure.

Hospitals just provide rooms and equipment so that doctors can provide the care that their patients need, within their ability to provide that care.

I mean if people are gonna have guns and people with mental crises who go and murder other people, then let's choose the lesser evil:

a) Sandy Hook style shooting up a school, killing many kids and teachers

b) New Orleans style driving a car into a public event, killing many partygoers

c) Luigi style murdering a single person who is arguably themselves guilty of causing the legal death and suffering of thousands

Now what would be the lesser evil in this scenario?

Obviously, I prefer no dead people, which would require regulating guns and providing mental healthcare and a social safety net to people, but alas, that option seems to be impossible.

A bit late, but I just want to say, you are doing it right. I hope you find a new home for your community.

If people want less bigoted religions, then they will need to support initiatives by reasonable people to steer those religions.

Otherwise, if all reasonable people leave a religion, all that remains will be a cesspool of toxicity and ignorance.

G