Kid, we found your name on an envelope under a half a ton of garbage.

No.

It isn’t a defense at all. You said you didn’t understand. Abused people (or peoples) becoming abusive in turn is a common process, and that phrase is commonly used in such a way that searching on it will reveal many studies of the process, and what has been tried (successfully and unsuccessfully) to short-circuit it.

Understanding is not absolution, though. You can both see how the genocide of Jews led to fears, politics, and colonial interventions that contributed to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and also condemn that genocide and those perpetrating it (which I absolutely do). But not understanding the motivations makes any problem easier to effectively resist or solve, as you can use that knowledge to determine where and how to apply pressure and create a lasting rather than a temporary change.

Hurt people hurt people.

The worst part is they may weasel out of it. If the claim was “it detects 98% of AI generated samples” it could do that while having a high false positive rate. I hate this timelime.

They could have imposed up to €55 billion across the two companies. That doubles for repeat offenders. This was clearly meant as a warning.

That still doesn’t follow. For every mole of particles dissolved in a liter of water, the boiling point of water increases by about 0.5°C.

I was skeptical of your numbers, so I did the math:

Taking the first article I found newer than 2022, US billionaires have about $6.22 trillion of wealth ± recent stock market changes. UBI of $1000/month is most commonly estimated to cost $4 trillion/year.

US budget in 2024 was 6.8 trillion, but 1.87 trillion is in social security and income security programs UBI would replace, so the net change would raise the budget by 2.17 trillion to 8.39T. So 8.896 months - more like nine months than eight, but surprisingly close.

Of course, that assumes all other taxes are wiped out, which nobody has ever proposed. I can’t find a number anywhere for total income tax paid by billionaires, so we’ll be generous. OMB estimates billionaires pay an average tax rate of only 8.2%. Their wealth increased 2.9 trillion over 7 years, so ignore compounding and call it 414B/yr. And pretend it’s all taxed (which it isn’t - most isn’t considered income). That’s 33.9B in income taxes the IRS doesn’t collect after wiping out the billionaires. That reduces IRS revenues collected from 5.1T to 5.06T (being generous again with the rounding). That buys us another 7 months of government funding.

Alternatively, doubling the effective tax rate on the top 1% earning over 3.3M/yr from 26.09% to 52.18% would balance the budget including the new UBI. Get the effective tax rate on billionaires to match and you can start paying off the national debt. All without touching the middle class or even lowering anyone’s income below 1.65M/yr.

Don’t get me wrong - taxing billionaires out of existence is certainly a moral imperative - it just isn’t necessary to fund UBI.

We had one, but there was a schism over the location of the Brunswick Shrine. That kicked off a round of mutual excommunications. By the time it was over, the mod had accidentally excommunicated (blocked) themself and everyone else had blocked each other.

So start one! Or five! May a thousand communities bicker for the greater glory of Eris Discordia. Kallisti!

No Yes, Tesla is a capitalist organization, raw and pure.

FTFY

Not from the inside. It’s the kind of situation that spills over into community, friend groups, and projects people are involved in though.

A 7 (I think? Maybe 8?) person queer anarchist polycule including at least one trans and two nonbinary people bought a house. Only two of them had credit scores that could qualify for the mortgage, so they were the only ones on the deed.

There were the usual squabbles about resource sharing, proper use of the sharps container, etc. The thing that really complicated it was the personal defense culture - open carry were encouraged and providing firearms training and range time for the local queer community was an explicit goal.

Fast forward a year or so. The primary partner of one of the deed holders has mostly shifted to other partners and the deed holder is extremely hurt and angry. The other deed holder is involved in a disagreement with accusations of transphobia and claims of threats of violence on both sides.

Things get so tense that two people leave or are driven out (depending who you ask). They just happen to be the two on the mortgage and deed. In the mean time, the housing market crashed and significantly more is owed than the house is worth. The deed holders want out, nobody else has a place to go, one person just wants revenge, the two sides can’t even talk to each other unmediated, both groups have some of the others’ belongings, and an eviction has a real chance of getting someone killed.

(This is no longer an active situation, and was eventually resolved to nobody’s satisfaction but without bloodshed)

Sounds like a good time for a black block

If he orders it, they’ll go. They can’t afford not to. It’s an economic draft, and the poor are about to get even poorer.

Yes. Full stop.

If you feel you’re straight but find there’s this one guy who’s really hot and that gets you off, then you’re straight. Your orientation is what you decide it is, and nobody else’s to gainsay. There is even an entire subcategory of straight “MSM” (men who have sex with men).

The same goes for anybody else - if you aren’t guy #1 and are questioning someone else’s identity, then even if you find it odd or uncomfortable please just accept it and move on. They know themselves from the inside, in a way you never can.

Might they decide in the future to identify another way? Are they going through a self-discovery process? Working through internalized homophobia? Maybe. Maybe not. Not your circus, not your monkeys.

Ground flax seed and water is another easy one for baking: 1 tbsp (7g) ground flax seed to 2.5 tbsp (37 ml) water

Coins vs jewelry doesn’t matter. Weight and purity are all that count when selling.

Receipts don’t matter if they (claim to) “suspect” the source of the money used to buy the gold in the first place.

A lot of good advice on this thread, particularly the emphasis on social connections and food. Given OP asked to assume near or total economic collapse though:

1. Some people advocated building up money savings. If you are convinced there will be runaway inflation (part of what I assume is meant by collapse) then this is exactly wrong. The thing to do would be to convert as much money as possible into durable goods while the money still has any value. Look into the history of prior examples like the collapse of the deutsche mark in 1922, and the rush on payday to buy necessities immediately.

2. Gold is also being suggested. If your threat model includes social collapse gold won’t do you much good. Gold has financial value but no use value for individuals (it is useful industrially, but not in a way you can take advantage of). Unless you’re planning to run, bulkier but more immediately useful goods like food and tools are likely to hold more value. When everyone’s starving, a baseball bat to guard it with is worth more than a lump of shiny but useless metal.

3. If you aren’t assuming social collapse, foreign currency is another option. Be careful, because you want to pick one that is not likely to track your local currency and fall together. The advantage here is that when your local currency stabilizes, the value of gold will drop quickly and it will be very hard to guess exactly the right time to cash out. Foreign currencies won’t have that same crash effect.

All that said, don’t jump into action out of panic. Take time to think it through calmly - collapse is probably not coming in the next week or two. The actions that will save you financially in a collapse can destroy you if that collapse doesn’t come. Make a plan for what to do if you’re wrong to avoid shooting yourself in the foot (or, as many people do after that kind of mistake, the head).

Easiest access to the “inert gas” piece is dry ice from your local grocery store. CO₂ is heavier than air. Wrap some in a tea towel and put it in the bottom of the bucket before adding the food. Then place the lid on but do not close. Keep in a place without significant air movement while the dry ice sublimates, pushing out the lighter gasses, before sealing the lid. This takes a few hours.

Times and amounts are purposely vague, as I don’t remember them, but it should be easy to look up. If not, err on the side of too much and too long - the extra gas will just seep out the top.