cacheson 🏴🔁🍊

And that’s true, but I think it’s important to note that Trump is a symptom, not the disease itself. The disease is his base, and the corruption of their belief in democracy. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like we’ll see this level of politics for a while more.

It goes both ways, really. You’re right in that Trump couldn’t have gotten elected without the existence of that reactionary base. That’s always existed in American politics, though its strength has varied over time. However, his presence in politics energizes them, and inspires them to organize and spread their propaganda, while also serving as a powerful propaganda mouthpiece himself.

You’re also right that Trump’s exit from politics won’t calm things down right away. Hopefully his movement won’t find a new Fuhrer figure, though that’s always a possibility.

I’d been trying to promote gun ownership and training among left leaning folks since early 2016. Took various friends and Facebook randoms to the range and taught them to shoot. Have had motivation issues with that project for a while though.

Cheapest option is an assault 12 gauge.

I don’t think I’ve come across any “assault shotguns”, but maybe you’re referring to the “tactical” variants? They’ll typically come in black rather than wooden or camo pattern, have shorter barrels, and hold more ammo when compared with hunting shotguns.

It’s important to note that shotguns aren’t super beginner friendly, though they’re probably the most financially accessible option for home defense. One piece of advice I would give is to look up what “cheek weld” is when using a shotgun (in additional to general safety and usage info). We’re also pretty late in the game here for those that are worried about election-related violence, since developing marksmanship skills takes time. Better late than never though, just try to get at least one range trip in so that you can familiarize yourself with the basics.

Not looking to turn this into a guns thread, since that wouldn’t be very useful for the OP. If anyone has any questions on the subject, you could make a post in one of these communities, and I (and probably others) can give advice:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

I miss 90’s techno-libertarian utopianism. A little naive in retrospect, but I’m holding out hope that it’ll still have some relevance going forward.

Ah, gotcha. Those are one-time passwords. Same acronym, so it’s easy to confuse them.

But yeah, I agree that everything should use (T)OTP for two-factor authentication, instead of SMS messages. The later mainly provides a false sense of security and presents only a minor hurdle for attackers to overcome.

One time pads or bust motherfuckers.

Not sure if you’re being facetious, but one time pads are for encryption, not authentication. They’re also impractical (and overkill) for most purposes.

You’re not wrong, but I was about to drop it due to how slow it was. I decided to give it one more episode, and that was the one that got interesting. xD

Yep, I love Steins;Gate. I rank Erased higher because it’s “all killer no filler”, while SG has a bit of a slow start. They’re very close though.

Erased is my favorite anime of all time. I’m a sucker for both time travel and “big damn heroes” stuff.

Perhaps I’ve misinterpreted your usage of “last line of defense”?

These aren’t regular conservatives that we’re dealing with. MAGA is a fascist movement. The MO of fascists is to gain and hold power for their in-group by *any means necessary*. While it should never be our first option, we need to be willing and able to violently resist them, because they sure as hell don’t have any qualms about violently subjugating us.

Interesting, this is the first I’ve heard of the “reputation rehab” angle on the guy. Do you have any further reading you could link me to?

Rather than going full Inglorious Basterds, I think it’s important to have both “carrot” and “stick” options for these people. It doesn’t really do us any good if there’s no way to come back from having been involved in hate groups. Just make sure to keep the Richard Spencer treatment available, to provide them some motivation to get their heads right.

public shaming is the last line of defense we have against these types of people

Wait, really? I know liberals tend to like weird pseudo-pacifism, but have y’all really committed so hard to it that you think “public shaming” is our last line of defense?

Get armed, and get trained. You may end up needing it. *We* may end up needing it.

It’s their second favorite thing, right after vegan cat food!

Yup, that’s why I’m a Mutualist.

Dozens of us.jpg

the Sub is supposed to be the one that’s actually in control

This is a myth, presumably meant to be reassuring to subs that are new to BDSM, at the expense of risk awareness. In principle the sub is no more “in control” than the dom is, and in practice they are often significantly less so.

Arend also highlighted the former Soviet Union’s perceived “strength” to “stand up against Western pressures” and its ability to shield their family from ideologies they found objectionable.

“Other countries are under the Western influence and wouldn’t be able to stand up against it,” he claimed.

“Western chauvinist” to “eastern chauvinist” speed run any%

We want to separate power from money.

Unfortunately, the two have an extremely strong attraction to each other. Keeping them apart isn’t feasible in the long run without actively dismantling concentrations of power.

Alright, fair enough. Keep in mind though that this comment thread started with an assertion that Bitcoin didn’t get it quite right, and Monero did, which is more of a big-picture analysis thing than merely “can I buy something with this”. My responses have been in that vein.

It seems like you’re arguing against a position that I don’t hold? I’ve been invested in Bitcoin for a long time, and I’m quite familiar with its technical and socioeconomic dynamics. I’m skeptical of altcoins specifically, not of cryptocurrency as a concept.

Scalability isn’t quite as simple as “how much data can a well-off enthusiast from a developed country store”. You need to consider the behavior of your lowest common denominator users.

You want as many users as possible to run fully-verifying nodes, rather than SPV (“simplified payment verification”) nodes that can be tricked by a malicious miner. The more transactions are being done through SPV nodes, the more potential payoff there is for an attacker, and the more resources they can dedicate to an attack.

Further, if your number of full nodes gets low enough, it becomes feasible for state actors to track down and compromise the remaining node operators. At that point, you may as well just be using a centralized, government approved payment system instead.

IMO, you shouldn’t be investing in cryptocurrencies or any currencies for that matter. Currencies should be
used, not hoarded with the expectation of gain. If you’re buying cryptocurrencies as an investment, you’ve already lost.

Cryptocurrencies literally cannot function without speculative investment. Even in the absence of formal investors, *someone* has to be the first person to accept the tokens in exchange for something of value, in hopes that they will have value of their own in the future. Until then, the tokens are unusable.

Further, the market cap and liquidity of a cryptocurrency impose practical limits on what it can be used for. You can’t very well conduct a billion dollar transaction through a cryptocurrency that has a market cap in the millions. Investment raises the market cap, “unlocking” these higher-value use cases. Conversely, loss of investor confidence will reduce the market cap, and effectively reduce the utility of the coin.

This is why ability to scale is so important. The current market values of Bitcoin and the various alts are based far more on speculative investment than they are on usage. Those investors believe that the coins will see far more usage (and have far more natural demand) in the future than they do today. If that turns out not to be the case due to an inability to scale, investors will start to flee, and the vicious cycle will start.