swlabr

joined 2 years ago
[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

also make sure you get a 100% gold buttplug and sleep with it in. that way you always have a stash on you in case the left take over the government and storm your house

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 2 points 1 week ago

I agree, to some extent, but with the caveat that I have second order cynicism that might present as hope or naivete. I think a lot of the messaging from mainstream US politics is that “this is the only way, there is no alternative.” Of course this extends to weaponised foreign aid.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The way that I look at the US (when it is not operating under trump*) is that it is a machine that is trying to maintain and/or grow its hegemony. To that end, the CIA is a vital part of that machine. Is it the centre of foreign policy? Well, barring some sort of conspiracy, no, the US State department is the centre of foreign policy. However, the CIA is categorically the foreign intelligence-gathering arm of the US. As incompetent as I'd like to pretend the US is, I don't think the State Department is operating without CIA intelligence and analysis. In sum, I don't believe that the CIA is a shadowy evil organisation secretly controlling the US; I think the US is a shadowy evil organisation trying to control the world, and the CIA is part of it.

I think the thing that sucks about all this is that, on paper, USAID does good! They provide a ton of aid around the world, and that's great. However, they have enough blemishes on their record that show that the US isn't necessarily purely charitable in its actions. Aid shouldn't be weaponised!

*trump and his goons, of course, are just stripping the US of its copper wiring for a quick fix, while letting the establishment lapdogs deal with the drudgery.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

Not defending the US foreign policy, but this is just right-wing propaganda

lol. I got horseshoe theory'd.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

It is a organization responsible for foreign aid and development

My mistake! Sorry, Captain America! I will never be cynical about US foreign policy ever again!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (9 children)

This was my X:

My understanding of USAID is that it is primarily a front for CIA operations.

Evidence:

??? You want brain scans?

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago

Shhh my amusement has not run out yet

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (11 children)

nah what’s happening here is I am making claim X. Then you go: are you claiming Y? Prove it! And then I go: no. Then you start talking all this shit about covert CIA ops and mafia pizza joints and whatever, showing no signs of understanding that I said X. What choice do I have but to conclude that you are an idiot

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago (18 children)

Hey, buddy, listen. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. I love the CIA. And USAID. Really, I do. Please don't accuse me of ad hominum [sic], that would break my heart. And evidence? Of course, there's no evidence. The US is a perfect little angel; everything it does is moral and good. It's just that big old meanie trump making a mess of things, that's all. Does that make it better?

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (20 children)

Well, at this point, you're just being obtuse.

I still don’t get what a non-covert front is.

That's a term you made up, so that's a classic "you problem"!

You said USAID is a front for CIA operations and it isn’t covert when it does these operations. [...] Like I’m picturing a pizza parlor which is a front for a mafia operation, but instead of being covert, it is open. So it says “Mafia’s Pizza” instead of “Tony’s Pizza”. Are you thinking USAID is something like that?

Again, you're the one coming up with this. Stop thinking. You aren't good at it.

Propaganda certainly does exist. I never said that it didn’t.

Great!

I’m disputing that USAID is a CIA operation and not an independent organization with it’s own goals and directives.

Good for you!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (22 children)

I probably just misunderstood what you mean by “front”.

Sure.

I read it as something like a feigned appearance.

That would be the long and short of it.

Maybe I’m just having trouble understanding how a something can be both openly avowed (not covert) and yet non-openly avowed (a front) at the same time.

Definitely don't look up these terms, they might be above your reading level:

  • ulterior motives
  • chess for the intermediate player
  • palace intrigue and scheming eunuchs

I agree with USAID being a tool for soft power.

Great!

So are many things, like Hollywood. Doesn’t mean Hollywood is a CIA operation.

Putting aside the equivocation, that's a lousy counterexample. Are you just going to pretend like propaganda doesn't exist?

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago (28 children)

covert

Don’t put words in my mouth, bud.

The primary benefit of USAID to the US is as a tool of soft power, internationally. You think the US just does things to be nice? That they don’t have any strategy in mind when throwing cash at other countries? That the CIA wouldn’t play any role in US foreign policy?

 

This is somewhat tangential to the usual fare here but I decided to make a post because why not.

I’ve been listening to the back catalog of the Judge John Hodgman podcast, and this ep came up. This ep is the second crypto based case after “crypto facto” in ep 333.

John Hodgman is a comedian, probs best known for being the “I’m a PC” guy in the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign from ancient times. In the podcast, he plays a fake judge that hears cases and makes judgements. In this ep, “Suing for Soul Custody,” he hears a case in which a husband wants to sell his soul on the blockchain, while his wife does not want him to do that.

Some good sneers against the crypto bro husband (in both this case and the other I linked). Brief spoilers as to the rulings in case you don’t want to listen:

333Judge rules that the husband should continue to mine ETH until his rig burns down his house.

556Judge rules that the guy shouldn’t sell his soul, for symbolic reasons.

Note: I like John Hodgman. He’s funny. He’s not really inside the tech space, but he is good friends with Jonathan Coulton, who is. If all you know of him is the “I’m a PC” ads, he has an entertaining wider catalogue worth checking out.

 

On the hottest and coldest days, when demand for electricity peaks and the price rockets, the bitcoin miners either sell power back to providers at a profit or stop mining for a fee, paid by ercot. Doing so has become more lucrative than mining itself. In August of 2023 Riot collected $32m from curtailing mining and just $8.6m from selling bitcoin.

Archive link: https://archive.md/O8Cz9

 

Kind of sharing this because the headline is a little sensationalist and makes it sound like MS is hard right (they are, but not like this) and anti-EU.

I mean, they probably are! Especially if it means MS is barred from monopolies and vertical integration.

1
VoughtCoin (the-boys.fandom.com)
 

TIL that television program “The Boys” has an in universe cryptocurrency as a satire of, well, cryptocurrency in general but also specifically that time when DJT was selling NFTs. They occasionally tweet about it.

It has a listing on the “BSCScan” crypto tracker under the name “VTC” so someone might have actually minted it? It might surprise some of you that I have no way of telling the realness of such a thing.

 

As is tradition I am sharing this link without having listened yet.

 

The video game in question:

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