Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

(tap tap). Is this thing on?>> ^rougy:

>> ^dag:
Not me. I've already gone through manopause. >> ^rougy:
So which of you is on the rag this time?



Manopause...that's where a dude can't get it up any more, isn't it?

And hey! What's not funny about menstruation? Cracks me up every time!
And note the dystopian, deconstructive antithesis of my menstruation allusion apropos of the original ejaculatory metaphor?
Took me hours to do that!

>> ^dag:

Not me. I've already gone through manopause. >> ^rougy:
So which of you is on the rag this time?



Manopause...that's where a dude can't get it up any more, isn't it?



And hey! What's not funny about menstruation? Cracks me up every time!

And note the dystopian, deconstructive antithesis of my menstruation allusion apropos of the original ejaculatory metaphor?

Took me hours to do that!

I dug Rise of the Planet of the Apes too. Part of the reason Ceasar seemed so human was that Andy 'Gollum' Serkis did the motion capture.

I do love me some dystopian apocalyptic fiction, and had no problem cheering on the apes, but I certainly don't have a societal death wish. Quite the contrary. I think these films are more of a warning of what may happen if we don't get our collective shit together as a planet. I think these films are an exaggeration of the problems of the present - greed, selfishness, conformity, commercialization, corporatism, the devaluation of humanity, disconnectedness, environmental destruction, weapons of mass destruction, cosmetic surgery, prescription drugs, a return to base human violence, loveless sexuality, prejudice, etc. The post apocalypse is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Sure, they were negative, even dystopian. But they weren't about the extinction of the human race. As a sub-genre of SF I realise that end-of-the-world stories have been around forever, they just seem to be much more frequent of late. And yeah, it would be nice to get an uplifting, positive SciFi epic. I'm trying to think of any I've seen in the last few years.

>> ^Farhad2000:

Wait 2001 was based around the Cold War no? I might be confusing it with book here... Alien was a world run by Multinational corporations exploiting people/aliens. The Moon was a corporation essentially cloning people. I think a bunch of these are debatable.
The closest I can think of as a completely positive spin on the future was 2010. Since it was all Cold War bullshit but the scientists worked together and that whole THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXPECT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.

With the silent, peopleless suburbia lined with identical homes in the background, this would make an excellent viral ad for an alternative-history-dystopian-present-like film. Chilling.

>> ^hpqp:

I'm calling BS: a "fully privatised capitalist utopia" and you're still breathing for free?


Hey, I pay my taxes to President Skroob!

>> ^hpqp:
I'm calling BS: a "fully privatised capitalist utopia" and you're still breathing for free?


Who said it was free?

http://videosift.com/video/TDS-Dystopian-Future-in-the-Future

This is my homage to you....

>> ^blankfist:

>> ^DerHasisttot:
@blankfist : "A free market offers no certain guarantee of protection, but what it does do is put the power of each industry and each market into the hands of the many instead of the hands of the few."
How? The way I see it, deregulated corporations would pay their employees less for more work and could easily fire the sick, elderly or 'superfluous' workforce. The bigger companies would be unstoppable to lower the price of their products and crush smaller competitors over time with unregulated business practices. I see a Victorian Age industrialism similar to dystopian's scenario. Which ultimately failed and led to worker protection mechanisms.
How would the workforce actually be empowered by libertarianism?

I think the major problem is with how you and others on here may view corporations. If you see them as private entities born from unbridled capitalism, then you're not seeing the whole picture. Corporations are created by government. I know people create the business itself, but corporations are a fictitious entity legitimized by government. Without government you'd have no corporation.
For example, if I decided today I wanted to bake and sell cupcakes I could do that, but I couldn't incorporate without the government. And corporations enjoy the benefits that only government can give them, such as subsidies/welfare, limited liability, and regulations and permits (that keep less profitable and smaller businesses from competing).
So, if you open the market, and I mean make it free without regulations and subsidies and permits and limited liability and so on, then you'd not have corporations. Why? A) they wouldn't exist on paper, because government would be out of business altogether. B) they'd not benefit from unfair advantages that government gave them.
This would allow more people from the bottom to pull themselves up and create businesses without the typical barriers government puts into place. This would also mean wealth would be transfered away from the large businesses and into the hands of the smaller businesses, because the number of businesses would increase and thus the amount of competition. Does that satisfy your question?


Not really.

If all state-influences (regulations and subsidies et cetera) to all businesses are gone, how can a small competitor then compete with a larger competitor? (I'm working under the presumption that there had not been a null-setting of all capital.) Would the large competitor not be able to be more efficient and therefore cheaper? Would not the workforce of any of these businesses be working under worse conditions? (than in a regulatet environment)

>> ^DerHasisttot:

@blankfist : "A free market offers no certain guarantee of protection, but what it does do is put the power of each industry and each market into the hands of the many instead of the hands of the few."
How? The way I see it, deregulated corporations would pay their employees less for more work and could easily fire the sick, elderly or 'superfluous' workforce. The bigger companies would be unstoppable to lower the price of their products and crush smaller competitors over time with unregulated business practices. I see a Victorian Age industrialism similar to dystopian's scenario. Which ultimately failed and led to worker protection mechanisms.
How would the workforce actually be empowered by libertarianism?


I think the major problem is with how you and others on here may view corporations. If you see them as private entities born from unbridled capitalism, then you're not seeing the whole picture. Corporations are created by government. I know people create the business itself, but corporations are a fictitious entity legitimized by government. Without government you'd have no corporation.

For example, if I decided today I wanted to bake and sell cupcakes I could do that, but I couldn't incorporate without the government. And corporations enjoy the benefits that only government can give them, such as subsidies/welfare, limited liability, and regulations and permits (that keep less profitable and smaller businesses from competing).

So, if you open the market, and I mean make it free without regulations and subsidies and permits and limited liability and so on, then you'd not have corporations. Why? A) they wouldn't exist on paper, because government would be out of business altogether. B) they'd not benefit from unfair advantages that government gave them.

This would allow more people from the bottom to pull themselves up and create businesses without the typical barriers government puts into place. This would also mean wealth would be transfered away from the large businesses and into the hands of the smaller businesses, because the number of businesses would increase and thus the amount of competition. Does that satisfy your question?

@blankfist : "A free market offers no certain guarantee of protection, but what it does do is put the power of each industry and each market into the hands of the many instead of the hands of the few."

How? The way I see it, deregulated corporations would pay their employees less for more work and could easily fire the sick, elderly or 'superfluous' workforce. The bigger companies would be unstoppable to lower the price of their products and crush smaller competitors over time with unregulated business practices. I see a Victorian Age industrialism similar to dystopian's scenario. Which ultimately failed and led to worker protection mechanisms.

How would the workforce actually be empowered by libertarianism?

GenjiKilpatrick:

Would you please stop babbling and step into reality.

>>> You're the one on the unicorn.

Talk to Dag or Blankfist or Dystopian or Me or even.. Westy for fuck's sake.


>>> I have, and will again.

We're all ACTUAL people who have identified Obama's corruption, incompetence, & hypocrisy for what it is to varying extents.

>>> You have collectively been disappointed that His Earness hasn't closed Gitmo, ended the wars, brought about universal health care, etc. That's not the same as noting corruption and incompetence. Hypocrisy, incompetence and corruption are endemic to politics, but there are degrees of severity. This guy has made us a laughingstock amongst our enemies and his trillion dollars of spending haven't done JACK SQUAT to "fix" the economy. America is living on borrowed time, money and Vaseline and the dunce is out golfing while the world burns. The only way to stay sane is to assume that was his plan all along, taking America down a notch in the name of social justice. To imagine any other outcome means he's a total n00b (which he is).


None of us would ever call a person racism for agreeing with this understanding of events.

With apologies because Netrunner isn't here to comment on his comment:
----------

It does seem like the right-wing consensus will be to just double-down on the original racist dog whistle, rather than shift to one of the others they've tried out since 2007.

----------

Stop hiding behind your extremist rhetoric and engage in an ACTUAL dialogue with left leaners and you'd realize that we all want the same thing.

>>> It's sad that demanding a reasonably-sized government answerable to the Constitution is now considered "extremist". The left views free market capitalism as exploitive and evil (to an extent true) while "my" side sees it as the fastest and most efficient way to lift people out of poverty. It's impossible to argue anything without common ground, and the reality is, not everyone in life ends up a winner, due to poor choices, heredity or plain bad luck. It's not government's job to right every wrong.

It's only you and the douche bag neo-liberals who are your polar opposite, too caught up in dogmatic cheerleading, which are holding the rest of us back.

>>> If that belief comforts you...

>>> The Constitution is a "holding back" document, meant to limit the power of government. If you're waiting for government to make your life extraordinary and make everyone happy and equal, you could be immortal and still not have enough time.

>>> If the American people aren't smart enough to elect someone else besides BHO, they get what they deserve. Hell, they already have.

Would you please stop babbling and step into reality.

Talk to Dag or Blankfist or Dystopian or Me or even.. Westy for fuck's sake.

We're all ACTUAL people who have identified Obama's corruption, incompetence, & hypocrisy for what it is to varying extents. None of us would ever call a person racist for agreeing with this understanding of events.

Stop hiding behind your extremist rhetoric and engage in an ACTUAL dialogue with left leaners and you'd realize that we all want the same thing.

It's only you and the douche bag neo-liberals who are your polar opposite, too caught up in dogmatic cheerleading, which are holding the rest of us back.

Assholes.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Do those who oppose Obama hate him because he's (half) Black? Some do, but the left now likes to proclaim that being upset with corruption and incompetence from anyone but Whites is "racism". This is ridiculous in the extreme.
This latest stunt doesn't help high unemployment, high gas prices or the sinking dollar.
Two more years and Ears can take his long form to the unemployment office.

I can't bring myself to upvote this. This is indistinguishable for Hollywood parodies of dystopian future newscasts like Robocop, The Running Man, Deathrace 2000 and V for Vendetta. Dystopian Future Today?

OK, I give in. Upvote for evil.

I can't bring myself to upvote this. This is indistinguishable for Hollywood parodies of dystopian future newscasts like Robocop, Deathrace 2000 and V for Vendetta. Dystopian Future Today. (get it?)

OK, I give in. Upvote for evil.